Chapter 133: The Mysterious Place

Qianmo thoroughly explored the imperial palace at an astonishing speed, pocketing everything worth taking.

Now only one place remained, a secluded and virtually abandoned corner deep within the royal palace grounds.

Reaching this eerie and gloomy location, Qianmo paused beside a stone statue to examine the surrounding aura. The energy was profoundly dark; individuals with lower cultivation levels would find it nearly impossible to detect the lingering aura of death hidden within.

"How can there be such a dense concentration of death aura within the imperial palace?" Qianmo murmured, furrowing his brow and rubbing his chin in thought.

After a brief pause, he continued, "A place that generates this much death aura must be a graveyard—and not just for a few souls, but for countless numbers, otherwise such a pall could never form."

It seemed this place before him served as the imperial graveyard, filled with countless corpses—the exclusive burial grounds of the royal family.

A glint of cunning flashed across Qianmo's eyes. Burial chambers were typically laden with funerary treasures, and the most valuable items were bound to be hidden inside.

Just as Qianmo was deep in thought, a sudden whisper cut through the silence: "Hurry, hurry! If we get caught, we're done for. Move quickly and keep your hands steady."

Qianmo was still shrouded in his invisibility technique, rendering him completely unseen. Hearing the voices, he took a step forward and looked over, spotting two figures.

One was a middle-aged man, and the other was somewhat stout and plump.

The pair were acting sneakily, up to no good.

Following closely behind, the chubby man looked around nervously and stammered, "Brother Qi, this graveyard is so creepy. Are we really going to go through with this?"

He muttered under his breath a moment later, "How about we turn back and try again next time?"

The middle-aged man was known as Brother Qi, his full name being Qi San. The chubby man's full name was Jin San.

Qi San and Jin San—their names sounded almost like a pair of comical disasters.

"Turn back? Turn back your head! Do you have any idea how hard it was for us to sneak in? Do you think cracking that spatial tear was easy? If today weren't a public festival day in the palace when security is lax, we wouldn't even have gotten past the gates. And now you're talking about turning back? No way! When has achieving something great ever been completely safe? If we pull off this heist, we won't have to worry about anything for the rest of our lives!"

Hearing this, Qi San flew into a rage, brought his hand down in a solid smack against Jin San's head, and scolded him.

Jin San rubbed his head, shivering slightly as he said, "But Brother Qi, this place looks so haunted. Do you think there are ghosts here?"

"Spit, spit, spit! You little punk, talking bad luck before we've even started—do you have a death wish?" the man hissed in a low, furious whisper.

Jin San quickly waved his hands and replied, "No, no, I wouldn't dare, Brother Qi."

"If you don't dare, then just keep moving. We've walked the razor's edge for so long, flirting with life and death countless times. Let's go," Qi San said, grabbing Jin San's sleeve. He checked to make sure no one was around and pressed forward.

Frightened, Jin San followed behind. At this point, persuading Qi San to turn back was utterly impossible. If he wandered off alone and got caught, certain death awaited him. Terrified though he was, he had no choice but to press on.

Qianmo watched the entire exchange. Both men possessed the cultivation of low-stage Dou Zun. A pair of Dou Zun cultivators, yet so terrified of ghosts?

On second thought, it made sense. Cultivation was cultivation, and a fear of ghosts was an entirely different matter—they were two completely separate things. Since neither of them belonged to the imperial palace, they must have planned this expedition long in advance. Yet, with a death aura this heavy, how could professionals in their line of work remain so ignorant? Places steeped in heavy death aura were breeding grounds for animated corpses. Furthermore, many of the deceased buried here were likely former Dou Zun or even Dou Sheng cultivators. If his intuition was correct, this was the ancestral burial ground of generations of the imperial family, established ages ago. If that was the case, it could hardly be just a single room; powerful arrays and seals were bound to be guarding the interior.

Rubbing his chin, Qianmo strolled leisurely behind them, eager to see what scheme they intended to pull off.

The two men arrived before a solitary building. The door had no external locks whatsoever—it simply stood closed.

Though cowardly, Jin San possessed the cultivation of a Dou Zun, yet he understood little of such esoteric matters. Seeing no lock, he reached out to push the door open.

Qi San instantly slapped his hand away and barked, "You little fool, are you trying to get us both killed here?"

Jin San was baffled. There was no lock on the door—wasn't pushing it open the obvious thing to do?

"There isn't even a lock..." Jin San muttered.

Qi San was nearly driven to apoplexy. Staring daggers at him, Qi San hissed, "I swear your cultivation was wasted on you. Look closely! There may be no lock on the surface of this door, but why is it sealed so tightly shut? Is there no wind around here? There is wind. Yet the door doesn't budge an inch. That means someone has placed a restrictive array or barrier upon it. If you had touched it just now, you would have triggered the alarm, and the palace higher-ups would have descended upon us. We'd be dead meat!"

"S... So that's how it is..." Jin San swallowed hard, breaking out in a cold sweat as the realization of how close he had come to danger washed over him.

Well, well, it seemed this Qi San actually had a few tricks up his sleeve. Listening from the sidelines, Qianmo cast a sharp gaze toward the door. Just as Qi San had deduced, an alert array was indeed concealed upon it.

The slightest touch would alert the upper echelons of the imperial palace. After all, this was where the predecessors of the royal lineage were laid to rest—how could passage be permitted so easily?

Right in the center of the tiny array, a single character was inscribed: *Burial*.

Qianmo's mind raced, recalling the token he had retrieved earlier. Among the spoils he had looted from various spatial rings, several tokens bore different numbers and characters.

Some were arranged in numerical sequence, while others bore words like *Control*, *Ceremony*, *Etiquette*, *Provisions*, and so on. Qianmo wondered if this character *Burial* had anything to do with those tokens—perhaps one of them was a burial token.

Could it belong exclusively to those in charge of funeral rites, or did all high-ranking officials possess one?

Pushing the thought aside, Qianmo decided to watch how the two handled the situation.

"So, Brother Qi, what do we do now?" Jin San asked.

A sudden thought crossed Jin San's mind: since they couldn't bypass it, maybe they should just go home.

"Don't rush. I came fully prepared this time," Qi San said with a confident smirk.

Hearing this, Jin San's inner hopes instantly collapsed.

Fine. It seemed he still underestimated Brother Qi. Qi San was clearly determined to break in no matter what. Whatever—he was a Dou Zun, what did he have to be afraid of? If he encountered a ghost, he would just beat it to death!

Reassuring himself, Jin San immediately felt much better.

Qi San retrieved a small vial from his spatial ring and gripped it tightly in his palm.

Curious, Jin San asked, "Brother Qi, what is that?"

Qi San shot him a look of utter disdain. "You've been in our line of work for a while now, yet you don't even recognize this? If any of our peers ask, don't you dare say you learned your trade from me—I can't afford to lose that kind of face."

Jin San awkwardly rubbed his nose and chuckled, "Hehe, Brother Qi, you're the mightiest. Just tell me."

"Sigh, fine. This is an essential tool for our trade called Revealing Powder. It's specially designed to expose invisible arrays or minor barriers. Of course, it's useless against massive barriers," Qi San sighed as he explained.

"So that's it—Revealing Powder! Now I know. Hehe." Jin San offered a crafty smile.

Rolling his eyes, Qi San retorted, "Watch closely as the array reveals its true form."

With that, Qi San uncapped the vial and sprinkled its contents toward the door. The Revealing Powder was both colorless and odorless; as long as no one witnessed its application, everything would remain under control.

As the powder coated the surface, a faint, intricate miniature array gradually materialized.

"Holy cow, there really is an array!" Jin San gasped in shock.

Qi San looked at him as if he were an idiot. "What did you expect? This is the resting place of generations of the imperial family. The funerary treasures inside are boundless, and the location is heavily concealed. Countless people have coveted this place, but most can't even find it, let alone bypass the palace's strict surveillance. Fortunately, I'm brilliant enough to have found an opening. I won't let this opportunity go to waste—we're going to make a fortune."

When the array fully manifested, the character *Burial* glowed brightly within it.

Perplexed, Jin San asked, "Burial? What is that supposed to mean?"

With a grave expression, Qi San replied in an irritated tone, "Damn it, this means we need a specific token to open it—it has to be a token bearing the character *Burial*."

"Does that mean we can't open it, Brother Qi? Maybe we should just head back," Jin San said, brightening up. If the heavens willed that they couldn't enter, obedience was the wisest course.

"Hmph, you little punk only ever thinks about turning back," Qi San scoffed coldly.

Just as they were speaking, the silhouette of a figure appeared in the distance.

Qi San took one look and thought to himself, *Not good!* He quickly pulled out another vial and used its contents to erase all traces of the powder on the door and ground.

Catching Jin San by the collar, he whispered, "Not a sound! Someone's coming! Quick, hide!"

Qi San produced a piece of cloth, darted into a corner, and draped it over both of them, instantly rendering them as invisible as phantoms.

Yet, from their hiding spot, they could clearly see the outside world.

This fabric was known as the Stealth Cloak; once draped over oneself, it mimicked the colors of the surrounding environment so perfectly that detection became nearly impossible. However, movement during concealment would instantly break its effect.

Watching the Stealth Cloak, Qianmo mused that had he not known he was in the Dou Qi Continent, he would have thought he stepped right into the world of *Naruto*.

"Interesting," he muttered to himself.

He glanced back outward. A towering man had just arrived on the scene, possessing the cultivation of a five-star Dou Zun.

*A five-star Dou Zun?* Qianmo thought. *Let's see how these two little rascals handle this.*

Unless they launched a coordinated sneak attack with their full strength, victory was out of the question. He certainly didn't believe these two had the capability to fight opponents above their own rank.

At a glance, the newcomer was undeniably a member of the royal family.

The man strode over, surveyed the gloomy environment, and cursed under his breath: "Damn it, how long has it been since I last had to come back to this ghost-forsaken place? It scares the hell out of me—so damn creepy."

"Giving me this kind of dirty work—they must really look down on me!"

Reaching the destination, the man retrieved a brown coffin from his spatial ring and muttered with a grimace, "Dammit, another one kicked the bucket. Why are people always in such a rush to die? Unbelievable."

Hiding in the shadows, Qi San brightened up at the sight. It was obvious this man was the caretaker of the grounds. That meant the *Burial* token had to be on his person—there was no doubt about it. But how were they supposed to snatch it from him? The caretaker was far stronger than them, possessing the aura of a five-star Dou Zun.

While both he and Jin San were one-star Dou Zun—Qi San being at the peak of the one-star stage and Jin San at the mid one-star stage—victory seemed mathematically impossible against a five-star opponent who outclassed them by a full four stars.

Should they give up? Absolutely not. They couldn't abandon the prize after coming this far.

Using a method of communication restricted to the two of them, Qi San whispered, "Jin San, we'll unleash our full strength and ambush him from behind."

Jin San's face drained of color as he stammered, "N-No way, right? He's a five-star Dou Zun! If we fail to kill him in one strike, we're dead."

"Aiyah, you'll never know unless you try! Remember, be ruthless! Use the most vicious and bloodthirsty move in your arsenal to coordinate with my strike and kill him instantly from behind!" Qi San urged in desperation.

"You're actually serious about this?" Jin San's heart hammered against his ribs in sheer terror, though a thrill of excitement coursed through him.

"Obviously!" Qi San glared at him.

The corner where the two were hiding was located remarkably close to the caretaker.

Crucially, the Stealth Cloak could mask their presence entirely, though its limitation meant it could only be used once before dissolving. Even while accumulating power for a strike beneath its cover, they remained undetectable unless an opponent possessed vastly superior cultivation.

"Get ready. We'll pool our power now. The cloak can shield our presence just long enough for a decisive strike," Qi San instructed.

"Understood," Jin San nodded.

At that moment, the imperial guard turned around and pulled a radiant crimson token from his spatial ring—engraved right upon its surface was the character *Burial*!

The moment the token appeared, the array on the door materialized, and the guard pressed the token against it with a casual gesture.

With a heavy creak, the doors swung open.

Watching from the shadows, Qi San felt a wave of triumph. The door was open!

By now, both of them had fully charged their attacks.

All they waited for was an opening.

The imperial guard remained utterly oblivious to the impending danger.

According to royal burial protocols, the deceased had to be carried inside manually as a sign of respect for one's forebears.

Consequently, the man turned around, walked to the rear of the coffin, and hoisted it with both hands—a trivial feat for a five-star Dou Zun.

Yet, this action placed him in a fatally vulnerable position. His back was now completely turned toward Qi San and Jin San, and he was bent forward under the weight.

It was the perfect window of opportunity.

*Now or never!*

Qi San hissed, "Now! Strike!"

A violent, razor-sharp sword aura surged forth, saturated with killing intent as it hurtled straight toward the guard's back. As the guard lifted the coffin, he finally sensed the murderous gale and shouted in alarm, "Not good!"

*Slash!*

Before the man could turn and counterattack, it was already too late. Qi San and Jin San had spent considerable time gathering their power, and their assault was executed with blistering speed precisely for this moment. How could they afford him a chance to retaliate? If he managed to block it, they were finished.

The sword pierced straight through the man's chest. Blood spew forth as agony wracked his body, forcing a mouthful of crimson from his lips: "Argh!"

The guard's eyes widened in horror. He glanced down at his pierced chest, then whipped his head back to glare at his attackers. "Y-You bastards..."

"Die!"

Twisting their blades simultaneously, Qi San and Jin San unleashed the pent-up energy residing within the weapons, detonating it violently inside the man's torso. The guard instantly lost all signs of life.

Pulling their swords free, the man's corpse collapsed limply to the ground.

Qi San immediately stepped forward, scooped up the fallen token, and flashed a triumphant smile.

"Token acquired," Qi San chuckled.

Upon reaching the rank of Dou Zun, a cultivator's soul could detach from its physical shell. Sure enough, the guard's soul abruptly materialized above the corpse.

Glaring at them with dark fury, the soul roared, "Just you wait! The imperial family will never let you escape!"

"Oh crap! Quick, destroy his soul!" Qi San's expression shifted drastically as he remembered the soul-detachment ability of a Dou Zun.

"Ha, a couple of pathetic one-star ants—go to hell!"

The soul raised a palm and bellowed, "Sky-Respecting Palm!"

A terrifying wave of energy erupted, hurtling directly toward the two intruders.

"Heaven-Smiting Sword!" Qi San and Jin San roared in unison, thrusting their swords against the incoming palm strike.

With a subtle flick of his finger, Qianmo infused an invisible surge of energy into their blades, amplifying their destructive power a hundredfold in an instant.

"Ha, mere insects!" the soul bellowed in triumph.

*Boom!*

"H-How is this possible...!"

The Sky-Respecting Palm shattered effortlessly, and the swords pierced straight through the ethereal form.

Staring in disbelief, the two accomplices blinked in shock. Were their attacks really that powerful?

Swallowing hard, they decided to finish the job without thinking too much about it.

"Die!"

With a unified roar, they twisted their blades again.

"Agh! You villains will come to a bad end! I—"

Before the soul could finish its curse, it was thoroughly obliterated into nothingness.

Witnessing this, Qi San and Jin San let out collective sighs of relief. The threat was finally neutralized.

Just as the duo had launched their attack, Qianmo had quietly sealed the entire space, ensuring that no ripples of energy could escape to alert the outside world. Since the victim belonged to the imperial family, certain intrinsic transmission methods were bound to exist; his sudden death should have triggered an alarm.

However, by sealing the space entirely, Qianmo intercepted all outgoing signals, leaving the higher-ups blissfully unaware that the caretaker had perished.

The two accomplices were truly fools. If he hadn't been here to intervene, they would have been doomed. Committing murder right in the heart of the imperial grounds as mere one-star Dou Zuns? Escape was impossible.

Escaping outside might have given them a fighting chance, but deep within the palace? Where could they possibly run? Neither of them possessed the ability to tear through spatial boundaries.

Even if they could, high-level Dou Sheng existences within the palace would easily intercept and suppress their spatial tunnels.

In truth, knocking the man unconscious and binding him securely would have been the smartest route; whenever he woke up, they could simply knock him out again. That would have been far safer.

Of course, ordinary restraints wouldn't suffice—specialized artifacts would have been required.

Gazing at the corpse and blood staining the ground below, Jin San asked, "Brother Qi, what do we do about the body and the blood now?"

"Don't worry, I anticipated this exact scenario, so I came prepared," Qi San replied with a grin.

"Prepared?" Jin San blinked.

"Hehe, this is Dissolution Liquid, specially crafted for destroying corpses and eliminating all traces," Qi San said, retrieving a vial from his spatial ring with an evil smile.

"Heh, I never expected you to be so thorough, Brother Qi," Jin San murmured in astonishment.

"Hmph, obviously. Do you take me for an idiot like you? How else do you think I've survived in this trade until now?" Qi San scoffed coldly. "Watch closely."

Uncapping the vial, he poured the liquid over the imperial guard's corpse.

The moment the liquid touched flesh, the body dissolved at a terrifying speed, evaporating completely until even the bloodstains on the ground vanished without a trace.

"Hehe, all taken care of. Come on, let's go inside and take a look," Qi San said cheerfully.

"Thank you for your hard work," a voice chimed in.

With a casual flick of Qianmo's finger, two streaks of light flashed across the air.

The expressions of Qi San and Jin San froze instantly as they whipped around, shouting, "Who's—!"

Before they could finish, two projectiles struck them squarely in the back of the neck. Their vision went completely dark as they collapsed heavily to the ground, unconscious.

Two pitiful fools who ended up working hard just to pave the way for Qianmo. Glancing down at the unconscious pair, Qianmo shook his head slightly—he held no murderous intent toward them; rendering them unconscious was simply convenient.

Leaving them here might lead to their capture by patrolling guards, so Qianmo waved his hand and sucked both of them into his spatial ring. Without his permission, they would remain asleep indefinitely.

Qianmo's ring possessed the unique ability to store anything, even living beings.

With that settled, he picked up the fallen token from the floor.

*I never imagined this token had such a utility,* Qianmo thought. *Could the other tokens I looted open doors as well? Were the numbered tokens meant to unlock private vaults?*

A grave realization struck him: if those tokens were indeed keys to exclusive private treasuries, had he missed out on a fortune?

Well, even if he had them, finding the corresponding vaults would be a needle in a haystack. He might as well focus on exploring this tomb and seeing what treasures it held.

Turning his attention to the nearby coffin, Qianmo flicked his finger, lifting the lid. A quick scan of the spatial ring on the corpse's finger revealed that it was virtually empty—likely cleaned out by the caretaker earlier. Oh well, there were bound to be plenty more inside.

Discarding the ring, he sealed the coffin and summoned a wisp of the Hundun White Flame, reducing the entire structure to ashes in a heartbeat.

Qianmo strode toward the inner room. A wave of bone-chilling cold washed over him as he pulled the heavy doors shut behind him.

The interior was pitch black. A sharp glance swept across the space, causing Qianmo's pupils to constrict violently.

Not a single coffin was in sight.

"Where... where did the coffins go?" he muttered, his eyes narrowing in disbelief.

With a wave of his hand, Qianmo illuminated the entire room, half-convinced his eyes were playing tricks on him.

Yet the result remained identical.

The chamber was entirely empty, devoid of everything save for the biting chill.

Qianmo's eyes flashed with realization: "A barrier?"

That was the only logical explanation. Otherwise, where had all the bodies of the deceased gone?

Channeling his Dou Di strength, Qianmo probed every inch of the room until his perception locked onto a spot where spatial fluctuations were unstable. The corners of his mouth curved upward.

"Treasures, here I come."

Raising his hand toward the unstable void, Qianmo traced a gentle arc with his finger.

A spatial rift tore open. However, as the tear formed, a restrictive force resisted it. Qianmo immediately produced the token; a beam of light erupted from its surface, instantly neutralizing the barrier's resistance.

Since a method existed to bypass it, brute force wasn't necessary—though he had no clue what awaited him inside, he refused to hesitate.

Suddenly, the scenery of a vast mountain forest projected into Qianmo's field of vision.

"What the hell, a forest?" Qianmo muttered, startled by the sudden shift in landscape. Without hesitation, he transformed into a wisp of energy and slipped inside.

As Qianmo crossed the threshold, the spatial rift sealed itself behind him.

Unfolding before his eyes was an expansive mountain valley, shrouded in an eerie, bone-chilling tranquility and lush greenery.

Swallowing hard, Qianmo murmured, "So the death aura was originating from right here."

He began walking forward, scanning his surroundings. Not a single living soul or bird was to be found.

Only emerald bamboo and an oppressive, biting cold filled the air.

Qianmo involuntarily shivered. The cold grew increasingly intense the deeper he ventured.

"What in the world? Is this place haunted? Why is it freezing?" he muttered as he advanced, maintaining his guard.

As a being possessing a Divine Di Body, how could he possibly feel cold in this realm? A growing sense of unease settled in. Could someone here possess a cultivation level surpassing his own?

He quickly dismissed the thought. Peak nine-star Dou Di represented the absolute apex of this world; breaking through that threshold was nearly impossible without ascending to a higher plane. How could anyone possibly outclass him?

Unfortunately, that feathered parasite of a system was currently dormant, leaving him with no one to consult.

Strolling onward, Qianmo finally reached the far end of the valley, where a colossal stone monument loomed overhead, bearing four bold characters:

*Eternal Tomb of Generations of the Imperial Family.*

"Heh, that's a rather arrogant title," Qianmo remarked, gazing up at the massive tablet with a hint of amusement.

At this point, Qianmo had dropped his invisibility technique entirely. In this place, no one could match his strength; if someone dared cross him, he would simply crush them.

Lowering his gaze, he glanced down at the ground beneath his feet, and his breath hitched instantly.

Every inch of the terrain was densely packed with coffins and corpses. Some had decayed into bare skeletons, while others remained perfectly intact. The entire landscape stretched out as an endless sea of corpses and coffins!

"Damn it, it's a sea of the dead!" Qianmo cried out, unable to suppress his shock.