by Mars Gravity
“Well then, I’ll return to the Ice Maiden Palace. Four hours later, I’ll shake off the guards and come here again.” His excitement could be made out amidst his expectant look.
“Alright! I believe that Senior Brother Yun Che would feel that the journey has been worthwhile upon seeing our prided Qilin horn!”
Yun Che left, leaving behind Mu Hanyi watching his back for a moment before slowly raising his head. There was still a faint smile on his face, but his eyes reflected an unusual gleam that no one had noticed before.
More than an hour after midnight, in the dead of night.
Yun Che had been resting with closed eyes for a long time, but at this moment, he opened them all of a sudden. Afterwards, he jumped out of the bed and made his way outside.
“Ah… Sir Yun.” Feng Hanjin, who had been waiting outside all the while, performed a salutation in a flurry. “Sir Yun is going out?”
“Mn. I’m going out for a walk, so don’t bother about me.” Yun Che waved his hand.
“Understood.” Feng Hanjin bent over to respectfully see him off, not daring to ask anything further.
The Ice Wind Imperial Palace was especially silent in the midnight. Yun Che walked out of the Ice Maiden Palace before abruptly stopping after a short while. He used a pretty low voice to say, “I’m going out to relieve boredom. No one is allowed to follow me!”
The deterrent power of a direct disciple of the Realm King far surpassed that of a monarch. Receiving his order, the people guarding him from the shadows naturally wouldn’t dare disobey him.
Furthermore, even they felt that it was quite unnecessary to mobilize so many people just to secretly guard someone as great as a direct disciple of the Great Realm King.
Following the earlier route, Yun Che soon arrived at the place from before. Mu Hanyi was also already waiting for him.
Mu Hanyi released his spiritual sense to perceive the surroundings. Then, he sighed with a smile, “I’d not expect anything less from Senior Brother Yun Che. Your words carry even more weight than Royal Father’s. There’s really no one who dared to follow you.”
“Hehe, Junior Brother Hanyi, you’re praising too much. Well, let’s go over to that place now. Even if it’s just looking from afar, it’d make this journey worthwhile if I could feel the aura of the legendary auspicious beast.”
Yun Che might look calm, but he couldn’t conceal the urgency in his tone.
“If the halidom has a spirit, it would be certainly overjoyed upon finding out how much someone of Senior Brother Yun Che’s identity was yearning for it.”
Mu Hanyi took Yun Che to the east of imperial palace. The place they had arrived seemed to be the medicine garden of imperial palace. Various rare and strange herbs were growing all over, and the whole place was completely dark. It was unclear whether Mu Hanyi was deliberately avoiding the places with people, or it had always been the case around here, as they didn’t come across a single person ever after walking for a long time.
“This is the imperial palace’s medicine garden. Although there’s many kinds of herbs here, the standard of the garden is far inferior to the one in sect. I hope Senior Brother Yun Che doesn’t laugh at it.” Mu Hanyi said. “Normally, this place is guarded by a profound beasts, which would roar as soon as they notice something wrong. But Senior Brother Yun Che, you don’t have to worry at all. With my aura here, they wouldn’t show any alarming reaction.”
Yun Che released his spirit perception. He truly caught the auras of several profound beasts in different places… And, all of them were quite powerful profound beasts in the divine way.
Upon reaching the end of the medicine garden, Mu Hanyi finally stopped in his tracks. There was an over ten meters high, oddly-shaped boulder before their eyes. It appeared to have experienced the passage of a long time, as it was fully covered with green and black creepers. Yun Che’s gaze scanned all over it for a brief moment, then he said frowning, “Are you telling me this is the entrance? But…”
Mu Hanyi smiled lightly in response. The creepers on the boulder got brushed away with a sweep of his palm. Soon after, he pointed out his finger as a bead of blood flew out of the tip and fell right on the boulder.
Like mercury flowing down the ground, the scarlet bead slowly permeated it, and disappeared without a trace.
CLANG!
A light sound reverberated, following which, a small-sized profound formation suddenly glimmered on the boulder that seemed completely ordinary a moment ago.
“Oh!” Yun Che’s jaw dropped a bit in a totally surprised expression, “What elaborate planning.”
“Usually, this profound formation wouldn’t show any signs of its presence, making it impossible to be detected. It could be only opened by the ones bearing the direct bloodline of our Ice Wind Imperial Family. However, this is still my first time opening up the passage, besides that one time when Royal Father told me about the existence of this passage.”
“Let me speak the truth, even if it makes Senior Brother Yun Che laugh. This passage was made in preparation of escaping with our life, in case we ever confront a desperate situation. Bringing Yun Che along into the passage, Mu Hanyi slowly explained, “The exit and entrance to this passage use an identical profound formation, extremely well-hidden and difficult to perceive by an outsider. Nothing else other than the blood of Ice Wind Imperial Family members could activate the formations, making it relatively safe to use this place to hide or escape from the enemy.”
“I only hope that the day we’re truly forced to use this never comes in the future.” Mu Hanyi sighed deeply.
In the Illusory Demon Realm, Yun Che had seen such a profound formation which used the bloodline imprint for activation.
“Is the imperial treasury you spoke of at the end of this passage?” Yun Che asked. They had walked within for a long time, but the way ahead was still narrow as before.
“Correct. There’s a large number of trap mechanisms and profound formations lying hidden in the treasury. Triggering any one of them would land us in quite a grave situation.”
As they were talking, Mu Hanyi abruptly came to a halt. There was a pitch-black wall in the front, without the slightest gap anywhere in between to pass through; they seemed to have reached a dead end. He said with a very cautious look, “Senior Brother Yun Che, the treasury is right before us. You need to make sure to follow closely behind me when we enter inside. No matter what, do not walk around casually. Triggering a profound formation would’ve been still fine, at worst Royal Father would sense our presence and Hanyi would be punished for letting you in. But if Hanyi let Senior Brother Yun Che be hurt by some mechanism, it’d be difficult to atone for my sin even after dying ten thousand times.”
Yun Che nodded to make him feel at ease.
Mu Hanyi stretched out his hand. A blood bead flew out again, and fell on the pitch-black wall in the front.
The wall shone with a faint profound light as a profound formation, exactly similar to the one before, instantly appeared in their line of sight. Then, the pitch-black wall opened into two halves. They saw a spacious place before them, as they felt the extremely dense aura of several things.
It was the aura of spirit medicine, spirit crystal, spirit weapon… the aura of each and every thing in the place was extremely strong. In other words, none of these things emitting such an aura was an ordinary entity of low level!
It was after all, the treasury of the Ice Wind Imperial Family which governed the vast Ice Wind Empire!
Kept in here were the collection and accumulation of the Ice Wind Empire, over the immensely long period of more than eighty thousand years!
Chapter 1026: Insane
The stone door didn’t close even after they entered the treasury. Mu Hanyi, who was leading the way, said with a quite serious look, “Senior Brother Yun Che, follow along my steps, and restrain your aura as much as possible. Make sure not to trigger any mechanism or profound formation. The Qilin horn is at the central area, so we should be ab
le to see it soon.”
Yun Che restrained his aura as he followed behind Mu Hanyi. Although he was mentally prepared to see a lot of rare things, he was still pretty shocked at the sight before him. The treasury was so huge that one couldn’t even see the end. High level purple crystals and purple jades were piled up into a mountain, the purple light emitting from them was practically blinding. There was a dazzling lineup of all kinds of profound armors and weapons in there, and innumerable auras of spirit medicine could be sensed. Despite the fact that treasures that easily leak their auras were sealed properly in ice-jade boxes, the entire treasury was emanating such a strong aura that it felt almost sticky to the touch.
“It’s really worthy of being the longest standing empire in the history of the Snow Song Realm. Taking a look at the treasury is enough in itself to make out the amazing prosperity of the Ice Wind Empire.” Yun Che said with emotion.
“Hehe, Senior Brother Yun Che is overpraising us.” Mu Hanyi chuckled. “No matter how strong Ice Wind Empire is, it’s no more than an insignificant country. Even if our strength and prosperity were to increase ten times more, we would still remain a petty and low existence in contrast to Divine Ice Phoenix Sect. What is the sovereign of a nation considered when compared to Senior Brother Yun Che’s identity?”
“Oh?” Yun Che revealed surprise, “I believe that Junior Brother Hanyi’s words were a bit extreme. I can’t fully approve of them.”
“Haha.” Mu Hanyi let out a meaningful and light laugh, but didn’t say anything. He continued to walk further as he led Yun Che in for a good while, before he finally came to halt. Yun Che also stopped at almost the same time, as he looked fixedly in the front.
Before their eyes was a huge sealing profound formation. Within it was a giant horn that was as long as ten meters. Half of its shape was similar to a deer’s, and the other half a dragon’s. It was entirely azure blue in color and was giving off a crystalline glow. However, it didn’t have the slightest glitter and translucency of a crystal. Even though it was sealed by the profound formation, Yun Che could still feel its boundless and dense aura.
“Could this be… the Qilin horn?” Yun Che asked, raising his head.
“Correct.” Mu Hanyi turned around to look indifferently at Yun Che. “This Qilin horn is from an Ice Qilin. It’s far bigger than the size mentioned in the available records on Qilin. Therefore, this horn most likely doesn’t belong to an ordinary Ice Qilin, but some high level species of Qilin, like King Qilin.”
“There’s an extremely strong power contained in this Qilin horn. It’s just that even after using countless ways, our ancestral emperors were never able to draw it out. Later, it was sealed over here, treating it as the halidom safeguarding the empire.”
“…” Yun Che nodded, keeping his gaze on the Qilin horn within the profound formation.
Before his eyes was the thing Mu Xuanyin had sent him here for. But, he had no idea what to do about the profound formation the Qilin horn was sealed in.
As Yun Che was looking at the Qilin horn, Mu Hanyi was actually looking at him. His lips unconsciously curved in a strange way, “Speaking of which, once in the past, I proposed to Royal Father that if I could fortunately become a direct disciple of the Sect Master, then we must present this Qilin horn to her.”
“Oh?” Surprise emerged in Yun Che’s eyes. “But isn’t it the halidom of your Ice Wind Empire? Your royal father shouldn’t have agreed, right?”
“No,” Mu Hanyi smiled calmly. “Royal Father immediately gave his consent. If I could become a direct disciple of the Sect Master, no one in the Snow Song Realm would dare to go against our Ice Wind Empire. Its standing would reach the zenith of the world. Why would we still need some halidom to safeguard the empire by then? In fact, I never believed in something like the destiny of a nation. We might call it a halidom that’s safeguarding our empire, but speaking bluntly, it’s just a useless, worthless thing, whose sole purpose is to comfort our hearts. Ultimately, we have no means to draw out the power contained within it, but Sect Master is certainly capable of doing that. Having the sect master regard me highly by exchanging such a useless, worthless thing, is it possible for a deal to be any greater than this?! How could Royal Father disagree to such a proposal?!”
“…” Yun Che furrowed his eyebrows. He could clearly sense the change in Mu Hanyi’s tone and expression.
“I intentionally disclosed this matter to Master, thinking that the information might be able to reach the ears of Sect Master, and let her know about my sincerity. However, it was you whom the sect master chose in the end, so nothing I do would make a difference.” Mu Hanyi slightly raised his head. “It seems this Qilin horn is going to simply lie here as ever. Oh! No, no, no, it’d be still comparatively better to present it to the sect master, just that…”
“You’d not be the one doing so, but I, Mu Hanyi!”
Mu Hanyi raised a corner of his mouth. His eyes suddenly started to emit a gloomy and bizarre light.
“…” Yun Che’s eyes jerked up. He started moving backwards without making any sound. “Junior Brother Hanyi, what do you mean by that?”
“What meaning? Heh!” His eternally gentle smile, which looked like a steadily flowing water, had abruptly changed into a particularly eerie one. His eyes looking at Yun Che didn’t held the deep respect from before, visibly replaced by blatant ridicule and hatred. “It’s not like you don’t have the choice to present it to the sect master yourself. As long as you kill me, and then use my blood to deactivate that profound formation, you can fulfill your wish.”
He stretched out his finger to slowly beckon to Yun Che, “Come, kill me now. Then, you can bring this Qilin horn back to sect, which would cause the sect master to think more highly of you than before. Come on, hurry up!”
Yun Che’s pupils shrank a bit, and continued quietly moving backwards. “Junior Brother Hanyi, are you… joking around with me?”
“What do you think?” The corners of Mu Hanyi’s mouth lifted into a smile, revealing his white and dazzling teeth that he would keep hidden, even at the moments of smiling faintly. He flung his arm all of a sudden, as he took out a thing flashing blue light before pinching it into pieces. Subsequently, a profound formation was unleashed, glimmering with blue light.
CLANG!!
Instantly, a blue barrier was formed around Yun Che before he could even react. By the time he realized his current situation, he was already trapped within together with Mu Hanyi.
The barrier was only thirty-three meters wide, a distance profound practitioners of divine way could cover in no time. The aura emanating from the barrier brought an abrupt change in Yun Che’s expression.
Not only the barrier was extremely resilient, so much so that he was absolutely incapable of tearing it open, it also cut off everything besides light… space, sound, and even sound transmission!
“One needs to be at least at the peak of the Divine Tribulation Realm to be able to forcefully break through this barrier. Even if it’s me, it’s impossible to force my way out of here.” Mu Hanyi lowered his arm as he said in a gloomy mocking tone. Being held within the barrier, Yun Che’s present circumstances were no different from a turtle in a jar.
Yun Che kept on retreating with quick steps, till he arrived at the edge of the barrier. “Mu Hanyi, what… are you planning to do?”
“Didn’t you say earlier that you’ve come to the Ice Wind Empire to do something?” Mu Hanyi smiled faintly. If an Ice Phoenix disciple were to see his appearance this time, they would definitely not dare believe that he was the same Senior Brother Hanyi who was revered by everyone. “To offer birthday congratulations? Hah, do you take me for a fool?!”
“…” The look in Yun Che’s eyes changed again.
“On my way here, I was always wondering why Sect Master had you come to the Ice Wind Empire. Given the ability of Sect Master, there’s no value in conspiring against our empire. Then, at some point in time, I suddenly recalled that I’ve told Master ab
out the Qilin horn, and immediately realized why you’d be sent here… Right, there can be no other reason other than to get the Qilin horn!”
“A major event will be happening in the God Realm. So to prepare herself, the Sect Master is anxious to have some breakthrough. Her asking Huo Rulie to hand over the Golden Crow’s Record of the Burning World during the Great Sect Assembly, is a sufficient proof to support my understanding of the situation. There’s no doubt that the Sect Master found out about the Qilin horn from Master, and is thinking that the power contained in it might assist her to breakthrough. However, since she didn’t choose me as her direct disciple, and also knows that the Qilin horn is a halidom of our Ice Wind Empire, she didn’t feel it right to make a demand for it… Sect Master has to take care of her reputation, after all! Therefore, she sent you over to discreetly inquire the related information! As long as the location of Qilin horn has been searched out, Sect Master can take it away at any time, without letting anyone else know of her presence!”
“Later, when I heard from Royal Sister Hanjin that you asked her a question related to the destiny of our nation, the last bit of doubt in my heart got dispelled right away.”
“You…” The surprised look on Yun Che’s face grew deeper with every word said by Mu Hanyi. “Why do you know about everythi…?
However, he at once realized something, following which, the surprise and fear on his face disappeared without a trace. This time he actually took a step forward, as the expression in his eyes turned dark and stern, “Since you know it already, that makes things a lot easier. Hand over the Qilin horn obediently to me, got it? Or what… do you want to defy Master’s will?”
“Hehe, there’s no way I, Mu Hanyi would have the guts to defy Sect Master’s will. Didn’t I say just now? I’ll personally offer the Qilin horn to Master. But you wouldn’t be there to see that moment, because you…” Mu Hanyi’s tone changed all of a sudden, “Will be dying here very soon!”