The ancient iron lockbox resting in the drainage ditch radiated an aura so suffocatingly dense that the surrounding air took on the dark, thick, sticky sheen of liquid gold.
Nine coiled dragons, cast in sky red bronze, wrapped around the box’s star-fallen iron frame. Their claws gripped the corners with eternal, hungry tension. At the center of the latch sat the Nine-Star Imperial Conferred Seal. A disc of flawless purple mutton-fat jade engraved with the ancient dragon script of the Great Da-Qi Dynasty’s First Emperor.
A terrifying pressure rippled from the jade disk in expanding waves of spiritual gravity. Thirty paces away, veteran captains of the northern guard post dropped to their knees, their teeth chattering as their souls groaned under the weight of ancient royal sovereignty. Even Commander Zhao, who possessed a peak Tier 4 training, found himself gasping for breath, forced to support himself with his sheathed saber.
“The Nine-Dragon Imperial Seal...” Grandmaster Feng whimpered, his face pressed into the gravel swale. “It’s the legendary First Epoch Conferred Relic! Ancient records in the Imperial Archive state that this seal was forged from the marrow of a True Dragon and locked by the blood of the Founding Emperor himself! The text warns: ‘Whoever attempts to force this lock without the royal bloodline shall suffer nine tribulations of heavenly thunder and have his soul scattered into nine thousand pieces!’”
