Chapter 1028: First Fortune in the Shen Realm
"You... Urgh... aaaah..." Mu Hanyi's ten fingers had all twisted and deformed, and even his voice had become hoarse and weak to the point of being unintelligible. Although less than ten breaths had passed since he was poisoned, his body had completely changed color, especially his eyes, which were as crimson as blood plasma.
"Thank you for bringing me here. It gave me both the opportunity and the reason to kill you, and also allowed me to take this Qilin Horn with a clear conscience. Hmph, as a token of gratitude, I'll generously tell you two things."
"First," Yun Che narrowed his eyes. "Master gave Mu Feixue to me for a special reason. And you, even if you really became Master's personal disciple, she would never betroth Feixue to you. You say I took Feixue from you—that's utterly ridiculous."
"Urgh... ah!" Mu Hanyi's mouth gaped wide, spilling out bloody foam, and all his teeth had already disappeared under the poison's effect.
"Second..." Yun Che crouched down and let out a low, cold laugh. "The Qiulong Poison on your body was personally given to me by Master before I left. Guess why Master specifically sent me alone to the Bingfeng Empire and handed me such a deadly poison at that particular time?"
"..." Mu Hanyi's curled body suddenly stiffened, and his completely discolored eyes released the most extreme terror and despair of his entire life.
"Hmph! You think your performance was flawless, but Master is a ten-thousand-year Great Realm King. Even someone as clever as me has to be completely obedient in front of her, never daring to play any tricks. What do you think those little schemes of yours amount to in her eyes?"
"If I had really died here today, Master would never have accepted you as her personal disciple the way you imagined. On the contrary, you would only have died an even worse death!"
Mu Hanyi's mouth trembled as he tried to open and close it with difficulty, but he could no longer utter a single sound. His curled body had stopped struggling, only occasionally convulsing.
"Died by accidentally triggering a trap—a good suggestion. And thank you for telling me that the sealing formation on the Qilin Horn can be undone with your blood. Otherwise, I would have had to expend a lot more effort." Yun Che gave a faint, cold laugh.
"..." The poisonous aura swirled within the barrier. Mu Hanyi's five senses had all been lost, and he could no longer hear what Yun Che said at the end. His poison-soaked body gave a violent spasm, then finally went completely still.
He had died then and there from the Qiulong's Breath.
Yun Che extended his left hand, and the power of the Heavenly Poison Pearl activated, purifying all the poison from Mu Hanyi's corpse. Then he also purified the poisonous aura that had spread through the barrier space, leaving no trace of the Qiulong Poison.
Standing up, Yun Che took one last look at the now-silent Mu Hanyi, let out a heavy sigh, and muttered to himself, "What a terrifying person."
He thought of Xuanyuan Wentian.
There was no doubt that Xuanyuan Wentian was an extremely terrifying figure, and the only one who had nearly killed him multiple times. But Mu Hanyi was less than thirty years old, and his scheming and cunning had already reached such a level. If he had been born in the lower realm and given the same time as Xuanyuan Wentian, he would definitely have become an even more terrifying person than Xuanyuan Wentian.
Too bad he wouldn't have the chance.
Yun Che completely understood why Mu Xuanyin had originally decided to accept Mu Hanyi as her personal disciple. With his scheming and methods, he was indeed far more suited to being a ruler than the pure-hearted Mu Feixue.
But since she had chosen Yun Che, Mu Hanyi's heavy scheming naturally became a dangerous factor for him.
She wanted Yun Che to come to the Bingfeng Empire, and the test she gave him wasn't just to obtain the Qilin Horn. Another test was to deal with Mu Hanyi, this potential threat, on his own.
The surrounding sealing barrier was unknown when it would disappear. Mu Hanyi's full-force strike earlier hadn't even managed to crack it, so there was naturally no need for Yun Che to waste strength trying. He walked up to the barrier, took a deep breath, and extended both hands.
In his left hand, an icy gleam; in his right, a fiery glow.
Yun Che closed his eyes, quickly focusing his mind. After a long stillness, the air currents within the barrier suddenly became chaotic. As the icy gleam and fiery glow grew more intense, the cold and heat energies, which should have annihilated each other, instead twisted and fused against all reason. A faint aura deviating from the laws of heaven slowly emerged.
After a long while, Yun Che opened his eyes. A blue flame was quietly burning in his palm.
His attainments in flames had been rising rapidly, and now, with the Ice Phoenix bloodline, the power of the Ice Flame formed from the fusion of fire and ice had also greatly increased. Yun Che slowly raised the Ice Flame and murmured, "This is about the limit... It should be enough!"
He pushed the Ice Flame forward, and it touched the barrier.
Without any sound, the sealing barrier that even Mu Hanyi couldn't break through melted like thin ice meeting a blazing flame, quickly opening a large hole.
The energy rapidly dispersed through the suddenly appeared gap. The entire sealing barrier shook violently, then shattered with a crack, scattering into fragments of power everywhere.
Yun Che swept his gaze around, thinking about which trap to throw Mu Hanyi's body toward. But after a brief consideration, he abandoned the idea. That kind of disguise was something Mu Hanyi could use, but it wasn't suitable for him to use on Mu Hanyi. Not to mention that Mu Hanyi was very familiar with the traps here, and his body had been greatly eroded by the poison, making it impossible to fake death by accidentally triggering a trap.
"Forget it. I'll just take his corpse out with me. Otherwise, combined with the missing Qilin Horn, suspicion might really fall on me. After all, I'm probably the only one Mu Hanyi would be willing to bring here."
Having Mu Hanyi and the Qilin Horn disappear together, creating the illusion that Mu Hanyi had left with the horn, wasn't a bad idea either... As for the reason, let them figure it out themselves.
Instead of immediately collecting Mu Hanyi's corpse, Yun Che turned and walked forward toward the piles of Purple Vein Divine Crystals glittering with mysterious light.
Purple Stone, Purple Crystal, and Purple Jade were the common currency of the Shen Realm. Yun Che had just arrived in the Shen Realm, so his wealth was naturally pitifully small. At the Ice Phoenix Palace, he had a monthly allowance of five thousand Purple Stones, but after becoming Mu Xuanyin's personal disciple, he got nothing at all.
Having confirmed that there were no traps or formations in this area, Yun Che boldly strode forward, unceremoniously collecting the mountains of Purple Crystals and the carefully stored Purple Jades into the Heavenly Poison Pearl. Although he couldn't immediately judge the quantity, this was the treasure vault of an entire empire's royal family, so it must be a huge fortune.
Then Yun Che changed direction and likewise swept all the jade boxes containing various precious pills and spirit herbs into the Heavenly Poison Pearl.
This was just one corner of the treasure vault, but Yun Che wasn't greedy. He stopped after collecting everything in this area. Because traps and formations were hidden everywhere in the vault; if greed made him accidentally trigger one, the consequences would be unimaginable.
With a large amount of Purple Crystals and Purple Jades on him, Yun Che instantly gained a sense of security that only wealth can provide. He returned to Mu Hanyi, flicked his finger, and Mu Hanyi's body split open, scattering a few dark blood droplets that then floated on Yun Che's fingertip.
He walked slowly to the front of the sealing formation that held the Qilin Horn.
Since it was a formation sealing a nation-protecting sacred object, it would naturally be extremely tough. Even with his fused Ice Flame, he might not be able to break it. Yun Che looked down, examining the huge blue Qilin Horn again, then flicked his finger. Several blood droplets from Mu Hanyi landed lightly on the sealing formation.
The blood droplets touched the formation, flashed with a faint red light once, and then completely sank into it. At the same time, a dull, resonant clang sounded from the formation. A red line appeared without warning, and the entire seal began to slowly open from that line outward.
When it was fully open, the Qilin Horn that had existed in the Bingfeng Empire for over eighty thousand years lay before him without any further obstruction.
"It seems the Bingfeng Empire has extremely high-level formation masters," Yun Che remarked with admiration.
He rose into the air, then moved forward slowly and carefully, lightly placing his hand on the Qilin Horn.
The touch was extremely hard, with no temperature at all—not even the expected cold. However, there was a faint, strange sensation he had never felt before, as if from an ancient time.
Now was certainly not the time to investigate this horn. Yun Che gently guided his hand, and the three-zhang-tall Qilin Horn was drawn up and stored into the Heavenly Poison Pearl.
The moment the Qilin Horn entered the Heavenly Poison Pearl, a surge of energy suddenly rose from below. Yun Che's brow twitched: "Damn!"
CLANG!!!!!!!!
From below where the Qilin Horn had been, a beam of mysterious light shot up into the sky, accompanied by an ear-splitting clang. In almost the same instant, the treasure vault's lights flashed wildly. All the warning formations simultaneously lit up, emitting blinding light and alarm sounds that could travel hundreds of miles.
"Shit!" Yun Che's brow furrowed deeply. The Qilin Horn not only had a sealing formation, but there was also another formation hidden beneath it! As soon as the horn was removed, this formation would instantly activate, directly triggering all the formations in the treasure vault.
Yun Che gritted his teeth hard. The Bingfeng royal family's protection of this horn was truly thorough!
There was no doubt that not only the palace but probably the entire Bingfeng Imperial City had been alerted. The guards outside, a large number of palace experts, and even Feng Huituo himself would soon flood in.
"I should still have time!"
Mu Hanyi had said that only he, Feng Huituo, and Feng Hange knew about the secret passage to the treasure vault. The nearest guards, stationed outside the vault, would only enter through the main gate. He had enough time to escape through the secret passage.
Yun Che quickly calmed himself, then turned around to collect Mu Hanyi's corpse.
But the moment he turned, his movement froze, and then all the hairs on his body stood on end.
Where he looked was empty, with only a patch of dark bloodstains on the ground.
Mu Hanyi's corpse... had disappeared!
This shock was no small thing. A chill shot up Yun Che's spine.
"Who is it! Who's here?!"
If the corpse had been completely consumed by the Qiulong Poison, there was still a slim possibility. But Yun Che, to avoid leaving traces of the Qiulong's Breath, had used the Heavenly Poison Pearl to purify all the poison from the body. It was absolutely impossible for it to vanish into thin air!
And from beginning to end, he hadn't sensed any sign of another person's presence.
No one answered him. In the alarm-filled treasure vault, even echoes couldn't be heard.
The guards outside could burst in at any moment. Yun Che gritted his teeth and, stepping with Phantom Lightning Extreme, raced along the memorized route toward the entrance he had come from at top speed.
The secret door hadn't been closed. Yun Che charged into the passage, not slowing down at all, but his teeth remained tightly clenched.
There was another person in the treasure vault! And a terrifying figure who had completely eluded his perception!
If he had been there the whole time, then everything I did—including the purification with the Heavenly Poison Pearl and the Ice Flame—would have been seen by him!
Why would he be in the treasure vault... and why take Mu Hanyi's corpse!?
Who is it?!