Chapter 1446: Sensing the Sacred Relic

Qin Sang stepped onto the bridge of light.

The woman walked ahead of him with a light step, leading the way, a sweet smile on her face. Her features were delicate and her eyes quick and lively, enough to snare a man's soul. No ordinary person would ever have guessed that such a beauty was a puppet.

Senior Sister said refining puppets this close to the living is no simple matter. There's no telling how many the Myriad Devil Assembly has prepared. Quite the display. The thought rose in Qin Sang's mind as he listened to the puppet attendant explain the assembly's arrangements in a soft voice.

The island blazed with lantern light.

Stepping onto it, what met his eye was a ring of small, exquisite bamboo lodges. Qin Sang noticed that although they appeared to stand close together, each seemed to occupy a separate space of its own, untouched by the others and sealed against any probing spiritual consciousness. Some kind of spiritual array, presumably.

For the moment, neither he nor the Sky-Eyed Butterfly could make out the grand array's workings.

Once again he marveled at the scale on which the assembly did things.

He followed the puppet attendant into an unclaimed lodge and up to the second floor. There was only one room there, open at the front, though outside lay nothing but darkness and there was nothing to see. The furnishings were plain by contrast, no more than a few bamboo tables and chairs.

The attendant asked whether he required anything further. Any reasonable request could be accommodated by the assembly. Qin Sang shook his head and told her to wait outside the door.

He tested it briefly. The Sky-Eyed Butterfly could probably see through part of the barrier, but the array's master might notice, and there was no need to invite complications.

He sat down in a bamboo chair and closed his eyes to rest.

***

In the room known to no one, Elder Lan and Elder Mei of Mystic Heaven Palace were still waiting, their faces exceedingly grave as they listened to a white-robed cultivator deliver a report.

After a while Elder Lan nodded slightly. "Go on down. Proceed as originally planned, and stay hidden. If anything changes, I'll send word."

"Yes!" The white-robed cultivator withdrew.

Elder Mei rubbed her temple and said heavily, "The Great Heavenly Peng Saint actually attended in person. The situation on Chaotic Devil Island is growing more tangled by the hour!"

Elder Lan found it a considerable headache himself. When the news came, his first thought had been that trouble had arrived.

Hidden Sun Realm bordered Demon Realm, and friction between them had never ceased. Mystic Heaven Palace had fought the demon race more times than anyone could count, and the Great Heavenly Peng Saint had long been the biggest thorn in their side, one they had never found any way to deal with.

"It isn't so strange. Didn't the palace master himself attend the assembly once? Still, there's no word from the grand elder, so it seems like he won't make it back. We'll have to be careful," Elder Lan sighed.

"The palace master—" Elder Mei's expression darkened, and she was about to speak.

A piece of eight-faceted mystic ice hanging at Elder Lan's waist, pure as crystal and tapered to a point at both ends, lit with a faint glow, and a strange ripple spread out from it.

The ripple was very faint, yet in the two elders' minds it struck like a thunderclap. Both shot to their feet, eyes fixed on the trembling shard.

The eight-faceted mystic ice was the ice key Elder Lan had condensed earlier. It lasted only a few days, so it had to be condensed anew each time.

It could sense the sacred relic. For days it had given no reaction at all, and they had largely given up hope.

"The sacred relic!" Elder Mei exclaimed in disbelief. She had never imagined it would be found this easily.

"Is the wretch really dead? Has the relic fallen to someone else? The response is very weak, which means whoever holds it has sealed it behind some barrier. But he definitely does not know that this seal is a peculiar one. No outside force can cut it off."

Elder Lan felt a touch of absurdity himself, as though it were not quite real. They had made all these arrangements to lure the traitor into the open, and never once considered that the relic would simply present itself.

He sat down cross-legged, took the shard in both hands, and worked an incantation.

The mystic ice blazed. The whole room and both people in it were washed in pale blue, and the light rose and fell across its surface, pointing precisely toward where the relic lay.

"He's fast. He's already on the island at the heart of the lake." Elder Lan frowned.

They had an agreement of long standing with the Chaotic Devil Elder: no action on Chaotic Devil Island or anywhere near it, nothing that would damage the assembly's credibility.

With the trade fair about to begin, moving against anyone now to reclaim the relic was out of the question. And thanks to the assembly's peculiar arrangements, there was no way to determine which of them was carrying it.

Holding the shard, Elder Lan thought for a moment and was about to send word to the others and change the plan.

Just then Elder Mei frowned. "Wait. Could this be the traitor's scheme?"

The Great Heavenly Peng Saint had appeared, and set against the rumor that had earlier drawn the grand elder away, they could hardly help thinking further.

Elder Lan's pleasure faded. "You mean the Great Heavenly Peng Saint? Impossible. The relic can refine the demon race's bloodline. The wretch would never dare let so much as a word of it slip to him. And even if the Great Heavenly Peng Saint couldn't open the seal himself, that old demon the Great Nine-Headed Saint would surely find a way. If there were really a scheme, why would he show himself so openly? Wouldn't setting a trap outside serve far better?"

Expressions shifted across Elder Mei's face as she thought it through. "Perhaps the wretch learned long ago that the Great Heavenly Peng Saint would attend, and spread that rumor deliberately to draw the grand elder off and split our strength. Then he colluded with a few devilish monsters to draw us out, and laid whatever plan he wanted to lay."

"That..." Elder Lan did not know what to say.

For a fugitive running for his life to have calculated to that depth would be defying heaven itself. He was more inclined to think the relic had fallen into someone else's hands, someone who did not know its provenance and therefore dared bring it to the assembly.

But her guess was not impossible. Where the sacred relic was concerned, no amount of caution was excessive.

"A pity this is the Chaotic Devil Elder's lair and we can't act on the island. The situation is too tangled for us to grapple with him or give chase, or we'll draw both the Chaotic Devil Elder and the Great Heavenly Peng Saint down on us. You and I will do it ourselves, in one strike! I'll notify Elder Lu at once that there's no need to sell the Yinli Pearl at the trade fair. Let the juniors carry on as planned, but the Spiritual Infant cultivators withdraw from Chaotic Devil Island in secret and seal off every direction. With the ice key to guide us, there's no need for us to remain on the island either." Elder Lan raised his head and rattled out the plan.

Elder Mei agreed, then snorted coldly. "The wretch had better be dead already, or I'll see that he tastes the Bone-Piercing Needle. An operation this size will be short of hands. Send someone to tell those two girls, Shi Xue and Liuli. It's time they did their share for the sect."

Elder Lan hesitated. "Very well. The sacred relic is nearly back in hand, so there's no harm in telling them."

The two elders exchanged a glance, their forms wavered, and they became a pair of translucent phantoms that passed soundlessly through the wall.

Two figures remained in the room, seated by the table, their auras indistinguishable from those of living people, only their skin showing a certain translucence.

They seemed to be quietly waiting for word from their subordinates.

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