Nine Star Burden

“Every supportive member has a fatherly heart.”

“Mm… Daddy Xiaopi~ please give me a shot of blessing, just one, alright~”

“Daddy Xiaopi, it’s my birthday today, can you kowtow to me?”

“Daddy Xiaopi, your bird is so small (smiling emoji).”

Su Rou looked at the numerous pop-up messages in her live-stream and couldn’t help but twitch her lips a little.

At this moment, Jiang Xiao was walking forward properly while the bird on his head chirped and bounced around. However, he dared not be mischievous anymore.

After all, um… he had just wiped off the shoe print on his butt.

Xia Yan looked at Jiang Xiao walking next to Han Jiangxue and couldn’t help but snicker to herself. She hadn’t seen Han Jiangxue executing her house rules for a long time. She wondered, Did Xuexue react so intensely because she doesn’t like her sister-in-law?

Xiao Chumo from Cainan Province is so beautiful and gentle. She’s even a rare Medical Awakened. She should be good enough for Xiaopi and is way out of his league, right? 

Could it be… that she thinks Xiaopi isn’t good enough for Xiao Chumo? Is she afraid that Xiaopi might end up harming her instead? 

The more Xia Yan thought about it, the more she felt that her conjecture was correct.

Under the bird’s guidance, everyone actually really found the entrance to the next floor.

It was in a pitch dark stone staircase corridor. They couldn’t even see their fingers.

Li Weiyi raised his long-handled hammer and ignited some flames on it, allowing it to serve as a large “torch,” which played a very good role in lighting up the path for them.

They made their way down, and when they finally reached the bottom, they were greeted by a large stone door.

Stone door? 

What’s going on? Why weren’t there any stone doors on the first few floors? 

Li Weiyi held onto the blazing hammer and shone it around, but they didn’t find any contraptions.

Xia Yan also stepped forward and raised her giant burning sword, shining it at the heavy stone door.

To everyone’s surprise, the stone door was extremely exquisite, and a huge portrait of a person was carved on it!

“Ah~” Xia Yan was startled and took a step back subconsciously.

The portrait of the figure on the door was colorless and was only made up of simple lines, but the carving was rather vivid. It seemed like it was about to come to life, making others afraid that it might really resurrect at any time and jump out of the door to kill everyone.

What’s going on? 

Jiang Xiao whispered, “Do the Ancient Warriors have such a flair for painting?”

Han Jiangxue said with certainty, “It’s not stated on the information sheet.”

Jiang Xiao’s eyes lit up, and he said, “Surely it can’t be artificial?”

Han Jiangxue asked, “Huh?”

He shrugged and said, “The barracks of the guardians of the fifth underground floor should be behind the door. Aren’t they stationed here every day?”

Han Jiangxue nodded, seemingly deep in thought. The question was: Was this door the only one carved by the guardians, or were the ones in the first few floors also carved by them?

If it were the latter, the amount of effort would be massive!

“Hey…” Jiang Xiao stepped forward, gently placed his right hand on the stone door, and touched the huge portrait of the Soul Of The Ancient Warrior. “Do you guys smell something?”

Everyone hurriedly began sniffing around, then their noses crinkled.

They looked at each other in puzzlement, for they really didn’t smell anything.

Li Weiyi, in particular, was filled with bewilderment because he was the only contestant with the Star Technique Perception.

What did Jiang Xiao smell? Why didn’t I smell it?

Xiong Chumo couldn’t help but ask, “What did you smell?”

Jiang Xiao gently stroked the exquisitely crafted portrait on the stone door with one hand, looked down, and sighed softly before saying, “The smell of loneliness.”

Xiong Chumo was speechless.

Everyone else was dumbfounded.

Far away in Jiangbin City, Su Rou, biting onto her straw and drinking some lemon and pomelo tea, spurted the beverage out.

While coughing, she hurriedly grabbed a few tissue papers on the table and quickly used them to wipe her camera.

“You’re the first host on the internet to spit at me. I followed you~”

“After you finish your drink, don’t throw the lemon and pomelo away. Send them to me with a straw and let me have a taste of it.”

“@ZhouCang, come out and get beaten up!”

“King of being impressive! Is that you? King! Why are you wearing Jiang Xiaopi’s clothes?”

“King of being impressive! @Zhou-Cang-from-Qicheng-High-School, since when did you join the competition?”

“@ZhouCang, it’s all your fault for leading Daddy Xiaopi astray. I’m going to punch you with my little fist~ o(`^ ́)o”

“Bai Yipeng.” Li Weiyi stepped forward and pushed Jiang Xiao away, who was posing with his head hung low.

“Coming.” Bai Yipeng walked towards him and helped him push the other side of the stone door. Holding the heavy stone door, they yelled, “1, 2, 3!”

The huge and heavy stone door slowly opened, and they saw several figures standing at the door, once again giving them a great shock.

They could tell that they were the guardians.

Appearing rather serious and stern, the soldiers said, “You’re now on the fifth underground floor of the Ancient Imperial Mausoleum. The fact that you’ve made it here means that you have a bright future. Don’t try to put up a brave front and end up losing your lives.”

After the few of them nodded, the guardians turned around to leave.

However, they weren’t actually leaving since their base camp was right next to them, in a huge stone house with torches that illuminated the space, making it look like daytime.

Unlike the base camps on the other floors, an exquisite portrait of the Souls Of The Ancient Warrior could be seen outside the stone house.

Some of the Souls Of The Ancient Warrior were standing, some were lying on their sides, while some were raising their palms to give orders. In short, they all had different appearances.

If it were just a portrait, Jiang Xiao would think that the person who carved it was impressive, but the fact that there were numerous Souls Of The Ancient Warrior being carved terrified him.

Is this guy a big fan of the Souls Of The Ancient Warrior?

There are still people who fancy these old zombies with white hair?

Carving Ancient Archer Generals and Ancient Archers would at least be better than these old and hideous Souls Of The Ancient Warrior.

Look at those nurses in the silent hills. They don’t have faces at all, and yet, they have plenty of fans. 

Aren’t all men lecherous? 

Who cares if you have a face or not? Who cares if you’re trying to stab my buttocks with a small needle? As long as you’re curvy in all the right places, I’ll like you… 

Jiang Xiao wondered, This Soul Of The Ancient Warrior doesn’t have a nice physical appearance, and it’s a male too. How is it in any way attractive? 

Since you’re in for the thrills, you decided to go all the way? 

Since you already have necrophilia, you can add old male corpses to your list of fetishes…

Xiong Chumo reluctantly released the yellow-green parrot again and said, “Go, help Mommy… Uh, help me look for the treasure chest.”

They took a closer look and found that the entrance to this floor was not in the vast open space but inside the stone corridor, and there was only one way to go.

After walking for less than a minute, they began to hear some clanking sounds.

It could be because they were relatively close to the base camp of the guardians, so they had yet to encounter the Ancient Warriors.

Upon hearing such noises in the dark and gloomy corridor, everyone hurriedly got into battle mode. They carefully turned around and saw the flickering light in the distance.

Is that a torch?

Li Weiyi looked over and saw a figure in a dark cloak.

The figure was standing on the ladder, holding a chisel in one hand and a small hammer in the other while concentrating on carving something on the wall.

The group looked at each other and stepped forward.

To their surprise, the closer they got to the cloaked man, the more bewildered and horrified they felt.

He was hitting the hammer against the chisel rhythmically, almost maintaining a speed in tandem with everyone’s heartbeat.

Afterward, the cloaked man moved faster and faster!

The chisel was slammed against the stone wall, but it seemed to hit their hearts.

The crisp sound suddenly sped up in accordance with the rhythm of everyone’s heartbeat. Their breathing became disordered, and they were almost out of breath.

“Ding… ding… ding… ding.. ding. ding.”

Just as everyone passed by behind the cloaked man, a sudden loud noise was heard!

“Ding!” The cloaked man stopped abruptly, stepped on the ladder, and remained silent.

While breathing erratically, they looked at him and remained silent.

Han Jiangxue shot them a glance and hinted for them to speed up, which they did, and left quickly.

What surprised Jiang Xiao was that the ugly potholes on the wall in front of the cloaked man were far different from the exquisite stone carvings they had seen before.

They left quickly.

After a while, the cloaked man slowly made his way down the ladder, turned around, and looked at the figure disappearing at the end of the corridor.

Only the lower half of his face could be seen clearly under the hood. It was covered in fine stubble.

He stood quietly in the middle of the corridor while staring at the end of it. Anyone would find it somewhat bizarre.

After a long time, the cloaked man finally moved. His long cloak was suddenly blown upwards by a gust of wind that swept across from behind.

The ladder placed against the wall was swept away by the strong wind, and stone chips flew around.

After everything settled down, the originally exquisite appearance of the hideous and peculiar shape on the wall was finally revealed.

To be precise, the potholes on the long stone corridor formed exquisite patterns.

It wasn’t the carving of an individual, and all the carvings on the long corridor could be described as a huge masterpiece.

However, the scene seemed too bloody.

It seemed to be telling the story of an encounter between the Soul Of The Ancient Warrior and a team of four human beings.

The scene spanned across their meeting, all the way to their deaths. The scene was extremely tragic.

The first member of the team was crushed by a Bone Wall and was turned into pieces.

The second member of the team seemed to have been buried alive in the pile of corpses.

The third member of the team was imprisoned in the Bone Prison while crying and yelling loudly.

The last member pressed on the wall by the Soul Of The Ancient Warrior and, at last… was nailed onto the wall with a stone chisel and a stone hammer by the Soul Of The Ancient Warrior!

Soul Of The Ancient Warrior?

Used a stone chisel and stone hammer?

Unfortunately, no one could appreciate the scene because the gust of wind had also extinguished the torch.

The wind howled again behind the cloaked man and seemed to cut the exquisite carvings like daggers. At last, the bloody artwork was shattered.

Carrying the small stone chisel and a small stone hammer, the cloaked man walked forward in the direction where the team disappeared…