Chapter 103
Bringing Ethel along proved he was confident he could manage the risk and get it done by talking.
Bruce also mentioned that before they left, Orathis had prepared them a teleportation formation sealed with his own Ancestor Seal.
If they hit trouble they couldn’t handle, they only had to feed Spirit energy or demonic energy into it.
Orathis would sense the location and teleport over as fast as he could move.
Soren glanced at Orathis, still sprawled in the dirt with legs twitching and eyes rolled back.
The corner of his mouth went up.
The idiot was occasionally useful.
Jared had his elixir and was in closed cultivation inside one of the clan halls, planning to break the curse in one hard push.
The Ice Heaven Alluring Fox Clan had grown used to Bruce, and with his breakthrough to Lower-Tier Demon Emperor on top of that, nobody was inclined to argue with his orders.
Everything was running in good order.
Then Bruce remembered something and looked over at the sprawled-out dragon before he spoke.
Soren and Lysara followed his eyes.
"Master, while the Ice Heaven Alluring Fox Clan were out harvesting herbs and spiritual fruits, they turned up a sealed box," Bruce reported.
"It’s finely made, and it carries a sealing formation left by an Ancestor Realm powerhouse, I doubt it’s ordinary."
Orathis had sharp ears, the second he heard Bruce start on it, he scrambled out of his crater and shook his enormous head in small frantic arcs, signaling him to shut up.
Bruce had already finished, the dragon gave up on the spot.
Soren’s eyes narrowed, he had it immediately.
The thing was in Orathis’s possession.
Lysara snorted. "You stupid pig of a dragon, were you planning to swallow it yourself? Black Dragon Mountain belongs to Master, everything found in these mountains belongs to Master."
"Hey, hey, hey! You little brat of a girl, how can you insult a dragon like that?" Orathis pursed his lips and reluctantly hauled a black box, roughly half a meter long, out of his spatial storage.
Then he turned a deeply depressed glare on Bruce.
That’s a fast mouth you’ve got, didn’t I tell you not to let Master know? Bruce, you sold me out!
Bruce shrugged and gave him a steady look right back.
I never agreed to keep your secret, that was your own wishful thinking, I could never hide anything from Master.
If Master tells me to scram, I scram.
If Master tells me to die, I die.
Something this important? I was always going to report it.
Done with the silent staring match, Orathis slapped a fawning smile on and floated the black box over on a stream of Spirit energy, setting it down before Soren.
He rubbed his claws together and chuckled.
"Master, please hear my defense. Ah, no, my explanation! This item is called the Kun-Heaven Box, and it’s tied to an immemorial ruin."
"This little dragon was only holding it safe for a while, meaning to hand it over the moment Master got back! Oh my, did that brat Bruce actually think I wanted it for myself? Hahaha, Master knows me best, this little dragon isn’t that kind of dragon!"
"Hey, hey, hey! Master, Master... why are you cracking your knuckles like that?"
Soren put a fist square through the dragon’s face, Orathis’s whole bulk went flying tens of thousands of meters.
He cleared the horizon and disappeared, leaving a torn fissure across the earth and a column of dust a thousand meters high.
Orathis hadn’t been trying to betray him.
His title with Soren had lit up Absolute Loyalty a long time ago, it just hadn’t reached Following to the Death.
He’d never sell Soren out, short of that, his personality left plenty of room for small self-serving schemes.
Like this one, swallow the treasure quietly and Soren would never know.
He was an authentic Middle-Tier Spirit Ancestor, Bruce and the Fox Clan would have to bend, wouldn’t they?
He’d badly underestimated how loyal Bruce was.
"Kun-Heaven Box..." Soren said the name under his breath.
"Master, Orathis told me the Kun-Heaven Box was left by the Kunpeng Clan, how far back it dates, nobody knows."
The Kunpeng Clan.
One of the most powerful beast races that ever lived.
One of the Ten Great Immemorial Beast Races.
In strength and standing both, they’d sat level with the Ten Great Immemorial Spirit races, the Heaven-Robbing Black Dragons among them.
Soren looked at the deep claw marks scored into the box and couldn’t keep a smile off his face.
Orathis had left those, even after burning through the strength of nine oxen and two tigers, he still hadn’t got it open.
The sealing formation from an Ancestor Realm powerhouse was only part of it.
The material of the box itself was well out of the ordinary.
"Orathis is a Middle-Tier Spirit Ancestor and even he couldn’t force it."
"Interesting..." Soren reached out and touched the box.
A shock ripped up his hand, hard current, the seal pushing back.
Lysara stared. "That’s the first time I’ve seen a contract or seal repel Master, is it really that strong?"
Bruce kept quiet, his eyes heavy, he knew exactly what had happened to Orathis at this same box.
Soren looked at his smoking finger, honestly surprised.
A split second of contact and the skin was charred black, not serious, it triggered the Human Path Demonic Form’s regeneration on its own.
A second later the burn was gone.
"This seal is a bit peculiar." He said it unhurried, that brief contact had already given him where the thing came from.
[A seal left behind by an Upper-Tier Ancestor Realm expert.]
[Originates from the seventy-second sovereign of the Kunpeng Beast Clan, the Kunpeng King.]
[The seal is unique to the Kunpeng Beast Clan and infused with the Kunpeng King’s blood essence.]
[The seal has been operating continuously for one million years.]
[Its sealing efficacy has not weakened in the slightest.]
[The reason, the energy driving the seal is sustained by the contents inside the box.]
[The sealed object will be identified once the seal is broken and direct contact is made with the box itself.]
The seal walled the box off completely, without touching the box, or rather the things inside it, Soren wasn’t getting anything further.
[There are two methods to break the Kunpeng King’s seal.]