The entire Blood Lake was covered by a thick layer of earth.

A silver gleam, exceptionally clear and bright, instantly caught Jiang Chen’s attention.

With a grasping motion, Jiang Chen pulled the silver light through the air. It flew into his palm, revealing a solid silver metal box. "What is this thing?"

The metal box was cold to the touch.

As he held it, a distinct chill spread from his palm.

Jiang Chen couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

He tried to open the metal box, but whether he used True Essence or Divine Thought Power, any attempt to permeate it was like a mud ox entering the sea—completely gone without a trace.

"Strange!"

Extremely puzzled, Jiang Chen looked at the Black Emperor, who was sleeping on his shoulder. "Little Black, wake up. Take a look at this."

"Hmm?"

The Black Emperor lifted his sleepy eyes and glanced at the metal box in Jiang Chen’s hand.

His expression was initially one of indifference, but after his gaze fell upon the metal box, it suddenly turned to one of surprise.

In a flash, he flew over to the metal box, hugging it with his two small paws. He examined it carefully before looking at Jiang Chen in astonishment. "Where did you get this thing?"

"I found it where the Blood Lake used to be," Jiang Chen answered honestly.

At this moment, Jiang Chen’s curiosity grew even stronger.

’In my memory, there aren’t many things that can make the Black Emperor show such an expression!’

The last time he had seen the Black Emperor look like this was when they had just arrived at Martial Saint Mountain, and the Black Emperor had sensed the aura of a Demigod within it!

’Could this metal box be a Demigod’s item too?’

Jiang Chen pressed, "Little Black, what exactly is this thing?"

"I don’t know what’s inside. This Emperor only recognizes the Array on this box..."

The Black Emperor extended a sharp claw, his nail tracing lightly over the patterns on the metal box and producing a low humming sound. He continued, "This is a Fifth Grade Locking Spirit Array. They’re usually inscribed on containers meant to preserve precious treasures. A Spirit Locking Array prevents the energy of the treasure inside from escaping, allowing it to be preserved for a hundred thousand years without decaying."

He had once followed the Celestial Demon Emperor Venerable.

As such, he possessed profound knowledge of the world’s many Arrays, Inscriptions, pills, and more.

If the Black Emperor said it was a Spirit Locking Array, then it definitely was.

’There must be some kind of treasure preserved in this metal box!’

"Then how do you open a Spirit Locking Array?" Jiang Chen asked.

The Black Emperor replied, "There are many ways to open a Spirit Locking Array, but there are three common methods. The first is to know the inscription sequence of this specific Spirit Locking Array and open it that way. The second is to have a Fifth-Grade Refiner forcibly break it open. As for the last one, it’s a blood sacrifice, using the pure yin and pure yang blood of young boys and girls to invade and corrode the Spirit Locking Array’s Inscriptions."

"I see. No wonder Yun Jianshen harmed so many innocent children." Jiang Chen nodded, his eyes filled with rage.

No matter how precious the treasure in this box was, Jiang Chen would never be able to bring himself to sacrifice the lives of so many innocent children for it.

Jiang Chen looked at the Black Emperor. "Little Black, can you open it now?"

"If this were a complete Spirit Locking Array, this Emperor wouldn’t be able to open it either, except by the last method. However, Yun Jianshen already used the Blood Sacrifice Technique to corrode most of the Inscriptions. Its power is only at about thirty percent, so with your current strength, you’re strong enough to force it open!"

As he spoke, the Black Emperor handed the metal box back to him.

Jiang Chen channeled his Divine Thought and, using Artifact Refining techniques, began to forcibly break the Spirit Locking Array.

This Spirit Locking Array was truly worthy of being a Fifth Grade Spiritual Array!

Even after being corroded by Yun Jianshen’s blood sacrifice for over a year, it still retained considerable power. It took Jiang Chen a full two double-hours to finally break the Spirit Locking Array by force.

CRACK!

The moment the Spirit Array’s Inscriptions were broken, a jet of golden light shot out from the metal box.

The blinding golden light made both Jiang Chen and the Black Emperor frown involuntarily.

Once the light dimmed, Jiang Chen and the Black Emperor looked into the metal box. Lying quietly inside was a Sword-shaped Jade Order, so crystal clear it resembled a piece of warm, cultured jade.

"What is this thing?" Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow and took out the Sword-shaped Jade Order.

It was icy cold in his hand, like a block of ice.

K-K-K-K-K!

In just an instant, a layer of white frost had already formed on Jiang Chen’s palm. His expression changed slightly. With a jolt of his arm, he shattered the layer of ice. He enveloped his palm with True Essence to resist the bone-chilling cold emanating from the Sword Order. "What on earth is this thing made of? It’s freezing!"

With Jiang Chen’s current physical strength, his body was already comparable to a High-level Celestial Tier Profound Weapon!

Impervious to water and fire, unaffected by heat or cold!

Yet when he touched this Sword Order, he still felt an intense cold that he couldn’t help but be shocked by.

"Try to see if you can make it recognize you as its master," the Black Emperor said.

Jiang Chen nodded and forced a single Blood Pearl from his fingertip.

The Blood Pearl squirmed slightly before shooting into the Sword Order amid a flash of red light.

BZZZ...

The transparent Sword Order emitted a faint, bloody glow.

Afterward, that wisp of Jiang Chen’s Essence Blood coalesced within the Sword Order to form the number "7"!

"The seventh Mystic Sect Sword Order?"

Jiang Chen was stunned.

This was the message transmitted to him after the Sword Order recognized him as its master.

But that was the only piece of information!

Nothing else!

The Black Emperor blinked. "The seventh Mystic Sect Sword Order? You mean there are several of these things? Jiang Chen, is there any other information?"

"Nothing!"

Jiang Chen shook his head. "Oh well, I’ll just put it away for now. Maybe I’ll run into the other Mystic Sect Sword Orders in the future."

"Right."

The Black Emperor nodded.

And so, Jiang Chen took the one hundred boys and girls to Yulan Mansion as quickly as possible. After leaving them at the city gates, he shot up into the sky.

Although he had some friendly history with the Mansion Master of Yulan Mansion, after the betrayal of Si Xiaosheng and Yulan Tianpeng, Jiang Chen had no intention of getting involved with them again. He immediately flew toward the Profound Celestial Ice Field at top speed.

However, the Profound Celestial Ice Field was located in the far north of the Eastern Continent, while the Cloud Domain was in the far south. Flying directly to the Profound Celestial Ice Field would take at least a year and a half. Time was the one thing Jiang Chen couldn’t afford to waste. Therefore, his first destination was the Celestial Fate Dynasty, the only Upper Grade Dynasty in the Cloud Domain.

The Celestial Fate Dynasty was situated in the center of the Cloud Domain and was extremely prosperous. Within the Celestial Fate Dynasty, there were even Overlord Level experts who had surpassed the Union Palace Realm.

Jiang Chen’s goal on this trip was to go to the Jiuhua Celestial Sect, the number one Sect in the Celestial Fate Dynasty.

By using the Jiuhua Celestial Sect’s Teleportation Array, he could reach the Profound Celestial Ice Field in the shortest amount of time.

’Senior Lui Chuanchang is close friends with Third Elder Beis Ming of the Jiuhua Celestial Sect. He gave me a letter of recommendation, so it shouldn’t be difficult to use the Teleportation Array as long as I find him.’ Jiang Chen traveled day and night for ten full days, finally reaching the Imperial Capital of the Celestial Fate Dynasty...

[First update!]