I Have 10 Equipment Slots

Chapter 400: Chapter 230: Assassinating the Sovereign

’A King’s Body!’

His mind still reeling, Gu Feng gulped.

’If he wasn’t family, I’d never have had the chance to meet someone this powerful in my entire life.’

"That’s right. We should all work hard, break through to the Super Body realm soon, and catch up to Dingding," Gu Pan’Er added.

"Me too, me too!" Gu Wan’Er yelled, not quite understanding what a King’s Body was, but knowing she should join in the shouting.

"Alright, Wan’Er will be our second Super Body." Gu Zheng ruffled the little girl’s head and called Xiaolu over to give everyone a mark.

"You got it~!"

Xiaolu hopped over and pressed a Divine Weapon Mark onto Gu Sihai’s arm.

Next, it placed marks on the wrists of Gu Wan’Er, Gu Pan’Er, Gu Xue, and Zhou Dingding, one by one.

Gu Feng watched from the side, green with envy, but he was sensible enough not to say a word and kept his distance.

The Divine Weapon Mark could be concealed on their skin when they weren’t channeling the power of the Divine Weapon Projection.

As for how to borrow its power, Gu Wan’Er and Gu Xue instinctively understood the moment the marks were placed.

This was a unique connection between the Divine Weapon and the Divine Weapon Seal.

...

The Divine Weapon Seal would accelerate their cultivation and provide an extra layer of security.

However, breaking through to new realms still depended on their own efforts.

The Three Elements Gathering Light Technique only allowed cultivation up to the third stage, Super Body·Radiant.

Currently, Zhou Dingding was already a Super Body·Vajra and wouldn’t take long to advance to Super Body·Radiant.

So, Gu Zheng immediately set about creating a new True Skill.

Building upon the Three Elements Gathering Light Technique and referencing the Ultimate Skills of the Xiao and Xie Families, he created a True Skill belonging exclusively to the Gu Family.

Gu Zheng had taken every single True Skill from the Xie Family’s collection.

He had also casually browsed the Xiao Family’s Ultimate Skills in the past.

The True Skills collected by these two Noble Families, with their millennia-long legacies, were all outstanding.

Fortunately, Gu Zheng was no longer the man he used to be.

Creating a True Skill at the King’s Body Realm to advance to the True Body Realm would be extremely difficult.

However, creating a True Skill for realms below King’s Body was a swift process, especially when he had other techniques to reference.

Gu Zheng stayed home for five days, and by the end, he had created the successor to the Three Elements Gathering Light Technique.

He named the True Skill the Qiankun Divine Skill, which could be cultivated all the way to the King’s Body realm!

It integrated the physical body, Divine Wondrous power, Spirit, mind, will, and the yin-yang—or rather, the water and fire—Divine Seeds.

By gathering the power of these six "divine aspects" into one body, a cultivator could open their Sea of Consciousness, manifest a Domain, and advance to the King’s Body realm.

Of course, should someone actually reach the point of breaking through to the King’s Body realm, Gu Zheng still had two Celestial Profound Crystals on hand to help them.

...

With everything settled at home, Gu Zheng departed for the Kang Country.

It was time to retrieve the Northern Mountain Tripod from within the Royal Palace of the Kang Country.

He traveled north from Fengzhou, crossed the Celestial Gate Mountain Range, entered the Kang Country’s borders, and went straight to its Royal Capital.

Once inside the city, Gu Zheng paused, concealed his aura, and found a teahouse to sit in while he waited for nightfall.

According to the guidance from the Human Emperor’s Seal Artifact Embryo, the Northern Mountain Tripod was inside a great hall within the Kang Royal Palace.

Whether it was above or below ground was something he would have to ascertain.

The teahouse Gu Zheng had chosen wasn’t far from the Royal Palace.

Activating his Five Orifice Divine Techniques, he consciously focused their direction to listen for and receive information from the Royal Palace—sounds, smells, auras, and other traces. A three-dimensional map of the area slowly began to form in his mind.

It started from the palace gates, extending to the great halls, pavilions, gardens and rockeries, ponds and trees, and then to the soldiers of the Imperial Guard, the Imperial Guards, Dragon Guard Bureau personnel, palace maids and eunuchs, princes and princesses...

A layout of the Kang Royal Palace took shape in his mind, piece by piece, constantly expanding and filling with new details.

This continued until the entire Royal Palace was reflected in his mind’s eye.

Consulting the guidance from the Human Emperor’s Seal Artifact Embryo again, he located the Northern Mountain Tripod: it was stored underground, beneath a great hall in the northeastern corner of the Royal Palace.

Inside and outside the great hall, as many as two hundred Imperial Guard soldiers stood watch.

There were also experts from the Dragon Guard Bureau: two at the Heroic Body Realm and one Half-King!

This was the information he gleaned from the feedback of their aura fluctuations.

With so many people on guard, the underground space housing the Northern Mountain Tripod was clearly a treasury.

’The Fu Family’s treasury, located inside the Royal Palace?’

’This is a bit troublesome.’

Gu Zheng continued to sense carefully, taking in all the auras from within and without the great hall. He discovered an Array operating inside the building.

Using an Array to protect a treasury certainly made it harder to rob.

After all, if it were triggered, the resulting commotion would be significant, easily attracting the attention of everyone nearby.

Gu Zheng’s original plan had been to take the Northern Mountain Tripod silently, without alerting a soul.

’Now that I see the Northern Mountain Tripod is underground, with so many guards on the surface and an Array, it’s unavoidable. I’ll have to kill a few people.’

...

「Night fell.」

The streets of the Kang Royal Capital were ablaze with lights, bustling with people coming and going. It was a lively scene.

Despite the Demon Fiend invasion, the Royal Capitals of the various Vassal States were generally quite safe.

The Corpse Puppet attack on the Jing Country’s Royal Capital had been an artificial tragedy, orchestrated by the Yong family of the Yue Country.

So far, the Kang Royal Capital had yet to be attacked.

Still, official patrols moved through the streets, team after team weaving through the crowds without pause.

It wasn’t even curfew yet.

Gu Zheng moved with the flow of the crowd, strolling down the street and slowly approaching the Royal Palace.

Once he was close, he ducked into a small alley, suppressed his aura to its absolute minimum, and donned a Concealing Cloak.

He emerged from the alley floating half a meter off the ground. Drifting on the night wind, he made a small loop before passing over the palace wall and into the Royal Palace proper.

Once inside, he continued to drift on the wind, moving toward the northeastern corner.

Upon reaching the perimeter of the great hall where the Northern Mountain Tripod was hidden, Gu Zheng’s figure flickered as he created three illusory duplicates, preparing to lure away the guards below.

Just then, however, his constantly active Five Orifice Divine Techniques detected a dozen or so bizarre, demonic auras vaulting over the palace walls from all sides and entering the grounds.

Three of the auras were particularly potent. Judging from their fluctuations, they were at least at the Heroic Body Realm!

WHOOSH~

The night wind blew.

As the dozen or so demonic auras entered the palace, wisps of mist appeared as if from thin air, rapidly emerging from every corner.

It spread with incredible speed, beginning to obscure visibility within the few short breaths it took Gu Zheng to process the new information.

"Is it getting foggy?"

"Is it about to rain?"

"..."

The hushed discussions of palace maids and guards came from all around.

The Dragon Guard Bureau experts guarding the treasury didn’t notice anything amiss.

The King’s Body expert Gu Zheng had previously detected stationed in the Kang Royal Palace also failed to notice anything strange about the mist.

Those dozen or so demonic auras had blended almost perfectly into the air, the night, and the entire Royal Palace.

Upon entering the palace, they had quickly scattered, heading for the various great halls.

Gu Zheng "watched" this unfold and withdrew his illusory duplicates. ’Time to watch the show.’

These dozen or so demonic auras that had infiltrated the Royal Palace so silently clearly harbored malicious intent.

The mist spreading from the corners carried with it the faint aura of a Demon Fiend.

’Half-Demons?’

’Whatever they are, the Kang Royal Palace is in for some excitement tonight.’

Sure enough, Gu Zheng didn’t have to wait long before he remotely "saw" a figure formed from one of the auras dart out from a corner and assassinate a Prince.

The latter didn’t even notice before his head was lopped off in a flash.

At the same time, the dozen or so other auras scattered throughout the palace also manifested as figures, flashing out from the shadows to attack the Fu family’s princes, princesses, and imperial concubines.

Among their targets, naturally, was the current Sovereign of the Kang Country, Fu Jintian!

As the Sovereign, Fu Jintian naturally had experts by his side at all times, some overt and some clandestine.

He himself was also an expert at the Half-King Level.

Thus, the assassination attempt against Fu Jintian involved three of the aura-formed figures.

These three figures were the same ones Gu Zheng had previously "seen" at the Heroic Body Realm.

But unlike when they had infiltrated the palace, the moment these three figures launched their surprise attack on Fu Jintian, their auras exploded outward.

One at the peak of the Heroic Body realm, one Half-King, and one King’s Body!

The three assassins struck simultaneously, their roles clearly defined. Their targets were Fu Jintian and his protectors: three experts at the peak of the Heroic Body realm and one Half-King.

In other words, it was three against five!

"SHHFFK!"

"SHHFFK~"

"SPURT~!"

The sickening sounds rang out almost simultaneously.

Fu Jintian and the four experts protecting him were struck at the same moment.

As auras flared and blood sprayed through the air, a screen of light erupted from Fu Jintian’s body, only to shatter in the next instant.

Though it was fleeting and there were no screams of pain or bellows of rage, the flare of the light screen and the sudden eruption of auras still managed to alert half the Royal Palace!