Chapter 1488: Soul Suppression Rear Hall (Part Two)

After hearing Li Yan’s explanation, Tang Feng also nodded. This Li Yan was indeed extremely shrewd. He had guessed his true thoughts just from his words of gratitude. If someone else had said such words, he, Tang Feng, might still have some doubts, but he knew more of Li Yan’s secrets.

Li Yan’s innate soul power was very strong. In the Initial-stage Nascent Soul realm, he had a soul condensation comparable to that of a Spirit Transformation cultivator. So even when he was still a rogue cultivator, and with only Li Yan himself acting, it should not be a problem to capture an uninjured Evil Spirit Cultivator of the same rank.

“Hehehe, I never expected Brother Tang to be from the Soul Palace’s Rear Hall. This is truly unexpected!”

After Li Yan briefly explained, he immediately changed the topic.

Upon hearing Li Yan’s words, Tang Feng just smiled lightly.

After Li Yan knew he was a Spirit Transformation realm cultivator, he still went along with his words and treated him as a peer. Li Yan’s thoughts were clear to see. Now, looking back, this person had had intentions from the very beginning when he spoke to him. At that time, due to the urgency of the situation, in order to avoid too many explanations between the two of them, Li Yan had addressed him as ‘you’ and ‘I’. He had neither called him ‘Daoist Friend’ nor ‘Senior’.

Otherwise, if Tang Feng had heard the other party call him ‘Senior’, in that situation, he would also have felt that Li Yan was hiding his cultivation from him, which might have caused other misunderstandings and wasted time on explanations. Similarly, if Li Yan had still addressed him as ‘Daoist Friend’ at that time, he might have been afraid that he would settle scores with him afterwards, feeling that the other party had no respect for his elders. Then he would have saved an enemy instead.

Therefore, Li Yan’s reaction at that time was very quick. And after the danger was eliminated, the other party could also distinguish whether he was really being polite to him or just being falsely courteous, and he was not pretentious about it. After Li Yan handled it this way, the two of them could still maintain their previous relationship in the future. Otherwise, in the future, unless Li Yan could advance to the Spirit Transformation realm, the two of them would only grow further apart.

And these reactions were just some of the very small details that Li Yan had handled in an instant, but they revealed the whole picture.

Through Grandmaster Lan, Tang Feng already knew that this Li Yan was somewhat extraordinary, especially since he had only used thirty-odd years to cultivate the ‘Saintly Soul Transformation’ to the point of producing star power. And Li Yan, in the Dao of formations, could also assist Grandmaster Lan in researching that set of formations. The results of the research had actually been praised by Grandmaster Lan, which was not easy.

Considering all the things he knew, for such a talent, Tang Feng, whether for himself or for the sect, did not want to have a rift with him.

“I only mixed into the Strange Sparrow Hall because of a matter of need. It’s not that I was really hiding it just from Brother Li. There are only a few people who know my true identity!”

Tang Feng put away his smile and said to Li Yan with some apology.

After Li Yan mentioned his identity, a sense of emotion rose in his heart again. Because of this identity, he had been carrying out a top-secret mission. To have been able to survive in such a desperate situation today was truly incredible. Those were three Spirit Transformation realm cultivators, and they had just died here so quietly. Such a fall, these three, even if they became ghosts, would probably become vicious ghosts.

This Li Yan had used the advantages of the time and place to a degree that was almost whatever he wished. His appearance there was definitely just a coincidence, yet Li Yan had used an extremely short amount of time to set up a killing trap, forcefully turning a situation of weakness into an advantage.

And here, the weakness of the Soul Cultivators was the most crucial root cause, which had been completely amplified and utilized by Li Yan. The attacks of Soul Cultivators were mainly soul-based, and the vast majority of Soul Cultivators were not very strong in dealing with formations. And their weak physical bodies had been severely pulled down in comparison to that spirit plant’s combat power. Once they were entangled in close combat, the physical body strength of a Spirit Transformation realm Soul Cultivator was only equivalent to that of a Nascent Soul realm cultivator of other types. But that spirit plant, with its Nascent Soul realm physical body, already had a strength comparable to that of the Spirit Transformation realm.

Comparing the two, don’t look at how the purple-robed woman and the others, after being entangled, could still use their arts to cut off large swaths of vines. But that was not their true strength. The means they could utilize were only their relatively profound magical power. Because they couldn’t find the other party’s main body, the three enemies couldn’t use their soul art attacks at all. So in a contest of physical damage against the other party, the ones who would suffer would only be the Soul Cultivators, definitely not that spirit plant. This point could be judged from the state of the spirit plant when it was put away by Li Yan afterwards. The main body of that spirit plant was outside the grand formation, and its main body had almost no damage. The so-called injuries were just some “superficial” wounds. For a spirit plant, this was truly a matter of “minor details.”

And Li Yan, after hearing Tang Feng’s answer, had another thought in his heart.

‘The Soul Palace’s Rear Hall, hiding one’s identity to carry out a mission, what kind of mission is that? Is this sudden rebellion of the nine major forces related to the mission Tang Feng was carrying out?’

While lurking in the dense forest, Li Yan had also heard some of the conversation between those who were chasing Tang Feng and Tang Feng himself. Although it was not much, the elegant young scholar had said one sentence, “…It’s all because of you that our good plan was ruined, causing us to lose several Void Refining cultivators…” The amount of information in this sentence was not small. The enemy’s “good plan,” if there were no accidents, would definitely have been the success of the rebellion.

And the Void Refining cultivators on both sides were only so many. They could almost be counted. In the information he had obtained, it was only on the night of the rebellion that both sides had lost a few Void Refining cultivators. If we exclude the possibility of other Void Refining cultivators falling in the past few days due to his lack of information, then the matter of Tang Feng causing the death of the other side’s Void Refining cultivators was related to the sudden rebellion.

Ever since he heard Tang Feng personally state his identity, Li Yan had been thinking about this matter in his heart.

What kind of place was the Soul Palace’s Rear Hall? No one in the Soul Suppression Palace didn’t know. It was a very mysterious place. Its overall status was second only to the Sect Master. As for how many people were inside, and who they were, perhaps only the Supreme Elders, the Sect Master, and some core elders would know. Every cultivator in the Soul Palace’s Rear Hall was an elite among the elites of the Soul Suppression Palace. Some of them had lived inside since they were young. So later, even if someone from the Rear Hall appeared outside, very few people would know that he was a cultivator of the Soul Suppression Palace.

These people had all undergone strict selection before they could enter the Soul Palace’s Rear Hall. It could be said that every one of them was a death warrior who was incomparably loyal to the Soul Suppression Palace. There were also some people who had dual identities. They might be cultivators from the three major halls or the Aegis Guard, who were later secretly selected into the Soul Palace’s Rear Hall. But their public identity was still their original identity.

It was just that news of such people had only appeared four times in the sect’s records. And those four people had only revealed their identities at specific times when it was necessary. And disciples like Tang Feng, who suddenly appeared in the Strange Sparrow Hall, and whom no one knew, that meant that he might have lived in the Soul Palace’s Rear Hall since he was a child. This time, in order to appear as quickly and reasonably as possible, he could only join the Strange Sparrow Hall as a new disciple.

These disciples of the Soul Palace’s Rear Hall, if nothing unexpected happened in the future, would all be the most core elders of the sect, or even the successors to the Sect Master.

And Li Yan had known one person before. That Grandmaster Lan was one of the four people recorded in the records. Because of her outstanding talent in alchemy and artifact refining, she had been absorbed into the Soul Palace’s Rear Hall before. Later, after becoming a core elder, because of the need for prestige and other issues in managing the Star Subduing Hall, to make the other elders more convinced, her other identity was finally revealed.

The cultivators of the Soul Palace’s Rear Hall were very mysterious. Not only was their cultivation beyond that of their peers, but they would also often carry out many of the most core and secret missions of the Soul Suppression Palace. The level of such missions was generally only known to the Sect Master and core elders. They were often related to the survival of the Soul Suppression Palace or major changes.

Such a high-level and secret mission was very difficult for the Sect Master or some core elders to carry out. Because of their status, many of their every move would definitely be noticed by enemy experts. Therefore, only the cultivators of the Soul Palace’s Rear Hall could be sent to carry it out. This could not only greatly increase the chances of completing the mission, but also not have to worry about important information being betrayed.

The main reason Li Yan had saved Tang Feng was because he had heard the conversation between those people and Tang Feng. And the concealment of Tang Feng’s cultivation further indicated that he had a secret. It was just that the final result of the matter was still greatly beyond Li Yan’s expectations. Although he had thought that Tang Feng might have a certain status in the Soul Suppression Palace, he had not expected his status to be so high, to be from the Soul Palace’s Rear Hall!

Now that he knew, some of the previous tangles in Li Yan’s heart had disappeared in an instant. He was even more glad that his decision this time was so correct. Although he had exposed some of his trump cards, in all things in the world, there must be give and take. And his give and take this time was definitely a bigger gain. A person from the Soul Palace’s Rear Hall, if used well, could really let him understand the true secrets of the Soul Suppression Palace.