"You actually dare to put it into a storage ring?"

Yao Shi Yue laughed out of anger, stomping her wooden clogs hard: "Explode for me!"

Although she couldn’t scout around the Exotic Iron with the Dragon-Locking Seal, why would she need to know? By shooting lock chains in all directions, she was bound to catch someone. The Thief’s House was just a group of mortal messengers, once caught by the Golden Lock, there was no way to escape, even across a distance of five hundred miles, the Foundation Establishment Divine Techniques would not diminish in the slightest!

If Yellow Dog had only saved the Rabbit Heroine, Yao Shi Yue might have let him go, but the theft of Exotic Iron meant he had chosen a path to his death.

Exotic Iron was one of the significant legacies left by Zhou Taizu, a rare material produced from the Sixth-Turn Secret Realm, used as an essential base material for forging the Sixth-Turn Token! Although Yao Shi Yue wasn’t yet qualified to forge a Sixth-Turn Token, even the scraps shaved from Exotic Iron were her most significant income source over the past century — these scraps, used alongside repair tools, could substantially restore the durability of Weapon Tokens, especially effective for Fourth-Turn Tokens.

The value of this item was immense and, more importantly, Yao Shi Yue could use it to restrain the Foundation Establishments of Zhou Kingdom; no one dared to offend the Yao Family too much. Otherwise, just by raising the price, Yao Shi Yue could cause much pain to Zhou Kingdom’s Foundation Establishments because there weren’t many repair tools. Everyone had to find various ways to increase repair efficiency, lest they find themselves in a fierce battle without tools to repair their tokens — that would be a death with eyes wide open.

Because Exotic Iron was so crucial, Yao Shi Yue spent a year inscribing it with the Dragon-Locking Seal, fearing it would be snatched away by other Foundation Establishments. However, she didn’t expect the thieves were not Foundation Establishments but a group of petty thieves.

The Dragon-Locking Seal didn’t have any other effect; it could not scout, only vaguely determine the location. It couldn’t be activated in the Secret Realm, but conversely, if Yao Shi Yue could activate the Dragon-Locking Seal, it signified the Exotic Iron had been stolen out of the Secret Realm!

Just then, Yao Shi Yue’s feeling of the Dragon-Locking Seal became shallower, as if looking at stars through a veil. She was familiar with this, as it indicated the Exotic Iron had been placed back into a storage ring; these little thieves were still not giving up... then stay for me!

Absolute Dragon Blockade: Eightfold!

...Hmm?

Yao Shi Yue was stunned; she had indeed activated Divine Authority, but the perception from the Dragon-Locking Seal didn’t change, meaning it was still inside the storage ring. Her face turned slightly cold; she activated Absolute Dragon Blockade: Eightfold again, exhausting almost all her Spiritual Essence.

No effect.

She didn’t want to believe it; after replenishing her Spiritual Essence, she activated it twice more, with no reaction. She could still sense the Dragon-Locking Seal, but it no longer responded to Yao Shi Yue’s Divine Authority, quietly resting in the storage ring.

How is this possible... Not even other Foundation Establishments might have a countermeasure so quickly; how did they do it?

Yao Shi Yue’s face turned blue, but her hands had already dropped down.

If Yellow Dog had a way to prevent her from using the Dragon-Locking Seal to activate Divine Authority, she was just futilely exhausting her Spiritual Essence, utterly meaningless. In her last act of an undying heart, she activated it once more; again with no effect, she wasted no time leaping from the Observation Platform, shooting lock chains from her sleeves, binding to a distant tree, transforming into a white shadow dashing towards Chang’an City!

...

...

"We need to be fast and mustn’t entangle with enemies we encounter. She might react soon; we have only this one chance."

Within the golden barrier, Yan Qing removed the storage ring, tying it up with a strand of hair and tightly grasping the hair with his right hand.

In case of any abnormality from the storage ring, he wouldn’t face the Golden Lock shot out by the Exotic Iron directly.

The Return Order in his left hand had completely turned into powder, dispersing into the air.

Indeed, Yan Qing’s strategy was simple: using the invincible barrier of the Return Order to prevent the True Man of Locking Dragon from triggering the Exotic Iron’s trap.

Based on his observation, the chains shot out by the Exotic Iron were random, relying purely on numbers to win, indicating the True Man of Locking Dragon was unfamiliar with the situation here; if the Exotic Iron was stored in a ring it would immediately trigger an explosion showing that the True Man of Locking Dragon could sense the Exotic Iron’s circumstance.

Therefore, Yan Qing directly stored the Exotic Iron in the storage ring and immediately activated the Return Order. How could a mere True Man of Locking Dragon reach beyond an invincible barrier to influence the Exotic Iron?

Yan Qing gambled, wagering the True Man of Locking Dragon wouldn’t immediately associate his activation of the Return Order. After all, the Return Order had only ever been showcased by Jiang Shi in Liang Kingdom; during the Rabbit Heroine’s instance, only the Three Great Guardians witnessed it. Most people didn’t know the function of the Return Order, naturally not considering it a conventional tactic.

Furthermore, such a thing as the Return Order was meant for escaping, while Yan Qing was using it to store the Exotic Iron in the ring before activating it — how could the True Man of Locking Dragon possibly imagine someone wasting a precious escape tool for this purpose? After ten seconds, she could trigger the Dragon-Locking Seal again, rendering all their efforts futile.

But will she? To her, the Exotic Iron suddenly being stored in a ring and then becoming unreachable no matter what, would she rush towards Chang’an during this time, or keep attempting in vain?

Of course, there were too many assumptions by Yan Qing here, so he was also prepared to fail completely, preemptively removing the ring, ready to give up once it shattered.

But regardless, he wouldn’t return empty-handed this time.

Yan Qing looked at Pharmacist’s Wish and Ying Rushi, who had already regained their freedom outside the barrier, and at Shang Xinlei. The chains and Exotic Iron were bound together, and once the invincible barrier isolated Yan Qing from the outside world, the lock chains of Black Wolf and White Fox dissipated as well.

They exchanged glances, nodding lightly, and the moment the barrier disappeared, the thieves immediately rushed toward An Guo Temple.

The Mansion Soldiers had arrived; after all, the golden light barrier from the Return Order was too conspicuous. They quickly spotted the thieves running swiftly across the rooftops, shouting and cursing, with some drawing bows and arrows, but the thieves didn’t even have time to glance at them. Delaying for a second would mean disrespect to the True Man of Locking Dragon.

Shang Xinlei was the first to reach the top of the Buddhist Pagoda in An Guo Temple, reaching out to pull up Ying Rushi from behind, who then threw down the Snake Pattern Rope. Pharmacist’s Wish and Yan Qing grabbed the Snake Pattern Rope, being pulled up by the two of them!

The four of them practically dashed to the top of the Buddhist Pagoda, and as the scene changed, they all tumbled onto the cold floor of the Thief’s House hall.

Yan Qing lay on the ground, gasping for breath — the running wasn’t exhausting, but the mental pressure was too immense, with each moment passing agonizingly slow, as if the True Man of Locking Dragon would grasp and refine them the next second.

At this moment, the Exotic Iron suddenly emerged, startling everyone, yet it didn’t shoot out a Golden Lock, and Yan Qing’s storage ring didn’t shatter. A rainbow light descended from the ceiling of the hall, and the Exotic Iron floated above the stone table, officially taken over by the Thief’s House.

Yan Qing turned to see everyone looking at him. It seemed like a time to say something, but someone laughed first, and soon everyone relaxed, with laughter echoing through the hall as they savored their survival.