Xie Lian dodged. He thought it was a dead branch or a bird's nest, but when he looked closely, he realized it was a long piece of rusted material that was unrecognizable. It was connected to chains at both ends. If it were someone else, it would be hard to tell what it was, but Xie Lian could tell it was a swing.

In the past, there were many swings on Mount Taicang, which could be used for playing and practicing. When Xie Lian was just old enough to remember things, he went to Huangji Temple with his parents to pray for blessings. He saw a group of little Taoist priests rolling and fighting on the swings. It was very exciting and interesting. The king and queen of the country found it very interesting. Xie Lian applauded and asked his parents to reward the little Taoist priests. From then on, he had an impression that "people who practice Taoism are powerful and fun." As for when he grew up and really entered the temple to practice, it was not for fun.

After a short rest, Xie Lian continued to climb. The higher he went, the denser the bushes and vines became. From time to time, animals flashed through the bushes, leaving only the shadow of a fluffy big tail. There were also squirrels huddled in the trees in groups of three or two, chewing pine cones while spying on the uninvited guest.

The thorns blocked his way, scratching his clothes and limbs, but Xie Lian didn't care at all. It was not until three hours later that he finally arrived at Prince Peak.

Of course, Taizi Peak was not originally called Taizi Peak. It was renamed because the Taizi Palace was built here. In the overgrown weeds, there are still patches of turtleback brocade on the ground, and a large piece of charred stone foundation. That was the foundation of the palace. Going through it, there is a gap in the broken walls and glazed tiles, and an ancient well.

Looking down from above, this ancient well had long been dead. Only a few feet away from the bottom of the well, all he could see was mud. However, Xie Lian raised his foot without hesitation and jumped in.

He did not fall into the mud, but passed through this illusion, fell several feet, and touched the solid ground with his feet.

It was pitch dark all around, and when he looked up, there was no sunlight above, as if it was blocked by a curtain. He fumbled around at the bottom of the well and found a few stone bricks, pressing them one by one in a specific order. He heard a "creaking" sound, and a very low door opened on the side. Xie Lian lay down and slowly crawled in along the passage behind the small door. As soon as he entered, he heard the small door "creaking" and closing behind him. After half an incense stick of time, he finally crawled to the end. Xie Lian stood up, snapped his fingers, and held up a cluster of flames.

After this small flame lit up, as if in response, a faint halo of light lit up not far away, as if a pearl had woken up from its deep sleep and opened its bright eyes.

Soon, more and more pearl halos lit up, connecting into one, and the surroundings became brighter and brighter. It was clear that this was an empty underground palace. On the top of the palace, there were thousands of stars inlaid.

It is hard to imagine that the imperial tomb of the ancient Xianle Kingdom is hidden under the Taicang Mountain, which was burned down by a fire. Those twinkling stars are all night-shining pearls and diamonds inlaid on the ceiling. The night-shining pearls shine when exposed to light, and the diamonds reflect the light, which complements each other like a dream. It is like a shrunk Milky Way hidden underground.

Each of these pearls and diamonds was extremely valuable. If one could pry one off, he would enjoy a lifetime of wealth and glory. However, Xie Lian did not even glance at them, but walked straight through the underground palace and came to the last tomb chamber.

Compared with the main hall, this tomb was extremely simple, because it had not been completed yet, so there was no gorgeous furnishings in the tomb, only two coffins. In the middle of the coffins, stood a man, dressed in gorgeous clothes, wearing a golden mask, with a sword outstretched, the sword light was shining, pointing at him.

However, the man just maintained this posture and did not move further. Xie Lian also walked in without paying any attention to him. It was because Xie Lian knew in his heart that there was no face behind the golden mask, and there was no person under the gorgeous clothes. There was only an empty frame made of wood and straw ropes that looked lifelike.

For many years, only this gorgeous dress and a mask replaced him, accompanying the two lonely coffins. On each of the two coffins was a small golden plate, but the things in the golden plate were somewhat out of place: fruits that had shrunk to the point of being shrunken with only a core left, and lumps that were so moldy and black that you couldn't tell what they were. After Xie Lian came in, he collected the things on the plate, threw them into the corner of the tomb, and felt around in his arms. He originally had half a steamed bun on him, but he gave that bun to Hua Cheng, so he had nothing left. So he said, "Father, Mother, I'm sorry, I forgot to bring anything to see you."

Naturally, no one would answer him. Xie Lian then sat down in front of a coffin, leaning against it.

After being in a daze for a while, he said, "Mother, I saw Qi Rong."

"Qi Rong is not dead, he has turned into a ghost. I really don't know how he survived these hundreds of years."

Xie Lian shook his head and said, “He… killed a lot of people. Now someone wants to kill him too. I guess even the Heavenly Court won’t let him off. Sigh, I really don’t know what to do with this guy.”

He was about to say something else when suddenly, a faint crying sound came from very close.

Xie Lian froze, his expression changing drastically in an instant.

Listening carefully, it was not an illusion. It was really crying. The cry was very low and very soft. If you didn't hold your breath and concentrate, you couldn't hear it at all. Moreover, the voice was very thin. It was either a child or a woman.

The crying sound was really too close to him, as if there was only a thin wall between them, and it was almost coming from right next to him. Xie Lian turned his head sharply, and finally confirmed that the sound was coming from the coffin he was leaning against!

In extreme shock, the first thing Xie Lian blurted out was a joyful “Mom, is that you?!”

However, he came to his senses soon after. What he expected could not happen. His mother had passed away suddenly eight hundred years ago, escaped from the sea of ​​suffering, and never turned into a wronged spirit. Moreover, the emotion in this cry was not sadness, but fear.

Who is crying in his mother's coffin at this moment?

Xie Lian couldn't wait any longer, so he lifted the coffin lid with his left hand and was about to cut off Fang Xin with his right hand. But when he saw clearly what was in the coffin, his sword stopped abruptly.

There was no other person lying in the coffin, only a human figure dressed in black and with a veil on his face.

This figure could only be his mother, but the person lying there could not be her. This was because the figure was too short, the shape and height were totally wrong, and most importantly, the person was still trembling, he was totally alive!

Xie Lian lifted the veil. As expected, underneath the veil was a child's face!

In an instant, his heart sank. He grabbed the child and said in horror, "Where is my mother? Where is my mother? Where did you take my mother's body?!"

At first glance, this black dress doesn't look anything special, but it is made of a very rare silk cocoon. The silk is a tribute from a small foreign country, and the finished garment has to go through several precise processes, and then it is paired with a herbal sachet and sealed in a coffin, which can keep the body from decaying for a thousand years, and the remains look like a living person. However, the person wearing this exotic silk dress is this child, so where is his mother's body? What has become of it?

Xie Lian didn’t dare to think about it, and could only grab this child who appeared out of nowhere and ask him harshly, “Where is my mother? Who are you? Why are you here? Where did you take my mother?!”

But how could a frightened child answer these questions? He was so frightened that he couldn't even speak. Xie Lian dragged him out of the coffin, and suddenly found that some gray powder was falling from the strange cocoon silk clothes.

With a pale face, he looked inside the coffin and found that the bottom of the coffin was also covered with a layer of powder. Instantly, the earth spun and the sky spun, and Xie Lian felt that his heartbeat was about to stop. He loosened his grip, let go of the child, and knelt beside the coffin in a panic.

He didn't dare to touch the powder with his hands, nor did he dare to let it scatter like the ashes of burnt incense. Although he didn't want to admit it at all, he knew in his heart what these were.

What will happen to a corpse that has been sealed for eight hundred years and is forcibly stripped from its silken clothes?

For a moment, Xie Lian was in a state of confusion. He could not think of anything else. He held his head and his ears were buzzing. Unexpectedly, at this moment, he suddenly felt a chill on his back. He instinctively sensed the danger, turned around, and with a lightning-fast move, he grasped a sword with his bare hands. He saw a man behind him thrusting a sword. And the man who thrust the sword at him was the wooden frame that had been standing still since he came in!

It turned out that someone had lurked in before him, put on this gorgeous dress, put on a mask, disguised as a lifeless wooden frame, and waited for him to come. With a "clang" sound, Xie Lian broke the sword blade into two pieces with his bare hands. His hands were covered in blood but he did not change his expression. He kicked out with a thunderbolt and kicked the man in the abdomen, stepping him firmly on the ground. The man's chest was firmly stepped on by Xie Lian. He hugged his boots with his backhand and tried to struggle, but he could not move, as if he was nailed to the ground. Xie Lian bent down and slapped the golden mask on his face away, revealing the face of a young man. Xie Lian shouted: "Who are you?! A tomb robber?! How did you get in?!"

At this time, the child shouted: "Daddy!"

After he called out, Xie Lian finally remembered. The two, one big and one small, looked familiar. Could they be the father and son who were nearly cooked and eaten by Qi Rong in the Green Ghost's lair? !

Xie Lian understood what was going on instantly, and immediately punched the young man in the jaw with a thunderous punch, shouting angrily: “Qi Rong, get out! I’m going to kill you!!!”

The man laughed as he spat out blood, "Brother Crown Prince, I'm so happy. We meet again! Hahahahahaha!"

Although this was another face, this crazy and confused smile, who else could it be but Qi Rong? He actually turned into a virtual body and attached himself to this young father!

Needless to say, Qi Rong must have been thrown into the pot by Lang Qianqiu and boiled to pieces. In order to avoid being hunted down, he took advantage of the chaos to escape into the fleeing crowd, attached himself to this young man, and came to the Xianle Imperial Mausoleum. Otherwise, how could an ordinary person know the location of the secret mausoleum of the Xianle Imperial Family? And how could he rush here in such a short time?

He brought the child with him, perhaps to prepare food, or perhaps to hide the child in the coffin like he did just now, to divert Xie Lian's attention so that he could attack him from behind. Xie Lian punched him, and Qi Rong felt wronged, covering his face and shouting, "Cousin, why are you so angry? I won't kill you if I stab you, hehehehe!"

Xie Lian threw two more punches, his eyes red as he said, “How did my mother treat you?! You treated her like this?! You treated her corpse like this?!”

Qi Rong snorted, "My aunt died a long time ago. She is gone. Does it matter whether the body is human or powder? It's just a corpse that has changed its appearance. It's still there. Why are you crying like this? You were so cruel to Anle back then. My good cousin actually has two faces, hehe!" After saying that, his face suddenly changed, and he said, "Why did I treat her like this? Isn't it your fault? Don't you know how to reflect on yourself? This is all your fault! You plague god, you have the nerve to come to the Xianle Imperial Mausoleum to mourn!"

Xie Lian exerted force on his feet, and Qi Rong screamed, blood gushing out of his mouth, but he seemed to be getting more excited. He hugged his bloody white boots tightly with both hands and shouted, "Yes, yes! That's it, that's how you are! Fight, fight, kill, fight hard! Kill hard! Don't act like a saint who endures humiliation and has no way to express his suffering. It makes people sick, ugh!"

The child crawled over and cried loudly, "Wow! Dad, what happened to you!" He didn't understand what was going on, he just knew that his father was being beaten. In his opinion, Xie Lian at this moment was simply a ferocious devil, but he was afraid that his only father would die, so he didn't back down, and tried hard to move the devil's boots that were stepping on his father's chest. The young man kept vomiting blood, and the child was scared half to death. He covered his father's mouth with his hands, as if he thought that this would stop the bleeding. Seeing this, Xie Lian calmed down a little, thinking that the owner of this body was innocent, he retracted a little strength, pointed his sword downward, and pressed the tip of the sword against Qi Rong's cheek, and said grimly: "Qi Rong, you, get out here by yourself! If you don't come out, I will pull your tongue and pull your soul out!"

Theoretically, pulling out a person's tongue by the roots can indeed pull out the ghost attached to him. Qi Rong said: "I won't leave. I just won't leave, so what? Come on, come on, kill me? I am very weak now. If you kill this person and me, I will probably die with him. Don't miss this good opportunity, otherwise you will never find my ashes in your life!"

He even took the initiative to stick out his tongue and spit it out, as if he was eager for Xie Lian to put his threat into practice and use this bloody method to drag his soul out of this body. He muttered, "Anyway, the person I'm possessing is just a scumbag, you can do it, no one will know, no one will care, and the holy glory of your highness the crown prince will not be damaged in the slightest. Look! I crushed your mother into ashes, and you won't kill me? Hahahahahaha..."

The child couldn't move Xie Lian's boots, so he hugged his legs and cried loudly, "Don't kill my dad! Don't kill my dad!" Xie Lian was breathing faster and faster, feeling dizzy and trembling all over. He wanted to smash Qi Rong's head with a palm, but he couldn't do it. Qi Rong spread his hands and said, "Hahaha, Prince cousin, what a failure, what a failure!"

Xie Lian lifted him up, raised his fist, and punched him hard in the face, cursing after each punch: “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!”

However, the more furious he was, the happier Qi Rong was. Even if the price was that he would be beaten up, he could drag the other person down with him. Qi Rong felt infinitely happy, his eyes gleaming with brilliance, and said, "Look! Your true face is revealed! Cousin Prince, is there anyone in the world who understands you better than me? No. Although you look like a stray dog ​​that anyone can step on, I know very well that you are still so proud in your heart. You never allow others to say that you failed! When I say you failed, you must hate me to death in your heart, right? Doesn't it hurt your heart to bleed? Come on! Or do you want to tell me loudly that this person is innocent, so you will not implicate him in order to kill me? Come! Let me see what you do!"

Amid this burst of crazy laughter that seemed both provocative and complacent, Xie Lian could no longer endure it.

With a "clang" sound, the heart came out of the sheath.

The dark blade swung down!