Chen Xin left the inner hall, found a room to change into his new official uniform, and hung the Copper Cloud Pattern Token at his waist. Equipped with his Hundred-Forged Steel Saber, he strode confidently toward the northwest of the Northern Department Prefecture Government.
The Divine Robe Secret Vault, a Martial Arts Holy Land renowned throughout the martial world, stood eighteen stories tall in total. The upper nine floors housed various Martial Arts Secret Manuals. This included collections inherited from the previous royal family, tributes from the current major orthodox sects, and numerous divine skills plundered since the establishment of the Divine Robe Guard, as they trampled through the martial world and eradicated rival sects.
In terms of the sheer quantity, diverse variety, and supreme grades of martial arts, the Divine Robe Secret Vault reigned supreme under heaven. Not even the Shaolin Scripture Pavilion or the Wudang True Martial Tower could hold a candle to it.
The lower nine floors contained all kinds of Divine Weapons, Miracle Pills, and Treasure Magical Artifacts. Taking out even a single item from there would be enough to make the entire martial world red-eyed with envy and send shockwaves through the realm! Even many lost divine artifacts and treasures from the ancestors of prestigious sects had been swallowed up by the Secret Vault.
To reclaim their ancestral heirlooms, these sects racked their brains. Naturally, challenging imperial authority and forcing their way into the Northern Department Prefecture Government was out of the question. Setting aside the fact that the Purple Gold Divine Robe Luoi Yangyi—a man of unfathomable strength—stood guard here, the Wind-Catching Secret Agents alone were not to be trifled with. The moment such rebellious thoughts sprouted, the next second, a Wind-Catching Secret Agent would lead a pack of bloodthirsty Divine Robe Guards to smash through their sect’s gates.
Since the hard way wouldn’t work, they had to opt for the soft approach: trading divine skills and techniques that the Secret Vault hadn’t yet collected in exchange for their ancestral tokens. The Divine Robe Guard was more than happy to make such deals. Alternatively, if they didn’t want to trade martial arts, they could simply come and guard the Secret Vault for a few decades—their ancestral token would eventually be returned to them.
As soon as Chen Xin took out his Copper Order and handed it to the Captain guarding the Secret Vault’s entrance for verification, he felt several profound and distant auras lock onto him. It had to be those sect experts guarding the vault. A few of those gazes were intensely scrutinizing, making him feel rather uncomfortable.
"Please, sir!" the Captain said respectfully, returning the token and bowing as he stepped aside.
At the same time, those auras vanished without a trace. Chen Xin clicked his tongue and strode forward, stepping into the Secret Vault pavilion.
The first-floor lobby featured two rows of long tables displaying various catalogs. Behind the tables, two elderly, half-white-haired Divine Robe Guards in official uniforms were bent over their desks, hard at work.
If one were to ask which position within the Divine Robe Guard was the most desirable, it would undoubtedly be the Clerk responsible for organizing, categorizing, and cross-checking the martial arts in the Secret Vault. Secret Vault Clerks had constant access to the vast sea of divine skill manuals—a dream come true for countless martial artists.
Truth be told, Chen Xin was tempted too. With his enlightenment and talent, if he just soaked in the Secret Vault for a year or two, he would emerge as an all-around master, unparalleled in fist and palm skills, invincible with a sword and saber, with his stats maxed out across the board. He might even pull a Yellow-Robed Official and leave behind a peerless martial art rarely seen in this world!
Unfortunately, such a crucial position was naturally out of reach for ordinary people. Every Secret Vault Clerk was meticulously selected from within the Divine Robe Guard, requiring at least a Copper Order rank, twenty years of seniority, a clean record, and an impeccable background. They could only be appointed after a Purple Gold official reported them, the Commander approved, and the Emperor personally gave the nod.
"Hmm?" One white-haired Clerk heard the footsteps and looked up. Seeing an unfamiliar face, his gaze landed on the Copper Token at Chen Xin’s waist. "You must be the newly appointed Chen Copper Order. The martial arts catalog is on this table, and the divine weapons catalog is on the other. Take your pick, and let me know when you’ve decided."
With that, he lowered his head again, no longer paying attention to Chen Xin. As for the other Clerk, he remained completely unmoving from start to finish.
Chen Xin didn’t say much and first looked at the table with the martial arts catalogs.
The catalogs were neatly arranged, divided into multiple sections corresponding to the second through seventh floors. The eighth and ninth floors housed a small number of top-tier martial arts and required no catalogs.
The cover of each section’s catalog bore only two simple words: Fist Skill, Palm Skill, Sword Skill, Saber Skill, Fingering Skill, Inner Power, Lightweight Skill...
Everything one could possibly need was there, showcasing the terrifying foundation of the Divine Robe Secret Vault.
Chen Xin flipped through the catalog for the fourth floor. He had already made up his mind before coming. The Divine Illumination Skill naturally didn’t need to be replaced. It was simply a choice between a lightweight skill and a saber skill. The Upper Seventh Grade Meteor Meteor Body Technique was still sufficient for now. His Middle Eighth Grade Hundred Victory Saber Technique involved wide, sweeping movements, using brute force to break through finesse, but while it was plenty fierce, it lacked versatility.
Thus, Chen Xin had the idea of exchanging for a new saber skill, along with a treasure saber.
FLIP FLIP FLIP—
Reading ten lines at a glance, Chen Xin scanned the martial arts summaries in the saber skill catalog and locked onto a Rare: Sixth Grade saber skill. Immediately after, he turned and rummaged through the divine weapons catalog on the other table. The illustration and brief description of a treasure saber caught his eye.
"Senior," Chen Xin called out softly, pointing at the open page in the catalog. "The martial art Seven Kills Saber Technique and the Long Blade: Unstoppable."
The white-haired Clerk took a glance, pulled open a hidden drawer under the desk, and fished out a small key to hand to Chen Xin. The other Clerk, who had not spoken a word, had at some point taken out a small Stone Seal engraved with the word "Unstoppable."
Chen Xin accepted the key and the seal, thanked them, and headed straight upstairs to look at the martial art first.
On the second and third floors, quite a few Divine Robe Guards in uniform were already reading. Some held manuals and recited silently, while others used their bare hands as weapons, pantomiming the cultivation skills. Aside from the Divine Robe Guards, a sparse handful of Eastern Depot Constables and Wind-Catching Secret Agents stood in front of the bookshelves. Some were deeply focused, while others had their brows tightly furrowed.
Upon reaching the fourth floor, Chen Xin found the location noted in the catalog and used the key to open the compartment on the bookshelf where the cultivation skill was stored.
Naturally, it was impossible for martial arts secret manuals to just be displayed openly on shelves for anyone to flip through. All manuals were sealed away by the Secret Vault Clerks in small compartments, which could only be opened with specialized keys.
Every night, when the Secret Vault closed, the Clerks had to inspect the compartments opened that day. They checked whether the manuals were intact, if there were any signs of tearing, or if a single word or phrase had been smeared or altered. If everything was normal, all was well, and the Clerks would reseal them.
But if there was a problem—if an issue was discovered at midnight, someone would immediately apprehend the Divine Robe Guard involved right then and there! With torture and secret medicines at the ready, they would definitively root out whichever reckless faction dared to mess with the Divine Robe Guard’s Secret Vault!
Chen Xin took out the Seven Kills Saber Technique and sat beneath the bookshelf to read it. The manual was a gem of precise words, concise sentences, and obscure phrasing. The general principles corroborated with the illustrated stances in the later sections. One had to read through the entire book just to barely grasp the basics.
As the saying goes, one must cultivate literacy before martial arts; if you can’t even understand the manual, how can you practice it? At the beginning of the National Dynasty, the Grand Ancestor decreed that inner court officials were forbidden from learning to read or write, so the palace Eunuchs were nothing special. It wasn’t until the Xuande era, when the Emperor established the inner court school and ordered Hanlin scholars to teach the Eunuchs to read, that Eunuchs successfully attained literacy and martial prowess, becoming an unstoppable force.
For this Seven Kills Saber Technique manual, even a literate Divine Robe Guard in the Northern Department would spend more than half an hour just understanding and memorizing it. But Chen Xin possessed Full-Level Enlightenment. Gifted with an eidetic memory, he flipped through the manual page by page. By the time he finished the book, the entirety of the Seven Kills Saber Technique was engraved in his heart.
This Rare: Sixth Grade saber skill was quite extraordinary. It excelled in speed, possessed fierce sword momentum, and launched lightning-fast strikes. One kill with every step, seven kills in seven steps; the saber’s flash would arrive even before the killing intent arose!
The more he read, the brighter Chen Xin’s eyes became. If he had used this Seven Kills Saber Technique instead of the Hundred Victory Saber Technique at the Mountain God Temple, paired with his Meteor Meteor Body Technique, he would have only needed a single strike. One strike to break the Yin Claws, the Broken Flying Sand, and the Poison-Breaking Arrows, before going straight for Guu Ao’s head.
Using two fingers as a blade, Chen Xin waved them like the wind, practicing the saber skill in thin air just like those Divine Robe Guards on the second and third floors.
Barely eight or nine minutes had passed before Chen Xin closed the manual.
"Saber skill Perfection. Easy.
"Also, I was wrong earlier. It would only take half a strike to take Guu Ao’s head!"
Chen Xin smiled, stood up to lock the manual back in its compartment, and silently left the fourth floor.
The surrounding Divine Robe Guards were immersed in the joy of "reading," and no one paid attention to his movements. Even if they had, they wouldn’t have believed that someone could actually learn a Sixth-Grade Saber Skill in such a short time.
Descending to the first floor, Chen Xin switched to another staircase and continued delving deeper underground.
Basement level two, basement level three—the doors on each floor were tightly shut, isolating the inside from the outside.
It wasn’t until basement level four that Chen Xin pushed open the door and entered.
Behind the door was a burly man who looked like an iron tower. Reeking of charcoal, he stood bare-chested, his muscles bulging and solid like chunks of hard stone. This man was a Master Military Craftsman of the Divine Robe Guard, concurrently managing the Divine Weapons and Treasure Armors on this floor. His cultivation, however, was merely average.
"Sir, I am Luy Da. If you wish to retrieve a divine weapon, you may hand the Stone Seal to me," the large man said, cupping his fists. Behind him was a wall of Obsidian, utterly indestructible, with only a single mechanism door connecting to the inside.
Chen Xin handed over the small seal engraved with "Unstoppable."
Luy Da took the Stone Seal, glanced at it, and muttered to himself, "To think it’s this one... Please wait a moment, sir. I will go fetch the saber right away."
He turned and pulled the mechanism door. Accompanied by grinding sounds, the door opened just wide enough for one person to pass through. Luy Da walked inside. A long while later, he stepped back out, solemnly holding a long blade in his hands. Instantly, an overwhelming Sword Qi filled the entire room.
"Sir, this blade is ’Unstoppable’."
"Unstoppable" was a Sixth-Grade Treasure Saber measuring three feet, six inches, and five fractions long. A single horse charges forth unstoppably, while beacon fires span across ten thousand miles.
Luy Da elaborated in depth, "In the Yue Family Army of the Southern Song Dynasty, an expert once used this saber to face two hundred Jin Kingdom Iron Cavalry. He was unstoppable, shattering the enemy forces and advancing without turning back.
"After the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, this saber fell into the martial world and was eventually acquired by the Divine Robe Guard in the early years of the National Dynasty."
Unstoppable hummed continuously, its sharp edge fully exposed. And this was just while it was being "held." If anyone actually tried to grab it, the sky-filling Sword Qi would be no laughing matter.
"Treasure sabers have spirits and choose their own masters. Occasionally, Divine Robe Guards have tried..." At this point, Luy Da suddenly clamped his mouth shut.
He had witnessed an unbelievable scene.
Chen Xin reached out and grasped Unstoppable’s hilt. In that instant, the entire blade quieted down. The humming stopped, the Sword Qi was retracted, and it behaved obediently beyond belief.
"This... this..."
Luy Da was dumbfounded. Not even the Sixth Grade Sabers he forged with his own hands would acknowledge someone with a single touch! Furthermore, the requirements of this particular treasure saber were absolutely ridiculous. To earn its acknowledgment, one had to slaughter Jin Soldiers—and not just a few, but massacre them in droves.
What a joke. What era was this? The Jin Kingdom didn’t even exist anymore!
Chen Xin, on the other hand, felt quite at ease. The treasure saber had a spirit and wanted a master who could slaughter Jin Soldiers alongside it. What a coincidence! One of his past life inheritances took place during the Song and Jin Period. He had fully participated in Yue Wumu’s northern expedition. To unlock an achievement, he had killed quite a lot of Jin Soldiers...
[Name: Chen Xin]
[Talent: A Man among Men]
[Realm: Inner Realm]
[Weapon: Long Blade: Unstoppable]
[Evaluation: Integration]
[Martial Arts: Divine Illumination Skill, Seven Kills Saber Technique, Meteor Meteor Body Technique, Hundred Victory Saber Technique]
"Good blade," Chen Xin praised. He drew the saber and slashed—it was precisely the first form of the Seven Kills Saber Technique: Bloodstained Blade.
Unstoppable and the sword form were flawlessly integrated!
Luy Da stared at the slash in sheer terror. Even without Inner Strength to fuel it, that simple, unadorned strike was enough to claim his life. When did the Divine Robe Guard acquire such a figure?
"Good blade, indeed a good blade!" Chen Xin sighed in admiration twice. He sheathed the saber at his waist and spoke to the still-shocked Luy Da, "I’ll take my leave now."
Luy Da cupped his fists in immense admiration, watching as he walked away.
Back on the first floor, Chen Xin called out to the Secret Vault Clerk who was still immersed in reading, returning the key to the Seven Kills Saber Technique. As for the Stone Seal engraved with "Unstoppable," it had been destroyed by Luy Da down on the fourth basement level. After all, there was only one divine weapon, so one seal representing it was enough.
"Huh, didn’t this young Divine Robe Guard just arrive?"
The white-haired Clerk looked on in confusion as Chen Xin walked away, wondering if reading manuals had addled his brain.
Stepping out of the Secret Vault, the sunlight was just right.
Right at that moment, Chen Xin once again felt several auras fixing their gazes on him.
CLANG!
Chen Xin lightly flicked the hilt, and Unstoppable let out a long hum!
The Sword Intent, born from bloody slaughter on the battlefield, was incomparably piercing. It instantly forced those experts guarding the Secret Vault to avert their eyes.
"Haha..."
Having played this little trick, Chen Xin felt his mood improve even more.