Chapter 94: The Ancient Tomb

The vendor was a man in his thirties, with a cold expression and a reticent nature; he seemed indifferent even when others asked prices. As for his strength…
Kai Xin took in the man, who stood firm as an iron tower, and after pondering for a long time, reached an uncertain conclusion. It was hard to judge someone’s strength without testing them, but his intuition told him this man was no ordinary person—even though the items on his stall appeared to be mere gold, silver, and jade wares with little practical use.
Kai Xin glanced again at the items on the man’s stall…
They were indeed quite ordinary! Just common utensils, worth perhaps a few thousand taels of silver or even tens of thousands. He couldn’t understand why the people around him were so interested in them—such items could be easily obtained after exploring an ancient tomb.
As he prepared to leave, Kai Xin suddenly felt a stir and was drawn back by his gaze. The items on the stall remained unchanged, but his expression became strangely peculiar.
After glancing at the man, Kai Xin’s face regained its calmness. He swung himself off his horse, walked over to the stall, and took hold of the reins.
“Brother, may I ask you a question?”
“Go ahead.”
Perhaps because he was on horseback, the man like an iron tower paid close attention to Kai Xin. Seeing that Kai Xin had dismounted on his own initiative to ask a question, the man’s expression softened slightly as he replied with just one word.
Quite cold.
“Huh. I’m curious—where did you get all these things?” Kai Xin asked, pointing at the items in front of the man.
The players around them all looked astonished.
“You’re from out of town, right?”
Someone in the crowd answered Kai Xin’s question for the man:
“It’s not a secret even here in Yangzhou. Not long ago, someone discovered a hidden ancient tomb outside the city… It was full of clay puppets and stone giants—very dangerous. Most who entered died… These items were found in that tomb. It’s not far from here; it takes about twenty to thirty minutes by horse.”
The man like an iron tower remained expressionless but nodded in agreement after the reply.
Kai Xin pondered for a moment.
“Clay puppets… stone giants?”
Actually, he had realized he was wrong even before dismounting. Those gold, silver, and jade wares were indeed ordinary—but that was three years later, when martial artists were mostly at the Mystical Realm or above, while experts at the Life and Death Realm were rare. It was easy to deal with NPCs at the Mid-Creatural Realm, so such items had become quite common.

But now…
In the Age of Creation, the clay puppets and stone giants guarding the ancient tomb still possess terrifying combat strength and are extremely difficult to deal with. No wonder so many people are watching.
“Do you want to go to the ancient tomb?”
The man in the iron tower suddenly spoke, his gaze fixed intently on Happy.
After several seconds of silence, Happy slowly nodded.
“I do want to take a look.”
Hearing Happy’s reply, the man’s eyes burned even brighter.
“Have you reached the Age of Creation?”
“No!”
“…”
An unmistakable look of disappointment appeared on the man’s face as he said, “Then I advise you not to go. The clay puppets and stone giants guarding the tomb are extremely powerful—fast in movement, devastating in attack, and with extraordinary physical defenses. Even if several experts at the Age of Creation team up, they need to be extremely careful and take turns attacking, spending over half an hour just to eliminate them.”
“Oh.”
The players around were all surprised.
Although they knew of the existence of the ancient tomb, they were not aware of the details described by the man in the iron tower.
“Thank you for the warning. I just wanted to take a look.”
Happy smiled, but in his mind, he was calculating that there was still over half a month left before the end of the first phase of the bandit threat. During this time, he wanted to train hard in Yangzhou to raise his internal energy level to the Age of Creation, so he could learn his first superior martial art, “Flower Hero’s Song.”
The Age of Creation…
Only by reaching this realm, with its mastery akin to nature itself, could one qualify to learn the lowest-level superior martial arts and truly earn the right to operate in the martial world. Otherwise, one was just a bystander—like Happy.
Although his strength was decent now, it still fell far short compared to true experts at the Age of Creation.
Back then, if Orochimaru’s “Reverse Yin-Yang Sword Technique” had been at a higher level, he wouldn’t have been able to win by leveraging his experience, let alone claim the championship in the offline martial arts tournament and obtain the superior martial art “Flower Hero’s Song.”
Happy knew that the two months of gameplay time, along with the time he had spent in the game, had ensured a significant gap between him and the strongest players!
To stand out in this quest and reap benefits, his current strength and a few flying knives were definitely not enough…
He not only needed to raise his realm level but also possess a superior martial art at a fairly high level.
So far, his internal energy value had reached 65.89.
He only needed to raise “Flash Sword Decryption” and a few other martial arts at the ninth or tenth level to the master realm, which would more than suffice to meet the requirements of the Age of Creation.

However!
The most difficult part is advancing in high-level martial arts.
Practicing high-level martial arts is different from practicing lower-level ones…
Lower-level martial arts offer many targets for gaining experience—starting from wooden dummy drills in the first level, then ordinary beasts, NPCs at higher levels… and eventually, at the peak levels, there are a wide range of choices and targets.
But high-level martial arts are completely different!
Due to the progression of levels, each move in high-level martial arts represents the ultimate form of lower-level martial arts.
Ordinary opponents simply cannot advance the level of high-level martial arts!
Moreover, enemies below the Creation Realm cannot provide experience, so one’s martial arts level cannot grow. Only by facing opponents above the Creation Realm can high-level martial arts improve.
When Kai Xin learned about an ancient tomb in Yangzhou City, he immediately became interested.
His enthusiasm for robbing caravans grew stronger; he believed most strong beings at the Creation Realm would participate. Ignoring his usual training, this was the perfect time to practice martial arts in peace.
“If you really want to practice, come with me.”
As Kai Xin was about to leave, the tower-like man frowned and finally couldn’t hold back from speaking.
Kai Xin stopped, turned, and looked at the vendor.
“Hmm?”
The latter explained, “I’ve been practicing in that ancient tomb these past days. If you go too, we can train together, or wait until I sell these items to buy some pills to restore our internal energy before heading there…” His observation skills were indeed sharp—he realized that Kai Xin’s intention wasn’t profit but to practice martial arts.
“Okay, I’ll wait for you there.”
Kai Xin was experienced; knowing the difficulty and great strain of mastering high-level martial arts early on, he nodded in agreement.
Hearing him indirectly confirm his intention to practice, the tower-like man showed a rare hint of joy. After exchanging a knowing glance, he simply closed down his stall: “You’re even more impatient than me. Then I won’t waste your time. Come on—several teammates have already left, and I’ve been struggling to find someone to practice with…”