After departing from the palace roadway, Chen Chuan soon arrived at the spot where Young Master Xu and his companion had just fled.
Glancing across the ground, he saw over a dozen decapitated corpses.
The blood had not yet dried, seeping down through the seams between the floor tiles. One or two of the bodies had left drag marks across the stones, extending straight into a side hall nearby, from which came the sound of wet gnawing and chewing.
He turned his steps toward it and stepped through a breach littered with shattered bricks. Inside, he immediately saw a creature six or seven meters long, resembling both serpent and dragon, with a single horn protruding from its head, crouched over the mutilated remains and gnawing voraciously.
As he entered, the thing suddenly paused. It snapped its head around, revealing that more than half of its face consisted of ragged, desiccated flesh. Its body was riddled with torn gashes; the fresh flesh and blood it had just gorged on were spilling out through these open rents.
Chen Chuan focused his gaze and noticed speckles of light gleaming over its cranium and spine, signifying spiritual power. This indicated it was not the mutated yaogui he had encountered before, but rather a shell possessed by some highly condensed spiritual entity.
Cultivators walking the path of the Visage of the Divine and entities from the other side could undoubtedly achieve such a feat, yet there would inevitably be a degree of dissonance. In contrast, this condensed spiritual entity harmonized closely with its vessel, appearing far more like an original spirit reconvened under the blessing of a ritual to reoccupy its formerly decayed carcass.
He remained standing motionless, but the creature could hold back no longer. Whirling around, it lunged straight at him. Before it even reached him, a fierce gust of wind pressure carrying a foul stench of decay surged forward.
Standing firmly in place, Chen Chuan raised his hand and casually swatted down. With a thunderous boom, an irresistible force slammed the creature into the flagstones, kicking up plumes of dust.
At that moment, Chen Chuan sensed something and looked to the side. Another horned serpent had appeared not far away, coiled around the upper section of a massive pillar and glaring fixedly at him. Movement stirred from behind as well; atop the palace wall in that direction, yet another horned serpent had crept out from who-knew-where.
The one on the ground rolled over, quickly pulling back some distance. Shaking its head, it crouched flat, fixing its eyes on him as it slithered slowly across the floor.
All at once, the three horned serpents encircled him like predators stalking prey.
After studying them for a few moments, Chen Chuan suddenly recalled the lore stating that it had been five dragons that tore Yuwen Yuanqi limb from limb. Later accounts claimed Emperor Ying had one day abruptly remembered their fraternal bond, drowning all five dragons that had served him for so long as a sacrificial offering to his brother.
Could these be those very creatures?
Yet these before him... seemed rather weak.
Meanwhile, higher up the mountainside, a palace attendant with a deathly pale face walked ahead carrying a lantern, muttering incessantly under his breath about nothing other than "His Majesty" and "noble lord."
Xu Mutang followed expressionlessly behind along the winding mountain path. The attendant ahead raised the lantern to cast light forward, turning back to say, "His Majesty is in the hall admiring the moon. Hurry on up. Do not forget the etiquette taught to you. Remember to serve His Majesty well, and you shall have your reward."
Xu Mutang glanced at the hall pavilions above. "Is Emperor Ying up there?"
"Audacious!" The attendant's shrill voice rose abruptly. "How dare a common knave like you address His Majesty in such a manner?"
Xu Mutang sneered. With a flick of his whip, the attendant was instantly lashed into pieces. However, this act seemed to alert the palace guards above, and a large contingent of spear-bearing warriors surged down from above.
At that moment, his brow twitched slightly. In the blink of an eye, all the warriors before him—along with the attendant's remains—dissipated entirely like fading smoke.
The delicate pavilions in the distance transformed into rows of ruined halls. The path underfoot was no longer smooth, replaced by cracked flagstones overgrown with withered grass and strewn with scattered dry bones, upon which lingered the marks of blades and axes.
He remarked coldly, "Petty ghost domain tricks."
Had this been a thousand years ago, perhaps these illusions might have bewildered him. Now, however, they could at most cause him a momentary lapse of focus.
Had it not been easier to locate Emperor Ying's true whereabouts by following these entities, he would have torn through this veil of mist long ago.
Drawing back his whip, he strode toward the palace pavilions.
The Longyou Dao Government Affairs Hall had long paid close attention to this secret vault. After all, not only was it a renowned vault, but it was also situated right beside Center City, so Center City had long regarded it as their own possession and had collected a vast wealth of relevant intelligence on it.
In truth, the operations of those adventure parties were secretly orchestrated and supported by Center City, all to facilitate uncovering a route into the vault's interior.
When the ritual suddenly opened a passage leading inside this time, the expert panel deduced that someone possessing insider information must have entered, someone of no ordinary background. It was inconvenient for Center City to clash with them openly, yet they could beat them to the punch and secure anything of value first. Thus, from the moment he entered, he had pushed straight inward without the slightest delay.
Now, he reckoned he had arrived at the core of the vault. Looking left and right, he saw that a corner of the palace had collapsed, though several thick pillars still stood erect.
Ahead lay a vast pool over ten feet deep, its bottom heaped with broken bones that showed obvious signs of having been chewed. After examining it, he surmised this must be the Dragon Pool.
Legend had it that five dragons served under Emperor Ying, devouring a hundred living people each day. The history books claimed most of the victims were convicts and slaves, but who was a convict or a slave had always been nothing more than a word from Emperor Ying.
Center City's expert panel had analyzed that while this secret vault was nominally erected in Yuwen Yuanqi's name, it was actually a spirit palace Emperor Ying had prepared for himself. The ghost domain earlier, along with the Dragon Pool before his eyes, proved this beyond doubt.
Gazing at the halls ahead, anticipation gleamed in his eyes. The Yuwen imperial clan had perished after only three generations, flourishing and declining within a mere forty years. They were one of the rare imperial dynasties that had failed to retreat into the Confluence or arrange other contingencies. Yet according to records of subsequent dynasties, very little had actually been looted or salvaged from their fall. Thus, it was widely suspected that their hoarded wealth lay hidden within the separate secret vaults Emperor Ying had established.
There ought to be a great deal of it here!
What was more, an item his faction had been seeking for ages was likely located right here!
Tightening his grip on his whip, he strode past the Dragon Pool. Just as he was about to enter the hall, he halted. From amidst the rubble and broken tiles ahead, a single-horned serpent slithered out.
Frowning, his brow twitched slightly. He noticed it was merely something akin to a desiccated corpse, its charred, shriveled flesh clinging tightly to its skeleton. Still, its size was formidable—fully seven or eight meters long.
He did not underestimate it. Inhaling sharply, his figure expanded dramatically into a towering black-armored general. Without waiting for the creature to attack, he charged ahead, slamming a fist onto its head and driving it straight into the stone floor. He pinned it underfoot, reached out, and ripped a nearby pillar from the earth. Bluish-white flames flared instantly along the stone as he hammered it downward again and again, delivering a final vicious crush!
With a resounding crash, a massive cloud of dust exploded outwards, and another large section of the rotten hall crumbled down.
When the dust cleared, Xu Mutang had reverted to his normal form. The horned serpent had been smashed into several severed segments, the breaks pulverized into flattened mush of bone and flesh. He grunted and tossed aside the shattered pillar in his hand.
Certain things from the Old Era were indeed formidable, but others were greatly exaggerated. As for this horned serpent, it might have possessed some fighting strength in life, but now it was reduced to dry bones and a husk of hide, with hardly any mutated tissue remaining. Clinging to existence by a shred of spirit, how could it hope to contend against him?
Retrieving the whip he had set on the ground, he walked briskly toward the inner hall.
Meanwhile, back at the entrance of the palace complex, a flash of light burst forth. The three horned serpents lunging forward were instantly blasted into countless shattered fragments, raining down like dust.
Chen Chuan shook his head. These things looked menacing but were completely ineffective. He did not know how powerful Yuwen Yuanqi had been back then, but he must have reached the realm of the Longevity View; otherwise, he could never have become General Assisting the State.
Furthermore, judging from various aspects of his physical traits, he had very likely attained the stage beyond that. For the five dragons to tear his body apart, they must have possessed considerable strength in their day.
Yet if it was just what was before him, one could only say they fell far short of their living prowess. After all, a thousand years had passed. Even with spirits anchored to them, their bodies had long since decayed.
At that moment, muffled, thunderous rumbles echoed down from the grand hall above. He cast a glance in that direction. The two people he had met earlier had mentioned that a martial artist had already entered; it seemed this commotion was made by that person.
With that, he turned and vanished from the spot, heading straight toward the source of the noise. In mere breaths, he reached the base of that high ground. Just as he was about to ascend, his steps paused as a dazzling flash of light gleamed ahead.
Several pillars supporting a nearby side hall sheared in two and slid down with a grating screech. That corner of the already tottering hall crashed to the ground with a deafening roar, revealing cut surfaces that were extraordinarily clean and smooth.
Chen Chuan looked over. It was a warrior clad in red armor and wearing a grotesque demonic mask, dressed like an imperial guard of this place. A ghostly, cold light shimmered around him, and he held a horse-cutting saber in his hands.
Is this... a mutated yaogui?
To be honest, having seen so many mutilated corpses and ghost domain anomalies along the way, seeing a yaogui all of a sudden felt strangely familiar.
Yet this one was clearly nowhere near comparable to Guardian You.
Watching the yaogui advance toward him, Chen Chuan drew the Xuejun Saber from its sheath and moved forward to meet it. The opponent accelerated, its figure flashing as it trailed a long, eerie streak of cold flame through the colonnade, blade light nearly engulfing all vision.
Yet in the very next instant, a blade light as brilliant as moonlight reflecting off snow flashed through the air, extinguishing all the cold flame in a heartbeat.
The yaogui froze in mid-swing, the fire of spirituality upon its body abruptly snuffing out. An instant later, it broke apart into dozens of shattered fragments that clattered across the ground. Falling alongside them was a thumb-sized golden seal.
Flicking the Xuejun Saber, Chen Chuan picked up the item and examined it. Engraved upon it were the characters: "Right Valiant Cavalry Guard."
He raised an eyebrow. The Valiant Cavalry Guard was Emperor Ying's personal army. Combined with the imperial audience ghost domain from earlier, it seemed this so-called secret vault of Yuwen Yuanqi was not nearly as simple as it appeared on the surface.
Gazing once more toward the faint silhouette of the palace looming above, he thought: whatever it was, he would know once he went up to see for himself.
Chapter 960