System: Infinite Evolution into Qilin Bloodline

"More than four hundred years ago, the First Emperor entered the Qinling Mountains and never came out again. I don't know exactly what happened, but I heard that a new method of immortality was discovered deep in the Qinling Mountains."

Zhang Hao could tell that Zhao Gao wasn't lying. A shrewd man like him knew he was no match for Zhang Hao, and he knew what he had to do to have a chance of survival.

However, someone like Zhao Gao, who knew about the existence of the Wu and Zhang families, was a ticking time bomb as long as he was alive, and he was likely to leak the information later.

Therefore, from the very beginning, Zhang Hao had no intention of giving him a chance to live.

Zhao Gao realized that Zhang Hao had nothing more to say and knew that he would die soon if he didn't have any bargaining chips.

He gritted his teeth and said, "I have lived for thousands of years and accumulated countless riches, cultivation techniques, and secret skills. Even if you don't need them, your family will always find them useful."

Those things could make your Zhang family surpass the Wang family. If you let me go, all those things are yours!

"hehe!"

Zhang Hao grinned, and with a thought, he activated his self-defense ability once again.

The vanished vines suddenly reappeared out of thin air, rushing straight forward.

It pierced Zhao Gao's body as easily as piercing tofu.

Then they saw his flesh and blood being absorbed by the vines, and in the blink of an eye, Zhao Gao became a skin and bones dried-up corpse.

Nourished by flesh and blood, the vines' metallic luster intensified, making them indistinguishable from bronze at first glance.

Zhang Hao never expected that the abilities he gained after fusing with the Nine Deaths Shocking Armor were related to it, and that he could actually strengthen himself by absorbing flesh and blood.

If this ability is properly cultivated in the future, allowing him to absorb even more powerful entities, it could very well become a terrifying means of attack.

After dealing with Zhao Gao, Zhang Hao did not leave immediately.

He emitted sound waves in all directions, using them to locate and probe his surroundings.

When he received the reflected sound waves, he noticed a floorboard on the floor of the secret room.

He strode forward, approached the floorboard, squatted down, and punched the floor.

With a loud bang, the floor shattered, revealing a downward staircase.

There was a hidden room beneath the hidden room. If it weren't for the ability to locate objects with sound waves, who would have thought of this?

Zhang Hao followed the steps down and soon arrived at a secret underground room the size of a basketball court.

The secret room was filled with all sorts of antiques, medicinal herbs, and some rare and exotic animals.

Compared to the antiques in the sunken ship at Zuyuan Jintang, the ones in the secret room are obviously much better.

[Ding! Special item detected: Riverwood Collection!]

As soon as Zhang Hao entered the secret room, a system notification sounded in his mind.

Since gaining the ability to reorganize and acquiring the items from the sunken Ancestral Golden Soup ship, ordinary special items no longer interest Zhang Hao, since he already has thousands of items of the same level in his storage space.

But Hemuji is different. Zhang Hao had seen an introduction to Hemuji in the old man Wu's notebook before.

Legend has it that during the Warring States period, there was an army in Shaanxi Province composed entirely of mute people, and they were known as the Mute Army.

Such a team may seem unusual, but it was actually intentional.

The army of the mute was formed by a prince at the time. His purpose in forming this army was actually to rob tombs and obtain the wealth inside to pay for the army's expenses.

They searched for ancient tombs all over the country, excavating those that could be dug up on the spot, and recording the locations of those that couldn't be dug up.

A book composed of the locations of countless ancient tombs is called the River Wood Collection.

Although the names are different, their function is the same as the water demon's Golden Soup Manual: to record the location and characteristics of ancient tombs.

The Jin Tang Pu records ancient tombs that are underwater, while the He Mu Ji records ancient tombs that are on land.

With these two ancient books, there is no tomb in the world that cannot be found.

Zhang Hao found the Riverwood Collection among the many antiques and began to peruse it.

“All ancient tombs in the world are different. Large ancient tombs contain countless mechanisms and traps, but the wealth inside is incomparable to that of ordinary ancient tombs.”

The prince categorized all ancient tombs in the world into three levels: Heaven, Earth, and Man, based on the amount of wealth inside and the difficulty of excavation.

The wealth within a top-tier ancient tomb is comparable to that of a nation, but it is often accompanied by deadly traps and mechanisms, and is usually guarded by terrifying tomb-guarding beasts.

The ancient tomb at the county level is comparable to the traps and mechanisms within the city that can kill seven out of three people.

The ancient tomb, at the human level, is comparable to the traps and mechanisms within the county that could kill five and save five times over.

The prince who compiled the River Wood Collection actually classified ancient tombs into different levels according to the amount of stuff inside and the difficulty of excavation.

Curious, Zhang Hao continued flipping through the pages to see what kind of ancient tomb could be classified as Heavenly.

The Mausoleum of King Tai of Zhou: A top-tier ancient tomb, the tomb of King Wen of Zhou's grandfather. Jiang Ziya participated in its design and construction; unauthorized entry is a death sentence. (Unexcavated)

Jiang Ziya's Tomb: A top-tier ancient tomb, its interior is even more dangerous than the tomb of King Tai of Zhou. (Unexcavated)

……

The Royal Mausoleum of Ku: A celestial-level ancient tomb, not only riddled with traps and mechanisms, but also guarded by the divine beast Zhujiuyin. (Excavation unsuccessful)

Zhang Hao was startled when he saw the Mausoleum of the Kingdom of She. If he remembered correctly, the enormous bronze sacred tree deep in the Qinling Mountains was built by the people of She.

Their royal tombs are located beneath the bronze sacred tree.

Unexpectedly, the mute army had tried to dig before, but without success.

The fact that even a well-trained army failed to dig it up shows how dangerous it was.

Zhang Hao did not continue flipping through the pages, but instead studied the section about the Ku Kingdom's tombs in detail.

"A thousand strange and wondrous things, captivating sounds, and bewitching winds..."

"Uh……"

Zhang Hao discovered that the descriptions of ancient tombs in Hemuji were very abstract, and there were basically no specific descriptions of monsters, mechanisms, or traps.

In short, it's very dangerous.

However, it does have one important function: it marks the exact location of the ancient tomb.

Previously, when Old Ma was selling the hexagonal bronze he had picked from the sacred tree at the Qinling altar in Beijing, he told Zhang Hao the exact location of the altar.

Zhang Hao compared that location with the one on Hemuji, and the distance was very close, which meant that Hemuji was real, and the location given by Lao Ma was also real.

Once the location of the Qinling Sacred Tree was determined, the rest became very simple; once everything was ready, we could head there directly.

Zhang Hao continued deeper into the secret room.

When he reached the middle position, the system notification sounded again.

[Ding! Rare item: Square Mirror!]

"A square mirror?"

Zhang Hao was shocked when he heard the system notification.

The square mirror also has another name, the Qin King's Bone-Illuminating Mirror. Legend has it that it can clearly see a person's internal organs and see through a person's heart.

The First Emperor relied on it to distinguish between loyalty and treachery; it could immediately detect even the slightest hint of disloyalty.

As the saying goes, the hardest thing to guess is the human heart. With such a treasure, what is there that cannot be seen through?

After the Qin Dynasty fell, the Bone-Illuminating Mirror also disappeared.

Who would have thought that Zhao Gao would collect it and hide it in a secret room!