Demon Sword Sect's Undercover-Chapter 502 - 501 Successful Connection

"You needn’t worry about that, we know we’re just the pawns you’re using to divert attention, and we don’t care, but, you must pay for the Spirit Stones upfront, otherwise, we’re afraid we won’t have a chance to enjoy them..."

The cultivator who went by the name Shan Daoist had an unfluctuating gaze, clearly prepared for the situation he was about to face.

There wasn’t much time to think, and in fact, he had no other choice. Five hundred top-grade Spirit Stones per person, a total of one thousand top-grade Spirit Stones was also a huge sum of money for him, and he didn’t even know if he could get reimbursed by Sikong Mansion.

But for two cultivators in the late phase of the Tongtian Realm, it didn’t seem expensive?

It was their first meeting, and they hadn’t talked in depth; what was there to talk about, really? In a few days, they might be separated by life and death, this was just a transaction, if it’s worth it, do it, if not, then don’t, it’s that simple.

After leaving the courtyard, Hou Niao double-checked to make sure there was no one suspicious trailing him, but unfortunately, he found nothing.

Making contact with Jianye’s underground forces was the only help he could secure for himself; it was also his way of probing Qi Sect’s Six-Ear Palace, if the underground forces didn’t dare to offend Wu Sect, then he might discover something in their contact. Wasn’t this better than doing nothing at all?

Being discovered wasn’t scary since he hadn’t done anything, even if Qi Sect found him, they couldn’t convict him because of it, nor would they do anything to him; there were many other foreign cultivators in Qi Sect who didn’t come with the intent of establishing friendships.

Similarly, in Shan Country, there would be Daoists from Qi Sect, and no one could be punished without a crime.

Unless he started killing people, those were the rules of the game.

He hoped his whereabouts would be seen through, giving him a reason to back out, but it seemed that the underground forces were reliable? And the Six-Ear Palace of Qi Sect was nothing special?

...On the sixth day, within Jianye City’s Heavenly Master Temple, Hou Niao blended into the crowd of Daoist observers, slowly moving forward.

In Jianye City, a significant characteristic was the abundance of Daoist temples, each named after either a Nascent Transformation ancestor or a Golden Core Great Cultivator from the history of Qi Sect; for instance, this one was named after a former Golden Core Daoist, Heavenly Master Zhang—whether for the enjoyment of incense offerings or purely for remembrance was unknown.

With hundreds of such Daoist temples in Jianye, if you had to pinpoint a distinct feature of Jianye, it would be ’The City of Daoist Temples.’ The best locations, the best architecture, the best maintenance—it was a legacy of the Daoist tradition. Inside the temples, relics of the sages were displayed, and their deeds promoted, preserving the past of those exceptional Daoists very well.

Among the temples in Jianye City, Heavenly Master Temple was a rather ordinary one, and Heavenly Master Zhang was not a Nascent Transformation ancestor; his Daoist Path stopped at Golden Core, and he had passed away six hundred years ago.

Since coming to Jianye, Hou Niao had carefully studied this Heavenly Master Temple to figure out why such a sleeper agent would choose this place as a meeting point?

In Qi Sect, the number of Golden Core cultivators, both dead and alive, reached thousands throughout history, but only a few hundred were honored with temples. Without some exceptional achievement, one could not enjoy this distinction. So on what merits did Heavenly Master Zhang earn this?

He didn’t dare enter the temple rashly for fear of arousing suspicion, but after a few days of indirect inquiries around the city, he had some gains. Only then did he find out that even though Heavenly Master Zhang was obscure in the history of Qi Sect, it was he who founded the famous Six-Ear Palace, which later even attracted Nascent Transformation cultivators to join. But he couldn’t escape being the ancestor of the Six-Ears. freewebnøvel.coɱ

Until now, disciples of the Six-Ear Palace would still visit on the first day of every month and every ten-day cycle to worship the ancient sages, praying for smooth cultivation and the successful completion of their tasks. This meant that since the low-profile agent chose the first day of every ten-day cycle for the rendezvous, it proved that his background must be from the Six-Ear Palace,

Hence, he was confident in obtaining related information. The only difference was that the Six-Ear Palace was a vast organization, similar to the Sikong Mansion of the Shan Sect Quanzhen, with various departments and mutual confidentiality, which did not necessarily relate to this incident.

But regardless, this discovery finally gave him a glimmer of hope for this mission. As a member of the Six-Ear Palace himself, the news couldn’t be too outrageous, could it?

The worship took place in the Heavenly Master’s Treasure Hall, which wasn’t open to the public on normal days. It was only open on the first day of every ten-day cycle when disciples of the Six-Ear Palace came in to worship, also allowing visiting Daoists to admire the Heavenly Master’s elegance.

It wasn’t that the Heavenly Master’s relics were placed here, but the Treasure Hall contained a large number of magic items used by the Heavenly Master during his lifetime. Seeing these items could invoke thoughts of the person and help in understanding the profound mysteries of their techniques—there might be some opportunities, right?

This was the reason why cultivators from other parts of Jianye lingered around various Daoist temples—it was, bluntly put, to soak up some immortal qi.

This was a perfect rendezvous point. Although the cultivators from the Six-Ear Palace and those from the Outer Path had their own separate channels and did not mingle, they were still extremely close. Passing by each other, their divine sense interweaving in such short proximity, not even a Golden Core Nascent Transformation Great Cultivation could intercept their divine sense communication, which maximally protected the undercover agent’s identity without a single flaw.

Today was the first day of the mid-ten-day cycle, and Hou Niao was waiting outside the Heavenly Master’s Treasure Hall along with a dozen other visitors from the Outer Path. After the Six-Ear Palace cultivators inside had left, they could then go in and soak up some immortal qi.

Everything was unusually calm around him, and he couldn’t feel any uneasiness in this tranquility. Although he was pessimistic about the mission, up to this point, his naturally cautious character and extensive experience as a public servant hadn’t exposed him, right?

An hour later, the ritual of the law-enforcing Daoists inside the Six-Ear Palace ended, the Cloud Plate sounded thrice, and the devotees filed out of the right archway. At the same time, visitors from the Outer Path entered from the left archway. Lower on the left, higher on the right, guests on the left, hosts on the right—this was the rule within the Daoist Sect.

All being individuals of status, of course, the Daoists of the Six-Ear Palace wouldn’t scurry out in disarray like frightened birds, nor could the independent travelers rush in eagerly like mortals scrambling to be the first to offer incense, as if it were a discount on eggs at a grocery store and there would be none left for latecomers.

This overlap lasted for roughly ten or so breaths—enough time for two cultivators to have a brief exchange through divine thought.

In his hair, he wore a simple jade hairpin, an ordinary dragon shape, except the dragon’s eyes were not red but green. This was his way of openly displaying his identity. The initiative lay with the low-profile agent, not him.

He walked leisurely with the crowd, not glancing sideways, but internally he heightened his perception to the extreme. Then, a faint and elusive divine thought penetrated his mind,

"You Chaoen’s injuries have improved slightly, and he will go to Marrow Cleansing at the Zhaohua Celestial Pond in three days. This is a favor Qi Sect has promised him. I reckon that after the Marrow Cleansing and once his health is restored, he will repay Qi Sect by overturning the Shan Sect’s spy network in Jianye City.

There’s no time to lose. If we don’t act this time, there might not be another chance in the future. Furthermore, the spies of the Shan Sect in Jianye City are all anxiously waiting, just not sure whether to leave or stay.

The journey from the Six-Ear Palace to the Zhaohua Celestial Pond is your only chance to take action. Go scout out the area yourself and find a good ambush spot.

Because of his injuries, You Chaoen will be carried in a palanquin magic artifact. Keep this in mind; it will undoubtedly be him."