"Open the crates!"
Li Sanshun headed straight for the gift tent.
Song Yuan followed close behind and kicked open the first wooden crate. It was filled with jade ornaments, red silk lining the bottom. There was no telling where the array core was hidden.
The mission general leveled his spear, blocking the others.
"These are gifts from the imperial clan. Who dares touch them without His Highness's permission?"
Ji Jingyao's angry voice rang down from the peak.
"I ordered you to open them! Stop me again, and I'll have your uniform torn off too!"
The mission general lowered his spear and stepped aside.
Gu Qinghe ripped the copper lock from the second crate, then swept the congratulatory letter and black grit from its bottom into a pile. Zhao Rui sent his men to search separately. In no time, they had opened most of the dozens of crates.
Bai Chongshan wasn't sitting idle.
A dozen or so fire arrows shot out from inside the array and streaked toward the gift tent.
"Protect the crates!"
The enforcement disciples Gu Changyue had summoned raised their iron shields. The arrows struck the shields, and fire oil ran down their edges, setting two crates ablaze.
Li Sanshun stamped one foot into the earth.
The soil surged up, smothering the flames.
Bai Chongshan's voice came down from the peak again.
"Li Sanshun, I'll count to three. If you touch one more crate, Ji Jingyao will lose a finger."
"Bai Chongshan, you dare!"
Inside the array, Ji Jingyao struggled, chains scraping across the stone tiles.
"One."
Li Sanshun threw open the third crate.
"Two."
Xiong Baichuan smashed the fourth crate apart as well.
"Three."
Yet no sound came from inside the array to suggest that Ji Jingyao had been hurt.
Li Sanshun picked up a handful of black grit and pressed it close to the array wall.
"You old bastard, if you really dared kill him, you'd have done it already. While the Imperial Grandson lives, you can still call for the imperial guard. If he dies by your hand, the imperial clan will be the first to skin you alive."
There was no reply from beyond the array wall.
He'd guessed right.
Bai Chongshan needed Ji Jingyao alive.
At least until he escaped Tai Xuan Sect, he couldn't bring himself to kill him.
"Keep opening them!"
All the crates were opened.
Song Yuan quickly spotted the problem. The bottom boards of three large crates were half an inch thicker than those of the others, and Vermilion Bird Copper Nails were hammered into their corners.
Zhao Rui chopped through the bottom boards.
Each concealed a thin iron plate in its hollow space.
Number Two.
Number Six.
Number Twelve.
Three counterfeit command seals!
They lacked complete blood channels, retaining only half of each Array Pattern, which corresponded exactly to three array cores on Guest-Welcoming Peak.
Gu Qinghe poured the black grit from the congratulatory letter beside the iron plates.
"The locks, congratulatory letters, and counterfeit seals all came from the Ding-Character Furnace. Bai Chongshan sent gifts into the sect so he could replace the array cores in advance."
"And to track my aura."
Li Sanshun pulled a pinch of Spirit-Drawing Powder from the bottom of a crate.
After the gifts entered Tai Xuan Sect, Spirit-Peering Talismans would locate their target, Breath-Tracking Incense would mark the route, and Message-Transmitting Insect Eggs would carry messages. If the public blood test had failed to expose them, Bai Chongshan could have used the three counterfeit seals to seal off Guest-Welcoming Peak and forcibly take away Imperial Blood Fifteen.
Now that his plan had failed, these things had become tools for keeping Ji Jingyao under house arrest.
"How do we break it?" Xiong Baichuan picked up the Number Two counterfeit seal.
"Don't pull it out yet."
Li Sanshun placed the three iron plates back in their original positions, then sprinkled the collected black grit over the Array Patterns.
He channeled his Earth-Element Qi.
The tiny bits of black grit slipped through the cracks in the stone and burrowed underground, winding upward along three array paths. The golden light on the array wall trembled, revealing three inconspicuous slots.
A royal Array Tablet was inserted into each slot.
The face of each tablet bore a Kin-Seeking Seal.
But the base was made of Blood-Vein Black Iron from the Ding-Character Furnace.
[Counterfeit command seals of the same origin detected.] [The three array cores can be reversed.] [Reversal requires the array energy to be cut off simultaneously.]
Li Sanshun raised a hand and pointed to the three locations.
"Peak Master Xiong, take the left."
"Hall Master Gu, the middle."
"I'll handle the right."
The three of them took their positions.
But the mission general blocked the middle array core.
"Forcibly dismantling the imperial clan's protective array will injure the people inside."
Song Yuan grabbed his armor.
"His Highness has already been bound. What protective array are you still guarding?"
"I recognize only the imperial clan's seals."
"Fine."
Ji Jingyao spoke from behind the array wall.
"Feng Lie, heed my order. Lay down your weapons and help Tai Xuan Sect break the array. Anyone who disobeys will be expelled from the Fourth Imperial Grandson's Mansion!"
The mission general dropped to one knee.
"Feng Lie obeys."
Nearly a hundred mission guards lowered their crossbows and bows, then turned to face Guest-Welcoming Peak.
The people guarding the array inside were thrown into confusion.
Someone pulled out an Array Tablet, trying to lock the three array cores again. Li Sanshun had been waiting for it.
"Do it!"
Xiong Baichuan smashed his hammer into the slot on the left.
Gu Changyue swung his sword, severing the middle array path.
Li Sanshun stirred the stones underground, forcing the right array core—and the counterfeit seal with it—up through the ground.
The three thin iron plates snapped at the same time.
A wide breach split open in the golden array wall.
"Rescue His Highness!"
Feng Lie led the mission guards up the stone steps. The disciples of Zhen Yue Peak followed close behind, smashing through two courtyard gates.
Twelve golden-armored guards lay in the west courtyard.
Some were still unconscious; others were using their clothes to cover their mouths and noses. Soul-Calming Powder poured from a medicine furnace in the corner of the courtyard. The people guarding the place had already withdrawn.
Li Sanshun raised his hand and drew water over. The furnace went out at once.
"Carry them out first. Don't treat them here."
Song Yuan led his men in moving the injured.
Gu Qinghe followed the residual array energy from the locking formation to the main courtyard. Ji Jingyao sat on the stone steps, three golden chains wrapped around his waist, with a Kin-Seeking Array Disk pinned beneath his feet.
Bai Chongshan wasn't here.
Only four death warriors remained in the courtyard.
When they saw the array gate had fallen, they immediately bit down on the Soul-Devouring Teeth hidden in their back teeth.
Zhao Rui was ready for them. An iron hook jammed into one man's mouth. Gu Changyue swept his sword sheath across, knocking down two others. The last man had just bitten through his Soul-Devouring Tooth when Li Sanshun clamped a hand around his throat.
Life energy poured in.
The poisoned blood drained from the wound.
The man survived.
"If you want to leave, you'll have to tell us Bai Chongshan's route first."
Li Sanshun tossed him to the enforcement disciples.
Xiong Baichuan smashed the golden chains. Ji Jingyao was finally free.
The first thing he did upon rising was snatch the long saber from Feng Lie's waist and smash the Kin-Seeking Array Disk beneath his feet.
"Where is Bai Chongshan?"
None of the four death warriors answered.
Song Yuan ran over from the back courtyard, holding a white robe.
"He escaped through the drainage tunnel. The ashes of a Grey Feather Paper Crane were left by the entrance."
Li Sanshun hurried to the tunnel entrance and inhaled the residual aura.
[Grey Feather Talisman Paper detected.] [Green Pine Resin and Imperial Cinnabar detected.] [The target left less than fifteen minutes ago.] [Destination: Main Peak.]
Bai Chongshan hadn't gone down the mountain.
That old bastard had sealed off Guest-Welcoming Peak and staged an assassination attempt on the Imperial Grandson, all just to lure the people away from Main Peak.
Ji Jingyao understood, too.
"What else does he want?"
"The Gold Blade."
Li Sanshun turned and strode out.
"The Gold Blade Grand Elder Qi had sealed away."
Ji Jingyao chased him down the stone steps and yanked the Storage Bag from his waist.
The Kin-Seeking Seal, the mission's master seal, the Fourth Imperial Grandson's private seal, the Six Paths Original Command Order, and the Mission Seal Registry—all of them were tipped out onto a stone table in the courtyard.
"Hall Master Gu, seal them away for me."
Gu Changyue didn't reach for them.
"Think carefully. If you hand the seals over to Tai Xuan Sect, the imperial capital may not let you off."
"If I keep them, how many more people can Bai Chongshan harm in my name?"
Ji Jingyao took out his blood seal and stamped it onto the inventory of sealed items right there.
"Before the public blood test, I did want to take Li Sanshun back to the imperial capital. I admit that."
"I don't accept the altered orders, the fake Blood Mirror, or the killings over the Sealing Registry."
"From this moment on, the guards of the Fourth Imperial Grandson's Mansion are at Tai Xuan Sect's disposal. First, capture Bai Chongshan. Then investigate the six forged orders!"
Feng Lie and nearly a hundred mission guards answered the command in unison.
Those who had once blocked the mountain gate and forced Li Sanshun to take a blood test had now handed over their seals with their own hands—and had to follow behind him, begging for a chance to live.
An Urgent Message Talisman flew into the main courtyard.
Li Sanshun raised his hand and caught it.
The talisman had come from Qi Shouxuan.
There was only one sentence on it.
"Bai Chongshan has reached Main Peak. Li Sanshun, bring the Seal of Destiny Seal Mold. I'll let you see for yourself which door he intends to open with the Gold Blade!"
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