Chapter 37 Part 2

Pei Jiye remained silent for a long time. He leaned back against the thorny, spiked backrest of the Crimson Tree Branch Throne. After a while, he said in a hoarse voice, “It’s a key.”

Ying Xiaotian understood after a brief thought. “A key to some secret realm again? But even if it’s a key, you can’t go.”

He sized up Pei Jiye meaningfully. “You can’t even leave a ten-thousand-li radius around Silent Night Palace. At most, you can fly a couple of laps over the southern domain’s seas.”

Pei Jiye ignored Ying Xiaotian’s words and continued, “One year ago, the renowned Pill King Lin Lang Dao Lord of the True Realm fell… disappeared during his tribulation transcendence. His Mustard Seed Realm became ownerless.”

After inquiring through multiple channels and activating some old connections, he had obtained a bit of information.

“Jiuxia Mountain used a secret method and finally confirmed the location of Lin Lang Dao Lord’s Mustard Seed Realm from before his death. But the entry rules are extremely peculiar. It seems to require a pill refining assessment, and only those who reach a certain standard in pill refining can enter within the limited time.”

Pei Jiye lowered his gaze, his long lashes concealing the emotions in his eyes. He continued, “Jiuxia Mountain set the opening time three months from now. Anyone who obtains a key will have the qualification for the assessment. No matter where they are, they can enter the Mustard Seed Realm the instant it opens—of course, the cultivator must be in the True Realm at the time of opening, and each key allows three people to enter.”

Ying Xiaotian suddenly realized. “You want to secure this slot for Silent Night Palace? I heard that Lin Lang Dao Lord was an extremely skilled pill master. Obtaining his inheritance would greatly boost the sect’s overall strength. By the way, he’s also quite famous among demonic cultivators. Do you know the Pinghu Scholar?”

Pei Jiye raised his gaze. He propped his chin with one hand, his pitch-black long hair draping down slightly. His scarlet eyes seemed to say, Spit it out if you have something to say.

“That kid Pinghu is Lin Lang Dao Lord’s agent among demonic cultivators. Otherwise, why do you think he always gets high-quality spirit pills?”

Ying Xiaotian sneered. “Although those pills have no markings… heh, if they did have markings, Lin Lang Dao Lord probably wouldn’t dare sell them anymore… uh…”

He wanted to say more, but suddenly his collar tightened. Pei Jiye, who had been three meters away, had somehow closed in.

Pei Jiye’s pitch-black long hair spread slightly, like unknown chains bursting from a dark abyss, ready to strangle everything before him in the next second.

A single thought filled Pei Jiye’s mind: How did he not know that Xie Linlang had dealings with demonic cultivators?

He himself was a demonic cultivator!!

In a hoarse voice, he asked, “Who is the Pinghu Scholar? How does he know Lin Lang Dao Lord?”

Ying Xiaotian’s heart jolted. So fast!

Damn Pei Jiye’s strength—had it grown again?

When Pei Jiye had come with Lin Yu back then, the kid was only at the Soul Transformation Stage. Although he quickly became a Tribulation Transcendence cultivator, Silent Night Palace had secret methods to forcibly elevate a cultivator by a major realm.

Such forcibly elevated cultivators were half-baked. As a Late Soul Transformation cultivator, Ying Xiaotian naturally wasn’t afraid of a half-baked Tribulation Transcendence one, which was why he dared call Pei Jiye “Pei Little Chick.”

But had it been thirty years? How had Pei Jiye seemingly become a true Tribulation Transcendence cultivator? He hadn’t heard of him undergoing tribulation, though?!

Thoughts raced through Ying Xiaotian’s mind, but his mouth answered quickly.

“Uh, Pinghu Scholar is named Li Pinghu, the top assassin of Sunset Death Gate. He was at the Nascent Soul Stage back then, but recently it’s said he’s advanced to Soul Transformation. As for how he met Lin Lang Dao Lord… apparently, he failed a commission once and accidentally obtained one of Lin Lang Dao Lord’s pills. He found it extremely useful and deliberately approached Lin Lang Dao Lord afterward.”

Ying Xiaotian sent out so many demon bone puppets every day, each one a small account for gathering intel, so he naturally knew plenty of cultivator gossip. “It’s said that Lin Lang Dao Lord was beautiful and kind-hearted. He might have been deceived by Pinghu. Anyway, Pinghu always had some good spirit pills afterward. I’ve bought some from him.”

He carefully observed Pei Jiye’s scarlet eyes and twitched his nose, feeling like he’d grasped Pei Jiye’s weakness.

Ying Xiaotian slowly pried open Pei Jiye’s fingers and grinned. “If you’re interested in Lin Lang Dao Lord’s legacy, you can go chat with Pinghu. By the way, help find my bone. As for your commission to retrieve that jade bottle… pay me another reward, how about it?”

Pei Jiye stared coldly at Ying Xiaotian.

Just as Ying Xiaotian thought he was about to be dismantled again, Pei Jiye spoke. “Deal.”

Ying Xiaotian left delightedly.

Pei Jiye stood with his hands behind his back. After a long time, his body trembled slightly like a molting snake. A layer of translucent shell slowly writhed, struggled, and peeled off, ultimately falling to the ground.

The Night Senior kill-matted little bird that Shen He had seen before hopped out from the translucent shell.

And that translucent shell solidified, rippling faintly like a lake surface, soon transforming into a Puppet Wax Statue identical to Pei Jiye.

The kill-matted Night Senior flapped his fleshy wings, and the Puppet Wax Statue lightly landed on the Crimson Tree Branch Throne.

Just as Pei Little Bird planned to leave the quiet chamber, the Puppet Wax Statue behind him opened its eyes.

They were a pair of golden vertical pupils.

The Puppet Wax Statue spoke. “Pei Ji.”

The flapping Pei Jiye, who had been hopping forward, slipped at the call and face-planted.

The kill-matted little bird incredulously twisted its head to look at the wax statue.

“Cheep? Cheep cheep!!”

It wasn’t time yet! How had it awakened?

The Puppet Wax Statue’s golden vertical pupils held no emotion, cold as a machine.

“A cultivator lit the Ditang Soul Lamp. The entrance to the ancient graveyard has loosened.”