Arrival at the Golden Temple 62

  "After hearing this, Hai Chen hastily chimed in: 'Are you saying that there are more people inside this thousand-year-old underground palace besides us?'"

  Liao Dongfeng nodded and then put down his rifle, gripping it tightly in his hand.

  Everyone proceeded with caution, and Peng Jianjun also asked while walking: "Hai Chen, you know more about the corpses, will they do such cleaning work?"

  "It's just that I have to coordinate over a hundred fierce corpses, this level of difficulty in corpse-controlling magic I've never seen before, it's really hard to believe there's such a master out there." As he said this, Haicheng cast his gaze towards Feng Leitian, who was also staring at him. He saw Haicheng looking at him with an imploring gaze, so he stopped and spoke up.

  "You want to ask if my grandfather can do it, right?"

  Feng Le Tian nodded in agreement, and Hai Chen slowly followed suit. She continued, "Yes, morticians and soul hunters originally came from the same clan and ancestors. The only difference is that morticians usually deal with things that can be seen in the light of day, while soul hunters do their work behind people's backs. Even if my ancestors were all soul hunters, I would still say this: since they don't get involved in human affairs, and they share the same clan and ancestors, their techniques are more or less the same. If morticians can do something, then soul hunters naturally can too."

  "Have you seen it?" Liao Dongfeng asked solemnly.

  "I've never seen it, but I've heard of it. It was mentioned by the elderly. The incident involved a man named Lou Hongjun, whose military train derailed, killing over a hundred people. However, when rescue personnel arrived at the scene, they didn't find a single dead body. Within a week, even the incomplete corpses had all returned home, and not a single one went to the wrong door."

  "Did the deceased's family see it?"

  Feng Le Tian suddenly stared at Liao Dong Feng and replied: "If it weren't for the deceased's family members seeing it with their own eyes, and then spreading the news far and wide, I estimate that those rebellious elements wouldn't have targeted my grandfather either. Moreover, Yu Lao also said that at that time, there were less than three people in the country who had this kind of skill, so these three people became the focus of attack because they advocated feudal superstition."

  "Superstition? Hmph! It's all just facts, what a load of superstition crap! What is superstition anyway? Just blindly believing whatever, huh? Can't do it yourself so you go and belittle those who can, shameless."

  Liao Dongfeng immediately rebuked Peng Jianjun's remarks: "Are you almost done? You're not finished yet? If you really are awesome, go out and argue with the Red Guards, what are you dragging us into?"

  After finishing speaking, he turned his head and asked Feng Le Tian: "Except for your grandfather, what was the final result of the other two people?"

  "I heard that one of them was beaten to death by the local 'Red Guards', and another one, who was with my grandfather at the time, was also my senior fellow apprentice, named Li Qingzhou. At that time he was also in Duan Lao's team, but later suddenly disappeared."

  At this time, Liao Dongfeng suddenly remembered something from before. It was the night after the corpse king of Xiachuan Village was destroyed, when Duan Lao and Hai Chen mentioned a young man who had taken away something deadly. They probably meant Li Qingzhou. However, they also said that it was strange for this young man to die here, which means Li Qingzhou is already dead. If so, then who would be the one cleaning up this place? Could it be Hai Shan? If it were him, then there's a problem. Lou Hongjun had said that the 13th generation of mouse drivers spent an unknown amount of time clearing out the mercury poison in the underground palace. As guardians of the tomb, they would naturally maintain the thousand-year-old underground palace and know its secrets. This also explains where the missing corpses went. However, Liao Dongfeng had experienced Hai Shan's abilities before, and even if all the people at the scene were added together, they still wouldn't be a match for the old man, let alone Feng Le Tian, who was the old man's own grandson.

  As he thought of this, Liao Dongfeng suddenly had a bad premonition that something must have happened between Duan Lao and Hai Shan, those two companions who were as close as brothers. It was something that left an indelible mark on their hearts. Duan Lao spared no expense in his efforts to enter the underground palace, while Hai Shan risked his life to protect it. His target wasn't Luo Hongjun, but rather Duan Lao. If Duan Lao hadn't fallen ill and couldn't come, then this underground palace would likely have become his tomb.

  Liao Dongfeng was getting more and more afraid as he thought about it, because he didn't know what had happened to these old people. His grandfather Liao Yang had disappeared without a word, Yu Lao and Yu Quan refused to take action, and there were also other old people who had never appeared before - were they all still alive? Or, as Duan Lao would say, maybe they were secretly watching him, who knows?

  "Dongzi, shall we go?" Feng Le Tian asked for his opinion.

  Liao Dongfeng also temporarily put down the burden in his heart and arranged: "Next, we may encounter this legendary master. We are in the light and he is in the dark, so everyone must be extremely careful. Also, Qin Lied and Tang Yuanzhao may be in his hands. If we really meet him, we must not take action rashly. Alright, check your equipment. I'll be at the front and Zixin will be at the back. Everyone must proceed with caution."

  After finishing speaking, the four people proceeded forward, heading straight for the imperial palace in the center of the city.

  When the crowd arrived at a place less than 50 meters away from the palace gate, Liao Dongfeng was shocked by the scene in front of him. Outside the palace gate, the ground was no longer clean and tidy, but very messy. The ground was littered with corpses that had long since rotted into bones, with spears and swords inserted into them also rotten. Many skeletons had old-fashioned rifles next to them, and the wall outside the palace gate was full of bullet holes. Seeing this scene, one can imagine the cruelty of the bloody battle at that time. Peng Jianjun stared at a rifle on the ground and said casually: "My grandfather Mao! Type 38 Arisaka rifle, Japanese steel helmet, isn't this the devil's stuff?"

  Just after finishing speaking, I heard Haicheng shouting from a distance: "Dongzi, there is another box of hand grenades here. The pull ring hits the back of the head, it's also the devil's goods."

  Liao Dongfeng didn't rush over to take a look after hearing this, because he knew that the scene in front of him was a warning left behind by the tomb guardians on purpose. However, since the devils could come to such a deep place, the leader of the group must be extraordinary. Thinking of this, he hastily ordered: "Don't touch anything, we just move forward."

  But it seems that this was said a bit too late, as Hai Chen had already put the two hand grenades into his pockets. He turned back to Liao Dongfeng and explained, "Hand grenades! Good stuff, still usable, who knows what will happen next or what we'll encounter, better safe than sorry!"

  Liao Dongfeng didn't say a word, but he actually agreed with this approach. In this underground tomb where the sun never shines and crises lurked everywhere, everything was an unknown quantity, so it was only natural to leave behind a few hand grenades for self-defense.

  After replenishing the hand grenade, Hai Chen slowly walked to the tightly closed palace gate, observing the situation behind the palace gate through the small hole pierced by the bullet. After confirming that it was safe, he stretched out his hand to push open the palace gate. However, as soon as he pushed it, the palace gate suddenly turned into dust and fell to the ground with a "poof" sound. Hai Chen was startled for a moment, then waved his hand to fan away the dust, and carefully walked in.

  Behind the palace gate was a desolate scene, and it was clear that no one had come for a long time. Although the pavilions and corridors were already rotten and collapsed, the fountains on both sides of the Hanbaiyu stone bridge still continuously sprayed hot spring water with mist. Since there is running water, don't worry about lack of oxygen.

  At this moment, Liao Dongfeng suddenly stopped and looked at the circle of shadows under his feet. He then slowly raised his head to gaze up at the high sky above, because everyone had been busy looking at the underground wonders and completely ignored the brightness of this space. Liao Dongfeng looked up to see what could illuminate such a large space like daylight.

  About fifty meters above the ground, seven bright spots shining with dazzling white light were arranged in the shape of the Big Dipper. Due to the intense light, Liao Dongfeng couldn't see what they were at first glance, but one thing he was certain about was that these illuminating objects were absolutely not light bulbs or anything similar. Firstly, at that time, domestically, there wasn't the capability to manufacture such large and bright light bulbs, even if it existed, it wouldn't have been widespread, let alone in this deep underground palace. Secondly, although the illuminating objects were extremely bright, they didn't emit any heat, which was also a strange phenomenon that defied common sense judgment. At that time, Liao Dongfeng indeed had the idea of going up to take a closer look at what these things were, but after observing his surroundings for half a day, he couldn't find anything that could be climbed to reach such heights. Even with the help of Xi Sian's abilities, jumping upwards would only allow him to ascend about ten or twenty meters, so in the end, he gave up on satisfying his curiosity and instead focused on everything around him.

  Just as he lowered his head, Liao Dongfeng found that everyone except Peng Jianjun was also looking up at the seven bright spots. He quickly said, "Don't look anymore, pay attention to the situation around us."

  Just after finishing speaking, Peng Jianjun's excited loud shout was heard from a distance: "Dongzi, we've struck it rich! This damn palace, this damn palace is actually made of gold!"

  Upon hearing this, everyone immediately approached Peng Jianjun and used a dagger to verify his words. After confirming that what he said was true, Hai Chen looked at the undulating palace complex in surprise and said: "Even if it's extremely luxurious, can't it be extravagant to such an extent?"

  When everyone was marveling at the Golden Temple being made of pure gold, Liao Dongfeng squatted down and scratched the base of the temple with his dagger. He then touched it with his hand and said: "It's not entirely made of pure gold, this foundation is cast in bronze. Given the craftsmanship conditions at that time, extracting copper and iron was more difficult than extracting gold and silver, so this foundation is a big deal. Also, the temperature of the foundation is far higher than our body temperature, it felt scorching hot when I touched it just now, you guys try it too."

  At this time, Feng Le Tian and others also reached out to touch the base, but their answers were far from Liao Dongfeng's.