I Only Want to Lie Flat But Am Forced to Cultivate Immortality-Chapter 101 - 76: Five-Colored Steed, Thousand Gold Fur Coat

Chapter 101: Chapter 76: Five-Colored Steed, Thousand Gold Fur Coat

Minor matters require soul-summoning, major ones require grave digging.

Xu Qing hadn’t encountered any wayward spirits, so he contemplated opening the grave before him to see what was hidden inside.

He concentrated, returned to his body, took an iron shovel from the Mountain and River Map, and tossed it from afar to the motionless Puppet standing by the grave.

Once the Puppet had the shovel, it found a good spot to start digging, and shoveled the earth out one scoop at a time.

After digging for a while, a clang was heard. Xu Qing stopped and cleared away the loose soil, revealing a green stone coffin, eight feet long and five feet wide.

"Whoa, that’s a big coffin!"

Looking at the size and specifications of the coffin before him, Xu Qing couldn’t help but be startled.

Judging by the size of this coffin, the tomb owner seemed to have been prestigious in life.

But then, the question arose: if he was truly prestigious, who would bury him in such a small grave pit, without even a burial chamber on either side?

Moreover, the coffin looked freshly made, the cuts were neat with no signs of age.

Xu Qing paced around the coffin, like an aunt examining a watermelon, thumping the coffin lid with his ear for a while, but couldn’t make anything out.

Recalling the auspicious and inauspicious notes on today’s almanac, Xu Qing contemplated for a moment with the shovel and finally decided to go for it, hoping to find some valuable items inside.

After all, today’s almanac forbade burial and corpse encoffining but said nothing about grave digging.

There were no nails in the stone coffin. Xu Qing manipulated the Puppet to wedge the shovel into the coffin lid’s seam and pry it upwards.

A distinct snap was heard, but instead of opening the coffin lid, the shovel handle broke.

The stone coffin weighed thousands of pounds, and the lid alone was not something an ordinary shovel could pry open.

Refusing to give up, Xu Qing discarded the obstructive shovel and controlled the iron-limb Puppet with a copper head to grip one end of the coffin lid and heave upwards with all its might—

The coffin opened!

As the dust settled, the Puppet mechanically bent down, reached into the coffin and, upon straightening up, held a corpse with blood oozing from its seven orifices and a cyanotic face.

Xu Qing scrutinized, noting that the corpse was plainly dressed and had multiple skin ulcers, with no burial items in the coffin.

Overall, the deceased did not seem wealthy in life.

Though a bit disappointed, Xu Qing, sticking to the notion that he had come this far, decided not to leave without doing something useful. He personally stepped up to the grave and performed a salvation ritual for the nameless corpse.

Familiar scriptures resounded as the Sutra of Salvation turned its pages.

When a corner of a resplendent palace appeared before him, Xu Qing suddenly uttered a light "huh."

Something was off, way off!

He saw images of palace buildings in a spinning lantern, and a majestic man in a dragon robe walking up the Jinluan Hall with the young Crown Prince in his arms.

Xu Qing was quite bewildered; what was happening?

Before long, the scene shifted, and Xu Qing saw the Crown Prince pinching his nose and frowning while drinking medicinal soup.

Emperor Longping sat sideways at the table, engrossed in reading a book.

The Empress took out a handkerchief, wiped the medicine stains from the Crown Prince’s mouth, and softly said, "My son, you have a frail body. You must heed the Imperial Physician’s advice from now on, and refrain from riding and practicing martial arts all day long..."

Xu Qing remained silent for a while and couldn’t help but curse in his mind.

"Could this damn place be the Crown Prince’s Tomb?"

Through the perspective of Crown Prince Zhao You, a few brief life snippets revealed the tomb owner’s identity.

Harboring doubts and feeling he had stumbled upon a shocking discovery, Xu Qing continued to watch.

Due to his frail health, the Crown Prince often wept in secret, resenting himself for being weaker than even a bookish scholar.

After the Crown Prince Consort gave birth to the Imperial Grandson Zhao Cong, Zhao You felt immense relief. From then on, he treated the Crown Prince Consort with respect and propriety, never once indulging again.

At twenty-eight, Zhao You’s health worsened, forcing him to abandon archery and horse-riding, yet he developed a new hobby — judging horses.

The phrase "The Emperor judges men, the Crown Prince judges horses" initially made Zhao You proud, until the Grand Preceptor, on his deathbed, left a warning that judging horses was valuable in a corner, but of little use in the grand scheme of the empire.

From then on, the Crown Prince stopped judging horses, though he had loved archery and horse-riding.

Xu Qing kept watching, seeing Zhao You give up all hobbies to diligently study statecraft. It was then that the son of Consort Hui, the Third Prince, came into his view.

The Third Prince was clever and always cheered Zhao You up, sometimes asking questions so naïve they were endearing.

Upon learning Zhao You had a sweet tooth, the Third Prince often brought him delicious candied fruits and preserves to taste.

Seeing this, Xu Qing did not sense anything amiss, feeling only that the brotherly harmony between the two was enviable.

As the eldest son, Zhao You felt it was inevitable he would shoulder the burden of governing the empire. Hence, he meticulously studied statecraft, waiting for the day when his father would no longer be there so he could fulfill this expectation and lead Dayong to a resurgence.

However, this wait spanned decades.

Now, over fifty years old, the physicians at the Crown Prince’s Mansion shook their heads in resignation, concluding that the Crown Prince had less than three years to live, perhaps even less.

Zhao You could no longer sit idly. He had studied for so many years, forsaken almost all leisure time, solely to eventually shine as a proper Crown Prince.

Turning to look at his only son, Zhao Cong, Zhao You realized that if he didn’t survive the next three years to inherit the throne, Zhao Cong, the Imperial Grandson, would also be disqualified from becoming the Crown Prince.

This went completely against the life plan he had initially set.