Chapter 332: Sacred Artifact

Chapter 332: The Sacred Artifact

Killing is one thing, but twisting the knife is another!

Su Mo's words were downright cruel, leaving the Chief Attendant fuming.

He jabbed a finger and shouted:

"Outrageous... You—you dared trespass into our forbidden grounds! Today, none of you are leaving alive!"

Yet Su Mo merely glanced at the gate and said softly:

"Chief Attendant, what exactly happened behind that door?"

"..."

The Chief Attendant froze, glancing back at the gate before suddenly smirking. "Be my guest—go take a look yourself."

Su Mo burst into laughter upon hearing this:

"The Chief Attendant is up to no good again."

The Chief Attendant's expression stiffened slightly before he sneered:

"Are you afraid?"

"The Chief Attendant was beaten like a dead dog and sent sprawling. Su Mo, though, is indeed curious about the commotion behind that door."

Su Mo's tone was casual. "But I suspect you lot were trying to cook up a tiger god—only to flop hard."

"How did you know?"

The Chief Attendant's face went white.

"So it's true?"

Su Mo was just as shocked. He had just been throwing out a wild guess.

The old texts mentioned they had shoved the Sacred Artifact into a tiger's body, only for the beast to wail in torment for three days and nights before dropping dead.

According to the Grand Priestess, the Sacred Artifact was a godly weapon, massively powerful.

But the question remained: Why shove it into a tiger?

The scroll Yang Xiaoyun had found further clarified that this so-called Sacred Artifact was the be-all and end-all for White Tiger City.

Combining these two points, Su Mo speculated that the city's bigwigs might have sought to forge a god using the Sacred Artifact.

Of course, this deduction was bonkers, so he had kept that theory under his hat at the time.

Now, upon encountering the Chief Attendant, he had simply thrown it out there—a shot in the dark.

Yet unexpectedly, he had nailed it.

At that moment, even Su Mo's eyes flickered with an odd light, his gaze toward the Chief Attendant brimming with admiration:

"You all have quite the audacity.

"Piously proclaiming devotion to the Tiger Lord, even calling him your ancestor.

"And yet, what is this? So you’re just making up your own ancestors?"

"...You don’t know shit!"

The Chief Attendant snapped in anger, his face turning red and pale.

To have carelessly let Su Mo uncover their greatest secret—now, he was in real trouble.

He couldn’t stop Su Mo and the others.

Though he’d talked big earlier, saying none of them would leave today, he knew exactly how outmatched he was.

Last time, he had barely lost because the Grand Priestess had interfered.

But even without her meddling, he’d still have gotten his ass kicked.

Moreover, the mess inside the gate was too big—he couldn’t afford to stall here.

But if Su Mo got away and spilled their secret...

The White Tiger City, standing for millennia, would collapse overnight.

The Chief Attendant hesitated, caught in a dilemma.

Su Mo, though, had no such worries.

He could come or go as he liked—no one could stop him. If the Chief Attendant was dumb enough to pick a fight,

the chaos inside would spiral out of control, and once the Chief Attendant fell, all hell would break loose.

Just as he pondered this, a flute’s notes suddenly rang out from beyond the gate.

The tune swung wildly between highs and lows—one moment a roaring waterfall, the next a howling wind tearing through the sky.

Hearing it, the Chief Attendant snapped his head toward the gate, his face lighting up briefly:

"It's the Grand Priestess..."

But before he could even smile properly, the music cut off abruptly, replaced by another earth-shaking tiger’s roar.

His face fell. Now, he could no longer spare a thought for Su Mo.

In one leap, he shot forward, reaching the gate in moments before vanishing inside.

Su Mo and his companions looked at each other.

Yang Xiaoyun whispered, "Xiao Mo, what should we do?"

Her brow furrowed slightly. Though she had no desire to involve herself in the affairs beyond the gate,

the White Tiger remnants had kicked off something nobody could foresee.

Creating a god!

For ordinary people, even considering such an act would be blasphemous against the divine.

The White Tiger remnants have worshipped the Tiger Lord for generations, believing it to be the one true deity of heaven and earth.

Yet, under such a heritage, they dare to commit such an unthinkable act—truly shocking to the heavens and earth.

Su Mo paused in thought:

"Since the Grand Priestess is right at the door, we ought to at least see her first."

"In that case, let’s go check it out. But if anything seems amiss, we leave immediately—no sticking around."

"Got it."

Yang Xiaoyun nodded at once.

As for Xu Lu, his opinion never really mattered anyway...

In an instant, Su Mo had placed one hand on Xu Lu’s shoulder and taken Yang Xiaoyun’s hand with the other. They were already past the gate.

Beyond the gate was a hidden realm.

Outside was a valley, surrounded by green mountains, with man-made bridges and roads.

At the path’s end stood a wooden building.

At this moment, its doors stood wide open, revealing a shrine hall with an altar and burning incense.

Above the entrance hung a plaque, its ancient script carved with three bold characters: "Tiger Lord Hall!"

This was the true Tiger Lord Hall!

Now, standing atop the hall’s roof was a figure.

It was the Grand Priestess who had appeared before Su Mo and the others that night.

She held a flute horizontally, its notes rising and falling in a haunting melody. Yet blood stained the corner of her lips, a telltale sign of injury.

The tune she played seemed to carry deep power, sapping her inner strength so severely that she alternated between playing the flute and coughing up blood, completely drained.

Meanwhile, in the open space of the valley, a group clashed with a monstrous beast.

Led by the Chief Attendant, these were clearly the Chief Attendants of White Tiger City.

Their foe was a towering white tiger.

In a fight between humans and a tiger, especially against such highly skilled warriors, any normal tiger would’ve been dead by now.

Yet, as Su Mo and the other two observed briefly, they noticed the Chief Attendant and his men were holding back in their attacks.

To make matters worse, their skills seemed stifled, unable to reach full power.

As a result, they were getting overpowered by the tiger.

The tiger casually swiped its paw, sending a group of people flying backward. With a sweep of its tail, bones snapped and limbs broke. Then, with a sudden snap of its jaws, it sheared a man in two, radiating unstoppable dominance!

Only the Grand Priestess's flute melody could barely temper the tiger's fury.

Yet, even now, her methods still couldn't fully subdue the beast. Instead, it became increasingly agitated, its bellows thick with murderous aura.

"Xiao Mo, look at the tiger's chest and belly," Yang Xiaoyun suddenly pointed out.

There, on the tiger's torso, was a festering gash. Whatever its previous state, it now trailed pattering crimson paths as the beast prowled.

"Could the sacred artifact of the White Tiger remnants be inside this tiger's body?" Su Mo glanced at the Grand Priestess, musing, before suddenly leading Yang Xiaoyun and Xu Lu in a blur of motion, arriving before the shrine of the Tiger Lord's Hall.

The Grand Priestess had noticed Su Mo's group the moment they appeared.

But even now, though she saw them, she was powerless to intervene. Even if she wanted to speak, she lacked the strength.

Yet, as the three entered the Tiger Lord's Hall, she couldn't help but call out:

"Stop! The Tiger Lord's Hall is hallowed ground of our clan—outsiders are forbidden—"

Su Mo paid her no heed, crossing the threshold unabashed. With a single glance, he surveyed the chamber.

The space was small, with a shrine at its center. But instead of a statue of the Tiger Lord, the altar stood empty.

Just as Su Mo knit his brows, Xu Lu spoke up:

"Master, there's something behind here."

Unnoticed, he had already slipped behind the shrine.

Su Mo and Yang Xiaoyun followed and saw script carved into the stone behind the shrine.

At the top were three large characters: Emperor’s Heart Sutra!

Xu Lu also scanned the writing, but after just a few lines, the shrine dissolved around him.

He found himself disoriented, standing in a mountain forest.

Then, the world quaked, and the mountains shook.

Looking up, he saw an enormous white tiger astride the mountain ridges, its paws crushing the earth, its head piercing the firmament.

It roared skyward, sundering the heavens.

The sound tore at his soul, and in an instant, Xu Lu felt as if he would be ripped apart by the sheer force of it.

Just as dread seized him, a voice suddenly rang in his ears:

"Steady your mind! Avert your gaze!"

Xu Lu started, immediately shutting his eyes and invoking the Ethereal Celestial Chronicles in his mind.

Only then did he manage to wrench himself back from that primordial terror.

Opening his eyes, he found himself still inside the Tiger Lord Temple. There was no White Tiger treading the earth and touching the heavens—it had all been an illusion.

"Master..."

He turned to Su Mo. "I... I saw the Tiger Lord..."

"This cultivation method is extraordinary. Your internal energy is not yet sufficient, and recklessly studying it led to internal energy backlash."

"As long as you don’t look at this cultivation manual, you’ll be fine."

Only then did Xu Lu understand what had happened, and rage flared up inside him.

"The White Tiger remnants are utterly vile, recording such a demonic art here—isn’t this a deliberate trap?"

"...Nobody asked you to come in."

Su Mo gave him a look.

Xu Lu froze, realizing there was some truth to that.

The Tiger Lord Temple was well-hidden by the White Tiger remnants.

Not only was there a fake temple outside, but intruders would be ambushed by the Chief Attendants.

Even if one could defeat them, they would still have to face the Grand Priestess in the end.

Only after facing the Grand Priestess could one truly enter this chamber.

To claim that the Emperor’s Heart Sutra was placed here as a deliberate trap was indeed a reach.

Meanwhile, Su Mo had already finished reading the entire Emperor’s Heart Sutra and turned to Yang Xiaoyun.

"What do you think, Yang Xiaoyun?"

Yang Xiaoyun had mastered the Great Upper Xuan Scripture and supplemented it with the Yixuan Divine Art.

She just barely grasped this cultivation method, though it inevitably made her uneasy and she read it much more slowly than Su Mo.

Hearing Su Mo’s question, she knit her brows.

"It truly is a technique that curses its practitioners for generations... Those among the White Tiger remnants who cultivate the Emperor’s Heart Sutra are controlled by its core tenets from the very foundation of the Lin Shen Scripture."

"Earlier, in the Emperor’s Heart Sutra you saw, whether it was the White Tiger Righteous Body Scripture or the White Tiger Righteous Heart Scripture, they all branch from this core."

"Once one cultivates White Tiger True Qi, they become bound to another’s control—it’s truly dangerous."

Yet, she also seemed puzzled.

"However, as a martial art alone, the Emperor’s Heart Sutra is incredibly profound. But... what about the holy relic?"

"That, of course, we’ll have to ask our Grand Priestess."

Su Mo glanced back. The Grand Priestess had somehow entered the Tiger Lord Temple.

Outside, the tiger continued roaring, and the Grand Priestess’s hand holding the jade flute was already covered in blood.

Clearly, she could no longer muster the strength to play it.

She quietly looked at Su Mo and the other two, her face dark as she spoke:

"You... trespassing into our sacred land, how dare you!

"Chief Escort Su, esteemed as Eastern Wasteland's Number One, how could you be so rude?"

Su Mo chuckled lightly:

"You're wrong. Not long ago, I was passing through White Tiger City and ran into some trouble with its residents.

"As apology, you gave me the Emperor’s Heart Sutra.

"But when I looked at it, I noticed something strange—like a crucial piece is missing.

"Figured you must've forgotten, so I decided to drop by unannounced today to see if that missing piece could be found.

"Now I can properly thank you for your kind intentions.

"Well, but this is after all the sacred land of the White Tiger remnants. We shouldn't overstay our welcome, so we shall take our leave."

After saying this, he turned to leave with his companions.

"You... cough... cough... cough..."

The Grand Priestess coughed furiously, unable to hold back her fury:

"You've seen the core technique of our clan, the Emperor’s Heart Sutra essentials, and now you just want to leave?"

"What else?"

Su Mo looked at the Grand Priestess with genuine confusion:

"You said yourself this is the sacred land of the White Tiger remnants, and we shouldn't intrude.

"I admit I was wrong for not heeding the warning earlier.

"Now that I've come to my senses, I intend to withdraw. Why aren't you happy?"

"......"

This is outrageous!!

The Grand Priestess stared at Su Mo, her chest aching.

The shouts outside continued, the roars of the white tiger echoing through the valley, making the Tiger Lord's Hall tremble.

The Grand Priestess took a deep breath and suddenly dropped to her knees:

"Chief Escort Su... please, I'm begging you, save our White Tiger remnants."

Su Mo shook his head without hesitation:

"This matter has nothing to do with Su Mo. The White Tiger remnants have committed unforgivable crimes, attempting to forge a deity with human power.

"Their ambitions are truly horrifying.

"Now reaping what they've sown, they must bear the consequences themselves. Your request is something Su Mo cannot grant."

The Grand Priestess was unsurprised by his response. She gazed beyond the Tiger Lord's Hall and said quietly, her voice barely above a whisper:

"Our warriors have all been deployed now.

"If we cannot keep this accursed tiger here, once our warriors are all dead or injured, it will surely escape from this place.

"Right now, there are countless regular folks in White Tiger City.

"But it knows nothing of mercy, nor can it tell friend from enemy.

"Wherever it goes, it'll leave a trail of blood.

"We owe Chief Escort Su no favors, and this is asking too much.

"But even if Chief Escort Su disregards our fate, how can he allow this accursed tiger to break free and massacre innocent people?

"Truth is... if it is allowed to leave, not only will White Tiger City be burned to the ground,

"but it'll kill countless people wherever it goes."

Yang Xiaoyun and Xu Lu looked over at the Grand Priestess upon hearing this.

Yang Xiaoyun was the first to speak:

"How bad could it be? It's just a tiger... just a really big one, but we haven't seen any special powers.

"Could it be that so many warriors of your White Tiger remnants cannot stop it?"

"It's not just a tiger..."

The Grand Priestess sighed. "It's carrying our sacred relic."

"...What exactly is your people's sacred relic?"

Su Mo asked.

"It's a heart."

The Grand Priestess looked up at Su Mo. "The Tiger Lord's Heart!"

"...Tell the truth!"

Su Mo's face darkened. At a time like this, she was still talking nonsense?

"Actually..."

The Grand Priestess hesitated slightly. "Honestly, I don't really know what it truly is. Our sacred relic is actually a heart-shaped stone."

"A stone?"

Su Mo thought with a sigh. "Go on."

The Grand Priestess couldn't help but glance at the scene outside. She knew Su Mo couldn't care less about the fate of their White Tiger remnants.

The reason he was asking questions now was partly out of curiosity, but also out of worrying about the lives of those in White Tiger City who were not part of their people.

Thus, no matter how brutal the slaughter in this valley became, he wasn't rushing.

But while Su Mo wasn't rushing, the Grand Priestess couldn't wait.

She had to hurry her explanation:

"The sacred artifact of our White Tiger remnants is indeed a stone.

"It is heart-shaped and can contain the inner power of our White Tiger remnants' Emperor’s Heart Sutra.

"Thus, since the time of our most ancient ancestors, our people have regarded this object as a sacred heirloom.

"Before each Grand Priestess dies, she transfers her lifetime's worth of power into this holy relic.

"The succeeding Grand Priestess, by relying on this sacred stone to practice the Emperor’s Heart Sutra, can work half as hard for twice the results.

"In a short time, she can reach full mastery.

"You have now seen the Emperor’s Heart Sutra of our White Tiger remnants and should grasp its depth.

"Each generation's Grand Priestess uses it to control the entire White Tiger remnants.

"Our people do not seek to dominate the world, nor to stand above all others.

"We only wish to rebuild here and ensure our lineage continues for generations.

"And this generational inheritance had always gone smoothly...

"But that year, when the four martial arts masters of the Great Xuan Dynasty arrived, everything changed."

Back then, the four martial arts masters of the Great Xuan Dynasty came to White Tiger City, originally seeking the Emperor’s Heart Sutra.

But after they forced their way into the Tiger Lord’s Hall and discovered the true nature of the Emperor’s Heart Sutra, they changed their minds.

They no longer wanted the Emperor’s Heart Sutra... they wanted the sacred artifact of the White Tiger remnants.