Chapter 196 The Secrets of the Eight Great Thieves

When I walked into the Secret Burial, Ye Yang and the others were just coming out.

Feng Ruoxing and Ye Yang didn't ask me what kind of deal I had made with Cang Tianji. They just told me about their encounter with the Seven Fiends Corpse Lock.

I couldn't help but frown, "According to what you said, the Eight Heroes of the Thieves' Sect once sneaked into the Snow Mountain Shrine and stole the supreme treasure inside."

"The Eight Heroes of the Thieves' Sect were as close as brothers and always adhered to the principle of 'honor among thieves'. They would never do anything unfair in dividing the spoils, nor would they abandon one of their own just because the treasure was cursed."

"Judging from this, when they acted separately back then, they should have each taken away a treasure."

Feng Ruoxing couldn't help but say, "How did they manage to steal eight secret treasures from under the nose of the Demon God? What's even stranger is that they weren't hunted down by the Demon God. Could it be that the Demon God was sleeping at that time?"

Ye Yang said, "The Demon God shouldn't have been sleeping at that time. That Life-Controlling Ghost God is the spirit of the Fate Plate. If someone touches its main body, even if the Demon God is sleeping, it will send out a warning to wake him up."

"What I'm thinking about now is, who hired the Eight Heroes of the Thieves' Sect back then?"

"The person who hired them is the most crucial figure."

As I said this, I couldn't help but glare at Ye Yang, "Couldn't you have waited for me to arrive before taking action? If we could have captured that artifact spirit alive, how much information could we have obtained?"

"Shut up!" Ye Yang's eyes narrowed.

"Bah..." I retorted, unwilling to be outdone, "If we weren't on a mission right now, I would give you a good lesson. Stop barking and let me think."

Ye Yang rolled his eyes at me, annoyed.

Ye Yang did like to argue with me, but he never made a sound when I was considering a problem.

As I walked out, I muttered to myself, "The Eight Heroes of the Thieves' Sect stole treasures, and one of them hid his treasure in Qingyan Village. The remaining seven items should be in the places Old Liu drew."

"If the person who hired them was greedy for the secret treasures, why didn't they take the treasures away, but instead left them on the periphery of the Burial God Snow Mountain?"

"That doesn't make sense!"

I looked up at the sky, "Let's rest for one night and leave tomorrow. Feng Ruoxing, Ye Yang, you guys find the village chief's house. We'll stay there."

Feng Ruoxing killed the corpse ghost, but didn't completely destroy its soul. After asking around, she quickly found the village chief's house. She and Cang Tianji went inside to clean up the house, while I lit a cigarette and sat in the courtyard, "Leng Gou, do you think the Eight Heroes of the Thieves' Sect might have been controlled?"

Ye Yang said, "That's possible. Jiangyang bandits like them usually don't stay in one place for too long, let alone get married and have children."

"The fact that one of the great thieves settled down here must be for a reason he couldn't stop."

"More importantly, the great thief who laid himself in the coffin to reunite with his companions must have had something unfinished."

"Do you think it's still because of the Snow Mountain Shrine?"

I sighed and said, "I can't figure it out! There are just too few clues."

"And that old customer named Jin Qianbao came at a very suspicious time."

"Jin Qianbao's actions were definitely aimed at taking the Fate Plate. But how did Jin Qianbao know that the Fate Plate was in Qingyan Village? And how would he know that the Fate Plate can only determine the life and death of the living and is ineffective against the dead?"

"I suspect that Jin Qianbao is just a puppet being manipulated."

"Who is directing Jin Qianbao?"

"The Demon God?"

"The descendants of the Eight Heroes of the Thieves' Sect?"

"Or someone else?"

Ye Yang also nodded, "There are also things I can't see through. The Seven Fiends Corpse Lock is the pinnacle of the Bei Suo side sect. The Bei Suo sect and the Thieves' Sect have always been at odds. Why would the Seven Fiends Corpse Lock appear in the hands of the Eight Great Thieves?"

In the world of esoteric arts, there are two sects famous for locks, collectively known as the "Nan Chi Bei Suo".

Both sects worship Lu Ban as their founder, and their secret techniques can be regarded as branches of the art of mechanisms. However, they developed locks to the extreme, breaking away from the category of mechanisms and becoming a school of their own, which led to the later "Nan Chi Bei Suo."

When the two sects pursued the art of lock making, some disciples went astray and began to use corpses as locks, people as locks, and ghosts as locks... The Seven Fiends Corpse Lock is one of the most representative works.

Therefore, the sects that went astray also broke away from the original Nan Chi Bei Suo and were called "Nan Chi Left Path" and "Bei Suo Side Sect" by the esoteric world.

But one thing is certain, whether the disciples of Nan Chi Bei Suo walked the right path or entered the evil path, they were all at odds with the Thieves' Sect.

Thieves and locksmiths are natural enemies, and this is even more true in the world of esoteric arts.

A pinnacle secret lock like the Seven Fiends Corpse Lock is usually custom-made by the employer for a large sum of money. When the Bei Suo side sect accepts business, they must also find out the other party's origin.

Would they custom-make a corpse lock for the Eight Great Thieves?

Hearing this, I said in a deep voice, "I have a feeling that unlocking the secrets of the Eight Heroes of the Thieves' Sect will be of great help to us in entering the shrine!"