Chapter 1 When Doubts Arise

Just as doubts arose in Ye Yang's mind, a coffin that looked like it had been placed over a spring appeared in the distance.

That coffin was the center of the entire secret chamber. A hole the size of a washbasin was exposed in front of the coffin, and water tainted by evil energy slowly flowed out from the breach.

Three feet away from the coffin were two rows of corpses nailed to the ground. Not only were the eyes of those corpses bloodshot, but a layer of fine white hair had also grown on their faces.

Had these corpses turned into zombies?

Ye Yang immediately rejected his own idea: "Be careful of those corpses. They have been refined into tomb-guarding corpse ghouls."

Corpse ghouls were ghost-like creatures similar to zombies, but they were more agile, ferocious, and bloodthirsty than zombies. Moreover, most zombies lacked intelligence and relied entirely on instinct to hunt. However, the souls of corpse ghouls never left their bodies, so they always possessed consciousness and knew how to think.

If the corpse ghouls were cunning people in life, then they would be even more difficult to deal with after becoming corpse ghouls.

Ye Yang took two steps forward and said in a deep voice, "I know you can hear me. Which of you is the village chief of Qingyan Village?"

More than a dozen corpse ghouls sitting beside the coffin turned their heads together and stared directly at Ye Yang, their eyes streaming with blood.

The person closest to the coffin said, "I am the village chief. How did you get in here?"

Ye Yang said solemnly, "I want to know the truth about the destruction of Qingyan Village. In exchange, I can send the villagers' ghosts to the underworld and give you a chance for reincarnation."

All the corpse ghouls turned to look at the village chief, who laughed miserably, "Someone said the same thing back then, but did you see what happened to us?"

Ye Yang frowned slightly, "I don't want to explain anything to you. If you want to talk, I will keep my promise. If you don't want to talk, I can find it myself."

The killing intent in Ye Yang's tone was undisguised, making it clear to the other party: If you don't cooperate, I will kill people.

Feng Ruoxing didn't speak, but he was already prepared to kill.

The village chief's bloodshot eyes swept over Ye Yang and Feng Ruoxing several times before he said, "What do you want to know?"

Ye Yang said in a deep voice, "Everything, starting from the founding of your Qingyan Village."

The village chief was silent for a moment before slowly saying, "The ancestors of Qingyan Village were not mountain herders, but came from the thief sect. Have you heard of the Eight Heroes of the Thief Sect?"

Ye Yang's eyebrows could not help but twitch slightly.

Before Bei Yiye became famous, the tomb raiding world belonged to the "Eight Heroes of the Thief Sect."

As the saying goes, "Every profession has its ancestor." Thieves either worshiped Shi Qian, a hero of Liangshan, as their ancestor, or Liu Xiazhi, a great thief of the Spring and Autumn Period.

Liu Xiazhi (also known as Zhi the Thief) was the first person to interpret "There is honor among thieves" with Confucian "sage, courage, righteousness, wisdom, and benevolence." It could be said that he deserved to be the ancestor of thieves.

In Liu Xiazhi's view:

Being able to accurately judge the location and quantity of the other party's stored wealth was wisdom;

Being fearless and taking the lead when robbing was courage;

Taking the initiative to cover the retreat and being the last to evacuate after a successful operation was righteousness;

Being able to assess the situation and accurately judge whether an action would succeed was intelligence;

Finally, distributing the spoils fairly when handling wealth was benevolence.

The Eight Heroes of the Thief Sect roamed the martial world without restraint in those years, not only because they were highly skilled and proficient in secret techniques, but also because they took Liu Xiazhi's essence of "There is honor among thieves" to the extreme.

Therefore, the Eight Heroes of the Thief Sect never failed, whether they were robbing, stealing, or tomb raiding.

However, the legend of the Eight Heroes of the Thief Sect came to an abrupt end at the height of their fame, and the eight people disappeared.

The most credible rumor in the martial world was that the Eight Heroes of the Thief Sect were trapped in an ancient tomb.

The village chief waited for Ye Yang to recover from his shock before continuing, "The ancestor of Qingyan Village was one of the Eight Heroes of the Thief Sect. Back then, the Eight Heroes of the Thief Sect received a business deal and entered the Burial God Snow Mountain together."

When they came down, they parted ways outside the snow mountain.

That was the first and only time the Eight Heroes of the Thief Sect acted separately. After that, the Eight Heroes of the Thief Sect never came out of the mountain again.

At that time, the ancestor returned to the mountains and forests with something taken from the Snow Mountain Temple and hid it not far from Qingyan Village.

The blue stone at the entrance of the village was the secret mark left by the ancestor.

The ancestor said that when we found the gap that matched the shape of the blue stone, it would be the time when that treasure would be unearthed.

However, we must never open the secret burial he left behind unless it was absolutely necessary. Otherwise, disaster would strike immediately.

The ancestor left his family here, and we continued to multiply, eventually forming Qingyan Village. However, only the village chief's family knew the secret of the ancestor.

Ye Yang interrupted him at this point, "Is the ancestor of Qingyan Village buried here?"

"This..." The village chief hesitated for a moment before saying, "No, it is said that when the ancestor passed away, it was also very strange. He laid down in the coffin alive and asked people to carry him to a valley."

"The people who saw him off said that there were seven other coffins there."

"They speculated that the Eight Heroes of the Thief Sect should have reunited in this way. They also fulfilled their oath of not seeking to be born together, but seeking to die together."