Chapter 859: 4,560 Years

With Han Zhong’s death, the surrounding lush green grassland instantly withered up. Only a pile of dry yellow dust remained. Even though none of those present were strangers to death, it was still a bleak sight.

Zu An couldn’t hold himself back. “That Han Zhong really is a good-for-nothing. All he did was scare us with all of his blabbering; he didn’t even give us any useful information.”

Mi Li also frowned. Han Zhong’s words had left her completely confused as well.

Bi Linglong took the chance to examine Mi Li. She was just too curious about the mysterious woman who had suddenly appeared. She had endless things to ask Zu An, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it right in front of her face.

Right at that moment, rumbling sounds of collapse suddenly came from the temple. The group quickly went inside to take a look and saw that many of the sculptures had been knocked over, and the master position where the biggest statue should have been now had a huge hole in its place. The statue had fallen straight through.

“Han Zhong’s sweet sedge weeds already grew all over, even digging beneath this temple’s foundation. Now that he’s dead, his strange weeds have all withered away, so they could no longer support the statue’s weight. That’s why everything collapsed,” Mi Li said, analyzing the situation.

“Huh? There’s something shiny below.” Bi Linglong had sharp eyes. She pointed at the hole below in alarm.

The group looked in that direction. The statue had already broken into two pieces. The head lay off to the side, as if it were staring at them coldly. It was quite frightening. But that wasn’t what anyone was paying attention to at the moment. They instead looked toward the shining spot.

The giant turtle mount had also fallen down, and its shell had cracked open. A ring of light shone from the sides of the turtle shell.

Mi Li gave Zu An a look and said, “Go and take a look.”

Zu An was stunned. “Can’t you easily split that rock turtle open with your cultivation?”

“The disciple should take care of the master’s needs!” Mi Li harrumphed. “Furthermore, your body has already become so tough. You should use some of that strength instead of lazing around and letting your mind wander.”

Zu An was speechless. Bi Linglong also blushed. Even though she had been poisoned, she hadn’t lost her rationality. She still remembered his exaggerated reaction when she had teased him.

What could Zu An do? He could only head down and pry open the rock turtle shell. Even though the material was tough, his body was already at an entirely different level. He didn’t even need to use ki. Just his strength alone was enough to break open the shell along the crack.

The shell’s interior was lined with many smooth, round, luminescent pearls. Every single one was massive, and difficult to even hold with a single hand. Even though Bi Linglong was used to seeing treasures in the palace, she had never seen so many top-grade luminescent pearls together. Furthermore, she could feel a strange aura coming from them. They were clearly extraordinary goods.

Zu An picked one up and gave it a feel. “They don’t have any ki inside, but rather a strange kind of energy. I have no idea what they can be used for.”

“Hmph, how disappointing.” Mi Li harrumphed. “Your master will teach you a lesson today. The dragon had nine sons, and one of them was the Tuolong[1]. Its skin was able to act like a drum’s surface, sending its voice out over a hundred li. After living for ten thousand years, it shed its skin and became a dragon. This shell has eighty-one ribs, correlating to the ‘nine nines return to one’ pattern. Every single rib has a large pearl at the center.

“These pearls are extremely hard to produce. If the ribs hadn’t fully matured, the molting wouldn’t be possible and the Tuolong wouldn’t be able to become a dragon. If it were captured and skinned, the ribs wouldn’t produce any pearls either. Only if all eighty-one ribs completely developed and the pearls reached perfection could it shed everything and become a dragon.

“Those characters mentioned a ten thousand year old turtle’s essence. I didn’t expect it to be real.”

Bi Linglong counted the pearls. Sure enough, there were eighty-one pearls there! She looked at Mi Li in amazement. She hadn’t really liked the red-clothed woman at first, feeling that she was way too aggressive and that she wasn’t all that nice. However, she had never heard of those legends Mi Li had spoken of just now. Furthermore, Bi Linglong suddenly felt great admiration for the confidence and composure Mi Li had when she spoke.

“Tuolong?” Zu An was rather surprised. This thing could live for ten thousand years? I don’t even think the dragons of this world can live for that long… He asked, “What can these pearls be used for then? Are they some incredible natural treasure?”

“I don’t know.” Mi Li shook her head. “The Tuolong is only a legend after all; no one has truly seen it before. There’s no way of knowing what these pearls are used for. Just store them away for now; perhaps there’ll be a chance to use them in this dungeon later.”

Zu An nodded. He collected the eighty-one pearls into his storage space. He thought to himself, She made these things sound amazing, but they’re still far inferior to my Brilliant Glass Bead!

Suddenly, Bi Linglong cried out in alarm. “There’s a stele over here!”

Zu An and Mi Li turned around. Sure enough, they saw a crooked stone stele in the corner. Some written characters could vaguely be made out on its surface.

“Look at this girl; you’re quite the lucky star, hm? You’re always the first to discover useful things.” Mi Li smiled in her direction. Then, she moved over to the stele.

Bi Linglong blushed. She really had no other choice. She had experienced so much in that time, to the point where her former pride had already been completely shattered. When she saw how formidable Mi Li was, she felt a mysterious sense of threat. That was why she wouldn’t give up any chance to display her worth.

Zu An also walked over to the stele, but many of the characters were impossible to read. He could only make out a single line: “…left, Azure Dragon First Monarch, 51st year; right, White Tiger War General, 21st year; up, Vermilion Bird Light of Tombs, 31st year; down, Black Tortoise Holder of Wisdom, first year; the noble lunar moon at the center…

“Huh? What does this mean?” He felt as if he had returned to the classroom in his old world when he had first been exposed to analog electronics and engineering. It went completely over his head.

Mi Li was surprised. “So that was it! I see, I see.”

“Explain it already…” Zu An gave her an annoyed look.

“Hmph, you should address your teacher properly first!” Mi Li exclaimed. However, she still explained, “The midnight of the first night of the 51st year is the winter solstice, as well as an eclipse. According to the solar and lunar cycle used by the Qin Dynasty, those of the calendar system department believed that to be a phenomenon that only occurred once every 4,560 years. No wonder this dungeon’s appearance was so sudden; it turns out we just happened to have hit that very date!”

“4,500 years…” Zu An gulped. “Holy moly… Isn’t our luck a bit too crazy, if it only happens once every 4,560 years?”

Bi Linglong’s face paled. “Are there any consequences if we can’t leave this dungeon in time?”

Mi Li gave her a look of praise. “You’re sharp. This dungeon won’t remain open for long. If we can’t leave before it closes, it will only reopen again after another 4,560 years.”

Zu An was completely speechless. What the hell? If Chuyan, Manman and the others were all here, I wouldn’t mind spending this time with them. But I definitely don’t want to be locked up here for 4,000 years like this.

“Then what do the other parts say?” He became more focused and didn’t dare to waste any more time.

“Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise are the four aspects that represent the four stellar domains of the cosmos. The Azure Dragon is also known as the First Monarch, the White Tiger as the War General, the Vermilion Bird as the Light of Tombs, and the Black Tortoise the Holder of Wisdom. These sentences refer to the corresponding time and positions… Hm, but as for what they’re being paired up with, it’s too hard to say as the stele is lacking information. We don’t have enough information to make any deductions.”

Zu An said seriously, “Then we should keep moving to see if we can get more information from other places.”

“Alright. Let’s try to reach that highest sacred peak from earlier. I believe the palace hides a great secret, and the key to leaving this place should also be there.” Mi Li raised her head toward the faintly discernible, but majestic palace. The same strange expression appeared on her face again.

Zu An moved over and nudged her shoulder with his. “Is there something you’re too embarrassed to talk about? You shouldn’t keep that stuff bottled up; maybe I can help you out if you talk about it. I’m pretty amazing, you know?”

He had seen so many of those melodramatic dramas. He obviously wanted to remove as many bad flags as possible after seeing how Mi Li was acting.

1. The Tuolong is an antagonist in the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, published in 1592 by Wu Cheng’en. The Tuolong is the ninth son of the Dragon King of the Jing River, and was found in Black River in Hengyang Valley. ☜

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