Chapter 55

Not knowing what was on Liu Liuhai’s mind, Ye Qing kept pleading.

Yang Shou’an frowned at the sight.

As far as he could recall, Ye Qing had always had a poker face and an indifferent heart. A lady who was widely feared, she had never acted sweetly in front of anyone, nor had she made any attempt at pleasing anybody. Any men she had met either ended up dead or castrated.

But now, she seemed to be a different woman in front of Liu Liuhai. Even Yang Shou’an felt as if he didn’t actually know her.

Yang Shou’an glanced at Liu Liuhai, his eyes full of concern and jealousy.

“Does she have feelings for the chief commander? Please, don’t!”

The chief commander was a terrific fighter with excellent Qinggong skills. Moreover, he had the third most attractive body, which was only slightly less charming than Liu Dongdong’s and Liu Erquan’s.

Yang Shou’an felt anxious and nervous.

Clenching his teeth, he made up his mind.

“If I can return alive after this mission, I will stop at nothing to please my father. I want him to teach me the secret techniques of physical cultivation too.”

“With proper cultivation, I will also have eight packs and a perfect body shape. By then, I can also win over Ye Qing just like how the chief commander did!” Yang Shou’an immersed himself in the sweet prospect.

Not far away, Liu Liuhai was still indecisive under Ye Qing’s relentless plea.

“This is an important matter. I have to discuss it with my clan members!” Liu Liuhai said.

Ye Qing was delighted at the possibility. She hurriedly ushered the group into a stone room.

Sitting around a small table, Liu Erquan, Liu Erhai, Liu Sanhai, and Liu Liuhai were discussing the details. Other clan members, together with the Black-Handed Zhang, were guarding outside the room in case of a surprise attack by the Living Dead Clan.

“Liu Dahai parted with us when we headed down. He stayed at the top of the mountain. Hence, he’d have informed the Clan Head and come to our rescue as soon as the hydra had appeared!” Liu Erquan said.

“How can they possibly save us? No one can beat that monster. I suspect that the hydra came from the ancient forest in the depths of Scorpio Island, and it had deliberately chosen this secluded place to lay eggs!” Liu Erhai said.

Then, he shook the egg in his hand and continued, “There’s been movement inside this egg. I think the little creature inside is ready to visit our world!”

Everyone gasped in shock. They passed around the egg and paid close attention to the movement inside.

The unborn creature was very cautious. Having sensed the situation, it stopped moving at once. However, given their high sensitivity and cultivation powers, the group easily picked up an incredibly strong internal energy brewing inside the shell.

The power of the energy was comparable to a martial arts master’s!

“What about your egg?” Liu Erquan gestured at the egg in Liu Sanhai’s arms.

“I figure it’s dead. Or perhaps still not hatched yet!” Liu Sanhai explained, passing the egg to the others.

They held the egg in their hands and sensed the inside. Then, they concluded that it’s more likely to be an unhatched egg because there was a strong fragrance wafting from within the shell.

Dead eggs would stink.

“Our clan will become the boss of the City of Scorpio if we can tame the little creatures inside these two eggs!” Liu Erhai said excitedly.

Liu Liuhai shot him a glance and said, “The hydra may forgive others, but she’ll never forgive the man who stole her eggs!”

Liu Erquan waved his hand and dismissed the argument. He urged, “Let’s not digress. So long as we live, I don’t care how you want to deal with the eggs, even if you want to eat one of them!”

The group started the discussion at once. But they couldn’t think of any method that could defeat the hydra.

The hydra was way too powerful.

“The only plausible solution now is to forge an alliance with the Living Dead Clan and block the hydra out with the traps inside the Mausoleum. Then, we wait for Liu Dahai’s assistance!” Liu Erquan said.

He then gazed at the others and said, “We’ll be safe after Liu Dahai has brought our ancestor here!”

After a moment of hesitation, Liu Liuhai voiced the main concern on his mind. “But what if the ancestor’s protective aura fails to kill the hydra?”

“That monster will surely swallow our ancestor whole!”

The remark knitted everyone’s brows.

Liu Liuhai’s concern was valid. Although the Ancestor’s protective aura could cut down any human, no one had tested it on a hydra.

“There’s no record in the family booklet that the Ancestor had tried to slay monsters of similar ranks. But the Story of Ancestors did mention that the Ancestor had once ventured into the very ancient forest of Scorpio Island in his twilight years. He had gone with a group of founding ancestors of other clans in search of immortality.”

“A few months later, our ancestor returned alone, his body covered in blood. Everyone else had died in the forest,” Liu Liuhai said as he recalled.

He gazed at the other people and continued, “Hence, I suspect that our ancestor probably encountered similar monsters before. And he survived!”

Liu Erquan shook his head. “Everyone knows that after our ancestor returned, he dominated the entire martial arts realm on Scorpio Island. He slaughtered all the forces whose leaders had died in the expedition. After that, he took their secret cultivation techniques and emptied their treasure houses.”

“In other words, our ancestor might not have gone to the depths of the ancient forest at all. It could have been an excuse to exterminate all those clans who could potentially pose a threat to ours. Besides, no one could possibly reject the allure of the cultivation techniques and treasurers of other clans.”

The rest nodded in agreement. They were impressed and held in awe by the Ancestor’s wisdom and cunning.

Indeed, the Ancestor was a legendary hero. Only he had the foresight and patience to plot such a grand scheme in the last years of his life.

“Come on, let’s talk to the Living Dead Clan. They must have some good cards up their sleeves to have survived and become prosperous these last thousand years!” Liu Erquan said as he led his people out of the room to report to the Living Dead leaders.

“Our Liu clan has sent a message back to request for assistance. We believe that help will soon arrive,” Liu Erquan told the Grand Elder. “But we’ll need two days at least!”

“Can the Mausoleum traps hold off the hydra for two days?”

The Grand Elder replied with a confident smile, “Two days? That thing won’t reach us in two months!”

However, as soon as she had finished speaking, the entire palace suddenly started to shake and the walls began to crack.

“Oh no! The hydra is here!”

The Living Dead disciples in the other stone rooms sent the alert through special gears.

The essence of the construction of the Living Dead Mausoleum was the eight trigrams[1], which enabled message transmission from hundreds of meters away with the use of inbuilt gears.

The Grand Elder asked anxiously, “Where is the hydra? Which area?”

“She’s already reached Wind! AHH—!” The disciple’s scream was abruptly cut short by the sound of stones collapsing.

“The hydra is not far away!” Ye Qing said.

She looked at the Grand Elder, apprehension burning in her eyes. The other seven Elders had looked over too.

The Living Dead Clan had survived for more than a thousand years not only because of their well-defended Mausoleum but also because they had a secret hiding place — the Valley.

“Go to the Valley!” the Grand Elder ordered. Then, she turned to the Liu members and said in a harsh tone, “Please cover your eyes.”

She didn’t want outsiders to know the route to the Valley, especially members of the Liu clan.

That was one of the most important secrets of the Living Dead Clan.

Having their eyes covered, the Liu group was guided out of the palace by a few disciples. They turned around a few corners, moved forward and backward, and even walked in circles sometimes.

The Living Dead disciples had purposely made them do it to disorientate them.

That worked very well. Liu Liuhai and the rest were soon feeling dizzy.

Liu Erquan managed to roughly memorize the route, but his memory was cloudy too.

[1] Eight symbols used in Taoist cosmology to represent the fundamental principles of reality