Chapter 49 Part 2

Xie Linlang pondered briefly, snapped his fingers, and a mirror surface formed from faint water vapor appeared before Le Qingping.

“Is your shizun this woman here?”

Le Qingping examined the woman in the mirror closely. The woman wore a yellow skirt, her long hair in an updo, a gold-thread shawl over her shoulders, exuding opulent splendor. Her long brows swept into her temples, her eyes shone like brilliant stars, and she brimmed with heroic spirit.

The woman held a long-stemmed peony in her hand, its large golden-yellow flower head blooming fully.

Perhaps it was Le Qingping’s illusion, but that massive flower head always seemed like a mallet that could easily smash a person’s head into eight pieces.

Le Qingping was uncertain. The face seemed somewhat similar, but this temperament… it was worlds apart from the shizun she knew!

“…How is this senior addressed?”

“Yao Huang Fairy of Dream Flower Immortal Sect. It’s said she fell to the demonic path because of the Silent Night Demon Lord.”

Le Qingping noted the woman’s appearance and information thoughtfully.

“Dream Flower Immortal Sect, Yao Huang Fairy.”

Xie Linlang waved his hand, dismissing the water mirror. “I saw her once a long time ago, but I’ve never met your shizun, so I can’t guarantee it’s accurate.”

He eyed Le Qingping with interest. “Since you’re her disciple, why not ask her directly?”

Le Qingping said slyly, “Asking myself versus investigating myself feels different, you know.”

“Then I’ll trade this information for a commission.”

“…Please go ahead.”

Xie Linlang’s expression grew serious. He shook the Talisman Compendium in his hand and pointed to a few pages. “I’ve looked at the palace’s basic runes. Can you reverse-engineer runes with opposite effects based on these?”

Le Qingping blinked. “Reverse-engineer runes with opposite effects?”

Xie Linlang nodded. “Exactly. For example, this Beast Controlling Talisman can manipulate mindless demonic beasts as meat shields, but if we reverse it to the opposite effect and apply it long-term, couldn’t it awaken the demonic beasts’ intelligence? Wouldn’t that be even better?”

Le Qingping didn’t understand. “What’s the point? If you want intelligent demonic beasts, just buy one at the market stalls.”

Why bother painstakingly using runes to boost a demonic beast’s intelligence? It was a waste of time.

“What if the manipulation target is a Magic Artifact or Spirit Sword?”

“…Ah! You mean reversing the runes into a spirit-nurturing method?”

Making a Magic Artifact gain intelligence was exceedingly difficult, something only Mahayana Stage cultivators could achieve. Only legendary immortal tools possessed innate sentience.

Le Qingping’s interest was piqued at once. She agreed readily, “Alright, I’ll study it.”

Xie Linlang breathed a sigh of relief inwardly and selected a few more pages of runes—ones related to the patterns he had seen on the Black-Armored Cultivators.

But to avoid revealing his intent, he also picked several other runes as cover.

Since his mind was full of the Black-Armored Cultivators’ runes, he wasn’t attentive when selecting the others and didn’t notice what he had picked.

Le Qingping’s expression grew increasingly strange. Looking at the Dust Avoidance Talisman, she couldn’t help asking, “Senior Xie, turning the growth-acceleration rune into growth-slowing makes sense, but turning the Dust Avoidance Talisman into a Dust Absorbing Talisman—what’s that for?”

Xie Linlang paused for a few seconds before saying nonchalantly, “For cleaning pill furnaces. The residues in pill furnaces have special effects too. Can’t use dust avoidance; need dust absorption.”

Le Qingping could only give a look of “I’m not a pill master, don’t fool me,” half-believingly agreeing.

After bidding Le Qingping farewell, Xie Linlang finally relaxed.

The Red-beaked Sparrow still remembered Senior Brother Fang turning into a Black-Armored Cultivator. If Le Qingping could develop a full set of reversed runes, could they reverse the Black-Armored Cultivators’ state? At least restore their sanity?

It wasn’t that Xie Linlang was kindly worrying about Senior Brother Fang. He was just afraid that among Silent Night Palace’s countless Black-Armored Cultivators, one might have been Pei Ji.

Even if Pei Ji had no relation to the Black-Armored Cultivators, having reversed runes would let Xie Linlang extract Silent Night Palace’s secrets through them—a backup plan.

Unfortunately, Xie Linlang himself wasn’t skilled in runes and could only wait for Le Qingping’s results.

Three days later, Silent Night Palace officially announced the details of the Grand Pill Competition.

Anyone wanting to participate just needed to get a task from Senior Brother Zheng to join the Pill Room competition.

The competition format was simple and brutal: gather 10 people and start refining in the furnaces.

Only 1 out of 10 advanced, and the second round was the same—10 select 1.

Thus, in less than five days, Silent Night Palace’s thousands of low-rank cultivators finished the first two rounds. Adding internal recommendations, they gathered thirty-two Foundation Establishment disciples for the third round.

Xie Linlang naturally advanced, as did Shen He.

From the third round onward, Silent Night Palace’s high-rank cultivators appeared irregularly at the assessment site. Besides personally probing the disciples’ talents, it facilitated master-disciple bonds between low- and high-rank cultivators.

Xie Linlang’s pill refining speed was always the fastest, naturally drawing much attention from high-rank cultivators.

However, Xie Linlang still bore the Sunset Death Gate label, incomparable to the pure-blooded Shen He.

Lin Yu was very satisfied with Shen He. Seeing him refine a furnace of pills within the time limit, with excellent quality, Lin Yu nodded with a smile.

He was about to introduce to the pill master beside him, This is my disciple, very talented and promising, when the Kill Matt Little Bird on the bird perch beside him flapped its fleshy wings and suddenly rasped, “Who is that?”

Lin Yu paused, following Kill Matt Little Bird’s gaze. It turned out that after his disciple Shen He succeeded in refining, he had taken the Medicine Bottle to another person.

That person wore black robes, with long hair like a waterfall, features exquisite as a painting, a vermilion mole at his brow center, and a serene, peaceful aura. He was speaking softly to Shen He.

Lin Yu recalled briefly. “Oh, he’s a Sunset Death Gate cultivator who brought skills to study here in our Silent Night Palace.”

Kill Matt Little Bird stared fixedly at the black-haired, black-robed youth, its gaze entranced.

“…What’s his name?”

“Seems to be called Xie Yu.”

“What?”

Kill Matt Little Bird sucked in a cold breath and tumbled straight off the bird perch, landing under Lin Yu’s chair.

Lin Yu was baffled. “What’s with your fit?”

He suddenly regretted it a bit. Better if Pei Little Bird had kept chirping nonsense. After speaking human words, it had become even sillier and crazier?