The capital.
As Ye Qiu ended his call with Qian Jinglan, his car had already reached the Forbidden City.
He had come here in a hurry to see if the Forbidden City held any treasures that could help him save Ye Wushuang.
Ye Qiu thought to himself that the Forbidden City, as the most powerful force in the world, with so many cultivators, must have a collection of rare and extraordinary treasures.
After getting out of the car, Ye Qiu glanced ahead and saw that the Forbidden City was heavily guarded by soldiers.
He strode towards the city gate.
However, as soon as he reached the entrance, several sentries stopped him.
“Halt!”
One sentry shouted expressionlessly, “Old Tang ordered that no one is allowed to enter, please leave!”
The other sentries stared at Ye Qiu sharply, their right hands resting on the guns at their waists, ready to act if he made any sudden moves.
“I’m from the Underworld Palace.”
Ye Qiu took out his credentials, handed them to the sentry, and said, “I need to go in to handle some business, please make an exception, brothers.”
The sentry didn’t even glance at Ye Qiu’s credentials and said sternly, “Old Tang said no one is allowed to enter, or they’ll be killed without mercy.”
These men were just following orders, so Ye Qiu didn’t want to make things difficult for them. He called Old Tang on the spot, and only then was he allowed to enter the Forbidden City.
The traces of the great battle were still visible, but not a single corpse was in sight, likely cleaned up by Old Tang’s men.
Ye Qiu went straight to the main hall of the Forbidden City.
Upon entering, he was stunned.
Looking up, he saw a dragon throne made of pure gold, majestic and imposing, placed in the Golden Hall.
Then, he noticed five massive bronze pillars, each engraved with golden five-clawed dragons.
He also saw that the floor was paved with white marble.
Additionally, the hall was filled with various gold, silver, and jade artifacts.
If valued in monetary terms, the items in this hall were worth at least ten billion.
Yet, Ye Qiu’s expression remained calm. After a quick scan, he left the hall and entered another.
The second hall was even more remarkable.
At its entrance grew a dozen ancient cypress trees, each as thick as a bathtub, their trunks charred black.
Clearly, these thousand-year-old cypresses had been struck by lightning.
Their vitality was tenacious; they hadn’t died, and new green buds had sprouted at their tips.
“Good thing I didn’t bring that old man, or he’d go crazy seeing these ancient cypresses,” Ye Qiu thought, relieved.
These thousand-year-old cypresses were thunderstruck wood, perfect material for crafting magical artifacts, irresistibly tempting for Master Longbrow.
Then, Ye Qiu’s gaze fell on the hall’s entrance.
Though less grand than the first hall, it was supported by nine golden nanmu pillars.
He also noticed a large water vat in the southeast corner of the hall.
The vat, cast in bronze, had animal heads with rings on both sides.
Ancient and weathered.
“A Taiping vat!” Ye Qiu said softly.
In ancient times, wealthy households placed water vats in their courtyards to ward off evil and ensure safety.
It was said that the Forbidden City, prone to fires in ancient times, had 365 Taiping vats made by imperial order, filled with water to quickly extinguish fires and ensure safety.
Ye Qiu pushed open the vermilion gate, scanned the hall, and found it similar to the first, filled with countless gold, silver, and jade artifacts, even bowls, chopsticks, and wine vessels made of pure gold and top-grade white jade.
“Damn extravagant,” Ye Qiu muttered under his breath, then turned to leave.
Though valuable, these items didn’t interest him.
He entered another hall.
The Forbidden City, once the imperial city, was vast and majestic, with dozens of halls.
Ye Qiu spent half an hour exploring them all.
Without exception, each hall was similar, filled with gold, silver, jade artifacts, antiques, and paintings—at least tens of thousands of treasures.
To put it bluntly, the Forbidden City was a massive treasure vault!
But Ye Qiu hadn’t found a single item he was looking for.
“That’s not right. With so many cultivators in the Forbidden City, how could there not be a few treasures that catch my eye?”
“Like thousand-year-old spiritual herbs, martial arts manuals, divine weapons, or elixirs…”
“Wait!”
Ye Qiu suddenly realised he hadn’t found where Dragon One had been in seclusion.
“Dragon One and the others were in seclusion here for years; how could they leave no trace?”
“There must be a hidden place in the Forbidden City I haven’t found.”
Ye Qiu began exploring the Forbidden City again, this time slowly, leaving no corner unchecked.
Finally, he stopped in front of a stone stele.
The stele, about eight metres tall, three metres wide, and a foot thick, stood on the back of a bronze tortoise.
Ye Qiu glanced at it; the stele was covered in dense inscriptions, chronicling six hundred years of the Forbidden City’s major events.
He stopped here because he noticed many footprints on the ground in front of the bronze tortoise.
The Forbidden City barred outsiders, meaning these footprints could only belong to its inhabitants.
“Could there be something off with this stele?”
Ye Qiu circled the stele but found nothing unusual besides the footprints.
Then, he activated his Heavenly Eye.
Soon, he spotted something.
“I see.”
Ye Qiu approached the bronze tortoise, channelled inner strength into his fingertip, and pressed it into the tortoise’s left eye.
The tortoise’s eye sank in.
The next second, the stele trembled, and the bronze tortoise slowly moved back three feet.
A tunnel appeared in Ye Qiu’s view.
Without hesitation, he stepped into the tunnel, descending the stairs.
The tunnel was over two metres wide and about three metres high, with tung oil lamps every three metres on the walls.
Though underground, it wasn’t damp or eerie; it felt warm, like being in a heated room.
The tunnel stretched a hundred metres.
At its end was a massive bronze door.
The door was engraved with a lifelike, majestic dragon head.
Ye Qiu searched but found no mechanism, so he decided to use brute force to open it.
He placed both hands on the bronze door, activated the Nine-Revolution Dragon Technique, focused all his strength into his palms, and pushed with all his might.
“Open!”
Boom—
The bronze door slowly opened under Ye Qiu’s force…
