Leng Junfeng carried Li Qiu'ai and Fistslave atop his flying sword. His flying sword did not come with a size-changing feature, so he added a board atop to accommodate three people, making it look slightly awkward, but that was beside the point.
"We're here," Leng Junfeng said. The trio had arrived at the Teng Estate in the middle of the night. He covered the three of them with his spiritual sense and qi to form a concealment technique. They couldn't be seen with the naked eye, and if the spiritual sense wasn't strong enough, then they couldn't be detected either.
It wasn't a technique that Fenghua had taught him before, but he found the technique scrolls on his bed one day. It didn't take a genius to figure out who had access to such techniques and would be kindhearted enough to impart it to him. This act also gave Leng Junfeng a sense of relief since it confirmed his teacher's safety.
"Act according to plan," Leng Junfeng said.
Fistslave jumped down from the flying sword, and when he landed, he did not make a sound and immediately disappeared. As the hidden guard of the Allfist Temple, he was naturally skilled in concealment techniques to the point that most martial grandmasters couldn't even detect him.
Leng Junfeng's gazed at where Wang Meilin's courtyard was for a moment and then quickly diverted his eyes. He knew that Teng Shifang wasn't someone he could defeat right now, but Teng Wuba was another story.
The two figures still on the flying sword disappeared and headed towards the next destination. It was in the imperial palace. Although Leng Junfeng had confidence in killing Teng Wuba, that was under the condition that there were no interlopers, so to make sure his plan succeeded, they needed a distraction.
It just so happened that Li Qiu'ai wanted to grab something from the treasury, the artifact of the imperial clan. With it, even though Li Qiu'ai was only in the early Acupoint Opening Realm, she would have enough power to contend with a late acupoint opening master for a short period.
Li Qiu'ai jumped off the flying sword like Fistslave. Although she couldn't compare to Fistlave in concealment techniques, she had still learned some tricks from Leng Junfeng. Fenghua never prohibited Leng Junfeng from teaching it to others as those techniques weren't great secrets in the Huang Realm. Even loose cultivators could easily learn them.
Still, Li Qiu'ai didn't dare to be careless. Although the Li Imperial Family had controlled the palace since the beginning of the Li Dynasty, Teng Shifang wasn't without his trump cards. If she was careless, she might be captured instead, truly ending the line of the Li Imperial Family.
From a young age, Li Qiu'ai understood the layout of the palace. She used to think that Duke Gong showed her the blueprints to brag about how much the emperor trusted him, but now, she knew it was in preparation. It wasn’t just the blueprints, she also knew almost all the secrets of the palace and imperial family, including the secret passages.
Compared to the imperial palace of the past, the number of servants was severely diminished while the number of guards had increased. Seeing this, Li Qiu'ai felt a burst of hatred in her heart. Since there were no more members of the imperial family, why did it need so many guards?
After the death of all the imperial family, many officials thought Teng Shifang would proclaim himself the new emperor, but he didn't. Instead, he formed a council of three to rule the nation and announced that the Li Dynasty would no longer have a sovereign. As such, the Li Dynasty became the Li Nation. Though the Li Family no longer existed, the state would not forget its roots.
Was there a greater mockery than this?
After numerous twists and turns, Li Qiu'ai finally found her destination, the underground treasury of the Li Imperial Family. The gates into the treasury were guarded by twelve peak martial masters and a single eunuch. Upon seeing the eunuch, hatred shined in her eyes.
Eunuch Feng frowned and flicked the horsetail whisk in his hand. He looked around but couldn't discover anything wrong. Finally, he gave up after ten minutes and continued to patrol the entrance to the treasury.
Li Qiu'ai released a sigh of relief. Cultivators, especially martial cultivators embroiled in constant battles, were extremely sensitive to ill intent. Had she been discovered, then the plan was likely to fail.
After making sure that the door to the treasury had not been opened, Li Qiu'ai left. The gate had numerous scars, fresh scars. Proof that someone had tried to open it. Even a peak martial grandmaster would find it hard to open the gate.
It was common knowledge that only the emperor had the key to the treasury, but after Teng Shifang took power, the key disappeared. Naturally, it was because the key was given to Li Qiu'ai, and it was one of the reasons the Teng Family was able to discover her existence and wanted to capture her so badly.
What they didn't know was that there wasn't only one entrance to the treasury. It was such a grand gate. How tiring must it be to open every time? The only reason Li Qiu'ai took a look was to make sure that it hadn't been opened.
Aside from the main gate, there were two other secret passages to the treasury: the emperor's palace and the eastern palace, where the crown prince resided.
The emperor's palace was also closely guarded even though almost everything of value had already been taken away, leaving only the bare essentials. In contrast, the eastern palace had been barren for decades since the emperor never appointed a crown prince.
After making sure there was no one nearby, Li Qiu'ai opened the secret passage and sealed it behind her after entering. Though, it took two or three tries because it was her first time. The passage was long and dim, full of dust after years of non-use, but she eventually made it to a door large enough to fit a single person.
Reaching into her sleeve, Li Qiu’ai took out a jade seal with the word "Li" carved into it. The emperor's seal served as the representation of his right to rule and the key to the treasury. Li Qiu'ai stamped it onto the door and inputted her qi into it. Not only did you need the key, but you needed to be able to externalize your qi as well, so only a martial grandmaster could open the treasury.
By the time Li Qiu'ai finally placed enough qi in it, she was already panting. Almost thirty percent of her true qi was absorbed at once. Taking a moment to catch her breath, she pushed open the door and stood there stunned.
It was not grand like she had expected. There were no glittering mounds of gold or dense spiritual qi that erupted. Instead, it was a large room formed of stone, but it was mostly empty. Li Qiu'ai could only spot around nine artifacts lining the walls, but upon closer observation, her eyes widened in shock.
The first thing that caught her eye was a suit of bronze armor. It had numerous cracks on it, and it exuded an aura that felt like it had experienced the vicissitude of time. She knew what it was. The bronze armor was the Dynasty Founding Armor, the armor that the founding emperor had worn when he conquered the surrounding states.
The second artifact Li Qiu'ai laid her eyes on was a pair of shoes with pearls the color of the sky decorating it. They were Skyscaping Shoes. Whoever wore it would be able to fly as fast as the Snow-winged Eagle, the fastest monster in the Allfist Realm.
The third was a dull halberd seemingly forged of iron with a dragon engraved on it. It was the Dragon Slaying Halberd, an artifact forged using the bones and scales of a dragon and meteor iron. Rumor had it that anyone who wielded the Dragon Slaying Halberd would be invincible.
If Fenghua were here, she would have snorted. What Dragon Slaying Halberd? The dragon bone and scales didn't even come from a true dragon. At most, it was a snake or serpent that inherited a bit of a true dragon's bloodline.
The other seven artifacts were equally as impressive, but the most important was undoubtedly the shrinking pouch. With it, Li Qiu'ai would be able to carry everything from the treasury. If she only used her two hands, it would be impossible to bring everything out.
Before that, though, Li Qiu'ai sat in a lotus position and placed the Dragon Slaying Halberd on her knees. She wanted to refine and become the master of an artifact before she left. This way, her escape would have a higher chance of success and allow a bigger distraction.
Two hours later, the dragon pattern on the halberd faintly resonated with Li Qiu'ai's qi. From this, it can be seen that she became the master of the artifact. Standing up, she stared at the main gate leading into the treasury, and an idea formed inside her head.
Outside, Eunuch Feng frowned and turned around. The giant lock seemed to have shifted. He ordered one of the martial masters to check it out, and to their shock, it seemed that the lock had loosened. Hearing this, a flash of greed appeared in his eye, and he ordered the martial masters to attack and destroy the lock.
After thirty minutes of effort and tiring all the martial masters, Eunuch Feng entered the treasury. At first glance, he was disappointed by the sights, and then he discovered something wrong. Even if it was only made of stone with no glittering gold, why is it completely empty?
Suddenly, he felt the premonition of death, so he quickly backpedaled. Unfortunately, Eunuch Feng was just slightly too slow, and something sharp severed his right arm and left a deep gash on his torso.
"For the crime of betraying the imperial family, give me your life!"
-line break-
Leng Junfeng watched as a commotion started in the imperial palace. The commotion didn't last long and seemed to shift from the imperial palace to outside and even had hints of leaving Chang'an. He knew that Li Qiu'ai had succeeded in breaking into the treasury and escaping. His eyes zeroed in on Teng Wuba, who had left his room due to the commotion.
"Not so fast, remember me?" Leng Junfeng dropped down from the sky and eliminated Teng Wuba's servants.
"Hmpf, you should have attacked before I noticed you," Teng Wuba said as he stared down at Leng Junfeng. "It seems that the information is true. You did become a grandmaster. I'd thought that the only thing you learned in the last five years was how to hide like a rat."
Leng Junfeng only smiled, unlike the madness-driven berserk state those years ago. "After you fight with me for a bit, you will understand."
"As you wish!" Teng Wuba said and unleashed a fist at Leng Junfeng.
Naturally, Leng Junfeng wasn't willing to sit idly and take the attack, and he blocked it. The clash between flesh unleashed an ear-deafening sound that continued as the two continued to duke it out.
Leng Junfeng's expression became more stern as the fight continued. He only expected Teng Wuba to be in the mid Acupoint Opening Realm, but it seemed his calculations were wrong. Teng Wuba was in the late Acupoint Opening Realm.
"What did you do?" Leng Junfeng asked in a low voice. It was almost impossible for someone to speed up their cultivation speed like this. When Teng Wuba' first entered the Acupoint Opening Realm, it should have taken him much longer to reach his current realm.
"I am talented. That's all you need to know!" Teng Wuba said as he continued to exchange fists with Leng Junfeng.
At first, the battle between the two started with Leng Junfening occupying an advantage, but only a slight one. As time passed, the advantage disappeared, and the two were on equal footing.
"What's wrong? You seem out of breath!" Teng Wuba mocked. He was surprised by Leng Junfeng's explosive strength, but it wasn't like he hadn't heard of such cases before. Forbidden techniques like igniting blood essence to increase power for a short amount of time was still known in the Allfist Realm.
The reality of the matter was that Leng Junfeng was growing mentally fatigued. Fist Qi relied partially on his qi but mostly on his willpower. The more he used it, the more tired he would become. In addition, he hadn't fully accustomed himself to it, so his use of it was rather inefficient. After this battle, he would need to rectify that. However, that was something for the future, and Leng Junfeng needed to focus on the present.
As the surrounding ground, walls, and vegetation became rubble under the two acupoint opening masters' fight, there were suddenly loud bell rings originating inside one of the Teng Family yards. Teng Wuba's expression changed, and he moved to disentangle himself from Leng Junfeng, but how would Leng Junfeng allow him to leave?
"You! So what if you take her back? She's already my woman!" Teng Wuba shouted and began to attack with even more ferocity. Before, he was focusing on defense and steadiness, but now he was focusing on attack.
Leng Junfeng's expression also darkened. He really wished to kill Teng Wuba, but he had discovered that he couldn't increase his strength enough to do so. Fenghua didn't allow him to learn any forbidden techniques, and Leng Junfeng had never seen the need for them, resulting in the current situation.
As time passed, Teng Wuba's urgency increased, and so did the ferocity of his attacks, allowing Leng Junfeng to penetrate his defense. However, this was not without cost. For every attack Leng Junfeng dealt, he received one in return.
Finally, after both of them were bloody, Leng Junfeng waved his sleeve and jumped onto his flying sword. "It seems that we can't differentiate a winner or loser today. In that case, I'll return another day to settle the score with you."
"Do you think my Teng Family Estate is some place you can come and leave whenever you like?" Teng Wuba shouted, following after Leng Junfeng by jumping onto a wheel-shaped artifact. He hated Leng Junfeng before, but he only considered Leng Junfeng a bug he could squish anytime. Now, he wanted to kill Leng Junfeng by any means possible.
The chase between the pursuer and pursued continued for an hour, but no matter what Teng Wuba did, Leng Junfeng continued to increase the distance. His grandfather and two other grandmasters had to use all their strength to catch up to Leng Junfeng, and they had taken a long time. How could a single Teng Wuba compare?
Suddenly, black clouds began to gather above Chang'an. Teng Wuba's expression condensed and turned his sight towards the source of the Soul Nourishing Heavenly Tribulation, the Teng Family Estate.
"I'll let you go this time, but the next time we meet will be your death date!" Saying those words, Teng Wuba rushed back.
