Chapter 101: Dark Undercurrent

Just as the two of them were about to fully draw their swords, a voice suddenly spoke.

“Your Highness, why are you here?”

When he heard this voice, Li Daohong suddenly froze.

He turned around with a slight smile to find a middle-aged Harpy walking in his direction.

The Harpy grabbed Li Daohong’s hand and said, “Your Highness, it took me forever to find you.”

Li Daohong chuckled, “I rarely get a chance to come here. It’s only natural that I would want to wander around for a little and observe the scenery.”

This place was so remote that there was no scenery to speak of. Li Daohong was obviously talking nonsense, but the other Harpy’s expression was totally understanding. “If that’s the case, then I will show Your Highness around.”

As he spoke, he dragged Li Daohong away.

It wasn’t until they were much further away that the Harpy said in a low voice, “You promised me not to stir up trouble.”

Li Daohong replied, “I wasn’t planning on starting anything. He was the one who came at me first.”

“Whatever. Is it worth making such a big deal out of something so trivial? Don’t ruin our grand enterprise over something so small!” the Harpy said as he lectured Li Daohong sternly.

Li Daohong, shockingly, didn’t talk back. All he did was harrumph, “Fine, I got it.”

He had accepted the other party’s lecturing even given his personality.

On the other side, Su Chen led his entourage away, clearly deep in thought.

Youthful Abundance carefully said, “Master.”

“What is it?” Su Chen asked.

Youthful Abundance lowered her head and said, “I might know who that Harpy was.”

Just as Youthful Abundance was about to speak, Flaming Femme laughed. “Might? Could you have taken that individual for someone else?”

“Hm?” Su Chen turned to stare at Flaming Femme.

Flaming Femme felt a chill run down her spine. Immediately afterwards, she felt like her skull was about to split, as if an awl was being driven through it.

Flaming Femme’s entire body trembled as she collapsed to her knees. “Ma- Master……”

“If you dare try that again, you will die.”

Flaming Femme trembled violently. “Yes…… Yes…… Master, I acknowledge my wrongdoing.”

Only then did Su Chen withdraw his consciousness punishment. Flaming Femme sighed and almost collapsed. Thankfully, Youthful Abundance helped her up.

“Speak. Who was that person?” Su Chen asked Youthful Abundance.

Youthful Abundance hurriedly replied, “I think it was Night God Sun.”

“Night God Sun?” Su Chen thought for a moment before he said, “He’s from the Night God Clan?”

The Night God Clan was a large clan located in Sky City. They were even above the Halcyon Wing Clan in terms of influence. Actually, their clan head was the leader of the Thunderous Cry religious branch as well, giving him an incredibly high status amongst Sky City.

“What kind of status does this Night God Sun have amongst the Night God Clan?” Su Chen asked.

Youthful Abundance replied, “He is the clan head’s son, but he is not an heir.”

“Oh? Why is that?”

Holly Keen was still ranked twentieth amongst his clan despite his completely worthless personality. On the other hand, this Night God Sun was incredibly graceful and noble. It was obvious from his demeanor that he wasn’t of common origins, so how come he didn’t have the status of an heir?

“Because he has entered the Mother Goddess Sect and has become one of the Thunderous Cry branch’s bishops.”

“A bishop? At such a young age?” Su Chen was taken aback.

No wonder Night God Sun wasn’t an heir - he was already a bishop of the most powerful organization amongst Harpy society. Religion was held in high esteem amongst the Harpies, but at the same time they would need to give up on any worldly inheritance they might receive. This inheritance was being exchanged for an incredible amount of power. Actually, the head of the Night God Clan was only a bit higher in status than a head bishop, but the head had already gone as far as he could go, while staying a bishop was clearly not Night God Sun’s final destination.

Why would Li Daohong and Night God Sun appear in a place like this?

Was their arrival linked to Jade Clearmist’s treasure stores? Would this negatively impact their plans? Did this have any relation with any other potential targets?

Su Chen had no idea what the answers to any of these questions would be.

Other people might have given up on trying to find an answer.

Su Chen, however, was obviously different.

Because he had the Origin Bone Scepter.

With these questions consuming him, Su Chen had no heart to buy anything else. He handed those responsibilities to Wind-Gathering ascension and the others and returned to the inn.

Su Chen went into his chambers and instructed everyone else to back down before he pulled out the Origin Bone Staff.

Since Li Daohong was powerful, and Bishop Night God Sun was not a character to be trifled with either, Su Chen decided to use a Demonic King’s Origin Crystal as the basis of a sacrifice. He asked which powerful experts he would run into inside of this secret realm.

Even so, the sacrifice failed, and the Origin Bone Staff gave him no answer.

A Demonic King Origin Crystal had been consumed just like that, but Su Chen wasn’t discouraged.

Even if the sacrifice failed, he had still managed to glean some useful information from this attempt.

If even a Demonic King’s Origin Crystal wasn’t able to provide him with an answer, it was obvious that he was very likely to run into quite a few experts within the treasure realm.

And since some of these powerful experts had shown up in such a remote town, it was pretty likely that he would run into Night God Sun and Li Daohong in the future.

Su Chen decided to change up his tactics when he obtained this result.

He didn’t increase the sacrifice, instead choosing to use a high-tier Demonic Beast’s Origin Crystal and changing the question.

“I want to know if I will be ambushed if I decide to leave now.”

Su Chen asked a very interesting question.

There were limits to how the Origin Bone Scepter could be used. It actually didn’t give any answers, instead providing the user with a prediction of what might happen in the future. This prediction was in turn influenced by the asker’s actions.

In that sense, the asker’s choosing different possible actions would result in different predictions. This would allow Su Chen to obtain different answers, using them to deduce the actual answer he was looking for.

This was another skill Su Chen had managed to pick up after using the Origin Bone Scepter so many times.

Su Chen had also only asked whether or not he would be ambushed, not who was going to ambush him. This would greatly decrease the cost of the prediction, making him much more likely to succeed.

Indeed, an answer was very quickly given.

When Su Chen saw a familiar scene appear before him, Su Chen smiled. “As I expected.”

He then placed another high-tier Origin Crystal on the altar and said, “Now I have a new choice to make……”

As he constantly refined his questions in this manner, the Origin Bone Scepter continued to give him answer after answer.

These answers mostly came from Su Chen constantly changing up his questions, and he did his best to avoid questions about Li Daohong. This made the cost much lower, and his rate of success also went up as a result.

Even though the Origin Bone Scepter refused to answer any of his questions about Li Daohon and the others, Su Chen was able to get a rough picture of the situation by constantly asking these roundabout questions.

Eventually, Su Chen stopped and fell into a long period of thought.

Suddenly, he pulled out a Demonic King Origin Crystal.

Even though Su Chen was quite wealthy, he still had a limited supply of Demonic King Origin Crystals. This Demonic King Origin Crystal he was holding was his last one.

Even still, Su Chen felt that this might not be enough. After a moment’s thought, he pulled out a handful of Sands of Time.

The Sands of Time were a rare treasure. Even with the Hourglass of Time, only a fixed number of grains of Sands of Time would be produced every year. Su Chen was definitely using up more than he was producing at this point. Since Su Chen had only had the Hourglass of Time for three years, he had only stored up three handfuls of Sands of Time. It was obvious that Su Chen was willing to pay an incredibly high price to get his answer this time.

After adding on a bunch of other supplementary materials, Su Chen finally asked, “I want to know how to use the Desolate Beast’s Blood and the Origin Beast’s Essence.”

Su Chen’s heart began to beat wildly as he asked the question.

This was his greatest investment to date. If he failed here, the losses he had sustained were easily imaginable.

Thankfully, a scene eventually appeared before his eyes.

When he saw this scene, Su Chen couldn’t help but suck in air.

Su Chen couldn’t suppress his surprise. “So that’s how it is…… That’s how it is…… Yes, that’s perfect!”

Upon obtaining his answer, Su Chen put the staff away and pulled out a transmission medallion. He opened it and said, “Patelocke.”

“I’m here.”

Su Chen normally wouldn’t have been able to contact Patelocke from such a far distance, but given that Patelocke had assumed the body of an ancient transmission puppet, he was able to ignore this distance restriction.

“There’s something I need you to do……” As Su Chen spoke, he began to lower his volume.

After a moment, Patelocke replied, “Got it. I’ll go and make preparations right now.”

Su Chen stowed away the transmission medallion and called out, “Youthful Abundance? Flaming Femme?”

Youthful Abundance and Flaming Femme entered the room. “We are here.”

“I suddenly had some insight while practicing my breathing earlier, so I am going to spend some time cultivating. Perhaps I will make a breakthrough soon. Go and let Wind-Gathering Ascension and the others know that I want them to wait a while before opening the secret realm.”

Youthful Abundance was startled. “Master, now is not the time to delay. Fate’s Hands could find out about what happened at Dragon Mountain City at any point in time. If they manage to catch up with us……”

“You’re right, they can find out at any point in time. But they won’t know where we have gone, right?” Su Chen countered.

“This……” Youthful Abundance was momentarily stunned.

It was true that Fate’s Hands might know what had happened in Dragon Mountain City, but no one would be able to tell Fate’s Hands where Su Chen had gone.

Flaming Femme said, “There are lots of powerful people amongst Fate’s Hands, and they have some tracking Arcana Techniques. As long as not too much time passes, it’s possible that they will be able to catch up with us. Why does Master not seem more agitated?”

“Don’t worry about that,” Su Chen said as he waved his hand. “I made some arrangements before leaving. Fate’s Hands won’t be able to catch up with us that easily. Don’t worry, I won’t be behind closed doors for that long. I should be able to work through the situation in at most ten days.”

Ten days wasn’t a long time?

They had finally arrived at the front step of the secret realm, but now they were going to just sit here and wait? Su Chen’s two attendants had no idea what he was thinking.

However, since Su Chen had made his decision, they could only acquiesce.

They stepped out and informed Wind-Gathering Ascension and the others, who were equally shocked. None of them could figure out why Su Chen would do something like this.

Su Chen, for his part, completely ignored them. In the coming days, he locked himself in his room and would only come out every so often, instructing Youthful Abundance and Flaming Femme to go and procure ingredients for him. Most of them were ingredients required by alchemists. No matter how you looked at it, it seemed impossible for Su Chen to be cultivating.

He sat motionlessly in his room, but Wind-Gathering Ascension and the other Harpies were beginning to grow agitated like ants, fearing that Fate’s Hands would find them and unleash vengeance on them.

It seemed that Su Chen’s arrangements were quite effective, however, as nothing particularly of note happened in the next ten days.