Chapter 261

　　Xiao Xuanqin walked next to Qin Yun and could not help but exclaim when she saw the beast skin densely covered with lines and dots, “Is this for real? What do these spirit inscriptions represent?”

　　“I don’t know yet but it might be a hidden mechanism! The reason why it’s set up like this should be to enter the core of the tomb. The core is to maintain the source of energy for the various large formations within the tomb.”

　　This was only Qin Yun’s guess. He had come to this conclusion based on the books he had read previously. Many large spirit formations would have a core like this.

　　For example, the imperial city of the Tian Qin Empire, the core of the defensive barrier, was located deep within the palace.

　　Normally, in order for a great formation enchantment to connect better with the core, it would follow a certain pattern.

　　Qin Yun had managed to deduce a few things from the arrangement of the stone houses. Now, he had to analyze them carefully to see if he could find an entrance to the heart of the great array.

　　After more than two hours of analysis, he finally found some clues and he circled around ten points on that piece of beast skin.

　　“Aunty Xiao, let’s go check out the stone houses.” Qin Yun pointed to a few points on the hide and said, “Perhaps there’s something hidden in these stone houses.”

　　Xiao Xuanqin came to the Tian Xiao Imperial Tomb precisely to investigate the secrets here. Just as she had expected, there were many secrets to be found in the Tian Xiao Imperial Tomb. If it were not for Qin Yun, she would have definitely cut off the clues.

　　“Alright, let’s go together!” Xiao XuanQin said.

　　Qin Yun held the beast skin and counted the points on it before pointing in that direction. He said, “The fifth stone house in this row.”

　　They quickly walked over and entered the stone house. They used light stones to illuminate the inside and then opened the coffin lid. After carefully inspecting it, they did not discover anything.

　　“Could it be under the jade coffin?” Xiao XuanQin said.

　　Qin Yun immediately used his mind energy to move the heavy jade coffin away before knocking against the stone slab.

　　“We’ve already explored this stone house. Let’s go check out the next one.” Xiao Xuanqin said “There are over a dozen targets marked on your beast skin. We will patiently go and inspect them one by one; we will definitely find something.”

　　Qin Yun nodded and walked out of the stone house with her. They headed for their next target.

　　In the next four to six hours, they carefully inspected the twelve stone houses but in none of them they found anything. Currently, there were only three stone houses left.

　　When they inspected the thirteenth stone house and moved the heavy jade coffin away, they discovered that the stone tiles on the ground were somewhat different. Especially when the tiles were struck with a stick, the sound was ‘bang bang bang’, meaning that the ground was empty.

　　“I found something!” Qin Yun was delighted as he lifted all the stone tablets off the ground.

　　He lifted up the stone tiles and saw an empty pit beneath with a golden key placed inside. He used his mental force to levitate the golden key.

　　The shape of the key was similar to the one they used when they first entered. It was obvious that it was used to open a special door.

　　“Where does this key go?” Xiao Xuanqin asked.

　　Qin Yun shook his head. “I don’t know where it goes but if I have to guess: it’s the key to the core of the tomb.”

　　“Is that the stone house marked on your animal skin?” Xiao Xuanqin said as she looked at the beast skin in Qin Yun’s hand.

　　“Maybe. Let’s go try it out.” Qin Yun said with a smile, “We have to start from the beginning.”

　　After discovering the golden key, Xiao Xuanqin saw hope. Forget about trying out the dozen or so stone houses, even if she were to complete the tests on the hundreds of stone houses, she would not find it troublesome.

　　They were very patient. They entered the stone house marked on the beast skin, along with the golden key. They knocked everywhere to see if they could open a door.

　　When they reached the sixth stone house, they touched the floor beneath the jade coffin with their keys and the floor suddenly sank!

　　“There’s a reaction!” Qin Yun shouted in surprise.

　　The stone slab beneath the jade coffin was two meters wide and three meters long, slowly descending. Soon, it descended more than ten meters but it did not stop.

　　“Are we going to stand on it and descend with it?” Xiao XuanQin said.

　　“We should. Let’s go down and take a look!” Qin Yun looked at Xiao Xuanqin, waiting for her permission.

　　“Alright!” Xiao Xuanqin pulled Qin Yun and jumped onto the stone platform as they descended.

　　The speed at which the stone slabs descended was very slow. It was unknown just how deep they would have to descend.

　　Xiao Xuanqin stepped heavily on the stone tablet and said: “This stone tablet is really thick, we had previously knocked on it, since we did not discover the mysterious mechanism behind it.”

　　“What is the intention of the builder? Why hide the gold key? The place where the Golden Key is hidden has not been opened for a long time.” Qin Yun said.

　　Xiao Xuanqin looked at the glowing stone in her hand and squatted down. She said, “Qin Yun, if I didn’t bring you here, I might have died outside! No wonder YueLan had previously said that she would bring you along no matter what. It can be seen that she knows you very well.”

　　“That’s true. If she didn’t know how powerful I am, how could she have kept pestering me?” Qin Yun could not help but smile and say.

　　Xiao Xuanqin chuckled and said: “YueLan is a good girl, do you dislike her? If she knew that you were pestered by her, I wonder if she would be angry!”

　　“Aunt Xiao, don’t tell her that!! I was just joking.” Qin Yun immediately said, “If you tell her about this, I’ll tell her that I’m your lover.”

　　Xiao Xuanqin immediately looked at Qin Yun with hidden bitterness as she said with a light snort, “Let’s stop here and stop talking about these two matters!”

　　“Aunt Xiao, don’t be angry. I was only joking. Actually, YueLan understands me very well. For example, when I challenged Xiao Yanglong last time, other than her no one supported me and no one believed that I would be able to defeat Xiao Yanglong.” Qin Yun said with a smile.

　　“You two fellows are both acting in the same way. That’s right and that little girl YueMei too.” Xiao Xuanqin said somewhat helplessly: “I think that your group of three would definitely be able to break through the heavens.”

　　As Qin Yun and Xiao Xuanqin chatted, the stone slabs suddenly stopped.

　　“It finally stopped. Look, there’s a door here!” Xiao Xuanqin said while using the glowing stone in her hand to look at a stone wall.

　　The flagstone was mainly responsible for lifting and lowering the people with the golden keys to the bottom of the square well.

　　Qin Yun took out the golden key and tapped it on the door. With a ‘ka ka ka’ sound, the door slowly pulled itself in.

　　After the stone door was opened, it led to a very long corridor. It was completely dark inside.

　　Qin Yun controlled the glowing stone and floated in front of the corridor before entering with Xiao Xuanqin.

　　The corridor was extremely cold and from time to time, a chilly wind blew.

　　“It’s pretty cold, I don’t know how this cold air came about.” Xiao XuanQin shuddered and had no choice but to use her internal energy to resist the cold current.

　　The strange thing was, the further they went, the colder it became.

　　Even someone like Xiao Xuanqin, who was at the Martial Dao Realm, couldn’t handle it. Her body was slightly trembling.

　　“Auntie Xiao, are you unable to withstand that cold energy?” Qin Yun could feel his clenched fingers gradually turn cold.

　　Xiao Xuanqin nodded: “What about you? If we can’t hold on, let’s go back! ”

　　“I’m fine! Come, take my left hand.” After Qin Yun changed his hand, he transferred the Thunderfire internal energy into her body through Xiao Xuanqin’s palm.

　　As the Vajra inner force flowed through Xiao Xuanqin’s entire body, she felt a warm and comfortable sensation. She no longer felt cold.

　　She couldn’t help but exclaim, “Your flames are really strong!”

　　Qin Yun grinned and asked, “It’s much better now!”

　　Xiao Xuanqin’s entire body felt warm and comfortable. When she thought of the comfort she felt because of Qin Yun, she could not help but once again have chaotic thoughts running through her mind.

　　“Hmm, it’s much better now!” Xiao Xuanqin let out a quiet sigh in her heart as she extinguished the weak flame of emotion that had inexplicably risen in her heart.

　　The two of them walked slowly, mainly for the sake of safety. Thus, they took more than two hours before they finally walked out of the long corridor and arrived at a circular stone room.

　　This stone room was more than ten meters wide and there were no other passages. It was the end of the corridor. In the middle of the stone room, there was a two meter thick crystal pillar.

　　This pillar emitted white light and white flames surged within. If one looked closely, they would notice that there were many inconspicuous engravings on the crystal pillar.

　　“This pillar is the energy source for the great array formation!” Qin Yun said.

　　Xiao Xuanqin looked at the interior of the crystal pillar and spoke with a hint of disappointment, “What exactly is hidden in the Tian Xiao imperial Tomb? Could it be that this is all it is?”

　　“This should be the most secretive place in the Tomb. As for where those corpses have gone to, I’m afraid that it is a mystery.” Qin Yun said with a sigh, “Aunt Xiao, should we destroy the Tian Xiao Imperial Tomb?”

　　Xiao Xuanqin suddenly frowned and did not immediately reply. She looked at the crystal pillar and sank into deep thought.

　　After thinking for a moment, she said, “Let’s keep it. The key is in our hands. We’ll be able to enter again in the future.”

　　“Alright!” Qin Yun also felt that this Tomb was a good refuge. It was able to completely block the wild boars outside the door.

　　Just as Qin Yun was looking around, Xiao Xuanqin suddenly shouted, “Qin Yun, come over and take a look. There seems to be something inside!”

　　Xiao Xuanqin had been looking at the crystal pillar the entire time and was observing it very carefully. Qin Yun had only taken a few simple glances before as he walked around the stone chamber.

　　Qin Yun hurried over after hearing Xiao Xuanqin’s shout.

　　“What is it? Why don’t I see anything? ” Qin Yun only saw white flames burning.

　　“Look… There’s a white ball of light floating around in the flame.” Xiao Xuanqin pointed to a spot inside the crystal pillar as she spoke.

　　Qin Yun went over to take a closer look. Soon, he saw a palm-sized white ball of light floating up and down inside the crystal pillar. There was something inside the white ball of light.

　　“That thing doesn’t seem to belong inside. Can you get it out?” Xiao Xuanqin asked: “It seems to be something extraordinary, the crystal pillar is filled with energy, it has been nourished by this energy for so many years, it is definitely something good.”