IVYSCP - Chapter 97
Chapter 97
"What's this?"
Those words sounded rather sour.
Ling Qingyue let out an "ai," glancing sideways at the person beside her, holding back a laugh. "Who would have thought the Immortal Venerable everyone in the Immortal Realm reveres is actually a little vinegar jar, sloshing with every step, terribly sour."
Pei Yin gave a light humph but did not deny it.
Ling Qingyue had no choice but to take her hand, fingertips slipping between fingers until they were fully interlaced.
"My dear Immortal Venerable, can we ease up on the jealousy a little? Let's go see what that mountain spirit is about first, all right?" Ling Qingyue coaxed gently. She knew Pei Yin was easy to coax, and she also knew Pei Yin could tell what mattered most and would not stage a full jealous scene at a time like this.
As expected, the moment she finished speaking, Ling Qingyue saw Pei Yin raise her eyes slightly and smile at her.
Ling Qingyue had a premonition that something was not quite right.
Her palm was lightly scratched, the tingling numbness traveling to her lower back. Immediately after, her tail was seized by the woman and held in her hand, fingers kneading the tip of the tail in suggestive little circles.
Ling Qingyue could not help swallowing.
"All right," Pei Yin said, releasing her tail. Her tone was ordinary, but if one listened carefully, one could make out the teasing laughter hidden in her voice. "Next time, you can try your own tail too."
Ling Qingyue froze for an instant, and then the roots of her ears flared hot.
Pei Xi had long since plugged her ear canals with her drooping dog ears and fallen asleep with her eyes shut. She was acting more and more like a dog around these two.
The teasing moment passed in a flash. Pei Yin led the person forward. After she had made her move earlier, the Great Sorrow Valley had gone still. The one behind the scenes playing at ghosts and spirits had probably realized that this time the visitor was someone they could not afford to provoke and had hidden away.
After walking a little further, Ling Qingyue's expression grew solemn, a trace of disbelief surfacing in her eyes.
"This place… why are there traces left by the Heavenly Divination Art?"
The Heavenly Divination Art was a secret art exclusive to the Yue Family. Unless someone shared a close relationship with the Yue Family, outsiders would not detect traces of the Heavenly Divination Art at all.
The line of Pei Yin's lips went flat. "Another thing your little moon told you?"
If that were truly the case, Yue Shouming had really bared her heart and soul to Ling Qingyue. Teaching the Yue Family's secret techniques was one thing, but to not even hold back matters of the Heavenly Divination Art…
Ling Qingyue heard her bite down with particular emphasis on the words "your little moon" and understood right away how much Yue Shouming bothered Pei Yin.
She coughed twice and explained, "It wasn't Little… Yue Shouming who told me. Back when she was first cultivating the Heavenly Divination Art, nine out of ten of her divinations were wrong. Once, while performing the art, she calculated her own lifespan, only a little over a hundred years. At the time, her cultivation was already at Core Formation, so her lifespan should have been five hundred. It had to be a miscalculation. But somehow, after she finished calculating, she threw up a huge mouthful of blood. Yu Liuli and I originally wanted to call her sister to take a look, but Yue Shouming desperately held us back and wouldn't let us tell her sister. She said it was because she hadn't cultivated the art deeply enough, that it was deeply embarrassing. We saw that after vomiting blood she could bounce around like nothing was wrong, so Yu Liuli and I even teased her about it. That was the one time Yu Liuli and I saw the traces left by the Heavenly Divination Art. I'm not the only one who knows. Liuli knows too."
Pei Yin listened as Ling Qingyue went on and on, and after she finished she fixed her with those clear black-and-white eyes. The corner of Pei Yin's lips lifted. "Why say so much? I wasn't jealous just now."
Ling Qingyue pursed her lips.
Not jealous? She was practically soaking in it.
"Back to the point," Ling Qingyue mused. "Why would there be traces of the Heavenly Divination Art here? Before the Immortal-Demon War, Yue Shouming never came. She probably won't come later either. So these traces are…"
The two exchanged a glance, and the same answer rose in both their minds.
The previous Hidden Moon Lord, Yue Shouming's older sister, Yue Zhiwei.
"Why would Sister Yue have come here to use the Heavenly Divination Art?" Ling Qingyue could not make sense of it.
"Let's look further ahead," Pei Yin suggested.
Ling Qingyue nodded in agreement.
Following the lingering traces of the Heavenly Divination Art, the two found a hidden passage. At regular intervals along the stone walls on either side, there were recessed niches that gave off a faint glow, keeping the passage from being completely dark.
The walls on either side were not even, full of pits and hollows. It did not look like it had been blasted open all at once with an art but rather like it had been chiseled out bit by bit over time.
Passing through the passage, they saw an extremely high and deep cavern. The cavern's ceiling was covered by a dense mass of vines. The leaves of those vines were fresh green and seemed full of vitality. The thick vines covered the skylight so tightly that no light passed through, and the hanging vines blocked any outside prying.
Such a thorough concealment was far too obvious. Ling Qingyue's instincts told her that something was hidden behind these vines.
She raised her hand and waved it. The vines only swayed gently and did not part.
Ling Qingyue was caught off guard for a moment, and then she saw Pei Yin also raise her hand. A wind rose that barely touched the vines, and the thick, dense vines drew back of their own accord.
Ling Qingyue: "…"
Even a few vines were snobs!
Before she could get past her indignation, she was utterly stunned by what she saw before her eyes.
Behind where the vines had been shielding stood an enormous stone statue. The statue took up nearly half of the cavern, and on the stone wall behind it, hundreds and thousands of lamp niches had been carved out. The faint light gathered together illuminated the entire statue. In the dim cavern, this statue seemed to be radiating a glaring, piercing light of its own.
Ling Qingyue stared blankly at the appearance of the statue, and it was a long while before she murmured, "Sister Yue…?"
Pei Yin frowned slightly.
The stone statue in this cavern was actually of Yue Zhiwei.
Once Ling Qingyue confirmed that the statue was indeed Yue Zhiwei, she lowered her gaze to the offering table before it. The table's surface was spotless and free of dust. In the incense burner, there was incense that had not yet burned out, and the offerings laid out on the table were actually spiritual plants sustained by spirit stones.
There was no spiritual qi in the Great Wilderness, and most of what survived here were plants that had been corrupted by demonic qi. Yet the spiritual plants before her were clearly pure, bearing no trace of demonic qi contamination at all. This meant someone had been guarding this place all along, regularly replacing the spirit stones that sustained the spiritual plants.
Ling Qingyue walked toward the offering table. Just as she was about to reach out and touch the spiritual plants on it, the surrounding vines suddenly stirred. One part attacked Ling Qingyue viciously, while another part once again wrapped the stone statue in layer upon layer.
Ling Qingyue dodged the attack and arrived at Pei Yin's side in a single step.
Pei Yin narrowed her eyes and was about to act against the vines but was stopped by Ling Qingyue's outstretched hand.
"Wait."
The words had barely left her mouth when the vines wove together and finally formed a little vine person. The little vine person spread her arms and stood in front of the stone statue. The terror and fear in her eyes were obvious, and her voice trembled, yet she still tried to threaten them: "You are not allowed to touch the things here! Otherwise… otherwise I will beat you up!"
Then Ling Qingyue and Pei Yin sensed that Soul Formation-stage aura again, emanating from the little vine person.
The little vine person kept a stern face, glowering fiercely at the two people before her as if hoping they would recognize the difficulty and retreat.
It seemed that the "mountain spirit" they had spoken of earlier, the one who had tried to scare them, was this little vine person.
Ling Qingyue studied the little vine person, inwardly curious. Was this a person or a vine?
The little vine person's whole body gave off no sense of a living being, yet she could definitely move, talk, and possessed her own consciousness. It was truly strange.
The little vine person saw that they showed no sign of backing down whatsoever and instead kept studying her with those up-and-down glances. Anger rose in the little vine person, and she took control of the vines to attack the two.
Half a cup of tea's time later…
Bound up tightly by her own vines and suspended in midair, the little vine person brandished her limbs and roared at the two before her.
"Let me go!"
Ling Qingyue reached out and grabbed a handful of the leaves on her head, brushing them carelessly across the little vine person's face. She pointed at the stone statue and asked, "Stop yelling. I'm asking you, do you know this person?"
The little vine person glared at her and said nothing.
"You definitely know her. That bluffing art you used earlier, she taught you that, didn't she?" Ling Qingyue said. "I know that art too."
The little vine person paused. When she saw the person before her actually perform the familiar hand seal, her eyes went wide.
She wobbled in midair and cried out excitedly, "You're from the Yue Family?!"
Ling Qingyue had been about to trick her and nod in agreement when she suddenly felt a cold glance land on her back.
"…I'm not."
The little vine person's expression changed again, and her smile abruptly vanished. "Then how do you know that art?"
Ling Qingyue nodded. "Ooh, so you also know that this art is something only someone from the Yue Family would know. I know it, naturally, because I have a very good relationship with the Yue Family."
The little vine person thought it over and looked at Ling Qingyue for a long moment before opening her mouth to ask, "Then what are you doing here?"
Her voice quavered, thick with anticipation: "Has the Yue Family already avenged Sister? Is that person dead? How did she die? Did she die miserably?"
A series of questions came rushing at her, and Ling Qingyue's heart sank.
"Who are you talking about?"
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