245: Chapter 245 The Core of the Imperial Palace!

Walking along the underground river for who knows how long, Mu Chen and Luo Li finally found a door in the deepest part of the Heavenly Palace.

It was a massive bronze door, standing a hundred zhang tall, tightly shut. Over forty thousand years of time had left mottled verdigris on its surface, but not a single crack. The surface was cast with dense, ancient Spirit Runes. Their flow was extremely slow, as if they were slumbering. That faint, elusive pressure caused the spiritual energy within Mu Chen to involuntarily stagnate for an instant.

"This is it," Mu Chen said, looking up at the massive door, "The Heavenly Emperor's bedchamber."

Luo Li raised her hand and pressed it against the door. As her fingertips touched the cold metal surface, an extremely ancient will seeped out from within, so heavy that her breathing hitched. She withdrew her hand and turned to look at him: "How do we get in?"

Mu Chen closed his eyes, his perception of the Law of Space condensing into a single line as he probed the Spirit Rune array. A few breaths later, he opened his eyes: "There is a keyhole in the center of the door—not a physical lock, but a missing piece in the spatial structure. It requires the Law of Space to mend. You guard me."

Luo Li nodded, turned, and stood with her back to the massive door, her longsword held horizontally before her. Since entering the Heavenly Palace, she had been able to sense more than one group of people lurking nearby. The Mohe Ancient Clan had not gone far, and the Ancient Floating Pagoda Clan was also in the vicinity; they were all waiting.

Mu Chen sat cross-legged and formed hand seals, and the silver light of the Law of Space illuminated. His divine sense followed the power of the law into the keyhole, beginning to fill the gap. This was not a simple matter of breaking the array—the eye of the Spirit Rune array was alive. Over the past forty thousand years, it had evolved countless times on its own, and the path of every Spirit Rune was different from when it was first built. He had to find the correct path amidst the constantly shifting array patterns.

An incense stick's time. Half an hour. One hour. Beads of sweat seeped from his forehead, and the fabric on his back was soaked with sweat, but the silver light at his fingertips remained steady.

With a soft "click," the Spirit Rune array fell into place. The massive bronze door slowly opened inward, leaving a gap wide enough for one person to slip through sideways. A surge of pure spiritual energy, sealed for over forty thousand years, poured out from the crack, rushing toward them with the aura of the ancient era.

The two squeezed through the gap one after the other.

The furnishings in the bedchamber were extremely simple. A stone bed, a stone table, and a long-dried bronze oil lamp on the table. The surrounding walls were covered with dense, ancient characters—not cultivation techniques, not restrictions, but the daily life the Heavenly Emperor had casually carved during his lifetime. Who he met today, what he said, how his adopted daughter Mandola had been mischievous again, which layer of the seal the Nine Corpse Heavenly Demon Emperor's evil energy had penetrated again. The handwriting was sometimes neat and sometimes sloppy, and by the last few lines, it was so crooked it was almost illegible.

In the center of the stone table lay a jade slip. Mu Chen picked it up and probed it with his divine sense, his pupils constricting slightly—it was the cultivation method for the Primordial Celestial Body, as well as another of the Heavenly Emperor's famous divine abilities: One Qi Transforming into Three Purities. He slowly put down the jade slip and solemnly stored it in his storage bracelet.

Beside the stone table was a sword, its scabbard covered in a thick layer of dust. Luo Li gripped the hilt and gently drew it three inches; the sword light was like water, and the blade reflected her own face—blue eyes and silver hair, gazing across a thin layer of dust at someone who had also held this sword over forty thousand years ago. Her fingers tightened slightly on the hilt, and then she sheathed the sword again. The successor recognized by the Heavenly Emperor Sword was Mu Chen; this did not need to be asked.

Deep inside the bedchamber was another stone room. Luo Li pushed the door open and went in; on a stone pedestal lay a deep blue jade slip. Probing it with her divine sense, she froze—the first Empress of the Luoshen Clan had once been the master of one of the Five Palaces and Nine Prefectures under the Heavenly Emperor's command. This inheritance not only contained the complete version of the Luo God Sword Art but also detailed annotations on how to integrate the Law of Time with the sword art; every word and sentence seemed written specifically for her.

The two stood silently in the bedchamber for a moment. The ancient characters on the four walls flickered in the spiritual light. The Heavenly Emperor's last words were carved crookedly on the wall directly opposite the stone table; the handwriting was the sloppiest, yet the strokes were the deepest, as if written with every ounce of strength remaining: "Mandola, live well."

Mu Chen cupped his hands toward those words and bowed solemnly. Luo Li, beside him, also lowered her head slightly. Then, the two turned and walked out of the bronze door, returning along the path they had come.

Imperial City. A side hall of Spirit Hall.

Hun Feng sat behind the desk, and Hun Qian presented a newly carved bamboo scroll with both hands. Hun Feng unfurled it and scanned it from top to bottom.

"Immortal Grade Heavenly Supreme: Hun Tiandi, Void Swallowing Flame, Cai Lin, Gu Xun'er, Yao Yao, Zi Yan. Plus me, that makes seven."

He paused, then continued reading down the list.

"Spirit Grade Heavenly Sovereign: Gu Yuan, Hun Qinger, Yun Yun, Cao Ying, Hun Qian, Soul Mie Sheng, Hun You, Hun Jing, Xiao Yi Xian, Xue Wei—ten. There are twenty-three thousand disciples above the Sovereign Realm, and three hundred and twenty-seven Earth Supreme. A total of seventeen Heavenly Supreme."

He placed the bamboo scroll on the table, tapped his fingers on the bamboo twice, and turned to look out the window. The volcano cluster of the Burning Heaven Mountain Range spewed dark red magma into the night, and the battle flags of Spirit Hall snapped and billowed in the hot wind. Seventeen Heavenly Supreme, over twenty thousand disciples above the Sovereign Realm—this kind of power was something he wouldn't have even dared to imagine when he had just ascended.

"It's still not enough," he said.

Hun Qian was stunned for a moment but did not ask. Having followed Hun Feng for so many years, he knew that when the Hall Master said "not enough," he usually already had the next step planned in his mind.

"Hall Master, Lady Zi Yan has already eaten four meals at the dining hall since coming out of seclusion. The steward is asking if we should prepare more ingredients."

The corner of Hun Feng's mouth twitched: "Let her eat. The Void Ancient Dragon's evolution into a Dragon Phoenix consumes a lot."

Hun Qian acknowledged and withdrew. The side hall quieted down again. Hun Feng flipped the bamboo scroll over onto the table and stood up to walk to the window. The lights of ten thousand homes in the Imperial City flickered in the night, and the magma gushing from the distant volcanic craters flowed slowly along the mountain ridges, like streams of dark red blood. He reached out to push open the window, and the night wind, carrying the scent of sulfur, poured in, rustling the pages of the bamboo scroll on the desk.

He knew those two little ones would definitely be able to find the Imperial Palace Core—his confidence in them was never blind; it was because he had taught them himself. However, there were too many variables in the Heavenly Palace: the Mohe Ancient Clan, the Ancient Floating Pagoda Clan, the dark agents infiltrated by the Evil Race, and those remaining restrictions that even Xue Wei didn't know about. Everything would depend on their own destiny.

Outside the window, the volcano cluster of the Burning Heaven Mountain Range roared ceaselessly. The flags of Spirit Hall snapped in the night wind.