Yin Molan pushed the door open and Ning Tao followed him in.

The ancestral temple was dark and unlit. After Yin Molan closed the door, the darkness deepened. Ning Tao pulled out his phone, woke up the screen, and used the faint light from the screen to reach the shrine.

The blank spirit tablet was gone.

Ning Tao then used his phone to look at other spirit tablets, but still didn't find the blank one. His brow furrowed. “The last time I was here the spirit tablet was clearly here. Why is it gone?”

“That woman knows you'll come again.” Yin Molan made the judgment.

Ning Tao didn't know what to do. Could he see the elixir prescription of the Ancestor-seeking Elixir only if he agreed to Zhu Hongqin's condition? If Bai Sheng was the only one he had to deal with, he would not hesitate to agree to Zhu Hongqin's terms. But this matter concerned Bai Jing, and it gave him a headache.

“Wait!” Yin Molan said, in a strange tone.

“Senior Yin,” said Ning Tao tentatively, “did you find anything?”

Yin Molan walked around the ancestral temple, from the wall on the left to the wall on the right, and from the wall on the right to the wall facing the shrine. Then he said, “This ancestral temple…”

“What's wrong with this ancestral temple?” Ning Tao was a little worried.

Yin Molan looked up at the roof and seemed to confirm something. “This is the study of third Crown Prince! I've been there a few times, so I remember it. Do you see that beam?” He raised his hand to the beam overhead and said, “If I remember correctly, there must be two characters inscribed on it, the 'Ri' and the 'Yue'. These are used by the third Crown Prince to encourage himself not to forget the Ming dynasty.”

Ning Tao jumped up and took two separate steps in the void. He reached the beam. With one hand he grasped the top of the beam. After stabilizing, he leaned in and blew on the beam. A piece of dust was blown away and the old beam was inscribed with “Ri” and “Yue”. there was a little s.p.a.ce between the two words, but together it was “Ming”.

“Senior Yin, you're telling the truth. It really has 'Ri' and 'Yue' on it.” Ning Tao let go of his hand, fell down naturally, and stood firmly on the ground with his legs bent before touching the ground.

He became more and more adept at the Ladder under Feet. If there was no roof over his head, he could take another step into the void and climb another two meters or so.

Yin Molan's eyes glowed strangely. “Buddy, you have an interesting skill. What's is it?”

Ning Tao replied, “The Ladder under Feet. But Senior Yin, this is no time to talk about skill. You haven't told me what you found?”

Yin Molan said, “This study is a replica of the original study and a reconstruction. If that Zhu Hongqin had anything to do with Miss Hongyu, she might have reproduced the gear and the secret chamber together.”

Ning Tao was thrilled. “Where is the gear and the secret chamber?”

Yin Molan walked to the wall behind the shrine and counted up to “8” upward in the corner. Then he counted up to “8” to the left. Finally he reached down and pushed a brick into the wall.

Rattle…

From below came the sound of gear movement, and the ground trembled a little. A moment later, a tunnel entrance appeared on the ground beside Yin Molan.

Ning Tao immediately leaned over. Instead of satisfying the dim light of his phone screen, he turned on the flashlight on his phone and shone it into the tunnel.

The tunnel descended at a 45 degree angle, and there was a corner at a depth of a few meters. The walkway in the line of sight was made of gray clay bricks, and the top of the walkway was arched. Each stone brick was covered with traces of erosion and had a history of hundreds of years.

“Come with me.” Yin Molan stooped into the tunnel.

Ning Tao followed him down the tunnel, curious. “Senior Yin, I noticed that when you were counting bricks, you counted eight up and eight down. What does that mean?”

Yin Molan made a bow, his voice respectful. “That represents the name of Hongwu Emperor.”

Ning Tao immediately understood. Hongwu Emperor was Zhu Yuanzhang, whose nickname was Zhu Chongba, which meant double eight. Thus Yin Molan just counted eight on the vertical and eight on the horizontal, meaning double eight.

They pa.s.sed the corner and walked a few dozen meters laterally until they came to the end of the tunnel.

A stone door blocked the road and a pair of small stone lions were placed in the doorway. Yin Molan went straight to the stone lion on the left, grabbed the stone ball in its mouth, and gave it a twist.

Rattle…

The stone door opened with a loud noise.

Ning Tao was about to go in when Yin Molan yanked him. “Don't move!”

Whoos.h.!.+

Dozens of arrows flew out of the stone door, narrowly missing Ning Tao and Yin Molan and heading for the tunnel where they had come. Then from the dark tunnel came the sound of arrows. .h.i.tting clay bricks.

Ning Tao drenched in cold sweat. Several of the arrows had almost brushed his face. If Yin Molan hadn't stopped him and made him stand by the doorframe, he would have been shot. His Powerful Tolerance to Beating could block blunt blows, but not the penetrating damage of the arrow. Even if he had special spiritual power to heal, if he was stabbed in the vital part, he would be in danger.

“All right, come with me.” Yin Molan walked forward into the stone room behind the stone door.

Ning Tao followed, holding his cell phone high in the air and observing the room in the flashlight's light.

It was a vault, to be exact, with a sarcophagus in the middle.

In front of the sarcophagus lay a stone table, on which lay a spirit tablet, on which was written “Tomb of our Benefactor Zhu Hongyu.

Ning Tao's eyes moved to the sarcophagus after seeing the spirit tablet, and his heart was full of excitement. The sarcophagus was so hidden that it probably contained Zhu Hongyu's skull!

Yin Molan saluted Zhu Hongyu's spirit tablet three times.

Ning Tao did the same. After all, the dead was the important.

Subsequently, Yin Molan walked over to the sarcophagus and pushed it hard, but it didn't move.

Bang!

Yin Molan pulled out his Blade of Brotherhood, split into the gap under the sarcophagus lid that filled with concrete, and dragged the knife along the gap. The Blade of Brotherhood was the magic tool of the fighting demon, which could cut iron as easy as cutting mud. The concrete in the sarcophagus's gap was tough, but in the face of his Blade of Brotherhood, it was equivalent to tofu.

Boom!

The lid of the sarcophagus was pushed aside by Yin Molan.

Ning Tao couldn't wait to get closer.

The sarcophagus contained no body, only a skull fragment. It was yellowish white and irregular in shape, very similar to the skull fragment he had last seen in Yin Molan's cave.

Part of Zhu Hongyu's skull was in the Xin family!

Ning Tao reached for the skull fragment, his hand shaking with excitement.

However, before he could grasp the skull fragment, Yin Molan grabbed the skull fragment in the sarcophagus.

There was nothing special about the front of the skull, like a normal skull fragment, but when Yin Molan turned it over it looked extraordinary. On the back were written in cyan characters, all the spiritual materials and weights.

Ning Tao's eyes fell on the cyan handwriting, absorbed in memorizing its contents.

A minute later, Yin Molan suddenly handed Ning Tao the skull fragment in his hand. “You take it, as usual. I'll find you the spiritual materials and you refine the Ancestor-seeking Elixir for me. The Ancestor-seeking Elixir you refined last time is very good. My demon power has been increased. You take care of this thing. If we find all the skull fragments in the future, we will copy the elixir prescription separately and bury Miss Hongyu's skull.”

Ning Tao didn't refuse. He opened the medicine chest and put the skull fragment into it. “All right, I'll keep it for the time being. When all the pieces are gathered together, we shall bury it.”

Yin Molan closed the coffin again, bowed to the spirit tablet three times, and murmured, “Miss Hongyu, I must apologize for offending you. In the future, I will bury you decently and find out the true murderer. I will avenge you and bring you to justice.”

Ning Tao also bowed to Zhu Hongyu's spirit tablet three times, but he didn't say anything.

People might have souls, but who had seen it?

Later, they turned back, leaving the tunnel, back to the Xin family's ancestral temple. Yin Molan pressed the “double eight” again, and the tunnel entrance closed.

“Let's get out of here,” Ning Tao said.

Yin Molan nodded his head. After leaving the ancestral temple, he closed the door and locked it.

Then they left the Prosperous House, returned to their vehicles.

Qing Zhui came up. “Brother Ning, how is it going?”

“We got it. Let's go,” Ning Tao replied happily.

Yin Molan said, “I'll go look for spiritual materials, but I'm not sure I could find them all. As usual, I'll try to find out what I can't find and for those I can't find, you figure it out.”

Ning Tao smiled and said, “Okay, when the spiritual materials are ready, I'll start alchemy. The first one is for you.”

Yin Molan gave Ning Tao clenched-fist salute, and got on his motorcycle. Suddenly he seemed to think of something and said, “Buddy, come here and I have something to tell you.”

Ning Tao asked, “Is there anything you can't say in front of Qing Zhui?”

Qing Zhui looked unhappy. “Is there anything I can't hear?”

Yin Molan hesitated, and then said, “Well, I'll get to the point. You and Miss Qing must be abstemious. At most one time a month, even one more time will affect your health and shorten your life.”

Ning Tao was embarra.s.sed. He thought Yin Molan was going to whisper something, but he didn't expect it.

Qing Zhui blushed and didn't retort to Yin Molan.

“That's all. I'm going.” Yin Molan started the motorcycle and rode off.

Ning Tao got on the G.o.d's Will. Without him saying anything, Qing Zhui stepped into the electric car and hugged his waist tightly.

It was an electric car, but why did she have to ride as if it was a motorcycle?

“Brother Ning, don't listen to him. I won't hurt you. I'll wait on you and never get hurt.” As they started on their way, Qing Zhui leaned in Ning Tao's ear and said this.

Ning Tao's body stiffened and the G.o.d's Will nearly hits a tree…

At the same time.

Two women slowly came to the door of the Xin family's ancestral temple in the Prosperous House.

The two women were Zhu Hongqin and her old lady bodyguard Seventh Aunt.

Seventh Aunt looked at the back wall and said, “Lady, they're taking things away.”

A smile came into Zhu Hongqin's mouth. She didn't say anything…