The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#167 - slate

“Oh, that's because… the Sand Warriors in the sandstorm have all been taken care of by me.”

As Lu Jing's words fell, the tailor shop fell silent.

Nikaal and Sarah both opened their mouths wide, unsure of what to say for a moment.

It took a good while for Nikaal to react, her face full of shock as she said, “You took care of the Sand Warriors too?”

“It's not like I took care of all of them, because the total number of Sand Warriors in the sandstorm was only a little over two hundred.” Lu Jing said, “So there should still be more than a hundred Sand Warriors left.”

Of course, Lu Jing wasn't the type to only care about himself and not care about the life or death of others, so he then asked with concern, “Your ancestors left behind more than three hundred Sand Warriors, but now there are only a little over a hundred left. Will there be any problems?”

“Oh, there's no need to worry about that. My ancestors left those Sand Warriors behind to guard the peace of the tomb and prevent anyone from accidentally breaking in, destroying the formation, and releasing demons. But now it seems they've also been affected by the demons. Fortunately, Great Hero Lu, you eliminated them in time, otherwise, who knows what kind of trouble would have occurred in the future.”

“If that's the case, then I'll eliminate the remaining hundred as well.” Lu Jing said righteously.

Nikaal was overwhelmed by the favor, “Wouldn't that be too much trouble for you, Great Hero Lu? After all, you've already saved Marasar Khan; we really can't ask you for more.”

“It's nothing, just a small effort.” Lu Jing waved his hand.

Hearing this, the eyes of all the women in the shop, including the female shopkeeper, became even more respectful towards Lu Jing.

Even Sarah seemed quite shaken. She had previously been forced to apologize to Lu Jing, and she still felt somewhat unconvinced, but now that bit of resentment had vanished like smoke.

After a moment, she sighed and said quietly, “Great Hero Lu is truly righteous. We were very offensive before.”

Afterward, Nikaal revealed the location of the ancient tomb's entrance, and as Lu Jing expected, the entrance was indeed in the city, and it was even under the castle.

There was a hidden underground passage there, leading directly to the mausoleum outside the city.

After going in about four miles, Lu Jing saw another grave robber's tunnel. It seemed to have been recently dug, and it could bypass the Sand Warriors in the tomb's front hall and directly reach the back hall where the stone coffin was placed.

Presumably, Tus had previously used this tunnel to take away the black heart.

Lu Jing and the three women also followed this path to the stone coffin in the room. Lu Jing could feel the black heart inside the box beating more and more violently.

However, when the three of them pushed open the stone coffin, they found that there was nothing inside.

“So, next, we just need to put this thing in here, right?” Lu Jing shook the box and asked.

“Maybe… that's how it is.” Nikaal noticed that everyone's eyes were on her, so she nodded.

However, her tone was obviously hesitant, and she wasn't very sure.

On the other side, Lu Jing had already thrown the box into the coffin. Anyway, this thing couldn't run away here, so let's just temporarily store it inside.

Then, Lu Jing said to the three women, “Alright, the thing has been returned. Next, all that's left is to deal with those Sand Warriors. The battle may be somewhat dangerous, so it's better to leave me alone here.”

“The whole process is expected to take some time. After I'm done cleaning up, to prevent anyone from accidentally breaking in again, we can also block the passage.”

… … … …

Although the number of Sand Warriors in the tomb was not as many as in the sandstorm,

However, due to the terrain, dealing with them was much more troublesome. Apart from Lu Jing, probably no one would be bored enough to provoke them.

After all, if one was careless and got surrounded in the tomb, they would probably turn from joy to sorrow.

So, Lu Jing's previous words weren't exactly a lie. It's just that for him, more than a hundred Sand Warriors were more than a hundred black pebbles, enough for him to use for three months, so he couldn't let them go to waste.

Moreover, with two hundred Sand Warriors as practice, he was now a skilled worker. As long as he slowed down a bit, the problem wouldn't be too big.

Besides this, Lu Jing certainly didn't forget the fire lantern grass and white silk clothes that he could get for free on time, collecting them once every ten days.

As a result, after a month, the other side couldn't bear it anymore and sent a talisman asking when Lu Jing planned to return.

Lu Jing happened to be nearing the end of his cleanup work, thought about it, and wrote down the two words 'tomorrow morning'.

Then, the other side used another talisman to reply to Lu Jing, explaining in detail how to return, and then it returned to peace.

Lu Jing didn't know that the academy had exploded because of his stay in the trial realm for more than a month.

From professors to students, everyone was guessing the reason why he stayed inside for so long.

After all, no one had ever been able to stay in the trial realm for so long before.

In addition, the change of the Tianji ranking list and the exposure of his identity as a top-tier expert had made him even more eye-catching.

However, Lu Jing, who was the focus of attention, was still fighting in the ancient tomb at this time.

After killing the last Sand Warrior, Lu Jing suddenly felt a slight tremor under his feet, and then he heard a sound of a mechanism being activated from the back hall where the stone coffin was stored.

When he rushed there, he saw that the stone coffin that had been placed in the center had actually been shifted about two steps to the right.

Revealing a stone slab underneath.

A painting was engraved on the stone slab, and the painting was clearly the black heart, and a stone blade that Lu Jing found somewhat familiar was inserted into the heart.

In fact, in addition to solving the Sand Warriors in the front hall during this time, Lu Jing had also been studying how to use the black heart to help him consume his internal energy.

However, to Lu Jing's disappointment, he had tried many methods, but he had not been able to extract even a trace of the yin and cold rotten aura from the heart.

Moreover, whenever Lu Jing held up the heart, a strong thought would surge in his heart, wanting to swallow the black heart in one gulp, as if this was not a heart exuding a damp and rotten stench, but a chocolate cake.

However, with Tus's example, Lu Jing still restrained the impulse in his heart, but he also vaguely knew that his idea of extracting the yin and cold rotten aura from this heart was likely to fail.

Therefore, after seeing this stone carving, Lu Jing hesitated for a moment and took out the stone blade he had obtained from the Sand Warrior leader.

According to the description on the stone carving, he slowly inserted the stone blade into the black heart.

When he first inserted it, Lu Jing could feel the heart trembling frantically, and at the same time, the desire in his heart to swallow the heart became even stronger.

However, as the stone blade continued to be inserted, the heart gradually withered until the end… accompanied by unwillingness and relief, it finally stopped beating.

Black blood flowed down Lu Jing's hands to the stone slab on the ground, and then a dense mass of small characters appeared on the stone slab, accompanied by a series of patterns that resembled the path of cultivation.