Zong Shou fell into contemplation. If Xu Fu were to use his true body here, he alone could likely sweep away all the Saint Realm cultivators within this Qin Emperor’s Tomb.

The hermit Ming Rixuan would have no chance of escaping Xu Fu whole; he might as well abandon the heritage artifact right then and there.

It was precisely because Xu Fu could only engage using a divided soul that these many Saint Realm powers had developed greedy designs.

This situation might even have been intentionally permitted by Xu Fu himself.

However, even Xu Fu’s external avatars were not simple to provoke.

The main hall of the imperial palace was the focal point guarded by the Great Qin Corpse Army, and it currently held at least six Saint-ranked Qi Refiners, including Chong Xuan.

The number seemed small, yet the fact that the powers of these six were unimpeded by the local Two Forms Gathering Dragon Formation and the Nation-Suppressing Bronze Men made the situation deeply unsettling.

“We need to wait a while longer; just the six of us going won’t work.”

Zong Shou mused, “The immediate priority is to try and contact Shi Yue first. In this Qin Emperor’s Tomb, only this person seems reliable enough for a temporary alliance.”

The strength of the six of them was indeed too thin. To storm that location, Zong Shou estimated they would need at least ten Saint-level cultivators joining forces before they could make any real impact.

Otherwise, it would be akin to moths flying into a flame, or simply paving the way for others.

“In all matters, one must first consider defeat before considering victory. Before that, we need to secure a retreat route. If things turn sour, we must still be able to withdraw completely!”

As Zong Shou was speaking, he suddenly felt a sharp, throbbing pain in his heart that would not cease.

His entire circulation of blood and Qi nearly reversed, his inner energy almost spiraled out of control, and his sea of consciousness felt as if it were forcibly torn open, shattered into thousands of fragments.

Beside him, he clearly heard several sounds of dragon roars and phoenix cries, seemingly struggling against something.

Subconsciously, he lifted his head to gaze outward, vaguely discerning nine colossal black dragons manifesting in the mid-air. Opposite them, six crimson dragons wreathed in flames were locked in fierce combat.

A black tide swept across the sky, and the six crimson dragons appeared extremely strained, riddled with injuries. Yet, every time a phoenix cry sounded, the six crimson dragons gained a slight surge of spirit and recovered a little. Despite being outnumbered, they did not show significant signs of collapse.

However, the scene was extremely vague, making one suspect it was merely a hallucination following intense pain.

Zong Shou’s vision darkened, his muscles convulsed, and it took a long moment before he recovered.

He saw that among the six present, only Lin Xuanxuan was relatively unaffected. The other four, including Yuan Wu, were drenched in sweat, their clothes clinging to them. Even Lin Xuanxuan’s face was deathly pale, her expression exceedingly grim.

“It’s Dragon Might—”

Shen Yuexuan gasped, forcing himself to stand upright. “That Qin Emperor must be close to waking. Truly worthy of being the sole Imperial Overlord who unified the Cloud Realm; his majesty is immense!”

“This Qin Emperor is definitely at the Ultimate Realm!”

Yuan Wu also struggled to speak. “I have seen Ultimate Realm Sacred Venerables before, but none could compare to this First Emperor of Qin.”

Su Xiaoxiao nodded slightly. In terms of soul-pressure and imposing aura, even the Supreme Primordial Demon was far inferior to this Qin Emperor.

Without even meeting him, from sixty levels away, this wave of unconsciously diffused will had nearly forced her to her knees in submission.

Zong Shou, however, felt no sense of oppressive might, though his heart continued to spasm painfully. He faintly resonated with the being located in the main hall.

That aura was vast and magnificent, dormant yet boundless! Possessing a majesty that looked down upon all things, unoffendable.

Is that the Qin Emperor?

Among the six, only he could not sense that mental pressure—was it because they both shared the nature of Emperors?

Zong Shou took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the surging blood and Qi within his body.

“We cannot linger here!”

The moment the thought formed, Zong Shou dissolved into light and fled, pulling the six of them out into the void beyond the side hall.

In the very next moment, several massive ice darts arrived horizontally. They slammed down violently, shattering the side hall into dust!

Then, several more figures flickered into existence nearby. They were all clad in black armor, tall in stature, wielding great halberds, their skin the color of dead ash.

But by the time these Corpse Generals appeared at that spot, Zong Shou and his group had already vanished without a trace.

The residual auras were completely wiped clean.

Using the Boundless Beginning and End Evasion technique, not only was the speed unmatched in the world, but the power of the Black Hole could also devour every trace.

Zong Shou maintained the flight for a full six breaths before dispersing the light trail again.

In truth, by the first breath, Zong Shou had already shaken off the probing divine senses.

He still could not feel at ease until the throbbing pain in his chest gradually faded, and the resonance with the ‘existence’ in the main hall completely severed, before he halted this draining evasion technique.

However, thanks to this frantic flight, he finally gained some clarity. In those six breaths, he had almost circled the entire A’fang Palace. He had finally managed to locate the position of the other fragment of the Supreme Annihilation True Scripture using the two pages he possessed.

What pleased him most was that the location was far from the main hall, which was fraught with danger and surrounded by powerhouses.

Switching to the Demon-Bane Divine Shuttle, he carried the six silently toward the north side behind the A’fang Palace.

In just half a quarter of an hour, they halted before a rather unremarkable hall.

When Zong Shou released the six from the Demon-Bane Divine Shuttle, Yuan Wushuang looked at the surroundings in astonishment.

The hall before them was indeed built with extraordinary grandeur, far surpassing several halls in Zong Shou’s own Hanyan Palace on Mount Qiantian.

Yet, within the confines of the A’fang Palace, it appeared quite insignificant.

Yuan Wu’s gaze finally settled on the plaque before the entrance, where the four seal script characters of the Qin era read: ‘Zhong Shang Si Ku’ (Central Repository Fourth Storehouse).

“Where is this place?”

Yuan Wu’s face was full of confusion. “Zhong Shang Si Ku? What a strange name.”

“It is a treasury belonging to the Lesser Prefecture Office! Under the Lesser Prefecture Office, there are five Bureaus and three Directorates; the Central Repository Bureau is one of them, responsible for the sacrificial jade tablets used in imperial rites, the Emperor’s personal ornaments, and the decorative carvings for the Empress’s attire.”

Su Xiaoxiao, clearly more knowledgeable, recognized the origin of the ‘Zhong Shang Si Ku’ at a glance.

“Zhong Shang Si Ku should be the fourth storehouse of the Central Repository Bureau. But situated in such a remote location, its contents must be extremely precious, spiritual, yet discarded or damaged items.”

Zong Shou immediately understood. The Lesser Prefecture Temple managed the revenues from mountains, seas, earth, and lakes, as well as the royal artisans. This system existed in the Great Qian Dynasty as well; the artifact refiners, alchemists directly under him, the Spirit Stone mines, the Spirit Herb gardens, and the investments in Windstone roads, airships, and great vessels all fell under the jurisdiction of the Lesser Prefecture Temple.

And the Central Repository Bureau was the absolute core of that. All the treasures offered as tribute annually by the various vassal states of Qiantian, along with the spirit artifacts and spiritual treasures he had personally brought back that he had no use for, were handed over to the Central Repository Bureau for safekeeping and management.

The official structures would be largely similar; the Great Qin of ten millennia ago should be no exception.

Thinking of this, a fragment of the Supreme Annihilation True Scripture—wasn't that exactly the kind of discarded, incomplete item?

“Storing discarded and damaged items?”

Yuan Wu grew more puzzled. “No matter how precious or spiritual, if it is broken and abandoned, it is useless. What benefit is there in coming here?”

Zong Shou did not reply, stepping forward to the door. He directly employed the power of the Black Hole, swallowing the vermilion gate, along with the restrictive patterns affixed to it, whole.

Perhaps because this place was neglected, the Two Forms Gathering Dragon Formation showed no reaction, offering no counterattack.

Zong Shou easily stepped inside. In his eyes, he saw a hall filled with golden splendor.

Yuan Wu followed him in and was immediately struck speechless.

This single chamber was dazzling with spiritual light.

Row upon row of wooden shelves held peak-grade spiritual treasures. Dragon Eye Mysterious Pearls the size of fists, boxes of neatly arranged Ten Thousand Year Ginseng, and even over two hundred Dragon Corpses above the Divine Realm!

The hall, originally only three hundred Zhang square, contained a space spanning ten thousand Zhang.

Various priceless spiritual objects, genuine or otherwise, were laid out in profusion.

If there was any flaw to the spiritual items here, it was that every category possessed some defect, large or small.

Those Dragon Eye Mysterious Pearls were not perfectly spherical. The Ten Thousand Year Ginseng either had parts missing or lacked some of its root tendrils.

As for those Dragon Corpses and various divine beast remains, their bodies were mostly too severely damaged.

Some lacked heads, others had broken spines.

Yuan Wu sucked in a cold breath, his eyes shining with delighted shock, but he looked fixedly at Su Xiaoxiao.

“You said these are all discarded and damaged items?”

The imperfectly shaped Dragon Eye Mysterious Pearls could still be used for artifact refining or cultivating pupil-related divine abilities. And dozens of Ten Thousand Year Ginseng roots could still be used for alchemy.

The same applied to everything else. As for the beast remains, there was no need to mention them.

Just this single ‘Zhong Shang Si Ku’ was worth as much as the spiritual treasures Xi Zi left in the Altar of Heaven.

Perhaps because the area gathering dense corpse energy was far away, and the place was protected by intact warding formations, most of the spiritual medicines here were still usable.

“Are they not?”

Su Xiaoxiao also felt a slight shock. After a moment of stunned silence, she sighed softly. “The Cloud Realm during the peak of the Spirit Tide ten thousand years ago—the abundance of spiritual items is truly beyond what we descendants can imagine!”

But there was little joy in her eyes. Given Zong Shou’s character, she would certainly have a share of these things.

However, if they could not survive this ordeal, what use were all these external possessions?

Zong Shou swept his gaze across the hall, then holding the Supreme Annihilation True Scripture, walked directly toward the west side.

All the other spiritual items were arranged with meticulous order here. Only this section was slightly chaotic.

It consisted entirely of broken parts of spiritual treasures or incomplete pages of books, piled up haphazardly without any discernible system.

“Hmm? These components look quite familiar—”

Zong Shou’s steps suddenly paused, and he summoned his hand. Instantly, several differently shaped components flew up from the adjacent pile of scrap materials.

Upon careful inspection, he realized they were identical to the parts of the Demon-Bane Divine Shuttle that Shen Yuexuan had refined for him a few years prior.

“Could it be?”

Zong Shou was ecstatic, about to take out the Demon-Bane Divine Shuttle again, when he heard Shen Yuexuan speak from behind him: “These must be the damaged components of the Demon-Bane Divine Shuttle. Your Majesty, I congratulate you—this top-tier Immortal Treasure can be restored to its former glory!”