God of Pets-Chapter 420: Different Stories

After asking some questions about the evil spirit and its current whereabouts, and finding no more answers, Chen Guan and the others finally left the old man’s house.

"Chen Guan, what do you think?" After leaving the house, Xiu Jie Ming asked Chen Guan.

"The account on the village monument, the old man’s story, and the Secret Knowledge you all encountered in the passage don’t match at all." Chen Guan pondered, "The village monument appears the most realistic, but this is a Secret Realm, not a real world. The old man’s story is too fantastical to be believable."

Xiu Jie Ming laughed, "You mean to say both of them are false?"

"Not necessarily false, they might both be true, just viewed from different angles and perspectives." Chen Guan thought for a moment and said, "That evil spirit resides in the house at the village’s east end, whether true or false, we’ll know once we take a look."

Xiu Jie Ming nodded, unafraid, as the so-called evil spirit is at most just a Secret Spirit.

Hu Quan came out earlier than Chen Guan and the others; he also heard a story from an old woman, yet it was different from what Chen Guan and his group heard.

The version from the old woman was somewhat similar to the village plaque. Her son Anan went out to find a water source during a great drought and found this ancient well, leading the villagers here and ensuring their survival.

These details were similar to what’s on the village monument, and Anan was the young man mentioned there.

But then the old woman continued with the story, saying that the whole village settled here and rebuilt what is now the Ancient Well Village.

The water from that ancient well seemed endless, and village life improved day by day until one day while drawing water, they noticed a golden glow.

The golden light was captivating at night.

Anan, tasked with guarding the well, was the first to notice the anomaly beneath it.

He descended into the well and retrieved a large amount of gold, enough to make him a wealthy man, forever free from concern for food and clothing.

Yet, greed overtook human nature, and the other villagers, upon learning of Anan’s discovery, united against him, killing him and dividing the gold among themselves.

To ensure their secret, they cooked Anan’s body and divided it among themselves, believing that eating the flesh made them insiders.

Everyone in the village ate Anan’s flesh, and a few days later, a plague struck, nearly wiping out the village.

Many believed the plague was Anan’s spirit seeking vengeance, prompting them to erect a shrine to him, offering all the gold there without keeping any.

Strangely, after completing these rituals, the plague gradually subsided, though few villagers survived.

Hu Quan thought to himself, "It seems the Netherworld Emperor’s legacy must be within that gold."

Hu Quan falsely claimed he wanted to pay respects to Anan, inquiring about the shrine’s location, then left courteously.

The old woman told him the spot was indeed the house at the village’s eastern edge, which Chen Guan and the others were heading to.

Hu Quan didn’t notice Chen Guan and the others, quickly sneaking towards the east end of the village and reaching the house with a lamp lit inside, faintly emanating a golden glow.

"There really is something peculiar." Hu Quan knocked on the door, first asking if anyone was there.

After several unanswered calls, Hu Quan pushed open the door, standing at the entrance, scanning the room.

The inside was quite simple, with only a spirit tablet and a worn-out altar table. Behind the altar was a dark coffin.

The spirit tablet was draped in cloth, concealing whether it was Anan’s tablet.

However, from the coffin’s cracks, there was a faint golden glow.

"There’s indeed..." Hu Quan’s heart leaped with joy, bypassing the spirit tablet to approach the coffin, where he summoned a pet to push the coffin lid open.

As the coffin lid opened, the golden light became even more brilliant, bathing the room in gold.

Hu Quan watched the coffin warily, but nothing happened. He craned his neck to peek inside, discovering a Golden Giant.

A proportionately sized golden human lay inside the coffin.

"Could it be... the villagers crafted the gold into Anan’s likeness... replacing the dismembered Anan with this for offering?" Hu Quan speculated.

The golden human resembled a young man, with carved clothing and attire unlike modern styles.

Hu Quan found nothing amiss, nor any sign of a legacy, so he had his pet move the Golden Giant to check behind it or on the coffin floor for inscriptions or similar marks.

Hu Quan flipped the Golden Giant but found no writing on its back nor underneath.

Despite careful searching, Hu Quan uncovered nothing.

As he frowned, footsteps and voices drew near from outside.

"No good, they’re coming." Hu Quan panicked.

He couldn’t match Chen Guan and the others, likely unable to take them one-on-one, and facing all three was certain death.

But the house was small and bare, leaving him nowhere to hide.

Fleeing was futile with his fly-away Secret Collection used, and lacking any other similar Skills, he’d likely be caught.

Glancing once more at the coffin and Golden Giant, Hu Quan steeled himself, recalling his pet, then jumped inside, slowly closing the lid over him.

He planned to ambush Chen Guan and his group when they checked the place, aiming to kill or injure at least one.

Ideally, he could capture one hostage, then decide based on the situation.

As Hu Quan lay beside the Golden Giant, pondering with his face upturned, he suddenly noticed the coffin lid’s interior was etched with numerous characters.

"Ancestral Life-saving Technique..." Hu Quan realized the engraving was a Secret Skill.

However, crafting Secret Skills requires a Secret Skill Core’s unique energy source for mastery.

Yet here lay only the Technique without any Secret Skill Core; could these Techniques alone be enough for mastery?

"Is this the Netherworld Emperor’s legacy? But why such an odd name?" Hu Quan hastened to read the full inscription.

Afterward, Hu Quan’s initial excitement turned to deep gloom.

He had thought it would be the Netherworld Emperor’s legacy but found it to be nothing more than a plea for ancestral blessings from the Netherworld.

The so-called Ancestral Life-saving Technique was merely a ritual to request ancestral aid in protecting their future generations from the Netherworld.

"Damn it, someone’s surely toying with me?" Hu Quan cursed inwardly, suspecting that Chen Guan and his crew perhaps had arrived first, setting this up to annoy him.

Cursing silently in his heart, Hu Quan failed to notice that the eyes of the Golden Giant next to him seemed to twitch slightly.