One person: Starting with the Snow Drinking Blade

Chapter 143 Dragon Vein

Nie Lingfeng and Chen Duo exchanged a glance and followed.

Inside the artificial hill, a hidden world unfolds. Passing through a narrow passage, a small stone chamber suddenly appears before you, containing a stone table and benches, with several yellowed calligraphy and paintings hanging on the walls. In the center of the chamber, an oil lamp flickers, its dim light barely illuminating the surroundings.

The figure sat at the stone table, with a pot of tea and two teacups in front of him. He poured three cups of tea, pushed two of them over, and then pointed to the stone bench opposite him, gesturing for the two to sit down.

Nie Lingfeng frowned, but still pulled Chen Duo to sit down. He picked up the teacup and smelled it; the tea had a clear, refreshing aroma, it was top-quality Longjing tea, and it was hot.

"Who are you?" Nie Lingfeng asked.

The figure finally spoke, the voice soft and ethereal, as if coming from a great distance:

"The tomb keeper, Zhu Yunwen."

Nie Lingfeng was taken aback: "Zhu Yunwen? The Jianwen Emperor of the Ming Dynasty?"

"Indeed." Zhu Yunwen—or rather, Zhu Yunwen's spirit—nodded. "Six hundred years ago, during the Jingnan Rebellion, I fled Nanjing, changed my name, and eventually came to Beijing, hiding in this Forbidden City. After my death, a lingering obsession remained, so I lingered here, guarding the Ming Dynasty's dragon vein, and also... guarding every brick and tile of this Forbidden City."

Nie Lingfeng was dumbfounded. The spirit of Emperor Jianwen, Zhu Yunwen, had been a tomb guardian in the Forbidden City for six hundred years? This plot was too fantastical!

"Then why have you been showing up so frequently lately? And even startled the patrolmen?" Nie Lingfeng asked.

Zhu Yunwen was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "Because... someone has come. Someone with ill intentions."

"Who?"

"I don't know their identities, but I can sense that their 'qi' is evil, carrying blood and filth," Zhu Yunwen said. "They've come three times in the past month, each time trying to infiltrate the underground palace of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. There... is a node of the Ming Dynasty's dragon vein, and it's also the core of the Forbidden City's formation. If they succeed, the feng shui of the entire Forbidden City will be destroyed, and it might even affect the 'qi' field of Beijing."

Nie Lingfeng's eyes narrowed. An underground palace? The core of a formation? This didn't sound like something an ordinary tomb raider or explorer could do.

"What do they look like? What methods do they use?" he asked.

"They were all dressed in black and their faces were covered, so I couldn't see their features," Zhu Yunwen said. "But their methods were very strange. They could manipulate shadows, blend into the darkness, and create illusions. I tried to stop them, but there were too many of them, and I was just a remnant soul, so I was powerless. The last time, they hurt me, which is why my breathing was unstable and I was seen by the patrolmen."

Nie Lingfeng looked at his pale face. Indeed, his soul was weaker than before, clearly indicating that he had been injured.

"Do you need help?" Chen Duo suddenly asked, her voice very soft.

Zhu Yunwen looked at her, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes: "You... have a very ancient aura about you. Are you... a descendant of gods?"

Chen Duo nodded without saying anything.

Zhu Yunwen was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "If you are willing to help, I will naturally be grateful. But those people are not simple, so you must be careful."

"Don't worry, this is our specialty." Nie Lingfeng smiled, took out "Dawn's" phone from his pocket, and sent a message to "Eagle": "The Palace Museum Night Shadow mission has been updated. The soul of Emperor Jianwen has been discovered, and an unknown force is attempting to destroy the dragon vein node. Requesting access to recent surveillance footage around the Palace Museum and records of abnormal 'Qi' fluctuations in the Beijing area."

A few seconds later, "Eagle" replied: "Received. Data being processed, will be sent in ten minutes. Also, this task has been upgraded to A level, and the reward has been doubled."

Nie Lingfeng raised an eyebrow. An A-level mission, double the reward—that's 400 points and 100 million in funds. Not bad, this trip wasn't a waste.

"Alright, we'll take this mission," he said to Zhu Yunwen. "But you have to cooperate with us. Next time those people come, let us know, and we'll ambush them. Let's try to... wipe them all out."

Zhu Yunwen nodded: "Alright. I will leave a mark in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. If they come, the mark will warn you. When you see the mark light up, just come immediately."

"make a deal."

The three chatted for a while longer. Nie Lingfeng asked Zhu Yunwen about the specific characteristics and patterns of the men in black, and Zhu Yunwen answered him one by one. Finally, Nie Lingfeng gave him several soul-nourishing talismans, instructing him to stabilize his soul first, and then leave with Chen Duo.

As we emerged from the artificial hill, dawn was breaking. The east was beginning to lighten, and the outline of the Forbidden City gradually became clear in the morning light.

"I didn't expect there really were ghosts in the Forbidden City." Nie Lingfeng stretched. "But it's a good ghost; it even knows how to protect cultural relics."

Chen Duo nodded, then suddenly asked, "Nie Lingfeng, are we... going to catch those bad guys?"

"Arrest them, of course arrest them." Nie Lingfeng ruffled her hair. "But no rush, let's wait for them to come again. Now..."

He glanced at the sky, then at Chen Duo's somewhat sleepy face, and smiled:

"Let's go get breakfast first. I know a place that makes really authentic douzhi (fermented mung bean juice), wanna go?"

Chen Duo hesitated for a moment: "Is douzhi... good?"

"It doesn't taste good," Nie Lingfeng said honestly. "But since I'm in Beijing, I have to try it. If I don't like it, I'll just throw it up, it's fine."

Chen Duo thought for a moment and nodded: "Okay, I'll try it."

Over the next few days, Nie Lingfeng, along with Chen Duo, handled all the missions around the capital.

The "strange activity" at the Ming Tombs was actually caused by a few novice tomb raiders digging a hole near the Dingling Tomb. They accidentally triggered the tomb's defensive formation, were then trapped inside by its backlash. These tomb raiders, though not very skilled, were incredibly audacious. Trapped in the formation for three days, cold and hungry, they were nearly driven mad. When they saw Nie Lingfeng and Chen Duo, they clung to their legs, crying and begging to be captured, saying they never wanted to raid tombs again.

Nie Lingfeng was speechless. He knocked out the few whining tomb raiders and handed them over to the local branch for processing, thus easily completing the mission.

The "Bell Ringing at Xishan Ancient Temple" story is even more outrageous. It involves an old monk in the temple who, during his practice, went mad and went to the bell tower in the middle of the night to ring the bell while chanting scriptures, keeping the nearby residents awake. When Nie Lingfeng arrived, the old monk was still ringing, sweating profusely and acting frantically. Nie Lingfeng slapped him awake. The old monk paused, looked at the bell pestle in his hand, then at Nie Lingfeng, and suddenly realized, "Oh, I've had another episode." He then conscientiously packed his belongings and followed Nie Lingfeng to the branch's "sanatorium" to report for duty.

The "floating corpse in the Tongzhou Canal" was quite interesting. It wasn't a real corpse, but rather a strange person practicing "water ghost magic" in the canal. His practice had gone awry, causing his body to stiffen and float on the surface like a corpse, frightening the elderly people doing their morning exercises. Nie Lingfeng pulled him out, used Qilin Fire to dispel the chill, and taught him a few authentic water control techniques. The man was extremely grateful and promised never to frighten the people again.

The most troublesome issue was the "disappearance of the Fangshan Cave Exploration Team." It was a professional exploration team that had gone missing for seven days in an undeveloped cave in Fangshan. Search and rescue teams went in, but they also lost contact. Nie Lingfeng took Chen Duo into the cave and discovered that deep inside, there was a naturally formed "maze," and due to the cave's unique magnetic field, ordinary people would lose their way and eventually die from being trapped.

Nie Lingfeng used the "Wuqiu Yijue" (a technique from the I Ching) to sense the terrain, found the array's core, and shattered it with a single punch, causing the array to break. He then found the barely conscious expedition and rescue team at the bottom of the cave—twelve people in total, all still alive but severely dehydrated and delirious. Nie Lingfeng carried them out one by one and handed them over to the branch personnel guarding the outside, receiving a great deal of gratitude in return.

In just five days, six out of seven tasks were completed. Only the A-level task at the Forbidden City remains, and we're still waiting for the "fish" to take the bait.

In the past few days, Nie Lingfeng had also taken the time to call Xu Si a few times. The first two times, Xu Si said he was busy and hung up quickly. The third time, Nie Lingfeng completely lost his temper: "Fourth Brother, if you don't tell me where Chu Lan is, I'm going to storm your house and burn all your treasured figurines!"

Xu Si then told the truth.

"Chu Lan and Bao Bao... went to Twenty-Four Seasonal Valley."

Nie Lingfeng's heart sank. Sure enough, he went after all.

"When did you go? How many people were there? How are you doing now?"

"It's been almost half a month since we left." Xu Si's voice sounded tired. "Chu Lan, Bao Bao, Wang Ye, Zhuge Qing, Zhang Lingyu, and those two Quanxing members, Balun and Xia Liuqing. They said they went to investigate Bao Bao's background, but I always feel... it's not that simple. That kid Chu Lan seems to be planning something, but he won't tell me."

Nie Lingfeng remained silent. The Twenty-Four Solar Terms Valley, the place that held the secrets of "what it means to be human" and "the valley," was key to Feng Baobao's background and the core of the entire *Under One Person* story. He wasn't surprised that Zhang Chulan would go there. But Wang Ye, Zhuge Qing, Zhang Lingyu, and even Balun and Xia Liuqing…

This lineup is pretty impressive.

"Are they in danger?" Nie Lingfeng asked.

"I don't know," Xu Si sighed. "The Twenty-Four Solar Terms Valley is a very eerie place. Very few people who go in ever come out. I tried to persuade Chu Lan, but he wouldn't listen. He said... 'Baby can't wait any longer.'"

Nie Lingfeng gripped his phone tightly. Yes, Feng Baobao had waited over seventy years, finally finding a clue; how could she possibly give up?

"I understand," he said slowly. "I'll go see them after I finish what I'm doing."

"Xiao Feng," Xu Si hesitated for a moment, "you... be careful. I have a feeling things aren't going well lately. There seems to be some undercurrent flowing in the company, in the boardroom. And you should keep an eye on Chairman Zhao too."

"I understand." Nie Lingfeng nodded. "Fourth Brother, take care too."

After hanging up the phone, Nie Lingfeng stood by the hotel window, looking at the brightly lit city of Beijing outside, feeling somewhat heavy-hearted.

Zhang Chulan and his companions entered the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Valley, their fate unknown.

There are spies within the company, and undercurrents are running deep.

Meanwhile, at the Forbidden City, a group of mysterious men in black are eyeing the dragon vein.

He and Chen Duo had just joined "Dawn" and became hidden pawns in Chairman Zhao's hands, their future uncertain.

"These are truly... troublesome times," he muttered to himself.

"Nie Lingfeng." Chen Duo's voice came from behind.

Nie Lingfeng turned his head and saw her walking over with a cup of hot water, handing it to him.

"Drink water," she said.

Nie Lingfeng took the water, drank a sip, and found the temperature was just right. He looked at her and smiled, "What's wrong? Aren't you going to sleep?"

Chen Duo shook her head, sat down next to him, hugged her knees, looked at the night view outside the window, and said softly:

Are you thinking about Chu Lan and the baby?

"Yes." Nie Lingfeng did not deny it.

"They'll be fine," Chen Duo said confidently. "Chu Lan is very smart, and Bao Bao is very capable. There's also Daoist Wang Ye, Zhuge Qing, Daoist Zhang Lingyu... they're all very strong."

Nie Lingfeng chuckled: "How do you know they're strong?"

"It's a feeling," Chen Duo said. "And...you trust them, don't you?"

Nie Lingfeng paused for a moment, then nodded: "Yes, I believe them."

He ruffled Chen Duo's hair: "Alright, don't worry. We'll go find them after we finish dealing with the Forbidden City. Now, get some sleep and recharge."

"Um."

Chen Duo nodded and went back to her bed to lie down. Nie Lingfeng also lay down and turned off the light.

In the darkness, he touched the "Dawn" ring on his finger, then the Yin-Yang jade pendant and the Yaochi Warm Jade Heart on his chest, and his heart gradually calmed down.

The road ahead is long, take it slow.