Just as Li Guanqi was eagerly preparing to test out the Canglang sword, the sound of whirring gears and mechanisms suddenly chattered from within the two puppets kneeling on the ground.
In just a few breaths, the two puppets, each a full seven feet tall, shrank into palm-sized silver spheres!
*Clack! Clack!*
Two soft clatters sounded as two hexagonal jade plaques dropped from the soldier pellets.
Li Guanqi put away the longsword and retrieved the scabbard lying beneath it.
The entirely dark-green scabbard was fitted with three hoops and badges carved from unpolished cyan jade, each etched with exquisitely intricate patterns.
Yet Li Guanqi's attention was not on the sword; he flashed up onto the altar.
He stowed the soldier pellets with satisfaction, then picked up the two jade plaques from the ground.
Looking at the jade plaques in his hand, Li Guanqi frowned slightly. He had no idea why such things would fall from the soldier pellets.
*Could they be the power source driving them?*
On the front of one jade plaque was an etching of a towering mountain, while the other depicted a longsword.
Just then, the sword spirit manifested once more!
Staring at the jade plaques in Li Guanqi's hand, she asked with a grave expression, "Does this Mohist ruin have a name?"
Li Guanqi said in a deep voice, "Dikun City!"
Her eyes flickered. Turning toward the tightly shut doors, she said softly, "You may need to keep heading up! Gather as many of these jade plaques as you can. They will be of great use!"
Li Guanqi wanted to ask for more details, but the surrounding space seemed to exert a suppressing effect on her. Out of necessity, the sword spirit retreated into the sword casket.
After stowing the jade plaques, Li Guanqi looked at the stone doors before him and pushed them open slowly.
Looking at the stairs leading both up and down, Li Guanqi ultimately chose to climb upward! He trusted that what the sword spirit said made sense.
However, when he reached the eleventh tier, there was nothing on the altar.
He looked up at the floating altar suspended overhead and took to the air, intending to fly directly up. To his surprise, he really did soar straight onto it!
Yet the altar on the tenth tier was riddled with traps and mechanisms. Li Guanqi faced peril after peril until he simply activated the soldier pellets and donned their armor over his body.
Instantly, a continuous clatter and clang rang out by his ears.
Li Guanqi let out a breath of relief and moved his limbs, discovering that the soldier pellet armor had actually shrunk to match his build. Moreover, it felt virtually weightless, leaving the rotation of his wrists and joints completely unhindered.
Li Guanqi could not help but marvel in admiration. He had never imagined the soldier pellets could be designed with such exquisite ingenuity!
Sure enough, after the mechanisms on this tier subsided, another jade plaque appeared. This one, however, was etched with countless concealed throwing darts.
Yet when he ascended another tier, there was once again nothing to be found.
Li Guanqi stood in place with a slight frown, murmuring under his breath, "It seems someone beat me through these tiers. It must be that group of black-robed men. But why didn't they clear them all?"
***
In the final tier that sealed off the twelve-tiered space, the black-robed man wearing the purple armband looked down with an ugly expression at the two jade plaques in his hand.
"You only cleared one tier? And the plaque from the first tier was one you scavenged behind someone else's back! Could you be any more useless?!"
The remaining dozen or so black-robed men fell as quiet as winter cicadas, none daring to utter a word.
Instead, the black-robed man wearing the yellow armband sneered coldly, "Heh. You call us useless, but I didn't see you charging through the twelve tiers of soldier pellets either."
The leader gave a cold harrumph, but said no more. After all, the mechanisms of Dikun City were simply too powerful—far beyond what they could contend with.
Then he murmured softly, "No matter what, we must obtain the Thousand Mechanism Formation Plate! That blind man... if there's a chance, send him in! With our understanding of the Thousand Mechanism Formation Plate, we can definitely kill him and claim the bounty while we're at it."
***
On the altar of the second tier, Li Guanqi easily bypassed its mechanisms and took count of the jade plaques in his possession.
Five in total. Several of the tiers appeared to have been abandoned for who knew how many years.
Looking at the five jade plaques in his hand, they depicted: a towering mountain, ocean spray, a longsword, throwing darts, and raging fire.
After stowing them away, Li Guanqi still found no trace of any Great Xia Sword Sect disciples. Even Ye Feng had been left behind in that pavilion.
Li Guanqi continually turned over the identity of those black-robed men in his mind.
*Could they be descendants of the Mohist lineage native to these ruins?*
*Yet this mystic realm was granted by Ziyang Palace. These people can't possibly be inhabitants living inside the ruins.*
*Which means... perhaps they entered earlier than us.*
*But the sect clearly only opened the entrance once. How could they have snuck in?*
*Could it be... related to the outsiders who invaded a few days ago?*
Questions surfaced in Li Guanqi's mind one after another, yet they felt like a tangled ball of twine, impossible to unravel. Still, he had a premonition that the origin of all this lay within these unanswered questions.
Looking down at the dozen tiers of altars below his feet, Li Guanqi leapt!
*Thud!!*
Landing upon the stairs of the twelfth tier, Li Guanqi slowly walked down the final flight of steps.
Yet just as he stepped through the doorway, countless staircases leading down to the ground suddenly manifested across the floor of Dikun City!
***
At that moment, Ye Feng was hiding inside a pavilion, bandaging a puncture wound in his abdomen. His face was pale, his wound had already turned black, and his entire body was drained of strength.
Hearing the sounds coming from outside, he quickly slid over to the window to observe with caution.
And then, he caught sight of a familiar figure!
Zhou Zhi's white robes were splattered with blood, yet his gaze remained piercing and fierce.
Ye Feng struggled to his feet, opened the door, and called out, "Senior... Senior Brother Zhou..."
Seeing how pale Ye Feng looked, Zhou Zhi hurried over to support him. "Did you run into that group as well? Quick! I have a detoxification pill here. Take it now."
Supporting Ye Feng, Zhou Zhi promptly took out his detoxification pill and fed it to him. After helping Ye Feng into the room and shutting the door, he swiftly tore away the cloth Ye Feng had hastily wrapped around himself, then ripped a strip from his own white robe.
Seeing the blackened wound, Zhou Zhi drew a dagger, lit a candle with a fire striker, and held the blade over the flame to scorch it.
With his resolute expression, Zhou Zhi had clearly just fought through a bloody battle against the black-robed men himself.
Zhou Zhi said in a grave, solemn voice, "The poison in your body is already spreading. This flesh has to be gouged out!"
Ye Feng's breathing had already grown erratic, his consciousness slipping. Yet he gave a firm nod, signaling Zhou Zhi to proceed!
By now, the dagger was glowing red-hot. Taking a deep breath, Zhou Zhi slashed the blade across the wound in an instant!
A smell of seared meat arose. Ye Feng's fingers contorted, and his whole body snapped violently taut!!
His face twisted in agony, a trickle of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. Seeing this, Zhou Zhi immediately pried open his jaws and shoved his fingers inside!
The intense pain forced a muffled groan from Zhou Zhi.
Blood dripped down his fingers, but the movements of his hand never faltered for a second.
Breaths later, all the blackened flesh surrounding the wound had been sliced away, leaving dark, clotted blood puddled across the floor.
Looking at Ye Feng, who had passed out from the agony, Zhou Zhi slowly pulled his fingers from his mouth.
Looking at his bitten and mangled fingers, Zhou Zhi did not even stop to bandage them. Instead, he hurriedly took out golden sore powder and sprinkled it over Ye Feng's wound. Only after properly bandaging Ye Feng did he hoist him up and carry him upstairs.
Sitting by the bedside, Zhou Zhi bandaged his own fingers, a chilling glint flashing in his eyes.
"Whoever you are, I will make you pay!!"
Chapter 94