[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-lord-of-the-immortal-food":3,"chapter-lord-of-the-immortal-food-lord-of-the-immortal-food-chapter-37":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Lord of the Immortal Food",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2313160,4524,"Chapter 37: Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Lair","lord-of-the-immortal-food-chapter-37",37,"\u003Cp>Pei Ye did not know where he was being taken.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dark, looming mountain shadows passed beneath his feet; Fenghuai County fell far behind, and the mountains’ shapes grew ever steeper and more alien.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why hadn’t it killed him? Was it taking him to its lair?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suddenly, amid the fierce high-altitude wind, Pei Ye thought of a possibility—could it have discerned the Oath of Shared Life and Death, and intend to bring him before Hei Chi before killing him, then strike down the weakened Hei Chi in one blow?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Forgetting the guilt surging in his heart, Pei Ye urgently called out to Hei Chi, begging it to sever the oath with him at once.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Don’t panic—it has nothing to do with me,” Hei Chi replied, focused. “Just see where this is.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pei Ye froze as his body plummeted sharply—then Qiongqi suddenly dove, plunging into a secluded, towering valley.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A flicker of firelight passed through his vision; before he could examine it, he was violently thrown to the ground, his chest and abdomen jolted with searing pain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A great cloud of dust rose behind him, accompanied by the sound of flapping wings—Qiongqi left without a moment’s pause.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pei Ye pushed himself up with his hands, about to rise and survey his surroundings, when two pairs of boots landed on the ground before his eyes: the right pair dusted with grime, the left spotlessly clean.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That familiar cleanliness startled him—he snapped his head up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But it was not the dead risen; before him stood two strangers in purple robes, gazing after Qiongqi’s retreating form.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The awakenings are increasing…” said the one on the left.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes…” replied the one on the right.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After their exchange, both lowered their heads to look at Pei Ye; their grotesque, monstrous faces in the night made his heart jolt—until he realized they were masks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Where is this one from?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“From Xiao Wu’s branch.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hmm…” The left purple-robed man narrowed his eyes, fixing Pei Ye with a stare—his heart felt as if gripped by a giant hand; neither Jing Ziwang nor Qiongqi had ever filled him with such dread.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since that night he had fought two white-robed men in the rain, Pei Ye’s narrow understanding had been constantly pierced—each enemy he encountered was the strongest he’d ever faced, yet always rendered worthless before the next.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, Pei Ye could no longer judge the level these two purple-robed men occupied—did they kill Jing Ziwang as easily as Jing Ziwang had killed Wu Zaigu?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Enough. It’s all the same.” The purple-robed masked man showed no interest in what had transpired between Pei Ye and Wu Zaigu; he bent down, seized Pei Ye, and in an instant the wind tightened at his ears, the scenery blurred—he stood before a stone cave.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The cave was as large as his own courtyard, housing twenty or more people, sitting or lying scattered within.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The purple-robed man walked away without pause; the black-robed guard at the entrance shoved a token into Pei Ye’s hand. He glanced down—it bore the carving “Twenty-Four.” Before he could examine it further, he was shoved violently inside; the black-robed man closed the flimsy wooden door behind him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pei Ye stood in the cave, surrounded by coldness and the stench of blood; it felt as if countless venomous insects crawled over his skin—his hairs stood on end from the cold, hostile stares of the twenty-odd others.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pei Ye stiffened, slowly shuffled to a corner, and sat, watching the pack of vicious owls around him with wary eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These people ranged from old to young—fifties and sixties down to sixteen and seventeen; mostly men, few women. Many bore varying stains of blood—some blackened and dried, others still fresh and red.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he adjusted his body’s condition, Pei Ye mentally sorted through everything he had seen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most worth pondering was the attitude of Qiongqi and the purple-robed men toward him—his survival clearly depended on being perceived as “useful.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The source of this “usefulness” was easy to guess: likely the Dragon’s Tongue that had entered his body in place of Wu Zaigu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then why had the purple-robed man said “it’s all the same”? Did it mean the Dragon’s Tongue, once charged with energy, was the key—and the vessel that carried it was irrelevant?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then… did every person in this cave carry a “palace” for that noble seed to inhabit?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Did each of these \"palaces\" conceal twelve living lives behind them?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With such scale of slaughter, how could Immortal Platform not have noticed?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hmm… perhaps they had slowly accumulated these human vessels over fifty years, and only now gathered them all here.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pei Ye lifted his head again, studying closely—this time he noticed something different.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though these robed figures sat or lay like ferocious tigers and leopards, their hostility seemed directed solely at him; among them, some were wounded, some with bloodied hands, yet none showed wariness toward one another.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Opposite him, an old man with a grim face leaned against the wall, his black robe torn, filthy, and grimy; his eyes half-lidded, his injured left arm limp over the leg of the person beside him. Sensing Pei Ye’s gaze, he lifted his dull, gray-white eyes and stared coldly back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Resting on his left shoulder was a tangle of matted, dead hair—now also lifting its head to stare. Though smeared with blood, its face was unmistakably young—a girl of seventeen or eighteen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A father and daughter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pei Ye thought, and quietly lowered his gaze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Similar pairings existed in two or three other corners of the cave—siblings, friends, uncle and nephew… their exact ties were hard to determine, but their only commonality was that they were like starving wolves licking each other’s wounds, sharing their final moments of warmth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As these scenes unfolded before him, Pei Ye began to sense a growing dread.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that moment, the wooden door creaked open; a tall but hunched figure appeared at the threshold. He wore no black robe, only a gray tunic, now torn and filthy, crimson blood droplets clinging to his hair and dripping down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As soon as he entered, Pei Ye felt the accumulated hostility around him vanish—every ounce redirected toward him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He raised his head, looked down, surveyed the cave, and curled his lips into a mocking sneer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His gaze paused on Pei Ye, noting the difference in his attire, then strode directly over and sat against the wall beside him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black-robed guard at the door announced: “Seventeen won two matches. Next, Nineteen and Twenty-Four.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A man rose from the depths of the cave; simultaneously, the girl opposite Pei Ye stood up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She walked to the man beside Pei Ye, her eyes, thick with bloodshot veins, locked onto him, and spat: “I will kill you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man grinned, revealing rows of white, sharp teeth: “Before that, you’ll have to kill your father.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The girl clenched her fists, bones cracking; she opened her mouth to speak—but the man from the cave’s depths stepped forward, placed a hand on her shoulder, and said calmly: “Those favored by the Divine, even in bloodshed, remain inseparable; those abandoned by the Divine, even father and son, are merely plotting against each other.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The girl calmed, lifted her chin proudly, and stared at the man beside Pei Ye: “Indeed. We shall live eternally within the Divine’s body. Pitiful, faithless ones.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She snorted, turned, and walked out the door. The man sat cross-legged on the ground, watching her back, his fierce face momentarily solemn and heavy—but when he turned his head toward Pei Ye, his grin returned, lazy and insolent: “Hey, you killed one of theirs too?”\u003C\u002Fp>",1264,"2026-06-20T13:17:09.438Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","66efb62c82b86ad4e273433b609c5a476cc76cc70eff606276962e5d10293007","lord-of-the-immortal-food-chapter-38","lord-of-the-immortal-food-chapter-36",771,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Flord-of-the-immortal-food-cover.jpg"]