On the afternoon that day, Jiang Xiu left the province by taking a plane to Pinghai through Chuanzhou. He planned to take that mystical stone from Xie Sanxian.
"Mr. Jiang…"
Xie Sanxian appeared at the airport lobby to welcome him. His body still hasn't recovered completely. He had a pale face and should have been resting at home, but since his benefactor had come to visit him, he insisted on welcoming Jiang Xiu personally.
Jiang Xiu swept his gaze by him. His body didn't have any traces of divine force now, and he was already recovering to a normal human without a hitch. "Looks like you're doing well."
Xie Sanxian smiled, "All of this is due to Mr. Jiang. If it weren't for you, I would've remained a monster and lost my life. Please follow me, my car is outside…"
After seeing that Jiang Xiu didn't have any luggage bags, Xie Sanxian thought that he was truly a person who lived freely.
Xie Sanxian possessed a Benz 600, it was quite a luxurious car. In the year 2008, only the elite rich people drove this car. They went directly to his home.
"We're almost there!"
Xie Sanxian's house was a manor. This made Jiang Xiu reassess Xie Sanxian's financial resources once again, there was no doubt he possessed assets at least worth 100 million.
"Mr. Jiang, welcome to our humble abode…"
Xie Sanxian's wife stood outside the doorway and greeted him when they got down the car. She felt heartfelt gratitude towards Jiang Xiu for saving her husband and her home.
"I'll be troubling you!"
Xie Sanxian's wife was called Chu'e.
They had actually arranged a feast for him as a welcome reception, but Jiang Xiu was more interested in the stone, so he went to their backcourt garden after entering the house.
Along the way, he saw plenty of antiques with distinctive styles arranged all over the place.
"It's buried over there…"
Xie Sanxian took Jiang Xiu towards a corner of the garden. He stood 30-40 m far from that location as he was worried about the radiation from it.
Jiang Xiu dug the earth while Xie Sanxian stood a few meters away. Soon after, Jiang Xiu unearthed a brocade box. Jiang Xiu was a bit astonished to see a seal on the box.
"Where did this seal come from?"
"To tell the truth, after I fell ill back then, I went to find a Shaman. He told me that an evil spirit was possessing my body, so he held a ritual then sealed the stone. I felt comfortable for a few days after that, but it became useless soon after." Xie Sanxian explained.
Jiang Xiu brought the box out and sat down at the stone table beside the water fountain, feeling astonished, "This thing is quite strange, to think that a talisman could affect it…"
A Talisman could accept only energies. For example, Baleful energy, Yin energy, Ghastly energy, yet this stone was able to invoke divine race evolution on an ordinary human. This was quite strange.
"Mr. Xie, perhaps you aren't telling me the truth?" Jiang Xiu questioned him.
Xie Sanxian made an embarrassed face, "Looks like I couldn't hide it from Mr. Jiang. You're right, this matter isn't as what I told you. Actually, I also didn't wish to conceal it from you. I hadn't bought that stone with money, but it's something passed down in my family. This stone has another name, Longevity Stone."
"Longevity Stone!"
This name did match its characteristics. If it was used to cultivate, it was a top-notch treasure to increase one's lifespan.
"Indeed. According to the words left behind by my ancestor, this stone could allow a human to love for a hundred years, and it even exaggerated that it could bring a person back from the throes of death."
"Where did your ancestor get this stone from?"
"From a tomb outside the country."
Jiang Xiu pursed his brows, "It was dug out from a grave?"
"Whose grave was it? Did it have a dead body?"
Xie Sanxian shook his head, "I don't know. It had happened long ago and is only passed down in my Xie family through the mouth. Circumstances like this hadn't happened back then, it only happened to me."
Jiang Xiu nodded then peeled the talisman off the box before opening it. An ordinary goose egg sized stone was arranged within it. He held it within his hands.
"Mr. Jiang, please be careful."
Jiang Xiu smiled coolly in response to it. The ice-cold stone warmed up when he held it in his hands, making his hand scald up. Jiang Xiu couldn't figure out the material of the stone as he never researched into that field. As for the hardness, it wasn't that hard. He could crush it to pieces if he clenched it tightly.
When he held it tighter, glowing red characters appeared on the stone. Jiang Xiu couldn't recognize these characters. He was surprised at this because he had done a lot of research on characters, and it could be said that he was specialized in it. These characters didn't conform to the standard rules, and it was possible a person had created them so it was normal that Jiang Xiu couldn't make them out.
After holding the stone in hand for a while, Jiang Xiu felt the divine race bloodline in his body evolve.
"Mr. Jiang, are you fine?"
Jiang Xiu shook his head then stood up while holding the stone. According to his inference, the possibility that this stone was a remnant of the ancient divine race was quite high, "Do you have more stones like this?"
This kind of stone which had characters on it wasn't used for cultivation. It was more probable that it was used to record characters on it as at that time, the divine race didn't have paper and brushes, so they wrote on top of stones and used these stones for communication. There was a high possibility that there was important information left behind on the stone.
Xie Sanxian shook his head, "We don't. Mr. Jiang thinks that there isn't only one of it?"
"There should be at least 6-8 of them."
By looking at the energy released from the characters, he surmised that it was either a six-word spell or an eight-word spell.
"Mr. Jiang, if that's the case, was the reason I fell ill because this stone is damaged?"
Jiang Xiu knew what Xie Sanxian was thinking about. As the stone is so mystical, he believed his ancestor's words, "It's not that. The reason you changed into that… was that you couldn't bear the radioactive energy released by the stone."
Xie Sanxian sighed helplessly, he still had lingering fears from the change he went through, "Although this stone has been passed down by my ancestors, I, unfortunately, cannot keep it. I'll gift it to you, Mr. Jiang!"
Jiang Xiu naturally didn't refuse it and accepted it as he had come for this stone, "Did your ancestor pass down where this grave is?"
A servant brought tea over at this moment.
Xie Sanxian drank a cup of tea and recommended Jiang Xiu to drink as well, "This matter dates back to the Ming Dynasty era. My ancestor held a position in the army was his job was to guard the lands to the west of Pinghai, close to the Western Regions. Once, he entered deep into the hinterland of the desert while pursuing robbers and lost his way there."
Jiang Xiu imagined the scene along with Xie Sanxian's words, visualizing the horses dashing on the Western Region's sand dunes.
"The desert was very awful, and much more dangerous than battling with the enemies. With a single mistake, it was possible to get buried under the sand forever."
"After spending 7 days in the desert, their rank of 1000 people had dwindled down to a hundred people. They had run out of food and water by then and were entirely exhausted, without even the strength to walk. When they believed that they would die, a city appeared in front of them."
"My ancestor and their soldiers entered the city full of joy, but after going inside, they discovered that this city was actually a grave. A large tomb extruded up from the ground, and the place was full of giant sculptures of Gods or Buddha. They were also surprised by the fact that the people inside this city possessed extraordinary strength. Even a child among the natives could defeat the strongest fighter among them."
Jiang Xiu was faintly thrilled.
"This stone was gifted to my ancestor by the natives there before he left the place."
Although he had spoken so much, he had yet to touch on the most important topic, the location of the tomb.
"Roughly 3 years ago, the tomb of the placed called as the Sahagan Ancient City by the Ming Dynasty was discovered by an archaeological team. However, there were no living beings inside, and only ruins remained. According to the historians, it was possible the city had fallen due to the climatic change, and it got submerged down the sand due to the shift in the desert's tectonic plates."
Jiang Xiu took note of Xie Sanxian's face. After making a careful observation, he noticed that it had a western feel to it. His daughter was the same too. Jiang Xiu thought that Xie Ting's facial features were especially pretty.
It looked like this Xie Sanxian wasn't a purebred Han Chinese person.