“That woman is called Frost Consort. She’s currently locked inside the sleeping quarters of Emperor Danzhen. Do you know about the emperor’s quarters? It’s not a place you can just come and go as you please,” Empress Ming shook her head, trying her best to persuade Yang Hao.
Yet Yang Hao had already made up his mind. He was usually easygoing, but when it came down to it, once he had decided on something, he would see it through no matter what. This was the new leadership style he had recently learned to adopt.
“It’s just the emperor’s sleeping quarters! Didn’t I sneak into the imperial palace on Raymon Star, and even steal things from the Temple of Ten Thousand Things? How hard can it be to enter a sleeping chamber?”
“That’s true. Our DanDing sect cultivators are no small fry. Sneaking into a sleeping chamber is nothing,” Hun Yuanzi, the lecher, had completely forgotten that Emperor Danzhen was already dead. He was probably thinking about sneaking a peek at the emperor’s favorite concubine again.
“The Temple of Ten Thousand Things… Ha!” Empress Ming sneered. “What’s the Temple of Ten Thousand Things? How could it compare with the emperor’s sleeping quarters? All the treasures in the Temple of Ten Thousand Things combined probably wouldn’t equal half of Emperor Danzhen’s life. How could they compare? On Raymon Star, the most heavily guarded and seemingly impenetrable place is the emperor’s sleeping quarters. Not even the Empire’s Ten Sword Streams could sneak in—they’d have to fight their way in with bloodshed.”
Yang Hao stared blankly at Empress Ming. If she hadn’t said those words herself, he might still have thought the woman lacked insight. No matter how tight the security around a palace might be, it still stood on the ground, with wide palace walls and side doors in every direction—ideal angles for infiltration. As long as Yang Hao used his techniques, he should be able to avoid the sentries.
“I think it’s doable. My techniques are pretty good,” Yang Hao said, activating his Feihua Illusory Body Technique. His body became like a blur, moving to the other end of the room in an instant. “See? I’m fast—so fast that the human eye can’t keep up.”
Truthfully, Yang Hao’s brief display genuinely impressed Empress Ming. She had probably never seen anyone run so fast before, but she still shook her head: “It won’t work. Definitely won’t work.”
“How could it not work? As long as the sleeping quarters have doors and walls, I can find a way in. I can sneak in,” Yang Hao wanted to boast, but his identity as the eldest disciple of the Elixir Sect seemed rather shameful, so he simply said, “Anyway, I’m just really good. I come from a powerful sect.”
“Good disciple, you really haven’t disgraced your master,” Huan Yuanzi, once again, wore a smug expression.
“You can’t get in. No matter how fast you are, it’s impossible,” Empress Ming said with unusual certainty. In fact, she had been certain from the very beginning, but only now did she reveal the truth: “Because Emperor Danzhen’s sleeping quarters have neither walls nor visible doors. His sleeping quarters aren’t on the ground; they’re in…”
Empress Ming stamped her foot hard, looking at Yang Hao helplessly.
It took Yang Hao a while to understand: “Underground? You mean Emperor Danzhen’s sleeping quarters are underground?”
“Not just underground, but a hundred meters underground. It’s inside a granite vein. Emperor Danzhen placed his sleeping quarters a hundred meters beneath the granite, with only a narrow path wide enough for one person to pass through, leading to the sleeping quarters. Along the way, there are many checkpoints and iron doors, almost like a prison. Who could sneak into such a place? Could you?”
Yang Hao, of course, couldn’t. He was already stunned just listening. If it were a place visible to the naked eye, Yang Hao wouldn’t be afraid, but something hidden underground was truly unimaginable. Emperor Danzhen was indeed twisted—he had practically dug his own coffin ahead of time just to prevent someone from killing him. Now, sealing off the passage would truly turn it into a tomb.
“I thought so,” Empress Ming’s lips curled into a confident smile. “No one can get in. That’s why the swordsmen hid that woman there. You should just listen to me and escape. Forget about the truth. Even if your sect is powerful, there’s nothing you can do now. Do you think you’re really a member of the Empire’s Ten Sword Streams?”
“Darn it, darn it,” Huan Yuanzi became restless. “Why do people always compare us with the Ten Sword Streams? Can those broken sects even compare with the DanDing Dual Cultivation Sect?”
“It’s the Elixir Sect,” Yang Hao said somewhat disheartened. “She’s right. We don’t have a way. This just proves your sect is a failure—complete failure.”
“Failure?” Huan Yuanzi started to get angry. “Tell that woman we’re going to the sleeping quarters right now. I’ll make sure you get in.”
“You have a plan?” Yang Hao was overjoyed. He didn’t realize yet that he was about to get into serious trouble.
“A plan? I’ve got plenty of plans,” Huan Yuanzi boasted. “When have I ever let you down? Haven’t I always helped you turn danger into safety?”
Clearly, at this moment, Huan Yuanzi had already forgotten that it was he himself who had always dragged Yang Hao into danger in the first place.
But that no longer mattered. What mattered was that Yang Hao, who always forgot his hardships, once again took Huan Yuanzi’s empty words as sacred truths and fully trusted him.
The tragic adventures of this odd duo were about to begin again.
Although Yang Hao’s techniques couldn’t help him sneak underground, they at least allowed him to move around the palace without being noticed. With Empress Ming’s guidance, he quickly located the area where Emperor Danzhen’s sleeping quarters were situated.
It was a large forest in the slightly left central part of the imperial city. From the surface, although the forest wasn’t particularly dense, it was lush and green—no one would ever suspect there was an astonishing structure hidden beneath.
Naturally, Yang Hao wasn’t foolish enough to directly charge the only path leading to the sleeping quarters, where countless swordsmen were probably waiting in ambush.
Luckily, the emperor’s sleeping quarters covered a vast area. Nearly a thousand meters away from the small passage was the actual top of the sleeping quarters. Yang Hao used his sensing technique to check and found that beneath his feet was a layer of soil more than ten meters thick. Below that lay solid granite. Only by passing through the granite could he possibly reach the sleeping quarters and retrieve Frost Consort.
“Alright, old man, tell me your plan,” Yang Hao couldn’t think of any solution himself, so he could only pin his hopes on Huan Yuanzi.
“What plan?” Huan Yuanzi started playing dumb, as if he was hearing about the situation for the first time.
“The plan to get into the sleeping quarters,” Yang Hao had a bad feeling. Every time Huan Yuanzi pretended ignorance, something bad was about to happen. “Didn’t you just say you had plenty of plans? You said you could help me sneak into the sleeping quarters unnoticed.”
Huan Yuanzi sighed, a long and drawn-out sigh, as if lamenting how he had ended up with such a foolish disciple: “You actually believed me? Foolish disciple, your master is a cultivator, not a god. How could I possibly have such a plan?”
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