"I have another question. I clearly handed the Peerless Sword to the Great Tang Empire. Why didn't they come, but you came instead?" Xiaoyao continued asking. He was very puzzled about this question.
"This is also a secret. I can only tell you that Yan Chixia, a founding general of the Great Tang Empire, was a high-ranking member of our Demon Cult! The Great Tang Empire and the Demon Cult have very deep connections..." Tian He continued. He believed that if Xiaoyao really investigated, he would also find clues.
"No wonder Yan Chixia's descendants didn't continue in the Great Tang Empire - so that's how it is! Your initial choice to assassinate Ning Zhiyuan also had a purpose. Did you want your people to rise to power, or did you want to remind Ning Zhiyuan of something? Or was it simply to remove Ning Zhiyuan's suspicions?" Xiaoyao seemed to understand a bit, feeling that the waters here might be very deep.
"You don't need to worry about this! I can tell you that our Demon Cult secretly controls quite a few countries. Many people are well aware of this." Tian He said unconcernedly.
"This is understandable. Your Demon Cult has always kept a low profile, but secretly you must have made quite a few moves!" Xiaoyao nodded.
"Alright, speaking of which, your being here means you already know the secret within the Peerless Sword. Back then you only had contact with it for less than a day. Could you have broken the Peerless Sword's mechanism in one day? Those experts spent several months to break it!" Tian He looked at Xiaoyao. He increasingly felt Xiaoyao was very interesting. Although his martial prowess wasn't high, in other aspects he was heaven-defying, almost all surpassing the top level.
"I was lucky. I happened to have seen this type of mechanism technique. They hadn't seen it before, so naturally they spent a bit more time!" Xiaoyao said matter-of-factly.
"It seems you really came looking for the Underground Demon Palace, and weren't just passing by!" Sister Hong said.
...
...
"Nonsense, I don't have time to pass by here for nothing!!" Xiaoyao said irritably.
"..." Hei Xue looked at Xiaoyao with a wronged expression, because Xiaoyao had just been deceiving her.
"Alright, don't look at me like that! I came here treasure hunting. Such a fun thing - I couldn't possibly miss it. I just didn't expect you would make such a big scene, directly mobilizing so many people to take this place. It seems what's down there is very valuable," Xiaoyao said, pretending he knew nothing and was just deducing from their actions.
"You've been here for over a year. Have you already been inside?" Hei Xue continued asking.
"No, I haven't even opened the door to this Underground Demon Palace. How could I get in! Although that entrance is secluded, excavating it would invite others' suspicions. Even if I wanted to do it secretly, I couldn't," Xiaoyao directly denied it, and what he said was also a fact, making it so that even if people had suspicions, they couldn't find reasons.
"That's true. Although the entrance's main door is hidden, opening it would require a lot of commotion. If you had activated it, you would have been discovered long ago," Hei Xue nodded.
At this moment, the Dongfang sisters already roughly understood that their Heavenly Gate was built above an underground palace, and there must be a large amount of treasure inside to make the Demon Cult mobilize collectively like this, even destroying their Heavenly Gate.
At this moment, the Dongfang sisters seemed to begin agreeing with Hei Xue's words - their Heavenly Gate was unlucky, happening to choose this place as their sect's foundation.
At the same time, they also hated Xiaoyao. So he had this intention - why didn't he say so earlier? If he had said so earlier, Heavenly Gate would definitely have been prepared and wouldn't have lost so miserably like now.
But what reason did they have to hate him? He wasn't a Heavenly Gate person, and his purpose for coming here was obvious. Why should he tell them this secret? There was no reason.
"Tian He, what role does your Ghost Shadow Sect play here? Why did you steal the Peerless Sword, but the benefits go to this female demon head?" Xiaoyao said. When there was nothing more to ask for, Xiaoyao indeed switched back to his form of address.
When Xiaoyao asked this question, very strange expressions appeared on both Hei Xue and Sister Hong's faces, as if they were holding back something.
"Well, because I liked it, so I stole it." Tian He paused, then answered.
"You liked it? Your Ghost Shadow Sect is quite free."
"Very free. As long as I'm happy, I can do whatever I want!"
"Are you the Ghost Shadow Sect's leader?"
"Yes!"
"Damn, that's so awesome!"
"Of course!!"
"Haha..."
At this moment, both Hei Xue and Sister Hong began laughing. Looking at Tian He's proud appearance and Xiaoyao's somewhat admiring expression, they felt this was too amusing.
"What's so funny?" Xiaoyao asked somewhat puzzled.
"He is indeed the Ghost Shadow Sect's leader, but all he can command is himself alone." Hei Xue said with a giggle.
"??" Xiaoyao was momentarily confused, then immediately reacted. "Could it be that the Ghost Shadow Sect has only him alone?"
"Exactly!! Some of the Demon Cult's thirty-six branches don't have many people, but the fewer people such branches have, the stronger their individual strength, because they put all resources on a few people! The Ghost Shadow Sect is even more extreme - each generation of the Ghost Shadow Sect has only one person. You've also seen the strength aspect. Tian He is only in his early thirties, but he's already standing at the peak of martial artists. In this attack on Dongfang Bubai, he was the main force!" Hei Xue slowly explained to Xiaoyao.
"The Demon Cult truly doesn't stick to conventions. Interesting!" Xiaoyao nodded.
"..." The Dongfang sisters looked at Tian He. They wanted to remember Tian He for future revenge.
"What are you looking at me like that for? Want revenge? Go ahead!" Tian He said unconcernedly.
"Don't waste your time. With your qualifications, you're geniuses among ordinary people, but compared to Tian He you're far behind. The Ghost Shadow Sect has always prioritized qualifications first. He's still growing - you can't catch up!" Hei Xue said very straightforwardly. She had observed the Dongfang sisters' qualifications. If she didn't know they lacked heaven-defying qualifications, she couldn't possibly have released them.
"Unless..." When Hei Xue said this, she looked at Xiaoyao. "Never mind! Sister Hong, see if people have finished cleaning up. Activate the Mountain Guardian Formation!"
At this moment, the Dongfang sisters were somewhat puzzled. What was Hei Xue saying just now? She suddenly stopped talking, and she had been looking at Xiaoyao. Could it be that Xiaoyao had a way to let them catch up to Tian He?
Xiaoyao didn't notice this point and just said, "Mountain Guardian Formation - wasn't this built by Heavenly Gate themselves? Speaking of which, it seems right. This formation feels like it existed for more than two thousand years. Some techniques are characteristic of much earlier times. I thought it was Heavenly Gate's secret transmission, but it seems that's not the case."
"Actually, Heavenly Gate's Mountain Guardian Formation isn't a real formation. It's just built on what they thought were natural formations. The real formation hasn't been activated yet. You'll understand soon what a miracle is," Hei Xue said with a smile.
"Oh, so that's how it is! Wait, that's not right. I've seen the treasure map, and it didn't record this," Xiaoyao suddenly noticed something wrong. This formation wasn't mentioned on the treasure map, and he had never seen it in the underground palace. Why would Hei Xue and the others know about it?
"This is simple. The treasure map only tells you the location, while other mechanism designs have always been in our hands. We always knew about this Underground Demon Palace but didn't know where it was located." Hei Xue said.
"Back then, our Demon Cult ancestors separated the map and the palace blueprints into two places. Originally this secret was always controlled by the Cult Master, but three thousand years ago, the Cult Master suddenly disappeared for unknown reasons. The Cult Master's Token also disappeared with him, and the secret disappeared too! Later, the Demon Cult split into various branches - our current thirty-six branches!" Hei Xue continued.
"Two years ago, we discovered this secret in the records of an ancient book and began trying to obtain the Peerless Sword. We specifically had people instigate Bai Yue Kingdom's marriage competition, making the Peerless Sword part of the dowry."
So Bai Yue Kingdom's marriage competition was also arranged by the Demon Cult, wanting to obtain the Peerless Sword legitimately without arousing others' suspicions.
Regarding the underground palace belonging to the Demon Cult's property, Xiaoyao wasn't surprised at all, because when he saw the contents of the Book Collection Hall, Xiaoyao knew there were large amounts of Demon Cult martial arts classics there, including Hei Xue's Heavenly Demon Sound.
If the previous Xiaoyao had only heard of the Heavenly Demon Sound, then now he completely understood it. Breaking the Heavenly Demon Sound would be much simpler for him now.
Of course, not just the Heavenly Demon Sound - Xiaoyao was thoroughly familiar with all Demon Cult martial arts. What he mastered was even more than current Demon Cult martial arts, because what the underground palace preserved was much more complete than what existed now.
So there were only things current Demon Cult members didn't know - nothing Xiaoyao didn't know.
"I suddenly remembered something. Does the Greedy Wolf Empire also know about this?" Xiaoyao suddenly asked.
"The Greedy Wolf Empire itself is one of the Demon Cult's branches. Don't think branches are necessarily sects. However, very few people know about this." Hei Xue said.
"Damn! You really are pervasive!!" Xiaoyao discovered that the more he came into contact with the Demon Cult, the more he discovered its powerful influence - no force on this continent could rival it.
However, there should be quite a bit of internal strife within the Demon Cult, otherwise they wouldn't have formed branches. That's why the world could be peaceful. If the Demon Cult integrated together, the problems would definitely be very serious.
(End of Chapter)