Chapter 197: The Grand Tomb

"Old Liu, explain yourself. How does the Dragon-Capturing Technique connect to your Liu family? And why did you call Jiangcheng a grand tomb?" The first time I had heard Jiangcheng compared to a grand tomb was during my duel with the black magician. That lunatic had tried to convince me to become his apprentice and let him take me away from this grand tomb of a city.

"Are you sure you want to hear this? Once you know these secrets, it will be even harder for you to break free." Blind Liu swirled the wine in his cup, but it tasted like water to him now. Anxiety churned in his chest; he wasn't sure if his next words would count as leaking the secrets of heaven. "Forget it. Since you want to know, I'll tell you. These things can't be hidden away forever anyway."

Blind Liu had me close the shop doors and draw the curtains. He laid his ever-present carrying pole horizontally across the doorway, then slapped several yellow paper talismans against the windows.

The more cautious he acted, the more curious I became. I set down my bowl and chopsticks and sat up straight at the table.

"Alright. This is a bustling mortal market; I suppose we won't be overheard by those people."

"Those people?"

I instinctively went to press him, but Blind Liu just waved his hand. "Some things can be known but not spoken, and some things spoken cannot be fully explained. I will speak, and you will just listen."

His finger tapped the paper, landing directly on the words 'Dragon-Capturing Technique.' "Jiangcheng is a thousand-year-old city. It has weathered a millennium of wind and frost without faltering. The seas have shifted, dynasties have risen and fallen, and the sun, moon, and stars have cycled endlessly, yet every building and tree in this place has retained its original appearance. Do you know why?"

During my Route 14 Spirit Bus broadcast, I'd heard the bus company manager mention that Jiangcheng itself was a massive feng shui layout. So, when Blind Liu asked, I casually repeated the rumor. "Legend has it that a flood dragon is pinned beneath Jiangcheng, and the city was built to lock down the dragon's head. The city itself is a feng shui layout."

A sharp gleam flashed in Blind Liu's eyes at my answer. "As expected, nothing gets past you. But you're only partly right."

He stood up, found a pen in the room, and casually sketched on the paper. "With Jiangcheng as the focal point, and the twenty-eight surrounding counties acting as the constellations, this feng shui grand formation spans across South China and Jiangbei. A layout of this magnitude is practically unheard of in the modern world."

After letting me look at the paper, Blind Liu asked for my lighter and immediately burned the sketch to ashes.

"The rumor of a flood dragon pinned beneath Jiangcheng is no baseless myth. I can tell you with absolute certainty: there are dragons beneath Jiangcheng, and more than one."

It felt like Blind Liu was about to reveal a secret buried for a millennium. I listened with bated breath, my expression pulling tight. "How can you be so sure? Have you seen a real flood dragon?"

"I have never seen a flood dragon, but the man who suppressed it was my Liu family ancestor!" Blind Liu blurted out. In that moment, despite wearing a cheap linen Daoist robe, an extraordinary aura seemed to radiate from his very bones.

"Your ancestor suppressed the flood dragon?" To be honest, I had never seen Blind Liu wear an expression like that. It seemed the forebears of the Liu family were truly exceptional.

But as I thought it over, I realized that someone capable of suppressing a flood dragon couldn't possibly be a nameless nobody. A figure like that would definitely leave their mark in the annals of history. "Old Liu, dare I ask—what was the name of this ancestor of yours who suppressed the flood dragon?"

Blind Liu shook his head. "Some things cannot be spoken plainly, lest they invite total disaster. You only need to know that my ancestor once helped the Emperor seize the throne. He slayed dragons for the Emperor and lit the Seven-Star Lamp to extend his own lifespan by twelve years. But in the end, his reward was the execution of his entire extended family."

"Hold on. If his entire extended family was executed, where did your bloodline come from?" I wasn't deliberately trying to give Blind Liu a hard time; it was just a professional reflex.

"We hid our names and buried our identities in Jiangcheng. That is exactly why I still dare not speak my ancestor's name to this day." Blind Liu waved his hand gently. "Back then, my ancestor was ordered to seek out dragons. When his travels brought him here, he discovered a nine-colored carp. He waited bitterly by the river for three days and three nights until he finally captured it. But who could have known that this act would enrage the water god of the river? A torrential downpour descended, and a massive silhouette, a hundred chi long, could be faintly seen coiling through the river's depths."

"My ancestor was a master of feng shui and divination. He battled that master of the river head-on for seven days and seven nights, ultimately fighting it to a standstill."

"If my ancestor had stopped there, the matter would have ended. But the tragedy was that my ancestor was far too proud. He considered himself second only to Kongming, and he swore to slay that flood dragon."

"He surveyed the feng shui within a ten-li radius, preparing to build a grand formation to trap and kill the flood dragon. But completely by accident, my ancestor discovered that the surrounding hundreds of li already formed a grand formation of their own."

Hearing this, I interrupted him. "From the way you're talking... the one who built Jiangcheng and laid down this grand formation wasn't your ancestor?"

"Naturally. Even if you trace it back to its roots, my Liu family only has a history of six or seven hundred years. This grand formation was built over a millennium ago." Blind Liu's story was finally getting to the main point. "When my ancestor discovered this formation, he was deeply shaken. He gathered over a thousand men to map the terrain. Wielding his Compass, he aligned the Heavenly Pool and tracked the yin-yang constellations. Finally, he determined that this entire formation was laid out over a grand tomb, and its focal point was Jiangcheng."

"In his shock, my ancestor also took an interest in the grand tomb's formation. To capture the flood dragon, he borrowed the might of the grand formation, using the feng shui of a hundred li as pressure to suppress the beast beneath Jiangcheng, denying its ascension to heaven."

Tossing back another cup of wine, Blind Liu continued. "The flood dragon was pinned beneath Jiangcheng, but because of this, my ancestor also became entangled in the karma of Jiangcheng. Buried within this grand tomb of a city is a figure with hands and eyes reaching the sky. Anyone who forms ties with Jiangcheng, who touches a single blade of grass or takes a single brick from this city, can never escape its karma."

"And it is exactly because of this that the Liu family has been unable to leave Jiangcheng for generations. Every generation must have one person trapped here to repay that karmic debt."

"Over the span of five hundred years, the Liu family has exhausted every possible method to repay this karma, but the curse remains unbroken. Our forefathers deduced that the problem most likely lies with the flood dragon."

"As long as it remains trapped and cannot ascend, the Liu family will never know peace." Blind Liu let out a long sigh. To my ears, this story sounded no different from a myth. It was hard to imagine that these were the actual instructions passed down generation after generation, recorded in the Liu family's genealogy.

I could see how heavily this weighed on Blind Liu, and I wanted to comfort him. "If that's the case, why don't you just release the flood dragon? Once it ascends to heaven, your family will be free to leave this place."

"How could it be that simple? Releasing the flood dragon requires breaking the grand formation. Once the trapped dragon ascends, no one will be able to control it, and the entire city will be buried alongside it."

"Would it really be that horrific?" The more I listened, the more insane this sounded. Jiangcheng wasn't massive, but it certainly wasn't small either. Having the entire city buried with it sounded far too exaggerated.

"The stakes are too high. We cannot act rashly." Blind Liu had probably sighed more times today than he had in his entire life. Finally, he brought the topic back to me. "That is why I hope you can master the Dragon-Capturing Technique. If there truly comes a day when the flood dragon breaks free, the lives of every soul in this city will rest in your hands alone."

Hearing Blind Liu's words, I could only respond with a bitter smile. As I flipped through the Underworld Live Show Phone's item catalog, I suddenly noticed a glaring pattern. 'The updates to the Underworld Live Show's item catalog are always highly targeted. Last time, a bunch of items explaining formations appeared, and now the Dragon-Capturing Technique Catalog drops directly into the shop. Is the Live Show trying to give me a hint?'

Looking at the Dragon-Capturing Technique Catalog, which required fifty-five points to exchange, the bitter smile faded from my face and my brows slowly knit together. 'Jiangcheng, the flood dragon, the grand tomb, the Underworld Live Show... is there some kind of connection between them all?'

I looked up at Blind Liu and asked, "Old Liu, did your ancestors leave behind any records about Jiangcheng's feng shui grand formation? It doesn't have to be detailed. Just tell me its primary purpose."

"This formation was completed over a millennium ago. Its specific purpose can no longer be verified. You can only find scattered clues in ancient scriptures: this formation was built solely to bury a single person. As for that person's identity, their appearance, and their name, they have all been completely erased by time, leaving nothing but a blank slate."

Blind Liu's words sparked a sudden realization in me. Being entirely erased from the world without leaving a single trace behind... this was exactly the Underworld Live Show's style.

"Bury a single person?" When I attended the Underworld Live Show's interview, three examiners had appeared wearing Paper Doll Masks. But I still remembered one specific detail: all three of them were nearly identical in height and build. Only their voices, and the wear and tear on the Paper Doll Masks they wore, were slightly different.

'Could it be that the three of them were actually the same person? The person buried in this grand tomb for a millennium is the master of the Underworld Live Show?' A cold sweat broke out over my skin at my own deduction. 'I have too few clues. This is all baseless speculation. If I want to learn more, it seems I have no choice but to make a trip to No-Lights Road myself.'