The Old Bastard Has Flipped the Table

Li Jiu grabbed the No. 7 Imitation Order and smashed it into the Dark Patrol Guard's face.

"Go to hell!"

The token shattered the man's nose bridge, and the Dark Patrol Guard collapsed to the ground.

"The final Blood Lock on the Chengyun Vault hasn't been opened. Who could possibly be waiting inside for twenty-one years?"

Zhao Rui stepped on the guard's back.

"The urgent report isn't fake. Earth Fire has indeed erupted beneath the Imperial Sealing Vault."

"Someone entered the lowest level, but that doesn't mean they managed to get into the Chengyun Vault."

Li Jiu picked up the scorched seal mold and tapped it twice against the furnace ledge.

"The outer lock is just a path. If you really want to open the door, you must obtain the Seal of Destiny and then use the blood from Sanshun's left foot to activate it."

The Dark Patrol Guard grinned, his mouth full of blood.

"Believe it or not, that's up to you. If you're a step too late, the people inside will be dead."

Li Sanshun squatted down in front of him.

"Are you that eager for me to return to the sect?"

"Vice Hall Master Xu has already entered the Imperial Sealing Vault. If you don't go, he will open the door first."

"A moment ago you said Xu Zhenchuan was only responsible for opening the door, and now you're saying he went in himself. Your mouth leaks faster than a broken pot."

The Dark Patrol Guard shut his mouth.

Zhao Rui twisted the man's arm and hauled him up.

"I'll take him back to the Main Peak and send reinforcements to the Imperial Sealing Vault."

"Take Li Jiu with you, too."

Li Sanshun looked outside the furnace room.

It took time to travel from Blackwater Ditch back to the Tai Xuan Sect. If Xu Zhenchuan had truly wanted to move on the Chengyun Vault, he would have done so long ago; he wouldn't have bothered sending two Qi Refining ninth-level cultivators to snatch the seal mold.

These people wanted him to rush back.

Or rather, they wanted him to bring the Seal of Destiny back with him.

But where was the real seal?

Li Jiu packed away the oilcloth. Just as he stepped out of the furnace room, he retreated back inside.

He took the fifteenth rubbing from Li Sanshun's hand and held the eight characters on the back up to the furnace fire.

Obeying Heaven and Following Fate, hand over to Li Jiu.

"Wait."

Li Jiu rubbed the coal dust off the edge of the paper.

"Obeying Heaven and Following Fate—I've seen this before."

"Isn't it written on the rubbing?"

"More than that."

Li Jiu rummaged through the old foundry ledger in the iron box, tore off a blank corner of paper, and sketched out the seal mold and the furnace stone.

"The old master founder had a rule for hiding official seals. The real seal and the seal mold could never be kept in the same place. The mold follows the person, while the real seal is hidden inside a Furnace-Suppressing Stone, marked with a secret code."

Li Sanshun took out the scorched wooden seal.

"The secret code is 'Obeying Heaven and Following Fate'?"

"Shuntian is the name of the stone; Chengyun is the name of the seal. Only someone who finds the furnace stone inscribed with 'Shuntian' can retrieve the Seal of Destiny."

A dilapidated temple flashed into Li Sanshun's mind.

There were two stone lions with missing ears in front of the temple gate.

Under the belly of one of them, the words "Obeying Heaven and Following Fate" were carved.

When he was a child, he had been mischievous and scraped at the characters with a wood-chopping knife, leading to Li Jiu chasing him for half a street.

The Old Rascal had told him back then that those four characters could save his life and must never be touched.

So, they really could save a life.

"You knew all along?"

"I only knew there was something wrong with the stone lions; I didn't know the real seal was hidden inside."

Li Jiu grabbed him by the collar.

"The woman who handled the hand-off said that if you survived past twenty, I should take you back to the Shuntian Stone. But before you joined the Tai Xuan Sect, I went back to that temple once."

"What about the stone lion?"

"It's still there."

"Did anyone touch it?"

"There are three new chisel marks under the lion, but they didn't break through. There's a Blood Lock inside; outsiders can't take it."

Li Sanshun turned and mounted his horse.

Zhao Rui grabbed the reins.

"Are you going back to Linshui Township?"

"Back to the sect first."

Now that he had the real location, the more urgent things were, the less he could afford to rush to the temple.

Xu Zhenchuan had been investigating for twenty-one years and was still missing the final location of the seal. If he left the sect in the middle of the night, he would be leading the enemy straight to it.

Li Sanshun helped Li Jiu onto another horse.

"The matter of the temple—let it rot in your stomach. Don't mention it to anyone."

Zhao Rui pointed at the Dark Patrol Guard.

"What about him?"

"Let him hear something fake."

Li Sanshun walked over to the Dark Patrol Guard and deliberately lowered his voice.

"The old foundry hides the real seal only in a Furnace-Suppressing Stone. There's an abandoned well at the foot of East Mountain with sixteen Furnace-Suppressing Stones pressed inside."

The Dark Patrol Guard didn't move.

Li Sanshun ripped the gag out and stuffed it back into the man's mouth.

"Take him."

By the time the group returned to the Tai Xuan Sect, three squads of Main Peak disciples were already stationed outside the mountain gate.

The area around the Imperial Sealing Vault was sealed off, and Qi Shouxuan had led men underground. The seven guards in the vault had yet to be found; only a few blood-stained dharma robes were discovered near the Earth Fire vent.

Xiong Baichuan was guarding the entrance to the Law Enforcement Hall. Upon seeing Li Jiu, he immediately took out a Pulse-Protecting Pill and shoved it into his mouth.

"Supreme Elder Qi asked me to meet you. Where is the Seal of Destiny?"

Li Sanshun pulled him into a side hall.

"I have a lead, but it's not in the sect."

"Where is it?"

"Near Linshui Township, inside an old stone. Only Li Jiu and I know the exact location."

Xiong Baichuan frowned.

"You're even guarding against me?"

"There's a ghost in the sect. The more people who know, the faster the real seal will be lost."

"How do you intend to catch them?"

"Please authorize an Urgent Dispatch Order."

Li Sanshun took paper and brush and wrote a line.

The Seal of Destiny is suspected to be hidden in the abandoned foundry on East Mountain, inside the Furnace-Suppressing Stone at the bottom of the Geng-Class Well. Dispatch Zhen Yue Peak disciples to seal the well before dawn.

Xiong Baichuan understood as soon as he read it.

"A fake location?"

"Yes. Don't send this order out; just have it filed into the Law Enforcement Peak's archive room. Whoever touches it is the one with the problem."

Xiong Baichuan stamped it with the Zhen Yue Peak seal.

The two hurried to the archive room and handed the Urgent Dispatch Order to the night-duty clerk.

"A classified scroll. Store it in the Xuan-Class Cabinet. No one is to access it without a warrant from Supreme Elder Qi."

The clerk verified the seal, took out two keys, locked the cabinet door in their presence, and applied a seal strip.

Xiong Baichuan took Li Sanshun away and circled back to the old duty room behind the archive.

Less than a quarter-hour later, the side door opened.

A servant entered the archive room carrying hot water. The night-duty clerk took the kettle and casually pushed the window open by half a foot.

A moment later, a Grey Feather Paper Crane flew out through the window crack.

Li Sanshun had been waiting on the roof.

The paper crane skimmed past his feet, flying toward East Mountain. He didn't stop it, only lowered his head and took a breath of the lingering energy.

[Detected: Grey Feather Talisman Paper.]

[Coated with Green Pine Resin and imperial cinnabar.]

[Transmission target: Southeast.]

Bai Chongshan's Grey Feather Talisman Paper.

The Green Pine Resin used by Xu Zhenchuan.

The two threads had twisted together once more.

Xiong Baichuan raised his hand to make an arrest, but Li Sanshun pressed down on his arm.

"Let the paper crane fly first."

"The mole is right below us."

"Catching a servant who delivers messages is useless. Only by seeing whose hands the fake location falls into will we find someone worth catching."

Inside the archive room, the night-duty clerk closed the window again. The servant left with the empty kettle, neither of them noticing the person on the roof.

Just as Li Sanshun prepared to follow, the first bell toll rang out from the direction of the Main Peak.

Dong!

The sect-protecting array patterns across the mountains lit up one after another.

A second bell followed immediately.

The mountain paths of the Outer Sect, Medicine Peak, and Zhen Yue Peak closed simultaneously.

Xiong Baichuan looked up at the bell tower.

"The Sect-Sealing Bell?"

As the third bell toll spread, the night-duty clerk in the archive room tore off the seal strip and took out a Law Enforcement Array Tablet.

Li Sanshun leaped off the roof and kicked the window open.

The clerk raised his hand to press the array tablet onto the table.

Xiong Baichuan struck a blow through the wall; the wooden table shattered instantly, and the array tablet rolled to Li Sanshun's feet.

The face of the tablet was engraved with Xu Zhenchuan's Vice Hall Master seal.

Outside, Law Enforcement disciples were already sprinting toward the three array eyes, shouting as they ran to seal the mountain and purge the enemy.

Xiong Baichuan picked up the array tablet.

"Supreme Elder Qi is still in the Imperial Sealing Vault, and the Sect Master hasn't issued a sect-sealing order."

Li Sanshun looked at the Law Enforcement Array that had already risen.

"Xu Zhenchuan is ringing the bell to seize control of the array—that old bastard is staging a coup!"