Chapter 58: Opening the Treasure Vault

As the sky darkened, Lin Ran changed into his Sword God attire and flashed outside the door.

The Mystic Sword Technique could enable him to pass through walls, so he did not steal the key anymore and went straight to the empress’s chamber. After finding the Ten Miles Dragon Roar, he went straight to the Hidden Sword Pavilion to open the treasure vault.

At the same time, groups of eunuchs holding lanterns were walking in the palace. In a daze, they saw a figure flashing by, but when they looked closely, there was nothing.

The thing was that even the guards had encountered such a strange situation. For a long time after that, there were rumors about the “Night Ghost” circulating in the palace.

At this moment, Lin Ran still didn’t know that he had become the protagonist of the rumors. With the convenience of the “Unique Sword Technique”, he quickly arrived at the empress’s bedroom.

At this moment, the sky had just turned dark. The empress should still be dealing with state affairs in the imperial study.

Therefore, Lin Ran was not being overly cautious. After successfully sneaking into the bedroom, he revealed himself and went to the inner room to look for the Ten Miles Dragon Roar.

With his ability to sense divine swords, Lin Ran quickly found a brocade box under the bed. Just as he was about to open the brocade box, he heard the sound of a door opening.

Lin Ran thought that the empress had returned and hurriedly hid under the bed. However, a moment later, he saw a purple-robed figure walking in quietly.

historical

“Li Tianyi?”

Lin Ran recognized the person and couldn’t help but frown in confusion.

Why did this eunuch sneak into the empress’s bedroom instead of guarding her?

Lin Ran was puzzled, but he did not alert Li Tianyi. He silently watched as Li Tianyi opened a cabinet and crawled in. After a moment, he climbed out, tidied his clothes, and pretended to be calm as he left the bedroom.

Lin Ran was confused. After Li Tianyi left, he flashed out and went to the cabinet.

This cabinet was about half the height of a person and was made of camphor wood. It was used to temporarily store dragon robes and other outerwear when the empress went to bed.

Now that the empress was still in the imperial study, the cabinet was naturally empty. However, when Lin Ran opened it, he saw an old standard sword inside.

There was a pair of footprints on the bottom of the cabinet. It looked like someone was hiding inside with a weapon but had forgotten to take it with him when he left.

“What is this damn eunuch trying to do?”

Lin Ran was puzzled. He accidentally saw the hilt and his eyes narrowed. There was no sword tassel on this standard sword!

As a rule, all the swords in the palace had to have a yellow tassel attached to it. However, there was nothing on this sword.

It had to be noted that according to the rules, it was not a serious crime for a guard to lose his sword tassel, but he would still be flogged 30 times. Therefore, the guards were very careful not to lose it.

There was probably only one standard sword in the palace without a sword tassel, and that was the one used by Lin Ran. Outside the Hall of Mental Cultivation, he had torn the tassel off in front of the empress and Eunuch Li.

In an instant, Lin Ran understood everything.

It was already a serious crime to enter the emperor’s bedroom with a weapon, let alone hide in the cabinet.

Once the empress returned and found this sword, Lin Ran wouldn’t be able to explain himself. Li Tianyi wanted him dead!

“You damn eunuch, you can’t win in the open, so you started playing dirty, right?”

Lin Ran smiled, but his eyes were extremely cold. He knew that the empress wouldn’t be fooled by this kind of dirty trick, but Li Tianyi’s despicable trick really made Lin Ran want to kill him!

After putting the Ten Miles Dragon Roar into the Divine Sword Technique Manual, Lin Ran took out the standard sword and flashed out of the bedroom.

After arriving at Li Tianyi’s residence, Lin Ran took a spare tai chi whisk and returned to the empress’s bedroom to put it into the cabinet.

Li Tianyi wouldn’t be accused of assassination because of a tai chi whisk, but he would definitely be scolded by the empress. This would also lay the foundation for Lin Ran to kill Li Tianyi.

Li Tianyi had served three previous emperors after all. If Lin Ran insisted on killing him, the empress would definitely object. However, he did not want to make things difficult for the empress, so he could only wait a few more days.

After making the necessary arrangements, Lin Ran went to the Hidden Sword Pavilion. Only then did he realize that he had thought too simply.

The Hidden Sword Pavilion looked ordinary on the surface, but there seemed to be a formation protecting it in secret. If he wanted to barge in forcefully, he would cause a huge commotion. He had to steal the key.

Lin Ran easily returned with the key and opened the door of the Hidden Sword Pavilion. In a few seconds, he arrived in front of the huge boulder.

With a thought, the Dragon Roar Sword appeared in Lin Ran’s hand. Then, he slowly stabbed it into the sword mark on the boulder.

Then, the dragon gem on the hilt suddenly lit up.

Before Lin Ran could react, the entire boulder began to shake at an extremely high frequency!

Buzz—buzz—buzz—

The sound became louder and louder. Soon, the ground began to tremble, and then the surrounding wooden shelves. When Lin Ran realized that something was wrong, the entire Hidden Sword Pavilion began to tremble violently with the boulder.

Countless old dust fell from the beams, and tens of thousands of standard swords fell to the ground. The doors, windows, and corridors began to emit a strange sound, as if the entire Hidden Sword Pavilion was about to collapse!

“D*mn… This is getting serious!”

Lin Ran’s face was pale, not because of fear but guilty of sneaking in here.

He thought that he could enter the treasure vault quietly, but he did not expect it to cause such a huge commotion.

If the Hidden Sword Pavilion really collapsed, how would he explain it to the empress?

At this moment, all the sounds suddenly quieted down, and a strange silence filled the air. Other than the swords on the ground and the dust falling from the sky, it was as if nothing had happened.

Lin Ran didn’t know what was going on. He stood rooted to the ground and didn’t dare to move. Suddenly, he heard a crack and looked up to see a deep crack on the boulder.

A surging sword intent surged out of the crack. It was sharp and filled with killing intent.

Lin Ran was caught off guard by the sword intent and couldn’t help but reveal a shocked expression. The sword intent here was much more ferocious than in the depths of Mount Sword. If not for the fact that he was already a Half-Saint, he would have been seriously injured!

After quickly activating his spiritual energy to protect his body, Lin Ran had time to observe the crack carefully.

The crack almost split the boulder into two. It was just wide enough for a person to pass through. Thanks to the moonlight outside the window, one could vaguely see a stone staircase leading down.

Lin Ran took a deep breath, but he still couldn’t stop his body from trembling with excitement. If nothing went wrong, the treasure vault should be down there!