Chapter 141: Truth

Chapter 141: The Truth

Pei Jie was taken aback and asked with a smile, "What are you doing?"

Shang Yunduo: "I'm looking for ears and a tail! Do I have scales anywhere? Did any feathers grow out or something?"

He turned in a circle, patting and touching himself all over. Thankfully, it still felt like human skin and flesh, his ears were normal, his finger joints were normal, and his teeth hadn't grown out like a vampire's. Everything was normal.

Pei Jie was amused: "I thought you didn't mind becoming a demon?"

Shang Yunduo: "I don't mind, but you do."

Pei Jie: "Me?"

He paused and asked, "If I were a demon cultivator, would you become one too?"

Shang Yunduo: "Hmm! There's nothing wrong with being a demon cultivator, but I want to be like you. Whatever you are, I'll be that too."

Pei Jie laughed, "Why? Because you don't want to be my Spirit Pet, but rather my Dao companion?"

Shang Yunduo: "Because I like you!"

Pei Jie: "...You sure talk a good game."

Shang Yunduo: "No, really, I'm serious! If I had no choice, I'd even be your spirit pet. But since you're human, I'll stay human. Being human is more fun, and the food's better too."

Human culture, environment, and way of life were closer to what he'd grown up with. At least the basics like clothes, food, and housing were similar, making it easier for him to adapt. The demon tribe was different—he'd have to adjust to everything, even at night he'd have to be more alert than in a human town.

Shang Yunduo: "It's better to be human! If I played the qin in the demon tribe, they might think I'm crazy."

Pei Jie: "There are demons who like music and singing too."

Shang Yunduo: "Really?!"

Pei Jie picked up his clothes and tossed them to him: "As long as your cultivation's high enough, no one can tell you what to do. Stop touching yourself—no scales, no wings, no tail, no horns, and no fur all over turning you into a monkey or a tiger."

Shang Yunduo hugged the clothes, looking for the collar: "But it seems like there's demonic qi..."

Pei Jie: "..."

He wasn't sure whether the demonic qi on Shang Yunduo was from the herbal liquid or from his transformation.

But they were in no position to wash off the liquid and check properly, and under the present circumstances, it wasn't advisable to linger in the demon tribe.

After putting their disguises back on, they decided not to heal their wounds in the demon tribe but to return to Dividing Boundary Mountain as soon as possible.

At the same time, the events in Spirit Rhinoceros Valley began to stir up the demon tribe.

Most people had no idea what exactly had happened; they only knew that King Lingxi had run off and then blew himself up. Of course, a big shot like that had nothing to do with ordinary cultivators, but among the more than twenty participating tribes, each had lost core formation elders and essence nurturing elites, so naturally all hell broke loose.

As they traveled, Shang Yunduo and the others could hear demon cultivators discussing it everywhere—some sympathized with the Spirit Rhinoceros Clan, others cursed King Lingxi for losing his mind.

There were also those who loudly cursed the Mystic Eagle Clan for being useless and couldn't even keep their hostages secure. If King Lingxi's children and grandchildren hadn't died or escaped, how could King Lingxi have gone to self-detonate?

But the Mystic Eagle Clan was also a major clan, and the various eagle clans closely related to them couldn't stand such armchair accusations either.

What kind of place was the Mystic Eagle Ninefold Palace? Even King Lingxi himself couldn't break in. As for his hostage children and grandchildren, if they committed suicide, that was another story—there was always a way to die—but how did the one who escaped manage it? Using your feet to think, it's abnormal!

"Someone must have infiltrated the Ninefold Palace, betrayed the friendship with our eagle clan, and betrayed our trust by letting the Spirit Rhinoceros Clan escape!"

The first suspect was, naturally, the Blood Qilin Clan, who had turned traitor in the valley and actively helped the Spirit Rhinoceros Clan.

It was said that King Xuanying, after coming to his senses, wanted to go to the Blood Qilin Clan to demand an explanation.

The Blood Qilin Clan had no explanation at all. Their own situation was hardly better than that of the Spirit Rhinoceros Clan. The entire clan had only one transformation stage cultivator, and he was already on his last legs, hadn't left the clan in over a hundred years. How could he have secretly infiltrated the Ninefold Palace and released anyone?

The last time he went to the Ninefold Palace was seven or eight hundred years ago.

If the Mystic Eagle Clan wanted to cause them trouble, the Blood Qilin Clan was no pushover either.

Though they were now down and out, their ancestors were legitimate descendants of true sages.

The Blood Qilin Clan immediately counterattacked, accusing King Xuanying of deliberately letting King Lingxi's grandson escape in order to stage this show and take sole possession of the Spirit Rhinoceros Clan.

The transformation stage elder of the Black Abyss Clan who participated in the battle said that after the great war, it was King Xuanying who had obtained the most spirit rhinos.

If not, how did King Lingxi's grandson, who had just reached core formation, manage to escape from the Ninefold Palace, which was known as one of the three great fortresses of the sacred clans?

Could it be that their Ninefold Palace was made of paper?

If not, then it was a conspiracy by King Xuanying and the Mystic Eagle Clan against the Spirit Rhinoceros Clan, against their own Blood Qilin Clan, and even against all clans with true sage descendants.

King Xuanying's intentions were damnable!

When the rabbit dies, the fox grieves; when the lips are gone, the teeth feel cold. The true sage descendants should unite!

Surprisingly, quite a few small clans in similar situations to the Blood Qilin Clan responded.

Shang Yunduo was dumbfounded by all this.

Even though he himself had been at the scene, he couldn't help but feel a sense of "so this was the truth after all?"

Pei Jie: "Do you really think that?"

Shang Yunduo: "I..."

He didn't really think so.

But since Pei Jie asked, he spoke while thinking.

"Probably not, I don't think King Xuanying has that kind of brains."

Pei Jie laughed, "Then who do you think helped the Spirit Rhinoceros Clan?"

Shang Yunduo: "How would I know? Could it really be the Blood Qilin Clan? But King Lingxi was so ungrateful—they helped him, and he blew them up too. Ah, no, no, Elder Sha Feng of the Blood Qilin Clan said their king didn't know. If their king really didn't know, then Sha Feng must have conspired with King Lingxi privately. But Sha Feng is only at core formation—how could he go to King Xuanying's place and both kill and steal people? To take someone away from a transformation stage cultivator, the culprit would at least need to be transformation stage too. If it's not the Blood Qilin Clan, then who could it be? The transformation stage cultivators who came that day were from the Tiger Clan, Mystic Eagle Clan, Black Abyss Clan, Chaos Clan, and that one... what clan was that transformation stage cultivator who was chasing you?"

Pei Jie: "Night Owl Clan."

Shang Yunduo: "Right, and him too. King Xuanying probably chased after King Lingxi because he had escaped. Tiger King... Tiger King seemed to have gotten the information in advance... but he wasn't sure if it was true? That's why the elders disappeared for a few days during the clan selection to verify... No, if Tiger King only found out then, he wouldn't have sent the Giant Tiger Clan to compete. They had never participated before. That means Tiger King had received intelligence that King Lingxi's grandson escaped from the Ninefold Palace and that King Lingxi might come to Spirit Rhinoceros Valley to cause trouble, but he wasn't sure if King Lingxi would actually come. So he sent his trusted Giant Tiger Clan, and also sent the elders to investigate whether King Lingxi was truly headed for Spirit Rhinoceros Valley. Therefore, helping the Spirit Rhinoceros Clan escape from the Ninefold Palace definitely had nothing to do with Tiger King."

Pei Jie: "Continue."

Shang Yunduo: "Who else could it be..."

He carefully recalled the events of that day, and following the train of thought about Tiger King, he immediately noticed something wrong: "I feel like Tiger King and the Night Owl Clan that was chasing you weren't after the Spirit Rhinoceros Clan, but rather after King Hundun?"

Pei Jie nodded.

Shang Yunduo: "Right! So they knew King Hundun would definitely come, and they came here specifically to kill King Hundun. As for King Xuanying, King Heiyuan..."

Pei Jie: "The one from the Black Abyss Clan who came wasn't the king."

Shang Yunduo: "Oh! So the Mystic Eagle, Black Abyss, and Chaos clans all came for the Spirit Rhinoceros Clan? Wait, no—the Black Abyss Clan seemed more interested in the Blood Qilin Clan's corpse!"

The more he thought about it, the more confused he became. "What do they need a Blood Qilin corpse for?"

If it were for a demon core, they didn't have to target the Blood Qilin Clan specifically.

If they wanted a special bloodline, they could just capture a Spirit Rhino.

"I remember now! The Deep Forest Tiger Clan elder who brought me said the Black Abyss Clan had a grudge against the Blood Qilin Clan. But wait—the corpse in his storage pouch was from the Jade Mountain Clan, not a Blood Qilin corpse..."

He paused, his eyes widening. "It was in Elder Juhu's storage pouch..."

Huh?!

Had Elder Juhu planned to kill the Blood Qilin Clan in advance, or did he decide to kill them because of their sudden betrayal?

And what about the Jade Mountain Clan?

Who was really trying to kill whom?

Shang Yunduo instinctively wanted to grab a piece of paper to sketch something out, but then remembered he couldn't see.

He wanted to gauge Pei Jie's reaction, but without using his Spiritual Sense, he couldn't even tell where Pei Jie was sitting, only guess his location from sound. He stared vaguely in that direction.

Seeing him stuck, Pei Jie said, "Try looking at it from a different angle. Imagine there was no Flying Owl, and imagine the Tiger King, who could keep him in check, hadn't come. King Lingxi has a Wood Spirit Root, and King Hundun knew he was going to self-destruct and could stop him—or at least partially stop him—and had arranged for some juniors capable of faking their deaths to enter the inner valley ahead of time."

Shang Yunduo's eyes widened. "He... he could stop King Lingxi from self-destructing?"

Pei Jie: "Otherwise, why would he come in person?"

Shang Yunduo: "..."

"Thinking about it this way, the Black Abyss Clan sent an elder. King Xuanying came himself because of the Spirit Rhinoceros hostages and the connection to the Ninefold Palace. Since King Lingxi had made a move, he had no choice but to come. Tiger King and Flying Owl were targeting King Hundun. So why didn't King Hundun just send another elder?

If he really could stop King Lingxi's self-destruction, and if Tiger King and Flying Owl hadn't interfered, then...

Then wouldn't King Hundun be the biggest winner?!

King Lingxi had a Wood Spirit Root, and the Chaos Clan was deeply tied to plants. King Xuanying and the Black Abyss Clan didn't seem that set on King Lingxi. If King Hundun could offer them satisfactory terms, maybe he could have monopolized King Lingxi!

But looking at the outcome, that wasn't the case at all!

Shang Yunduo: "But King Hundun died, and it seems like no one else from the Chaos Clan escaped either."

Pei Jie chuckled. "That's exactly what doesn't add up."

Shang Yunduo nodded deeply. "...Yeah."

If they had been completely in the dark, it would be one thing—gods fight, mortals get caught in the crossfire. No one would have expected that after centuries of peace, King Lingxi would suddenly show up and blow himself up.

But King Hundun had gotten the information in advance and still suffered such heavy losses. Clearly, someone was out to get him!

Out of the six Transformation stage cultivators there, apart from King Lingxi who killed himself, only King Hundun died—and not even from King Lingxi's self-destruction.

Shang Yunduo couldn't help asking, "What did he do to offend that Flying Owl?"

At that level of cultivation, it was extremely rare for someone to fight so recklessly.

Pei Jie smiled. "So you've figured out that it was Flying Owl who wanted to kill him."

"Uh..." Shang Yunduo scratched his head, going purely on intuition. "If Tiger King wanted to kill him... well, knowing the Tiger Clan's temper, I think they'd gather all their branches and march into Chaos Clan territory, maybe even take their land."

Pei Jie laughed. "Right. The Tiger Clan is one of the major demon clans, they act like bullies. The Chaos Clan may be mysterious, but their territory isn't unknown. If Tiger King wanted to kill him, he wouldn't go through all this trouble of coming to Spirit Rhinoceros Valley."

Shang Yunduo nodded eagerly. "Mm-hmm!"

Pei Jie continued, "But King Hundun isn't easy to deal with either. It would take both Tiger King and Flying Owl working together for it to work. As far as I know, the Tiger Clan has no grievance with the Chaos Clan. Even if they did, Tiger King couldn't have gotten Flying Owl's help."

Shang Yunduo asked, "Why?"

Pei Jie explained, "Flying Owl is one of the Four Demon Kings, even if ranked last. He's not someone the Tiger King can boss around. Besides, the Night Owl Clan has never been on good terms with the Tiger Clan. The old Tiger King I knew, and even earlier Tiger Kings, didn't think highly of Flying Owl."

Shang Yunduo couldn't resist gossiping. "Why's that?"

Pei Jie said, "In the demon world, there are nobles and commoners. Even if it's not as pronounced as among humans, cliques still form within a clan."

Shang Yunduo nodded. The Tiger Clan had branches that got along well and others that didn't.

For example, the Wasp-Waist Tiger Clan was more smooth-talking, getting along with everyone.

The Rock Tiger Clan was a large branch that mostly kept to themselves, their biggest challenge was staying together without breaking apart.

The Giant Tiger Clan didn't get close to anyone; they only served the Tiger King. Within the Tiger Clan, they were pretty standoffish, basically like nobility.

And the Fire Armor Tiger Clan, which he had disguised as... was supposedly the oddball branch, not fond of interacting with other branches.

Pei Jie continued, "The Night Owl Clan can't compare to the Tiger or Eagle Clans, but they're not small either. However, Flying Owl wasn't born into nobility. He reached the Transformation stage through a mix of strength and luck—a rare exception in his clan. So even though he's called a Demon King, he's not the king of the Night Owl Clan. He has no real sense of belonging to the clan, and their relationship is pretty strained."

At this point, Pei Jie suddenly smiled. "Probably has something to do with me too."

Shang Yunduo: "Huh?"

Author's note: A friendly reminder: the reason they fell out has something to do with the Illusion Art.

Also, can anyone guess who the culprit behind the Spirit Rhinoceros Valley explosion is?