Chapter Eighteen: The Precious Sword

  After a slight hesitation, Ye Wen refused. He didn't know martial arts, and holding such a weapon would be of little use to him. Ye Xiang furrowed his brow slightly and said in a low voice, "What do I need those things for? I'm talking about the divine weapons and sharp instruments. Do you know where the treasure is hidden within the palace?"

  "Replying to Your Highness, the Imperial Storage is a place where imperial items are stored." Although he didn't know why his master suddenly asked this, Li Jinzhong still replied immediately. To him, what was important in this world wasn't etiquette, morality, or the difference between literary and martial arts, but rather that his master was happy.

  Ye Xiang didn't hesitate and hastily asked Li Jinzhong to lead the way to the Imperial Kiln.

  The Imperial Workshop is a place where utensils are specially made for the royal family, and it is in charge of making wooden screens, beds, and other wooden objects used in the palace, as well as toys made of purple sandalwood, ivory, ebony, etc. In the warehouse of the Imperial Workshop, there are treasures left by emperors of past dynasties, antiques, porcelain, and all kinds of precious and rare things can be found here.

  Located at the northwest corner of the Imperial Palace, the Yuyong Kui is a row of earth and stone structures, one of the few buildings in the entire Forbidden City. The red stone walls, black doors, colored glazed tiles, everything is almost the same as other palaces. However, this is one of the most heavily guarded places in the palace, almost the same as the bedroom of Emperor Taichang, even more heavily guarded than the prince's palace.

  The eunuch in charge of the Imperial Guard was named Chen Hua, who was over 50 years old but looked younger due to good self-care. Although he didn't know what the Crown Prince was doing here, he didn't dare to be negligent. After all, it was rumored that the Emperor's health was declining, and the Crown Prince might ascend to the throne soon, so it was crucial to curry favor with the new master. Now that there was such an opportunity, Chen Hua naturally wouldn't let it slip away, even showing some fawning behavior towards Li Jinzhong, who stood beside the Crown Prince.

  Without making any unnecessary movements, Ye Xiang slowly walked into the imperial warehouse, looking at the neatly arranged wooden shelves and nodded slightly. The life in the palace over this period of time had allowed Ye Xiang to gradually become accustomed to it, and he had developed a strong immunity to these rare treasures.

  He walked to a shelf deep in the house, looked at what was in front of him, and Ye Xiang became somewhat excited. Countless long box-shaped boxes were placed on the shelves, some were made of high-quality small leaf sandalwood, some were gold-inlaid jade boxes, and some were even golden nanmu wood. He gently stroked a box, turned his head to Chen Hua and said: "Are these all the treasured swords stored in the palace?"

  With a respectful bow, Chen Hua smiled and said: "Your Highness, yes, they are all here. Most of these were left behind by Taizu and Chengzu, and the palace has not added any new ones for many years. Since Your Highness wants weapons, I think these precious swords should be suitable, after all, a sword is the most noble of all weapons, very fitting for your status."

  He nodded slightly, and Ye Xiang took a different look at Chen Hua. It seems that people who can reach a certain position are not simple characters. Ye Xiang smiled silently and said, "Not bad, you have a heart."

  "Thank you, Your Excellency, for your praise. We servants are fortunate as long as our master is pleased." Chen Hua said with a smile, his face also showing joy. Although he was currently the eunuch in charge of the imperial workshop, tomorrow was uncertain.

  Since ancient times, there has been a saying that "one day as the emperor and one day as the minister". This rule is even more evident among eunuchs. Each prince had his own personal eunuch who followed him from childhood. After ascending to the throne, they would naturally be greatly promoted. Firstly, these people were easy to use because of their familiarity, secondly, although they may not have made any contributions, they had been by one's side through thick and thin, so when one became successful, they wouldn't forget them.

  So for these people, being able to win over their master's favor is of utmost importance.

  "You two go out first! I'll take a look myself." Ye Xiang waved his hand at the two of them, indicating that they should leave first.

  "The inferior one takes his leave." The two of them bowed and then slowly backed out.

  As the two men walked to the door, Li Jinzhong looked at Chen Hua with a very unfriendly expression and said faintly: "Chen Gonggong is really capable, even the Crown Prince praised you!"

  Chen Hua detected the dissatisfaction in Li Jinzhong's words, and a hint of understanding flashed in his eyes. He smiled obsequiously and said: "Look at what you're saying, from now on everyone in this palace will have to follow your lead. I hope Lord Li will take care of me more in the future." As he spoke, he placed an emerald green jade ring in Li Jinzhong's hand, which was clearly no ordinary item.

  "Eunuch Chen said, our family is just a slave of the Crown Prince, only doing their best to serve their master. Seeing Chen Hua being so understanding, Li Jinzhong also smiled and expressed his goodwill. After all, at this time, Li Jinzhong was just a eunuch by the Crown Prince's side, while Chen Hua was the head eunuch of the Imperial Household Department, as long as they showed goodwill, the two would be on the same page."

  Ignoring the eunuchs outside, Ye Xiang's attention was fully focused on the box in front of him. He gently opened it, and inside lay a sword, its body and style ordinary, looking completely unremarkable. But Ye Xiang knew that something placed here would definitely not be an ordinary item, but rather one of Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di's collections, and he believed it to be a treasured object.

  He gently picked up the treasured sword, and it felt heavy in his hand. He lightly grasped the hilt and pulled with force, but no matter how hard Ye Xiang tried, the sword would not come out of its scabbard. This made him somewhat indignant - could this broken sword still be picky about its master? Suddenly, he remembered a book he had read before, which said that ancient treasured swords all had a mechanism. He brought the sword in front of his eyes and carefully searched for it on the sword. Finally, after some effort, he found a golden button at the bottom of the hilt. Taking a light breath, Ye Xiang pressed the golden button with his finger, hesitated for a moment, then suddenly used force.

  As soon as he pressed, a cold light flashed by, and the dim room was like a flash of lightning. The treasure sword seemed to be suddenly bounced out by something. Half of the sword body was exposed outside, and half was still in the scabbard. Although he was frightened, Ye Xiang was overjoyed in his heart. It turned out that there really were such divine weapons in the world.

  Gently grasping the hilt, he pulled the blade out, and as it scraped against the scabbard, a clear sword hum echoed in Ye Xiang's ears. Looking at the bright autumn-water-like sword, his heart was very excited, indeed a good thing, absolutely capable of cutting iron like mud, and breaking hair with a single blow. Subconsciously looking around, Ye Xiang couldn't find anything to test the sword on, so he gritted his teeth and pulled out one of his own hairs from his head. Although it hurt, making him grimace, Ye Xiang was eager to place the hair on the blade, and with a light blow, the hair split into two sections, gently floating down to the ground.

  Ye Xiang excitedly picked up the treasured sword, and saw that on its body were distributed seven silver light points, looking just like the Big Dipper in the sky. Ye Xiang knew that this sword's name should be called Seven Star Sword.