Chapter 170: Four Short of One (Double Chapter - Please Subscribe!)

Exploded...
Liu Jufen had actually self-destructed!
His entire body burst into pieces of flesh, scattering across the ground amidst a rain of blood.
The shockwave generated by the explosion forced the surrounding crowd to retreat backward. Their chests felt heavy and oppressed, and a few even suffered not-insignificant internal injuries, with fresh blood spilling from the corners of their mouths.
Even so, they had no mind to care for their own condition. Instead, they stared with wide eyes at the crater left behind by Liu Jufen's self-destruction, completely dumbfounded.
Self-destructed?
They hadn't even used their full strength; they didn't want Liu Jufen's life. Why would Liu Jufen choose to self-destruct?
Wasn't surrendering and admitting defeat enough?
Why self-destruct?
They couldn't make sense of it!
Not just them, but Ma Shifeng, Liang Yiqing, Han Zong, and the others couldn't understand it either.
Ma Shifeng, Liang Yiqing, and a few others had even prepared themselves to intervene and rescue him.
As a result, Liu Jufen directly self-destructed, leaving them no time to save him even if they wanted to.
Completely out of the blue, he actually self-destructed.
Ma Shifeng, Liang Yiqing, and the others simply couldn't fathom why a perfectly fine Liu Jufen would suddenly blow himself up.
And now they were in a bind. Liu Jufen was dead, and no one knew where he had hidden *Introduction to True Qi*.
At the spot where Liu Jufen self-destructed, not a single page or piece of paper remained.
This indicated that he hadn't carried *Introduction to True Qi* on his person.
Since it wasn't hidden on him, where could it be?
Silence.
Stillness.
The scene fell into a deathly hush.
With Liu Jufen's self-destruction, the trail was completely cut off.
Whether it was those who had besieged him or people like Ma Shifeng and Liang Yiqing, everyone was left with a headache and a profound sense of helplessness.
Only Su Jingxing, standing on top of a large tree some forty or fifty meters away on the outer edge of the crowd, couldn't help but raise his brows, his eyes filled with pleasant surprise.
Liu Jufen was dead, blown to pieces. To everyone else, the trail to the ancient text *Introduction to True Qi* was now severed.
However, the card Su Jingxing had picked up from Liu Jufen's corpse allowed him to effortlessly discover the hiding place of the ancient manual *Introduction to True Qi*.
That's right, after Liu Jufen died, Su Jingxing had picked up a memory card.
Fifty years of Liu Jufen's memories during his lifetime!
At the Fourth-Grade realm, any true qi card dropped would contain at least ten years of cultivation.
If it were a skill card, it would either be an advanced martial art or a powerful secret technique.
A memory card, however, contained only a period of memories.
Learning Liu Jufen's lifetime martial arts through these memories was several times harder than directly absorbing a skill card.
Yet, as Su Jingxing held Liu Jufen's memory card in the palm of his hand and read the information within, he couldn't help but sincerely praise one thing.
It was entirely worth picking up!
Because not only did he now know where *Introduction to True Qi* was hidden, but *First Glimpse of Spirit Weapons*, an ancient book lost two hundred years ago, was also in Liu Jufen's possession and hidden away somewhere!
According to the memories, the very first ancient book Liu Jufen had acquired was *First Glimpse of Spirit Weapons*.
That had happened half a year ago by pure coincidence when he bought an ancient piece of jade at a black market stall in the capital and purchased the book as a free throw-in.
The seller didn't know its value and regarded *First Glimpse of Spirit Weapons* as nothing more than an ordinary antique book. Although it recorded quite a bit of content concerning ancient spirit weapons and blood spirit weapons, it wasn't of much practical use, and other ancient texts contained more detailed introductions regarding spirit weapon information.
Thus, Liu Jufen managed to acquire *First Glimpse of Spirit Weapons* almost by accident. After returning home, he didn't think much of it and casually tossed it onto a desk in his private vault.
It wasn't until three days later that he borrowed a treasure from an old friend—a treasure with innate abilities similar to that of the big white goose, capable of causing certain hidden concealment methods to manifest once again.
Liu Jufen had borrowed it to inspect an antique porcelain vase, conducting the examination right inside his underground vault. As a result, the treasure's ability swept past *First Glimpse of Spirit Weapons* in his peripheral vision, causing the seal of secrecy on the ancient book to re-manifest.
The specific process was nearly identical to what Su Jingxing had witnessed when the seal on *Initial Understanding of Formations* was broken.
Liu Jufen had been utterly stunned at the time.
Afterward, once he returned the treasure to his old friend, he pored over research materials regarding *First Glimpse of Spirit Weapons* and even set out in person to investigate relevant information.
Ultimately, he arrived at a startling revelation: the existence of the "Qin King's Mausoleum."
He discovered that the map to enter the "Qin King's Mausoleum" had been divided into four parts four hundred years ago, and these four parts were hidden within four separate ancient texts.
*First Glimpse of Spirit Weapons* was merely one of them.
After figuring out the source, Liu Jufen was beside himself with joy.
He learned from the records that inside the "Qin King's Mausoleum" lay treasures capable of advancing one to the Third Grade!
Because of this, that very night, he went to his old friend's house and, taking advantage of his friend's complete lack of guard, launched a rapid surprise attack and killed him.
That's right, Liu Jufen had murdered the old friend who lent him the treasure.
The reason was simple: to acquire the treasure capable of activating ancient books.
Such treasures, capable of stimulating and re-manifesting concealed methods, were rare—extremely rare, in fact.
If Liu Jufen wanted to crack the remaining three ancient books, he had to rely on it.
Furthermore, because this treasure had a limited number of uses, every time it was used, it diminished.
Liu Jufen couldn't possibly borrow it four times, nor could he keep it in his possession indefinitely.
Added to that, this old friend happened to be his romantic rival; Liu Jufen's long-ago first love had been stolen away by the other man.
Of course, through Liu Jufen's memories, Su Jingxing discovered that his so-called first love was actually a one-sided crush; the woman had never liked him for even a single second from beginning to end.
Liu Jufen had never married in his entire life, entirely a result of his own stubborn wallowing in self-pity—in other words, he was obstinate and trapped in his own rigid mindset.
The old friend who had "stolen" his first love had only become friends with him because Liu Jufen had deliberately engineered it.
In short, in order to advance to the Third Grade, Liu Jufen found an excuse for himself, killed his old friend, took the treasure, and before leaving the capital, even forced himself upon his well-preserved and still charming "first love," who was being kept by someone else.
This was the root cause of why Liu Jufen had chosen to self-destruct.
His old friend held an official status with a remarkably high position.
Although Liu Jufen had completely destroyed the corpse, ensuring no one could trace it back to him in the short term, over time, the trail would inevitably lead to him.
Liu Jufen's excuse of leaving the Xuantian Main Academy to tour various branch campuses and clear his mind was merely a cover to evade detection.
Of course, his true objective was to come to Qinghe City and locate the remaining three ancient books containing the maps into the "Qin King's Mausoleum."
However, when he had previously investigated the "Qin King's Mausoleum" in person, some information had leaked, causing Lu Chen and Tian Huaichao—who happened to be in the capital at the time—to both catch wind of it.
As for the young man who could transform into a golden entity, he had learned of the "Qin King's Mausoleum's" existence from Lu Chen.
Four factions had arrived in Qinghe City almost back-to-back, conducting secret investigations in the shadows to find the maps for entering the "Qin King's Mausoleum."
Yet, compared to Lu Chen and Tian Huaichao, Liu Jufen truly had no way out.
He had to advance to the Third Grade within a short period!
Having killed an old friend and violated his "first love," once the truth came to light, Liu Jufen would face certain death.
Therefore, death awaited him regardless, making self-destruction his preferred alternative.
As long as he died, no one would ever know the whereabouts of *Introduction to True Qi* and *First Glimpse of Spirit Weapons*.
Let alone entering the "Qin King's Mausoleum" to obtain the treasures left behind by the Ascending Dragon Blade King.
That was precisely what Liu Jufen wanted.
Since he was dead, no one else would reap any benefits either!
Unfortunately...
He had run into Su Jingxing.
A single memory card caused all of Liu Jufen's dark plotting to go up in smoke.
*Introduction to True Qi* and *First Glimpse of Spirit Weapons* now belonged entirely to Su Jingxing!
...
Without viewing the entirety of Liu Jufen's fifty-year memory, Su Jingxing, anxious to make his return, temporarily sealed the ball of memories away.
Following that, he spun around, soared into the sky, and flew back toward Qinghe City.
As for what Ma Shifeng, Han Zong, and their party would do next, it was none of Su Jingxing's concern.
Liu Jufen had hidden the two ancient books, *Introduction to True Qi* and *First Glimpse of Spirit Weapons*, in two entirely different locations.
Among them, *First Glimpse of Spirit Weapons* was placed inside the wall of a residential house in the South District of Qinghe City.
The house had been rented by Liu Jufen. Wearing a disguise and adopting a completely different appearance, he had rented the place, carved out a hollow within one of the walls, and placed the ancient book inside.
Unless Liu Jufen returned to retrieve it or the house was torn down, no one would ever discover the manual.
As for *Introduction to True Qi*, because time was pressing, Liu Jufen had stashed it nearby on the rooftop of a commercial shop along a university town street, right underneath the water storage tank.
The first destination Su Jingxing headed to was the rooftop of this commercial store.
Moving at lightning speed, he swept across the sky all the way, carefully avoiding the gazes of others.
Arriving at the university town, Su Jingxing went straight to his target and successfully retrieved a package from beneath the water storage tank.
Opening the package, he found an iron box. When he unlocked the box, an ancient book lay quietly inside.
*Introduction to True Qi*!
"Swish~"
He casually flipped through the pages, feeling the texture and aura of the ancient manual to confirm it matched the material of *Initial Understanding of Formations*.
Su Jingxing nodded with satisfaction and stored the ancient book into his palm space.
Then, he soared into the sky once more, heading straight for the South District.
Under the consumption of true qi, pushing *Eight-Step Ascending Dragon* to its maximum speed, Su Jingxing crossed over Qinghe City from high altitudes and arrived above the rooftop of the target residential building.
Employing the *Ghost Python Concealment Art* to suppress all traces of his aura, Su Jingxing silently entered the stairwell and used his lock-picking skills to open the apartment door.
Entering the room, he located the wall where the book was hidden, removed a brick from a bottom corner, and pulled out another package from within.
Unwrapping it revealed yet another ancient book.
*First Glimpse of Spirit Weapons*!
"Swish~"
Again, he flipped through the pages, sensing the material and unique resonance to verify that the ancient text was genuine.
Su Jingxing let out a long, heavy breath.
Four ancient books—three were now in his hands. To enter the "Qin King's Mausoleum," only the final one, *Initial Knowledge of Alchemy*, remained!
According to the borrowing records published by Xuantian University, *Initial Knowledge of Alchemy* had been checked out seventy years ago by someone named "Gu Huanxi" and had never been returned.
Therefore, if he wanted to get his hands on *Initial Knowledge of Alchemy*, he first had to track down this person named "Gu Huanxi."
The problem was that no one knew where Gu Huanxi was from, where he lived, or whether he was even still alive.
The borrowing records published by Xuantian University contained none of those details.
Spanning a gap of seventy years, Ma Shifeng, Liang Yiqing, and the others likely had no idea of Gu Huanxi's whereabouts either.
This was something Su Jingxing could deduce without needing to test or inquire.
The reason was simple: neither Ma Shifeng nor Liang Yiqing were seventy years old yet.
When Gu Huanxi checked out *Initial Knowledge of Alchemy*, they hadn't even been born.
By the time they took over the Qinghe Branch of Xuantian University, decades had already passed.
Thus, finding Gu Huanxi would require alternative methods.
For instance, should he ask the Li family?
The Li family was a local overlord in Qinghe City with a heritage spanning three hundred years, boasting vast influence and numerous members. If Gu Huanxi possessed any kind of local renown, they should know of his existence.
Naturally.
Before resorting to that, Su Jingxing decided to conduct a search on the internet first.
With *Initial Knowledge of Alchemy* at stake, it was best to avoid exposure whenever possible.
Once Su Jingxing asked the Li family about "Gu Huanxi," Li Lilou and the others would inevitably connect the dots to *Initial Knowledge of Alchemy*.
If he eventually managed to track down Gu Huanxi, the ownership of *Initial Knowledge of Alchemy* would become yet another troublesome issue.
Even though out of the four ancient books, only *Initial Knowledge of Alchemy* had "revealed" itself so far, Su Jingxing could not guarantee that the Li family wouldn't be tempted and attempt to forcibly claim *Initial Knowledge of Alchemy* for themselves.
Therefore, for the sake of safety and to eliminate future troubles,
Su Jingxing decided to search online himself first, hacking into Qinghe City's local household registration system, and if that failed, he would infiltrate the national household registration database instead.
That was what he thought, and that was precisely what he did.
As a result, he actually found individuals named "Gu Huanxi."
Thirteen in total!
Sharing the same name and surname, but varying in age and gender.
Following the catastrophe triggered by the descent of the otherworldly demonic insects eighty-three years ago, Yu State's population census had undergone detailed investigative recording.
Twenty years ago, with the widespread popularization of computers, those records were entered into a specialized digital system.
If Gu Huanxi had checked out *Initial Knowledge of Alchemy* seventy years ago and was still alive today, he would be roughly one hundred years old.
Calculating based on this age bracket, out of the thirteen individuals, only one met the criteria.
Pulling up this person's profile information and family relations,
when his gaze fell upon a particular name within the records, Su Jingxing's eyes froze slightly, followed by an expression of odd surprise.
"It couldn't possibly be such a coincidence, could it?"