The dried corpse's face looked fierce! Its mouth was toothless, eye sockets hollow, and skin wrinkled and desiccated, as if it had died thousands of years ago. Yet the voice sounded as fresh as a living person, only sinisterly androgynous and extremely unpleasant to the ears.
"Eunuch?" The word popped into Fan Li's mind.
Indeed. Judging solely from the voice, the dried corpse was clearly the most common figure found in imperial palaces: eunuchs.
Eunuchs should have been the most abject slaves in the imperial palace. Yet the twelve gold men all knelt before it. Furthermore, the golden sword held in the dried corpse eunuch's hand faintly emanated a supreme and noble aura, extremely unsuitable for a mere eunuch.
"Lord Jin, that is the Sword of Qin!" Cao Cao suddenly said.
Upon hearing this, Fan Li felt greatly surprised.
The Sword of Qin?
The sword certainly looked extraordinary, but how could it be in the hands of a dried corpse eunuch?
Fan Li looked at the twelve gold men, then at the golden Sword of Qin seemingly cast from gold. Various thoughts came to mind.
"Grand Chief Eunuch, eliminate the thieves, protect this immortal palace!"
The dried corpse suddenly shrieked. The twelve gold men rose to their feet at the command, pointing their longswords at the crowd without hesitation as they aggressively charged!
"We'll block the gold men. Please think of a way to take the sword, my lord!" Having said that, Cao Cao, Liu Bei and Sun Quan moved forward to face the twelve gold men. The three had profound cultivation and actually managed to block all twelve gold men!
"This is..." Fan Li looked left and right. With his lowly cultivation, fighting the dried corpse eunuch was definitely impossible.
Princess Chang Le had a scheming mind and made no move right now, clearly impossible to order around. As for the great scholar Yan Yuan, Fan Li could barely order him due to Lu Bu's face.
But Yan Yuan only had the Nascent Soul realm cultivation. The dried corpse eunuch held the Sword of Qin and was even able to command twelve gold men, certainly not someone a Nascent Soul cultivator could handle.
"Ahem, Sage Ruler Qing..."
Among all of them, Sage Ruler Qing Qi was undoubtedly the strongest, peak Great Vehicle 7th grade, nearly half immortal.
Yet Sage Ruler Qing Qi shook her head. "I will only ensure you do not die, but am not your hired thug. That dried corpse's cultivation is still unclear, but if your life is in danger, I will be the first to take you away."
Fan Li felt speechless. Couldn't rely on Sage Ruler Qing Qi either. Only the garrison troops remained. With over two thousand elite troops, was he forced to pile up lives to forcibly exchange them for that dried corpse eunuch?
Yet at this moment, Princess Chang Le whispered, "You mustn't kill that old eunuch, think of some way to capture him alive! He definitely knows where the 'First Emperor's Writings' is located."
"With so many demands, why don't you go show them first?" Fan Li rolled his eyes without a shred of politeness.
Princess Chang Le giggled, sticking out her fragrant tongue with an expression saying 'how could you reject a cute girl's requests?'
It was quite strange. Although the dried corpse acted outrageously, even ordering the gold men to take initiative attacking, it still remained within the Epang Palace's main hall.
It paced back and forth on the white marble steps outside the hall doors, but never took a single step further outside.
"Is it guarding the main hall?" A thought flashed through Fan Li's mind. "Or perhaps it's constrained by the main hall, unable to move far away?" Whichever guess was right, Fan Li immediately knew of his advantage:
Distance!
"Prepare the Repeating Crossbows and Rock Hurlers." Fan Li ordered.
Sage Ruler Qing Qi, Princess Chang Le and Yan Yuan's faces revealed disbelief.
"What are you trying to do?!" Princess Chang Le felt a little anxious. "Don't ruin my treasures or I'll never let you off!"
Fan Li coldly sneered, not bothering to argue with her. This woman had more secrets than hair strands. Outwardly appearing chatty, she was actually quite tight-lipped.
Sage Ruler Qing Qi seemed to understand Fan Li's thoughts and nodded, "As long as it's Heaven-Tier grade or above treasure, it can't be easily destroyed. What's more, this is a good opportunity to weaken the enemy's strength."
"Fire!"
With Fan Li's order, the Repeating Crossbows and Rock Hurlers brought by the garrison troops unloaded all remaining giant arrows and massive boulders!
In an instant, it was as if the sky would soon pour down a rain of giant arrows and boulders, except each projectile was exceptionally huge!
"Protect His Majesty!!!" The dried corpse eunuch was furious, its shriek echoing throughout the entire underground palace.
However, with the twelve gold men occupied by Cao Cao, Liu Bei and Sun Quan, it could only wield the Sword of Qin by itself to meet the incoming rain of missiles.
"Less than a hundred meters."
Having flown midair in an attempt to intercept the attack, the dried corpse eunuch's figure suddenly froze, as if an invisible rope behind it had tied it up.
Fan Li estimated the distance, also looking forward to witnessing the might of the Sword of Qin. Yet everything that happened next greatly exceeded Fan Li's expectations.
In the dried corpse eunuch's hands, the Sword of Qin actually resembled a burning torch, completely devoid of any majestic aura despite being exceptionally sturdy.
The dried corpse eunuch furiously brandished the sword, instantly dancing out a seamless curtain of sword shadows to block more than half the giant arrows and boulders shot at Epang main hall. But the majority of projectiles still solidly struck the main hall.
Boom Boom Boom!!!
It felt like an earthquake as the entire underground palace seemed on the verge of collapse. Yet when the dust settled and the Repeating Crossbows and Rock Hurlers finally exhausted their ammunition, Fan Li discovered that the flawless Epang main hall remained untouched!?
"What is this situation?" Fan Li exclaimed in bewilderment.
Even Princess Chang Le revealed an astonished expression, apparently also caught by surprise.
Only Sage Ruler Qing Qi lightly said, "This palace hall is a Heaven-Tier treasure."
With its size and scale comparable to Great Chu's entire imperial palace, Fan Li never imagined this was actually a treasure!
"Damn, I like it..." Fan Li couldn't help but murmur excitedly. What he worried about most were those clones currently in secluded cultivation in the Fan Manor.
Despite strict security, the Fan Manor was meaningless against top experts like Sage Ruler Qing Qi.
Fan Li had been hoping for a reward from system missions to obtain an absolutely safe place for cultivation.
Right now, this Epang main hall perfectly suited his needs!
"Ahhh!!!"
"Vile thieves have defiled His Majesty's immortal palace! Your Majesty... this slave Zhao Gao deserves death! Death!" The dried corpse eunuch seemed to be going insane.
When the main hall remained completely undamaged and only scattered giant sword fragments and rubble lay outside, the dried corpse eunuch still knelt on the ground, ceaselessly kowtowing towards the main hall doors.
"Zhao Gao?" Fan Li raised a brow. He didn't expect the dried corpse to actually be Zhao Gao. Fan Li had even referenced Zhao Gao's classic 'point deer make horse' scene before.
"What's this? Are you familiar with him?" Princess Chang Le half-joked.
Fan Li: "...Not familiar. But is it possible the First Emperor is still inside the palace hall? Then later he'll come out and kill us all without leaving a single piece of armor behind?"
He was truly worried. It'd be disastrous if the First Qin Emperor appeared, flanked by several Qin generals like Bai Qi, Wang Jian or Meng Tian. Otherwise, everyone present would likely perish here.
"That shouldn't happen." Sage Ruler Qing Qiu spoke up. "I can sense the palace hall is empty."
Hearing this, Fan Li heaved a long sigh of relief. "Sage Ruler Qing Qi, I'm realizing more and more how nice it is listening to your words..."