NOVEL NEXT Chapter 303: Stealing the Tripod_2
After a long while, the two who came to pursue the cauldron finally crawled out, trembling.
Judging by their attire, they were ordinary Jianghu people, probably factory guards or hidden sentries. Seeing the corpse of a Mystic Sect People on the ground, they exclaimed in fortune, praising their luck for escaping alive.
Then, one of them took out something that looked like a compass, but appeared more like a keyboard, and began tapping on the characters on the surface. The compass started beeping, clearly indicating the location of the Nine Cauldrons.
Immediately, the two set off, heading in the direction where the metal rat had fled, with Tie Dan silently following behind.
Who would have thought that in their pursuit, they'd chase from the deserted mountains to a village and finally to an estate of a wealthy family.
The two calculated that the Nine Cauldrons must have been obtained by this family. Although there was no valve at the door, it was not any ordinary landlord, likely a local power. Their haste was curbed, opting instead to gather intelligence in town, while sending a Flying Talisman message to gather reinforcements from the nearby commandery.
Having found the place, Tie Dan naturally wouldn't wait idly, so he used the Invisibility Technique to sneak into the estate.
The metal rat was immune to Divine Sense probing and seemed to also have the ability to dig and become invisible. Thus, Tie Dan didn't rashly alert it to flee. He also sneaked in invisibly, searching through rooms, looking for signs of hidden passages or mechanisms.
In this way, he actually found a cellar, into which Tie Dan adeptly descended to investigate.
It was unclear what kind of business this family was involved in. They didn't seem to be nobles or hidden immortal families, yet the cellar was packed, dug with several tunnels, not only filled with gold and silver jewelry but armor and swords, along with many antiques and treasures, clearly not the accumulated wealth of a few generations of farming.
Sneaky dealings or theft...
Tie Dan searched in the cellar for a while, suddenly hearing a rumbling noise, as someone descended through a hidden door.
Tie Dan hid and observed, indeed spotting the landlord carrying a candlestick into the cellar, retrieving a copper mirror from a cabinet, and wiping it as he suddenly spoke,
"Big brother, we have spies at the door."
Then the reflection in the copper mirror spoke,
"What's going on? Whose people are they?"
The landlord shook his head,
"I don't know, they just suddenly appeared, asking around everywhere. Should we capture them for interrogation?"
The person in the mirror said,
"Don't create extra trouble, proceed according to plan.
By the way, the Empress Dowager is dead."
"What!"
The landlord was shocked,
"How could that be? How could she die?"
The figure in the mirror,
"She was tired of living. Ignore her, let's keep a low profile."
The landlord nodded, put the mirror back in the treasure box, and then turned to leave.
At that moment, Tie Dan emerged from the ground, immobilized the landlord, intending to question him further to understand the situation.
Unexpectedly, the landlord perished right away!
Tie Dan was speechless; he had only used Finger Skill to immobilize him. How did he end up bleeding from the orifices and dying? Was it biting the tongue, poison, or cutting his own meridians?
Tie Dan was puzzled for a moment, then took out a Soul Summoning Talisman and placed it on the man's forehead.
"What's your name?"
The landlord opened his eyes, giving no answer but a blank, silly expression.
Huh?? The Soul Summoning Talisman doesn't work??
Tie Dan was surprised, and after a close look, he realized that the summoned soul was back but seemed to be incomplete, as if torn to shreds.
Hmm... It seemed this person indeed belonged to some secret organization, bearing multiple crucial secrets, hence was ensorcelled with a Primordial Spirit Forbidden Technique. Once captured for a soul search, the Divine Soul would immediately shatter, a ruthless safeguard...
Tie Dan had to admit being duped. These people were likely death soldiers, and to act so decisively, severing clues, he could only investigate on his own.
So Tie Dan started rummaging again, glanced at the mirror used for communication earlier, and found that it could reflect his invisible self.
This thing could see through his Invisibility Technique? But it didn't seem like a magic treasure? How was it done?
Tie Dan tried to mimic the way the landlord handled the mirror earlier, wiping it, but it remained just a mirror with no visible change.
So Tie Dan pondered, took the copper mirror in hand, and scanned the cellar again, finding another hidden door.
Using the mirror to study, Tie Dan also noticed that this hidden door could likewise evade Divine Sense and even become invisible, judging by the cellar's layout, it was clearly a secret room specifically targeting cultivators.
Tie Dan realized at once, recalling the hidden corridors he had seen in Tongguan Palace before.
So that's why this group could silently steal the Genzhou Cauldron and have in-depth knowledge of the Three Constellations' secrets.
The people in this estate must be deeply connected with the Immortal Palace and Gen Kingdom, a mysterious organization akin to ancient immortal palaces or secret orders in typical novels.
Tie Dan wielded his sword energy, cutting open the hidden door and entering the secret chamber, where he indeed found the Nine Cauldrons.
At this moment, the Genzhou Cauldron was placed at the center of the secret room, on an altar-like furnace, flickering with light, seemingly powering a system.
The metal rat was squatting beside it, and surprisingly did not flee when Tie Dan entered.
Tie Dan carefully examined the rat and found that it was no wonder Divine Sense probing was ineffective. It wasn't a monster nor did it have an Artifact Spirit; it seemed to share the same origin with the Demon Suppressing Iron Beasts of the Immortal Palace but was crafted more delicately than those guardians.
If one had to describe it, it looked like a rat-shaped drone?
Ah... The Immortal Palace is truly deep...
Their level of technology far exceeds this Taiji Realm where people still cook with firewood.
Where did such technology and equipment come from?
This Cultivation civilization clearly couldn't sustain such absurd black technology like the Nine Cauldrons, much less produce such equipment, right?
Could they all have been unearthed from underground archaeology? Was the prehistoric Demon Clan civilization, in fact, some scientific civilization?
At the moment, Tie Dan was also confused, even if Immortals could sense the Heavenly Heart and predict calculations, but what he was discovering now had a completely different style. How should he deduce this?
After a moment's hesitation, Tie Dan decided to first take the Nine Cauldrons...
The rat's eyes shone, leapt forward, hugged the cauldron, placed it back, then squatted back into standby mode.
Darn, are you a vacuum cleaner robot recharging yourself?
Tie Dan hesitated. Although it would be easy to chop the rat, he had a gut feeling that this device might warrant further study.
Perhaps with this clue, the mysteries of the Immortal Palace could be unraveled.
Moreover, with this rat, the Nine Cauldrons likely won't go anywhere; moving a cauldron around would look rather silly.
So Tie Dan simply closed the secret chamber, inscribed sword talismans in the cellar, laid down a Sword Array, and then took the landlord's body, flying out of the estate, directly towards the two spying factory guards.
Tie Dan feared they might also commit suicide, so he struck with sword light, severing their limbs, and sword energy sealed their meridians, turning them into human sticks, unable to die, before using the Divine Sect Primordial Spirit Technique to extract and examine their souls.
Thankfully, these two had no Divine Soul seal, and upon inspection, it turned out they were indeed factory guards of the Immortal Palace, spies of the Yulin Army, sent by the Great General's command to escort Yan Pingyuan back to the Capital to serve as the Three Ministers.
When leaving the Capital, a Colonel of the Overlord Residence gave them the compass, claiming it was an imperial gift from the palace, capable of locating the Genzhou Cauldron, and tasked them to help find it, also giving them a Jade Pendant, saying it could gain support from the Hebei Family... Hmm?
Tie Dan searched the bodies and indeed found a piece of Chi Pattern White Jade Pendant, inscribed with the character 'Yuan.'
Ah, a familiar face again...
Tie Dan recalled the ranger he had shared drinks with in the Capital.
A Colonel under the Great General's command, an imperial gift from the palace, that fellow must be a scion of the Three Constellations Immortal Gate?
Come to think of it, the first mention of the Nine Cauldrons was from this Captain Yuan, wasn't it?
Taking advantage of the chaos in Hebei to arrange personnel secretly stealing from Genzhou, looks like this guy also wants to weigh the importance of the cauldron.