Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Looking back, Tang Jie saw a beauty in a water-blue gown, her hair done up with two phoenix hairpins, standing behind him, giving him a bright smile. Behind her were two pretty maids, both clearly humans.
Upon seeing this beauty, the minor fiend on the side hastily got down on his knees. "Greetings, Empress!"
Tang Jie sighed in relief. As expected, bringing around this minor fiend was a good idea, or else he would have failed to recognize this person. Even if this fiend spent too long with him and started to get suspicious, he could just find a reason to execute him. After all, he was a tyrant, so who was he afraid of?
Thinking this, Tang Jie laughed and walked over. "So it was the Empress! It seems like you've only gotten prettier since we last met."
This opportunity allowed Tang Jie to avoid the awkwardness of opening the mountain gate.
The fiend empress gave Tang Jie a thin smile while she darkly said, "Your Majesty's words are also getting prettier and prettier, but alas, your heart is still so cruel. You know it has been many days since you have seen this servant, so why do you not come to see her upon your return, instead rushing off to see that woman? Fortunately, this servant predicted this and was here to head off Your Majesty."
Huh?
Tang Jie's eyes widened, and he turned to look at the mountain gate.
Shit, there's another concubine behind this gate?
How was it that there were literally concubines wherever he went?
As he was thinking about this, the empress grabbed Tang Jie's hand. "Your Majesty…"
It was as mellow and sweet as a voice could be.
With this touch, Tang Jie realized that the empress was a blue peacock fiend who had reached the later stage of Transformation. While she seemed sweet and gorgeous, she was quite powerful.
From this aspect, one could understand why fiends normally turned into humans.
The image of a centipede crawling over a peacock was rather unfitting, but if they were both human, it was a fine pairing.
As the blue peacock came forward, Tang Jie didn't dare to show any affection to her. He drew back his sleeve and coldly said, "Forget it. I'll go to the Meditation Palace first."
He had learned where the Meditation Palace was in his earlier stroll, so he turned in its direction.
The beauty immediately started to tremble in rage. Pointing at Tang Jie, she cursed, "Wu Qianshan, you dare to treat me like this!? This isn't how you acted when you first married me. Now that you're at Divine Division and have become a Fiend Emperor, I'm no longer good enough for you! Is that it!? I've overlooked your womanizing ways so far, but you've only gotten worse and worse. Today, I put down my pride to come and find you, but you still treat me this way!? That's too much! Don't forget that I, Lan Ling, am not without foundations, and my father Polar Light is even stronger than you! If you have the guts, then dethrone me and put up that scoundrel as your empress!"
She left in a huff.
Tang Jie was still dazzled by this barrage of abuse.
He had acted this way on purpose, primarily because of that Jiao'er's attitude. He felt like he needed to act more intimidating so that others wouldn't dare to get close and figure out that there was a problem. This was the special privilege enjoyed by an emperor, but he hadn't expected there to be someone in this palace who didn't hold Silver Eyes in such high regard.
The daughter of the Polar Light Fiend Emperor… Tang Jie had had no idea that Silver Eyes' wife was the descendant of such a bigshot.
The Polar Light Fiend Emperor was the oldest and most powerful of the five Fiend Emperors, and it was said that he was nearing a breakthrough. If Lan Ling was his daughter, it was no wonder she was so brazen. Her earlier words had just been a show of courtesy to her husband, but the moment she was humiliated, she immediately turned hostile. Tang Jie was still dizzy from the development.
"But…" Tang Jie whispered. "If she's really angered, doesn't that mean conflict with Polar Light? That sounds pretty good. If Silver Eyes and Polar Light go against each other, there's a chance that both their factions are ruined. Don't you think so?"
He suddenly turned to the minor fiend next to him.
The minor fiend was shuddering in fear, not knowing how to answer.
Tang Jie walked over and placed his left hand on the mountain gate, beginning to analyze its structure so he could find out how to open it.
This made the minor fiend realize something, and he blurted out, "You're not His—"
Bang!
Tang Jie's right hand punched at the fiend's head, killing him. As he drew back his hand, he noted, "Correct answer."
Several fiend soldiers came over upon hearing the noise and were left dumbfounded by the scene.
Tang Jie put on an enraged appearance and barked, "Did anyone tell you to come? Out!"
He acted like he had been infuriated by the empress's scolding and vented his rage on his subordinate, as a proper tyrant should. Those fiend soldiers didn't dare to say anything and withdrew.
Seeing that no one was around, Tang Jie began to openly study the formation on the gate. After a while, he finished analyzing it, and lightly pushed on a groove on a beast head carved into the gate. A small outcrop on the gate sank down in response, and then the gate opened, revealing a pitch-black passage.
Tang Jie stood at the entrance for a while, looking in but not entering, and then he turned and went back. It seemed as if he was a deeply conflicted emperor with many worries on his mind, but he was actually wondering if there might be any other traps within, so he decided to find another minor fiend to lead the way.
Upon arriving at the Meditation Palace, Tang Jie carefully inspected it.
Thankfully, there were no concubines this time.
He opened the door to the meditation chamber, went inside, and began to meditate.
By now, he had realized that the Meditation Palace was probably the place the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor used to rest for short periods, and the meditation chamber in the back mountain was his true place of seclusion, so the treasury was also probably there. But for some reason, this guy had also stashed some bewitching concubine there as well, causing the empress to come and stop him.
Regardless, he had managed to muddle his way through the first day. As the day where he knew absolutely nothing, the first day was undoubtedly the day where he was most liable to be exposed.
After this first day, things should get easier, Tang Jie thought to himself.
Gradually, he entered his meditation state…
The next morning, Tang Jie found another minor fiend and had him go together with him to the back mountain.
Tang Jie had the minor fiend take the lead, but thankfully, there were no mechanisms or traps.
After going through the passage, Tang Jie arrived at a large hall. In the center of the hall was a statue, which appeared to be of the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor himself. On the sides were two other passages, leading off in different directions, and an elder was seated in front of each passage.
The two elders spotted Tang Jie. Standing up, they bowed and said, "Your Majesty, you've returned. Did Your Majesty get the item?"
'Item'? What item?
Tang Jie silently cursed these two old men for not speaking clearly. He pretended to examine the statue while he guessed at what those old men were asking about. Was it the Umbra Cactus flower? But what did they want it for?
One of the elders came over and asked, "Does Your Majesty want to take a look at that?"
Tang Jie's heart shivered, but his face remained unmoved as he grunted.
The elder stood in front of the statue, grabbing one of its arms and pressing it down. There was a rumbling as the statue moved aside, revealing a pitch-black opening.
It turned out that there was a hidden passage.
The moment this passage appeared, a howling and sinister gale swept out, bringing with it an immense pressure. It was the same pressure that Tang Jie had felt when standing in front of the mountain. It had disappeared after he had gone, but it turned out to be coming from this passage.
The pressure coming from the passage was so great that Tang Jie felt like he was in immense danger. He couldn't help but lean his body forward, but then the elder said, "Your Majesty, be careful. This demon cave has devoured too many fiends. Your Majesty must not go in yourself."
"I was just looking," Tang Jie replied as he slowly drew back and sighed.
Sighs could convey a broad array of emotions and carried many different meanings, and different people would interpret them in entirely different ways. The fiend elder heard the sigh and said, "Your Majesty, don't be anxious. So long as the Nine Yin Soul Sealing Formation is completed, it will be able to suppress the evil energies of this demon cave, at which point Your Majesty can venture inside. I'm sure that major secret of the Ghost God who had the entire world wailing is within. If Your Majesty obtains it, you might even be able to transcend."
Tang Jie chuckled. "I'll take your word for it."
He thought to himself, It seems that the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor came across this place by accident, so he built his palace here. To protect this secret, he even turned the back mountain into his cultivation place, even putting up a statue to serve as a cover. Besides that, he also set up a Nine Yin Soul Sealing Formation to suppress the demon cave.
Tang Jie knew of this formation. It was a formation used to suppress evil energy and ghosts, and it required nine objects of an extreme Yin nature. This demon cave was thick with demon energy, so this formation truly would work on it.
Tang Jie suddenly remembered that the Yellow Springs Water was considered an extreme Yin object. It seemed like the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor's real goal in going to the Inkcloud Abyss was the Yellow Springs Water, not the Umbra Cactus flower.
Tang Jie now understood what those two elders were talking about, and he took out the Yellow Springs Water. "Take it."
The elder happily took it. "We now have seven Yins. We just need the Nine Splendors Ice and Frostheaven Dew for the complete set, and the cave will be open to us!"
Tang Jie inwardly scoffed. These two objects truly did have extreme Yin natures, but they were extremely rare. If this was how the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor was doing things, his Nine Yin Soul Sealing Formation would be absurdly expensive.
But this formation didn't actually need to be that expensive.
There was a formation called the Minor Profound Yin Formation. Its effect was similar to that of one of these nine extreme Yin objects, so one could lay down nine Minor Profound Yin Formations to serve as the basis for the Nine Yin Soul Sealing Formation. Slight modification could make each formation different so that one could get an approximation of the target object, but it would be at significantly lower cost.
Of course, Tang Jie wasn't going to say anything of this. He simply grunted and looked to the two other passages.
He had no idea where those two passages led, and he certainly couldn't ask, so he just chose one and walked down it.
After walking through the long passage, he found that there was a cage at the end, and a woman was imprisoned in it.
The woman was disheveled and filthy, her face caked in dirt. When she spotted Tang Jie, she rushed to the bars of the cage and glared at him, her eyes spewing hatred. This was clearly a real human.
Was this the scoundrel Lan Ling was speaking of?
Tang Jie inwardly chuckled. It was clear that this fiend empress had had no opportunity to enter the back mountain, as she had completely the wrong idea about the relationship Silver Eyes had with this woman.
At least it wasn't a concubine, and Tang Jie sighed in relief. He was terrified that some woman would throw herself into his embrace.
He glanced at the woman. Although he didn't know why Silver Eyes had imprisoned her here, he ultimately left without saying a word.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢