156: By the mandate of Heaven, may your life be long and prosperous.

The moment the golden box was in his hands, Lin Feng's arm sank!

So heavy!

The weight of this thing far exceeded what a golden box of the same volume should weigh!

Lin Feng knew very well that this meant there was something extremely dense inside the box!

He gritted his teeth, the veins on his arms bulging like knotted ropes, before he could steadily lift the heavy box from the stone platform and place it flat on the cold ground.

"Gulp."

In the silent secret room, the sound of someone swallowing saliva was exceptionally clear.

Wang Dalong didn't even dare to breathe; his phone camera was fixed on Lin Feng and the box, his knuckles turning white from gripping it so hard.

The box wasn't locked.

There was only a very simple golden latch.

Lin Feng reached out his fingers, his fingertips trembling slightly with excitement. He stared at the latch and paused for a full three seconds.

Then, he gave it a gentle flick.

"Creak—"

A slight opening sound, almost inaudible, was like a key turning the door to time.

That sound seemed to come from the depths of history, too far back to trace, carrying the scent of decay and the vicissitudes of time.

Lin Feng's hand was very steady.

He slowly lifted the lid of the box.

One second.

Two seconds.

Both of them widened their eyes.

There was no earth-shattering radiance as expected, nor any mystical phenomena.

Inside the box, there was only a piece of faded, decayed bright yellow silk.

And on that ruined silk, a square jade seal lay there quietly.

So quiet it made one's heart race.

The beam from the phone was the only light source at the moment.

The light shone on the jade seal but was completely swallowed by it.

Its color was a very, very deep dark green, like a bottomless ancient pool, sedimented with thousands of years of time. The jade quality looked incredibly warm and moist, yet it also exuded an indescribable aura of slaughter and vicissitudes.

On the top of the jade seal, five intertwined Chidragons were carved. Their bodies were ancient, their heads fierce, silently roaring, radiating a majestic imperial dominance!

"Hiss..." Wang Dalong took a sharp breath, and the camera suddenly zoomed in.

Both of their gazes focused on one corner of the jade seal.

There was a very conspicuous chip there!

But that chip had been perfectly inlaid and repaired with pure gold by a peerless craftsman with superlative skill!

Gold-inlaid jade!

Not only that, on the dark green jade body, there were several inconspicuous but still visible fine cracks like spiderwebs!

Those were the eternal marks left after being burned by fire!

A missing corner!

Repaired with gold!

Fire-burn patterns!

Everything corresponded perfectly, point for point, with the records of that lost artifact in the history books!

"Oh... my god..."

A moan like a sleep-talker escaped from Wang Dalong's throat.

He felt as if his brain had completely fried, turning into an old machine that could only stupidly record the scene before his eyes.

Is this... that imperial seal of china, which has symbolized the highest power of China since the First Emperor of Qin and been hailed as the token of the "Lord of the World"?

The number one treasure in the world that countless emperors, generals, heroes, and ambitious men have dreamed of and chased for over a thousand years, not hesitating to stir up bloody winds and rains for it?

It... really still exists in this world!

Lin Feng's breathing completely stopped the moment he saw it.

He felt as if he wasn't looking at a piece of jade.

But at a magnificent, blood-and-fire-interwoven Chinese epic condensed over more than two thousand years!

His hand reached out, completely uncontrolled by his brain.

With a pilgrimage-like devotion, his fingertips gently touched the cold, heavy jade body.

The moment he touched it, an indescribable sense of weight rushed from his fingertips straight to the top of his head!

Then, using all his strength, he slowly lifted the imperial seal, which seemed to carry two thousand years of national destiny, from the silk and turned it over.

The phone light happened to illuminate the ancient seal face.

Eight ancient characters were deeply branded into the depths of Lin Feng and Wang Dalong's pupils!

It wasn't any script familiar to modern people.

The strokes were twisted, shaped like birds and insects, yet they carried an unspeakable grandeur and dominance!

Each character seemed like a living true dragon, circling and dancing on the seal face, radiating a supreme majesty of ruling the world and being the sole sovereign!

[Appointed by Heaven, May He Lead a Long and Prosperous Life]!

It's it!

It's definitely it!

The moment he saw these eight characters clearly, Lin Feng could no longer suppress the surging emotions in his heart, and he grabbed the imperial seal in his hand!

Just that one action.

Boom—!!!

A vast torrent of information, a hundred or a thousand times more terrifying than when he touched "the treasure of mandate of the great song" on Nan'ao Island, instantly crushed all his consciousness!

Like a rushing, roaring cosmic galaxy, it poured directly into his brain!

The secret room before him... Wang Dalong beside him... the phone light... everything turned into nothingness in an instant!

His soul was violently dragged out of his body by an irresistible supreme power and thrown into an extremely magnificent river of time spanning two thousand two hundred years!

He "saw" it!

A piece of peerless beautiful jade, crystal clear and glowing with light, was being carved bit by bit into shape by the hands of the world's number one craftsman; five dragons perched on it, its dominance beginning to show!

He "saw" it!

An emperor of all ages, wearing a black dragon robe and possessing the spirit to swallow mountains and rivers, personally took the imperial seal and, with a majestic voice that looked down on the world, recited those eight characters that would influence the next two thousand years, word by word!

"Appointed by Heaven, May He Lead a Long and Prosperous Life..."

The First Emperor of Qin! It's Ying Zheng!

The scenes shifted frantically!

He saw Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang, holding the imperial seal as he established the Han Dynasty's rule amidst the kneeling of tens of thousands of people!

He saw Wang Mang usurping the Han, and the resolute Empress Dowager Xiaoyuan, in a fit of rage, slamming the imperial seal onto the ground, creating that eternal missing corner!

He saw it wandering through the chaos of the Three Kingdoms; Sun Jian died because of it, Yuan Shu perished because of it, and it became a death warrant pursued by countless ambitious men!

He saw it changing hands several times amidst the blood and fire of the Uprising of the Five Barbarians, constantly circulating between the hands of barbarians and Han people, witnessing countless slaughters, betrayals, and tragic songs!

He saw the Last Emperor of Later Tang, Li Congke, holding it as he ascended the Xuanwu Tower in Luoyang, letting out a final unwilling curse amidst the soaring flames, and throwing himself into the raging fire along with it... the scene went dark.

And lit up again!

He "saw" that a hundred years after the collapse of a dynasty, a ragged farmer dug this fire-blackened imperial seal out of the mud beneath the ruins of Luoyang!

It was kept secret by one collector after another, hidden in the shadows, until a hundred years later, by a stroke of luck, it fell into the hands of a rising Mongol Great Khan!

The final vision froze in a vast and deathly silent valley.

A majestic emperor wearing a nine-tasseled crown and a Yuan Dynasty dragon robe personally placed the golden box containing it into this underground altar built for his most respected grandfather.

He whispered a prayer to the spirit tablet in the darkness in an incredibly complex voice.

"Grand Ancestor..."

"From now on, the Mandate of Heaven is mine, forever guarding the Northern Desert..."

That was the voice of Kublai Khan, Emperor Shizu of Yuan.