Chapter 1661: Palace Comes From Above

“Heavenly Demon?”

Ye Qing realized that she must be referring to the Paranirmitavaśavartin Heavenly Demon. “It was the Paranirmitavaśavartin Heavenly Demon.”

“I see. That would explain the sheer weight of their presence.”

Feng Qingyou asked, “Is it because of your ‘Paranirmitavaśavartin Heavenly Demon Sutra’?”

“Mm.”

Ye Qing nodded with his brow furrowed deeply. “Does everyone in the Celestial Market On A Cloud know?”

“What are you referring to?”

Feng Qingyou replied calmly, “If you’re referring to the Heavenly Demon’s gaze, then of course everyone knows. Even the owner has made an appearance.”

“But if you’re referring to the fact that you’re the culprit, then you are not exposed yet. The only outsiders who know are this woman and Qiwa.”

Flinching, Qiwa hurriedly shook its head to indicate that it knew nothing.

“That’s good to hear.”

Ye Qing let out a small sigh of relief. If the denizens of the Celestial Market On A Cloud found out that it was he who drew the Heavenly Demon’s gaze, then it would be troublesome to say the least.

Although he wasn’t afraid of trouble, he wasn’t actively seeking out trouble either, not to mention that they were currently searching for the evil suppressing spiritual treasures. They were not in the best position to be attracting trouble right now.

Feng Qingyou joked when she noticed that Ye Qing was daydreaming, “It’s okay right now, but I can’t promise things will remain this way if you continue to dilly-dally like this.”

“Ahem... leave it to me.”

Ye Qing let out an embarrassed cough. He knew what she was implying of course. It was a given that the owner of the Celestial Market On A Cloud would conduct an investigation after they were “visited” by the Paranirmitavaśavartin Heavenly Demon himself. Feng Qingyou had to temporarily detain one of their subordinates to prevent him from being exposed as well. If he did not fix this situation soon, then it wouldn’t be long before the fact that he was the culprit behind everything was going to be exposed.

Of course, it wasn’t Feng Qingyou’s fault that she was detaining the woman. If she hadn’t done so, then the owner would have found out his involvement immediately.

Ye Qing went over to the woman and tapped her on the forehead. A demonic lotus appeared and disappeared in an instant.

“Hanyan greets you, young master...”

The next moment, the woman jolted awake and bowed to him reverently.

“No time for pleasantries. Go.” Ye Qing waved. Although Hanyan was a Half-Sage, he was now powerful enough to convert her into a Heavenly Demon Dependent in an instant.

Of course, he wasn’t planning on converting Hanyan fully into his Heavenly Demon Dependent. After all, she was a victim in this matter, and it wasn’t like she was her enemy. He only wanted to control her long enough to trick the owner of the Celestial Market On A Cloud before returning her to normal and wiping out all relevant memories from her mind. He would not hurt her, and their anonymity would be preserved. It would be killing two birds with one stone.

Through his bond with his dependents, Ye Qing knew that just several breaths after Hanyan had gone away, someone had visited her and spoken to her about the incident. Since Hanyan was prepared, she was able to fool the investigator easily.

Everyone aboard the Celestial Market On A Cloud was a Sage and a famous person. It was clear that the market did not want to offend them if at all possible. That was why they were only inquiring their subordinates about the incident and conducting their investigation in secret. The investigator left after receiving no useful information from Hanyan. They did not try to speak with him or Feng Qingyou, the guests.

“It’s safe now.”

Ye Qing asked Feng Qingyou after the investigator left, “Should we leave now?”

They were safe for now, but the owner wasn’t going to let this matter slide until they uncovered the truth as a matter of course. Considering that this was the Celestial Market On A Cloud, it was possible that they might know other ways of locating them.

“If we leave now, we might as well announce that we are the culprits.”

Feng Qingyou said calmly, “There’s no need to worry too much. Everyone aboard the market is a Sage, so there is no way they would dare to investigate openly and wantonly. They could only interrogate them in secret. This means that their investigation would be somewhat inefficient and slow.”

“Even if they did find out, what could they do really? After all, they technically bore half the responsibility for what happened today.”

“That is... quite the domineering statement alright.”

Ye Qing didn’t know what expression to make. In the end, he could only give Feng Qingyou a thumbs-up.

Feng Qingyou had clearly made up her mind, so he didn’t say anything else.

Feng Qingyou joked, “I’m counting on you if a battle breaks out. You are in the second level of the Sage-stage after all.”

“No problem. I will guarantee your safety no matter what.” Ye Qing slapped his own chest and smiled back.

And so the duo remained in Rising Serpent Market for a while longer before taking their leave and visiting the other three markets.

He did not purchase the “Heavenly Demon Treasure Edict”. The thing that invaded his headspace earlier was the demonic intent the Paranirmitavaśavartin Heavenly Demon had attached to the martial arts manual, not the manual itself. Therefore, the martial arts manual was still intact. At worst, it had only lost a bit of true martial intent.

Therefore, there was no need to waste any money on it. It wasn’t like he was desperate to spend his cash.

Most importantly, the owner must know that the Heavenly Demon who gazed upon his market was the Paranirmitavaśavartin Heavenly Demon. If he purchased the “Heavenly Demon Treasure Edict”, he would basically be confessing that he was the one who drew the Heavenly Demon’s gaze.

There was simply no need to do such a thing.

The duo roamed the Curved Array Market, the Supreme Yin Market, and the Six Unions Market and purchased plenty of stuff. There were Strange Artifacts, medicine, and natural treasures.

Some of these items were useful for their cultivation, and some were beneficial for their upcoming search for the evil suppressing spiritual treasures. They were all the good stuff.

In fact, they would have bought more stuff if they were richer.

They even went so far as to sell everything they could to the Celestial Market On A Cloud to buy more stuff. Alas, the sales were about as useful as a glass of water in a house fire—not enough at all.

Poverty was terrible, man.

Poverty was so terrible that Ye Qing even entertained the idea of robbing the Celestial Market On A Cloud for a moment.

His rational mind ultimately triumphed over his greed though. This was their home ground after all. If he actually succumbed to temptation, it was highly likely that he would become the one who was robbed instead.

Left with no choice, they could only pay through the roof.

Due to their limited capital, they could only do their best to purchase items that would help them the most and were most suitable for them.

Thang...

The duo were still on a shopping spree when suddenly, a resounding, profound bell chime filled the air.

“Roar...”

“Scree...”

The bell was still ringing when the cries of a dragon and a phoenix followed. A penta-colored divine dragon appeared from the east, and a rainbow-colored luan phoenix rose from the west. The two creatures danced together and dyed the entire sky in fantastical, dreamy colors. Then, the two joined together and transformed into a palace.

The palace was grand, imposing, and surrounded by purple qi. Stars orbited around it like guards. It looked like the place only a celestial or a god possessed the right to live in.

“It’s the Purple Star Palace!”

“Oh, Lady Luck must be looking favorably upon us today. To think we would run into the Purple Star Hall on our first visit to the Celestial Market On A Cloud!”

“The heavens’ blessing with us, we truly are fortunate today.”

Everyone was looking at the palace in the sky excitedly, their unique Sage auras mingling and conjuring all sorts of phenomena as a result.

This was happening because they could not control their joy.

Everyone here was a Sage, so their mental and emotional discipline were usually impeccable. They normally would not react emotionally unless they were experiencing immense delight or sorrow.

In this case, they were experiencing immense delight.

There was no doubt that the palace named Purple Star Palace was something impressive.

Its spectacular appearance earlier was all everyone needed to see to know that.