Chapter 288

Seeing Pei Ye spread his palms, and the silver round pendant that had collapsed and flown fell into his palm. The wind and snow in the building had already ceased.

The man's body that had lost its breath fell stiffly downstairs. Seeing Pei Ye watched for a while, and still no flame burst out from the corpse.

He slowly retracted his outstretched palm.

The mysterious name of Huan Si Lou was indeed gradually becoming concrete. According to the Tianshan side, the voices of those who burned themselves were hoarse, and according to the corpse Seeing Pei Ye left behind, those people might also have no faces.

Without voice and face, no one could recognize them. "Person" did not just refer to tall, hairless monkeys—a pair of faceless, nameless, identical bodies could not be called people.

Therefore, Xianrentai and Tianshan called them "Theater Ghosts."

But what Seeing Pei Ye encountered after coming to Xiangzhou was not this kind of thing. Although they belonged to Huan Si Lou, they had faces and voices, operated painting pavilions, entered the merchant association, walked and took root in the secular world, and planned and promoted this and that.

It was hard to say which kind was more terrifying, or they could have appeared together and cooperated with each other from the beginning.

In secular matters, the theater guests were in the light, and the theater ghosts were in the dark. And if there was an investigation and fight, it was the theater ghosts in the light, turning into burning smoke after defeat, and the theater guests still melted into the secular world.

Unlike the evil of the Zhushi Sect with clear goals and hiding from the world to brew, burning fire and pinching faces, such an organization that mastered strange and wonderful power... was really a good hand at stirring up world affairs.

Seeing Pei Ye was quiet for a while, stopped thinking about it, his gaze fell back to the book in his hand, and his eyebrows became heavy again.

Sure enough, only here could he see the origin of this "Zhang He" and find out what he was promoting during these days in Xiangzhou.

Rather than a thin book, it was better to say it was a few sheets of paper bound together.

It was precisely the notes left by Zhang He, listing the things to be done in the next few days. Besides making the Huan Si Lou take root deeper here, it also mentioned two things that made Seeing Pei Ye's eyes focus.

One was Yi Chengxin's recent marriage. Zhang He listed many complicated details that needed to be covered up here without omission. Seeing Pei Ye did not understand the deep meaning, but in these few lines, Zhang He mentioned the word "Dragon Descendant" three times in a row.

The second was a short record—"Submitted a month ago, should be traced again."

Submitted a month ago? Submitted what? Submitted to whom?

Seeing Pei Ye thought of the conversation with the man at the noodle stall in the afternoon—"Later, the gossip spread, saying that a family head died in Yinyang, and this thing was taken to be buried with him."

Seeing Pei Ye was silent for a while, put down these few pages of notes, and sat down in front of the table.

Before Zhang He came, he had almost turned the whole building over, and finally stopped here.

He believed that such secret matters must have secret barriers of sufficient specifications, but this note was placed on the table like this, and the feeling of the owner taking it at will was very obvious... but there were not even drawers here.

Seeing Pei Ye leaned against the backrest, his gaze turned slowly and suddenly paused, fixed on the relief wall in front of him.

A large wall of exquisitely carved copper and iron, the table was placed against it.

And, very new.

Seeing Pei Ye looked for a while, reached out and covered it, and true Qi permeated and spread out on this large wall.

His eyebrows immediately raised.

A clear hollow space was exposed in his perception, located in the center of the copper wall, almost the size of half a table.

But after the true Qi covered it completely bit by bit, Seeing Pei Ye's eyebrows slowly fell again.

This hollow space was completely cast dead. Not to mention the entrance and exit, there was not even a gap. This was not a secret compartment, but should be a treatment done when the copper wall was cast, either to reduce weight or to steal materials. Things could not be put in, and could not be taken out.

Seeing Pei Ye frowned and was silent. Making a secret entrance and exit mechanism here would be the most suitable hiding place, but the other party just didn't use it.

The pendant in his palm suddenly rubbed his hand.

The young man who was frowning and turning around was suddenly stunned, and held this pendant in front of him.

The round surface cast in bright silver was polished as bright as a mirror, and complex patterns were stacked on it layer by layer. In his eyes, this should have been just an ornament, but the sensitive Chi Fire in his abdomen indeed had some subtle reactions.

Magical artifact.

Forty or fifty days passed, and it was not the first time Seeing Pei Ye had seen this kind of thing, but at this time he flipped through it several times, and still could not see its usage and purpose.

【Little Dragon Heart】 did not need to be activated. It was active and aggressive, and it was good to swallow it when using it, and it only needed to be sealed when not in use.

【Soul-Stealing Bead】 and 【Sword Mind Reflection】 needed to inject true Qi, which was also for the sake of users under the Mystic Gate.

"Zhang He" was also in the Pulse Tree realm, but Seeing Pei Ye tried to inject some true Qi into this pendant, but felt that it was no different from injecting it into an iron sheet or a wooden stick.

"... Little cat, I seem to have gotten a magical artifact, true Qi is useless, are there any other ways?"

The black cat's voice sounded after a while: "Look to see if there are any engraved characters on it, or if it is triggered by a mantra."

Seeing Pei Ye held it in front of his eyes and flipped through it carefully, frowning: "No."

"Then use Chi Fire."

"How to use it?" Seeing Pei Ye ignited a small ghostly blue flower beside him, "Burn it?"

"Do you know what a 'magical artifact' is?"

"... Where would I know."

"You really don't flip through 'Spirit Recognition' at all."

"..." "Spirit Recognition," "General Theory"... Seeing Pei Ye remembered the pile of sword theory books Li Weiru stuffed to him again, a bit annoyed, "Hurry up and say it."

"I'll tell you the most basic logic first." Anyway, the black cat never got angry at him, "From 【Person】, to 【Magical Artifact】, to 【Heaven and Earth Spirit Mystic】, this is the normal path to control magical artifacts. The way 【Magical Artifacts】 use 【Heaven and Earth Spirit Mystic】 is fixed in them when they are refined, which is also the core of a magical artifact. And from 【Person】 to 【Magical Artifact】 is the person's way of manipulation. Mantras, true Qi, or something else are all signals passed to the magical artifact. The structure of the magical artifact accepting these signals is called 【Faith Acceptance】."

Seeing Pei Ye immediately grasped the key: "Then what about the abnormal path?"

"【Faith Acceptance】 is generally divided into two stages. The first stage receives the signal, and the second stage connects to the mystic. If this magical artifact has no deeper encryption, you can trigger it by directly touching the 'connecting to the mystic' half with Chi Fire." The black cat said calmly, "Separate a strand of Chi Fire as thick as a hair and inject it in."

For Seeing Pei Ye, using this side of Chi Fire's spirituality was the first time. During the operation, it was indeed very subtle and difficult to control. The young man deeply understood the high threshold of the array artifact master.

But in fact, he had greatly skipped the most difficult part—the master manipulates spiritual energy, relying on his own subtle inspiration. Perception is already extremely difficult, and using it as an array or artifact requires even more talent. Just like painting with a needle and thread, the difficulty can be imagined, so there are few masters, and even fewer array, artifact, and alchemy masters.

And Seeing Pei Ye's 【Chi Fire Source】 is in his abdomen. Chi Fire is something he can use like his arm. Although it is also painting with a needle, he can hold it with his hand. So, under the black cat's step-by-step guidance, the ghostly blue fire thread like silk swam and shuttled in the spiritual mystic structure of this magical artifact, and finally stopped, touching the "second half" mentioned by the black cat.

Immediately, it was as if a light and thin whirlwind rose silently on the pendant.

Seeing Pei Ye raised his eyebrows, saw nothing, but suddenly had a book in his hand.

Seeing Pei Ye was stunned for a long time before looking up at the copper wall: "So that's how it's retrieved... Little cat, you are really amazing."

"Hmm."

Seeing Pei Ye opened this book, and this time he really found the right one.

The ink traces on every page were detailed. After "Zhang He" arrived in Xiangzhou, how all matters were planned and promoted were recorded here.

Seeing Pei Ye took a rough look. Besides taking over Qiyun, his main plan was to infiltrate the government. Seeing Pei Ye even saw a trace of him moving closer to Xianrentai.

This kind of recklessness made Seeing Pei Ye frown deeply, but after all, it was a matter for "meat-eaters to plan," so he skipped this section, and his gaze stayed on another line.

He held his breath here.

The oldest ink trace on this book, Seeing Pei Ye was very familiar with this format, it was an excerpt from the ledger, and the heading on it was "Secrets in Qiyun's Treasury."

And under the category of "August," there was a line that said: "First, Heart Amber, one hundred and twenty catties."

"..."

Seeing Pei Ye remembered deeply that when he was at Bowang Xianrentai, the adults discussed the production of Heart Amber, which was no more than two hundred catties per year, and the outflow was no more than sixty catties.

And a Soul-Stealing Bead used less than two taels of material, and a Sword Mind Reflection was only seven taels.

This was a rare material in the Mind-Spirit realm. Why was there such a large batch of storage in a place no one knew?

Seeing Pei Ye was quiet for a while, and flipped back again, but he only flipped one page, and when he came to the category of "September," he froze in place again.

Looking at this page without moving.

It was still a list of "Secrets in Qiyun's Treasury," but under the category of "September"... that one hundred and twenty catties of Heart Amber was no longer on this list.

A full one hundred and twenty catties of Heart Amber, gone!

Seeing Pei Ye flipped through it several times to confirm that he had not read it wrong, and it was even more impossible for Zhang He to miss such a batch of things.

There was no record of the destination. Obviously, even in the most secret book of the Xiangzhou Huan Si Lou, the use of this batch of Heart Amber could not be written down.

Or Zhang He didn't know at all.

For a long time, Seeing Pei Ye took a deep breath and calmed his somewhat uneasy mood.

Now it can be determined that the material "Heart Amber" is indeed largely in the hands of Huan Si Lou. Three or four catties are difficult to trace, but over a hundred catties of Heart Amber are enough to use as a rope to trace back to the source and pull out their roots.

It's just that the use of this batch of Heart Amber is probably not to manufacture "Soul-Stealing Beads."

So, are they two completely different things, or do they lead to the same goal by different routes?

Seeing Pei Ye pondered and flipped to the last page of this book.

A letter was clamped here.

After reading the letter, the young man's eyebrows tightened again.

—This was clearly the order letter "Zhang He" carried when he arrived in Xiangzhou.

Extremely short.

"Zhang He:

Zhushi matters failed, Qiyun transferred to our building, you go to Xiangzhou to connect.

Matter one: Assist in the transfer of Heart Amber.

Matter two: Assist in the transfer of Zhushi Xiangzhou Dragon Descendants."

This page ended here, but below it, there was another page of appendix text, which was another person's paper note.

"Dragon Descendant, Zhushi ancient pulse.

For a thousand years, 【Dragon Meat】 has been inherited from generation to generation in the bloodline. Because of being close to the Immortal Lord, they have heard the divine oracle and have been the clan of the master of the edict for generations. Men are 【Edict Guardians】, women are 【Edict Children】.

Everything done by the Zhushi Sect in the secular world follows the edict.

Dragon Descendants have an 【Edict Transmission】 every thirty years. Once transmitted, their peers' bloodline will slowly grow for fifteen years, left for later use."

This is Huan Si Lou... giving an annotation to the Yi family.

————

Yinyang, Yi residence.

In Yi Yi Danjun's room, Li Piaoqing took a long time to slowly put down the painting scroll in her hand.

She tried to imagine Yi Yi Danjun's appearance in her mind, but she never thought it was an important matter, nor did she ever think it would be this face.

So, the five people in "New Year's Eve Record of Wine"... were exactly Yi Chengxin's family.

The ancient meaning that had been permeating the residence finally soaked her at this moment. Li Piaoqing truly felt that her connection with the outside world seemed to be broken—she had accidentally stepped into thirty years ago alone.

Li Piaoqing took some time to calm the chill, then quickly put everything away, looked out the window carefully, and leaped out swiftly.

She needed to reunite with the black cat and also needed to exchange news with Seeing Pei Ye again.

The night curtain had already swallowed the setting sun, and the night in the lonely residence on the mountain was even more quiet. It was still empty, and no lights were lit. Those servants seemed to have disappeared into thin air.

Li Piaoqing relied on her eyesight to return to the west. Just after passing a courtyard gate, a small black shadow suddenly swept into her field of vision and landed on her shoulder.

The black cat's eyes were ghostly green. Before the young lady could speak, it already whispered: "It's a bit too late."

Li Piaoqing was stunned: "What?"

"Ritual." The black cat said calmly, "They are pushing faster than I imagined—the old man is the sacrificial official, sacrificing fire, which means the ritual is about to begin."

"..." Li Piaoqing remembered what she had seen in the room just now.

"Dusk, perform the ritual of sacrificing to the immortals. Night, enter the purple bamboo forest, listen to the oracle god child face to face."

She tilted her head and looked west. Sure enough, the last trace of dusk-blood-like light was sinking into the earth.

So... it was today, it was right now. They didn't see anyone in the afternoon, they were preparing the Jade Ke array; now they didn't see anyone, they were already performing the ritual of sacrificing to the immortals.

The young lady said she would come to talk to her for a while in the evening, which was just the pitiful time between "dusk" and "night."

"I came to tell you." The black cat said, "You stay in the West Courtyard, wait for Seeing Pei Ye to come, or leave the residence after half an hour, it's also good to meet him."

"... What about you?"

"I'm going to stop them."

"I'm going too."

The black cat turned its head, its green eyes looking at her quietly.

Li Piaoqing pursed her lips, and the eye contact when they parted in the afternoon appeared again.

But this time Li Piaoqing avoided the gaze slightly first and whispered: "Little cat... I think... you have never accepted me."

After being quiet for a while, the black cat turned its head back: "As long as it is something the Zhushi Sect does, I must stop it. This is my path—but if you gave your life for my path, is there anyone to walk your own path for you?"

"But I'm already here."

The black cat turned its head and looked at her. The young lady's moist eyes were shining faintly in the night.

"... Alright then."

Li Piaoqing pursed her lips: "Where are we going?"

"Behind."

"Backyard?"

"No, behind the residence."

"... What is behind the residence?"

"Yi family ancestral tomb."

(End of chapter)