Archfiend

Chapter 124: Master of the Emperor Armament (2)

Even after ages, Xu Yangyi still didn’t open his mouth. This continued for a few minutes until Xu Yangyi said: “In the end, it goes back to a guess.”

“What’re the meanings of these words?” Not waiting for Liu Shuren to speak, he immediately shifted the topic and pointed towards the decorative design on the chest’s edges: “Someone told me that this is a verse.”

“Indeed, these are hieroglyphs.” Liu Shuren breathed in heavily a few times: “These words solve its secret.”

Xu Yangyi nodded; Jadewave had not lied.

“Mister…” Liu Shuren tightly grabbed the chest, the muscles on his face shivering: “This is just a single piece… This box… is concealing an enormous secret! Next, I’m going to talk about the true secret!” Finished speaking, he took out a watch and then a map of China. Xu Yangyi undid the box and handed it over him. Liu Shuren took the chest and hovered it over an approximately fifty-centimeter region on the map. He bit his lip and looked unwaveringly at Xu Yangyi. 

Xu Yangyi took a careful look, but failed to understand. This map was still a map; it didn’t have anything… No! In the next second, his eyes suddenly opened wide! Right… There was nothing! There wasn’t a thing!

Even under sunlight, this chest didn’t cast a shadow! There was only the appearance of Liu Shuren’s hand holding the box, but the chest’s projection was simply unseen!

“Right now, it’s 11:50.” Liu Shuren’s eyes were fairly reddened: “Wait ten minutes… All that’s needed is ten minutes! After ten minutes… you will look upon archeology’s grandest miracle!”

Xu Yangyi began to stand, not uttering a single word. Ten minutes drifted by quickly, however, it seemed the passing seconds were years. The Emperor Armament, the Animus Armament, a supreme treasure come about only once in five millenniums in China. After the tolling of the final bell, as to what it would bring, Xu Yangyi was like a cautious secret unveiler, lifting open these dusty histories little by little.

Dong… As the clock on the wall resonated at twelve noon, in the light of Liu Shuren’s excited eyes, Xu Yangyi’s gaze suddenly pulsed.

There was movement...

On the map of China, at the midday hour, the Animus Armament that lacked a shadow finally revealed a silhouette!

However, this silhouette… was absolutely not ordinary! It was a needle. Perhaps it should be said that it was a figure that was akin to a needle. Through the sunlight’s passage, the shadow nailed straight into a region.

“This is a sundial!” Liu Shuren’s body was shivering a bit: “A sundial that only appears at twelve o’clock!”

“Haven’t you discovered that the map I had look at is somewhat different now?” Liu Shuren used his finger to point at the place the sundial was located: “This… is a map of the Ming dynasty!” 

Xu Yangyi looked over. Written there wasn’t Longsu Province, but rather Qinshan Province. He muttered to himself as he stroked the location. After a brief moment, he said heavily: “What’s the meaning of this?” [1]

“Mr. Gao… The meaning is to say… that place might be hiding some extreme secret!” Liu Shuren’s eyes were both flushed as he looked at the map: “It made the emperor use such a method to inform his descendants! Moreover… it’s certain that this secret can only be seen by a special person! He couldn’t tell anyone else! Even his own children!”

Xu Yangyi’s gaze was deep and heavy, and he picked up the Emperor Armament, not batting an eyelid. Once again, he placed it on his chest. After he sat down, he spoke not a word.

The Emperor Armament… was telling him to go here? What was concealed inside? What did this… and the ancient cultivators concealed in the pages of history have in connection?

Countless ideas surged in Xu Yangyi’s brain. The sundial was pointing straight at Longsu Province, and less than several seconds later, he came to a decision. This place HAD to be explored! Success was taken from details, and fortune and honor sought amidst danger. The Emperor Armament’s clue was like a dark thread that had strided across a thousand years, pulling on him to explore, track, and solve these secrets buried in the annals of history.

In his chest, his blood was burning hot and roiling with heat. Xu Yangyi understood that this was called ambition.

“This is it?” Several tens of seconds later, Xu Yangyi calmed his complexion and looked at Liu Shuren and laughed: “Anything else?”

“There is…” Liu Shuren stopped and coughed gently, somewhat awkward: “If… Mr. Gao is going to take a look, I was hoping you could bring me, too…”

Xu Yangyi laughed as he shook his head.

“Mr. Gao?” Liu Shuren was a tad incredulous. This had been his work for two years, but Xu Yangyi was actually unwilling to take him?

“Ready your last words.” Xu Yangyi curbed his smile, and his gaze chilled: “Although I don’t know who you are, you have exceeded your bounds.”

“Mr. Gao, I don’t understand, what’re you saying?” Liu Shuren looked bafflingly at Xu Yangyi: “Even though you’re not willing to take me, you don’t have to so it so unpleasantly…” 

At this moment, Xu Yangyi’s gaze failed to conceal his flooding killing intent in the slightest: “Is that so? Do you remember that I just held your hand? I was worried that you had been followed by someone, so I played a bit of a trick on your hand” He looked straight into Liu Shuren’s eyes: “It was a strand of spiritual sense. Simply put, it can see whether you have another person’s spiritual sense on your body.

“What are you saying…”

Xu Yangyi sneered as he shook his head: “There was nothing, but your body itself possess its own spiritual sense.” He stared directly at Liu Shuren: “You are a cultivator.”

This was an affirmation. It beared not a shred of doubt. Liu Shuren no longer spoke, only softly exhaling.

“Besides, the most important bit…” Xu Yangyi extended a finger and swayed it back and forth: “You’re unlucky. I’ve unleashed my neurons, but not only that. I’ve opened them much more than others.”

The last thread of a smile finally vanished from Liu Shuren’s face.

“In this building, besides myself, there are seven people. Five are police officers, and then with you, that’s altogether six.” Xu Yangyi watched Liu Shuren’s eyes and said: “From the moment I stepped through the door, I’ve been searching where the last person is. In the end, I finally figured it out.”

“In the basement two meters underground, there’s someone lying under a bed. Since the beginning, that person hasn’t moved. May I say it?” Xu Yangy’s hand already started to burn with a blazing flame: “The true Liu Shuren’s corpse was placed there. You asked everything before me, but just happened to run into me. It was hard to escape, so you just straight pretended be Liu Shuren? You wanted to get me to go? I admit, your acting is quite pretty, but it’s a pity. From the beginning, I knew you were a cultivator.”

Silence. After a full thirty seconds, Liu Shuren laughed grimly as he stood up, and gently drummed his palm: “Brilliant… Truly brilliant… I didn’t expect that I, Zhao Wuye, would possibly be made out by you. To capsize in a shady channel, I concede defeat. It’s just that I don’t understand. Why didn’t you expose me from the start?” [2]

“Simple.” Xu Yangyi gently wound a fireball in his hand: “I wanted to know how much you knew. And if the real Liu Shuren is already dead, you’re undoubtedly the only person who knows this box’s secret.”

Zhao Wuye laughed: “Is that so… My young Fellow Daoist, do you not fear that you won’t even leave this place?”

Xu Yangyi raised a brow: “Young?”

“Your voice isn’t fooling anyone.” Zhao Wuye laughed hollowly: “You’ve disguised everything, but not your voice. But to be able to pretend so exquisitely, let me guess… Is this the Thousand Illusions? Truly, Fellow Daoist’s backer is not minor… to get a hold of such a precious commodity. Unfortunately, while you had part of the general idea all along, you didn’t bring an Echo Bug. Perhaps you thought you didn’t need to be so mired in details in dealing with a mortal?”

The crook of Xu Yangyi’s mouth curved. In the next second, Zhao Wuye’s pupils abruptly tightened. The fireball was already flying towards him, allowing him no explanation!

“Break!” Needless to conceal any longer, Zhao Wuye shouted loudly, and a ray of misty yellow light was spat out from his mouth. In an instant, it transformed into a qi longspear, crashing together with the fireball! In his hands, he held three divine abilities. He had confidence that he was facing a cultivator less than thirty years old; he could capture the other! At the worst, he was still able to flee smoothly.

Bang! An explosion echoed, and the glass all around in the house shattered! A formless blast wave caused the inside to appear to have been struck by a small bomb. All fours sides were an expanse of wreckage!

Pow! The sound of two fingers snapping rang out simultaneously. An invisible seal isolated all noise within a range of fifty meters and visual. Regardless of whether it was Xu Yangyi or Zhao Wuye, both their eyes at this moment completely betrayed their murderous will. Under a situation where both of them didn’t want anyone to see, they would hinder and kill each other here!

“Hundred Soldier Hall…” Zhao Wuye was the first to launch an attack and sucked in deeply. This breath of air was incredibly prolonged, and in the wake of his inhaling, his whole chest and belly swelled up like an inflated ball. “Longevity Sword!” 

Following his snarl, another ray of golden brilliance puffed out from his mouth. This light ray resembled a roaming dragon coiling in the air. The instant it flew out, it suddenly transformed into a roughly two-meter longsword. It thrusted fiercely towards Xu Yangyi’s chest!

“Tortoise Burdens!” Xu Yangyi didn’t take his foe lightly by a single trace. They would clearly understand each other in the first exchange of hands. 

Both of them were at the middle stage of Qi Condensation!

Bang! The sword crashed against the defensive move, yet it turned into yellow qi that engulfed the entire space in a flash. This qi was completely different from normal qi. It was bright, very bright. So bright that it caused the eyes to be somewhat unable to open. 

Conditioned reflexively, Xu Yangyi turned his head. Even though the alarm bell in his heart was going off, his body was almost even faster than his mental response! In this instant, his body suddenly crouched, and his left leg simultaneously lashed back in trained response. Subsequently, he immediately heard a heavy groan from behind. 

Just now, at the same time his sword burst forth, Zhao Wuye had already flashed behind him like a demon! His opponent’s two hands saturated with qi, they condensed into two knuckle dusters piercing straight into his back!

“Fuck…” Xu Yangyi fiercely grinded his teeth. Zhao Wuye’s qi was inferior to his own, however, the other’s operational experience was far richer in comparison. This was the most evident difference between cultivating for several decades and several years.

So long as he entered Foundation Establishment, he would then transform into a genuine divine ability resister, a resister of spiritual force. In the Qi Condensation realm, a great majority of cultivators still needed to use body techniques.

“Tiger Crane!” Xu Yangyi’s spiritual force channeled into his thigh meridians. Promptly, his leg appeared to become a razor. Following a swishing sound, a rain of blood scattered about without the slightest forewarning.

Xu Yangyi was devoid of a hair’s pause because at the same time Zhao Wuye’s blood bubbled into the open, he distinctly felt a breadth of qi motes, so dense like flying locusts, explode without omen! It was as if he had just kicked a hornet’s nest, and all the hornets were flying out now!

“Ten Cardinals Red Lotus!” Absent of the most minor delay, Xu Yangyi simply didn’t consider what these qi motes were. He only that that if these things struck his body, he would at the very least become a sieve.

“ROOOAAAR!!!” A several-meter-long red fire dragon ignited within the room in a flash. Carrying a heaven-shaking bellow, it turned the fluttering qi motes into flying ash in a twinkling!

In the time of a sparking flint, the two of them had already crossed swords a few times.

“Pant… Pant…” Xu Yangyi proceeded to bounce back with a kick and rushed out a meter. At this moment, the two people were standing at opposite corners, cautiously watching each other. The sound of popping existed in the entire space. It was countless hidden weapons, shurikens, and flying guillotines… All of them were condensed from qi, and each one of them were presently burning in a flame.

The Ten Cardinals Red Lotus was unrelenting until extinguished!

The flames fluttered down, and the blaze reflected Zhao Wuye’s embarrassed expression.  

[1] In this sentence, the word used to describe the “province” in Qinshan Province is the ancient form of the word “province” used in modern day. The ancient word is more along the ideas of “Administrative Prefecture”. Essentially the same, but I thought I would make this note.

[2] 阴沟里翻船 - to capsize in a shady channel. This idiom refers to an idea of an unexpected failure in a familiar place.