Chapter 173 The Thirty-Sixth Treasure Vault
"That's enough!" Aoki wiped his hands.
When experimenting with the Four Demon Rakshasa, he could do whatever he wanted without worrying about breaking them. He
couldn't be so unrestrained with Leone.
Fortunately, Leone's Imperial Arms was Lion King, possessing superhuman regenerative abilities.
Otherwise, this experiment would have been impossible.
Leone sat up, clutching her stomach. "That thing of yours is moving around inside me, it feels so weird."
Aoki glanced at her. "Make yourself clear, it's a scalpel, not 'that thing'!"
"Hehehe!"
Leone laughed immediately, wrapping her arms around his neck. "So? Any results?"
Aoki nodded. "Your body is already showing signs of assimilation."
"Really? I don't feel anything."
Leone patted her flat stomach, looking curious. "How much longer can I live?"
Aoki said, "At the current level of assimilation, it won't affect your life for now."
"Hehehe, then don't worry!" "
However, you'd better try to avoid getting injured. If you get injured, the assimilation process will accelerate rapidly. The more serious the injury, the more the assimilation process will increase."
"Okay, okay!"
Leone grinned and moved closer to Aoki, her breath sweet. "Thank you for your hard work, do you want me to reward you?"
Aoki ignored her and started organizing the experimental data.
"Hahaha, I'm off!" Leone laughed, leaving with a victorious air.
Aoki glanced at her retreating figure before looking away.
Although Leone was always being cheeky, she was actually a master of verbal sparring.
She only knew how to tease those who wouldn't actually attack her.
"The changes in the body after assimilating a Teigu are not entirely the same as the changes after consuming the flesh of a Dangerous Species. There are some points that can be used to our advantage."
Aoki would sometimes lower his head to think, and sometimes doodle in his notebook.
...
The Imperial Palace.
A heavy, oppressive silence hung in the air.
The Imperial Guards, clad in full armor, stood like iron towers on either side of the road.
Palace maids hurried along, their faces showing a hint of panic.
Yet, the palace maintained a semblance of order.
After Minister Ernest's death, the capital, including the palace, experienced a brief period of chaos.
However, General Bud quickly suppressed all the troublemakers with ruthless methods.
Within a single day, heads rolled.
Although many were deeply dissatisfied, faced with the overwhelming power of Bud and the Imperial Guards, they all fell silent.
In a corner unnoticed by anyone, a figure silently emerged.
Aoki quickly looked around, and after confirming no one was nearby, he relaxed.
Last time he came to the palace, he had left several spatial imprints; this time, he didn't need to enter from the sky again.
Aoki determined his direction and headed outside.
"The guards are much tighter now!"
However, with his previous experience, he had a basic grasp of the palace's layout.
Adding more guards wouldn't affect him much.
Like a ghost, Aoki moved swiftly, his figure flashing through the night. Even at close range, the Imperial Guards remained undetected.
Soon, Aoki arrived before a palace in the central area.
The security around the palace had been heightened once again.
This was one of the suspicious locations he had previously discovered.
After reviewing Ernest's memories, he discovered that this was not the residence of some important figure, but rather the empire's treasury.
The wealth accumulated by the royal family over thousands of years, various treasures, and so on, were all stored here.
Of course, it had essentially become Ernest's private treasury before.
Ernest's sudden death did not seem to have affected the treasury.
The palace's security was extremely tight, with virtually no blind spots from the sky to the ground, making it impossible to sneak in.
However, this did not deter Aoki.
Aoki's appearance changed rapidly, quickly transforming into a bespectacled, cold-looking middle-aged man.
West Palace.
The founder of the assassination squad, a close confidant of the minister, and one of the very few people with access to the treasury.
Aoki walked straight towards the palace.
Tap tap tap.
The steady sound of footsteps echoed in the silent night sky.
All the guards tensed instantly.
"Who? Who's there?"
"It's me!" Aoki emerged from the shadows.
"Lord Nishimiya!"
the guard leader said respectfully.
"I've come to retrieve a few items!"
Aoki walked straight ahead.
The guard leader didn't move aside, looking troubled. "Lord Nishimiya, you know about the assassins, I..."
Aoki took out a token and tossed it over, interrupting him.
"Take it!"
The guard leader caught it, then took out another token and joined them together.
The uneven edges of the two tokens fit together perfectly.
He returned the token to Aoki: "The token is confirmed."
Aoki didn't take it, impatiently saying, "The other one!"
The guard leader relaxed, exchanged tokens, handed his to Aoki, and made way.
"Lord Nishimiya, please come in!"
Aoki ignored him, took the token, and walked directly inside.
He had accessed Ernest's memories and knew the procedures for entering and exiting the treasure vault perfectly.
Very few people are qualified to enter the treasure vault. Each person possesses a unique token that can be combined with the token held by a guard.
After verification, tokens must be exchanged.
Any error in this process will be considered an intrusion.
The process is extremely cautious and rigorous.
Unfortunately, they encountered Aoki, who directly extracted all the secrets from Ernest's mind.
Of course,
even so, it cannot be kept secret for long.
The guard leader will still have to report this matter.
However, Aoki only needs to buy some time.
Entering the treasure vault,
many chests are placed in the main hall.
Aoki randomly opens one, and dazzling golden light immediately fills his vision.
Gold!
The second chest is also gold.
The third chest is full of various kinds of top-grade gems.
Not only does it contain the royal family's accumulation, but most of the wealth amassed by Ernest is also here.
Aoki doesn't stand on ceremony and moves all the chests into his alternate dimension.
After emptying the main hall, he doesn't leave.
These are merely worldly things; the truly valuable things are not here.
Reaching a pillar, Aoki grasped the dragon decoration atop it and gently twisted it.
*Crack! Crack! Crack!*
The innermost wall split open, revealing a pitch-black passage.
Aoki walked through.
It was perfectly normal for the treasure vault to have a secret chamber; in fact, it would be strange if it didn't.
Passing through the passage, he entered a completely airtight room, much smaller than the outer hall, containing far fewer and stranger items.
These included oddly shaped rocks, metals radiating a peculiar luster, and so on.
Uma Stone, Ohara Steel… yes, the materials used to forge Imperial Arms.
These were relics from a thousand years ago, no longer existing in the world.
There were also some books recording ancient secret techniques, but they were mostly incomplete.
Aoki didn't know if these things were useful, or what their purpose was, but he figured he might as well take them all.
After all, the alternate dimension was large enough.
Imperial Arms had once been stored here, but now all of them had been distributed, preventing him from getting any.
After ransacking the hidden chamber, Aoki found a mechanism in a corner.
After pressing the button, a passage suddenly appeared in the ground, with stairs leading downwards as if connecting to a bottomless abyss.
"It's well hidden."
Aoki didn't hesitate and stepped inside.
There were secret rooms within secret rooms.
Without having seen Ernest's memories, it would have been almost impossible to find this place.
(End of Chapter)