After more than 30 steps down the stone stairs, they reached the bottom, where there was a horizontal stone pa.s.sage. Oil lamps were burning on the stone walls on both sides of the pa.s.sage, and bean-sized lights stretched forward, casting a dim light over the pa.s.sage.

After about 200 more steps, they arrived at the end of the pa.s.sage, and a large stone door in the style of a court, with "Ming" on the right and "Tomb" on the left.

"Ming Tomb? This is a tomb?" Ning Tao asked.

Yin Molan nodded.

"Whose tomb is this?" Ning Tao asked again.

"The Ming dynasty." Yin Molan's voice sounded slightly heavy. After a pause, he added, "This was a base for rebelling Qing dynasty and rebuilding Ming dynasty, but in the end the plan failed. It contains weapons, armor and the remains of Zhu Hongyu, the daughter of the third Crown Prince."

Ning Tao felt an indescribable feeling in his heart. He had always done well in history and had some knowledge of the events of the late Ming dynasty. The third Crown Prince, whom Yin Molan mentioned, was the fifth son of Chong Zhen, the last Emperor of the Ming dynasty, was named Zhu Cihuan. After the Manchu troops entered the Shanhaiguan, they killed all the members of the Ming dynasty's royal family, and only Zhu Cihuan survived, and was taken in by an official surnamed w.a.n.g. Later, Zhu Cihuan changed his name to w.a.n.g Tuyuan, and didn't be found until he was more than 70 years old. Then his family was killed by the Qing government. He had a daughter named Zhu Hongyu. Legend had it that she had an affair with Emperor Yongzheng, and that she was the daughter of Yang Qilong, a righteous man in rebelling Qing dynasty and rebuilding Ming dynasty, who later hanged herself at the grave of the real third Crow Prince. These were the folk tales in unofficial history, and now was no way to study. To Ning Tao's surprise, the remains of Zhu Hongyu were here.

Yin Molan pushed the stone door open.

There was a natural cave behind the stone door, which was at least thousands of square meters, and there were many holes in the cave wall of different sizes, and they were dark and unlit, so Ning Tao could not see what was inside. Hanging from the top were stone stalact.i.tes of all shapes and sizes. The ticking sound echoed in the quiet s.p.a.ce.

There was a spring in the middle of the cave, which was steaming cold air all the time. The cave was chilly because of it, and the temperature was almost zero.

It was evident that the cold spring was no ordinary mountain spring.

Ning Tao suddenly remembered the first time he came to the Big Bowl Village. The spiritual soil he found by the Soil-seeking Inkstone was in the underground. He thought of something, and quietly woke up his skills of looking and smelling. As a result, he saw spiritual energy in the cold air from the cold spring. Thus, the spiritual soil found by the Soil-seeking Inkstone was in the cold spring.

"Zhu Hongyu's remains were in the spring. I will not hide from you that there is spiritual soil under the spring, and the spring water is also the natural spiritual cold spring. Miss Zhu's remains have been stored there for hundreds of years without rotting," Yin Molan stated.

"Can I have a look?" Ning Tao had lost control of his curiosity. The remains of a woman of the Ming dynasty had been preserved to this day. If this news got out, it must be a sensation in the world!

Yin Molan replied, "Sure, come with me."

Ning Tao and Qing Zhui followed Yin Molan to the cold spring, and Yin Molan got down on his knees. Ning Tao was slightly stunned for a moment. He did not kneel down, but he made a deep bow. As he bent over, he turned his eyes to the spiritual cold spring enshroud cold air. However, his blood froze at the sight of it.

There was a human brain in the clear spring bottom, accompanied by a pale eye, and a palm-sized skull. That pale eye seemed to be staring at the people on the sh.o.r.e, as if it would roll at any time. What a creepy scene!

In Ning Tao's imagination, there should be a beautiful woman lying in the spring. Although she was dead, the spiritual energy of the spiritual soil and the freezing effect of the cold spring kept the body from rotting. He did not expect such a "beautiful woman" in the spring.

Qing Zhui only took one look and walked away, even without bowing. Obviously, she was disgusted by what she saw.

Refraining from throwing up, Ning Tao looked away from Zhu Hongyu's brain, and then he saw a piece of spiritual soil at the spring bottom. It was irregularly shaped and nearly half of the spiritual soil which he had got from the small island in the river. Yet this small piece of spiritual soil was the envy of the cultivation resources. In a world devoid of spiritual energy, for pract.i.tioners, this small piece of spiritual soil was undoubtedly like a pot of water in the desert.

After seeing the spiritual soil, Ning Tao backed away, saying something polite, "Miss Zhu, sorry to bother you. Rest in peace."

He looked at other things and saw large wooden boxes containing armor, and dozens of arms racks with knives, swords, bows, and the like on. However, the well-preserved weapons and armor didn't avoid erosion. The weapons were rusted, the bow string broken, the armor rotten. They were all unserviceable.

He also saw a cardboard box in the corner with the word "ice cream" on it, which solved the mystery of where Yin Molan's ice creams had come from.

Yin Molan reached into the spring and scooped up the palm-sized skull.

Ning Tao was curious in his heart why Yin Molan scooped up the skull, but didn't ask.

Yin Molan, however, handed him the skull and said, "The elixir prescription of the Ancestor-seeking Elixir is on top of this skull. Take a look."

Ning Tao felt uncomfortable in his heart, but he still reached out and took the skull. As soon as he received the skull, a feeling of coldness came to him, because it had been soaking in the cold spring. It was just a common skull.

There was nothing on the front of the skull, and Ning Tao flipped it over.

On the back of the skull was written in small green letters, saying, "Everything has its source. Looking for the roots can attain the truth. There are spirits in heaven and earth. The pract.i.tioner who gets the truth and practices with spirit may become immortal. The root is born in the soil, so the spiritual soil is the base of the Ancestor-seeking Elixir, plus 250 grams of ginseng for 1,000 years, 300 grams of female bone of 100 years, 12 white hair of the virgin..."

There were 27 kinds of herbs and spiritual materials listed on the skull, but the elixir prescription was not complete.

Surprised and confused, Ning Tao secretly repeated, "Everything has its source. Looking for the roots can attain the truth. This sentence might mean that all things are connected, and some specific information will be pa.s.sed down in all things, and the mystery of the origin of all things is hidden in it. From a scientific point of view, DNA holds important secrets, even the origins of humans and other species. Then he who unlocks those secrets gains truth. 'There are spirits in heaven and earth. The pract.i.tioner who gets the truth and practices with spirit may become immortal.' Does this sentence mean that... The one who finds his ancestor and gains the truth may become an immortal through practicing with spiritual energy of heaven and earth?"

All these thoughts were caused by a skull.

"Have you remembered it, Brother Ning?" Yin Molan asked. As they had smeared their mouths with blood and swore fidelity, he changed the address for Ning Tao.

Ning Tao stopped wondering and replied, "Senior Yin, there is so much information that I'm afraid I might miss something, so I'd like to copy it down. Is that okay?"

"Yes," Yin Molan said.

Ning Tao opened his small medicine chest, took out a pen and a common prescription pad, and began to copy the contents on the skull.

"I gave Lin Qinghua half of the elixir prescription, and he added it some biology stuff himself, and he made some additions from a biological point of view. He achieved some breakthroughs, but it was still far from what I expected," Yin Molan said.

Ning Tao casually asked, "How much did you give Liang Keming?"

"Also half of the elixir prescription," Yin Molan replied, "but I changed some of the spiritual materials and herbs. Liang Keming has the research foundation left by Lin Qinghua, and his starting point is higher than Lin Qinghua. He's also a brilliant scientist in biology, but I don't know what he's going to figure out."

After copying, Ning Tao handed Yin Molan the skull.

Yin Molan held the skull in his hands and carefully lowered it back into the cold spring.

Ning Tao ventured, "Why is this the only thing left of Miss Zhu's remains?"

Yin Molan knelt and kowtowed three times before standing up and answering, "It's said in the history books that she hung out, but it's not true. She was..."

"What?" Ning Tao asked.

Yin Molan didn't finish his sentence, but said, "I'll tell you when you successfully make the Ancestor-seeking Elixir."

"All right. You can talk to me when I make it," Ning Tao said. "Now, I want to learn something about the Tang Sect from you. Is that all right?"

"Sure, but be prepared, because you're dealing with a huge interest group, not an old sect," Yin Molan stated. "Some of them have gone into politics or the military to become officers; some have gone into business and start a company. The family has an acc.u.mulation of hundreds of years. Can you imagine what kind of interest group that is?"

Ning Tao smiled nonchalantly. He didn't care.

Yin Molan seemed to know what Ning Tao thought about and said, "Well, I'll tell you something useful. The Tang Sect has a secret lair in the Daba Mountain. You can take it as their ancestral home. Now the headquarters of the Tang Sect is in the Tang family's Weighty Heaven Building in the high-tech district in the north of the Jialing River in Shan City."

"That's really a valuable piece of information. Thanks, Senior Yin," Ning Tao said. "By the way, I'd like to ask you to do me a favor."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Find me a guy named Huai Kebing. He's in Shan City now. He's Tang Huaiyu's son."

"Tang Huaiyu's son? Then he is Tang Shoucheng's nephew. Okay, no problem. Give me two days and I'll find him." With a pause, Yin Molan added, "What can I do for you when I find him?"

Ning Tao smiled. "Just tell me, and I'll do the rest. I just need you to help me when I'm fighting the old guy Tang Tianren."

"Then he must die. We cannot leave a loose end." A chill flickered in Yin Molan's eyes.

A cold smile appeared on Ning Tao's lips. "We will tear the weed out by the roots."

"Go home and wait for news. And keep this place a secret," Yin Molan said.

Ning Tao nodded and left with Qing Zhui.

Along the way, Ning Tao couldn't help thinking about the white brain, the pale eye and the skull...

Could the Ancestor-seeking Elixir really help people find their roots, gain the truth and become immortals?

Wasn't that too incredible?