After fifteen years of cultivation, he finally reached the pinnacle of the first rank!

Chapter 180: Watching the Tomb

After turning his gaze away from the departing figures of the old man in brocade robes and the others, Hu Ruian glanced back at the study that was still burning behind him.

Just now, Murong Xiaoya had already left the damaged study and quickly departed again.

Hu Ruian frowned slightly, feeling that Murong Xiaoya's behavior seemed somewhat strange.

However, he didn't think much of it and immediately followed in the direction the other person had gone.

However, after following for a distance, Hu Ruian stopped amidst a pile of ruins.

In the blink of an eye, he had lost track of Murong Xiaoya. She seemed to have disappeared from the ruins of a collapsed house nearby.

Hu Ruian looked around, but still couldn't find Murong Xiaoya.

This Murong residence was, after all, where Murong Xiaoya grew up, so she must be extremely familiar with this place. If there were any secret passages or hidden rooms that no one knew about, Hu Ruian would naturally not be aware of them.

With this in mind, he leaped onto a roof beam that was not yet completely destroyed, so that he could keep an eye on his surroundings at any time.

However, after waiting for a while, Murong Xiaoya still did not appear. Hu Ruian shook his head and had no choice but to leave temporarily to look for Li Musheng and the others.

……

At the same time, a slender figure appeared in the hidden tunnel beneath the Murong Mansion.

Surrounded by darkness, Murong Xiaoya, her face streaked with tears, silently groped her way forward along the brick walls.

Finally, she arrived at a large, dark room. She took out a tinderbox and lit the wall lamp, the dim light illuminating the surrounding darkness for a moment.

The dark room was empty except for an old man sitting on a futon in the center.

The old man had a head of disheveled white hair, his body was covered in blood, and he was hunched over, motionless, as if he were dead.

Seemingly sensing someone's arrival, he reacted and slowly raised his head, revealing a grotesque, aged face with gouged-out eyes and bloodstains flowing from the corners of his eyes.

"Second uncle..."

Murong Xiaoya looked at the other person with a look of shock on her face.

"How...how did you become like this?"

Upon hearing this, the old man on the futon seemed to recognize Murong Xiaoya, and a sound like withered wood cracking immediately came from his throat:

"Is that Xiaoya? Cough...cough..."

As he spoke, Murong Fu began to cough violently, and black blood splattered from his mouth, landing on his robes.

Seeing this, Murong Xiaoya quickly tried to approach, but was stopped by the other party who reached out and said:

"Don't worry about me... I'm severely injured and poisoned, I won't survive the night..."

Upon hearing this, Murong Xiaoya abruptly stopped in her tracks, staring at the pitiful old man before her.

She bit her lip hard, and after a while, she spoke:

"The Murong family is gone."

"I know... cough cough..."

Coughing violently, Murong Fu struggled to sit up from the prayer mat and slowly said:
"Actually... I had long expected... this day would come..."

"That's why I agreed to give Zhen'er and Feng'er the Sparrow Flame Pill... but unexpectedly it still didn't work..."

Upon hearing this, Murong Xiaoya could only weep sadly, remaining silent and standing there without uttering a word.

Murong Fu sighed, shook his head slightly, and spoke haltingly:

"Xiaoya... after your second uncle died... you'll probably be the only one left in the Murong family..."

"Although... your second uncle hoped you could live peacefully... witnessing the destruction of the Murong family... leaves a lingering sense of resentment..." As he spoke, Murong Fu slowly turned his head, his dark, empty eye sockets seemingly staring directly at Murong Xiaoya, and said:

"Therefore... your second uncle still wants to ask you one question... do you want to avenge your parents and brothers..."

Upon hearing this, Murong Xiaoya trembled all over.

However, she gazed silently at the grim-looking old man before her, without the slightest hesitation. Her eyes, already swollen from crying, now revealed an unwavering determination as she said:
"Second Uncle, I want revenge."

"I am willing to sacrifice everything for this, even my life!"

Upon hearing this, Murong Fu sighed heavily again, and after hesitating for a moment, he weakly asked:
"Did Zhen'er and Feng'er give you the item...?"

Murong Xiaoya took out two objects from her bosom, then looked down at them and said softly:

“My two elder brothers did leave me some belongings. Although I don’t know what they are, they may be what my second uncle was talking about.”

At this moment, Murong Fu slightly raised his hand, and the object in Murong Xiaoya's hand was absorbed into his hand from a distance.

After carefully sensing it for a while, he returned the item to Murong Xiaoya and nodded, saying:
"It is this very thing... It seems that Zhen'er and the others, like me... are all unwilling to accept this..."

As he spoke, Murong Fu suddenly flicked his finger, striking a blue brick in the dark room with his martial arts true energy.

The next moment, a loud clanging sound of hinges turning filled the air, and the dark room where Murong Xiaoya and Murong Fu were located began to slowly sink.

At the same time, Murong Fu continued:

"Xiaoya...you are the last hope of the Murong family...your second uncle will tell you the biggest secret of the Murong family today..."

"Our Murong family has a thousand-year history... but our ancestors rose to prominence from a tomb... the Vermilion Bird Tomb..."

"And our Murong family... secretly calls ourselves 'grave keepers'..."

At this point, Murong Fu seemed to aggravate his injuries, and coughed violently a few more times, saying:

"The Sparrow Flame Pill, which can enhance martial arts cultivation... yet is also extremely poisonous... also came from the Vermilion Bird Tomb..."

Just then, the sinking darkroom finally stopped.

At this moment, the dim yellow light from the indoor wall lamp shines out, but outside is a pitch-black cave.

Murong Fu stopped talking, only called out to Murong Xiaoya, and then slowly walked outside.

Murong Xiaoya took a deep breath, took the wall lamp off the blue brick, and followed Murong Fu's footsteps.

Soon, the two stopped in front of a huge suspended coffin.

The coffin before them appeared to be formed from solidified lava, its reddish-brown spots resembling congealed blood, and its surface covered with countless dense feather-scale reliefs.

Unlike ordinary coffins, it was suspended in mid-air by iron chains, giving off an invisible sense of oppression.

"This is the Vermilion Bird Tomb."

Murong Fu looked up, and although his eyes had been gouged out, he seemed to be able to see the coffin in front of him.

Murong Xiaoya placed the wall lamp on the damp ground, her gaze fixed on the crimson coffin bound by iron chains. She gently closed her eyes, then suddenly opened them again, asking:
"How can I get revenge?"

Upon hearing this, Murong Fu remained silent for a moment before speaking:

"The first step is to open the coffin in front of us."

After he finished speaking, the surrounding天地真气 (heaven and earth energy) centered on Murong Fu suddenly became agitated, and at the same time, the iron chains that were originally wrapped around the crimson coffin began to break one by one.

Only after all the iron chains broke did Murong Fu use his true energy to support the crimson coffin, keeping it suspended in mid-air without it falling.

(End of this chapter)