Sun Yucheng shook his head and laughed. “This Ascending Dragon Mountain is too big. It’ll almost impossible for us to find the Heavenly King Palm, but the situation may be different for Palace Leader and the others. They might know where to find the Heavenly King Palm.”

　　 He turned back to Xu Miaozhu. “Am I right, Palace Leader?”

　　 “Why are you looking for the Heavenly King Palm?” Xu Miaozhu asked calmly.

　　 “Of course, it’s because we’d like to learn the Heavenly King Palm,” Sun Yucheng replied with a smile. “I heard that the Heavenly King Palm is unbelievably destructive and formidable such that no other techniques can compare to it.”

　　 Xu Miaozhu shook her head and said, “You can obtain the Heavenly King Palm very easily. I can just transmit it to you.”

　　 “Ah…?” Sun Yucheng stared at her with surprise.

　　 Xu Miaozhu explained, “The first palace leader of Vast Cold Palace was Heavenly King Palm’s daughter, so Heavenly King Palm Wu Cheng is our ancestor.”

　　 Sun Yucheng’s eyes grew wide. “Well then, Palace Leader, you’ve cultivated the Heavenly King Palm too?”

　　 “Yes.” Xu Miaozhu nodded calmly.

　　 Sun Yucheng asked, “The Heavenly King Palm contains formidable power, right?”

　　 Xu Miaozhu shook her head and replied, “Although the Heavenly King Palm is an ancient martial art, it’s not suitable to be used in this day and age. This martial art is destined to die out.”

　　 “Why?” Sun Yucheng was dumbfounded.

　　 Xu Miaozhu replied, “You need a great amount of spiritual energy to cultivate the Heavenly King Palm, so cultivating this technique is a challenging task. Very few people have succeeded in cultivating the Heavenly King Palm even during ancient times. Back then, our ancestor, Wu Cheng, had also received multiple fortuitous encounters. It was only by chance and luck that he had managed to cultivate the Heavenly King Palm to perfection.”

　　 Sun Yucheng frowned and slowly nodded.

　　 The more ancient a martial art was, the harder it would be to cultivate it. This was inevitable, and he had already prepared himself for this.

　　 Xu Miaozhu went on, “Since our world today is becoming short of spiritual energy, it’s all the more impossible to cultivate the Heavenly King Palm. Nowadays, the Heavenly King Palm’s destructive force is no greater than that of ordinary palm techniques.”

　　 “I see.” Sun Yucheng let out a sigh.

　　 He felt somewhat disappointed since he had initially thought that he would be able to move around the world unhindered after cultivating the Heavenly King Palm. Thus, Sun Yucheng would manage to enjoy a free and leisurely life even if he failed to become the Emperor. After all, it was useless to have only the status of a prince without possessing good martial arts skills.

　　 Xu Miaozhu said, “I’ll have Di Er bring the secret manual over in a moment, so you can try and learn it. Perhaps you’re very gifted and capable of cultivating it.”

　　 “In that case, thank you, Palace Leader.” Sun Yucheng gave a fist salute.

　　 Xu Miaozhu replied, “The lives of Di Er and my other disciples are much more important than the Heavenly King Palm. If there’s anything else you need, just let me know. I’ll try my best to meet your needs.”

　　 Sun Yucheng turned to look at Elder Su and the others.

　　 Chu Li asked, “Does Palace Leader have any personal letters of Heavenly King Palm Senior Wu?”

　　 “Personal letters?” Xu Miaozhu shook her head gently. “No.”

　　 With a glance, Chu Li knew that she was not lying. He secretly sighed with pity as he realized that they had made this trip to Vast Cold Palace in vain.

　　 “You’re all welcomed to stay here a little longer,” Xu Miaozhu said. “Don’t be too impatient to leave the mountain. You should wait until Mysterious Pavilion runs out of patience before you leave this place.”

　　 “Young Master, it would be better for us to leave as soon as possible,” Elder Su suggested with a frown. “We may still be able to escape if we leave now. The longer we delay leaving, the more people may show up. When that time comes, I’m afraid we might not be able to get away even if we wanted to.”

　　 Xu Miaozhu said, “If you can’t leave, you can just stay here. They won’t be able to force their way into this place.”

　　 Elder Su shook his head.

　　 He was worried that others might discover Sun Yucheng’s identity. If that happened, they would have to deal with not only Mysterious Pavilion’s martial arts masters but also the most elite martial arts masters from all over the Zheng Dynasty. In that case, they would not be capable of protecting the prince no matter what extraordinary abilities they had.

　　 The name Sun Yucheng sounded ordinary and insignificant since there were many others in the world who had this name. Therefore, revealing Sun Yucheng’s name was not a big deal. However, the four of them would be bothered by endless trouble once his identity as a Li Dynasty’s prince leaked out.

　　 Sun Yucheng glanced at Elder Su.

　　 There was a grave expression on Elder Su’s face as he slowly shook his head.

　　 Sun Yucheng then looked to Chu Li.

　　 Chu Li paused to think. “Let’s do as Elder Su has advised. Indeed, we should leave as soon as possible.”

　　 “Alright then. We shall make a move today,” Sun Yucheng said.

　　 Xu Miaozhu instructed, “Di Er, bring us the Heavenly King Palm secret manual!”

　　 “Understood,” Liu Di replied clearly before gliding away.

　　 She soon returned and presented a box to Xu Miaozhu.

　　 Xu Miaozhu opened the box and took out a yellowing silk bound book, which she handed to Sun Yucheng. “This secret manual was handwritten by our founder, so we can’t give it to outsiders. Young Master Sun can make a copy of it instead.”

　　 “Understood,” Sun Yucheng replied with a smile.

　　 Although he had given up hope of cultivating this technique, it would still be a good idea to learn more about it.

　　 …

　　 The four men glided above the bamboo forest as they descended and left Ascending Dragon Mountain.

　　 Upon reaching the foot of Ascending Dragon Mountain, Sun Yucheng turned around and lifted his face to stare in the direction of the bamboo cottages they had visited earlier before he released a melancholic sigh.

　　 At first, he thought that he would be able to have an unforgettable relationship at Vast Cold Palace. However, Sun Yucheng never expected that he would have to leave in such haste before he could even meet a few more beautiful women and win Liu Di’s affection.

　　 “Young Master,” Elder Ren said, “since we’ve acquired the Heavenly King Palm technique, we should go back as soon as possible instead of exploring other places.”

　　 “Coming all the way to the Zheng Dynasty wasn’t easy. Do we really have to leave already?” Sun Yucheng asked with dissatisfaction.

　　 He withdrew his gaze reluctantly and seemed extremely unwilling to comply with Elder Ren’s suggestion. He wished he could continue to stay at Vast Cold Palace’s bamboo cottages and see those beautiful girls every day.

　　 Elder Ren replied, “Mysterious Pavilion will never let us off the hook so easily. It would be better for us to avoid them for now. We can come here again in the future!”

　　 “Ugh…” Sun Yucheng sighed. “Okay, fine. We’ll do as you advised, Elder Ren. Let’s go back now!”

　　 Meanwhile, Chu Li had been pondering about the Heavenly King Palm.

　　 He had already memorized the technique when he helped make a copy of the Heavenly King Palm secret manual.

　　 Chu Li felt as though this Heavenly King Palm technique had been created especially for him.

　　 The Heavenly King Palm required a large amount of rich and concentrated spiritual energy, so it was indeed not suitable to cultivate the Heavenly King Palm in this day and age. Nonetheless, Chu Li was capable of harnessing boundless spiritual energy from Heaven and Earth by using the Life and Death Scripture.

　　 As long as he could simultaneously circulate both the heart technique and the Life and Death Scripture when cultivating the Heavenly King Palm technique, he would be able to cultivate it at a much faster rate compared to people from two thousand years ago.

　　 If Chu Li could successfully cultivate this Heavenly King Palm technique, it would turn out to be more powerful than the Divine Light Fist as well as any other martial arts techniques he had cultivated thus far. Therefore, this would enhance his combat capabilities to a large extent.

　　 Chu Li wished he could start cultivating it right away, so he was trying to figure out the profound mysteries hidden within the Heavenly King Palm while they traveled. He devoted all his attention to this as he wanted to gain a thorough understanding of this technique as quickly as possible. Without realizing it, Chu Li had traveled over three miles.

　　 Sun Yucheng and the two elders suddenly stopped in their tracks, so Chu Li followed suit. When he lifted his gaze, he found a group of men in front of them. These men were standing in the middle of the main road and were blocking their path while they glared at them coldly.

　　 Sun Yucheng frowned. There were ten men in this group, and they were all martial arts masters with white eyebrows and beard. They stared at him with gleaming eyes as though they had seen a rare and precious treasure. However, his heart trembled with fear when he noticed these men’s burning gaze.

　　 “Are you the Li Dynasty’s Prince Sun Yucheng?” an elderly man with white hair and ruddy cheeks asked while he took a step forward. “You’re very bold. How dare you come to the Zheng Dynasty and cause trouble? If we don’t seize you, others might see the Zheng Dynasty as useless!”

　　 Sun Yucheng’s expression became grim.

　　 His identity had been leaked after all. Clearly, the culprit had to be one of his brothers again. Someone among them was trying to get the people here to do their dirty work.

　　 There was nothing much the Li Dynasty’s Emperor could do if the Zheng Dynasty killed Sun Yucheng. This was a vicious trick indeed!

　　 Chu Li took one step forward and then another before he appeared right in front of this group of elderly men and swung both his hands forward. Two cold streaks of light shot toward them.

　　 “Ding…” Two flashes of light appeared in front of them like a shield as two of the elderly men waved their swords to block Chu Li’s Light Blade.

　　 Chu Li knitted his brows together as he realized that these men had come prepared.

　　 He launched two more energy blades.

　　 “Ding, ding…” Chu Li’s energy blades collided into the flashes of light from their swords and emitted a loud ringing noise but it did not manage to break through their defense.

　　 Not only did these two elderly men had exquisite swordsmanship, but they also had roughly two hundred years’ worth of cultivation, so they were able to work together seamlessly. This was clearly another sword array that was remarkably profound since it was capable of neutralizing the force within Chu Li’s flying blades.

　　 The inner energy in his flying blades contained a special quality of the Earth Matrix and Reincarnation Scripture that allowed it to undergo several rounds of changes. Thus, Chu Li was impressed that they managed to block his inner energy with their swords.

　　 The two elderly men took a step forward while the light from their sword blades abruptly grew brighter and surged toward Chu Li. Then, the other eight men charged toward Chu Li as well.