The probability of Duanmu Qiuche successfully breaking through had never been high to begin with. Even if his Dao Heart shattered and he failed to cross the boundary, that would still be well within reason.
At worst, the Confucian faction would lose a mighty Celestial Phenona cultivator, weakening their voice at court by a few degrees. There was no way it should implicate Fang Xun.
On the other hand, if he were to truthfully reveal the secret behind Lu Tinglan’s armor and ruin the Qian Emperor’s enjoynt of watching the spectacle unfold...
Whether it would provoke thunderous imperial wrath was secondary. The truly terrifying possibility was drawing the gaze of that Heaven-Earth Realm Emperor.
Before such absolute power, Li Shun had no confidence whatsoever that the secret of Fangcun could remain hidden.
“Besides, if this body of mine ends up trapped within the Imperial Mausoleum’s sealed earth...”
“Duanmu Qiuche can die for all I care.”
He had already made up his mind.
But a new problem now presented itself.
How exactly was he supposed to transport this heavy suit of armor back?
His fingertips had only brushed against it, yet his entire body had trembled uncontrollably from the phantom vision of the Shaman God.
Inside the Imperial Mausoleum’s sealed grounds, Li Shun was almost no different from an ordinary mortal, unable to invoke Li Zheng at all. By himself, there was absolutely no way he could carry this armor back to Elder Mu.
After pondering for a mont, his gaze fell once more upon the branch that had guided his way here.
Gripping it in hand, inspiration struck.
He raised the rough branch and pointed its crude tip toward the [Wu Peng Armor] lying on the ground.
In that instant, the layers of sinister black qi swirling around the armor seed to encounter absolute suppression, vanishing without a trace.
Then, the lifeless armor suddenly moved like a living creature.
It disassembled itself into plates of black iron armor, clanging sharply as each piece flew into place and fitted itself seamlessly onto Li Shun’s body.
“So this Wu Peng Armor is the type that bullies the weak and fears the strong.”
That was the thought that flashed through Li Shun’s mind.
The instant the armor settled over him, the world before his eyes changed abruptly.
His consciousness seed forcibly dragged into a vast and mysterious ancient sacred mountain.
The divine mountain towered between heaven and earth, boundless and majestic. Strange treasures and exotic beasts filled every corner.
And faintly visible atop the mountain peaks stood nine colossal shadows, so imnse they seed to prop up the heavens themselves.
Just a single distant glance at them was enough for the primordial pressure they radiated to make breathing difficult.
Li Shun looked down.
His heart shook violently.
His current body was exactly the sa as those nine towering figures.
His entire form shimred with an ancient tallic luster of black and gold, while his aged skin was engraved with intricate, profound totems.
“Bu Peng...”
An ancient, obscure na surfaced uncontrollably within Li Shun’s heart.
The illusion shattered.
His consciousness returned to reality.
The mont he ca back to himself, he imdiately sensed the earth-shaking transformation in his body.
His blood surged like an abyss.
His flesh brimd with explosive force.
It felt as though he possessed endless strength.
Clearly, this power did not belong to Li Shun himself.
It ca from the Wu Peng Armor now covering his body.
Li Shun quickly tested the extent of his newfound strength.
With a light push from the tip of his foot, he leapt over a hundred zhang in a single bound.
Tensing both legs, he shot skyward like a stalk of spring bamboo, soaring thirty zhang into the air.
More importantly, with the Wu Peng Armor protecting him, even crashing down from thirty zhang like a falling teor caused him neither pain nor impact.
“Just a single suit of armor grants this much power.”
“The journey here took seventy days. I wonder how long the return trip will take…”
The thought had barely ford when Li Shun exploded forward.
Like a thin black line slicing through the air, he shot across the silent city of Zhanghua in an instant, rushing toward the city walls.
Without slowing in the slightest, he planted both feet against the vertical bricks, kicked twice, and vaulted clean over.
Beyond the city lay the vast Yunng Marsh.
This ti, no path through the waters had been split open.
But the mont Li Shun’s body struck the water’s surface, force erupted beneath his feet.
The lake surface caved inward under the terrifying impact, forming a horrifying crater. Before a single splash could rise, he had already launched himself skyward again.
Running across water without leaving a trace, as though walking on solid ground.
He forcibly crossed Yunng Marsh.
Along the way, deafening sonic booms exploded like muffled thunder.
Li Shun paid no attention whatsoever to obstacles ahead.
He charged forward recklessly, smashing anything in his path into powder with sheer bodily force.
The vitality flowing from the armor was inexhaustible.
Even sprinting at full power without restraint, he felt no fatigue whatsoever.
The seventy-day journey that had once consud so much ti now took him less than two days to brutally traverse.
He returned successfully.
“What exhilaration!”
Li Shun even felt sowhat unsatisfied.
“Even a completely powerless mortal would instantly gain strength approaching the Spirit Resonance Realm just by wearing this Wu Peng Armor. And yet such a treasure must soon be handed over. What a pity.”
With so reluctance, he brushed his hand across the armor’s layers of dark black radiance.
But the instant his fingers passed over it, he paused.
Perhaps it was just his imagination.
Yet the dim black glow coating the armor seed to have weakened ever so slightly.
“Hm?”
Li Shun was about to inspect it further when, beneath the sealed earthen wall ahead, Elder Mu had already lifted his head, his deep gaze fixed upon him.
Li Shun could only suppress his thoughts for the mont, slow his pace, and approach the ancient tree-like elder.
He cupped his hands respectfully.
“Elder Mu.”
Elder Mu said nothing.
His body twisted grotesquely, transforming once again into the form of an ancient tree.
The trunk split open into a gaping maw.
At the sa ti, the Wu Peng Armor clinging to Li Shun seed to answer so unseen summons, peeling away piece by piece before flying straight into Elder Mu’s giant mouth.
A series of horrifying chewing sounds echoed out.
Then the Wu Peng Armor vanished completely.
Elder Mu shed his tree form and returned to his hunched, elderly human appearance.
As he always had across countless years, he silently knelt beneath the towering sealed wall.
The Imperial Mausoleum’s interior fell once more into suffocating silence.
Within that vast expanse, it felt as though Li Shun were the only living person left.
After standing there for a long ti, Li Shun finally broke the silence.
“Elder Mu, you once said I also carry the Mu family bloodline. But my surna is clearly Li...”
Elder Mu remained like a carved statue, unmoving and deaf to the question.
Seeing he had no intention of answering, Li Shun did not press further.
Instead, he simply sat cross-legged beside him, adopting the posture of soone unwilling to leave without an answer.
But in truth, most of his attention had already sunk into the Fangcun space within him.
Above the central open ground floated a faint black phantom.
Its outline resembled the Wu Peng Armor.
And yet it also resembled the great mountain shaman Li Shun had seen in the illusion.
“So it wasn’t my imagination after all.”
Li Shun extended a strand of consciousness and cautiously touched the black phantom.
BOOM!
The instant contact was made, the shadow reacted as though deeply insulted.
A heaven-shaking roar exploded forth, filled with furious wrath at being desecrated by a re mortal.
Within Fangcun, a black storm erupted instantly, as though intent on shredding everything apart.
Li Shun narrowed his eyes.
“I don’t care whether you’re so Shaman God or not.”
“Once you enter my Fangcun, you’d better stay obedient.”
“Fangcun is my heart!”
The space roared.
Li Shun’s absolute will manifested instantly, descending like heavenly decree as a pair of invisible giant hands that ruthlessly crushed downward upon the black phantom.
Unexpectedly, the suppression was far easier than he had imagined.
Its resistance was nowhere near as fierce as the two stone statues.
The deafening roar abruptly ceased.
The violent storm instantly cald.
Only a thoroughly subdued phantom remained, standing silently in place.
Li Shun snorted coldly and continued examining it.
This ti, the shadow offered no resistance.
But as Li Shun probed deeper, the flowing light across its surface began to irreversibly fade and dissipate.
Not long after, the remnant phantom completely dissolved into Fangcun.
“An inheritance left behind by Wu Peng, one of the Ancient Ten Shamans.”
“Hidden within the Wu Peng Armor.”
“Primordial Ten Invocations: Verdant Wood Summons.”
Li Shun’s expression shifted repeatedly.
Fragnts of vast, ancient shamanic chants surfaced within his mind, bleak and incomprehensible.
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