Chapter 1248 - Revealing the Secrets of the Bronze Box

The bean-like lamp cast its mottled light.

Inside the pawnshop, Su Yi sprawled out languidly in his wicker chair.

The Starry Abacus eagerly and obsequiously took out a jug of wine, while the Heart-Inquiring Bell prepared two little plates of enticing refreshments.

The Scales of Judgment even offered up its tray as a little table. It carried the wine and food obediently as it stood by Su Yi’s side.

Their eagerness broadened even Meng Changyun’s horizons.

These little fellows...actually know to butter the Temple Master up!?

The old pawnbroker stood upright to the side, softly explaining the situation.

Three hundred years ago, their boss brought the pawnshop into the Dark Sea of Stars. She said she was looking for the legendary Divine Kingdom of Illusions to retrieve a certain treasure.

Not long after they arrived, she left the pawnshop alone.

A month later, the old Horned Dragon suddenly appeared outside the pawnshop with a letter.

The letter contained a portion of the pawnshop owner’s remnant will. She told the old pawnbroker that she’d be locked in magical combat with someone who called himself “the Illusionist.”

She wouldn’t return until the battle was over.

She also said that the old Horned Dragon was the Illusionist’s servant. According to her agreement with the Illusionist, the Horned Dragon would help watch over the pawnshop in the days that followed.

Three hundred years had passed since then. There’d been no word from her since.

The old Horned Dragon had originally helped watch over the pawnshop, but a hundred years ago, he suddenly changed his tune and started intervening in the pawnshop’s business. Furthermore, he started ordering the old pawnbroker and the shop’s treasures to do his bidding.

The old pawnbroker couldn’t help but sigh. He pointed at the kneeling Horned Dragon and said with great pain, “Over the past hundred years, that old thing has desecrated too many of our wondrous treasures to count. His behavior has been despicable and contemptible!”

The old Horned Dragon took this with calm indifference, and it made no attempt to argue.

Su Yi took a sip of wine. “Don’t be angry. I’ll help you vent later.”

This was his first time seeing the old pawnbroker so angry.

The old pawnbroker took a deep breath, then suppressed his fury. “Your Excellency Su, I stopped you from killing the old Horned Dragon because he’s the Illusionist's servant. You can’t kill him lightly.”

“Just who is this Illusionist person?” asked Su Yi. “Where did he come from?”

The pawnbroker explained, “The boss once said that the Illusionist was hidden within the Divine Kingdom of Illusions. She suspects he’s an expert not of this era.”

Su Yi couldn’t help but be surprised.

The Divine Kingdom of Illusions was one of the seven great forbidden zones of the starry skies!

Throughout the ages, he’d never heard of anyone successfully making it inside.

Yet now, it seemed an expert not of this era was hidden inside. Who wouldn’t have been surprised?

The kneeling Horned Dragon suddenly raised his head, his eyes blazing with fervent passion. “You’re wrong. My master is a true descendant of immortals!”

The descendant of immortals!?

Su Yi’s eyebrows rose. “What makes you say that?”

The old Horned Dragon said with pride, “The blood of immortals flows through his veins, and he’s mastered true immortal magics! If he weren’t trapped in the Divine Kingdom of Illusions, given his abilities, he could transcend all star realms and make the whole Eastern Profound Star Domain tremble!”

Meng Changyun couldn’t help but look impressed.

The descendant of immortals? Immortal magics?

Don’t tell me immortals really exist?

But Su Yi laughed dryly and whispered, “Even if gods and immortals really exist, they too must avert their gazes before me....”

The Temple Master had said these words a long time ago. Su Yi had his experience, and he knew that throughout the vast Eastern Profound Star Domain, no immortals existed!

In other words, immortals didn’t exist here!

If they did exist, they existed outside of the Eastern Profound Star Domain.

Yet now, this Illusionist guy had proclaimed himself the descendant of immortals. It seemed highly likely that he was a fraud!

Of course, even assuming he really was the descendant of immortals, he was still trapped in the Divine Kingdom of Illusions, wasn’t he?

Su Yi looked at the old pawnbroker. “You’ve been waiting here all this time. How are you so certain your boss is still alive?”

The Heart-Inquiring Bell suddenly said, “Your Excellency Su, do you still remember the paper crane you took from the pawnshop back in the Azure Continent?”

Su Yi nodded, a bit stunned, then flipped over his palm. A paper crane floated into the air.

It was pale silver throughout, with eyes like rubies. Its head was lowered, and its beak was preening its feathers. It was such a vivid depiction of a crane that it almost seemed alive.

There was a bronze box on the paper crane’s back, and it was as small as a single grain of rice.

Su Yi had obtained this on the Azure Continent, during his first visit to the pawnshop after recovering his memories.

He remembered that there’d been a letter from the pawnshop owner on top of the grain-sized box.

The message said:

“Ol’ Crook Su, look after this box for me. If you run into life-threatening danger, open it. I know you’re not the type to listen to others’ advice, and you’re sure to want to know what’s in the box, but give me face this time, okay? Please, please, please, don’t do it.”

Su Yi initially disregarded the message, and he’d never taken it seriously.

He just assumed the contents of the box were one of that madwoman’s killer weapons, but they’d never come in handy.

To the point that had the Heart-Inquiring bell not brought them up, he might well have forgotten the crane and bronze box completely.

“Don’t tell me the paper crane is connected to your boss’s life and death?” Su Yi’s eyebrows rose.

The crane really was extraordinary. It was refined from Starsoul Threads and Profound Demon Blood Crystals, both precious treasures, making it lavish to the extreme.

But that was all it was.

“There’s something you don’t know, Your Excellency Su.” The old pawnbroker coughed dryly. “The crane isn’t anything special, but the bronze box on its back is quite particular. A portion of our boss’s spirit origin is sealed inside. So long as the box remains, even if she meets with disaster, she can use that sealed spirit origin to come back to life.”

Su Yi’s brow furrowed. “If it’s so important, why didn’t you tell me?”

The old pawnbroker lowered his head sheepishly, “Those were her orders. She said that someone like you couldn’t possibly meet with disaster, and that if she entrusted the box to your care, she’d have absolutely no need to fear anything happening to it...”

The corners of Su Yi’s lips twitched.

That madwoman was using me?

The Heart-Inquiring Bell hurriedly explained, “Your Excellency Su, that box really is a killer weapon our boss left for you. If you undo the seal, the power therein is enough to slay even World Kings with ease!”

Su Yi was impressed, and a wave coursed through his heart.

As the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force, he’d interacted with the master of the pawnshop on numerous occasions.

He knew that excessively beautiful, yet wildly temperamental woman was in possession of numerous mysterious and unknown treasures.

She was like a mysterious treasure trove in her own right; she could whip out a new strange and unbelievable treasure at a moment’s notice.

The pawnshop’s Heart-Inquiring Bell, Starry Abacus, and the Scales of Judgment were rare Xiantian divine treasures in their own right. But compared to the rest of the madwoman’s treasury, they were like a single hair plucked from the bodies of nine oxen.

Su Yi still wouldn’t have thought that the paper crane she’d given him came with a weapon strong enough to slay even World Kings!

Su Yi swept his gaze across the old pawnbroker and the three treasures. “Right from the start, you’ve been helping your boss keep all sorts of things from me, haven’t you?”

“Your Excellency Su, we absolutely had no ill intentions!”

“It’s true, but our boss.... Ordered us to do all that....”

“Your Excellency Su, please, whatever you do, don’t be angry!” The old pawnbroker and the treasures hurriedly tried to explain.

Su Yi waved them away. “Enough. When I see your boss, I’ll naturally have a proper chat with her.”

The four of them instantly sighed in relief.

Su Yi put away the paper crane. “Does that mean that even now, you’re uncertain whether your boss is alive or dead?”

The old pawnbroker sighed. “Indeed.”

He paused, then looked at the old Horned Dragon. “But we believe that she’s most likely still alive. Otherwise, this old bastard would likely have long since dominated the pawnshop. He would never have let us live this long.”

Su Yi looked at the Horned Dragon too. “Is the pawnshop owner still alive?”

The Horned Dragon said coldly, “If I live, you might well be able to get your answers. If I die, you’ll get nothing at all. Furthermore, my master will find out immediately! You couldn’t possibly bear the consequences of that!”

“Oh?” said Su Yi. He stretched out his hand.

Boom!

Within that bundle of firelight, the Horned Dragon shrank many times over, revealing his original shape. He was now a Horned Dragon just over a foot long.

He had a single horn on his head, and he was covered in black scales, with silver claws.

He seemed to sense that this didn’t bode well. He cried out in terror, “What are you doing?”

Su Yi said calmly, “I’m going to skin you, pluck your tendons, burn your flesh and bones, and scatter your ashes. That’ll inform your master of your death, too.”

“????” The Horned Dragon completely lost its cool and started roaring in anger and fear.

But Su Yi paid it no heed. Before long, he’d flayed it alive and started working on its tendons...

Chills coursed through Meng Changyun’s heart just watching this.

That’s a Oneness Realm Horned Dragon of extraordinary talent! Its strength and foundations far surpass human cultivators. Yet now, it’s been skinned! And its tendons have been plucked!

No one could have remained calm after witnessing this bloody spectacle.

“Wonderful!” The Starry Abacus, Scales of Judgment, and Heart-Inquiring Bell whooped for joy, and the old pawnbroker cried out excitedly.

The Horned Dragon had brutally mistreated them for the past hundred years. They longed for nothing more than to devour his flesh and drink his blood!

Bang!

In the end, Su Yi flicked his fingers, reducing the Horned Dragon’s bones to ashes before putting the scales, skin, and tendons away. These were rare divine materials, and their value was inestimable.

To Su Yi’s surprise, when he went through the Horned Dragon’s belongings, he found thousands of Spatial Divine Crystals!

These were rare treasures that contained spatial power.

Even one was worth cities.

Yet now, he’d just found a whole mountain of them!

“Do you know what that little worm was gathering all these Spatial Divine Crystals for?” Su Yi couldn’t help but ask.