King Xiang nodded to everyone, holding Yuji tightly.

Suddenly, the vines on them grew wildly, wrapping the two together.

"Quick! Take action!" Yang Chen shouted urgently, realizing King Xiang was already struggling to control.

"Use gasoline!" Yang Cao shouted.

They all carried gasoline to aid combustion.

Immediately, everyone took out gasoline from their bags and threw it forward.

Yang Chen took a deep breath and fiercely shot at one of the gasoline cans.

Boom!

Flames erupted.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Caught in the flames, the other gasoline bottles also ignited one after another.

However, stimulated by the flames, the vines rapidly grew, as if the fire acted as a catalyst, causing them to grow madly.

"Retreat quickly!" Yang Chen shouted.

Everyone hurriedly retreated.

The vines grew at an astounding speed, instantly expanding from a diameter of two meters to twenty meters!

But, having wood attributes, they soon crackled and burned.

Seeing this, everyone sighed in relief.

At the same time, a hint of sadness arose in their hearts.

Such a valiant hero met such an end.

After watching for a moment, Yang Chen shouted, "Get up there! Leave here quickly!"

Xiang Xingyu immediately jumped onto the sleeping bag, sliding towards the other side.

Seeing this, Yang Chen frowned slightly but didn't say much, gesturing for Yang Cao to go first.

Once everyone went up, only Yang Chen, Left Envoy Yang, and Meng Po remained at the scene.

The fire had burned out.

But the burned vines were still a large mass; Yang Chen hesitated for a moment, took a sapper shovel, and went forward to sweep away the ashes.

But beneath the ashes was a pitch-black sphere, over two meters in diameter, fluorescently flickering, making it unclear what was inside.

Seeing this, Yang Chen's face turned pale.

He looked up, believing this black sphere probably had similarities with the items hanging on the vines.

To be cautious, Yang Chen used the shovel to roll the black sphere into the water.

Once the black sphere fell into the water, it sank instantly, disappearing without a trace.

Before Yang Cao left, Yang Chen got a bottle from him, filled it with some ashes, dug a deep pit in the ground, buried the ashes, and inscribed beside it: "True love for life, eternal companionship!"

After completing all of this, Yang Chen stepped back. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Left Envoy Yang also came up, grabbing Yang Chen's big hand.

The two of them bowed deeply to express their emotions.

Then, the three climbed onto the sleeping bag, climbing along the rope.

Once they climbed up, Yang Chen noticed the guards hanging on the vines were all slightly swaying.

If this continued, these guards would surely fall.

However, if they fell from here, they would inevitably fall into the water below, continuing to hibernate.

It seems, when constructing this place, the ancients had already planned a countermeasure.

This was good; Yang Chen, along with Left Envoy Yang, quickly climbed up, sliding back to the tomb passage along the rope.

In the tomb passage, Zhang Shaoting and Xiang Xingyu had already assembled the Heart-Protecting Mirror.

Xiang Xingyu asked Zhang Shaoting to offer the first drop of blood on the Heart-Protecting Mirror, indicating the Zhang family's curse was lifted.

But Zhang Shaoting was still uneasy.

"If anything happens to your Zhang family, you can find us, the Xiang family, at Xuan Mountain, we will bear all the consequences!" Xiang Xingyu declared boldly.

Zhang Shaoting snorted coldly, "Do you think your promise is valid? If anything goes wrong with my family again, I will make you pay with your life!"

"Are you threatening me?" Xiang Xingyu's eyes flashed coldly.

Zhang Shaoting stared at Xiang Xingyu, saying coldly, "For my family, I would do anything!"

"I must take the Heart-Protecting Mirror!"

"Half of it is mine!"

The two argued endlessly.

Seeing this, Yang Chen stepped forward: "I will safeguard the Heart-Protecting Mirror for you; if anything arises, you can come to me. The Heart-Protecting Mirror is always available to you."

"No way!" Xiang Xingyu disagreed.

"Alright!" Zhang Shaoting agreed, knowing Yang Chen would never deceive him.

Xiang Xingyu's face was gloomy; he was not satisfied with this result, needing the Heart-Protecting Mirror under the Xiang family's control.

If Yang Chen secretly took the Heart-Protecting Mirror...

"Let's talk outside first!" Yang Chen interrupted Xiang Xingyu, speaking to everyone.

Reluctantly, Xiang Xingyu followed Yang Chen and others to leave.

After three hours.

Everyone crawled out from the dug tunnel.

Once out, they were stunned.

The Xiang family members guarding outside were nowhere to be seen!

"Where are the people?" Xiang Xingyu immediately took out a walkie-talkie, shouting, "Where are you?"

No one responded.

Yang Chen squatted, observing the surroundings, spoke coldly, "Stop searching; they've likely been taken!"

The ground showed signs of strife; a fierce battle seems to have occurred here.

"This... this is impossible!" Xiang Xingyu was incredulous.

After they entered the tomb, a wave of Xiang family arrived, dozens of them, fully armed; who could take them away?

Yang Chen understood the Xiang family's concern, frowning in thought.

Besides them, there was a third party.

As far as this third party was concerned, they only saw the one lying on the stone coffin; the rest remained unseen.

Meaning, the third party entered the main tomb earlier, leaving sooner.

It's very likely these people were taken by the third party.

"Let's go down the mountain first!" Yang Chen tossed aside the weeds and stood up, speaking to everyone.

Xiang Xingyu, feeling uneasy, left three people to continue searching, while he followed Yang Chen back.

After all, the Heart-Protecting Mirror issue wasn't settled.

The group returned to Stone Village.

By now, it was dawn; the sky was smoky blue.

Few villagers on the way were working in the fields.

Upon seeing Yang Chen and his group, they showed strange expressions.

As Yang Chen's group greeted them, the villagers fled as if seeing a ghost.

"These people..." Yang Chen frowned slightly.

Left Envoy Yang commented nearby, "It seems something else happened in the village."

Yang Chen furrowed his brow slightly, directing Purple Cultivator, "You take Shiwa back to the village and find out what happened."

"Yes!" Purple Cultivator responded, speeding up with Shiwa.

Upon returning to the courtyard, Xiang Xingyu was eager: "We must equally distribute the items we took from the tomb!"

"How do you propose we divide them?" Yang Chen glanced at Xiang Xingyu, speaking calmly.

Yang Chen was uninterested in the tomb items, only wanting to help the Zhang family.

"Equally! One each!" Xiang Xingyu replied.

Two Heart-Protecting Mirror pieces, one bronze box.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Shaoting took out the bronze box, placed it on the table, saying, "I don't want this thing; I want half of the Heart-Protecting Mirror!"

"Me too!" Xiang Xingyu's goal lay with the Heart-Protecting Mirror.

Yang Chen chuckled, reaching out to open the box.

However, the box was empty, with just a note stuck to the bottom: "Jin!"