Yan Ziyun couldn't believe her eyes. How come Yuexian, a servant from the Yue clan, would kill his own master and suddenly fall dead? She recalled the details and seemed to understand something. She looked at Xuanyuan with wide eyes. Her heart skipped a beat.
"Xuanyuan had it all thought out to such a level? Does he know how to command a secret mysterious technique? Can this be true? What's happening?"
Xuanyuan guessed her thoughts but said nothing. The fewer the people that knew about the existence of the greedy old bugger, the better. It didn't do any good to know about this. So he just smiled at her and then searched the dead bodies. From the spiritual fighters, he gathered almost 20,000 spiritual coins and put it all into his ring. He also took Yuehong's ring.
"Let's go, Ziyun." When he was done, he walked up to the central part of the village.
Yan Ziyun understood that he would have said something if he wanted to. She kept silent, she only nodded and followed him.
Dead bodies were scattered across the village roads. The way they died was horrifying. They were obviously terrorized before they were murdered.
The closer to the centre, the more dead bodies there were covering the ground. The central square was covered with corpses. You almost couldn't see the ground beneath the corpses.
Xuanyuan was burning with anger, but there was nothing he could do. He already killed Yuehong. He couldn't kill everyone in the Yue family. Because that would make him like Yuehong!
An eye for an eye, but he still couldn't blame the blameless.
Guxing put Shi Congyu's head lightly down onto the ground. Yan Ziyun held Liu Piaoxu's body close before she put her down next to the head.
"Brother Congyu, sister Piaoxu. You can rest in peace. We've done what we can. We have avenged your deaths. It's all my fault. None of this would've happened if I didn't insist on killing Yuejue. I did all of this."
Grief filled his heart. He was responsible for all these deaths.
"Xuanyuan, stop blaming yourself. No one could have known that Yuehong would dare to defy the School of Yuehua. I'll see to this when I'm back at the school." Yan Ziyun wasn't feeling much better than Xuanyuan, but she still tried her best to comfort him.
"All these people died because of me. We could only hope that they now can rest in peace." He then went ahead and dug a deep hole in the ground with the help of Yan Ziyun and Guxing.
The soil on the ground was soaked with blood. The scent of iron filled his nose, which saddened him even more, "From now on, if I'm to take revenge, I'll do it myself. I can't let other people kill for me."
It took them most of the day to gather all the correct body pieces. They then buried them one by one in their individual graves.
They didn’t know the names of these people. The rocks they put on top were merely symbolic.
The night fell when they were finally done.
At last, Xuanyuan put Shi Congyu's head into Liu Piaoxu's arms and buried them together. Yan Ziyun and Xuanyuan stood there numb for a while before he said, "We should leave. We've done all we can. We can't go on blaming ourselves."
Yan Ziyun nodded and jumped onto Guxing with Xuanyuan when a shadow appeared in mid-air. It said, "Wait."
Their adrenaline surged. They turned their heads, only to discover a pale old man, standing where they were moments ago.
"Old master Shilong!" Yan Ziyun recognized him. She sometimes accompanied Shi Congyu and Liu Piaoxu back to the village. She knew a few people within the village.
"Miss Yan..." He coughed blood. His eyes were teary and his voice coarse, "Thank you. You are very kind."
Xuanyuan immediately walked up to steady the old man.
"Are you all right?" He asked.
Shilong glanced at him, "You are called Xuanyuan, right?"
Xuanyuan nodded. The old man smiled bitterly, then his face calmed again. The calmness was a kind of hopeless despair from the grief in his heart.
"I've heard what you said. You're not to blame for this. Yuehong came here because he wanted the stone technique, a secret technique of our village!"
The stone technique? Xuanyuan went into deep thought. He suddenly remembered an occupation he read.
"Gemmologist!"
Yan Ziyun was also shocked. The stone techniques used by gemmologists were unusual techniques. Not even the School of Yuehua had acquired one and one was hidden in this little village!
"There is a legend about our village. Once upon a time, there was a famous gemmologist who came to the Shi village. The village was a stone mine so he enjoyed it here. One day, the mountains collapsed. No one knew why. But the Gemmologist used his technique and saved everyone in the village. We are all in his debt. He left behind his stone technique. Only people with vast potential could study it, so they would be able to save our village when danger befalls us."
"The legend became a story that every villager knows, but no one can determine whether it's true or just a story. Only the master of the village can keep this technique. Every master would choose a person with great potential to study it. Now that the village is gone, the technique doesn't mean anything to me now. But I can't let the technique disappear from the world. So I'll give it to you."
Shilong looked at Xuanyuan. He knew that he had great potential. He could easily study the stone technique.
Shilong then took out an antique book from the cloth hidden in his chest. The book was made of bronze so it would never fade. The cover had four words engraved on it - The Book of Acquisition.
The greedy old bugger roared inside Xuanyuan's mind immediately, "The Book of Acquisition! It's real! Oh my, oh my, this is the essence of the Emperor of Acquisition's Technique about the study of the earth. Ah, I see, the village was located right on top of the ancient mine! The ancient mine is filled with dense Qi from the universe. So all the villagers would be healthy and enjoy long lives. They were all very strong and sturdy.
"The ancient mine was a dangerous place. There were many unusual stones. Villagers made their living from mining the ores and stones here, but they could never get very far into the mine. They thought that there was ancient god dwelling inside so they could never venture too deep. The Emperor of Acquisition found the mine and started to study it, but he must have accidentally destroyed the mine and caused the mountain to collapse. All that Qi was lost. It became a wasteland. The Emperor left behind the Book of Acquisition as compensation...."
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