Chapter 1252: Reinforcements Arrive

Chapter 1252: Chapter 1252: Reinforcements Arrive

"You’re here! Is everyone gathered?" Pei Yan’s gaze passed over Chao Zimin, who was lying prone on the ground, and landed on Hu Jiu, who had just drifted down from the sky into the courtyard, smiling as he asked.

"The main force is still outside the Immortal Palace, negotiating with the Divine Martial Guard at the gate. They’ll enter the city soon; I couldn’t wait, so I brought the experts over first. Don’t worry, there are people minding the main gate." It was exactly those two wolf fangs Hu Jiu shot out that became the last straw that crushed this camel called Chao Zimin. As Hu Jiu spoke, he walked past Chao Zimin, swept a glance over him, and asked, "What’s with this guy?"

"A blind fool we’re using as the first cut to scare the monkeys." In front of the other elders, Pei Yan mercilessly spat out this humiliating line, then ignored the few elders’ awkward expressions and turned to ask, "How many people came?"

"Heh, don’t ask me! I’m not good with the details. If you want specifics, ask them!" Hu Jiu shook his head, voluntarily made way, and pointed behind himself as he spoke.

Pei Yan looked past him and couldn’t help grinning. The one just stepping in through the courtyard gate was none other than Gu Shenghui, who had left less than a day ago. Gu Shenghui’s face was dark as iron as he walked into the yard. After sweeping a glance over the situation inside, he sighed, then slowly came up to Pei Yan, raised a hand, and smacked the back of Pei Yan’s head. He stuck out a finger at him and complained, "One day! Just one day! Director Mei and I leave and let you run things for a single day, and you stir up something this big! Little ancestor, I really have to hand it to you!"

"Enough! Don’t pin this on me! It’s not like I wanted trouble—our people kept getting killed one after another. You expect me to swallow that? You know my temper. Handing the whole setup over to me, you’d already prepared yourself for things to blow up, right, Gu Chu?" Pei Yan joked with a grin.

Seeing Pei Yan’s shameless look, Gu Shenghui rolled his eyes helplessly and said, "Per your wishes, I brought the people. A thousand above sixth rank—these can be considered our hall’s elite. They’ve all converted their source energy to the Master Plane origin, their power is formidable. Among them are five hundred who just signed contracts with Fenrir and the Nine-tailed Fox Race. The contracted beasts for these five hundred are all high-rank Fenrirs and Nine-tailed Foxes, with extremely fierce combat power. As for the rest, time was too tight; they were dragged over before they could finish signing contracts. Besides these, almost all of the hall’s upper echelon is mobilized. Except for those left behind to guard headquarters, all sixteen ninth-rank and twenty-one eighth-rank have come." Saying this, Gu Shenghui leaned close to Pei Yan’s ear and muttered softly, "Your teacher Yue Yong and those few retired senior elders from the hall also came. Yue Yong’s lost his cultivation now, but the rest of them are no slouches. They were originally re-hired on short notice to hold the fort because manpower was tight, but once they heard you were going to cause trouble for the Immortal Palace today, every single one insisted on coming along to join the fun."

"Our hall has that many ninth-rank experts now?" Pei Yan had been running around outside lately and didn’t know much about changes in the hall. Hearing the numbers Gu Shenghui rattled off, he was a bit surprised. Even though that headcount in the Daoist Realm might still be fewer than the elders of a top sect, compared to the old numbers of experts in the Investigation Hall, it was already a massive leap.

"You haven’t exactly been idle in the Progress Hall either! But the main credit goes to you, and even more to Advisor Lin’s support. Actually, we didn’t lack experts before, but constrained by resources and by source energy from non-native planes, most people could only reach seventh rank. People like Elder Lin were stuck at eighth rank, unable to make further progress. After Advisor Lin returned, relying on the methods from her inheritance, we started converting the source energy in our bodies back to the foundational plane origin more suited to our own abilities. With that source energy supporting us, quite a few people broke through their final shackles right then and advanced in rank. Add in the past five years of cultivation in the training space, as well as massive resource exchanges across various planes, and more and more of those previously stalled powerhouses managed to break through. That’s how we ended up in today’s situation! You could say it’s the foundation the Investigation Hall has accumulated over many years finally blossoming and bearing fruit today."

At this point, Gu Shenghui leaned to Pei Yan’s ear again and continued with the Secret Sound Transmission Technique, "What you told Old Mei, he’s already passed on to me. Rest easy: the hall has arranged sufficient manpower to defend headquarters and is prepared for anyone trying to slip in while we’re away. Your families have all been properly settled as well. But you still need to finish things here as soon as possible. Having headquarters empty for too long isn’t good, and dealing with Delacuri will take time and manpower to arrange."

"Understood! We’ll have this wrapped up within tonight. For the Master Plane, it won’t even take an hour. Even if Blood Shura makes a move, they won’t be able to react that fast. I’ve already locked down the Immortal Palace together with Luocheng; I’d like to see who can get word out now!" After hearing Gu Shenghui’s explanation, Pei Yan nodded in satisfaction and sneered.

"You can’t really hide news—at best you play the timing. But with the net you’ve cast, I’d say you’ll get some harvest one way or another! Oh, right! Besides our people, the Spirit Monster Plane also sent support. Make sure you receive them properly; they’re here to help, so watch your tone when you speak."

Just as Gu Shenghui finished reminding Pei Yan, Cao Jiu Zhou, one of the three elders, saw him as if he’d spotted a savior. He hurried over and tried to persuade him, "Fellow Daoist Gu, Fellow Daoist Gu! You’ve come at just the right time—please talk some sense into your disciple! Regardless of who’s right or wrong, can’t we at least release Elder Chao first?"

"Uh—" Outwardly, Pei Yan had two teachers: one was Lin Junzhao, Master of Origin, and the other was Gu Shenghui. Hearing Cao Jiu Zhou say this, Gu Shenghui didn’t know how to respond for a moment. He turned his head to glance at Pei Yan, only to see the latter give him a slight shake of the head. Clearly, Pei Yan had no intention of letting Chao Zimin off that easily.

Gu Shenghui didn’t need to say anything; that little gesture was naturally noticed by Cao Jiu Zhou as well. At this moment, a sense of powerlessness welled up in Cao Jiu Zhou’s heart. This was the Immortal Palace, after all! He was clearly one of the elders of the Six Mansions of the Immortal Palace, yet on his own turf he had to watch others’ expressions! Never mind that Pei Yan had already grown into an opponent he couldn’t afford to provoke—even putting Pei Yan aside, there were at least dozens of experts standing in and around the courtyard. Even if the four of them had heaven-defying abilities, they’d still be hard-pressed to sprout wings and fly free.

With bitter sorrow in his heart, Cao Jiu Zhou looked at Pei Yan, shook his head, and gave a wry smile. "Pei Xiaoyou, you’ve already won! When you kill, there’s no need to grind a man’s head into the dirt. Chao Zimin may have a thousand faults, but you’ve humiliated him enough. Please, show some mercy and let him go."

"Elder Cao, letting him go isn’t a problem! I just want to ask you: are the lives of those Disciples in your Immortal Palace Guard worth nothing to you? Or do you feel that this Chao Zimin’s life is more precious than the lives of your own Disciples?" Faced with Cao Jiu Zhou’s plea, Pei Yan wiped his mouth after finishing his peach, gave him a faint smile, and spoke with deep implication.