182: Chapter 182 Super Array, Before the Daoist Palace
The night was deep. At a small wine table in the backyard of the branch, Chu Sheng and Elder Wang sat face to face.
A pot of old wine, two plates of appetizers.
Elder Wang was drinking until his face glowed red, his walrus mustache twitching.
Chu Sheng held his cup, sipping it one mouthful at a time. He appeared casual, but in reality, every sentence was probing deeper.
"Elder Wang, what is the Wendao Palace headquarters... actually like?" Chu Sheng filled his cup.
Elder Wang gulped down a mouthful and squinted his eyes: "Big. Bigger than you imagine."
He put down his cup and counted on his fingers, "Inner Sect, Outer Sect, Elder Court, Law Enforcement Hall, Scripture Pavilion, Alchemy Peak, Sword Casting Valley... dozens of Elders, every single one of them is at the Dao Palace stage."
Chu Sheng's heart sank.
He had spent so long in the Demon Realm; Nine Nether Palace only had Palace Master Su Yousi as a Spirit Nurturing stage expert, and the rest were just Palace Building stage.
Wendao Palace had this many on the surface, but what about in the shadows?
"There are many factions, too." Elder Wang lowered his voice, the smell of alcohol spraying onto Chu Sheng's face, "Ye Gucheng's lineage, the Sword Cultivator, occupy more than half of the Elder Court."
"The Second Elder Feng Qingyang's lineage is not weak either; they focus on Body Refining and have been fighting with Ye Gucheng for decades."
Chu Sheng noted down the name Feng Qingyang.
Body Refining, the rival of the Sword Cultivator; he might be able to use this in the future.
"What about Ye Wuhen?" Chu Sheng asked, pretending to be casual.
Elder Wang's hand paused, his wine cup suspended in mid-air.
He glanced at Chu Sheng, a flash of vigilance in his murky eyes, then smiled and drank the wine.
"He has a major background." He only said these four words, his tone ambiguous, as if speaking of a secret that could not be told.
Chu Sheng did not press further.
Asking more would be crossing the line.
He lifted his cup, clinked it with Elder Wang's, and turned the topic to tomorrow's itinerary.
"How do we get to the Central Region?" Chu Sheng asked.
Elder Wang was stunned for a moment, then laughed: "You don't think we have to fly there ourselves, do you?"
He fished a Jade Slip from his sleeve and slapped it onto the table, "Wendao Palace has a super teleportation formation. It transmits directly from the Heavenly Wind Imperial Capital to the Central Region in the time it takes to burn an incense stick."
Chu Sheng picked up the Jade Slip, probed it with his Divine Sense, and saw a complex formation diagram.
The formation patterns were dense and intricate, like a tangled spider web.
At the very bottom was a line of small text: A single transmission consumes 12,000 Spirit Stones.
"12,000?" Chu Sheng's mouth twitched.
"The Sect pays." Elder Wang waved his hand.
Chu Sheng breathed a sigh of relief, put the Jade Slip back, and raised his cup to toast Elder Wang.
"However," Elder Wang squinted, his tone becoming serious, "when you reach the headquarters, you would be best to join Ye Gucheng's lineage."
"Ye Wuhen's connections are there, and since you helped him out of a predicament, you can use this identity."
Chu Sheng nodded and said he had noted it.
The night wind crept in through the window cracks, causing the candlelight to flicker unsteadily.
Elder Wang drank a few more cups, becoming increasingly talkative, rambling from the factional struggles of Wendao Palace to the romantic affairs of Ye Gucheng in his youth.
And from those romantic affairs, he went on to the glorious history of Feng Qingyang having three of his ribs broken by a single sword strike from Ye Gucheng.
Chu Sheng listened, nodding from time to time, but his mind was on other things.
Ye Wuhen has a major background.
What kind of background?
One that makes an Elder of a Wendao Palace branch afraid to speak too much?
He thought of that young man sweeping the street, thought of the Restriction on his body that could block a palm strike from a Peak True Solidity expert.
He thought of the walrus-mustached old man who had stayed at the branch for decades just to look after him.
Ye Wuhen's identity was deeper than he had imagined.
Elder Wang finally couldn't drink anymore, slumped over the table, and began to snore.
Chu Sheng stood up, draped an outer robe over him, and turned back to the guest room.
Yue Jianli was not yet asleep, sitting on the bed meditating.
Hearing the door, she opened her eyes and looked at Chu Sheng.
Chu Sheng sat down opposite her and recounted the news he had heard from Elder Wang.
After listening, Yue Jianli was silent for a moment, only saying: "Whatever you decide is fine."
Chu Sheng smiled.
This girl, she listened to him about everything.
He reached out and ruffled her hair; Yue Jianli's face flushed slightly, and she closed her eyes.
Early the next morning, Elder Wang took Chu Sheng and Yue Jianli out of the branch, winding through various paths until they arrived at an underground palace in the north of the Imperial Capital.
The entrance to the underground palace was in an inconspicuous temple; pushing open a dusty wooden door revealed a long stone staircase leading down.
At the end of the stone steps was a huge underground space.
The teleportation formation was built right there.
Chu Sheng looked at the scene before him and was stunned for a moment.
The formation base was a single piece of obsidian, over ten zhang in diameter, covered in dense formation patterns.
Every line was inlaid with Spirit Stone fragments, flashing with various colors in the dim underground.
At the center of the formation was a stone pillar, and atop the pillar was inlaid a fist-sized crystal. It was transparent, with white light flowing inside, like a cloud trapped in a Seal.
Elder Wang walked to the center of the formation and inserted the temporary token into the groove on the stone pillar.
The crystal lit up, the entire teleportation formation began to hum, and the formation patterns lit up one by one, like countless glowing snakes slithering on the ground.
"Come up." Elder Wang beckoned.
Chu Sheng took Yue Jianli and stepped onto the formation base.
As soon as his feet stepped on it, he felt a huge force rise from beneath his feet, as if an invisible hand were supporting his body.
Yue Jianli's face was a little pale, her fingers clutching tightly onto Chu Sheng's sleeve.
Elder Wang stuffed another handful of Spirit Stones into the groove at the center of the formation, muttering: "12,000, gone in one go, it breaks this old man's heart."
Chu Sheng thought to himself, it's not like you're paying, what are you heartbroken about?
The formation patterns all lit up, the light blindingly bright.
Chu Sheng felt his body becoming lighter, as if he were about to float away.
A low rumbling sound came from his ears, like distant thunder, or like something being torn apart.
"Stand steady!" Elder Wang shouted.
The light exploded.
Chu Sheng's vision turned white.
He felt his body being dragged away by an irresistible force, as if thrown into a rushing river.
The sounds around him disappeared, his sense of touch disappeared, and even time became blurred.
The only thing he could feel was that cold little hand—Yue Jianli's.