Chapter 1349 - 1025: Lethal Intentions Everywhere

Lu Xiao’s gaze was originally a mix of panic and numbness. When she saw this handkerchief, she was momentarily at a loss, instinctively took it without knowing what to do. But when she thought of something, and looked down carefully, she immediately recognized it, and her charming eyes were instantly filled with disbelief.

She looked up at Wang Shaoqiu: "How did you—"

Wang Shaoqiu continued to look at her.

The entire stone chamber fell silent instantly.

The Turkic soldiers were completely ignorant of the intertwined hatred between these two people and did not understand what the seemingly ordinary half-new, half-old handkerchief meant. But standing behind Lu Xiao, Lei Yu fully understood; she was also somewhat incredulous. Yet at this moment, actions spoke louder than words.

She looked gravely at Wang Shaoqiu’s face, feeling her hand on Lu Xiao’s shoulder trembling uncontrollably. For a moment, it seemed as though she too was being engulfed by some sudden tide of emotion, nearly suffocating.

Wang Shaoqiu he—

While Lu Xiao was in utter chaos, with a thousand thoughts bubbling in her mind like water boiling in a pot, she seemed to genuinely hear some sounds of water nearby.

At this moment, the previously quiet and dazed observers of Lu Xiao and Wang Shaoqiu suddenly noticed something. Someone shouted: "What is that!"

Everyone quickly turned their heads in the direction the person pointed, and they were all taken aback!

A stream of water suddenly flowed down the corridor they came from, quickly spreading across the stone chamber’s floor. In a moment, it reached their feet. The Turkic soldiers standing on the outermost ring stepped on the water and hurriedly dodged, immediately furrowing their brows and inhaling sharply, as if smelling something.

Li Miao and Gao Chen twitched their noses and immediately recognized it: "It’s tung oil!"

"What!?"

Upon hearing this, everyone was even more shocked, but before they could react, several planks flew out from the corridor, along with falling wood shavings, quickly covering the doorway into the stone chamber.

Then, a flame flickered from outside, slowly approaching.

A familiar face appeared outside the cave.

It was Young Master Jia!

He wore black clothes, his thin figure seemingly ready to be swallowed by the surrounding darkness at any moment. Fortunately, he held a torch high in his hand, illuminating his unkempt beard and mustaches, and those eyes brimming with killing intent.

"You—"

Seeing him appear behind them, and noticing the tung oil on the ground and the freshly piled wood clearly meant to burn them and block the stone chamber’s occupants’ escape, Ashina Zhuxie immediately understood. His face turned cobalt blue as he stepped forward: "How dare you—"

Young Master Jia’s thick beard trembled slightly, as if he were laughing, but no one could see his smile, only the chilling cold in his eyes.

He spoke coldly: "Khan, why so?"

Only then did everyone finally hear his voice clearly.

Because he no longer deliberately suppressed his tone, his voice was not only youthful but also resounding and full of vigor. It was not only clearly a young man’s voice, but also evidenced his robust physique, revealing him as a martial artist!

He said slowly: "As the saying goes, ’For wealth, a person will die; for food, a bird will perish.’ Since you have come for the treasure of Left General’s Tomb, you must be prepared to be buried with it; otherwise, how can you call it ’dying for wealth’?"

Ashina Zhuxie was startled, his eyes widened.

Meanwhile, Wang Shaoqiu’s face had turned crimson, but his lips were beginning to turn blue, and the blood vessels in his eyes were bulging as if they might burst from his bloodshot eyes, making him look particularly ghastly and terrifying. In a hoarse voice, he said: "You, so this really is, the Left General’s Tomb?"

Young Master Jia coldly looked at his clearly poisoned appearance and replied: "Does it matter if it is or not, to someone about to die?"

"..."

"Just remember, it was your brother who forced my brother to death, so today, you should pay with your life here."

Upon hearing this, the others had no immediate reaction, but only Lei Yu and Li Miao frowned, while Lu Xiao gasped suddenly, and her grip on the silk handkerchief tightened.

She had followed Xiao Yuansui and participated in the Zuo Family’s rebellion, while Li Miao and Gao Chen, although not involved in quelling the rebellion, had heard of the wars of those days. They all knew that even though Zuo Heng’s rebellion was suppressed by the loyal armies of various regions back then, it was ultimately the Right屯卫将军 Wang Shaoji who encircled Zuo Heng!

However, at that time, Wang Shaoqiu was recuperating due to illness and did not participate in the battle.

Thus, he had never met anyone related to it.

For example—

"Are you Zuo Tian?"

At this moment, Lu Xiao finally recovered some of her composure from the initial shock. She quietly got up and walked to the front of the crowd, gaining just enough light to see that unkempt, unrecognizable face clearly. Yet she still couldn’t believe it and said: "You, you are really Zuo Tian?"

Those sharp eyes only glanced at her before turning away coldly.

Ashina Zhuxie silently stepped forward, standing in front of everyone, stepping on the tung oil that had accumulated under his feet. The pungent odor finally became clear, and his mind cleared a little, guessing that this tomb passage, this chamber, was likely dug by this "Young Master Jia" long ago for burying the headless corpse in the coffin; judging from his arrangements here and his guarded demeanor, he might have long anticipated that people would come seeking Left General’s Tomb at Skytop Mountain to find him. So, along that corridor, he probably dug another hard-to-detect tunnel as a hiding place, and stored tung oil in it.

Earlier, taking advantage of the others opening the coffin and the pungent smell inside confusing their sense of smell, he managed to sprinkle the tung oil unnoticed.

And when the others were startled by the poisonous snakes, they didn’t have time to notice that he moved that pile of wood shavings from the outer corridor to block the entrance—perhaps those wood shavings were the leftover lumber from making the thin wooden coffin.

Understanding all this, Ashina Zhuxie’s eyes flickered with a cold light.

He said: "What do you want to do?"

Young Master Jia replied coldly: "What can I do?"

"..."

"All these years, I only wanted some peace, but I knew that there are always people in the world who won’t allow me or my family to have peace."

"..."

"So now, I want to get rid of those who prevent my peace and reclaim my peace."

With that, he bent down, ready to ignite the tung oil on the ground with the torch in his hand.