The gloomy-looking Star Luminous, who stood next to Tang Xiu, slowly said, “How many experts from the Everlasting Palace have come here, exactly? Are there any prominent ones among them?”

  Yue Tian turned to glance at Star Luminous and slowly shook his head, saying, “I dunno about the exact number, Sir. But from my observations, it should be several hundred people. Else, the Hundred Joyous Mansion wouldn’t be filled up by them. Also, there’s one prominent person among them.”

  “Do you know the name of that person?” asked Star Luminous.

  “I heard it from others. That person seems to be a Perfected Golden Immortal called Salientia Demon or something. He’s very powerful and he was the one who crushed those powerhouses who came to seek pleasure with the Hundred Joyous Mansion’s girl before,” answered Yue Tian.

  Salientia Demon?

  Star Luminous and Star Peng exchanged glances and a similar look of hatred could be seen on their faces. If it wasn’t for not knowing how powerful the person was, they would’ve already rushed to kill him.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Tang Xiu lightly. “Do you have some feud or something with this guy?”

  Star Luminous hastily shook his head and said, “No, no. I just asked casually. After all, so many forces went to the Hundred Joyous Mansion to seek pleasure, but they were all kicked out by the Everlasting Palace’s people. That’s why we thought that there must be a very powerful figure among them. Since we now know that the Everlasting Palace’s people, we’ll be able to guard against them earlier when we enter the Secret Palace.”

  Tang Xiu slowly nodded and felt satisfied with Star Luminous’s answer. Hiding their identities and waiting for a chance to get revenge was something that one must have aside from having patience. Only then would they be able to go on living and fighting against the enemy time and again. He felt that his guidance to these two fellas wasn’t wasted.

  8 days later, as the coach passed by a teahouse, Yue Tian introduced it. “This place is occupied by Immortals from Inner Pill Sect, about several hundreds of them. I heard their leader is someone called Venerable Multifarious Refiner, a fearsome Supremacy Stage expert. Rumors have it that this Inner Pill Sect is a top alchemy sect in the Immortal World. They brought a massive number of elixirs and pills with wonderful effects and various types, so they are sought after by countless forces. I’m sure they are now flushed with profits. Venerable Multifarious Refiner must be grinning from ear to ear.”

  “You wait outside. We’re going in to buy some pills,” said Tang Xiu lightly.

  Having said that, he got up in a flash, but his hands were pressed on the shoulders of Star Luminous and Star Peng since the two guys couldn’t restrain the murderous intent in their eyes. As they landed outside the teahouse, he looked at the four Golden Immortals guarding the entrance and lightly said, “I want to buy some immortal pills.”

  The four men cupped their fists and one of them asked, “May I know your origin, Sir?”

  Tang Xiu casually fabricated a name and then brought Star Luminous and Star Peng, who had finally calmed down, into the teahouse. After entering, a white-haired old man greeted him. Then, Tang Xiu asked, “Do you still have Purple Scent Pill available?”

  The old man observed Tang Xiu for a few moments and smilingly said, “We still have some Purple Scent Pills in store. Please come with me, everyone.”

  Tang Xiu and they followed the old man to the second floor and halted their pace in the corner of a hall. The old man then opened the cabinet door as he turned around and asked, “How many Purple Scent Pills do you need, Sir?”

  “Give me 10!” said Tang Xiu.

  The old man smiled slightly, took a cyan jade bottle, and handed it to Tang Xiu as he smilingly said, “There are exactly 10 Purple Scent Pills in this insulator, a total of 10 million Immortal Crystals.”

  Tang Xiu took out 100,000 Crystal Essences and handed them to the old man. Then, he asked, “Do you have Thunder Pellets here?”

  “Thunder Pellets?!”

  The old man’s countenance slightly changed. After putting away the 100,000 Crystal Essences, he carefully scrutinized Tang Xiu’s trio for some time and then said with all seriousness, “We do have Thunder Pellets here, but the number is few and each is extremely expensive. Do you really need to buy it, Sir?”

  “How much is it, though?” asked Tang Xiu.

  “5 million Crystal Essences,” said the old man.

  “Then get me one!” Tang Xiu nodded and said, “Running into fearsome Perfected Golden Immortals when entering the Secret Palace is bound to happen, so I can use this Thunder Pellet to snatch the time to escape in case of a grave crisis.”

  The old man nodded and said, “The three of you, please follow me to the 3rd floor.”

  Star Luminous and Star Peng followed behind the old man and Tang Xiu with strange expressions. They communicated each other in private through voice transmission:

  “Senior Brother, this Great Tang Heavenly Emperor not only uses a fake name to introduce himself but also spends big and dares to buy a Thunder Pellet. This person is definitely not simple. We need to be more cautious and guard against him.”

  “My opinion is the opposite of yours, Junior Brother. He’s willing to buy a Thunder Pellet, meaning he has the ability to explode and kill a Perfected Golden Immortal. The might of the Thunder Pellet is enough to kill an early-stage Perfected Golden Immortal should the person be caught off guard. Even the late-stage Perfected Golden Immortal would still be gravely injured if they were hit by it. Just one Thunder Pellet is enough to kill us if he wishes to do so, though I don’t think he needs any trick or plot to harm us.”

  “Ah, you’re right.”

  Quickly after, Tang Xiu bought a Thunder Pellet and paid 5 million Crystal Essences. He observed around the 3rd floor of the teahouse and learned some things about the inside of Inner Pill Sect, while also memorizing their faces.

  After leaving the teahouse, Tang Xiu shifted to Yue Tian and said lightly, “Take the 6th road on the left and head to the city gate directly, we can traverse several times faster.”

  Although Yue Tian had no idea why Tang Xiu changed his mind, he respectfully drove the two popular beasts and returned through the return route as per Tang Xiu’s instruction.

  A day later, the coach once again passed the Hundred Joyous Mansion occupied by the Everlasting Palace. Tang Xiu then shifted his attention to the weapon shop on the opposite side and lightly said, “Let’s go inside to casually pick some Immortal weapons. As for you, you wait here for us.”

  Yue Tian hesitated but finally said, “Senior Immortal, if you really want to buy Immortal weapons from this place, please look for blacksmith Old Yue inside. He should be busy at work at this hour and he’ll give a cheaper price for the Immortal weapons you’d like to buy.”

  Tang Xiu raised his brows and said, “Your surname is Yue, and that blacksmith you mentioned is also surnamed Yue. Are you his family member?”

  Yue Tian dryly smiled. “Well, he’s my father. He usually refines weapons in his own workshop. But in recent years, he has been called over to this place for 3 days every 10 days to help them refine some small stuff.”

  “I see.” Tang Xiu casually replied and then led Star Luminous and Star Peng into the shop.

  The place belonged to the Thousand Hammer Sect—an equally famous artifact refining sect as the Artificer Sect that had a Supremacy Stage powerhouse at the helm, who was also a Grandmaster Artificer who could refine 9th grade artifacts.

“Is there something you’d like to purchase, Sirs?” a young man in the shop greeted and asked with a smile.

  “We’re going to have a look around first, so please go ahead and tend to your work! We’ll call you later when we find the weapons we like,” said Tang Xiu lightly.

  “By your will, Sir,” the young man’s smile vanished after he heard it and then turned to leave.

  After entering the shop, Tang Xiu came straight to a shelf on the second floor. He only glanced at the immortal weapons on it and ignored them. His eyes, however, swept through the window of the building on the opposite side and silently memorized the faces of some people inside that building.

  After an hour, Tang Xiu turned and left. After returning to the coach, he said lightly, “Let’s go.”

  Star Luminous and Star Peng were deeply puzzled by Tang Xiu’s behavior, though they were able to see some clues about him by following him outside this time.

  “Have you noticed something, Senior Brother? This Great Tang Heavenly Emperor has been acting very suspicious,” said Star Peng with a voice transmission.

  “Yeah, he’s been acting very suspicious to me too,” replied Star Hao with a voice transmission. “After we came to Boundless City, he only stopped by at two places besides finding a guide at the city gate. The first one is the Hundred Joyous Mansion, where the Everlasting Palace is staying. The second one is this where the building on the opposite side is occupied by Inner Pill Sect. We both saw clearly that he didn’t intend to buy any Immortal weapons whatsoever, but to observe the Everlasting Palace’s situation inside that building.”

“I noticed these too,” said Star Peng. “But what I’m thinking now is, what exactly is his true identity? Why is he secretly observing the Everlasting Palace and Inner Pill Sect?”

  Star Luminous’s eyes gleamed. “I’m certain that he’s definitely not one of ours since we’ve never seen or met him in 700-plus years. Unless his face now is not his true appearance and he also has changed his aura.”

  “But I have a hunch that he’s on our side, Senior Brother, though I have no idea to which faction he belongs to,” said Star Peng. “He wouldn’t have gifted us Immortal weapons and healing elixirs and made us stay with him for no reason. Besides, even if he’s not on our side, he wouldn’t have secretly observed the Everlasting Palace and the Inner Pill Sect. There’s also another detail I noticed, though I dunno whether you also noticed it.”

  “Detail? What detail?” Star Luminous’s expression shifted and he asked immediately.

  “Back when we were outside the place occupied by Inner Pill Sect, we both exuded killing intent to the people of Inner Pill Sect, but he directly got up and pressed our shoulders,” said Star Peng.

  Star Luminous fell into silence. He didn’t pay attention to it before. But after Star Peng mentioned it, he suddenly realized that Tang Xiu’s action was definitely not normal.

  “Do you think he has found out our true identity?” Star Luminous asked incredulously after a long while.

  “I’m not sure about that, either,” replied Star Peng with a wry smile.

  At the city gate.

  Tang Xiu took out 10 Immortal Crystals, threw them to Yue Tian, and lightly said, “You’ve done a very good job these days, so those are your rewards. But remember that we’re now strangers and you have never seen us before.”

  “I understand!”

  Yue Tian memorized it and immediately replied respectfully.

  Tang Xiu then led Star Luminous and Star Peng back to the Myriad Golden Catamaran at their fastest speed. As they came to the second floor, his pace halted, he looked at Star Luminous and Star Face with a calm face, and then lightly said, “Our harvest this time is great. You both should have acquired the information you want to know, so you should also be clear about those you should pay attention to and those to be avoided when you enter the Secret Palace later, yes?”

  “Yeah, it’s clear now.” The two nodded at the same time.

  “We’re leaving half a month later,” concluded Tang Xiu.

  Seeing that Tang Xiu was about to head to the 3rd floor, Star Luminous hurriedly said, “Great Tang Heavenly Emperor, may we ask you a question?”

  Tang Xiu turned around, but he didn’t halt his pace and lightly said instead, “You’ve already guessed some parts, so why ask? Some things will no longer be interesting when they are pointed out openly.”