The little celestial fox looked up at Bao Gu and spoke in human language, “How would I know?”
Bao Gu, lying on the flying sword, also looked up at the little celestial fox and said, “You were the one who wanted to come here. My senior sister told me to stick close to you. If you don’t know what this place is, who else would? We’ve come this far, what’s the point of hiding it from me? Are you afraid I’ll be scared to death? I think if you keep hiding things from me, I’ll be more likely to be scared to death because I won’t be prepared.”
She threatened fiercely, “Don’t forget, I’m your master. We made a blood oath. If I die, you won’t survive either.”
The little celestial fox rolled its eyes at Bao Gu indifferently and then said, “I only know this is a burial ground, likely the resting place of some powerful ancient creature. I guess it might be a dragon, but it could also be a python or a snake. Dragon pythons and Teng snakes can grow this large.”
Bao Gu, while healing her injuries, looked at the little celestial fox with confusion and asked, “You mean this is the burial ground of a giant serpent? How can you tell?”
The little celestial fox gave Bao Gu a “you’re an idiot” look and said, “Your senior sister cut off one of its ribs when she extracted the dragon marrow.”
Bao Gu was stunned and exclaimed, “A rib? A rib nearly a zhang long?”
She was stunned again and shouted, “Oh my, are we inside the belly of that creature, whether it’s a snake or a dragon?”
She looked around in disbelief.
The little celestial fox muttered, “It’s definitely not a dragon tomb.”
Bao Gu agreed with the little celestial fox’s muttering and said, “Indeed, if it were a dragon tomb, this place would be a feng shui treasure land, not a dangerous burial ground. Dragons are fierce and violent, and their burial grounds are often dangerous places.”
She knew little about the geography of mountains and rivers, but she knew the difference between a dragon and a serpent.
Even a mass grave can be haunted, so it’s no surprise that strange things happened in the tomb of a dragon.
Bao Gu thought again, if this place was really not surprising, why did Ling’er react so strongly when she saw the blood-sucking ground?
She asked, “Ling’er, is this place more than just a dangerous burial ground for a dragon? Is there something else?”
The little celestial fox replied, “Yes, this place is not just a burial ground; it’s a corpse mountain.”
Bao Gu said, “A corpse mountain? I only saw bones in the water pit.”
She thought to herself, “This place is indeed not simple.”
The little celestial fox said, “A dangerous burial ground accumulates corpses into a mountain. The corpses merge with the mountain, and the mountain becomes a corpse, hence the name corpse mountain.”
Bao Gu frowned.
She didn’t understand how dead bodies could be so terrifying.
She had doubts and directly asked the little celestial fox.
The little celestial fox glanced at Bao Gu and said, “Life is the beginning of death, and death is the beginning of life. Have you ever been to the Netherworld?”
Bao Gu exclaimed, “Pah, pah, pah, don’t say such things. I will live a long life and never go to the Netherworld.”
The little celestial fox rolled its eyes at Bao Gu again, probably despising Bao Gu for being superstitious despite being a cultivator.
Bao Gu ignored the little celestial fox’s eye roll and said, “You mean this corpse mountain is already alive?”
The little celestial fox nodded and asked, “Are your injuries healed?”
Clearly, it didn’t want to continue discussing this topic with Bao Gu.
Bao Gu moved her left shoulder and found the injured area still hurt.
She exclaimed, “It takes a hundred days to heal bones and tendons. How can it be so fast?”
Seeing the little celestial fox glaring at her, she smiled, drank some monkey wine and healing medicine, and then sat cross-legged on the flying sword to focus on healing.
The little celestial fox jumped onto the flying sword, looking around vigilantly from time to time and occasionally glancing at Bao Gu.
About two hours later, Bao Gu finished her healing.
She had lost a lot of blood, and even with elixirs, it was difficult to fully recover in a short time.
Her face was still pale.
Bao Gu reached into the large storage bag and saw Yu Mi standing in the void of the bag, her bloodstains already cleaned.
She quickly took Yu Mi out of the bag and asked, “Senior sister, how are your injuries?”
Yu Mi took a deep breath and said in a pained tone, “Bao Gu, next time, be more careful when using the Nascent Soul talisman. I’m not a nine-lived cat or a nine-tailed fox; I don’t have nine lives.”
Bao Gu lowered her head and said, “I’m sorry, senior sister, but if I hadn’t used that talisman, you might have…”
Yu Mi asked, “Where are the people from the Beast Taming Valley? Why did they retreat?”
Bao Gu said, “They didn’t retreat. They’re all dead. The little celestial fox and I killed them.”
Yu Mi’s eyes widened in shock, “All dead? Just the two of you? How is that possible?”
Bao Gu recounted the battle with the Beast Taming Valley and then said, “Senior sister, Ling’er said this place might be a dragon’s burial ground and a corpse mountain.”
Yu Mi nodded lightly and said, “It is indeed a corpse mountain.”
She turned to the little celestial fox and said, “Ling’er, lead the way. Let’s go.”
As she spoke, she glanced at Bao Gu with deep emotion, as if trying to see into Bao Gu’s eyes.
She hadn’t expected Bao Gu to go to such lengths for her, even killing all the people from the Beast Taming Valley.
Bao Gu had always been someone who preferred to use her brain rather than her hands and disliked killing.
Bao Gu met Yu Mi’s gaze and gave a gentle smile.
Yu Mi sighed inwardly, looked away, and flew forward along the passage on her flying sword.
She flew slowly and asked casually, “Bao Gu, do you know what a corpse mountain is?”
Bao Gu said, “A dangerous burial ground accumulates corpses into a mountain. The corpses merge with the mountain, and the mountain becomes a corpse, hence the name corpse mountain. Life is the beginning of death, and death is the beginning of life. The corpses accumulate into a mountain… and come to life?”
Facing her senior sister’s question, she quickly repeated what the little celestial fox had taught her.
Yu Mi shook her head and said, “When we get out of here, you need to attend classes at the Hall of Transmission every first and fifteenth of the month.”
Bao Gu knew she had answered incorrectly and glared at the little celestial fox with the corner of her eye, then quickly responded to Yu Mi with an “um.”
The little celestial fox pretended not to notice Bao Gu’s glare and perked up its ears to listen to Yu Mi’s next words.
Yu Mi said, “I think you know the principle of yin and yang, extreme yin giving birth to yang, and extreme yang giving birth to yin, right?”
Bao Gu and the little celestial fox nodded simultaneously.
Yu Mi continued, “This dangerous burial ground follows that principle. This place is extremely dangerous, but I can guarantee that deep within it, there will be an extraordinary treasure, and it might even become a blessed land.”
Her eyes shone brightly, determined to find the treasure.
Bao Gu thought, if this place had a blessed land, why hadn’t the powerful forces in Xuan Yue Ancient City discovered it and taken it away?
There might be great opportunities, but there would also be great dangers.
She shared her concerns with Yu Mi.
Yu Mi said, “Indeed. The fact that people from the Beast Taming Valley are here suggests that this place has already been discovered. Perhaps someone has already explored it but didn’t survive, or something happened that forced them to give up—but that’s unlikely. If there were a treasure, they would stop at nothing to get it, even if it meant many cultivators would die. Do you remember the bones we saw at the bottom of the pool when we first came in? Those people haven’t been dead for long, not more than a few hundred years!”
She looked back at Bao Gu and said, “Bao Gu, do you dare to take a gamble? To see if we can get the treasure here or if we’ll die trying.”
Bao Gu smiled gently and said, “Senior sister, wherever you go, I go.”
Yu Mi stopped and looked at Bao Gu seriously, “This is a matter of life and death. I don’t want you to be emotional about it. I want to hear your opinion. Think it over carefully and tell me. Although you’re young, I always feel you have good judgment. I’m afraid my judgment might be wrong and cost us our lives. We’re not too deep in yet, so we can still leave. Getting a few drops of dragon marrow is already a good harvest.”
Bao Gu said, “Senior sister, tell me more about this corpse mountain.”
Yu Mi said, “What I know about this corpse mountain is what you’ve already seen. As we go deeper, I don’t know what we’ll encounter.”
Bao Gu thought seriously and said, “Senior sister, if I were in a world like the one in the books, where cultivators are dedicated to the Dao, have a sense of justice, and are compassionate, I would choose to leave. But now, I’m in a chaotic world of cultivation. In such a world, where is there no danger? We can only seek fortune in danger. It seems like we have a choice, but we don’t. We only have two paths: overcome all difficulties to gain more cultivation resources and survive, or die.”
Yu Mi felt a strange sense of reluctance and said, “Bao Gu, bringing you into this world of cultivation might not have been good for you…”
Bao Gu was only fourteen and had to go through all this.
If she hadn’t brought Bao Gu into the world of cultivation, Bao Gu might still be living a peaceful and prosperous life in the mortal world.
Bao Gu smiled and said, “Senior sister, if you hadn’t taken me into Xuantian Sect, I might have starved to death during the famine. I know what human nature is like, both good and bad. Whether in the world of cultivation or the mortal world, human nature is the same. I’ve seen too much during the three years of natural disasters and famine.”
Yu Mi suddenly wanted to ask, since you understand human nature so well, why do you say you love me?
Is it for something, or is it pure affection?
But she swallowed her words.
She felt that even if she asked and Bao Gu answered, she wouldn’t get a real answer.
The answer could only be found by herself, by observing.
Besides, it wasn’t appropriate to discuss this topic with a young celestial fox around.
She said, “Let’s go and see what dangers and opportunities this place holds.”
There were some things she didn’t want to think about too deeply.
She just needed to know what she wanted.
The little celestial fox led Yu Mi and Bao Gu inward.
Bao Gu flew on her flying sword through the winding belly of the dead dragon, which seemed to have turned into bones.
The three of them moved very slowly, afraid of flying too fast and running into some deadly danger.
After flying about seven or eight zhang, they saw only hard rock walls and ribs.
Most of these ribs were embedded in the hard rock walls, with only a few exposed.
Yu Mi had cut down fourteen of them with the Lihuo Sword to find dragon marrow, but she hadn’t found a single drop.
Bao Gu thought for a moment and said, “Senior sister, let’s go back.”
Yu Mi asked, “Why?”
The little celestial fox also looked at Bao Gu in confusion.
Bao Gu said, “The large chamber where you found the dragon marrow—why is there such a large space? And why have we only found its ribs, but not its scales or tendons? If the internal organs can rot, I believe it, but how can the scales and tendons easily rot and disappear? The chamber we entered is open at both ends, and it should be in the middle of the dragon. Why is the entrance not elsewhere but in that spacious chamber? How was that chamber formed?”
Yu Mi was puzzled by Bao Gu’s questions, but she understood Bao Gu’s point: Bao Gu thought there was something strange about that place and wanted to go back and investigate.
