In the deep of night, on the eve of the heavenly sacrifice ceremony, Bai Qiuran walked on foot to the royal tomb of the Shangxuan Kingdom, located a hundred miles from the capital. "Perhaps this current emperor of the Shangxuan Kingdom is actually a demonic cultivator training in the Blood God Sect's techniques. Is he seeking to offer boys and girls as sacrifices to enhance his power or to extend his life? Regardless, the truth should be revealed at tomorrow's ceremony."
Before him stood the royal tomb, an impressive site long associated with the emperors of Shangxuan. Among the tombs of the fifteenth, fourteenth, and thirteenth emperors, the burial goods alongside the remains were surprisingly well preserved. In stark contrast, the tomb of the sixteenth emperor appeared completely empty.
The royal tomb was grandly constructed, featuring a wide stone road capable of accommodating four horse-drawn carriages in parallel, extending from the entrance to the tomb itself.
Two rows of guardian beasts lined the sides of the pathway, gazing at one another, leading the way to the towering royal altar where the kings of Shangxuan lay in eternal sleep beneath the earth.
This was Bai Qiuran's chosen second point of investigation. Since he suspected something was amiss with the sacrifice ceremony, and had found no clues regarding the organizers, he decided to come to the location itself and check for any issues. Bai Qiuran became focused as he examined the dark traces on the ground. Initially, when he scanned with his divine sense, he dismissed these traces, thinking they were merely dirt on the yellow satin. However, upon closer inspection, he realized these black marks might actually form a magical formation made of runes.
He stood up, brushed his hands together, and his gaze sharpened. After a brief inquiry, Bai Qiuran skillfully uncovered the widely known location of the royal tomb within the capital of Shangxuan and hurriedly arrived that night. "Is this tomb also empty?" he mused. "It seems that many of the demonic incidents occurring within the Shangxuan Kingdom can be attributed to this emperor, seizing this chaos among the demons to blend in, how disgraceful, truly shameful."
Though freeing the wronged souls could wait, with the heavenly ceremony taking place tomorrow, Bai Qiuran, as one of the two hundred boys and girls, decided to prepare a surprise for the demonic cultivator—a proper taste of what the sacrificed souls had experienced. Viewing the scene before him, he felt a surge of anger, but with three thousand years of life behind him, he had learned to control his temper.
"There should at least be some relics in this tomb." He glanced around again, and suddenly discovered black traces on the golden satin. These marks seemed to be some dried liquid, now turned to powder, and he sampled a bit, bringing it to his nose. This blood-reviving formation was something the demons utilized to rejuvenate their own blood after faking death.
Bai Qiuran glanced around and noted that with the demonic cultivator absent, ruining his setup would be futile—it might even alert him and lead to more casualties. The royal tomb was heavily guarded by the Imperial Forest Army, numbers in the thousands, solidly safeguarding the area, yet to Bai Qiuran, they posed no threat. He didn't even use any spells, relying solely on his Breath-Holding Technique and Lightweight Skill to effortlessly evade their watchful eyes, sneaking into the royal tomb of Shangxuan without anyone noticing.
"This setup is rather clumsy," thought Bai Qiuran. "It makes me want to refine it a bit. He probably isn’t a proper disciple of the Blood God Sect but rather a rogue who got his hands on a fragment of a manual." Over three thousand years ago, his birth coincided with the conclusion of the war between the Dao Realm and the Demon Clan, which had forced the demons back to the wilderness. As a result of the previous calamity, the Nine Provinces and Ten Lands abolished the old calendar, replacing it with the current one—the Great Cang Calendar.
The sleeping position of the emperors within the tomb was also laid out in chronological order. During the early years of the Shangxuan Kingdom, amidst the chaos of war, many emperors perished in battle and were buried hastily, hence the existence of burial mounds for clothing and accessories. Upon a further examination of the tomb, Bai Qiuran found yet again the sixteenth emperor's burial place empty, confirming the emptiness of the royal tomb.
Under Bai Qiuran’s divine sense scanning, he identified a total of eighteen corpses within the tomb; several other chambers were empty, their relics long worn away by time. "Fresh human blood?" he pondered. "Let’s take a look inside."
Having made his way past the tumultuous chaos of his thoughts and the potential dread awaiting him, Bai Qiuran focused once more, preparing to seal his findings—and tomorrow, he would give that demon cultivator a surprise to remember.