Tomb raiding: Carrying a coffin during a funeral procession, rewarded with the Dragon Elephant Prajn

Looking at the ancient corpse before him, Xiang Batou said softly, "Judging from the bronze sword in his arms, it should be from the pre-Qin period."

Black Bear stroked his chin and nodded in agreement. He then circled the coffin a few more times. From the relief carving at the rear of the coffin, he could barely make out a few ancient seal characters.

"Consultant Li, come quickly and take a look at what's written here!"

Li Changsheng glanced at it and replied, "The King of Wuling Mountain Moving!"

Ah Ning was both surprised and delighted, and quickly asked, "Is this the legendary King Wuyang who moved mountains and filled seas to control the floods of Wushan?"

Li Changsheng glanced at her sideways and shook his head, saying, "What are you thinking? Even the Black Sheep King's altar was built so magnificently, how could his tomb be so simple?!"

The tomb before us is dilapidated, with the coffin broken and the entrance constantly exposed to wind and rain; it can hardly be considered a feng shui treasure.

Moreover, according to legend, the Black Sheep King had the head of a wild boar, or at least a rough man with a full beard. The ancient corpse in front of us looks more like a lean old man, and has nothing to do with the Black Sheep King.

Xiang, the head of the gang, smiled and said, "Miss Aning, in my opinion, this ancient corpse should be one of the subordinates of the Black Sheep King! Or rather, the hundreds of hanging coffins outside should all be the remains of the Black Sheep King's subordinates who were buried here after their deaths."

Li Changsheng nodded and told the truth about the Black Sheep King!

"During the pre-Qin period, Wushan was severely flooded. King Wuling led his subjects to dredge the valleys and build waterways. Because the project was so large, people often died."

"The King of Wuling buried these people in hanging coffins on the cliff face of Coffin Gorge. The locals, not understanding why, thought the King of Wuling had the ability to command ghost soldiers and worshipped him even more. In addition, if the King of Wuling's trusted subordinates died, they would be buried in this gorge to show their difference from the ordinary people outside."

"Later, when the floods in Wushan were brought under control, the imperial court bestowed upon King Wuling the title of King Wuling Mountain-Moving King! But he did not hold his throne for more than a few days before a rebellion broke out, and he was beheaded by the rebels! Later, the imperial court quelled the rebellion, and King Wuling's subordinates buried his headless body."

"This story has been passed down for more than two thousand years and has gradually evolved into countless versions. King Wuyang has gradually replaced King Wuling and become a well-known legend among the people of Wushan."

Everyone was stunned. Xiang, the leader, couldn't help but ask, "So, King Wuling was actually just an ordinary feudal lord during the pre-Qin period, or even a local warlord who wasn't even a feudal lord?"

"You could say that," Li Changsheng nodded.

Undeterred, Xiang continued to press, "Then the rumors about the Black Sheep King's many sorceries and his ability to transform into a wild boar are also false?"

Before he could finish speaking and before Li Changsheng could answer, Gou Huo, a Taoist priest not far away, loudly retorted.

"You know nothing! King Wuyang is no ordinary person! He was a Taoist master from the pre-Qin period, one of the earliest to master the art of corpse cultivation..."

Halfway through his sentence, Gou Daoshi seemed to remember something and suddenly stopped talking. No matter how Xiang Batou and A Ning asked him, he refused to say another word about the Black Sheep King.

Ah Ning's eyes flickered, and she became increasingly certain that the Taoist priest in front of her must know some clues about the Black Sheep King, but he was unwilling to say so, and she couldn't pry out anything of value.

On the other hand, Xiang was simply curious.

He didn't have any particular ambition to possess the Black Sheep King; finding the Black Sheep King's tomb was fine, and not finding it was also acceptable.

Seeing that the Taoist priest was unwilling to talk, he didn't ask any more questions.

However, while Gou Daoshi remained silent, Li Changsheng smiled slightly and said, "During his time as the King of Wuling, King Wuyang gathered a large number of extraordinary people and masters, who possessed many secret arts and sorcery. To say that they were all ordinary people would not be entirely true."

At this point, Li Changsheng pointed to the hanging coffins outside the cave entrance and explained.

"The title of Guanshan Taibao originated during the Song and Yuan dynasties and was bestowed upon the family during the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty. However, the 'Guan' in the original title actually refers to the character for coffin. Zhu Yuanzhang, however, considered it unlucky and specially changed the name of the family to Guanshan Taibao."

"Coffin Mountain Protector... Coffin Mountain?"

Ah Ning, quick-witted as ever, understood immediately. Her face showed surprise, and she hurriedly asked, "Could it be that Coffin Mountain refers to Coffin Gorge here?"

"That's right!"

Li Changsheng nodded and explained, "The Feng family ancestors first raided the hanging coffin tombs in Coffin Gorge, but their goal was not gold and silver treasures, but the precious secret manuals inside the hanging coffins."

"It just so happens that most of the extraordinary people under the command of King Wuyang were buried in Coffin Gorge, which allowed the Feng family to accumulate many lost secret techniques, enabling them to roam the greenwood."

Upon hearing this, Xiang, the head of the gang, suddenly realized and said, "So that's how the Guanshan Taibao rose to power... My master once said that the four schools of tomb raiding all have a clear lineage, dating back to the Qin, Han, and Three Kingdoms periods. For example, the Mojin and Faqiu were originally official titles established by Cao Cao, the Xieling originated from the Chimei Army, and the mysterious Banshan Daoren were a tribe that migrated from the Western Regions during the pre-Qin period. Only the Guanshan Taibao, though not well-known, suddenly rose to prominence in the early Ming Dynasty, and at one point suppressed the other four schools to the point of near extinction."

The feud between the four factions of tomb raiders and the Guanshan Taibao is a story that could go on for days and nights.

Back then, Feng Wangli, the patriarch of the Feng family, was valued by Zhu Yuanzhang and was appointed as Guanshan Taibao, thus gaining control over the bandits of the land.

Who would have thought that after the Feng family gained power, the first thing they did was to eliminate the four major sects.

The Faqiu Seal, the most precious treasure of the Faqiu Heavenly Official lineage, was destroyed by Guanshan Taibao.

The Unloading Ridge sect was suppressed and disbanded for a time, and the Moving Mountain Taoists, in order to avoid trouble, did not move around in the martial arts world for over a hundred years.

Li Changsheng looked at Xiang Batou with a hint of curiosity and asked, "May I ask which school of martial arts Xiang Batou belongs to?"

After a slight hesitation, Xiang Batou said softly, "He doesn't really have a proper teacher. In his early years, he learned some skills of relocating graves from an old blind man, and he specialized in choosing burial sites for the villagers."

"Later, during the warlord era, my master was forced to join the army and became a common soldier under a warlord. After fighting for several years, he was still penniless. Not wanting to live like that for the rest of his life, he gathered a few fellow villagers and traveled all over the country to raid tombs."

"He was lucky, really. On his first tomb raiding trip, he stumbled upon a huge tomb—a Western Jin Dynasty tomb, with the Great Expansion Burial Classic carved on the murals inside!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the Taoist priest suddenly let out a soft exclamation.

"The Great Expansion Burial Scripture?! The legend is actually true; Guo Pu really did leave behind a scroll of divine retribution."

Confused, Ah Ning quickly asked, "Master Gou, why is it called a scripture of divine retribution? And who is this Guo Pu?"

The Taoist priest shook his head and said leisurely.

"Guo Pu, a man from the Western Jin Dynasty, was well-versed in the Book of Changes from a young age. He studied under great Confucian scholars and famous figures, and by the time he reached adulthood, he was already renowned throughout the land. Guo Pu was extremely accomplished in the divination and numerology of the Book of Changes, and he could observe the earth's energy and identify dragon veins. Later, he devoted himself to writing a book called the Burial Classic, which became a guiding light for all geomancers and alchemists of later generations."