Got it.
This girl is really getting more and more unambitious.
Chen Ye had just made a casual remark, never expecting this lass to actually want to open an eatery.
After eating and drinking their fill, Qing Jun, with her round little belly, sprawled bonelessly on the bamboo chair, burping.
Jin’er and Zhiwei, on the other hand, deftly tidied away the jade plates and utensils.
Chen Ye set down his teacup, the lazy smile on his face gradually fading.
He stood up and lifted his head, looking toward the outside of the Array light curtain.
By now it was evening; the clamor outside had subdued quite a bit, though one could still vaguely see streaks of Flowing Light heading toward Wuyang Palace.
The Divine Son’s return to the Sect stirred up a great commotion.
Not only the Greed Fiend Branch, but Guardians and Venerables from the other six branches were all going to Wuyang Palace to pay their respects and discuss matters.
Chen Ye even suspected that the Golden Core True Men of the Emotion Crossing Sect were all too busy to care about anything else at this moment, their attention fully on the returning Divine Son.
What did this mean?
It meant that the internal defenses of the Emotion Crossing Sect were far less tight than before.
"Zhiwei."
Chen Ye casually put that bamboo hat back onto his head, pressing the brim low as he calmly instructed,
"Your teacher must go out tonight to scout around. You two stay in Cold Scale Mansion and be very careful. Although Tuoba You values us, we’ve only just arrived; it’s inevitable there will be Demon Cultivators with ill intent."
Zhiwei was keen-minded and said softly, "Master, are you going to probe the foundations of this Greed Fiend Branch? Or are you planning to look for Bai Li now?"
"Mm, I’ll make a preliminary inquiry."
Chen Ye straightened his robe, suppressed his aura, and said casually,
"Some things really aren’t suitable to ask Tuoba You or other Emotion Crossing Cultivators directly. They all have Emotion Crossing Seeds planted in them; we cannot be careless. Only what we see with our own eyes and hear with our own ears can be trusted."
"Then Master, please be careful in everything. Zhiwei and Jin’er have both reached Foundation Establishment Middle Period. In the Greed Fiend Branch, there are very few who can threaten your disciples."
Zhiwei nodded solemnly.
After breaking through to Foundation Establishment Middle Period, she was confident she could protect her junior sister.
Even if that Tuoba You turned traitor halfway, she was not afraid, confident she was fully capable of suppressing this Sixth-Layer Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivator.
"Don’t worry, your teacher will be back soon."
With that said, Chen Ye’s figure swayed slightly and quietly melded into the dusk of the Greed Fiend Branch.
...
Dusk gathered on all sides.
Taking advantage of the fact that most high-tier Cultivators had gone to Wuyang Palace to pay respects,
Chen Ye very smoothly made a circuit around many of the core buildings of the Greed Fiend Branch.
More than half a two-hour period later.
He stopped atop the branch of a dead tree, sketching a clear map of this Third Peak’s territory in his mind.
"The Greed Fiend Branch isn’t much different from Lingyin Inner Sect; the only real difference is the Cultivation Techniques they practice. After all, they’re all later branches of Songyang."
"A pity my father-in-law’s body isn’t in the Greed Fiend Branch... If it were here, it would save me a lot of effort."
Chen Ye silently pondered in his heart.
However, he had never expected to find his father-in-law’s body so easily to begin with, so he was not disappointed.
Chen Ye speculated that
he probably wouldn’t find Bai Li’s corpse in any of the seven branches of the Emotion Crossing Sect.
Bai Li was, after all, a Golden Core True Man, and a Heaven’s Chosen at that.
The remains of such a person were highly likely to be in Wuyang Palace.
But getting into Wuyang Palace was far more difficult than gaining entry into the Greed Fiend Branch.
Wuyang Palace was a critical place of the Emotion Crossing Sect,
where the three Golden Core True Men and the Duqing Divine Son all resided.
Those who could enter Wuyang Palace had to be scions of families that were orthodox and "red to the core" within the Demon Sect...
That’s right, orthodox and "red to the core."
Compared to Lingyin Sect, it was actually Demon Sects like the Emotion Crossing Sect that valued family background even more. Perhaps this had much to do with how mixed and chaotic things were within the Sect, and it might also be out of "protection" for the Divine Son.
He narrowed his eyes, looking at the outline of Wuyang Palace hidden behind the Array in the sky, secretly calculating in his heart.
"I can’t force my way in; I still need to look for an opportunity... For now, I’ll search the other six branches, such as the Fourth Branch, the Resentful Bone Branch. That branch has to do with corpses. If Bai Li is in any of the seven branches, he’s most likely in the Resentful Bone Branch."
As Chen Ye’s thoughts flickered, he had already set the tone for what came next.
Since the groundwork was done, he didn’t linger any longer in this Inner Sect forbidden area.
With a shift of thought, Chen Ye simply followed that broad staircase all the way down to the Market at the foot of the Greed Fiend Branch mountain.
Though it was dusk,
the Market was still extremely lively. Besides Cultivators of this branch, there were huge numbers of Cultivators from other branches.
This was because the Emotion Crossing Sect had a total of seven branches: the Free-and-Easy Branch, the Fiendish Blood Branch, the Greed Fiend Branch, the Resentful Bone Branch, the Joyous Branch, the Lone Attainment Branch, and the No-Gap Branch.
Among these seven, the Greed Fiend Branch specialized in Heaven-Stealing Creation, devouring the origin of all things, and put the greatest emphasis on hoarding resources.
Therefore, the Market at the foot of this Third Peak was a veritable gold-draining den not only for the entire Emotion Crossing Sect, but even within the Cultivation Realm of Qi Kingdom as a whole—it could be counted among the very top—after all, Qi Kingdom currently had only one Sect on the surface, namely the Emotion Crossing Sect.
Here, as long as you had enough Spirit Stones, you could trade for anything you wanted.
Be it Cultivation Technique manuals from various sects, or Magical Treasure Divine Weapons, or even some Fairy of a righteous sect...
Chen Ye tucked both hands into the sleeves of his coarse hemp robe, looking like the most ordinary of lowly old farmers, strolling leisurely down the street.
Don’t ask why he looked like an old farmer...
Because Chen Ye had originally been a bottom-tier Spirit Plant Cultivator, and with his current Qi Concealment Technique, playing this kind of role came most naturally.
"The resources of this Greed Fiend Branch are more abundant than I imagined, and there are many Pills sold here, including plenty of specialty Pills from other sects. If I were to sell some high-tier Pills from Lingyin Sect, it wouldn’t stir up much of a fuss."
Chen Ye nodded inwardly.
He was currently far too short of Spirit Stones. Though his disciples had one hundred and forty thousand Spirit Stones, he intended to use those Spirit Stones for their cultivation.
As for himself, he had less than ten thousand Spirit Stones left.