The man in gray raised his sword and thrust.
Wei Tiesheng twisted aside, but the wound at his waist split open, and blood dripped from his clothes onto the stone floor.
He grabbed the Scroll Rack by the wall and hurled it at the man in gray.
The wooden rack shattered across the floor.
The man in gray hacked through the boards in his way, the Scroll-Sealing Sword stabbing straight for Wei Tiesheng's throat.
Clang!
An Array Tablet flew into the passage and knocked the sword aside.
Li Sanshun charged through the stone gate and kicked at the man in gray's side.
The man drew back his sword to block and retreated three steps.
Zhao Rui led the main peak disciples in sealing off the entrance.
"Xu Zhenchuan told you to handle the Sealing Registry, and you really think you're the King of Hell?"
The man in gray turned to leave, driving the Scroll-Sealing Sword into an Array Pattern hole in the wall.
The seventh level began to shake.
A great shower of stone dust fell from above, and several Sealing Vault stone walls began to sink.
"He's trying to seal this whole level!"
Wei Tiesheng steadied himself against the wall and pointed toward the passage on the west side.
"There's an old escape route that way. Don't let him get in!"
Li Sanshun chased after him for a few steps, but the man in gray had already retreated into the passage. He drew out the Scroll-Sealing Sword and slashed the wall three times.
The Stone Wall collapsed.
Huge rocks blocked the passage, burying even the last sliver of open space.
Zhao Rui swung his saber several times, but only chipped off a few pieces of rubble.
"That bastard ran fast!"
"He has the Scroll-Sealing Sword. He can open the old formations here."
Li Sanshun returned to Wei Tiesheng and pressed down on his wound.
The wound wasn't deep, but he had lost a lot of blood.
Wei Tiesheng took out Hemostatic Powder and poured it over his waist.
"He stole the Scroll-Sealing Sword rubbing paper from my Household and forced me to lead him here. If I didn't open the vault, he would kill the people in Blacksmith Alley."
"Do you know who he is?"
"I've never seen him before. But he used the Sword-Forging Steps I taught."
Wei Tiesheng coughed twice.
"More than twenty years ago, I escorted a batch of swordsmith apprentices for Law Enforcement Peak. There must have been at least thirty of them."
Trying to identify someone from a set of steps among thirty people would take too long.
The man in gray had already escaped with the sword and could reopen other Sealing Vaults at any moment.
Li Sanshun looked toward the west wall.
The rubbing paper had made it clear.
The inner vault's seventh level, west wall, fifteenth compartment.
Xu Zhenchuan's men had broken in for more than just Wei Tiesheng. Something here held what Xu Zhenchuan was desperate to destroy.
"Where's the fifteenth compartment?"
Wei Tiesheng pointed beside the cave-in.
"This row of Scroll Racks has only fourteen compartments. The fifteenth is a space between the walls. You can't see it from outside."
Zhao Rui walked over and knocked on the bricks.
They all sounded the same.
The Stone Wall was carved with a soundproofing formation. No one could tell by listening whether the space behind it was hollow.
Li Sanshun followed the wall around, then bent down and sniffed.
Dust poured into his nose and mouth, making him cough twice.
[Imperial sealing formation residue detected.] [Sealed space exists within the west wall.] [Residual infant blood: 15 portions.]
Fifteen portions.
Li Sanshun stared at the bricks near the ground.
A trace of blood scent lingered in the cracks.
"Dig here."
Two of the main peak disciples took out Array-Breaking Awls. The moment they touched the wall, dark red Array Patterns seeped out from between the bricks.
The Array Patterns coiled around the awl tips and dragged the tools into the wall.
The disciples hurriedly let go.
The Array-Breaking Awls sank halfway in, then quickly snapped in two.
Wei Tiesheng watched for a moment.
"This is an Imperial Blood Lock. If we break it by force, the records inside the wall will burn."
Zhao Rui cursed.
"The man took the Scroll-Sealing Sword. What are we supposed to use to open it?"
Li Sanshun didn't answer.
He crouched at the foot of the wall and picked up a drop of blood from among the rubble. It hadn't dried yet.
It was from Wei Tiesheng's wound.
The blood touched the Array Patterns, but nothing happened.
The Imperial Blood Lock recognized only imperial blood.
Li Sanshun bit his finger and pressed it against the crack in the wall.
Buzz!
Every Array Pattern on the west wall lit up.
Zhao Rui turned to look at him.
"How can your blood open it?"
"I'd like to know that myself."
The bricks slid apart, revealing a half-height hidden door.
There was no gold or silver inside, nor any magical weapons.
Only an Iron Casket.
It was divided into fifteen layers, each holding a yellowed sheet of rubbing paper.
Each sheet bore the imprint of an infant's feet, along with the child's birth time, weight, and bloodline number.
On the first fourteen sheets, the names had been crossed out in red ink.
The bottom sheet had no such mark.
Li Sanshun pulled out the fifteenth sheet.
Four words were written in the upper-right corner of the rubbing paper.
Imperial Blood Fifteen.
Below that was another line of records.
Male infant, three-lobed red mark on the left sole, bloodline sealed, sent out of the imperial capital.
Li Sanshun took off his left boot.
On the sole of his left foot was a red birthmark shaped like three lobes.
From the time he was little, Old Rascal had always said it was a burn from a brazier.
But the birthmark's size and position matched the rubbing exactly.
Zhao Rui held the rubbing paper up and compared it several times.
"Li Sanshun, are you Number Fifteen?"
"The paper even drew my foot. Who else could it be?"
Li Sanshun shot back, but he didn't let go of the rubbing paper.
Fifteen imperial infants.
Fifteen imitation tokens.
Obeying Heaven and Following Fate carved on the stone lions.
The clues had wound in circles before all leading back to him.
He leaned close to the rubbing paper and inhaled the lingering blood scent.
[Ancient imperial blood detected.] [Blood scent comparison complete.] [Common origin: 100%.] [Host identity: Imperial Blood Fifteen.]
It really was him.
Xu Zhenchuan had gone to great lengths to destroy the old records and forge fifteen imitation tokens for the sake of the imperial bloodline identities left behind by these fifteen infants.
Zhao Rui turned the sheet over.
"There's writing on the back, too."
Eight words were written on the back.
Obeying Heaven and Following Fate, entrusted to Li Jiu.
Li Sanshun knew Li Jiu.
When Old Rascal got drunk, he had once mentioned that he'd ranked ninth in the foundry when he was young. Later, after getting into trouble, he changed his name and hid in the city.
Li Sanshun pinched the corner of the paper.
His adoptive father had never found him abandoned somewhere.
Twenty-one years ago, someone had personally handed him over to Li Jiu.
Wei Tiesheng picked up the other rubbing papers and felt along their edges.
"These rubbings aren't made from the original paper from the imperial capital. Someone copied them later."
"Who copied them?"
"They pressed the paper with furnace ash, then fixed the blood imprint with fish glue. It's an old casting master's technique."
Li Sanshun caught a smell of coal ash from the corner of the paper.
[West Mountain Green-Pattern Coal Ash detected.] [Time of adhesion: within the last seven days.] [Remaining casting master's aura has the same origin as Li Jiu's.]
Within the last seven days.
Li Jiu was still alive, and he was still firing up a kiln on West Mountain.
Now that Xu Zhenchuan had the Sealing Registry for all fifteen infants, he wouldn't overlook the person who had kept the imperial family's rubbings safe.
Wei Tiesheng pulled half a sheet of black paper out from a compartment in the Iron Casket.
It listed the order of the Sealing Registry.
The first page was Wei Tiesheng.
The second page had only one name.
Li Jiu.
Li Sanshun snatched up the rubbing paper and turned to sprint toward the stone gate.
Zhao Rui hurried after him.
"Do you know where he lives?"
"I do."
"Do Xu Zhenchuan's men know, too?"
Li Sanshun swung onto his horse and tightened the reins.
"If Old Rascal loses even one hair, I'll make Xu Zhenchuan's head pay for it!"
Wei Tiesheng came after him, bracing himself against the stone gate.
"Wait! You can't take the main road to West Mountain!"
Li Sanshun reined in his horse.
"Why not?"
Wei Tiesheng raised the half sheet of black paper.
"The Sealing Registry also says that the man who's going to kill Li Jiu has already entered the courtyard!"
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