Kong Weirén slowly withdrew his walking stick and collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
Ye Fan snorted, "He who does evil shall perish. Wicked intentions are bound to lead to such an end."
He then turned to Xu Sanhu, "Village Chief Xu, do you have any last words?"
Ye Fan had already decided that Xu Sanhu had to die today. Regardless of whether Xu Sanhu knew any more secrets, given his nature, not killing him would surely sow future trouble.
Xu Sanhu's face was grim, his brows furrowed, and his eyes filled with unwillingness. All his previous plans had fallen through. After much painstaking effort and long deliberation, he thought everything was under his control, but he never expected to end up like this.
He looked at Ye Fan with a sense of desolation, "You win, Ye Fan. But it's just because luck is on your side. If I had a bit more luck, who knows who would have emerged victorious."
Xu Sanhu sneered, "But do you think this matter will end with my death? Let me tell you, the person behind me is truly omnipotent. Before him, you are nothing but an ant. It's a pity I won't live to see him torture you to death."
Saying this, Xu Sanhu drew a short knife and plunged it fiercely into his own heart. The generation's formidable figure, the meticulously calculating Xu Sanhu, ultimately died by his own machinations.
Ye Fan said no more. It was all Xu Sanhu's just deserts. From the day he devised this plan, he should have been prepared for death.
"Bury them. Leaving them to rot in the wilderness in broad daylight is not an option. Since they loved Qianfo Mountain so much, let them guard it forever."
Ye Fan said lightly, then moved to the side and sat down to rest. Though Ye Fan seemed to have recovered after his fight with Qiao Ping, he had lost a significant amount of vital energy, and it wouldn't be easy to recover.
Elder Lei and the others acted in unison, burying the bodies of Xu Sanhu and his companions.
After resting for over an hour, Shen Bao had regained some strength. His external injuries were mostly healed with the help of medicinal powder, and the remaining issue was regulating his qi and blood, which would take time.
Ye Fan stood up, stretched his limbs, and said to everyone, "Let's go back to the tomb chamber." The tomb chamber had already collapsed significantly after Shen Bao threw a grenade into it, but a portion remained intact. Their purpose in coming to Qianfo Mountain was to find treasure, and Ye Fan was unwilling to leave empty-handed after so many had died.
With their spirits renewed, the group returned to the burial site. All dangers had been eliminated, and they encountered no further obstacles as they proceeded to the main tomb chamber. The central part of the main tomb chamber was filled with rubble, with no discernible features.
"I find it strange," Elder Lei mused, stroking his beard, "If the coffins contained the blood corpses of Kong Weirén and the others, where did the true tomb owner go?"
"Given his cunning, he must have hidden it somewhere. But in this vast Qianfo Mountain, finding it would be harder than climbing to the sky," Shen Bao sighed. Xu Sanhu was devious and cautious. If he wanted to hide something, it would be difficult to find.
However, Ye Fan shook his head, "In such a short time, even Xu Sanhu would find it difficult to move important items. Moreover, to deal with us, he had to constantly monitor our movements. Therefore, I'm certain those items are still within the tomb." Those blood corpses could not move on their own without Xu Sanhu's command. This meant Xu Sanhu was undoubtedly watching Ye Fan and the others from the shadows, leaving him no time to hide treasures too far away.
Elder Lei nodded, "But even so, it has already collapsed significantly. How should we search?" There was a constant danger of further collapse, so they had to find the tomb owner and burial artifacts as quickly as possible. Everyone fell silent, their brows furrowed.
Just then, Ye Fan's pocket suddenly felt intensely hot. This made Ye Fan tremble as he quickly checked his pocket. A piece of chicken-blood stone was emitting heat.
"Chicken-blood stone?" The chicken-blood stone had turned blood-red, and the dozen or so veins on it were all pointing towards the back of the main tomb chamber.
"What's going on? Didn't the chicken-blood stone fail? Why is it reacting now?" Shen Tianyin asked, confused. When they first arrived at the tomb, the chicken-blood stone had shown no activity, forcing Ye Fan to rely on deciphering cryptic messages to find the tomb. But now, the chicken-blood stone reacting again was indeed strange.
"Perhaps the magnetic field only had a shielding effect outside the tomb. Now that we've entered the tomb, the magnetic field's effect is gone, which is why the chicken-blood stone is reacting," Ye Fan analyzed in a low voice.
"When you were fighting earlier, blood dripped onto it, so the chicken-blood stone has regained its function," Shen Tianyin's eyes lit up. Ye Fan nodded, "That's likely it." Then, following the direction indicated by the chicken-blood stone, the group arrived at the back of the tomb chamber. There was a stone wall, entirely carved from the mountain and polished very smoothly.
"There's no passage here. Could the chicken-blood stone be wrong?" Shen Bao frowned, asking dejectedly. Ye Fan remained silent, his gaze fixed on the wall, examining every inch. Since the chicken-blood stone was reacting, it meant the tomb owner must be behind this stone wall. Could this main tomb chamber actually be a decoy, meant to mislead tomb robbers? Was the real tomb behind this stone wall? This possibility made Ye Fan even more eager.
At that moment, Shen Bao angrily kicked the stone wall hard. "CRASH." Dust and soil immediately fell from the stone wall. Ye Fan quickly stepped forward and tapped on the stone wall. "So that's it. This stone wall was covered with a layer of soil to conceal it. Once this layer of soil is removed, its true appearance will be revealed." For now, he wasn't sure if there was a passage behind it, but at least there was a glimmer of hope.
Subsequently, the group took out their walking sticks and began to tap on the wall. After more than ten minutes, a stone door appeared before them. Shen Bao stepped forward and tried to push it with force, but the stone door didn't budge.
"Look, there's a hole here, it looks like a keyhole. It seems we need a key to open this stone door," Shen Tianyin's sharp eyes spotted an opening beneath the stone door. A key? Where were they going to find a key? With a mournful sigh, Shen Bao sat on the ground, exhausted, "To think that after all our efforts, it ends up being in vain. I truly can't accept this." Elder Lei and Elder Ji also shook their heads in resignation.
But Ye Fan, looking at the keyhole, felt his heart tremble. The shape of this opening was too similar to the key he had fashioned from the meteorite at Taoran Pavilion. Elder Lei continued to sigh, "In the end, we still need a key. Is this treasure destined to be beyond my reach?"