Chapter 2553 - 2553: Imperial Mausoleum

Watching Yelu Changfeng walk off into the distance, Yelu Ying's expression clearly turned a bit dim. Even so, she still wiped the tear marks at the corners of her eyes, turned to look at the stone gate, and said in a deep voice, "Ye, let's enter the tomb!"

Ye Qing also felt a bit emotional in his heart. He walked to the side of the stone gate, watching as Yelu Ying squeezed fresh blood into the small stone pit on the other side.

As that stream of blood entered, something strange happened: the stone gate actually let out a series of creaking sounds. Immediately after, the stone gate slowly slid back, revealing a spacious cave—precisely the entrance to the Ancestral Tomb.

Only after the stone gate retreated did Ye Qing see how thick it really was. This stone gate was more than ten feet thick, absolutely impossible to open by human strength. Unless one used modern explosive methods—but in this desert, that was clearly unrealistic. Besides, ordinary people wouldn't use blasting to open a tomb; no one knew what mechanisms might be triggered. If the shock shattered the things inside the tomb, wouldn't that be a complete loss?

Ye Qing and the others passed through the stone gate and entered a spacious cave. Only after walking into this cave did it finally feel a bit like an Ancestral Tomb. The cave was completely in the style of an ancient Imperial Mausoleum, with extremely luxurious fittings inside. All the walls around them were carved with dragons. The cave was very broad; down the middle ran a wide stone road made of stone tablets, extending forward into the depths of the cave.

On both sides many stone platforms had been built, and on the platforms were arranged nothing but soldier statues. Every soldier wore armor and held a weapon, looking awe-inspiring and imposing. Every ten meters stood an upright lamp post. The lamp posts looked rather archaic, and each post held a lamp. The lamps had long since run dry of oil and couldn't be lit at all. Even so, these lamp posts alone were enough to shock people.

These lamp posts were all carved from stone, and each one would have consumed quite a bit of labor. Even in an era when modern machinery is widespread, these lamp posts wouldn't be easy to construct, much less in ancient times a thousand years ago. Just these lamp posts alone must have cost immense manpower and resources. Truly an Emperor's Tomb—the level of extravagance far surpassed those ancient tombs Ye Qing had seen before.

The stone tablets paving the road were also extremely particular; every tablet was of fixed size. To pave a road with these stone tablets was not an easy task. Yet here they covered the whole ground, showing just how lavish the Imperial Family was back then.

To save as much time as possible, Ye Qing and Yelu Ying didn't dare delay. They followed the stone road straight ahead, heading directly toward the Ancestral Tomb.

On the other side, Yelu Changfeng rushed to the Dragon-Breaking Stone, and before long that Dragon-Breaking Stone slowly slid back, revealing an entrance.

At this moment, outside the entrance, several Peak Masters from the Church and Koga-ryu were still fighting. Suddenly seeing the Dragon-Breaking Stone retreat, both sides were stunned, clearly not knowing what was going on.

However, that Elder of the Koga Style reacted fastest. Back when they came here years ago, it was precisely this Dragon-Breaking Stone that cut them off. Now that the Dragon-Breaking Stone had opened, his first thought was to charge inside.

But just as that Elder rushed past the Dragon-Breaking Stone, a blast of force suddenly swept in from the side. The Elder was startled and hurriedly backed away, but he was still a step too late; someone slammed a palm into his left ribs, the pain making him let out a muffled grunt.

At the same time, three Koga-ryu masters also charged over together, blocking the attacking Yelu Changfeng. The Elder retreated several steps, glaring at Yelu Changfeng through clenched teeth. "Yelu Changfeng, it's actually you!"

Yelu Changfeng didn't answer, throwing himself fully into fending off those three Koga-ryu masters. The Elder took a few deep breaths, finally suppressing his surging qi and blood. His expression grew even colder as he ground out, "Yelu Changfeng, how… how did you come out from inside? Is there another route into your Ancestral Tomb?"

"You only realize that now?" Yelu Changfeng gave a cold laugh. "Did you really think I would tell you everything?"

The Elder was even more enraged, clenching his teeth and roaring, "Yelu Changfeng, I'll kill you!"

With a furious shout, the Elder also rushed over, joining the previous three Peak Masters to besiege Yelu Changfeng together.

Facing four Peak Masters, Yelu Changfeng was certainly no match. However, Yelu Changfeng had no intention of clashing head-on with them. All he needed to do was buy time, to block these people for a while. So he didn't engage them directly, instead moving around constantly. For the moment, the Koga-ryu group could do nothing with him and couldn't even touch a hair on his body.

The Church members nearby all furrowed their brows as well. Though they didn't understand the situation inside the Ancestral Tomb, they could see that Yelu Changfeng was deliberately stalling. That meant something must definitely be happening within the Ancestral Tomb. So those Church Peak Masters, who had planned to sit back and reap the fisherman's profit, also rushed forward together to join the battle, besieging Yelu Changfeng alongside the Koga-ryu group.

With a few more experts, Yelu Changfeng's pressure grew heavier. Though his strength was considerable and he still avoided direct clashes with them, after all, nine Peak Masters were besieging a single man—how long could he hold out? In less than five minutes, a Church fighter landed a heavy palm on Yelu Changfeng's shoulder. His shoulder instantly sank down; the bones had been smashed to pieces.

Taking that hit, Yelu Changfeng's combat strength dropped fast, and his speed slowed a lot. A few masters swarmed him, and in less than half a minute, several more palms landed on Yelu Changfeng. He kept vomiting blood and finally collapsed to the ground.

The Koga-ryu Elder was the angriest. He charged up to Yelu Changfeng, chopped his hand down in a palm strike aimed at Yelu Changfeng's forehead. But before that palm could land, a few masters from the Church had already rushed over; one blocked the Elder, while the others struck out together and dragged Yelu Changfeng away.

"You guys…" The Elder was stunned. He hadn't expected the Church's people to actually rescue Yelu Changfeng; this was completely beyond anything he'd imagined.

After the Church's men dragged Yelu Changfeng away, they didn't linger. They headed straight toward the Ancestral Tomb. The Elder snapped out of it, immediately pointed at the Church's people up ahead, and roared, "Hurry up and chase them, don't let them get away!"

The few Koga-ryu masters chased after at the same time, both sides sprinting through the canyon at full speed, racing toward the Ancestral Tomb.

Yelu Changfeng was slung over one of the Church men's shoulders, and he no longer had even the slightest strength to resist. Seeing the Ancestral Tomb getting closer and closer, Yelu Changfeng let out a sigh and slowly closed his eyes. He had done all he could; now he was completely powerless. What happened next would be up to fate!

The Church's few men were incredibly fast; in no time they rushed into the Ancestral Tomb. The Koga-ryu men followed right on their heels. Seeing that the stone gate at the tomb entrance was gone, the Koga-ryu group no longer cared about stopping the Church people, and instead sped up, charging toward the depths of the Ancestral Tomb. They could already tell that Yelu Changfeng going out just now had been purely to buy time; there was probably already someone inside opening the tomb.

The entrance tunnel of the Ancestral Tomb was quite long. The crowd ran more than two hundred meters along it, when they suddenly heard a screeching, grinding sound coming from ahead.

"Damn!" The Koga-ryu Elder bellowed and sped up, rushing forward, only to see a massive stone gate slowly descending. And behind the stone gate, Ye Qing and Yelu Ying were standing there, their faces cold and stern as they stared at them.

The stone gate was dropping at a slow pace, but at this distance, the few of them had no way to make it through in time. They could only watch helplessly as the stone gate came down, blocking Ye Qing and Yelu Ying on the far side.

The Koga-ryu men and the Church's people froze on this side. They had sprinted over with everything they had, only to still be a step too late, failing to get into the tomb.

Yelu Changfeng, however, was overwhelmed with emotion. Watching that Ancestral Tomb stone gate drop, he strained to lift his head, crying tears of joy. "Our ancestors have eyes, our ancestors have eyes. The Ancestral Tomb has finally opened, the Ancestral Tomb has finally opened. The things inside can finally be taken out! I never thought that in my lifetime I'd actually see the Ancestral Tomb opened. I can die without regret now!"

The Yelu Family Ancestral Tomb had existed for a thousand years. In that thousand years, many of the Yelu Family had tried to open it, but they'd never succeeded. Every generation of the Yelu Family had people who came to attempt it, but the result was always the same, leaving the Yelu clan on the verge of despair. Who would have thought that in this final generation, the Ancestral Tomb would actually be opened.

With the Ancestral Tomb opened, at least it meant the Tomb Guardian clan hadn't spent a thousand years guarding it for nothing. If the Ancestral Tomb had never opened at all, then their thousand-year vigil here would have been utterly meaningless, wouldn't it?

The Koga-ryu men and the Church's people looked at each other, at a loss. They too had been busy here for several years, always trying to open the Ancestral Tomb, but they'd never gotten the chance. Who could have guessed that in the end the tomb would be opened—but after all these years of effort, they still hadn't managed to get inside. That kind of gap was almost impossible for them to accept.

"Elder, what do we do now?" one Koga-ryu man quietly asked the Elder. Of course, they spoke in Japanese, so the Church's people here couldn't understand a word.

The Koga-ryu Elder stayed silent for quite a while, then suddenly narrowed his eyes and said in a low voice, "We wait here for them to come out. I don't believe they can run anywhere once they do!"

The Koga-ryu man hesitated a moment, then murmured, "But the Church's people are here too, and it doesn't look like they intend to leave. We don't have as many men as they do. Even if those two come out later, we might not be able to get our hands on what's inside the Ancestral Tomb!"

"It's fine…" The Koga-ryu Elder gave a cold smile. "Our Koga-ryu masters are still on their way over. This time, the things in the Yelu Family Ancestral Tomb are ours for sure!"

The three Koga-ryu men were all overjoyed. With reinforcements coming, this whole business would be much easier.

The Koga-ryu Elder took a deep breath and said in a low voice, "Right, when the Ancestral Tomb opens later, you move instantly and snatch Yelu Changfeng for me. Once we've got Yelu Changfeng, we'll be able to force that little girl to do what we want!"