Chapter Twenty-Two: The Will

  Li Muran and Xiao Shusheng became acquainted through books, and now that Xiao Shusheng has met with misfortune, Li Muran naturally mourns him through books.

  "The books on this bookshelf are all casual notes and records, only recording some interesting things or expressing some emotions, and have almost no help for cultivation. Only Xiao Shixiong and I, who love books, would visit this bookshelf."

  Thinking of this, Li Muran was again heartbroken: "Now that Master Xiao is no longer here, I'm afraid only I will take a look at the books here. It's hard to find someone who understands me, and those wonderful writings in the books, who can I share them with from now on?"

  Li Muran sighed, his heart was filled with sorrow and unease, not suitable for cultivation, let alone making talismans.

  He casually pulled out a yellowed old book from the bookshelf in front of him, flipped through a few pages, and put it back - even the mood for reading was temporarily absent.

  Li Muran's eyes scanned the bookshelf and finally stopped at an ancient book called "The Road to Immortality", slightly stunned.

  "This is the book that Brother Xiao was reading before he left, right?" Li Muran muttered to himself: "At the time, he even mentioned this book to me and asked me to take a look at it in my free time. However, I was deeply engrossed in various martial arts techniques and symbol-making scriptures back then, and didn't have any interest in reading books like this."

  Li Muran took down this book from the shelf and flipped through a few pages.

  This is a semi-true semi-false immortal biography, with ups and downs in the plot, not bad, but unfortunately, Li Muran's mood is not good now, and he still can't immerse himself in the story of the book.

  Li Muran flipped through it casually and was about to put it back on the bookshelf when a thin piece of paper suddenly floated out from between the pages.

  "Bookmark?" This was Li Muran's first thought. Undoubtedly, if it were a bookmark, it must have been left behind by Xiao Shusheng.

  Li Muran bent down to pick up the paper strip, and found that there were many words written in small characters on it. Li Muran only swept his eyes over these words, and suddenly his whole body shook!

  "Zhao Shidi"! This is the opening address on the note.

  "Could it be a message left for me?" Li Muran was startled, and judging from the handwriting on the note, it was indeed written by Xiao Shusheng himself.

  "Why did Shao Shixiong leave me a note?" Li Muran's heart skipped a beat, and he hastily unfolded the note to examine it carefully:

  "Zhao Shidi, those manuals and talismans are enough for you to study for a month or two. If nothing unexpected happens, you won't be able to see this note; on the contrary, when you do see this note, it's likely that you've already encountered some mishap."

  "This time leaving the sect, I deeply know that danger is hidden, but there are also great opportunities to gain great benefits. After weighing it, I decided to take a risk once."

  "Of course, I have left a trump card. In case I don't come back next time, Junior Brother Zhao will eventually discover the information in this book. Although I haven't known Junior Brother Zhao for long, we are very compatible and consider each other as close friends. So, I'll give those treasures to Junior Brother Zhao, to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands!"

  "The treasure is buried under the 19th green pine tree behind the library, dig three feet down and you will see it. I wish my fellow apprentice a safe journey!"

  The paper strip contains only this content, and the signature is "Xiao Shusheng's final work".

  "Desperate!" Li Muran was shocked: "It seems that Xiao Shixiong had already foreseen the great risk, but he still insisted on leaving, why is that?"

  "He had left a will hidden in this ancient book, and indeed it was a clever arrangement. If I hadn't received news of his misfortune, I wouldn't have flipped through this book for no reason, let alone the other disciples!"

  "What is the treasure he mentioned? Who is the scoundrel referred to in the will? Under the nineteenth pine tree? Behind the library, in the mountain forest, there are indeed some green pines!"

  "To unravel these mysteries, we probably need to take a look at the treasure left behind by Shao Shixiong first. Perhaps, we can also investigate the cause and effect of Shao Shixiong's murder!"

  Li Muran thought of this and immediately wanted to go to the back mountain to investigate.

  He found an iron shovel in the storage room of the library, with some dry soil still stuck to it - apparently it had been used for digging recently, but he didn't know if it was Xiao Shusheng who used it to bury his treasure.

  The library was deserted at night, Li Muran closed the library and brought an iron shovel to the forest behind the mountain.

  There are many trees here, and cypresses can be seen from time to time.

  From the library, Li Muran walked towards the depths of the mountain forest in a straight line from the back. Every time he found a green pine tree, he secretly counted it. After walking for about two or three miles, he finally arrived under the nineteenth green pine tree.

  Taking advantage of the moonlight leaking through the gaps in the forest, Li Muran used his extraordinary eyesight to push aside the fallen leaves and carefully examine the soil under the green pine tree.

  Indeed, the soil in one place is relatively new, mixed with some dark yellow soil, while the soil in other places, due to years of fallen leaves rotting, presents a greyish-black muddy color.

  "If I'm not mistaken, someone has dug here before." Li Muran thought to himself: "The place Xiao Shixiong mentioned should be here."

  Li Muran picked up the iron shovel and dug deeper downwards.

  After all, he was a man who had practiced his arm strength. A moment later, Li Muran dug a deep pit and saw an iron box about the size of a foot square.

  "The treasure is in this iron box!" Li Muran dug out the iron box and was about to open it casually.

  Suddenly, he remembered a trivial matter that was so insignificant that he had almost forgotten it.

  Once upon a time, Xiao Shusheng and he talked about the various methods of stealing repairs mentioned in the classics, including the "Treasure Box Trap".

  A thief will place a treasure chest near a mountain path, intentionally leaving it there to look very valuable. If an inexperienced young monk happens upon the chest and sees that no one is around, he may be driven by greed to open the chest and take the treasure inside.

  However, treasure chests often have mechanisms and traps. If the cultivator is not well-prepared, a slight carelessness can lead to being caught off guard, and in a daze, they will lose their life.

  At that time, Xiao Shusheng specifically mentioned this trick, but the matter itself was not surprising at all, and Li Muran had long since thrown it out of his mind.

  But recently, Li Muran read "The Art of War" and it also mentioned this kind of trap, which is even more complex and varied, making it impossible to guard against, leaving a deep impression on Li Muran.

  Now that he saw the iron box, all this information naturally emerged in Li Muran's mind, and he couldn't help but withdraw his hand that was reaching for the iron box.

  "It shouldn't be that Brother Xiao would intentionally harm me!" Li Muran muttered to himself, going over Xiao Shusheng's will in his mind, pondering every word and sentence.

  "Hmm, this last sentence seems to have another layer of meaning!" Li Muran's heart skipped a beat. In the last sentence of his will, Xiao Shusheng expressed his wishes to Li Muran, writing "Wishing my junior brother to turn bad luck into good fortune".

  Generally, the last words left behind are wishes for everything to go smoothly and good luck, or great progress and a bright future. This "turning bad luck into good" is also a kind word, but somehow it's a bit awkward.

  "Turning disaster into blessing, what disaster is there? Could it be that Brother Xiao left this phrase to remind me to beware of the mechanism in the iron box?"

  If Li Muran had only seen these few words elsewhere, he wouldn't have thought much of it, but Xiao Shusheng was well-read in the classics and naturally had a good understanding of word choice and sentence structure. His last sentence's unreasonable use of these words should have a reason behind it.

  "Judging from the layout of the hidden letter in the ancient book, Brother Xiao's mind is meticulous and it's indeed possible."

  Li Muran thought of this, and he didn't dare to act rashly again. He took out the golden talisman from his storage bag, stuck it on his chest, and activated it, emitting a thick layer of golden light that protected his entire body.

  He found a tree with a trunk as thick as a pole, hid behind it, and carefully pried open the iron box with an iron shovel.

  "Puff!" A burst of red smoke rose, and some mist splashed onto the tree trunk, instantly corroding into black spots with a hissing sound.

  "It's a poisonous mechanism!" Li Muran felt a chill in his heart, and at the same time, he understood Xiao Shusheng's intention.

  Most of Xiao Shusheng's fears were that the will would fall into the hands of his enemies, and if they found out where the iron box was hidden, they would excitedly open it and definitely get caught. Given the strong corrosiveness of the poisonous liquid, it is absolutely a case of more harm than good.

  Xiao Shusheng left a will for Li Muran, on the one hand, perhaps he really wanted to give the treasure to Li Muran, his confidant; on the other hand, he was also setting up a scheme to lure his enemies into a trap and complete his revenge.

  After all, the hidden meaning in the last sentence of Xiao Shusheng's will might only be noticed by someone like Li Muran who pays attention to details.

  The venomous spray stopped after a moment, and Li Muran, relying on the protection of the Golden Vajra symbol, cautiously emerged to see that inside the opened iron box was another smaller jade box.

  Li Muran carefully used a iron shovel to take out the jade box, and opened it. This time there was no mechanism, and two things fell out of the jade box.

  One was a half-piece of jade pendant - because this piece of jade pendant is semi-circular, and the edges are not even, it can be seen at a glance that it is a part broken from an intact jade pendant.

  There is also something very strange, like a leather wrist guard that can be wrapped around the wrist. But looking closely, it seems to have brackets and runes. The strangest thing is that this wrist guard is inlaid with three spirit stones.

  Li Muran repeatedly fiddled with these two things and only picked them up after confirming that they were safe.

  Yu Pei is half a block and can't see anything unusual. The jade quality looks very good, but Li Muran doesn't have much research on jade, so he can't see the way.

  "What is this wrist thing? Why does it have an inlaid spirit stone?" Li Muran was greatly surprised, repeatedly turning it over.

  Li Muran had read many books and whenever he encountered a difficult problem, he would naturally recall the classics he had read to see if he could find an answer from them.

  "Could it be..." A thought flashed through his mind like lightning:

  "Spiritual artifact? Is this the rumored spiritual artifact?"