Chapter 329 273: Discovery

The two of them quickly headed for the mountaintop.

When they arrived, they saw the collapsed tomb passage, and the expressions of both men changed.

"Something really happened!"

"Someone must have been here!"

"Ah Gu might have met an unfortunate end!" a man in black said in a low voice.

"Ah Qing, I'll go down first. You stay here," the other man in black said grimly.

"Alright, Brother Long. You be careful."

Ah Qing nodded.

The man in black named Brother Long immediately jumped down into the tomb passage.

Meanwhile, Ah Qing watched their surroundings vigilantly.

A short while later, Brother Long emerged from the tomb passage.

"The guards in the sacrificial burial chamber have all been burned to a crisp... The coffin in the main chamber is still there."

"I don't know who was so bold!" Brother Long said coldly.

Even though they had already moved the corpses out of the tomb, this burial site still held extraordinary significance for them.

Now that it had been damaged to this extent, they certainly couldn't just let it go.

"Did you find any trace of Ah Gu?" Ah Qing asked.

"No... there's no one alive down there."

Brother Long shook his head.

His meaning was clear.

Ah Gu had likely met a foul end.

"Not even bones were left behind?"

"Damn it! I'll find the culprit and avenge Ah Gu!"

Hatred surged in Ah Qing's eyes.

"Let's report back first before we do anything else."

Brother Long was relatively calmer.

Hearing this, Ah Qing regained some of his composure and nodded.

The two of them quickly headed for the foot of the mountain.

What they didn't know was that a chubby orange cat was silently following them.

"Han Yuan... are you sure Fat Thief won't lose them?" Ding Zihu, hiding in a patch of grass with Han Yuan, couldn't help but ask.

"Don't worry. That little guy is incredibly cunning. Have you ever seen him get the short end of the stick?" Han Yuan said softly.

"That's true."

"Besides, it's no big deal even if Fat Thief gets spotted. Who would ever suspect a cat of tailing them?" Ding Zihu said with a laugh.

That was Fat Thief's greatest advantage: he seemed completely non-threatening.

"Let's follow them, too," Han Yuan said quietly.

He and Ding Zihu also headed down the mountain.

Along the way, the Orange Cat deliberately left a trail of clues for them to follow.

"Those two are moving fast. It seems they're quite familiar with this area," Ding Zihu said in surprise.

"Mmm, it's about what we predicted," Han Yuan nodded.

They sped along, taking almost no breaks, crossing mountains and ridges at an incredible pace, sometimes even cutting through remote mountain paths.

「Two days and one night later.」

Han Yuan and Ding Zihu were shocked to find they had actually run out of the Ten Thousand Mountains.

"This..."

Seeing the dirt road before him, Ding Zihu was at a loss.

According to his earlier deduction, the two men in black should have belonged to one of the major tribes within the Ten Thousand Mountains.

But he never expected they would actually leave the Ten Thousand Mountains.

"Let's keep following and see."

A flicker of curiosity flashed in Han Yuan's eyes.

He wanted to know where these two men in black would end up.

They continued forward, following the trail left by the Orange Cat.

Not long after, Han Yuan and Ding Zihu found themselves back in Ping'an Town.

"How did we end up back here?"

"Could it be their organization is hidden in Ping'an Town?" Ding Zihu exclaimed in surprise.

Even Han Yuan hadn't expected to return here.

The moment they entered the town, they heard a meow.

Ding Zihu looked up and saw a plump orange cat lying on a rooftop, meowing lazily at them.

He and Han Yuan immediately slipped into a dark, deserted alley.

Just then, the Orange Cat dropped down from above, landing on Han Yuan's shoulder.

"Where did those two run off to?" Han Yuan asked quietly.

"They went to a very large temple... I had a bad feeling about that place, so I didn't follow them in. That's why I waited for you at the town entrance," the Orange Cat said casually, licking its paws.

"A temple... There should only be one temple in Ping'an Town, right?" Ding Zihu said, stunned.

"That's right... only the Mountain King Temple."

Han Yuan nodded.

They had wandered around Ping'an Town for three days, so they were naturally familiar with the layout.

"How could the Mountain King Temple be connected to that tomb?" Ding Zihu frowned.

"Who is worshipped at the Mountain King Temple?" Han Yuan asked faintly.

"That's a stupid question... the Mountain King, of course."

"Wait... Could it be that the owner of that tomb... is the Mountain King?!"

Ding Zihu's eyes widened at the thought.

"I don't know... I just think it's a possibility."

"After all, you said it yourself. The owner of the tomb must have been a very distinguished person, with several thousand young warriors sacrificed to be buried with him."

"If it really was the Mountain King, then everything would make perfect sense," Han Yuan reasoned.

"Now that you put it that way... it really does seem to be the case."

"How did this get more and more bizarre?" Ding Zihu muttered.

"Let's go. We'll check out the Mountain King Temple first," Han Yuan said calmly.

"Alright." Ding Zihu nodded.

Just like that, the two of them, with the Orange Cat in tow, headed for the Mountain King Temple.

But when they arrived at the Mountain King Temple, they found that outsiders were no longer allowed to enter.

Standing outside, they could see that bamboo scaffolding had been erected around many of the buildings inside.

There was also a notice posted at the entrance.

Han Yuan walked up to take a look.

The notice basically stated that the Mountain King Temple had fallen into disrepair over the years and many of its internal structures required renovation, temporarily restricting outsiders from entering.

"What a coincidence..."

Ding Zihu laughed.