Hell Emperor.

Chapter 265: Shura Jie - Bait
Under Su Miao's astonished gaze, Youdie, who had turned into a pocket-sized girl, smiled sweetly at her, looking very intimate.

The amazing changes brought about by the Dark Spirit Divine Art made Su Miao unable to see the true identity of the pocket-sized girl, which was none other than the Phantom Butterfly belonging to Li Fei'e.

Although she didn't recognize Youdie, Youdie recognized her.

A long time ago, Su Miao had visited Li Fei'e and showed great concern for her in her words. Youdie's preferences followed those of her master, so naturally she had some good feelings towards her.

Su Miao looked at the petite girl and became more and more pleased. Her innocent and adorable look attracted her attention deeply. With her romantic nature, she could not suppress the joy in her heart and could not help waving gently to Youdie.

"Sure enough, she is really a ghostly magical treasure. What kind of soul can transform into such a lovely ghostly magical treasure?"

Su Miao was increasingly confused. Her bright eyes flickered and finally fell on Ye Jie. She opened her thin lips slightly, as if she was a little surprised: "Wait a minute, is she the dark spirit magic weapon you condensed?"

Before Ye Jie could reply, Ren Changhong at the side spoke first: "What does it have to do with you? This is not something you should be concerned about. When the competition starts in two days, everything will be clear."

Although Ren Changhong did not give a direct answer, her act of defending him made Su Miao confirm her thoughts.

Su Miao calmed down, the joy in her eyes disappeared. No matter how cute the miniature girl was, as an opponent, she couldn't shake her mind. She stared at Ye Jie and spoke slowly:
"So, you are the candidate to participate in the competition on behalf of the Demon Palace. Your dark spirit magic weapon is very special, but if you aim at the main account, I'm afraid you can only return empty-handed. What's your name?"

Seeing that Su Miao's gaze suddenly turned cold and chilling, Youdie felt a little discouraged and lowered her head. She thought she had done something wrong and made her dislike her.

Feeling Youdie's loss, Ye Jie, who shared her feelings, reached out and patted her head, then glanced at Su Miao: "You can call me Shura Jie."

“Xura Jie… You have such great attainments in the Nether Spirit Divine Art. I think you have been secretly planning for this competition for many years. No matter what your plan is, the Nether Spirit Palace will accompany you to the end!”

Su Miao spoke in a serious tone. After seeing the Star-Moon Exquisite Moth with her own eyes, she had subconsciously regarded Ye Jie as a strong rival.

Ren Changhong was somewhat puzzled: "What accomplishments? Didn't he just start learning..."

Before Ren Changhong finished her words, Ye Jie coughed a few times, interrupting her and changing the subject abruptly: "Let's talk about the attack on Shura. If we continue to delay, more Shuras will be killed. We must resolve this matter as soon as possible."

Ye Jie's words immediately drew everyone's attention back.

Although Su Miao felt that Ye Jie's behavior was a bit strange, she did not take it to heart. After all, the Shuras in the Demon Palace all had some quirks and were often unreasonable.

Su Miao spoke up and explained the situation: "According to our investigation, the thirty-five ghost immortals of the fourth rank and above in the Nether Spirit Hall were not present when Shura was attacked. This incident was caused by someone else."

Ren Changhong snorted coldly: "Are you kidding? If it wasn't your people who did this, who else could have done it? I've said it before, with you guys covering up for each other, we won't be able to find the murderer at all. Let's let the Shura King of the Demon Palace do it!"

Su Miao just shook her head: "The affairs of the Nether Spirit Palace are not allowed to be interfered by outsiders. The Palace Master will never tolerate this. Let's try another method."

Seeing that the two were about to quarrel again, Ye Jie felt overwhelmed. If they continued to argue like this, it would be endless and he would not be able to come up with any ideas. In desperation, he had to take the initiative to speak and ask Su Miao:
"Fairy Su Miao, I remember you just said that there was only one perpetrator, right?"

Su Miao glanced at him, as if she wanted to say something, but she held back and just replied:

"Yes, judging from the traces of battle when Shura was attacked, the multiple attacks were all carried out by the same ghost fairy. The only survivor is Shura Yan over there, and the information she provided also confirmed this to us."

Ye Jie nodded slightly, with a thoughtful look in his eyes. Having worked as a ghost catcher in Guangwang Palace for many years, he had also hunted down many evil ghosts who committed crimes. He was more experienced in handling these matters than those ghost catchers who only knew how to fight.

"If there is only one person, even if it is a ghost fairy, he will unconsciously follow certain behavioral rules. I want to know the specific process of those Shuras when they were attacked, including the location and time of the attack, as well as their own realm." Ye Jie said calmly.

Ren Changhong curled his lips and showed a look of disdain: "Don't make trouble here, just stay aside. Don't think that I will look up to you just because you know the Dark Spirit Divine Art. With your low level, what can you do to help us? It's almost like you're causing trouble for us."

Ye Jie stroked his forehead. He didn't expect Ren Changhong to dislike him so much. Instead, Su Miao beside him seemed to be thinking about something, with a little interest in her eyes: "Wait a minute, Shura Jie, you just mentioned behavioral patterns, what do you mean?"

Ye Jie shrugged and explained, "That's the method I figured out when I was hunting down evil spirits. Some evil spirits specifically attack children, some specifically attack women, some only appear at dusk, and some only attack in the middle of the night. In short, as long as those evil spirits attack multiple times, we can figure out their behavior patterns."

After listening to Ye Jie's explanation, even Ren Changhong was stunned: "There is such a thing, how come I don't know about it? Is the behavioral pattern you mentioned really accurate?"

Ye Jie shook his head: "It may not be accurate. There are also crazy evil spirits that kill people on sight, but it is enough to deal with most situations. Even ghost immortals will inevitably follow a certain fixed vision when choosing prey. There may be some connection between seemingly random attacks."

Ren Changhong fell silent. Although she wanted to refute Ye Jie's words, her intuition told her that Ye Jie was not wrong and even she could not find any fault with it.

Su Miao understood immediately. After hearing this, her eyes lit up, and the look she gave Ye Jie also became unusual: "You are right. I will give you the detailed records of these attacks. Maybe you can figure out something."

"What can he see..." Ren Changhong looked unconvinced.

Soon, Su Miao brought over the map of the Netherworld Palace and the document containing the record of the attack.

Ye Jie used cinnabar to mark the attack locations on the map one by one, and then took the record documents to compare them, and soon found something:

"Well... the intervals between these attacks were relatively short, no longer than half a day at most, and only as long as an incense stick at a time. The targets of the attacks were all those Shuras who were alone, regardless of gender, without exception. The locations of the attacks were also scattered around the guest rooms where the Shuras lived, and were quite far away from the main hall of the Netherworld Palace."

After comparing the attack records, Ye Jie soon saw the clues. Seeing Ye Jie summarizing the scattered attack records, Su Miao became more and more convinced of his words: "In your opinion, what should we do next?"

Ye Jie pondered for a moment and thought: "Now that we have mastered the behavior of that person, the next thing to do is to send out bait and wait for him to take the bait. When the next attack comes, we can take him down in one fell swoop."

Su Miao nodded secretly, and agreed with Ye Jie's plan very much.

Even Ren Changhong looked at Ye Jie with a different look after hearing this: "I didn't expect you to find a way. Even when facing someone whose status and realm are far higher than yours, you are not afraid at all. It seems that learning the Nether Spirit Divine Art has also made you more confident."

In response, Ye Jie just spread his hands and said, "It's extremely rare to get your praise. I thought you would only mock me."

Ren Changhong sighed and said, "Tsk, since you are so confident, then I'll leave the task of acting as bait to you."

"What?" Ye Jie's eyes twitched. Although he proposed a plan, it did not mean that he was willing to take the initiative to act as bait to lure out the real murderer.

"Don't worry, this mission is not dangerous. The other Shura Kings and I will help in secret. If anything goes wrong, we will rescue you." Ren Changhong persuaded.

Ye Jie quickly said: "If I get injured, what about the next candidates to participate in the competition?"

"Are you scared?" Ren Changhong couldn't help laughing when he saw Ye Jie's embarrassed expression. "Didn't you notice that those he attacked were all Shuras of level three or four? The weaker the Shuras are, the easier it is for him to target them. Among the people on this trip, your realm is the lowest. Apart from you, there is really no other suitable candidate. Don't worry, King Shura will protect you."

Ye Jie rubbed his forehead. He was not afraid. With the Divine Dragon Transformation, he could still fight against the culprit who attacked Shura. However, doing so would expose the secret of the six-sided stitching pages. After all, he only had the second-level cultivation level. Logically speaking, he could not even catch a yawn from a ghost fairy.

Seeing Ye Jie was quite helpless and speechless, Su Miao smiled and said, "I also think that letting Shura Jie act as bait is a good choice."

Ye Jie coughed dryly: "Fairy Su Miao, the competition of the Nether Spirit Divine Art hasn't started yet, do you really want to get rid of me in advance?"

“Heh…” Su Miao chuckled, “That’s not the case. I believe that my attainments in the Nether Spirit Divine Art are not inferior to anyone else. If you are worried about your safety after becoming a bait, then you can rest assured that the ghost messengers of the Nether Spirit Palace will also protect you secretly during this mission.”

"Really?" Ye Jie raised his eyebrows. "Judging from the atmosphere in the Nether Spirit Palace, it's already good enough that the ghosts here don't take the opportunity to kill me. How can I trust you?"

Su Miao shook her head and sighed, "I don't know which ghost fairy in the palace attacked Shura, but this move is unwise. Not only can it not help us, but it will also lead to revenge from the Demon Palace. We can obviously rely on our strength to win the competition and keep the main account, so why bother?"

Ye Jie fell silent. He felt a strong sense of confidence from Su Miao's words.

As the best ghost messenger in the Netherworld Palace, she was confident that she would not lose to anyone in the contest of Netherworld Divine Art. Even after seeing the Star-Moon Exquisite Moth on Ye Jie's shoulder, her attitude did not change at all.

Her confidence also conveyed a certain signal to Ye Jie. The Star-Moon Exquisite Moth was already a fourth-grade magical weapon, but it was unable to suppress Su Miao. Her Nether Spirit Divine Art was even stronger than Ye Jie expected!

In this case, there is no need for the people from the Nether Spirit Palace to create trouble before the competition. They only end up provoking Shura, the most vengeful person. It seems that Su Miao really knows nothing.

Seeing that Ye Jie remained silent for a long time, Su Miao thought that he did not believe her, so she gritted her teeth and took out a light ball magic weapon wrapped in a gold chain from her arms: "This is a fourth-grade magic weapon, the Nine Heavens Immortal Soul Cover, which can resist the attack of immortal magic. Even under the attack of a fifth-level immortal, it can hold out for half an hour. You can take this magic weapon and return it to me after the bait mission is over."

Ye Jie took the light ball magic weapon, feeling the vast immortal energy contained in it, his pupils shrank slightly. Even if he used all his strength to perform the Divine Dragon Transformation, it would be difficult to break the immortal soul shield.

On the side, Ren Changhong recognized this thing and couldn't help but exclaimed: "Immortal Soul Cover? With it, you don't have any worries. As long as you hide in the Immortal Soul Cover, unless a Sixth Rank Immortal takes action, you can hold on for a long time, enough to hold on until rescue comes."

As if he had thought of something, Ren Changhong said, "However, the Immortal Soul Cover only works in the underworld. It can block ghosts from entering, but it cannot block living people from passing through. If it is brought to the human world, the effect will probably be much worse."

Ye Jie nodded. He remembered that Shen Qingge seemed to have a magic weapon called the Nine Netherworld Soul Cover in his hand. It was made by the founder of the Netherworld Palace. It could only block living things from entering, but not ghosts from passing through. He didn't expect that there was such a magic weapon with the opposite effect in the Netherworld Palace.

No matter what, a fourth-grade magic weapon is enough to illustrate the preciousness of the Immortal Soul Cover. This level of magic weapon is not something that ordinary people can possess.

Su Miao's willingness to take out the Immortal Soul Cover to help also showed her attitude.

After putting the Immortal Soul Cover close to his body, Ye Jie bowed to her respectfully and said, "Thank you for your help, Fairy Su Miao. In this case, I have no reason to refuse. Let me serve as the bait."

At this time, Ren Changhong's sneer came from beside Ye Jie: "If you want to thank someone, you should call them by their fairy name."

Ye Jie was stunned, then looked at Su Miao with a puzzled look.

Su Miao smiled slightly, and then said: "My fairy name is Fairy Miaorou, which was given to me by the sect's founder. Don't change my fairy name casually."

Ye Jie apologized: "It turned out to be Fairy Miaorou, I am so sorry..."

At this time, Ren Changhong spoke again: "You are going to carry out the bait mission. Youdie will inevitably encounter danger with you. You should give her to me quickly!"

After saying that, she stretched out her hand, wanting to take the petite girl on Ye Jie's shoulder away, but the girl showed a very agile figure, like a dancing butterfly, constantly dodging on Ye Jie's shoulder, avoiding Ren Changhong's grabbing hand, and had no intention of leaving at all.

The attempt was fruitless, and seeing that Youdie was so attached to Ye Jie, Ren Changhong had no choice but to give up in disappointment.

(End of this chapter)