Chapter 1443: A Performance

The room fell silent for a moment.

The one who had spoken was a white-haired old woman, her voice somewhat hoarse, worry hidden beneath her tone. She seemed less than pleased that the grand elder she spoke of had chosen this moment to leave.

Beside her sat a middle-aged man with a hard face and eyes like knives, a match for her in both standing and presence.

Both of them were middle-stage Spiritual Infant cultivators! They were elders of Mystic Heaven Palace.

Everyone in the room wore Daoist robes of similar cut, differing only slightly in their patterning. The trim along the side hems of the old woman's and the middle-aged man's robes was gold, while on the others it was silver.

The middle-aged man knew exactly what troubled her and offered reassurance. "Where there's smoke there may well be fire. True or false, there's no harm in going to verify it. The grand elder worries that if the rumor is genuine and we're all sitting here on Chaotic Devil Island, we'll have let the chance slip. Should those demon kings hand the sacred relic to the Great Heavenly Peng Saint, getting it back becomes far harder!"

As he spoke, he recalled the report they had received.

Someone was said to have witnessed, near Stardust Archipelago in the northern Crescent Moon Realm, several demon kings hunting down a man in white of unknown origin over some treasure, and to considerable commotion.

The account was too vague and short on detail, and they were all inclined to think it false. Yet the wretch who had stolen the sacred relic had indeed fled into Demon Realm, and if he had survived a crossing of it, his surfacing near Stardust Archipelago recently was entirely plausible.

A coincidence like that was enough to command their attention. So the grand elder had decided to make the trip himself.

Had Qin Sang known of it, he would have guessed at once that Master Feng and his people had put the word out to make trouble for Bifang while keeping themselves clear of the fallout. Hence the vagueness. It was enough that Mystic Heaven Palace could read it.

After a pause the middle-aged man went on, "Even without the grand elder, we have more than enough to take the wretch. Hmm? The timing of that report, though... It reached our ears precisely before the Myriad Devil Assembly. Could he have arranged it himself, to draw our attention away and split our strength? He knows the palace's situation well. Short of absolute necessity, we cannot let word of the theft get out and disturb the palace master, which means we can't mobilize openly or mount a full search."

"All the better. I'll wait right here for him!" The old woman gave a cold snort and forced down the anger that rose in her, then shifted her tone. "Even transformed into an Ice Demon Body, his strength is no better than an early-stage Spiritual Infant cultivator's. I've no fear of him slipping through our fingers."

Something moved in the man's expression. "Is it that devilish monster, the Chaotic Devil Elder, who worries you, Elder Mei?"

"Exactly!" She nodded firmly. "The man is perverse and cunning, and the pretext we invented likely won't fool him. We had him swear a heart-devil oath, true, but there's no guaranteeing he won't work some mischief behind our backs, and with the grand elder gone we've little to hold him in check."

At those words, every cultivator in the room turned grave. The pressure a great cultivator brought to bear was not something anyone dared ignore.

The middle-aged man thought it over. "The grand elder left in secret, and the old devil doesn't know. Whatever he intends, he won't dare act openly. By the time he catches on, we'll have what we came for."

Then he sighed. "Short of the Divine Transformation Realm, or profound mastery of the Dao of ice, an outsider has essentially no chance of opening a Ten-Thousand-Year Mystic Ice Box. Who would have thought a traitor would appear within our own ranks and use the confusion to make off with the single most important sacred relic the Mystic Heaven Palace possesses? Give him a little longer and he may break the seal. Were it not for that, we'd have no need to rush into a bargain with that devilish monster and push the Myriad Devil Assembly forward to draw him out."

Had those words gotten out, they would have caused an almighty stir.

The emergence of Huang Longshi's temporary residence, and the Chaotic Devil Elder's slaughter of Mystic Heaven Palace's elders, had been a performance from beginning to end, and it had fooled the eyes of the whole world!

At this, one of the white-robed cultivators seated below could not help asking, "Elder Lan, did the grand elder really hand the Chaotic Devil Elder that relic of Huang Longshi's? Weren't we told that Huang Longshi had several temporary residences, none of them his permanent cave dwelling, and that the secret in the relic points to his true one?"

The middle-aged man glanced at him. "Do you think one residence we've already searched over, plus a few Cold Bone Dao trinkets, would be enough to make the Chaotic Devil Elder play along with us?"

The man opened his mouth and found nothing to say.

Seeing his face, the middle-aged man softened and spoke more lightly, "It is only our conjecture that it points to Huang Longshi's cave dwelling. Over all these years the grand elder has taken it out searching many times and turned up nothing. Whether the true cave dwelling even exists remains an open question. That residence held many Cold Bone Dao treasures, after all, and even a man of Huang Longshi's strength wouldn't discard such a place lightly. And what if the Chaotic Devil Elder does find it? It's the cave dwelling of a late-stage Spiritual Infant cultivator, nothing more!"

There was such confidence in his voice that the questioner's disquiet settled.

The middle-aged man exchanged a look with the old woman, tapped the arm of his chair with a finger, and addressed those below in a low voice.

"The auction begins shortly. Go down now, take up your disguises, and quietly look for anyone buying treasures of the Ice Dao in bulk these past few days. The wretch's cultivation is insufficient. If he wants to break the seal, his only recourse is to lay out a Yin-Reversal Array. Hehe... That array demands a staggering amount of ice power, which can only be supplied by treasures in quantity. So long as he's in a hurry to break the seal and sever the relic's connection to us, he won't pass up a chance like the Myriad Devil Assembly to gather them."

"As you command!" The white-robed cultivators took their orders and departed.

Once his subordinates were gone, the old woman cleared her throat. "The wretch is a sly creature. Given enough time he'll have taken control of some low-level cultivators and had them buy on his behalf, piece by piece. That would make him very hard to pick out. Our best hope is still to pin him down with the Yinli Pearl the grand elder produced. Is the disguise finished?"[1]

The middle-aged man nodded. "Rest easy, Elder Mei. It will certainly be done before the trade fair. To anyone else the Yinli Pearl will look like an ordinary yin pearl and draw no particular notice. Once the Cold Bone Dao treasures lure the wretch in and he attends, that singular Ice Demon Body of his will sense something amiss about it."

The old woman smiled at that. "They seem to have picked up traces of those two girls, Shi Xue and Liu Li, in Myriad Devil City. Do take care your cleverness doesn't backfire and leave them buying it out from under us."

"I heard as much! Liu Li's Ice Soul Divine Light isn't yet advanced, and her spiritual perception falls short of an Ice Demon Body's. She has no chance of seeing through the disguise. You may rest easy, Elder Mei."

With that the middle-aged man rose and headed for the back hall rather than returning to his own quiet chamber.

The old woman blinked. "What else do you want to do?"

1. Yinli has no known translation of its own, so it is transliterated. ☜

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