Immortality Cultivation: I can use my clansmen’s energy and blood to add points.

"At midnight, the library..." Luo Chen repeated the message Ling'er left behind, his mind full of thoughts. Who was this mysterious maid, or rather, this woman who called herself Ling'er? Why did she help him? And why did she betray the "Holy Church"? All of this was like a fog, shrouding Luo Chen's heart.

However, now is obviously not the time to think about these things. The most urgent task is to find the second key and stop the conspiracy of the "Holy Church".

Luo Chen looked at the sky and saw that it was still some time before the hour of Chou. He decided to go find Qing Shuang and Mo Han first, tell them the information Ling Er provided, and then discuss the next course of action together.

Luo Chen quietly left the Imperial Garden and returned to the underground palace along the same route. At this time, Qing Shuang and Mo Han had returned to the entrance of the underground palace, and they were anxiously waiting for Luo Chen's return.

"How are you? Have you found any clues about the Chaos Artifact?" Luo Chen couldn't wait to ask as soon as he saw the two of them.

"Found it!" Qingshuang showed an excited look on her face. "We found some ancient text on a stone brick. It records the place where the Chaos Artifact is sealed - the Nine Dragon Tower! Moreover, it also mentioned that nine special keys are needed to open the seal."

"Nine Dragon Tower? Nine keys?" Luo Chen was stunned. Wasn't this exactly what Ling'er had told him? It seemed that Ling'er had not lied to him.

"That's right." Mo Han nodded, "However, we have only found part of the clues to these nine keys. There is still a lot to go."

"I know another clue." Luo Chen said, and then told Qingshuang and Mohan the information provided by Ling'er.

"Ling'er? A palace maid?" Qingshuang and Mohan looked at each other, both a little surprised. "Why would she help us?" Qingshuang asked.

"I don't know." Luo Chen shook his head. "She said her name was Ling'er. As for why she wanted to help us, she didn't say. She just asked us to find the key as soon as possible. She also said that the Holy Church had other undercover agents in the palace and asked us to be careful."

"It seems that this palace is far more complicated than we imagined." Mo Han frowned and said, "Who is this Ling'er? Can her words be trusted?"

"No matter who she is, at least part of the information she provided is true." Luo Chen said, "She knows about the Nine Dragon Tower and the nine keys, which is consistent with the clues you found."

"That's right." Mo Han nodded. "Then what should we do now? Should we follow her instructions and go to the library to find the second key?"

"We must go, of course." Luo Chen said firmly, "Whether this is a trap or not, we must go and take a look. Otherwise, if the key falls into the hands of the Holy Church, the consequences will be disastrous."

"Okay, let's go and take a look." Qing Shuang also nodded in agreement, "But we must be careful, just in case."

"Yeah." Luo Chen and Mo Han both nodded.

After the three of them had discussed it, they decided to wait until the hour of Chou and go to the library together.

Time passed by minute by minute, and soon, it was the hour of the Ox. Luo Chen, Qing Shuang, and Mo Han quietly left the underground palace and sneaked towards the direction of the library.

The library is a tall building in the northwest corner of the palace where classics are stored. At this time, it was already dark, and there was silence around the library, with only a few dim lanterns swaying in the night wind.

The three of them arrived outside the library and found that the door was closed and there was no guard guarding the door.

"Strange, why is there no one guarding the library?" Mo Han said puzzledly.

"Perhaps, it's because there are only books stored here, and the people of the 'Holy Church' think that there is no value here." Luo Chen guessed.

"No matter what, we'd better be careful." Qingshuang said, then took a step forward and gently pushed the door of the library.

The door opened and was not locked.

"It seems that we are lucky." Luo Chen smiled and said.

The three of them walked into the library and found it was pitch black inside, with no sight of their hands in front of them.

"Why are there no lights here?" Mo Han asked.

"Perhaps it's to prevent fire." Qingshuang said, "After all, all the books are stored here, which can easily catch fire."

"Then what should we do? We can't just look for it in the dark, right?" Mo Han said.

"I have a way." Luo Chen said, and took out a talisman from his arms. He shook it gently, and the talisman burned, emitting a faint light.

"Is this a lighting talisman?" Qingshuang asked.

"Yeah." Luo Chen nodded. "This is what I exchanged for with my points when I was in the Loose Cultivator Alliance. I never wanted to use it, but today it finally came in handy."

With the help of the light from the illuminating talisman, the three began to search in the library.

The library has three floors, each of which is filled with bookshelves, which are densely packed with various books. The three of them split up and carefully read the books on the bookshelves, trying to find clues about the second key.

However, they searched through all the books on the first floor and found no useful information.

"Strange, how could there be nothing?" Luo Chen frowned and said, "Could it be that the information Ling'er gave was false?"

"That shouldn't be the case." Qingshuang said, "She has no reason to lie to us."

"Could it be that the key is not here?" Mo Han guessed.

"It's possible." Luo Chen nodded, "Let's go to the second floor and take a look."

The three of them went to the second floor and continued their search. However, the situation on the second floor was the same as on the first floor. They searched through all the books but still could not find any clues about the key.

"This is trouble." Mo Han's face turned ugly. "If we can't find the key, we won't be able to stop the conspiracy of the Holy Church."

"Don't be discouraged." Qingshuang comforted, "There is still the third floor. Let's go there and take a look."

The three of them came to the third floor and found that there were far fewer bookshelves on the third floor than on the first and second floors, and most of the books on the shelves were miscellaneous books, and there were no important classics.

"It seems that this should be a place where some unimportant books are stored." Luo Chen said.

"Could the key be here?" Mo Han asked.

"I don't know." Luo Chen shook his head, "But since we're here, let's look for it."

The three of them continued to search on the third floor. Suddenly, Qingshuang stopped and pointed to a bookshelf in a corner and said, "Look there."

Luo Chen and Mo Han looked in the direction Qing Shuang pointed, and saw a thick book on the bookshelf. On the cover of the book were four big words - "Secret History of the Royal Family".

"The Secret History of the Imperial Family?" Luo Chen's eyes lit up. "Could this be related to the key?"

"It's possible." Qingshuang nodded, "Let's see."

The three of them walked forward and took down the "Secret History of the Imperial Family". When they opened it, they saw that it contained all the secrets about the imperial family of the Tianyuan Empire.

"Is there any record about the key here?" Mo Han asked.

"I don't know." Luo Chen shook his head, "Let's take a closer look."

The three of them were carefully flipping through the "Secret History of the Imperial Family". Suddenly, Luo Chen's eyes stopped on a page.

"Found it!" Luo Chen said excitedly, "Look here!" Qing Shuang and Mo Han came over quickly and saw that the page read: "Nine Dragon Tower, nine keys, hidden in nine places in the palace. The second key is hidden on the third floor of the library, on the 'Heaven' bookshelf, third row, in the fifth book."

"I really found it!" Mo Han also became excited, "It turns out that the key is hidden in this book!"

"'Tian' bookshelf, third row, fifth book..." Luo Chen found the book according to the instructions in the book, and then took it down from the bookshelf.

This is a very ordinary book with no words on the cover. Luo Chen flipped through the pages and searched carefully.

Suddenly, he felt something hard sandwiched between the pages of the book.

"Found it!" Luo Chen took out the hard object and found that it was a key!
"This is the second key!" Mo Han said excitedly, "We finally found it!"

"Great!" Qingshuang also smiled. "Now, we have found two keys. As long as we find the remaining seven, we can stop the conspiracy of the Holy Church!"

"Yes." Luo Chen nodded, "Let's go find other keys without further delay."

Just then, a voice suddenly sounded behind them: "What are you looking for?"

The three of them were startled and looked back quickly, only to see a man in a black robe who had appeared behind them at some point, looking at them with a sinister smile on his face.

"Who are you?" Luo Chen asked in a deep voice, secretly hiding the key behind him.

"You will soon know who I am." The man in black robe smiled sinisterly and said, "But before that, you should come with me first."

"Go with you? Dream on!" Mo Han snorted and said, "Why should we go with you?"

"Because you have no choice." said the man in black robe, and suddenly rushed towards the three people.

"Be careful!" Luo Chen shouted and quickly pushed Qingshuang and Mo Han away.

The man in black robe was extremely fast. Just as Luo Chen pushed Qingshuang and Mo Han away, his attack had already reached him.

Luo Chen quickly dodged, but was still a step too slow and was hit in the chest by the man in black robe.

"Puff!" Luo Chen spat out a mouthful of blood and his body flew backwards.

"Luo Chen!" Qingshuang and Mohan exclaimed and hurriedly ran towards Luo Chen.

"You'd better take care of yourselves first!" The man in black robe sneered and chased after Qingshuang and Mohan.

"Damn it!" Mo Han cursed angrily, stood in front of Qingshuang and fought with the man in black.

"Mo Han, be careful!" Qingshuang shouted anxiously while helping Luo Chen up.

"Don't worry, I'm fine!" Mo Han said as he fought with the man in black robes, "You guys go quickly, I'll hold him back!"

"No, if we have to go, we go together!" Qingshuang said firmly.

"Don't be silly, hurry up and leave!" Mo Han shouted, "If you don't leave now, it will be too late!"

"Mo Han is right, let's go first!" Luo Chen struggled to stand up and said, "As long as the green mountains remain, there will be no shortage of firewood to burn. Let's leave here first, and then think of a way to deal with him!"

"But..." Qingshuang wanted to say something, but was interrupted by Luo Chen.

"Don't say buts, let's go!" Luo Chen said, pulling Qingshuang up and running out of the library.

"You can't leave!" Seeing this, the man in black robe wanted to chase after them, but was entangled tightly by Mo Han.

"Your opponent is me!" Mo Han shouted, "If you want to get through, you have to defeat me first!"

"Looking for death!" The man in black robe roared and increased the intensity of his attack.

Although Mo Han was quite strong, he was still a little behind the man in black robe. Soon, he was at a disadvantage and had several more wounds on his body.

"Mo Han, be careful!" Luo Chen and Qing Shuang ran away while looking back at Mo Han, their hearts full of worry.

"Don't worry about me, go!" Mo Han shouted, "Remember, you must stop the conspiracy of the Holy Church!"

"Mo Han..." Qingshuang's eyes were filled with tears. She knew that Mo Han chose to stay for them.

"Stop crying, let's go!" Luo Chen pulled Qingshuang and ran forward without looking back.

The two ran out of the library and ran all the way until they had run a long way before stopping.

"Mo Han..." Qing Shuang choked up and said, "Is he okay?"

"Don't worry, he will be fine." Luo Chen comforted, "He is so smart, he will definitely be able to get away."

"Yeah." Qingshuang nodded, but her eyes were still full of worry.

"What should we do now?" Qing Shuang asked, "Should we go look for other keys?"

"Of course we have to look for it." Luo Chen said firmly, "We can't give up. We must stop the conspiracy of the Holy Church!"

"But now we have alerted the enemy. The people of the 'Holy Church' will definitely increase their vigilance. It will be even more difficult for us to find other keys." Qingshuang said.

"We have to look for it." Luo Chen said, "No matter how difficult it is, we have to try. Moreover, we have the clues Ling'er gave us. As long as we follow the clues, we should be able to find it."

"Okay." Qingshuang nodded, "Then where are we going next?"

"Go..." Luo Chen was about to say the next location, but suddenly, he stopped, as if he thought of something.

"What's wrong?" Qingshuang asked.

"We... seem to have overlooked a problem." Luo Chen said, "Could the clue Ling'er gave be a trap?"

"A trap?" Qingshuang was stunned. "You mean, Ling'er deliberately gave us wrong clues to lure us into the trap?"

"That's right." Luo Chen nodded. "Think about it, why would Ling'er help us? Why would she betray the Holy Church? All of this is too strange. Moreover, the clues she gave were too easy to obtain. This doesn't make sense at all."

"So what you mean is..." Qingshuang's expression turned ugly, "We were deceived by Ling'er?"

"We may not have been deceived." Luo Chen said, "But at least, we can't trust her completely. We must prepare for the worst, just in case."

"So what should we do now?" Qingshuang asked, "Should we still follow the clues Ling'er gave us to find the key?" (End of this chapter)