Chapter 621: Killing the Assassin
While everyone was focused on Huli and her dowry, Pei Ziqi had not forgotten about the assassin, and when Hui Yue and all the other elders had left, she stayed behind to converse with the patriarch about the problem.
"Kill him," was the patriarch's only order as he looked at the bound assassin. "Make sure that his soul is shattered so that he will never again cause trouble for us, the Celestial Sword Sect."
Pei Ziqi looked at the patriarch surprised for a moment but then nodded her head. She said no more, but it was clear that the order had confused her.
Seeing the young-looking woman acting like this, the patriarch sighed, "You want to know why I would allow him to die an easy death instead of trying to make him tell us who is behind this?" he asked as if he had read Pei Ziqi's mind.
Startled, the woman nodded her head. She had indeed wondered why they did not try to dig deeper into who had done this. They could even try to search his soul and get clues as to who had sent him.
"It’s simple," the patriarch said with a sigh. "This person is a demon. Even if someone from our sect wished to attack, they would not have used a demon. It has to be someone else, perhaps someone from Diyu who wishes to get rid of the new Judge of Hell."
"Someone who is so blatantly going against Yanluo will have been incredibly careful," he continued. "We can try and soul search him, but the chances of finding anything are minuscule, and using the Soulsearch formation is quite taxing. Only Pei Bai is capable of doing so, and right now he is fully focused on Hui Yue's advancement for the Formation Master's debate."
"But Lord Patriarch, if someone is trying to kill Pei Yue, then we are in a bad situation. He is one of our geniuses, losing him will not only cause friction between Diyu and the Celestial Sword Sect, but it will also affect our future accomplishments!"
Hearing this, the patriarch chuckled, "I know, but first they have to kill our little Pei Yue. He has some abilities he has still not displayed, and he has that frightening fox by his side. If my guess is correct, then she is at least as strong as myself... With such a guardian by his side, do you think that he is so easily killed?"
"Whoever wants him dead will send more assassins in the future, some might be stronger than this one, however, no matter how strong they are, they will never be as strong as his fiance. Such an expert will not step in unless it is of enormous benefit. Although Pei Yue is in possession of quite a few very nice treasures, experts of our caliber know that killing him would provoke the ire of Yanluo, the strongest expert in the galaxy. Nobody at our level is stupid enough to provoke that monster."
Pei Ziqi was shocked. She understood that the patriarch was not wrong, but to simply not care just because a strong God was protecting him seemed a little too carefree.
Still, although she was shocked, she was not about to say anything. The patriarch had made his decision, and she would respect it. Although she was strong, she would follow her patriarch’s commands.
As Pei Ziqi got ready to leave, she picked up the bound assassin and left the main hall. She then moved towards a lonely mountaintop.
This mountaintop was a forbidden area in the inner sect. It contained the sect's detention facility, but it also had multiple beasts living here as well. Pei Ziqi did not waste any time as she broke the neck of the bound demon, and afterwards, she gripped his soul as it tried to flee. She then shattered it after which she threw the body to one of the beasts who merrily accepted the snack.
While every elder had forgotten all about this shadowy assassin in the midst of all the astonishment from the dowry that Huli presented, Hui Yue had not forgotten about him. Hui Yue was certain that since Pei Ziqi had brought the assassin, he would end up dead. He was not worried. Entering the mountain range, his fate was already sealed.
Instead, he was currently happily introducing Huli to his father. Pei Tian was smiling brightly as he looked at Huli. He was ecstatic that his son had managed to find such an amazing woman.
"I need to return to the Formation Palace," Hui Yue said as he looked at the setting sun. He had been given a day to deal with his friends in the City of Endless Clouds, but many things had happened today instead. Despite everything that had occurred, Hui Yue did not try to come up with excuses for staying away from training. After talking with his father, he went straight to the Formation Palace with Huli in tow. It was clear that she was going to follow him wherever he went from now on.
"Oh, the rich fiance!" Pei Bai's voice resounded through the hall of the Formation Palace as Hui Yue and Huli went through the front door.
Pei Bei looked at Huli with polite curiosity, but his main focus was still on Hui Yue. "I found this amazing manual which describes formations very well, why don't you try and read through it?" Pei Bai asked as he handed it over to Hui Yue.
"While I was looking through my formations I also found these four which rely on eighty or fewer seals. All of them have a fire nature which will benefit you greatly!"
"I also found one that works with your dao of devouring, and I found five formations that can be increased in power with your dao of the sword."
Pei Bai had completely forgotten about Huli and passed the formations one after another over to Hui Yue as he introduced them. Glancing at them briefly, Hui Yue found that all of them could greatly benefit him, and normally if he wanted them, he would have had to pay a significant amount of Worldpower Stones or contribution points.
Because of this Formation Master's debate, Hui Yue understood that he was receiving special guidance from this elder and he was very grateful for it. He made up his mind to do his very best in the debate to win honor for the sect which did not spare any resources for his comprehension of formations.
Huli looked at Hui Yue as they moved through corridor after corridor and room after room until they finally reached the rooms that Hui Yue had been using.
"You will stay here for the next month. In a month we can go visit everyone in the City of Endless Clouds again, but for now, you should focus on cultivation!" Pei Bai was not going to tell him that he could not meet his friends, but he knew that every day counted when it came to increasing his comprehension of the Formations.
Hui Yue, having already planned this with Pei Bai, nodded his head. "Huli will stay by my side while I train," he told the young-looking elder who just shrugged his shoulders, clearly not really caring either way. He then left Hui Yue to study the many formations he had given him moments before.
Seeing Hui Yue so focused on the formations, Huli knew that now would not be a good time to interrupt Hui Yue, so instead, she transformed into a small black fox. She moved to the bed where she curled up into a small ball and started relaxing.
Although it looked as if she was asleep, her eyes never once closed. They were staring at Hui Yue while keeping an eye out for everything that was happening around them.
The days continued like before. Hui Yue did not leave the Formation Palace, all he did was compress seals, practice various formations, and practice his control over multiple formations at once.
His training was varied as he practiced many formations at the same time and he was constantly learning new formations which he merged with his daos.
As a Formation Master one’s skills in formations did not have much to do with one's cultivation level or comprehension of the dao, but being able to use one’s daos to boost the power of formations did indeed make them quite formidable.
"Although the Heavenly Dragon Gate has a talented genius when it comes to formations, he might not necessarily be your match in a duel. You can simultaneously create nine formations now, and you are almost at the hundred seals mark. This is not even mentioning that every single formation you know can be enhanced by your daos. Especially the fire formations, they are simply terrifying in your hands."
Hui Yue could not help but feel excited about the coming Formation Master's debate.
The debate was split into two parts. One was a display of one's skills in how many formations one could create at the same time, how smoothly they were formed, and how fast they were created.
The second part of the debate was a spar. The Formation Masters would not participate in the second part of the debate, but they would observe the younger generation fight each other as they displayed how well their formations worked in actual combat. In this part of the debate, Pei Bai had great expectations of Hui Yue, exactly because the young man had comprehended more daos than the majority of the other youngsters of his generation.
"If he had comprehended a major dao, he would be unbeatable, but I guess it would be impossible for someone his age to comprehend such a dao. Hundreds of daos needs to be comprehended first before a major dao can be fully comprehended."
Pei Bai sighed. He knew that daos were important when it came to the combat ability of a Formation Master, but he had never been one to fight. Pei Bai was fascinated by formations and preferred to spend all his time with his head burrowed in a scroll; he liked to focus on comprehending new formations or compressing seals.
He had no aims to travel the world, and he felt no longing for worldly possessions. He also was not particularly keen on increasing his cultivation base. All that mattered to him was the formations that he wanted to control and the possibility of becoming the next Formation Grandmaster within the Celestial Sword Sect.
Because of this, Pei Bai's eyes shone with excitement when he had learned of Hui Yue's talents. He saw an unpolished jade which could be guided, but he also knew that Hui Yue had such an outstanding talent that he would soon outshine him. He was a dragon which had just learned to fly and soon he would be soaring proudly through the sky, not fearing anything.
Day after day went by while Hui Yue focused solely on his control of formations, his compression of seals, and new formations. While time passed, Huli stayed on the bed doing nothing but keeping an eye on Hui Yue.
While everything was quiet within the Formation Palace, outside was nothing like the silence and peaceful calm that reigned where Hui Yue was studying. The rumor about the incredible dowry had been leaked, and the inner sect disciples were filled with mixed emotions. Some were filled with jealousy, others with awe. Some felt gratitude and others rage.
One thing all of them had in common was curiosity. They all wanted to see exactly what this Miss Huli looked like, and while some wanted to try and steal her from Hui Yue, others just wanted to become her friend. Some were just curious and wanted to see if she was really as beautiful as the elders said while others just wanted to see if she was as strong as rumors claimed.
But no matter how curious everyone was, they had to wait. The doors to the Formation Palace stayed closed, and no matter what, they had no option other than to wait and see Hui Yue return to the outside world.