Chapter 70

When the little boy heard these words, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, pouting and turning to look at the white-haired Wu Mian, saying, "Do grown-ups bully little kids? Last time you already pulled out a handful of my hair, do you know how long it takes for my hair to grow back?"

As he spoke, the little boy’s eyes kept darting around.

At this point, the little boy paused, stomping his foot forcefully and said, "Forget it, do as you please. I’ll take you for a tour. After the tour, we’ll be even. Pfft! You still owe me endless good wine..."

Suddenly, the ginseng boy changed his demeanor, leaving the two Gui brothers stunned. Only Wu Mian and Gui Buge remained calm. Wu Mian stared at the little boy without saying a word, while the old man looked around, though he saw nothing, he didn’t seem too surprised.

After the ginseng boy finished speaking, he turned around again and walked deeper into the palace. This time, he didn’t walk fast, and as he walked, he beckoned to the few people behind him with his fingers, saying in a babyish voice, "If you want to follow, keep up. Don’t blame me if you get lost later."

Gui Buge glanced at his master, who was looking at Wu Mian. Seeing that Wu Mian had no reaction, the old man smiled and said to his two disciples, "Let’s follow. It’s already like this. How much worse can it get? Right..."

He directed the last two words at Wu Mian, who merely glanced at him and then walked slowly behind the ginseng boy with his hands behind his back. Gui Buge gave his two disciples a meaningful look, and the three of them followed closely behind Wu Mian.

The three generations of the Gui family followed behind him, but Wu Mian didn’t seem to mind. He followed the little boy all the way to the end of the path, where they turned a large corner and saw five exits: one large and four small. The two smaller exits on each side were empty, and there was nothing blocking them, so one could easily step in. However, the large central exit was blocked by two huge red doors, each weighing several thousand pounds. If they were bolted from the inside, it would take considerable effort to enter.

The ginseng boy stopped and pointed at the two large doors, his face looking innocent, with a smile like that of a child, saying, "Inside is the main hall. I forgot to tell you, these doors are locked from the inside. How you get in is up to you."

At this moment, the three generations of the Gui family also reached the door. Gui Qu looked at the door and sneered, "You slipped up, didn’t you? You said the doors are locked from the inside, so how did you get out?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the little boy bared his white teeth and smiled at him, saying, "I got out this way." As he said the last word, his body suddenly darted forward, jumping towards the door. The two large doors seemed like a shadow, and in the blink of an eye, the ginseng boy had slipped through. Gui Lai rushed over to grab him but was a step too late.

Gui Lai kicked his younger brother and knocked on the two large doors, cursing, "Did you get your brain squeezed by the door? Look carefully, they’re made of wood! He can’t burrow through the ground, but he can burrow through wood!" After cursing his younger brother, the two brothers turned to look at their master and Wu Mian with embarrassed expressions.

What the two brothers didn’t expect was that the old and young men didn’t seem to care about the ginseng boy suddenly disappearing through the door. Gui Buge smiled at Wu Mian, saying, "I knew this little brat wouldn’t be so easy to deal with, but if we had waited any longer, we really wouldn’t have found him."

Wu Mian acted as if he hadn’t heard, walking up to the two large doors and suddenly lifting his leg, kicking the door solidly. With a loud "thud," the two doors flew to the sides, revealing the grand hall inside and a little boy with a look of terror on his face.

Before we talk about how heavy the two doors were, the little boy knew that they were fully carved with restraining arrays. An ordinary person wouldn’t even think of kicking them, and even a hundred people using siege logs would take at least an incense stick’s time to break through the doors.

Upon seeing Wu Mian again, the ginseng boy’s first reaction was to run. But he quickly changed his mind, baring his white teeth and smiling at Wu Mian in a babyish voice, "I was going to help you unlock the door, but I didn’t expect you to be so eager. If I had known, I wouldn’t have come in first."

As the ginseng boy spoke, Gui Buge also led the two Gui brothers inside. Only then did they see the luxurious layout inside. The floor was paved with gold bricks, and various gemstones were arranged into patterns. Inside the hall, there were over a dozen jade pillars that two people could barely embrace, also inlaid with precious gems. Looking up, the ceiling was intentionally made black, with over a thousand luminous pearls embedded, twinkling like stars in the night sky.

However, no one was paying attention to that. The old man came in, glanced around, and smiled at the ginseng boy, saying, "You said you could see the porcelain bottle with the pills at a glance. I’ve looked over a dozen times, where is the bottle?"

"You really need to get your eyes checked," the little boy said, pointing to the highest point in the center of the hall, where a table and chair were decorated with gold and jade, "If you can’t see it, you won’t have the luck to enjoy the pills even if you get them."

Following the ginseng boy’s finger, there was indeed a small porcelain bottle on the table. It was the same bottle that Wu Mian had brought from Liaodong’s Yanshan years ago. Gui Buge had seen it many times, and even from this distance, he wouldn’t mistake it. He didn’t expect the little boy to really leave the bottle here.

At that moment, the old man couldn’t wait any longer. He left the two Gui brothers behind and rushed to the table where the bottle was placed, showing no signs of the fatigue he had just displayed. Gui Lai and Gui Qu were about to remind him to be careful for any traps, but Gui Buge had already reached the table, grabbed the small porcelain bottle, and pulled out the stopper, pouring the two wax pills into his palm.

As the ginseng boy had said, one of the wax pills had a third of its wax coating already peeled off, revealing the black pill inside. Gui Buge brought the pill to his nose, took a deep breath, and without hesitation, peeled off the remaining wax coating, put the pigeon-egg-sized pill in his mouth, and swallowed it without chewing. His throat moved up and down as he swallowed the pill.

After swallowing the pill, Gui Buge let out a long sigh of relief and casually put the porcelain bottle with the remaining pill into his pocket. Wu Mian, standing far away, didn’t pay much attention to this action, but he was surprised that Gui Buge had swallowed the pill raw. After all, when he had taken the pill, he had gone through death and rebirth and then survived a lightning strike to become what he was now.

Seeing Gui Buge’s relaxed demeanor, Wu Mian paused and asked with a strange expression, "Why don’t we go back up and wait until your business is done before coming down again?"

Gui Buge smiled at Wu Mian and said, "It’s rare for you to think of me. Don’t worry, my constitution is different from yours and the others. The Great Master once said that I was born to perfectly consume the elixir of immortality."

After saying this, the old man laughed heartily. When the laughter subsided, his gaze fell on the ginseng boy sitting on the ground next to Wu Mian, "Now, shouldn’t we talk about what this palace is all about?"

As Gui Buge stared at the ginseng boy, the little boy also looked back at him with the same expression. He casually drew a circle in the air, saying, "It’s all here. You can see as much as we can. It’s the same for both humans and ginseng."

After hearing the ginseng boy’s answer, Gui Buge squinted and smiled. After a pause, he said to Wu Mian and the two Gui brothers, "I said above that this underground palace is the tomb of Yan Aihou, but now I’m not sure if he really passed away. Little one, is this a tomb or a living palace?"

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