Everyone looked at Jiang Xiu with gazes full of extreme shock. Is this man that powerful that he killed a Demigod just with a touch of a finger?
Actually, this wasn't related to Jiang Xiu.
It was rather because they were cursed. Mu Sen had also got cursed when he set foot on this land, and he burned to ashes due to the curse flaring up. It wouldn't have happened so quickly under normal conditions, but this was a fire curse, and Mu Sen had transformed his body into wood. Wood gives rise to Fire, and Mu Sen's move was equivalent to reducing the time required for the curse to take effect.
"R-Run quickly!!!"
The Jin family members scattered in different directions, running away in fear after witnessing their family's Demigod dying so easily like a little chick. Jiang Xiu had no intentions to stop them as well.
Li Chengzhi asked Jiang Xiu, "Mr. Jiang, are you planning to let them go just like that?"
"They won't live for long as they too got cursed."
Only then did everyone remember that they were all cursed and none of them had any hopes of surviving. For a moment, all of them went silent.
"Mr. Jiang, you are so powerful. You must have some method to survive this, right?"
Right now, Jiang Xiu was already akin to God to them.
The remaining bandits, Professor Xu as well as the students of the Imperial University, all looked at him anxiously, hoping that he could save their lives by breaking the curse.
"Didn't I already say it? You can remove the curse by going to another world."
Professor Xu had a belly full of questions for Jiang Xiu. He wished to ask him a lot of questions such as whether he was really a God and how did he gain his power, but he didn't dare to ask. Let alone, the most important objective right now was to think of some means to break the curse.
"Jiang Xiu, what do you mean by 'going to another world'?"
"The literal meaning, what else?"
"How can a person go to another world?"
"Through death!"
Everyone revealed an expression of dismay. If death could break the curse, there was no point in removing it since they would die anyway.
Xie Ting requested him, "Mr. Jiang, please save our lives."
"Jiang Xiu, you can save us, right?"
"After all, we are classmates, please save us."
Though they couldn't understand the meaning behind Jiang Xiu's words, since Jiang Xiu was calm, they presumed that he had a method to deal with this situation. Otherwise, even if it were a God, no one would remain so calm and collected when facing death. After all, who didn't fear death?
Jiang Xiu muttered to himself, "Go find some crushed rocks, some withered grass as well as some firewood."
Everyone was jubilant after hearing Jiang Xiu speak. They went to look for the things he asked for.
Some curses couldn't be broken. These kinds of curses were known as forbidden curses, and it required a huge price to use such a curse. Most of such curses required the curser to pay with their life. The other kinds of curses, which were the common ones were all removable, but that too depended on the strength of the party trying to break the curse.
Yin-Yang Fire God's fury, crawl towards the Hell on the other shore; at another world, you shall rest forever. This didn't make much sense to ordinary people, but Jiang Xiu could see a way out from these words.
Deceiving the curse was fine.
After some time, they found all the necessary things and lined them up. Jiang Xiu made the giant golden god dig a hole in the ground. It was quite an easy task for the giant to do that, he just had to squat down and scoop the sand with his hand, and the hole created from the scoop was enough to bury everyone.
"Jump down if you want to live!"
This hole was about 3 m deep.
Li Chengzhi, as well as the bandits, jumped in without the slightest hesitation. Jiang Xiu didn't need to spend so much effort if he wanted to kill them, so they believed in him. As for those teachers and the students, they were still hesitating.
Professor Xu asked him, "Why?"
"To bury you alive!"
Everyone drew in a cold breath.
"Live burial?"
Professor Xu's facial expression turned extremely sour, "Student Xiu, you must be joking, right?"
Jiang Xiu didn't bother to explain, "Go down if you want to or don't. I'm going to cover the hole now."
Li Chengzhi had vaguely sensed something but couldn't really understand it. He believed Jiang Xiu as he was a Demigod and wouldn't do something in vain, "Professor, quickly come down, okay? Or are you going to wait for the curse to flare up?"
Professor Xu as well as the specialists with him looked at each other and then jumped down one after another.
After everyone went down, Jiang Xiu said, "Keep the stone as well as the grass on your body."
All of them followed the instructions though they didn't know the reason for it.
"Seal it!"
The giant golden lackey crammed the hole up again with zeal. The people inside couldn't help but scream. Anyone would do so if they were buried alive. Some even cried bitterly. It felt as if they were really being buried alive and felt they were getting closer to death.
After they were buried, Jiang Xiu revolved around this hole and drew a huge glyph on it. He went to the northwest corner of the hole and ignited the firewood there.
This was the most superficial technique for ascension.
Once the firewood finished burning, it was equivalent to the life lamps of everyone buried in the hole extinguishing, which meant they were considered dead so the curse should be removed as well.
"Dig them up quickly…"
The giant golden lackey didn't dare to tarry. He naturally understood what Jiang Xiu had done. It was only a way to deceive the God who had placed the curse and make him believe that the people buried were all dead by using the aid of the crushed rocks, as well as grass on their bodies, which were taken from the wilderness. Since they were considered dead, the Fire God's curse would naturally break as well.
After digging up the earth, the giant brought them all out again. These humans were so small in his palms and looked like mini toys.
"Pah!"
"Gufh!"
Their mouths were full of sand.
"I-It's over with this?"
"Look at your wrists…" Jiang Xiu told them.
They looked at their wrists and jumped with joy. The flame pattern on their arms had disappeared. Some of them had the pattern reaching to their elbow yet it was gone now.
"It's really gone."
"Very good!"
"I didn't die…"
Li Chengzhi and his son came over and expressed their heartfelt gratitude, "Mr. Jiang, thank you for saving our lives."
His gratitude was genuine and sincere. If it weren't for Jiang Xiu, they would have inevitably perished under this calamity.
"It's fine!"
Xie Ting was pleased as well, but at the same time, she couldn't help but feel dejected. This curse was set down by the ancestor of the ancient city to prevent intruders from entering inside.
Jiang Xiu asked her, "Lady Xie, where is the entrance to the ancient city?"
Xie Ting knew that Jiang Xiu's purpose in making this trip was the ancient city so he wouldn't renounce it so easily. She shook her head, "I don't know, really."
Jiang Xiu had saved her father and now saved her as well. She continued, "I came here many times with the intentions to enter the ancient city, but I couldn't find the entrance."
"No harm in that. Golden giant, where's the entrance of the ancient city you guard?"
The golden giant muttered to itself. His purpose of living was to guard the ancient city, and if he revealed it, it would be going against his reason of existence.
Jiang Xiu pressured the giant, "What? Are you unwilling to say it? Don't forget that your life is in my hands."
After he said this, the talisman placed inside the golden giant glowed, which in turn made the giant furrow its brows in pain.
"I must defend this land where the ancient city is located. I won't tell you even if you kill me."
"Looks like you'd die than rather break your oath!"
Actually, since he was already here, it wasn't difficult for Jiang Xiu to find the entrance, "Even if you don't day it, I already know where it is. The ancient city is buried underground."
The golden giant kept silent while Jiang Xiu continued speaking, "Did you forget where you had appeared from?"
The golden giant's expression morphed after hearing this.
It had come up from underground.
After saying his piece, Jiang Xiu walked towards that location. The others glanced at each other then followed behind him in a hurry. They had neither food nor water right now so staying here would only lead them to starve to their deaths. The only way to survive was finding the ancient city as there was a chance there was a water source there or even some kind of food.
Naturally, there would be a good deal of ancient texts as well as gold, silver, and treasures in there.
Moreover, since the golden giant was guarding it, there was a possibility that a huge secret was hidden inside the ancient city.
After walking for a bit, they saw stone steps leading underground.
The golden giant was completed dismayed. This trace had come into plain view because he had come out. Otherwise, it would've been buried in the depths of the desert and couldn't be found easily. The reason he had come out was that someone had killed here and polluted the land with blood. This had infuriated him, but he never expected that…
"Alright. Let's go down…"
Xie Ting followed behind Jiang Xiu with an excited look on her face. She had come here so many times but had never expected that the entrance to the ancient city was actually buried 10 m underground. No one could have anticipated this.
"Mr. Jiang, it's better to act with caution. According to the records of my ancestors, it's quite dangerous inside…"