Chapter Seventy-Nine: The Art of Dispersing Qi with the Imperial Mouse

The floor was covered with the carcasses of rats, forming a thick layer, and bright red rat blood flowed across the entire hall, making a crunching sound underfoot. The passage of time had caused the flesh to rot, and the moldy stench made Zhou Yi almost unable to breathe. The essence of the dragon vein—once a small black dragon—had grown several times larger, but its form now resembled nothing so much as a huge black lizard.

The creature paid no attention to Zhou Yi’s arrival, continuing to devour rat meat whole. Unable to bear the hellish scene any longer, Zhou Yi turned away. Though it was only rats that had died, their overwhelming numbers filled him with dread.

He left. He wanted to slay the twisted dragon, but in this place, he simply couldn’t bring himself to do it. The thought of the bodies strewn across the ground made his whole body shudder. To engage in battle with the creature, channeling spiritual energy, was out of the question.

The so-called dragon vein earned its name from its unique geographical nature. Within a hundred miles, the five elements flourished without need for further explanation. Moreover, the earth’s crust had shifted to create a particular magnetic field.

Take the dragon vein of Changbai Mountain: its core had been hollowed by millennia of tectonic movement, perhaps even longer. The mountain’s belly was naturally hollow, forming this strange place.

If Changbai Mountain was the body of the dragon vein, then its core was the heart, the hundred caves were like blood vessels, and the tomb of Nurhaci rested in its abdomen.

When Nurhaci’s tomb was excavated, surely there was a master skilled in geomancy and the art of site selection.

The dragon vein must possess form, but also soul. Without a soul, it is a dead vein, useless. Over centuries, life slowly emerged, and three hundred years ago, the soul of the dragon vein was born—an invisible, intangible spirit. With its emergence, the Later Jin dynasty gradually rose to power and claimed the empire.

The dragon vein also had its essence, explaining the presence of rare beasts within. These creatures, often of unusual origin, absorbed the dragon vein’s energy to further their cultivation, acting as its spiritual force, helping its propagation, balancing yin and yang so the vein could endure.

The stronger the essence, the better. Previously, the essence of Changbai Mountain’s dragon vein was a giant python. Its ferocity a hundred years ago is unknown, but when Zhou Yi first entered, the python was defeated by the likes of Zuo Zhi—a sign of the Qing dynasty’s declining fortunes.

Now, the dragon vein’s essence was this strange little dragon—a malignant breed.

Zhou Yi’s intention was clear: kill the little dragon. With the essence slain, the Qing dynasty’s fate would be sealed.

But he couldn’t kill it. He crouched to the ground, pressing his forehead in thought. Glancing at the two giant rats, inspiration struck him.

He narrowed his eyes, a cold smile playing on his lips. If he couldn’t kill the dragon vein’s essence, he could scatter its soul.

“Send your offspring to dig tunnels for me—connect this Bukian Mountain, the bigger and more numerous the tunnels, the better. Start now,” Zhou Yi said to the mother rat.

The mother rat was stunned at first, not fully grasping his meaning. Though it had gained intelligence, it remained an animal.

“Dig tunnels, outward, from the mountain core to outside,” he clarified. The mother rat understood, turned, and rushed off to command her hundreds of thousands of progeny.

“I’ll make your dragon vein leak from every corner; let’s see how you absorb the elemental energy around the mountain. The day these tunnels break through is the day the Qing dynasty perishes,” Zhou Yi gritted his teeth. The male rat shuddered at his words.

“You go dig as well—break through,” Zhou Yi ordered the male rat.

He felt lucky he commanded such a vast rat horde. To tunnel through Changbai Mountain alone would require thousands of hands—an impossible task otherwise.

Watching the rats busy themselves, Zhou Yi made his way to Nurhaci’s tomb. He planned to remove all the gold from within; even if he couldn’t use it, he wouldn’t leave a scrap for future generations.

If Ji Yulin and Ji Liang, who had gone to such lengths to find the key and reach this treasure, arrived to find nothing but emptiness, he wondered if they’d cough blood in rage.

With his current strength, Zhou Yi could carry a whole crate of gold at a time. Hiding it outside wasn’t wise; such a vast trove in someone else’s hands would be giving away his efforts.

After much thought, he decided the bottom of Tianchi Lake was the perfect spot. The idea made him chuckle quietly. Without delay, he lugged a crate of gold to the lake, found a flat spot beneath the water, and carefully arranged the gold.

After all was done, the mother rat returned to report—the first tunnel was complete. With frantic squeaks and gesturing forepaws, she sought reward and recognition.

Zhou Yi inspected the tunnel and was quietly amazed: its mouth was a meter wide, reaching all the way outside. He wanted to see if his method worked, so he focused his attention. He saw wisps of yellow energy drifting out through the tunnel.

Seeing this, Zhou Yi was relieved—the plan was effective.

“I’ll shatter your imperial dreams, for those who deceived and harmed me, I’ll pull the rug from under you,” Zhou Yi muttered through clenched teeth.

The saying goes: “Better to offend a gentleman than a petty man.” Though true and false in its way, Zhou Yi was no gentleman, but certainly not a petty villain either.

His stubbornness made him one who always avenged grievances. Scattering the dragon vein’s energy was not just revenge against the Qing—Zhang Xun would suffer most.

The more tunnels the rats dug, the faster the dragon vein’s energy dissipated.

Zhou Yi himself had laid the Five Element Spirit Gathering Array to nurture the dragon vein’s essence, and now he was personally destroying the fortune of the Qing dragon vein.

This was not a matter to be judged by simple notions of right and wrong.

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Volume One: The Dragon Vein at the End of the Qing is complete—175,000 words recorded.

Volume Two: The Stars Shift, the Constellations Turn begins. Around 200,000 words, estimated to take forty days. Another storm is brewing, to be witnessed by all readers.