Chapter 11 - 7: Pre-Qin
In this day and age.
Tomb raiding...
Oh, no!
The work of cultural relic excavation and preservation...
This has become a golden profession, one that countless people yearn for and envy.
The current Martial Dao originated from the "Xing Yi Quan Foundational Diagram," created by the Late Ming and Early Qing martial artist, Ji Jike.
That thing was dug up from an ancient tomb by grave robbers and was later confiscated by the authorities.
When you think about it, although the age of the Martial Dao has lasted for nearly three hundred years, in the grand scheme of civilization, this period is but a tiny, insignificant splash.
A mere three hundred years is not enough time to develop the Martial Dao from scratch to its current scale. That would be nothing short of a fool’s dream.
In fact...
The current brilliance of the Martial Dao is indeed built upon the legacy of its predecessors.
According to research in the archaeological community, it has been clearly proven that what humanity is currently experiencing is not the first Spiritual Energy Revival.
Long ago, during the mysterious Pre-Qin Era of the Hundred Schools of Thought, this planet experienced a magnificent Spiritual Energy Revival!
The ones who dominated that era of Spiritual Energy Revival were—the Pre-Qin Qi Cultivators!
The Martial Dao of the current era was only able to advance and develop so rapidly by excavating a large number of ancient tombs belonging to the Pre-Qin Qi Cultivators.
You have to understand.
When it comes to things like Cultivation Techniques, the higher the level, the harder they are to create from thin air, especially the widely applicable ones.
Moreover, the current Martial Dao is still in its infancy, lacking a deep foundation, which makes creating high-level Cultivation Techniques even more difficult.
But digging up tombs...
That’s much simpler!
As long as you can successfully find and open a major tomb of a Pre-Qin Qi Cultivator, it means there’s a high probability of obtaining a high-level Cultivation Technique from their era.
Even... those coveted Miracle Medicines and Divine Weapons imbued with strange powers are often sealed in the depths of the tombs, along with ancient remains and dust!
The current Blue Star is only in the Spiritual Energy Revival stage.
The very word ’Revival’ clearly explains the current situation. The Spiritual Qi on Blue Star has not yet reached its peak concentration, so it cannot produce high-grade Spirit Grasses and Spirit Ores.
This means that humanity’s current Alchemy and Artifact Refining industries are constrained by the environment; they cannot use the materials currently available on Blue Star to create high-tier Pills or high-tier Weapons.
Take Weapons, for example.
The level of a Weapon is divided into nine tiers, from Tier One to Tier Nine, corresponding to the nine realms of a Martial Artist.
However, with Blue Star’s current materials and forging techniques, the absolute peak of what can be crafted is merely "Tier Three"!
For high-level Martial Artists whose realms have surpassed the mundane and who crave greater power, the only hope of finding a suitable, well-matched Weapon is to look for one in a tomb.
Therefore.
That’s why Lin Yi felt that Luo Qian’s old man was a true badass!
No wonder the man was the number one tycoon in Yang City!
’If you want to get rich, you’ve got to raid a tomb!’
It was a golden rule!
Luo Qian said with a bitter smile:
"My old man is a badass, sure, but the old bastard screws over his own son! Back when he went tomb raiding, he brought some ’unclean thing’ back with him! Later, that thing latched onto me, and now it follows me around, stealing my Qi and Blood every day. That’s why I can’t increase my Qi and Blood levels."
Listening to Luo Qian’s words.
Lin Yi froze for a moment.
’Wait a minute...’
’This plot... it’s a bit familiar!’
’A wise old master in a trinket!’
’Stealing his Qi and Blood every day!’
’Holy crap, you’ve got the ’Battle Through the Heavens’ template!’
’Turns out you’re the real protagonist!’
’I wonder which is stronger, my own ’system’ template or Luo Qian’s ’Battle Through the Heavens’ template.’
Lin Yi suddenly asked, "Hey, Luo, have you had an engagement broken off?"
Luo Qian was taken aback. "What kind of question is that? I’ve never even been engaged, so how could the engagement be broken off?"
Lin Yi nodded, relieved.
’Looks like I’m still the protagonist after all!’
Luo Qian felt a bit helpless in the face of Lin Yi’s crazy talk.
’I’m talking to you about the unclean thing from the tomb, and you’re asking me about marriage arrangements?’
’What’s up with that?’
’Did you think my dad arranged a marriage for me from inside a tomb or something?’
Lin Yi stared at Luo Qian and suddenly smiled.
"You’re carrying a huge secret, and you’re actually telling me? Aren’t you afraid I’ll spread it around?"
Luo Qian looked completely unconcerned.
"Spread it if you want. To be honest, that unclean thing is driving me crazy. If this keeps up, I’ll probably never become a Martial Artist in this lifetime!"
"The key is, I don’t even know what that unclean thing is. I’ve had full-body scans with machines, and they can’t detect a thing!"
"Not long ago, my old man took me to a biological research institute, and those guys actually said I was hallucinating due to the pressure of my bad grades! They told me to see a psychiatrist! Can you believe that crap?!"
"Hahaha..." Lin Yi let out a merciless laugh at Luo Qian’s painful experience.
It wasn’t that he wanted to laugh.
He just couldn’t help it!
To think that someone with the magnificent ’Battle Through the Heavens’ template was being treated like a mental patient!
This was just too damn interesting!
Luo Qian had told him this because he considered him a true friend, so naturally, Lin Yi wouldn’t leak his secret.
Lin Yi figured the unclean thing on Luo Qian was either a fatal danger or a great opportunity.
The Luo family couldn’t figure out if it was good or bad, so there was even less he could do to help.
He could only watch and see if Luo Qian could overcome this hurdle on his own.
"Laugh your ass off!" Luo Qian said, annoyed, and rapped Lin Yi on the head.
Lin Yi laughed and rubbed his head, not minding at all.
Luo Qian sighed heavily, a persistent gloom clouding his features.
"In my current state, getting into a university shouldn’t be hard, but getting into a top-tier Martial Arts University will be difficult."
He paused, as if remembering something important. He whipped around to face Lin Yi, his tone becoming exceptionally serious.
"Oh, right, Lin, there’s something I have to seriously warn you about!"
"With your foundation of strength, even if you don’t get into one of the top ten schools, getting into a top-tier Martial Arts University will be a piece of cake. When it’s time to choose your major, you must, absolutely must remember: either go for the School of Weaponry or choose the School of History. Don’t even touch any of those other flashy majors!"
He was essentially entrusting all of his own unfulfilled aspirations for a top institution to Lin Yi.
Lin Yi nodded calmly, taking these heartfelt words to heart.
The School of Weaponry was a primary combat school within the Martial Arts Universities. It taught fighting techniques and specialized in cultivating powerful Martial Artists.
The School of History, on the other hand... taught Pre-Qin histories and ancient texts that were like codes.
The archaeology major, in particular, would teach the professional knowledge of tomb raiding... ahem, ancient tomb excavation and preservation, as well as the many taboos for entering one.
If one wanted to go further on the Martial Dao.
Then the archaeology major in the School of History might just be the best choice.
In this day and age, if you didn’t raid tombs, you couldn’t keep up with the times.
Unfortunately, tomb raiding was no child’s play.
It didn’t just require your head to be filled with archaeological knowledge; you also had to be powerful yourself. After all, who knew what dangers lurked in those ancient tombs? If your strength was lacking, you weren’t excavating history—you were feeding the ’zongzi’.
For this very reason.
There were actually very few outstanding archaeology professionals.
Most were just brutes, charging in recklessly.
Their motto: live forever, or die and be done with it.
In their quest to become stronger, the Martial Artists of today were nearly driven to madness.
Lin Yi frowned and suddenly asked:
"You said... why did the Qi Cultivators of the Pre-Qin Era all disappear later on?"
Luo Qian had clearly delved into this secret history before and answered immediately:
"There are two main theories currently in circulation."
"The first is that during the distant Pre-Qin period, the environment on our Blue Star underwent a cataclysmic change, and Spiritual Qi suddenly dried up and vanished. Without the nourishment of Spiritual Qi, these powerful beings naturally withered and faded into oblivion."
"As for the second theory..."
"It’s that the First Emperor carried out a ’Dharma Extinction,’ wiping out the Qi Cultivators!"
"The First Emperor... you mean Qin Shi Huang?" Lin Yi’s heart trembled. The weight of that name left him in a bit of a daze.
"That’s right, him!"
Luo Qian nodded forcefully, his tone certain.
"You think the Pre-Qin Era was a joke? Qi Cultivators really existed!"
"And King Zheng of Qin, the man who swept across the six states, unified the world, and ascended the throne as the ’First Emperor’—to accomplish such a feat, could his own strength have been lacking? He must have been an unfathomably powerful Qi Cultivator himself!"
"Think about the famous ’Burning of Books and Burying of Scholars’... what books was he really burning?"
"It’s highly likely they were the cultivation manuals that the Qi Cultivators regarded as their lifeblood!"
"And what kind of ’scholars’ was he burying alive?"
"It’s extremely probable that they were batches of Qi Cultivators who possessed strange arts!"
"So, comparing the two, I think the second theory is far more likely!"
"Then... why would the First Emperor carry out this Dharma Extinction?" Lin Yi pressed.
"Who knows? It’s a historical cold case."
Luo Qian spread his hands, indicating he hadn’t lived through it, so how would he know? He was just making some fun guesses.
He then pulled the topic back to the present:
"So, Lin! If it’s possible, you have to find a way to squeeze into the archaeology major! There’s good stuff buried under our planet! If you dig up a major tomb of a Qi Cultivator, you’ll not only get Cultivation Techniques and cultivation resources, but even Weapons! A Qi Cultivator’s weapon is way more powerful than anything we can make out of alloys!"
Luo Qian rubbed his hands together excitedly, his voice filled with endless yearning.
"Right now, the two most powerful weapons acknowledged by the entire archaeology community are still missing! They’re probably just lying dormant in some tomb! Sigh, if I wasn’t being pestered by that damn unclean thing... I’d really want to go to university with you. We could form a duo, the two of us brothers, each taking one. Wouldn’t that be amazing?"
Lin Yi’s curiosity was piqued. "Which two weapons?"
"Holy shit! Do you seriously not go online?! Information about this is flooding the internet!"
Luo Qian rolled his eyes but still explained patiently:
"One is the Nine Cauldrons, personally forged by the ancient Sage King, Yu the Great."
"The other is the Human Emperor’s Jade Seal, refined by the First Emperor. It’s the one engraved with the words, ’Having received the Mandate from Heaven, may my reign be long and prosperous’!"
"These two artifacts hold immense significance in the history of our Huaxia."
"The former represents the settling of the Nine Provinces, while the latter represents the great unification. They are not just Divine Weapons; they are Supreme Treasures of destiny. Obtaining one means opening a path to ultimate power."
Lin Yi listened, feeling as if he were in a dream.
He never expected that the history he was so familiar with from his past life would be filled with such mythological color in this world.
If Luo Qian hadn’t told him, he never would have imagined it, not even in his wildest dreams.
Just then.
RING-A-LING~ RING-A-LING~ RING-A-LING~
The clear and slightly urgent school bell suddenly rang out across the campus.