Chapter 221: Mission Accomplished
The howling north wind blew the clouds clean away, making the full moon in the sky even brighter, illuminating the endless mountains.
Lu Yun led the way ahead, while Sun Yuanlang followed unhurriedly behind. The two crossed over ridges one after another, and after half an hour, they arrived at a sheltered mountain hollow.
Lu Yun pointed at a cluster of strangely shaped dwarf trees in the mountain hollow and said, “I buried that thing in the bushes.”
“You brat actually have some brains,” Sun Yuanlang looked around and couldn’t help laughing: “The feng shui here is so poor it couldn’t be worse; there absolutely won’t be any tombs from the previous dynasty.”
“Yes, that way grave robbers won’t visit this place,” Lu Yun nodded and said without reservation: “That thing naturally won’t be discovered.”
“And you say your father and you have no ideas about the Imperial Seal.” Sun Yuanlang sneered.
“No one can say for sure about the future,” Lu Yun said indifferently: “At least for now, my father and I absolutely dare not touch this thing, otherwise we wouldn’t have buried it in this barren mountain wilderness.”
Sun Yuanlang nodded, seemingly agreeing with Lu Yun’s statement, and urged: “Hurry and dig it up.”
Lu Yun realized that Sun Yuanlang was not just anxious to get the Imperial Seal, but seemed to indeed have other matters to attend to. Thinking it over, he understood: this fellow was definitely still eyeing the Founding Emperor’s treasure!
Sun Yuanlang had sneaked into Jingxin Ward, clearly to take advantage of the chaos in the Capital City tonight with soldiers in disarray, while all the various clans’ attention was focused on the Founding Emperor’s treasure, to seize the Imperial Seal of the State. But now seeing that obtaining the Imperial Seal was effortless, Sun Yuanlang obviously had ideas of getting both fish and bear’s paw!
While searching in the bushes for the spot where he had buried the Imperial Seal, Lu Yun carefully calculated how to respond next. Only when Sun Yuanlang, following closely behind, urged him again did he stop, pointed at a strange tree, and said: “It’s right under this tree.”
“Dig!” Sun Yuanlang ordered in a deep voice, and Lu Yun began digging into the icy ground with his bare hands.
.
After the guards saw that Daoist Priest carrying a person fly out, the city wall finally quieted down for a small half hour.
“Is it over?” The guards poked their heads and stood up; when those black shadows had flown over the city wall earlier, they had all obediently hidden behind the battlements, fearing they would be silenced by those peerless experts.
“It should be over.” The veteran soldier saw the officer walk out from the sheltered spot and hurriedly went up to him, fawning: “Colonel Lord, do we report this matter?”
“Report my ass; with so many immortals flying out in waves, it’s definitely the various clans taking action.” The officer spat irritably: “When immortals fight, what business do little ghosts have meddling?!” Though he said that, he still felt somewhat stifled; after all, this section of city wall was under his guard, yet those people passed back and forth endlessly like strolling down the street, without even a greeting.
“Damn it, with so many city walls,” the officer grew angrier the more he thought: “Why do they all have to go through my turf!”
Before his words finished, two more figures leaped over their heads. The official soldiers wailed inwardly: “Here we go again…” and hurriedly hugged their heads and lay on the ground; the officer was no exception.
Unexpectedly, these two did not leap over like the others, but stood atop the battlements, gazing darkly at those official soldiers.
It was Lu Xin with an anxious expression and Lu Xian with a face as deep as water. Lu Xin asked in a deep voice: “Did you see anyone leave the city?”
The official soldiers thought someone had finally come to silence them and were nearly scared to death. The officer hurriedly covered his eyes and begged incessantly: “Two lords, we saw nothing, know nothing…”
“I’m asking you questions, and you saw nothing, know nothing!” Lu Xin was furious: “If you don’t answer truthfully, I’ll throw you off the city wall!” With that, Lu Xin reached out, picked up the officer, and made as if to hurl him down the city wall.
“Spare my life, spare my life,” the officer was not one of those immortals who came and went high up; being thrown from such a high city wall would definitely turn him into a meat patty. He hurriedly opened his eyes and screamed: “I’ll talk, I’ll talk, I’ll say everything.”
“Hmph!” Lu Xin snorted coldly, dropped him to the ground, and repeated the question: “Did you see anyone leave?”
“Yes, yes, lots.” The officer hurriedly told the truth: “Front and back, seven or eight waves.”
Lu Xin exchanged a glance with Lu Xian upon hearing this, then asked in a deep voice: “I’m asking about a Daoist Priest, who was also carrying this young man.”
“Daoist Priest…” The officer was unsure and looked to his subordinates. A soldier hurriedly shouted: “There was a Daoist Priest, indeed a Daoist Priest carrying a person in his hand; whether it was a young man or not, we don’t know.”
“That’s them!” Lu Xin’s eyes sharpened, and he hurriedly asked: “Did you see clearly which direction they went?”
“Mount Mang,” after all, with so many eyes watching, every movement was crystal clear. The soldiers hurriedly answered: “But their direction was slightly different from the others; the others went northeast, while they were a bit more to the west.”
Following the direction the soldier pointed, Lu Xian and Lu Xin confirmed it, then left the still-shaken guards on the city wall and flew off without hesitation.
.
In the strange tree grove, Lu Yun dug straight down a full six or seven feet, over a man’s depth…
“One hour already.” Sun Yuanlang snorted coldly, reminding Lu Yun that the remaining time was short.
“Got it!” Lu Yun’s voice came from underground. The next moment, a wooden box was thrown up from the pit.
The closer he got to success, the more cautious Sun Yuanlang became. He gently rolled his whisk, drawing the wooden box to him. Looking at the mud-caked wooden box, Sun Yuanlang still refused to open it with his hands. Instead, he channeled his true qi through the whisk, shattering the wooden box to pieces.
As the wooden box shattered, a square great seal four inches across, green as blue, appeared before Sun Yuanlang.
Sun Yuanlang still held the great seal with his whisk and examined it closely. He saw its knob formed by five intertwined dragons, shaped like dragon, bird, fish, and snake. The base was perfectly square, with eight seal script characters intaglio-engraved on the seal face below — ‘Received Mandate from Heaven, Both Longevity and Eternal Prosperity’. Moreover, the upper left corner of the seal was missing a piece, mended with gold. This perfectly matched the legend that during the Qian Dynasty Founding Emperor’s usurpation of Wei, the Imperial Seal of the State had been smashed by the Wei Empress Dowager.
While observing the style of the Imperial Seal, Sun Yuanlang carefully checked it and confirmed no tampering, then grabbed it in his hand. He felt it warm and smooth to the touch. Even with his cultivation-hardened heart like ironstone, he couldn’t help but feel surging emotions, wanting to let out a long howl and shout: ‘I’ve got it!’
But with powerful willpower, Sun Yuanlang restrained himself from shouting, and his mood quickly calmed. Holding that Imperial Seal of the State, waves of unreality washed over him; the process of obtaining it had been far too simple, so simple it was unbelievable…
At this thought, Sun Yuanlang’s suspicious gaze fixed intently on Lu Yun, reviewing the story Lu Yun had told, yet finding no issues. Because apart from a few minor details, Lu Yun had told only the truth, naturally making it reasonable and seamless!
“Congratulations Sect Leader Lord on receiving Heaven’s Mandate,” Lu Yun patted the dirt off himself and said softly with a pained expression: “Now, can you let me leave as per the oath.”
“…” Sun Yuanlang silently watched Lu Yun until he was about to burst, then slowly shook his head: “No.”
“Hehe…” Lu Yun laughed in extreme anger and questioned Sun Yuanlang: “Sect Leader Lord goes back on his word; how can he convince the masses?”
“This poor Daoist cannot confirm if this seal is genuine.” Sun Yuanlang said indifferently, unconcerned: “It needs to be verified by someone else before it counts.” This request was not strange at all; how many people in the world had seen the real Imperial Seal of the State? Even the knowledgeable Sun Yuanlang could only verify the authenticity against book records.
Though it matched perfectly and the jade was top-quality, Sun Yuanlang still couldn’t fully relax. He had a way to confirm the Imperial Seal’s authenticity, but it required returning to Liaodong…
