Immortalis

Hero's Tomb 11

Initially, Zhou Jinglei hadn't actually intended to embark on this perilous path.

Although he had caused Gui Sanyan's death, he was ultimately haunted by fear deep down. After all, he had nothing left in the martial world now. Gui Sanyan's harsh words, while unpleasant, reflected how the martial community viewed him.

Everything he had was given by the Qi family. Without Qi Yanbai and Qi Zhongrui, he couldn't sustain the White Rainbow Tower he had painstakingly built.

Moreover, if those martial sects stopped patronizing his mechanical puppets, without silver notes, he wouldn't be able to purchase better components and hardware. Eventually, he would revert to being the penniless Zhou Jinglei he once was.

Gui Sanyan's death was like a bucket of cold water, jolting Zhou Jinglei awake. For several days, he lived in constant anxiety, until ultimately, a childish remark from Zhou Huai gave him an idea for an unorthodox solution.

One day, Zhou Huai suddenly told him that he had mastered the sword technique he was previously practicing and asked when he would receive a new manual.

In that instant, a spark of inspiration flashed in Zhou Jinglei's mind.

He recalled sitting guiltily in the Green Bamboo Town inn not long ago, wanting to know if people believed Gui Sanyan had committed suicide. In the end, he only heard them say, "What a pity about Great Hero Gui's Floating Clouds Embracing Moon. If only he had left behind a sword manual before killing himself—many would surely want to practice this renowned lethal technique."

A sword manual...

Zhou Jinglei stared fixedly at Zhou Huai's youthful face. After a long moment, he suddenly laughed.

He could no longer practice these techniques himself, but there would always be others eager to learn. If he could use a pseudonym and sell Floating Clouds Embracing Moon on the black market, it might fetch a handsome price.

And if anyone investigated later, he could claim he found the manual—after all, someone as proud as Gui Sanyan wouldn't want his techniques lost to time, so leaving a copy behind would be reasonable.

Within seconds, Zhou Jinglei had formulated a plan.

Long before meeting Qi Zhongrui, he had dealt with the black market to acquire rare hardware. Thus, Zhou Jinglei smoothly adopted an unsuspicious pseudonym and offered the Floating Clouds Embracing Moon manual at a steep price.

To his surprise, even with the exorbitant price, it sold almost immediately.

Astonished, Zhou Jinglei arranged an anonymous transaction and soon received a staggering sum of silver notes.

This money was enough to buy numerous components and launch several new ventures.

Naturally, Zhou Jinglei didn't squander his earnings. He promptly purchased large quantities of hardware and hired people to open several shops. The account books gradually showed increasing revenue.

However, once one tastes such sweet rewards, it's hard to turn back.

Without martial skills to rely on, only silver notes could put Zhou Jinglei at ease. When he noticed revenue slowing, he couldn't resist revisiting that idea.

The medicine provided by Medicine King Mountain was so effective—even Gui Sanyan had been powerless against it. Why not reuse the same trick? Since few in the martial world respected him anyway, and they held no suspicion toward White Rainbow Tower, they deserved to die by his hand.

Thus, in the following days, Zhou Jinglei lured numerous martial heroes under various pretexts—some to prepare birthday gifts for their children, others to modify their unique weapons...Zhou Jinglei would state upfront when inviting them: since he lacked martial prowess and worried about his young son at home, he hoped they wouldn't disclose White Rainbow Tower's whereabouts to avoid being followed. To show sincerity, he offered to craft mechanical puppets for free. Later, after they left White Rainbow Tower, these creations would naturally spread the tower's reputation.

Typically, Zhou Jinglei only entertained solitary "guests." Often after a cup of tea, they'd find themselves trapped in iron cages beneath the Martial Arts Pavilion, crying to unheavenly skies and unresponsive earth.

During those years, every martial arts manual Zhou Jinglei obtained was tested by Zhou Huai. Once the authenticity was verified, Zhou Jinglei would poison their food, repeating his methods to make them vanish completely—either through forged suicide notes or by "asking for directions" to their deaths.

He never expected that as more martial heroes disappeared beyond Green Bamboo Town, that Meat Well would officially gain a new name:

Hero's Tomb.

"The young master's martial skills came from here... He truly practiced them."

Reading to the end, Yang Wujian grabbed his hair in frustration, then suddenly remembered he was still posing as a descendant of the Crescent Moon Blade. Gritting his teeth, he hastily added: "So my mother also died at Zhou Jinglei's hands!"

Regarding his past crimes against martial heroes, Zhou Jinglei's account ended here. But one could infer that as Zhou Huai grew older and more aware, this method naturally couldn't continue.

Most likely, when Zhou Huai turned eight, Zhou Jinglei fed him memory-erasing drugs to silence him, never expecting that learned techniques wouldn't be completely forgotten.

Traces of the deceased remained buried deep in Zhou Huai's memory, surfacing unconsciously during mental trauma.

And presumably, though young and ignorant, Zhou Huai had some vague understanding of his father's deeds. This explained why he'd easily relapse when staying in the tower or seeing Zhou Jinglei.

In his final letter, Zhou Jinglei claimed that due to his past actions, he'd suffered constant nightmares over the years, forcing him to act with extreme caution—seldom leaving his quarters and replacing servants every three months.

He didn't want Zhou Huai to follow his path, believing wealth only corrupted minds, leading to irreversible ruin.

His sudden decision to visit Hero's Tomb stemmed from recent strange occurrences in the tower, as if someone had targeted him and infiltrated the premises.

The dismembered limbs appearing in Zhou Huai's room were an omen—despite having dismembered those corpses and dumped them in the inaccessible Hero's Tomb, someone had still retrieved them...

Zhou Jinglei didn't know who it was, but felt his doom was inevitable. After meeting Shen Qingshi and Yang Wujian that day, he realized Zhou Huai had finally found reliable friends in the martial world. To prevent past events from harming Zhou Huai, he could only choose death, hoping for his son's forgiveness.

The suicide letter ended here.

Both Yang Wujian and Shen Qingshi looked grim—the former worried about Zhou Huai on the collapsed bed, the latter realizing she'd made a grave mistake.

The Dragon Locking Coffin was beneath the Martial Arts Pavilion.

Shen Xin...Without the slightest hesitation, Shen Qingshi said, "You stay here and watch Zhou Huai. It seems Zhou Jinglei may have deactivated all the mechanisms in the building. He might have just left, so I'll go see if there's any chance of catching up to him."

With that, Shen Qingshi had already rushed out of Ziwei Tower.

Among the Four Envoys of Zhaoming, Shen Xin was an extremely difficult opponent to deal with. Compared to the Chiwen Envoy and Ya Zi Envoy, this person was profoundly Yin evil.

In the past, Cao Zhao had warned her many times to be extremely cautious when dealing with Shen Xin. Every word he spoke could be a trap, and even if he didn't act immediately, when the time came, he would definitely stab you in the back.

"This matter is of great importance and must be investigated thoroughly. If anything goes wrong, don't blame me for saying you failed in your duties later."

Remembering the words Shen Xin had whispered in her ear not long ago, Shen Qingshi quickly rushed into Wuqu Tower. She tested and indeed found that the mechanisms in the tower had been deactivated. Following the location mentioned in Zhou Jinglei's suicide note, she soon found a hidden door.

The Dragon Locking Coffin originally had three openings: Life, Death, and Shock.

The Heaven Gate was Life, the Earth Gate was Death, and on the side of the Dragon Locking Coffin was a Shock Gate, too small for an ordinary person to pass through. Zhou Jinglei often spoke to the prisoners through this opening.

Shen Qingshi pressed her ear against the hidden door but couldn't hear any movement inside. However, she had clearly seen faint shoe prints in the dust from above earlier, indicating that Shen Xin had already sneaked in.

The Life Gate of the Dragon Locking Coffin was extremely difficult to find. With Shen Xin's abilities, he must have infiltrated underground and used Bone Shrinking to enter this iron coffin through the Shock Gate, which he believed to be a treasure chamber.

Now that Shen Xin was nowhere to be seen, he must be inside. But who had closed the door?

Standing before the hidden door, Shen Qingshi pondered whether she should open this iron cage.

The Dragon Locking Coffin could trap anyone in the world. No matter how capable Shen Xin was, once inside, it would be impossible for him to escape.

If she could trap him inside until he died, it might actually be doing Cao Zhao a great favor.

Various thoughts flashed through Shen Qingshi's mind, but in the end, she chose to press the mechanism and open the Shock Gate.

Instantly, three hidden weapons flew toward her face. Having anticipated this, Shen Qingshi sidestepped to avoid them. Before she could utter a word, Shen Xin had already struck a palm toward her heart.

"Since you tricked me into going in, you really shouldn't have let me out!"

Shen Xin looked utterly disheveled, unclear how long he had been trapped inside. But obviously, he was now solely focused on killing Shen Qingshi, with every move aimed at vital points, forcing her to dodge continuously.

"Lord Shen, please calm down! It was indeed my oversight, mistaking this Dragon Locking Coffin for a treasure chamber. Zhou Jinglei has now left a suicide note and taken his own life. I'm afraid he might have had some unspeakable secrets."

Shen Qingshi, already injured, soon couldn't hold on and had to lead Shen Xin to the surface. Fortunately, two hurried footsteps were heard outside the building—likely Yang Wujian bringing the awakened Zhou Huai.

Seeing this, Shen Qingshi immediately said, "Lord Shen, Zhou Huai currently believes someone harmed his father. If you reveal your presence here, I'm afraid it will cause even greater chaos later."Hearing this, Shen Xin finally managed to calm down somewhat. He sneered coldly at Shen Qingshi, "Even if I don't kill you now, I'll kill you sooner or later. I won't let this matter rest, and not even Cao Zhao can protect you."

With that, his figure flickered and he vanished from Wuqu Tower. Shen Qingshi let out a sigh of relief, but a sharp pain shot through her shoulder as if her wound had reopened. She barely managed to jump down from the height and said to Yang Wujian and Zhou Huai, who had rushed over to look for her, "There's no one up there. They might have already gone down."

"Let's go check underground first."

Yang Wujian couldn't stop Zhou Huai at all.

The young master had woken up on the bed and immediately rushed straight to Wuqu, solely because Zhou Jinglei had mentioned in his letter that the passage leading to the Hero's Tomb was beneath Wuqu.

Initially, he had placed the Dragon Locking Coffin there precisely because its Death Gate led directly to the underground cavern. Although it gave people a glimmer of hope, it was a path of no return... Zhou Jinglei had always known how to make things absolute.

Now, the three of them hurried underground and first saw the Surprise Gate of the Dragon Locking Coffin that Shen Qingshi had just opened. Yang Wujian cast a suspicious glance at Shen Qingshi's pale face, but there was no time to dwell on it now, as Zhou Huai, disregarding everything, had already dashed toward the end of the corridor.

Without those massive mechanisms, the underground passage was now eerily silent. Following the path mentioned in his father's final letter, Zhou Huai quickly found the entrance sealed by a stone door.

Originally, this should have been a completely blocked path, but now, the stone door had been pushed open just enough to leave a dark gap wide enough for one person to enter. On the other side lay an overwhelmingly thick, chilling darkness.

The Hero's Tomb.

It was right before their eyes.