w.a.n.g Kaitai patted An Zou"s shoulder. ""Don"t worry, the palace is under heavy guard. Nothing will go wrong.""

Furthermore, you had already seen those stones back at the Gathering Merchant House, so there shouldn"t be any problems.

If there was one, it was in the box.

""No matter how sincere the people of You Country are, they won"t offer the Flowing Maple Blade to the King of Yan even if there"s no need for it. All they need to do is pay attention to that box.""

An Chao nodded. Just as he was about to leave, he was stopped by Fang Lu, ""This is for you.""

An Zeng subconsciously took it over and looked at it. He discovered that it was a very small object that looked like a pen.

""Something my father used.""

Fang Dao replied indifferently, as if there was nothing special about it.

An Zaiyue thanked her, but didn"t pay much attention to it as he held the pen in his hand.

An Xuan went up to the platform in front of Empyrean Terminus Palace and stood before Mu Changyan.

Mu Changyan stood up and walked towards the crowd, holding An Zaiyue"s hand. ""You all know that there was someone who helped my big Yan earlier, but do you all know that he is only fifteen years old?""

Actually, everyone knew about this, but in order to cooperate with the King, they all had expressions of ""F * ck"" on their faces.

Mu Changyan said, ""People always say that heroes come from youths. It seems that An Zhe is my hero.""

He was young and knowledgeable, and was wholeheartedly working for the Great Yan. Now, he had successfully entered the Martial Arts Academy.

""Prince Gu feels that this is not enough. After a period of time, the Autumn Ceremony will come, and I will see you at the Ascension Ceremony, how about it?""

An Xuan said, ""Thank you for your love, but I am a man of talent. It will be difficult for me to enter the Autumn Festival with my meager ability.""

Mu Changyan laughed out loud, ""I know. Big Yan"s younger generation is indeed filled with talent.""

Not to mention other places, there were even a few people in Fang Gu City whose names were always in Gu Xin"s heart.

The Great Cauldron Academy"s Su Feihun, the Supreme Dao Hall"s Feng Xiuzhu, and the Martial Academies" Nie Qing were all geniuses that only happened once in a hundred years.

""If we add in a dispute, why should I not be happy?""

All the officials of Yan Country bowed their heads and clasped their fists, ""G.o.d bless the Great Yan, G.o.d bless the King!""

Mu Changyan was obviously very happy. She pointed at the platform and said, ""The amba.s.sador from You Kingdom said that those stones would be used to cut everything out and present it to the Queen Mother. However, this is obviously not interesting.""

Why don"t you go up and look first and tell them what"s in the stone, or not.

""If you are wrong, I will punish you.""

Seeing Mu Changyan"s expression, An Zaiyan knew that Mu Changyan was actually worried about something. He wanted him to go up first to see if the Nether Realm people really had any dirty thoughts.

The stones were almost all seen in the Coliseum, making sure there was nothing in them.

However, the reason why the people of You had moved to Empyrean Terminus Palace was, of course, especially so.

An Zhe nodded, ""Then this subject will be making a fool of himself.""

He turned and walked up to the dais, but the red-robed clergyman had a strange expression on his face.

""Young Master An, we meet again.""

The red-robed magistrate clasped his hands.

An Zeng also clasped his fists and replied, ""We meet again.""

""Have you seen all these stones before, Sir An?""

An Zhan nodded. ""I"ve seen it.""

The red robed judge asked, ""Young Master An must have known something was up to you.""

An Zeng shook his head. ""I still need to look at it more carefully.""

The red robed clergyman made an inviting gesture. ""Then please have a look, Young Master An. Previously, I admired Young Master An"s ability very much. It was my luck to meet Young Master An"s G.o.dly skills.""

An Zeng did not dare to be careless. He walked up to the rocks and stopped to look at them.

This was especially so for the one-meter-tall rock. He circled it a few times, but he was still unable to find any clues.

No matter how he looked at it, with An Zhe"s keen eyes, he was sure that there weren"t any spirit stones in there.

He still had the aura of a demon beast core and a pill, but he definitely didn"t have the aura of a spirit stone.

An Zhan stayed silent for a while, but he was still muttering in his heart.

It would be great if the good sir was here, but even if An Zaihai fought, he didn"t dare to let the good lord show his face at this sort of occasion.

""No.""

He pointed to a stone the size of a watermelon.

Inside the Heavenly Temple, the stonecutter came up and skillfully cut open the stone. Sure enough, there was nothing at all.

The audience applauded, and the fight for peace proved itself once again.

The red-robed clergyman stood to the side, clapping his hands together. He was not stingy at all in his appreciation and praise of the compet.i.tion.

""Young Master An, I will say the same thing. If you are willing to go to the Great Ethereal Palace, then you will obtain much more than you have now.""

I think everyone knows very well how much you alone can bring to a country. ""

His words were very light, but it was not a good thing for An Zhe to say them so bluntly on such an occasion.

King Yan, Mu Changyan, and the empress dowager, Su Qing, were only a few meters away. They could clearly hear every single word spoken by the red-robed clergyman.

Mu Changyan frowned slightly, while Su Qing warmed up and activated her killing intent.

An Xuan said with a smile, ""I don"t know if this magistrate has heard of it. More than twenty years ago, there was a painter in You Kingdom.""

It was as if there was a G.o.d in his brushwork. When the news of the painting reached the Great Xi, even the Holy Emperor was full of praise, sending people to ask for the painting several times.

The people of the Da Xi family were naturally domineering, so they would always tell the painter, ""If you go to our Da Xi city, you will get something because of your bad treatment in You Country.""

""It"s fine once, it"s fine twice. The more you say, the angrier he gets. He just found a random excuse to chop that painter"s head off.""

The red-robed magistrate"s face became ugly and he laughed embarra.s.sedly: ""Of course I know about the painter Du"s rudeness, but Du Boan deserved to die because he was implicated in the plot to go against the law.""

""I"m just afraid that I"ll deserve to die in the future,"" An Zaiyue said with a smile.

Mu Changyan laughed out loud, ""Don"t worry, I"m not a Dark King.""

An Zaiyue turned around and bowed, ""Thank you, your Majesty.""

Empress Dowager Su couldn"t help but nod as well, thinking to herself that this youth wasn"t that annoying.

She had never had a good impression of You Guo. Even if You Guo came to seek peace with gifts, her loathing of You Ye did not change in the slightest.

What"s more, this peace and security was actually brightening the reputation of the Yan Kingdom, while Su Qing"s warm att.i.tude towards him was also changing.

He pointed at the three stones in front of him. ""No, no, I still don"t have any.""

The craftsman of Empyrean Terminus Palace cut three rocks in a row, but he didn"t find any.

The people below began to cheer, and the eyes of many of the young n.o.ble ladies who accompanied their father to the banquet lit up.

In any era, the teenage girl who had just opened her heart found it difficult to resist the young hero. The indifferent but confident temperament of An Zhe could captivate anyone.

Only the meter tall rock was left. An Zeng walked over to take a closer look, then he stretched out his hand to touch the rock to sense it. In the end, he shook his head, ""Your Majesty, this stone could not be seen.""

""Can"t tell?""

Mu Changyan was stunned, ""There"s actually a stone that you can"t see. Since that"s the case, let"s let the others have a try.""

""Any of you think you can, go up and try.""

An Zaihai retreated to the side, his eyes never leaving the large rock. He couldn"t help but feel that it was a little strange.

Some of them started to step onto the stage, then shook their heads and left.

In the end, even some of the true master level figures that hadn"t made a move in many years had come up. After walking around the stone, there was no way to confirm anything.

Part of the reason was that they couldn"t tell, and some of them thought that there weren"t any spirit stones, but because of their att.i.tude, they became cautious and hesitant.

If An Zaiyue said he couldn"t see it, they didn"t dare say for sure.

The empress dowager Su Qing said warmly, ""That"s quite strange. An ordinary stone is only slightly larger. So many prodigies that they were actually at a loss what to do.""

""Li Changlu, I know that you are quite knowledgeable about this as well. Go take a look.""

Li Changlu hurriedly lowered his head, ""How dare I disgrace myself with such minuscule abilities?""

However, this servant heard that the Great Cauldron Academy"s Young Master Su Feihun is extremely talented and has sharp eyes. How about we let him take a look? ""

Empress Dowager Su"s complexion immediately turned better, thinking to herself that Li Changlu could still be a good person.

""Then why don"t you let Su Feiheng come up and take a look as well?""

Empress Dowager Su turned to look at Mu Changyan.

Mu Changyan couldn"t retort, ""Let him have a look.""

Actually, how could Mu Changyan not know that Empress Dowager Su was deliberately suppressing Su Feihuan because she saw that An Zaiyue was showing off a bit of his limelight?

As long as they were able to suppress the compet.i.tion at this sort of occasion, Su Feihun"s t.i.tle as the number one person of the younger generation would truly resound.

Amongst the crowd, Su Feihun walked up with a calm expression. He saluted them one by one before turning around and cupping his hands towards An Xuan. ""Young Master An.""

An Nan replied politely, ""Young Master Su, please.""

Su Feihun said seriously, ""You can"t tell, and I can"t tell.""

With that, he bowed to Su Qing warmly once again, then turned around and left.

The situation instantly turned awkward. Su Qing clenched her warm hands, and a hint of anger appeared in her eyes.

This Su Feihun had disappointed her too much. She wanted to pick him up at this kind of occasion, but Su Feiheng actually didn"t appreciate her kindness in the slightest.

When Su Feihun left, the surroundings were completely silent.

Mu Changyan held in her laughter, coughed a few times and said, ""Since you can"t tell, I guess this stone is a bit magical.""

""Why don"t you just cut it open and take a look? If you really cut out any treasures, then it would be the auspicious sign of the light of the sun and the light of the great Yan.""

The craftsman rushed over and placed the stone cutter blade on the rock. Then, he exerted force with his wrist … and with a ""pa"" sound, the stone cutter blade broke.

Even an ordinary stone cutter knife was expensive. For example, the stone cutter blade used by the craftsmen in Empyrean Terminus Palace could be considered a treasure in itself.

However, the stone carving knife, which was so sharp and strong, had only just cracked under the pressure. It could be seen how hard the stone layers were.

""Change the knife.""

The craftsman wiped the sweat from his forehead, and his disciple hurriedly handed over a new stone cutter.

Cut again.

Break again.

Not even a white mark could be seen on the stone.

An Zhan"s expression became solemn, and his brows tightly knitted together.

No wonder this rock looked so strange. At first glance, it seemed like there was nothing inside. It was because the rock was so hard that it blocked the aura.

He had broken two stone slashes in a row. This seemingly simple stone itself could be considered a treasure.

""Change again!""

The craftsman shouted with a trembling voice. There was a hint of heartache in his voice.

To a craftsman, a stone cutter was their life force. Breaking two of them in a row was a huge loss to him.

The third stone cutter was the last one handed to the craftsman.

With a snap, the stone cutter broke again.

""Looks like I"ve really encountered a problem.""

The red-robed magistrate said with a faint smile on his face: ""I seem to have underestimated this stone. Even three stone chopping knives are unable to cut it. Not to mention whether it contains spirit stones or not, even if there is nothing, this stone itself can be considered a treasure.""

To be able to block a stone cutter, an ordinary arrow or weapon cannot break through it. Even an ordinary cultivator"s magic weapon would not be able to do anything. ""

""This humble official will give it a try.""

The guards by Mu Changyan"s side walked over, drew their sabers, and cut down. Their steps were as smooth as flowing water.

With a dang sound, sparks flew out from the stone.

The guard leader was knocked back several steps. When he looked down, a hole had appeared on the red long sword.

""Hahahaha.""

The red robed magistrate laughed heartily: ""It seems that if this continues, who knows how many good things will be destroyed.""

""How about … I invite out the Flowing Maple Knife now?""

Only then did everyone realize that he was deliberately using this stone to display his Flowing Maple Blade.

Without waiting for the Swallow King to speak, the red-robed cleric opened the box, and suddenly, a burst of purple light shot into the sky.

He took out an ancient blade with two hands, and with a proud expression, he said, ""This is my Great Ethereal Opening"s supreme treasure. Everyone, please take a look!""

With a flick of his wrist, he grasped the Flowing Maple Knife before chopping down, slashing a hole through the rock.

Shocked cries could be heard from the audience.

But soon after, something seemed to let out a wail from within the stone. Then, through the slit, a stream of blood slowly flowed out.

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