The Old Bastard Had Flipped the Table

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

"Bullshit!"

The token broke his nose, and the Dark Patrol Guard toppled to the ground.

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

Zhao Rui planted a foot on the Dark Patrol Guard's back.

"The urgent message can't be false. Earth Fire really did erupt beneath the Sealing Archive."

"Someone got into the lowest level, but that doesn't mean they made it into the Chengyun Vault."

Li Jiu picked up the scorched Seal Mold and tapped it twice against the furnace platform.

"The Outer Lock is only a route. To really open the door, you need the Seal of Destiny, then you have to use the blood from Sanshun's left foot to activate it."

The Dark Patrol Guard bared his bloodied teeth.

"Believe it or not, it's up to you. If you're late, the person in the vault won't make it."

Li Sanshun crouched in front of him.

"You're really hoping I'll go back to the sect?"

"Deputy Hall Master Xu has already entered the Sealing Archive. If you don't go, he'll open the door first."

"Just now you said Xu Zhenchuan was only responsible for opening the door. Now you're saying he went in himself. Your mouth leaks faster than a busted pot."

The Dark Patrol Guard shut his mouth.

Zhao Rui twisted his arm behind his back and hauled him up.

"I'll take him back to the main peak and send reinforcements to the Sealing Archive."

"Take Li Jiu too."

Li Sanshun looked outside the furnace room.

It took time to get back to Tai Xuan Sect from Blackwater Ditch. If Xu Zhenchuan really intended to tamper with the Chengyun Vault, he would have done it already. There was no need to send two ninth-level Qi Refining cultivators to snatch the Seal Mold.

These people wanted him to hurry back.

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

But where was the real seal?

Li Jiu put away the oilcloth. He had just stepped out of the furnace room when he turned back.

He took the fifteenth rubbing from Li Sanshun and held the eight characters on its reverse side near the furnace fire.

Obeying Heaven and Following Fate, entrusted to Li Jiu.

"Wait."

Li Jiu brushed the soot from the edge of the paper.

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

"Isn't it written on the rubbing?"

"Not just there."

Li Jiu pulled the Old Foundry Ledger from the iron chest, tore off a blank corner, and sketched the seal mold and the furnace stone.

"The old seal-makers had a rule for hiding imperial seals. The real seal and the Seal Mold couldn't be kept together. The mold went with its bearer; the real seal was hidden inside a Furnace-Suppressing Stone, with a code carved on it."

Li Sanshun took out the scorched wooden seal.

"So the code is 'Obeying Heaven and Following Fate'?"

"Shuntian is the stone's name. Chengyun is the seal's name. Whoever found a suppressing stone carved with 'Shuntian' could retrieve the Seal of Destiny."

An abandoned temple flashed through Li Sanshun's mind.

Two stone lions stood before its gate, both missing an ear.

Beneath the belly of one, the words "Obeying Heaven and Following Fate" had been carved.

When he was little, he had been mischievous and scraped at the words with a hatchet. Li Jiu had chased him for half a street.

Back then, Old Rascal had told him those four characters could save his life, and he mustn't touch them.

Turns out, they really could save his life.

"You knew all along?"

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

Li Jiu grabbed him by the collar.

"The woman who arranged our meeting said that if you lived to twenty, I was to take you to the Shuntian Stone. But before you joined Tai Xuan Sect, I went back to that ruined temple."

"What about the stone lion?"

"Still there."

"Has anyone touched it?"

"There are three new chisel marks beneath the lion, but they didn't break through. There's a Blood Lock inside. Outsiders can't retrieve it."

Li Sanshun turned and mounted his horse.

Zhao Rui caught the reins.

"You're going back to Linshui Township?"

"Back to the sect first."

Now that they had the real location, the more urgent they felt, the less they could afford to rush to the ruined temple.

Xu Zhenchuan had spent twenty-one years investigating and was only missing the final hiding place. If Li Sanshun left the sect in the middle of the night, he would be leading the other man right to it.

Li Sanshun helped Li Jiu onto another horse.

"Let the ruined temple rot in your guts. Don't tell a soul."

Zhao Rui pointed at the Dark Patrol Guard.

"What do we do with him?"

"Let him hear something false."

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

"The old foundry would only hide the real seal in a Furnace-Suppressing Stone. There's an abandoned well at the foot of East Mountain, with sixteen Furnace-Suppressing Stones buried in it."

The Dark Patrol Guard didn't move.

Li Sanshun pulled the gag cloth back out, then stuffed it into his mouth again.

"Take him away."

By the time they returned to Tai Xuan Sect, three groups of main-peak disciples had already gathered outside the mountain gate.

The area around the Imperial Sealing Vault had been sealed off. Qi Shouxuan had led a group down underground. The seven guards inside the vault were still missing; they had only found several bloodstained robes beside the Earth Fire vent.

Xiong Baichuan was waiting outside the Law Enforcement Hall. When he saw Li Jiu, he first took out a Pulse-Protecting Pill and popped it into his mouth.

"Grand Elder Qi sent me to meet you. Where's the Seal of Destiny?"

Li Sanshun pulled him into a side hall.

"We found a lead. It's not in the sect."

"Where?"

"Inside an old stone near Linshui Township. Only Li Jiu and I know the exact spot."

Xiong Baichuan frowned.

"You don't even trust this old man?"

"There's a ghost in the sect. The more people we tell, the faster the real seal will disappear."

"How do you plan to catch them?"

"Please approve an Urgent Dispatch Order."

Li Sanshun fetched paper and brush and wrote a line on it.

The Seal of Destiny is suspected to be hidden in the old foundry at East Mountain, inside a 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 false location?"

"Right. Don't send this order out. Just file it in the Law Enforcement Peak Archive Room. Whoever touches it is suspect."

Xiong Baichuan stamped it with the Zhen Yue Peak seal.

The two of them went to the Archive Room and handed the Urgent Dispatch Order to the clerk on night duty.

"Classified file. Put it in the Xuan-Class Cabinet. No one may access it without Grand Elder Qi's written order."

The clerk checked the seal, took out two keys, and locked the cabinet in front of them. Then he affixed a seal strip over it.

Xiong Baichuan left with Li Sanshun, circling around to the old duty room behind the Archive Room.

Less than half a quarter of an hour later, the side door opened.

A menial entered the Archive Room carrying hot water. The clerk on night duty 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 gap.

Li Sanshun had been waiting on the roof.

The paper crane flew right beneath his feet, heading east. He didn't stop it. He only lowered his head and drew in a breath of the fading aura.

[Grey Feather Talisman Paper detected.]

[Coated with Green Pine Resin and Imperial Cinnabar.]

[Message destination: Southeast.]

Bai Chongshan's Grey Feather Talisman Paper.

The Green Pine Resin Xu Zhenchuan used.

The two lines had twisted together again.

Xiong Baichuan raised a hand to seize them, but Li Sanshun caught his arm.

"Let the paper crane fly first."

"The mole's right below us."

"Catching a messenger won't help. Whoever the false location is delivered to—that's the person worth catching."

Inside the Archive Room, the clerk on night duty closed the window again. The menial left with the empty kettle. Neither of them noticed the person on the roof.

Li Sanshun had just started to follow when the first toll of the bell came from the direction of the main peak.

Dong!

The sect-protecting Array Patterns lit up one after another among the mountains.

The second toll rang out right on its heels.

The mountain paths to the outer sect, Medicine Peak, and Zhen Yue Peak all closed at once.

Xiong Baichuan looked up at the Bell Tower.

"The Sect-Sealing Bell?"

As the third toll spread through the mountains, the clerk on night duty 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 a hand and slammed the Array Tablet against the desk.

Xiong Baichuan punched through the wall. The wooden desk broke apart on the spot, and the Array Tablet rolled to Li Sanshun's feet.

Xu Zhenchuan's deputy hall master's seal was carved into its face.

Outside, Law Enforcement disciples were already running toward the three array points, shouting that they were sealing the mountain to purge the enemy.

Xiong Baichuan picked up the Array Tablet.

"Grand Elder Qi is still at the Sealing Archive. The sect master never ordered the sect sealed."

Li Sanshun looked toward the rising Law Enforcement Grand Array.

"Xu Zhenchuan rang the bell and seized the array. The old bastard's making a grab for power!"