A Family of Hopeless Romantics, Except for the Evil Little Junior Brother

Li Xuanxiao drew a big X over a marked area on the map—this place didn’t contain the Poison Scripture he was looking for.

He put away the map and looked toward the sandy slope ahead.

Only after confirming the area was safe did he begin to dig.

According to the Janitor Uncle, the Poison Scripture was located in an underground tomb within the desert.

Li Xuanxiao set his puppet to start burrowing.

Night fell quickly.

In the darkness, Li Xuanxiao’s ears suddenly perked up.

Something was approaching fast.

Once it got close, it revealed its true form.

The camel spoke in a human voice, “Which grave-robbing thief dares to act up on my turf?”

There were many tombs buried beneath the desert, giving rise to cultivators who lived off tomb raiding.

They longed to find miraculous spirit pills in those tombs, ones powerful enough to defy fate.

Moments later, two figures shot up from the ground. “Run!!”

The two figures bolted through the desert at high speed.

The camel suddenly raised its head and opened its mouth, letting out a long roar.

"ROAR!!!"

In the blink of an eye, an unbelievable sight unfolded.

Enormous camels, far larger than normal, suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Their bodies were covered in thick fur like impenetrable armor.

This herd of giant camels charged at the two tiny figures with terrifying speed.

Wherever they passed, fierce winds howled and sand flew wildly, forming a rolling wave of yellow dust.

The two unlucky people didn’t even have time to react before the stampeding herd swallowed them whole.

A few screams rang out but were instantly drowned out by the thunder of pounding hooves, followed by the sickening sounds of bones cracking and flesh being crushed.

In the blink of an eye, the two of them had been reduced to indistinguishable piles of bloody mush, scattered grotesquely on the ground.

Just like that, the two grave robbers died.

The lead camel gave a snort and didn’t even glance at the corpses.

A while after the camels left, Li Xuanxiao’s head popped out from the ground. He looked toward the brutally killed grave robbers in the distance.

“The City Lord has given strict orders—grave robbers are to be executed without exception. These guys just never learn.”

“Jeez, that was terrifying.”

Li Xuanxiao set up another aura-isolating barrier.

Then, he turned and resumed his digging.

He dug for two days and one night.

Finally, through the underground puppet, Li Xuanxiao saw the broken tomb gate.

It was the same door the Janitor Uncle had previously broken.

Li Xuanxiao couldn’t help feeling a flicker of excitement.

He’d finally found it!

He slipped inside and quickly erased any traces above.

The puppet was the first to go through the tomb gate.

After the puppet came a clone, then another clone, and only after that did he send in his real body.

According to the Janitor Uncle, there wasn’t any danger inside the tomb. It was safe.

Of course, Li Xuanxiao figured what was safe for the Janitor Uncle might not be safe for him.

Things that were trivial to the Janitor Uncle could very well be deadly to him.

The tomb passage wasn’t long—just a little over five zhang—yet it took Li Xuanxiao over two hours to walk it.

He moved cautiously, on edge the entire time.

Probing again and again—he was more paranoid than someone clearing landmines.

At last, Li Xuanxiao stood in the main chamber of the tomb.

The puppet and clones were all unharmed.

His gear—poison-resistant gloves, antidote pills... everything he had prepared was intact.

Li Xuanxiao looked at the gold, silver, and jewels in the tomb with zero interest.

His eyes were locked straight on the ancient book at the center.

Surroundings: safe.

Ground: safe.

Ceiling: safe........

Everything was safe.

It really did seem to be just as the Janitor Uncle had said—completely safe, not a single threat.

The Janitor Uncle had said that when he first looked around, he thought it was just an ordinary tomb.

So he had casually taken some gold and silver, only to later realize they were anything but ordinary.

Li Xuanxiao put on his poison-blocking gloves, suited up in protective gear, chanted his body-protection mantra, took two antidote pills, and wore his poison-repelling jade pendant...

He first tested the Poison Scripture using another object. No reaction, and no trace of poison.

Finally, Li Xuanxiao cautiously reached out and lifted the Poison Scripture.

In that very instant........

His expression changed. From life to death took only a split second.

His body stiffened and collapsed to the ground—dead, erased from existence.

The End！！

............

Li Xuanxiao squatted in the corner and drew a period with his pen.

Way too dangerous.

He looked at his vanished clone—not even ashes were left. All his anti-poison measures had failed.

Killed in just one moment.

That earlier sense of safety had only existed to lull people into letting their guard down, so they’d miss the real danger.

Li Xuanxiao had another clone use two wooden sticks to lift the Poison Scripture.

That seemed to work just fine—it looked like only direct contact with the human body triggered the poison.

Li Xuanxiao tried turning a page using the stick—nothing happened. It was completely blank.....

After several more tests, Li Xuanxiao roughly understood this poison.

No storage artifact could contain the Poison Scripture. Otherwise, not only would the storage ring be destroyed,

everything inside it would be corroded by poison.......

In the end, Li Xuanxiao came up with a good solution: he had a clone use chopsticks to keep holding the Poison Scripture, planning to study it thoroughly once he got back to Mount Shushan.

This trip to the Thousand Lakes Desert went far smoother than he’d expected.

Li Xuanxiao stored away the Poison Scripture, cast a glance at the gold and silver treasures in the cave.

Suddenly, he noticed a stone tablet tucked away in a corner.

“I loved poison all my life, and cultivated through poison.

I killed and I saved, and in the end, I was all alone—no one dared come close.

All the treasures I’ve collected in my life—if someone with fate comes upon them, please help me give them all away. I would be eternally grateful.”

The treasures were truly tempting. Li Xuanxiao glanced at them.

They weren’t ordinary gold and silver, and for cultivators, they were incredibly enticing. No one would give them up just because of a few lines on a stone.

“.........”

Thousand Lakes Desert.

The Gu Armor Tribe, which had just suffered heavy losses in a sandstorm, stumbled upon a windfall.

Huangsha City—the people, waiting in vain for the City Lord to send disaster relief grain, welcomed one caravan after another.

A cultivator who had saved an entire village woke up to find piles of treasure beside him......

Months later.

After Li Xuanxiao had given away all the treasure, he was surprised to find that the poison on the Poison Scripture had vanished.

And the once-blank pages now had words written on them once more.