Dual-wielding! 100x proficiency, I'll grind my way to godhood!

The emperor finally realized what was happening.

The palace women deliberately caused trouble just now to lure him away and trick him into going there in person.

The real purpose was to launch a surprise attack on Xuanchen Palace while the situation was under control!

The emperor's knuckles clenched so tightly they cracked, and his face was filled with a fierce expression.

He kicked open the palace door, soared into the air, and flew at full speed towards Xuan Chen Palace.

The group of grandmaster guards behind them dared not delay and all took to the air to follow closely.

A dozen or so dark figures streaked across the night sky, heading straight for the palace.

The emperor, at the half-step innate level, flew at full speed, leaving all the guards far behind, and was the first to rush into the Xuan Chen Palace.

Seven or eight guards lay dead at the entrance of the palace, and the palace door was shattered.

A strong smell of blood drifted out on the night breeze.

The emperor's gaze swept over the corpse, and his pupils instantly contracted.

Before he even landed, a gust of wind swept away the broken wood fragments, and he rushed straight into the depths of the main hall.

Upon arriving at the mechanism containing the scriptures, my hands began to tremble slightly.

Her fingernails dug fiercely into her palm, leaving four deep crescent-shaped marks.

He turned the mechanism, staring intently into its depths, not daring to blink.

The second, third, and fourth mechanisms are unlocked layer by layer.

Each layer was heavier and slower than the last, filling me with panic.

Finally, all the mechanisms were activated.

Upon seeing what was inside, he instantly breathed a sigh of relief.

The Nine Yin Manual remained safely and securely in its original place.

He quickly reached out and picked it up, flipping through it rapidly by the candlelight.

The page number, handwriting, and yellowed paper all match up; they haven't been switched or tampered with.

His tense shoulders finally relaxed.

His restless heart calmed down completely, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he had another idea in mind.

As he walked out of Xuanchen Hall with the Nine Yin Manual, a large number of guards arrived just in time and quickly secured the entire palace.

He left alone, following the winding palace path, and headed towards an extremely inconspicuous and secluded little courtyard.

Meanwhile, on the highest rooftop of the palace.

Chen Mo lay motionless in the shadows on the roof ridge, having kept watch for almost half an hour.

He held up night-vision binoculars, keeping a close eye on the direction of Xuanchen Palace the entire time, not daring to blink for a moment.

The surveillance memory card had not yet been retrieved, so details inside the hall could not be seen, but the movements of everyone outside the hall were all clearly visible.

The Xuanchen Palace was brightly lit, and palace servants and guards were running around in a chaotic mess, as messy as a pot of boiling porridge.

Then the emperor took a scroll in his hand and left alone, arriving at a secluded courtyard, where he walked in alone.

A moment later, the emperor emerged alone, empty-handed.

After doing all this, he turned around and went straight back to Xuanchen Palace.

Chen Mo put down the binoculars.

The scriptures have definitely been moved!

He couldn't see what was happening inside the house, but his actions didn't lie.

With thieves eyeing the scriptures and the emperor still in shock, his first instinct would undoubtedly be to transfer the sacred texts.

He put away his binoculars and quickly weighed the pros and cons.

This small, secluded courtyard stood alone in a corner, guarded by only a few ordinary guards at the entrance. Compared to the heavily guarded Xuanchen Palace, it was a hundred times easier to make a move.

Now is the perfect time.

The scriptures had just been moved, and the defenses had not been fully deployed in time, causing chaos within the palace.

If we delay any longer and the defenses are fully in place, there will be no chance at all.

The night wind swept across the rooftop, and Chen Mo's figure instantly disappeared into the night.

Take action now!

So what if there's an ambush?

He didn't take the experts in the palace seriously at all.

Even if there are hidden experts, he still has ways to escape.

Chen Mo changed out of his night clothes and quickly disguised himself as an ordinary patrolling guard.

Holding a long sword, head bowed and breath held, he took advantage of the chaos during the shift change to approach the secluded courtyard step by step.

The night breeze made the lanterns at the door sway gently.

The guards looked up at him, but instead of questioning him, they simply stepped aside to let him pass.

Chen Mo felt a slight pause in his heart.

It went too smoothly, abnormally smoothly.

But then I thought about it again. The palace was in chaos tonight, and the guards were changing shifts frequently. There were so many faces that it was normal not to recognize the strangers.

With the scriptures right before their eyes, the immense temptation outweighed any doubts.

He stepped into the courtyard.

The courtyard was small, with an old well and three main rooms. It was unusually quiet, so quiet that you could hear the faint sound of the lamp flame crackling.

Chen Mo pushed open the door and entered the room, then closed it behind him.

The room fell into a deathly silence, so quiet that only his own breathing could be heard.

The next second, two soft yet aged laughs rang out one after the other, sharp and piercing.

The voice was definitely not that of the current emperor; it was older, more sinister, and more eerie.

"Is this the leader of the Crimson Fire Cult?"

"Looks like he's not that smart."

Chen Mo's heart sank.

Oops!

That old fox tricked me!

With a whoosh, the candles in the room were lit, and the room was instantly brightly lit.

He turned and scanned the entire room.

Two white-haired figures sat side by side on two armchairs.

The two possessed vast and profound auras, clearly indicating they were both at the half-step innate level!

His internal energy was cold and heavy, a pure Nine Yin Manual, even more profound and domineering than the current emperor's cultivation.

Chen Mo possessed the extremely strong and masculine Nine Yang Internal Force, which was naturally in conflict with it, causing him to feel uncomfortable all over his body instantly.

The two men had full heads of white hair, white faces, and no beards. They wore dragon robes, but they were different from the current emperor's.

One of them was playing with a secret manual in his hand, tossing it up and catching it with one hand, repeating it casually.

Chen Mo spotted the cover at a glance.

It was the very "Nine Yin Manual" that he had been longing for!

The man looked up at him, his voice high-pitched and soft, tinged with mockery.

"What? You want it?"

"Give me your Nine Yang Manual in exchange."

Chen Mo remained silent, calmly observing the situation.

Another person glanced at him sideways and made a sarcastic remark.

"Tsk tsk, is he scared out of his wits?"

The old man playing with the scriptures chuckled softly.

"It's just an act."

He once again brought up the scriptures and slowly began to speak.

"She is seriously injured and cannot afford to wait any longer; she will definitely be replaced."

The other person responded coldly.

"What if she doesn't want to change?"

"Then we'll just kill them and take them."

The two sentences of dialogue were light and casual, like chatting about trivial matters, yet they exuded extreme domineering power.

Chen Mo quickly reviewed the situation in his mind and instantly understood the current state of affairs.

Both of them cultivated the Nine Yin Manual and reached the half-step innate level, but they both ended up looking neither male nor female, like eunuchs.

With a lifespan of three hundred years, these two must have been former emperors who had retired to the background.

Having figured out all the key points, Chen Mo felt completely enlightened.

The current emperor has been acting from beginning to end.

They calculated that Shangguan Hong was seriously injured and in dire need of martial arts techniques, so she wouldn't go far and secretly observe the situation.

He deliberately threw himself into disarray and pretended to move the scriptures, thus luring him into this small courtyard.

The true scriptures are hidden in the secluded places where emperors of past dynasties practiced meditation, which is safer than any secret chamber or mechanism.

Using the scriptures as bait, they set a deadly trap with the aim of capturing him alive and seizing the "Nine Yang Manual".

The guards at the gate letting us through just now wasn't an oversight at all; it was a deliberate act of letting the fish into the net!

The abacus was clattering away.

Chen Mo remained calm, quickly weighing the pros and cons in his mind.

Both of these old eunuchs were slightly weaker than him.

With his immense strength of nearly 400,000 jin, his physical body, speed, and reaction completely overwhelmed ordinary half-step Xiantian cultivators, and he also possessed the pure Yang internal energy of the Nine Yangs to counter the Yin-cold Nine Yins.

He wouldn't be intimidated by two, let alone four or five.

But he had two concerns.

First, the true scriptures are in the hands of the other party. They can easily destroy them with a flick of their wrist, making it a losing proposition.

Secondly, once he goes all out and crushes two half-step Xiantian (innate) level opponents on the spot, his true nature will be completely exposed.

In their minds, Shangguan Hong was severely injured and on the verge of death, with her strength greatly reduced.

Once the strength falls short of the intelligence, all pretense collapses.

How can I get my hands on the Nine Yin Manual, which is so close at hand?