Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Five: The Sword of Ten Thousand Spirits

I smiled faintly, swiftly swinging the snow blade in my hand. Within five minutes, all six of the men in black were slain.

As I finished off the last one, the others gathered around me.

Li Zijian was the first to rush over; I noticed his eyes were moist, tears welling up inside.

“All right, I’m back, aren’t I?” I said.

Though Chen Chen didn’t know what I had been through, Li Zijian must have told them everything. Chen Chen looked genuinely happy at this moment.

The other classmates, though not particularly close to me, felt their combat effectiveness rise several levels with one more person back.

I sat down on the ground and began recounting my recent ordeal.

During this time, I hadn’t looked at my phone once—I didn’t even realize that twenty-four hours had passed.

It turned out that after Li Zijian left with the box, a group of men in black appeared inside the palace. They weren’t particularly strong, but we still lost a few before eliminating them all.

Afterward, everyone continued searching for the next secret chamber mechanism. The box Li Zijian brought back contained the first plaque from the coffin.

Everyone always believed I was alive, especially Li Zijian, who never gave up hope.

He handed the plaque to me, so we now had two plaques in total.

The six of us rested for a while, the atmosphere growing lighter. All of us were cultivators; missing a few meals over several days was hardly a problem.

I still had a few bottles of water left in my ring. I wasn’t stingy and took them all out. Everyone took a sip; half a bottle remained.

With everyone replenished, and me back, the group was steadier than ever.

“All right, since we've come this far, let's hold on a little longer. When we get out, I’ll treat everyone to a meal.”

“Since there are fewer of us now, let’s split into groups of three. I’ll team up with Li Zijian and Chen Chen, and the rest will form the other group.”

Everyone agreed without objection. After a brief rest, all of us set to work again.

Only one plaque remained, and this last one was likely the most difficult.

“Yo, Yao, where do you think the last one is?” Li Zijian asked, but it sounded like nonsense. If I knew, wouldn’t I have gotten out by now?

Chen Chen rolled his eyes at him and started searching the area.

The palace was large, but it seemed everyone had explored nearly every corner. The mechanism couldn’t be on the ceiling.

Still, I held onto a glimmer of hope—what if it was on the floor?

Luck was on my side. At a corner of the palace, I spotted something amiss.

Near the base of the wall were two small holes, obviously meant for inserting something to trigger a mechanism.

I sent Chen Chen and Li Zijian to check the other corners. Sure enough, only this corner was suspicious.

That made things easier. Now, we just needed to find the key to open the final door.

I informed everyone to shift their search focus.

From my observation, those two holes required long keys about ten centimeters in length to unlock.

That narrowed the search. The palace didn’t have many structures, so finding them shouldn’t be too hard.

But I had overestimated myself. After searching for hours, we found nothing.

I gathered everyone again. Searching aimlessly wasn’t working; we needed to discuss.

“Everyone, where do you think these last two keys might be?”

The only option was pooling ideas, then systematically checking each possibility. If that failed, we’d have to keep searching blindly.

“I think they should be somewhere obvious. The more obvious, the safer...”

“I think they’d be hidden somewhere obscure, where we wouldn’t easily see them...”

“I don’t know...”

Most of their suggestions felt like empty words.

“Let’s place the first two plaques on the slots first, then figure out the next step.”

I said this and turned towards the stairs. The others stayed to rest.

After this experience, I wasn’t as afraid of heights. Jumping from such a height earlier barely affected me; climbing the stairs now was nothing.

At the top, I inserted the two plaques one after another, and they fit perfectly.

Just as I was about to descend, I noticed the side of the coffin.

I hadn’t examined it closely before, but now I saw it was adorned with many decorations. Among them, I found two unexpected items.

Hanging on the side of the coffin were two long wooden keys, shapes matching the keyholes in the corner.

I hurried over and took the keys down. Excited, I even jumped down from the stairs.

“I found them!”

Waving to the others, I ran toward the corner.

Without hesitation, I inserted the wooden key into one of the holes.

A small door in front of me opened.

I was puzzled—how to enter? But inside was a wooden box resting quietly.

It turned out, there was no need to enter; it was like a cabinet.

At that moment, everyone arrived beside me, and I took out the wooden box.

The next second, I eagerly opened it, revealing the final plaque inside.

As usual, six men in black should have appeared, so I told everyone to hold still.

But after waiting a while, no one appeared.

I slowly led everyone toward the stairs.

The classmates drew their weapons again, alert to everything around us.

Fortunately, we reached the stairwell without incident. I turned to them and said,

“If you trust me, I’ll go up alone, get the item, and we’ll leave.”

At this moment, no one hesitated.

“We trust you...”

“Of course we trust you...”

“Go ahead; we believe in you...”

Encouraged by their support, the plaque in my hand suddenly felt heavy.

As I turned and climbed the stairs, they instinctively guarded the entrance.

I moved quickly, running up the stairs in a few strides, then inserted the plaque.

With a creak, the coffin’s lid shifted slightly. Using both hands and spiritual energy, I pushed it open halfway.

A strong scent resembling preservatives hit me, and I saw the corpse lying inside.

I don’t know how long he had been there, but thanks to the preservatives, the body hadn’t decayed.

It was a man, tall and lean, looking like a general—and remarkably handsome.

Beside his head lay a three-foot-long sword, still gleaming with golden light, exuding nobility.

This must be the Myriad Spirits Sword the Ghost King mentioned. I took it and placed it inside my ring.

In an instant, the corpse rapidly decayed, turning into a dry skeleton within seconds.