Chapter 195: The Bronze Box Guarded by Han – Obtaining Another of the Azure Dragon Seven Mansions!
Li Mo finally understood what Bai Xianwu was after.
The bronze box she spoke of was undoubtedly one of the Azure Dragon Seven Mansions.
She was plotting for this!
If he delivered it to her, she would manage to get Han’s portion of the Azure Dragon Seven Mansions.
If he failed and was caught by the palace guards, they could justly kill him for stealing Han’s treasures.
Either way, she wouldn’t lose anything.
If this mission failed, even Han Fei might get implicated.
This plan was even more cunning than Sister Zi’s!
“Alright.”
Li Mo didn’t hesitate and nodded in agreement.
Someone under mind control would neither refuse nor question orders.
“The item is in the ancestral hall of the palace. Bring it here once you retrieve it. You have one hour.”
The distance to the Han Palace wasn’t far.
A round trip would only take half an hour.
With the time to retrieve the item, one hour should be enough.
Li Mo, “very obediently,” turned and walked towards the Han Palace.
Bai Xianwu stood silently in place.
Watching his back, cold light flashed in her eyes.
The Han dynasty royal palace was no stranger to Li Mo; he easily evaded all the guards.
Back when Mingzhu and Humeiren were here, he often came by at night.
The patrol patterns of these guards hadn’t changed much since then.
The Han ancestral shrine was in a different direction from the harem.
Li Mo extended his sensory range to the maximum, and shortly after entering the palace, he found the location of the Han ancestral shrine.
An isolated three-story pavilion stood in the middle of the square.
The surroundings were bare, and the ground was paved with bluestone slabs.
There were no trees or even shrubs to provide cover.
The dense soldiers almost formed an impenetrable barrier around it.
To describe it as “a guard post every three steps and a sentry every five steps” would be an understatement.
Moreover, the open square had several columns of soldiers patrolling in a cross-pattern.
Li Mo leaned against a large tree a hundred meters away, sensing everything behind him.
No wonder Bai Xianwu hadn’t made a move for the Hann bronze box yet.
With such defense, not even a fly could get in.
But the real trouble wasn’t the outer guards.
The real difficulty lay inside the pavilion.
There were two ninth-rank enshrined guards stationed inside.
Even if someone got in, it would be hard not to alert them.
Fortunately, Li Mo was no ordinary person.
For him, the challenge wasn’t getting in after entering the pavilion.
He could sense clearly where the two ninth-rank guards were hiding.
Silently killing them wouldn’t be a big issue.
The challenge was getting past the guards without alerting anyone.
Tonight, the moonlight was silver-bright, brighter than torchlight.
His current position was a good hundred-meter distance from the pavilion.
Leaning against the tree, Li Mo rubbed his forehead.
It seemed a bit tricky.
He didn’t bring Da Huo Ji this time; he couldn’t even use her to set a fire to distract the guards.
As Li Mo pondered, a gust of wind suddenly blew.
The trees rustled loudly.
Clouds gradually covered the full moon, dimming the moonlight.
Shortly after, a blinding flash of lightning lit up the surroundings like daylight.
Li Mo was startled.
Was that… lightning?
It was already spring, and spring thunderstorms weren’t uncommon.
But a sudden thunderstorm now, wasn’t this divine assistance?
Li Mo’s senses remained fixed on the pavilion.
The flash of lightning made all the guards instinctively look up.
Without hesitation, he vanished from behind the tree.
There could be no delay at this moment.
Only the first sudden lightning flash would attract the guards’ attention.
This was a rare opportunity.
By the time the lightning faded and the guards looked away, Li Mo was already inside the pavilion.
Before entering, he had already located the bronze box.
For him, this was the convenient part—anything within his sensory range was impossible to miss.
Boom!
Shortly after the flash of lightning disappeared, deafening thunder rumbled.
Simultaneously, the enshrined guard on the first floor silently collapsed.
Earlier, when he was bored, he had learned some assassination techniques from Jing Ni, which turned out to be useful now.
Against a surprise assassination from a Tongshen realm cultivator, even a ninth-rank couldn’t defend.
There were two enshrined guards.
One on the first floor and one on the second floor.
What Li Mo was looking for was on the third floor.
He couldn’t avoid them while going up.
After dispatching the first-floor guard, Li Mo locked onto the position of the second-floor guard.
A slight cracking sound came from the pavilion, and the second enshrined guard was silently taken care of.
Only then did Li Mo breathe a sigh of relief.
In truth, these two were careless.
With ninth-rank strength, they were formidable outside.
But their carelessness, combined with Li Mo’s Tongshen realm prowess and assassination skills learned from Jing Ni, led to their easy defeat.
These two were only following orders to guard the place.
They didn’t even know about the bronze box on the third floor.
They couldn’t have predicted someone managing to get into the pavilion without alerting the outer guards.
Moreover, no one expected that an existence at the level of communication with the divine would sneak into the ancestral shrine of the Han Emperor’s Palace to steal something!
Who in their right mind would take such a huge risk to steal something from the ancestral shrine?
Steal a few plaques to use as firewood?
After dealing with the two priests, Li Mo leisurely strolled to the third floor.
A thick wooden door had a large bronze lock hanging on it.
It was obvious that the key was with Emperor Han.
The contents of the bronze box were of utmost importance.
No one but Li Mo had the right to enter the third floor.
Not even the princess or the prince was an exception.
Li Mo certainly didn’t have the time to go steal the key from Emperor Han.
A flash of cold light glinted in the stairway, and using the long sword he picked up from the priests, he silently broke open the wooden door.
He stepped inside.
The layout of the third floor was simple.
In the middle was a square bronze platform.
Perfectly square, it measured four feet in length, width, and height.
A rectangular bronze box was placed neatly on the bronze platform.
It measured approximately one foot in length and seven inches in width.
The height was also around seven inches.
Li Mo finally realized how lucky he was to have unexpectedly obtained two of the Canglong Seven Constellations.
No wonder the Yin-Yang School had been plotting for the Canglong Seven Constellations for so long. Even though they knew the bronze boxes were in the hands of royal families, they still had not managed to steal them.
Judging from the security level of Han’s guard over the bronze box, one could infer that the bronze boxes held by other countries were not easy to steal either.
Trying to confront an entire country’s power with just one clan was nothing but a fool’s dream.
Li Mo stood in front of the bronze platform for a long time without moving.
Because this bronze box was a fake!
To be precise, the bronze box itself was real.
But inside, it was empty!
Not only that.
This bronze box was a trap.
Inside, a gold thread connected it to the mechanism within the bronze platform.
Whether opening the bronze box or taking it away would trigger the mechanism.
At that time, the alarm would go off, and the guards outside would surround this place completely.
This was also why the wooden floor could support such a large bronze platform.
The interior of the bronze platform was almost empty, making it naturally light in weight!
As for the original contents of the bronze box…
Li Mo slowly lifted his head.
Six huge beams spanned across the top of the umbrella-shaped attic.
At the intersection of the beams, a three-foot-long wooden box lay flat and secure in the middle!
Li Mo couldn’t help but admire the caution of the previous Han kings.
Layer upon layer, one ring after another.
Even if someone managed to get in, they couldn’t take away the contents of the bronze box!
If it hadn’t been for Li Mo’s ability to perceive through the bronze box and the platform to sense anomalies, he would have fallen into this trap!
The bronze boxes had been guarded by the seven countries for hundreds of years without being lost, and with good reason.
Li Mo lightly leaped up and landed on one of the beams.
He knew exactly what was inside the wooden box from his perception.
A sword!
A sword with a bluish-black body, broken into several pieces and in a severely damaged condition!
It was precisely because of this condition that the sword could fit into the bronze box, which was only one foot in size.
Li Mo extended his palm and gently placed it on the wooden box.
A bone-chilling coldness immediately spread through his hand.
It felt like touching a piece of a thousand-year-old black ice.
Buzz!
Suddenly, the wooden box trembled.
The tremor grew larger and the aura inside became increasingly violent.
It seemed as though something inside was about to burst out.
With a flick of his finger, Li Mo snapped the wooden box open!
A dense wave of yin energy surged out.
In an instant, the temperature in the entire attic plummeted to freezing point.
The interior decor faded in an instant.
The redwood beams beneath his feet turned a dull grey as if painted with grey varnish, quickly spreading in all directions.
The bronze platform and the floor below.
The wooden stairs and the shrines downstairs.
All turned into lifeless grey!
The orange candle flames lost their color, becoming grey flames.
The environment within the attic became eerie and terrifying in an instant.
Like a bizarre world isolated from reality, forgotten in the endless passage of time, covered in dust and ruin!
Whoosh~
A gust of cold wind swept across Li Mo’s face.
The wooden box was suddenly empty.
A tall and burly silhouette appeared out of thin air below.
On the ancient blue-black armor, there were crisscrossing and menacing sword marks.
The gray-white long hair moved like tentacles without the wind.
The face with the greenish hue appeared eerie and chilling.
Similar to Li Mo, his eyes were covered with cloth strips.
The difference was that his cloth strips overlapped each other, almost covering the entire upper half of his face.
The remaining half of his face was expressionless.
He looked extremely cold.
In his right hand, he held a sword hilt, and the shattered sword blade seemed to be held together by some invisible force, forming a complete long sword.
The Ni Lin sword housed a sword spirit!
This was a sword with its own consciousness!
Li Mo squatted on the beam.
The sword spirit stood straight below, holding the Ni Lin sword.
The two blind men silently faced each other, making the scene quite comical.
The sword spirit seemed to be assessing the intruder’s strength, while Li Mo was evaluating the sword spirit’s skills.
The interior of the attic had already lost its color, while the outside remained completely unchanged.
It seemed as if a new space had been isolated here.
Suddenly, the sword spirit moved!
The sturdy figure trembled like a 3D projection and then vanished from its original position.
When he reappeared, he was already in front of Li Mo.
The Ni Lin sword in his hand slashed down vertically, seemingly wanting to cut Li Mo in two!
The beam made no sound, splintering like tofu.
The broken pieces of wood stayed suspended in mid-air.
They floated as if in a space station with zero gravity.
Li Mo and the sword spirit swapped positions.
The sword spirit’s strike missed, and the huge foot lightly stepped on the suspended beam pieces as though they had no weight.
Li Mo tilted his head slightly.
He had a preliminary assessment of the sword spirit’s strength.
This was at least a Free and Unfettered realm existence!
His toes lightly tapped the ground, grabbing the long sword he had brought up from downstairs.
He casually slashed out in a cross shape.
The silver sword energy in the form of a cross reached in the blink of an eye.
The sword spirit dared not hesitate, raising the shattered Ni Lin sword to confront it head-on, seemingly intending to cleave this cross slash.
The moment the broken sword collided with the sword energy, the entire space shuddered.
Although the sword energy dispersed, the sword spirit was forced to retreat.
The beam behind him shattered silently, turning into a pile of wood chips floating in the air.
The sword spirit’s cold expression finally changed.
He couldn’t believe that the opponent’s casual slash could repel him.
Li Mo’s figure moved, disappearing from the spot in an unpredictable manner.
Using the other’s method against him.
The sword spirit was still in mid-air when the long sword stabbed towards his forehead.
The sword spirit lightly tapped his foot on the floating wood chips, stabilizing his body to counterattack.
The two exchanged three moves in mid-air in the blink of an eye.
All the beams at the top of the attic were destroyed.
Countless wood chips floated like snowflakes.
The sword spirit was forced back to the ground by one sword, experiencing a monumental shift in his heart.
“Transcendent realm~?!”
He spoke for the first time, his voice filled with astonishment and disbelief.
He never expected that this young intruder could be stronger than him.
How could this be possible!
For someone of his age, reaching the Free and Unfettered realm was already a prodigy.
How could he be a Transcendent realm existence!
The space belonged to him, but it showed signs of collapse after a few strikes from the opponent.
Li Mo lightly landed on the ground, shaking his long sword, “Either come with me, or from now on, Ni Lin will be without its creator spirit.”
The sword spirit’s heart shivered.
After existing for so many years, it was the first time he had heard such arrogant words.
“Then let’s see if you have the ability!”
He also had his pride.
The blue-black Ni Lin collided with Li Mo’s long sword.
The violent force swept in all directions.
The central bronze platform was directly overturned, and the copper box on it flew high.
The gold thread inside, connecting to the inner mechanism of the bronze platform, was pulled, activating the internal mechanism.
A hollow bronze bell was hidden inside the platform.
The golden thread pulled the internal clapper, which struck the bell wall hard.
But eerily, the bronze bell made no sound!
This space seemed to have isolated all sound.
Gray-white material covered the attic’s interior, absorbing all sound like insulating cotton.
The vast Qi within Li Mo’s body frantically surged into the longsword in his hand.
The sword spirit’s face began to tremble, its bluish-gray muscles shaking as though resisting an unmovable mountain.
With both hands gripping the sword hilt and teeth clenched, it struggled to hold on.
Qi was as rich and potent as condensed internal energy.
Li Mo’s arm holding the sword suddenly swelled, and a crack appeared on the blade.
This was not a renowned sword and could not withstand such an immense amount of Qi; it was showing signs of breaking.
Li Mo took a step forward.
Mountain-like oppressive force pressed down like a tangible weight.
The sword spirit’s legs trembled, its form unsteady, causing it to retreat.
This young man’s strength was even greater than anticipated!
He had faced experts in the Transcendent Realm before.
This power was unique to Qi!
This young man was indeed a Transcendent Realm expert!
To reach the Transcendent Realm in your early twenties, what a monstrous talent that must be!
Though the sword spirit didn’t want to admit it, it had to accept this fact.
Even in this special time-space, it was no match for the other party.
If the space were shattered, it would be even more difficult to contend with him.
After being dormant for centuries, it didn’t expect to encounter such an expert upon emerging.
“I gave you a chance, but it seems you don’t want to cherish it.”
Just as doubt surfaced in the sword spirit’s heart, Li Mo suddenly spoke in a deep voice.
An ocean-like force poured out, causing more cracks to appear on the longsword.
The sword spirit’s pressure suddenly doubled.
Like it had slipped on oil, it was pushed into a corner.
Feeling Li Mo’s killing intent, the sword spirit no longer dared to hesitate.
Gritting its teeth, it said, “I’ll go with you! But you must agree to one condition!”
Boom!
A wave-like aura raged through the gray space.
The walls rippled like waves.
Signs of collapse intensified!
“You have no right to make demands.”
This was not a negotiation but a threat!
Submit or be beaten into submission!
He wanted to take the sword and certainly wouldn’t hand it over to Bai Xianwu.
The Reverse Scale was one of the Seven Lodges of the Azure Dragon and the key to unlocking this secret.
The sword spirit’s wide lips trembled a few times.
Finally, in resignation, it sighed heavily and gradually ceased its resistance.
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