Nightmare Light

Chapter 266 Deer Mountain's Butler

The tomb is underground, inside the sacrificial site.

Before a table made of ice, a gaunt old chef-looking man with a dragon-headed cane taps on the table.

"Since I intend to live as a mortal from now on, I should also have a mortal name... I'll call myself Wu Long, which is a homonym for 'I was born a dragon'."

After hearing the name, Lin Wang turned to look at Qunshan Jun and thought to himself that Qunshan Jun's naming skills were much better than his.

After venting his frustrations, Lin Wang stood up and said, "So, the matter of the imperial mausoleum should be considered settled... Oh, right, there's one more thing."

He looked at Lord Longshou: "There should still be things in this tomb that need to be recovered."

Wu Long glanced at him and said, "You really did get a tree fern."

The old man is still testing me...

Lin Wang silently complained to himself.

Wu Long stood up and pointed with his cane into the depths of the tomb: "Follow me."

Lin Wang looked around at everyone and asked, "Who wants to come with me?"

Everyone took a step forward in unison. Now that they were here, how could they not watch the excitement unfold?
Then Qian Lan grabbed Little Huangquan Gong by the scruff of his neck and threw him back under the tree fern: "It's time for the child to do his homework."

The little skeleton's unwilling curses echoed in the air.

The rest of the people followed behind the Dragon Head and headed deeper into the tomb.

In the narrow tomb passage, the torches had long since gone out, leaving no light.

Wu Long slammed his cane on the ground a few times, and soon, many rustling sounds came from the cracks in the surrounding walls.

After a while, many tiny glowing dots floated in the air around us. Upon closer inspection, we discovered that they were actually small beetles!

The little beetle spread its wings and hovered in the air, its exposed tail and abdomen shimmering with light.

"These are the incense ash that emanated from my body earlier, and of course, they are all the power emanating from my body." Lord Dragon Head walked forward with his cane, saying these words to everyone. "So after the Lord of the Tree Ferns purified me, these little insects are no longer ugly and terrifying, but have turned back into ordinary incense ash insects... You are not allowed to eat them."

Huang Liangye was taken aback, reluctantly let go of the little beetle in his hand, and then bared his teeth at Longshouye.

The little beetle flapped its wings and flew to the very top of the tomb's ceiling, refusing to come down. As its wings flapped, the beetle's faint light flickered on the roof, like starlight at night.

In this scene reminiscent of stars in the night sky, the group passed through the tomb passage and entered a large, open space, very similar in style to the sacrificial site outside.

Unlike other tombs, this one features iron chains bearing runes extending from the walls, roof, and floor on all sides, converging in the center of the ground to form a cage.

Judging from the shape and size of the iron chain cage, it's not hard to guess who was once imprisoned there.

Everyone glanced at Lord Longshou.

Wu Long remained calm and walked towards the iron chains, saying, "Follow me."

He walked up to the chains, which were huge and heavy, but the thin old man lifted them as if they were nothing.

Then, everyone saw that a person was being held down by the chains.

The man had been chained for so long that he was already out of breath, but his clothes, gray hair, and the conspicuous bright yellow ribbon on his left sleeve still allowed someone at the scene to recognize him.

Dog Brother's eyes widened in disbelief, and he took a step forward.

He looked the man over carefully, then, after confirming again, tried to speak: "...Uncle Liu?" Hearing Dog Brother's voice, the man struggled to his feet, his tone uncertain: "...Young Master Shu Ming?"

Dog Brother was shocked: "Uncle Liu, what are you doing here?" He then turned to Lin Wang and Bai Xiaoxiao and said, "This is Uncle Liu, the butler of Lushan!"

After Dog Brother finished speaking, he subconsciously reached out to help the butler, but Lin Wang stopped him.

Lin Wang narrowed his eyes: "Why is Lu Shan's butler here?"

Lord Longshou shook his cane: "This person is the culprit who broke the seal."

Dog Brother's eyes widened instantly: "Uncle Liu? You?" His body trembled. "Why would you do such a thing?"

“Young Master Shuming…heh.” The old man laughed, struggled a few times, and finally got up.

He straightened up shakily and bowed to Brother Gou: "Young Master Shuming, you haven't been home for a long time."

"Uncle Liu, forget about all that. Just tell me, why did you do this?" Dog Brother asked excitedly.

"Heh, young master..." Butler Liu chuckled after bowing, "It wasn't just what happened in this tomb, but also the fact that your entire mercenary group fell ill, including the entire Steelbone Army being infected... that was all my doing, hehehehe..."

Despite his frail health, he still smiled and tried his best to maintain impeccable manners, just like a true steward of a wealthy household.

"If it weren't for your dear sister... Miss Shu Xun, who has ruined my plans time and time again, how would you have the chance to stand in front of me now?"

"Why?"

The old steward dusted himself off: "Because I want to restore imperial power to Lushan."

Lin Wang didn't react for a moment: "No, the people of Lushan haven't made a fuss, why are you, as their butler, so worried about them?"

"What do you know!" the old butler suddenly roared in fury at Lin Wang, "What do you know?!"

He looked at Dog Brother with a twisted and complicated expression: "I'm a butler, I'm the butler of Deer Mountain! I should have been the butler of the emperors!"

"I should be the emperor's steward, not some washed-up, once-powerful family!"

At this point, the culprit was exposed, and the truth came to light.

Uncle Liu's expression twisted a few times before finally returning to normal.

Dog Brother looked both sad and confused: "Then why did they attack our mercenary group?"

“Because… Young Master Shuming, your Wild Wolf Gang is weak and has no presence, making it perfect as a test subject.” Uncle Liu smiled coldly, but his demeanor remained impeccably elegant. “And you are at odds with the First Madam and do not agree with the people in the family. Your idea of ​​wanting to regain imperial power should be eliminated.”

"So... I made everyone in your group sick from the contamination, but I didn't expect that you yourself are of royal blood and have resistance to contamination."

"So I had someone send you another commission, asking you to enter a dream world, and specifically choosing some dangerous locations for you to investigate... I figured with so many locations, you'd eventually get caught in one of them, right?"

At this point, Uncle Liu paused for a few seconds, then glared at Brother Gou and shouted, "Who does surveys? They all just complete the minimum living allowance surveys!"

Lin Wang and Dog Brother exchanged a glance.

Actually, Dog Bro got infected... Luckily, I happened to be there too...

Uncle Liu said, "But it doesn't matter anymore, you can't make any waves by yourself. So, I started to carry out the plan—I'm very familiar with the imperial tomb, so I bypassed the Steelbone Army's defenses, entered the tomb, and broke the seal... You all know what happened after that."

After saying that, he spread his hands, his face showing a nonchalant calm: "Now, you can arrest me."

(End of this chapter)