Xu Ke quickly referred to the numbers and opened the first safe. As he did, Chen Xiong stepped forward and smilingly entered his fingerprint.

Xu Ke clicked his tongue twice. A double security measure…

As the safe opened, Xu Ke took out a token from inside. It bore a single character on it: "Han."

"What's this?"

Xu Ke felt an ancient aura exuding from the token. The single character gave him a sense of profound, desolate history washing over him, invigorating his spirit. This thing certainly looks ancient.

Yuan Shang, standing by, smiled mysteriously. "This item has quite a history. Many years ago, two groups in Tianhai fought to the death over this very token."

"Although the groups weren't large, their members were incredibly formidable. According to the records from that time, not a single one of them was below the Innate Late Stage."

Upon hearing this, Xu Ke's pupils shrank and his expression changed drastically. "What? What exactly is this token?"

None of them below the Innate Late Stage? What kind of monstrous organization was that?

An Innate Late Stage expert was someone the Kang Family would hide away as their final trump card. Yet these "trump cards" were reduced to mere foot soldiers in the struggle for this token. The disparity was simply astronomical.

"It was unearthed in Tianhai," Chen Xiong said with a faint smile. "It is said to be a personal token of Emperor Han Wu."

Xu Ke snapped his head down to look at it. The token he had just dismissed now seemed like a priceless treasure. Even his movements became gentle, as if he feared damaging the ancient relic. He cradled it carefully, his eyes gradually lighting up with immense surprise.

Emperor Han Wu! A truly unparalleled emperor through the ages. His personal token, fought over by such powerful forces... This thing must have some Dragon Essence!

Xu Ke nearly pinned all his hopes of breaking through to Innate Great Perfection on it.

Seeing Xu Ke handle the token so carefully, Chen Xiong and Yuan Shang exchanged a glance, both revealing a sly smile. They remembered acting the exact same way when they first saw the token.

But after inspecting it for a long moment, Xu Ke's brows furrowed. How come… there's no Dragon Essence?

Holding the token, he pondered for a moment before suddenly feeling something was amiss. "Wait a minute, Grandpa Chen, where did you say this token was unearthed?"

Chen Xiong struggled to hold back his laughter. "Tianhai!"

Xu Ke was baffled. "That's not right. Wasn't Emperor Han Wu buried in Xianyang?"

Yuan Shang could no longer contain himself and burst into hearty laughter. "Exactly! You've finally noticed."

Xu Ke slapped his thigh. "Damn, it's a fake!"

"Who says? Maybe someone robbed Emperor Han Wu's tomb and then left the token in Tianhai," Yuan Shang said, patting Xu Ke's shoulder.

Xu Ke stood up, speechless. His movements were now quite casual as he set the token down. "Do I look like a fool to you?"

"The way you were cradling it just now… you certainly did," Yuan Shang said with a shrug.

Xu Ke was speechless.

"So, do you now understand why this token ended up with us in Tianhai for safekeeping?" Chen Xiong said with a chuckle.

Xu Ke nodded. "Right, a fake isn't exactly museum-quality."

Chen Xiong elaborated, "Over a decade ago, before I became the Martial Alliance Leader, I heard about two groups fighting over this thing. The battle was said to be world-shaking."

"Eventually, the higher-ups sent people to retrieve it and bring it back to Long Capital. It was placed under the protection of exceedingly powerful guards and turned over to historians for study."

"They knew it couldn't be Emperor Han Wu's personal token, but because two groups were willing to fight to the death for it, they were certain it held some kind of secret."

"Unfortunately, their research yielded nothing. The token just sat gathering dust in a warehouse, still requiring protection."

"But more than a decade passed, and no one ever came to steal it."

"Under the circumstances, no powerful expert was willing to guard a neglected token that no one seemed to care about. So, it eventually made its way back to us in Tianhai for safekeeping."

After listening to the story, Xu Ke looked regretful. "And here I thought I'd found a real treasure."

He knew that if so many powerful people had fought over it, the token had to have some extraordinary quality. However, it wasn't what he needed, so it was useless to him.

"There are still several more safes to go. Don't be discouraged," Chen Xiong comforted him with a smile. "Put that back and let's keep going."

Xu Ke nodded.

However, as Xu Ke was putting the token back into the safe, he noticed something else that left him speechless—the "Han" character was written in simplified script.

A Han dynasty artifact written with simplified characters? Are you kidding me?

Suddenly, he suspected this thing might not be special at all!

CLICK.

Xu Ke closed the safe.

In the next few safes, Xu Ke found nothing of interest. The items were genuine antiques, complete with certificates, but none of them were particularly valuable. The main reason Xu Ke was unmoved, however, was the complete absence of Dragon Essence.

Chen Xiong and Yuan Shang, who had accompanied him through all the safes, could only shake their heads helplessly when they saw he had found nothing.

They still had no idea what Xu Ke was actually looking for. When asked, he couldn't give a specific answer, only that he needed something containing "Dragon Essence." Since they had no clue what Dragon Essence was, they could only remain silent.

But just when Xu Ke thought he would once again come away empty-handed, something happened that took him by surprise. He opened the final safe.

Inside was a fist-sized green bead. When Xu Ke held it in his palm, he could see specks of red light glowing within it.

"This is it!" Xu Ke exclaimed with delight.

Seeing the bead, the two men were astonished. "So that's Dragon Essence?"

"Exactly!" Xu Ke nodded.

Yuan Shang stroked his chin. "It's the red light?"

He clearly remembered that the green bead hadn't glowed with red light before.

"It probably only shows the red light when I'm near," Xu Ke said after a moment's thought, giving an ambiguous answer.

Hearing this, Yuan Shang and Chen Xiong both felt a sense of helplessness. If the item only revealed its properties when Xu Ke was near, searching for more of them throughout the country on his behalf would be incredibly difficult. After all, even Xu Ke himself didn't have a clear understanding of Dragon Essence, let alone outsiders like them. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

However, while Xu Ke's knowledge of Dragon Essence wasn't deep, he had a good sense of the amount contained in the green bead he now held. The Dragon Essence within the bead was nearly depleted. Fortunately, there was still enough to support his cultivation two or three more times. This was an extremely lucky find.

With this, breaking through to Innate Great Perfection was only a matter of time.

At this thought, Xu Ke felt a pang of regret for the Dragon Ring he'd gotten from Zhou Hongsheng. If he had used it more slowly, he would probably be at the Innate Mid Stage by now.

It's all because of that damn Sun Luo and his cronies…

After obtaining the green bead, Xu Ke left the room. At the same time, a guard waiting outside brought a briefcase over and handed it to him.

"What is this?" Xu Ke asked, surprised.

There's more? Am I here at the Martial Alliance to collect a reward or to move house…?