Gentlemen, it's time to enter the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls.

Chapter 155 The Secrets of the Northern Frontier

When Toya Lier arrived in front of Chen Ye, the two looked at each other and both showed expressions of surprise.

Toya Lier was stunned by Chen Ye's otherworldly face; she never imagined that such a handsome person existed in the world.

Chen Ye was also startled, because Toya Lier was also very beautiful, but her beauty was not only due to her delicate features and smooth skin, but also because she had a hazy glow on her face.

When the Qi Sea is condensed and the marrow is cleansed by spiritual energy, a layer of spiritual light will appear on the cultivator's face, making them look like they are wearing a filter, which will greatly amplify their beauty.

Toya Lier looked to be under thirty, the age when she was most mature and charming. With the added effect of her spiritual light, she could be considered a beauty that could captivate mortals. It wouldn't be surprising if she could cause a king to launch a war.

However, this effect only works on mortals. Chen Ye was not shocked by Toya Lier's appearance, but by the fact that Toya Lier was actually a cultivator, and a Qi Sea Realm cultivator at that.

Toya Lier came to her senses and knelt obediently before Chen Ye.

"Sect Master of the Yellow Springs Sect, I am Toya Lier, representing the High Priest. I have important matters to discuss with you."

As she bent over, her graceful figure was outlined by her clothes, looking quite alluring.

Upon seeing this, Feng Huaiyu quickly said, "I'll take Pang Wen away. Brother Chen, you go about your business."

Chen Ye quickly said, "Fellow Daoist Feng, there's no need to avoid me..."

But Feng Huaiyu had already carried the unconscious Pang Wen downstairs, as if his backside was on fire.

Seeing this, Qiqigesang also wanted to leave.

She'd seen this kind of thing many times before, and it wasn't appropriate for outsiders to be present next.

But Chen Ye reacted quickly, grabbing Qiqi Gesang's hand and pulling her to his side.

Just kidding. It's one thing for Feng Huaiyu to run away, but if Qiqi Gesang also runs away, and a man and a woman are alone in a room, who can vouch for them if Tuo Yalier makes up some rumors later?

If this gets out, how will he explain it to Su Chunyi?

If Feng Huaiyu hadn't run so fast, Chen Ye would have stopped him too.

Qiqigesang knew Toya Lier, and their relationship could be considered quite good. However, Toya Lier was clearly not the Toya Lier of the Suhe tribe. Qiqigesang had mixed feelings and didn't know how to face the situation.

She wanted to hide, but Chen Ye stopped her instead.

Qiqigesang dared not move and could only sit obediently to the side. However, his tall figure, even when sitting, was much taller than Chen Ye, looking down at Tuoya Lier like a door god.

Chen Ye said to Tuo Yalier, "Miss, there's no need for such formality. There's nothing you can't say. Please speak your mind."

Toya Lier straightened up again, leaning slightly forward. Although her clothes covered her completely, this posture still revealed many alluring curves.

Chen Ye sensed something was wrong. This woman seemed to be very good at seducing men, so what she was about to say was probably not a good thing.

Toya Lier seemed unable to look Chen Ye in the eye, and with her head lowered, she whispered to Chen Ye, "Sect Master, I have been ordered by the High Priest to bring you tomorrow's riddle and answer."

Before Chen Ye could react, Qiqi Gesang exclaimed in surprise, "Isn't this cheating?"

Toya Lier glanced at her former friend and smiled, "It is indeed cheating, but it has always been the case. Gesang'er, you have chosen a new master who is a hero, and I haven't had a chance to congratulate you yet."

Chen Ye asked in confusion, "Is this the case every year? I heard Qiqi Gesang say that you are the smartest person in the tribe, so you always win the puzzle. In the end, you've been cheating?"

Toya Lier said, "Where in the world is there such a wise person? Before, Suhe Tribe was the strongest, so I won the puzzle-solving match for Suhe Tribe, allowing them to win three consecutive matches. Now that the sect leader is the strongest, I will give the sect leader the puzzle and the answer to avoid any accidents."

Chen Ye really didn't expect things to turn out this way.

Chen Ye asked in confusion, "Then I don't understand. If that's the case, why go to all the trouble of arranging this trial of wisdom?"

Toya explained, "Because the Northern Frontier cannot be in chaos. Only by possessing both wisdom and strength can the leaders of other tribes remain at ease and not covet Suhe's position. As long as Suhe can remain stable, there will be no major war in the Northern Frontier. If others think that Suhe is all talk and no action, then some people will become restless, and the Northern Frontier will be engulfed in war."

"The High Priest has really gone to great lengths for the Northern Frontier," Chen Ye remarked. The old man was indeed wise; this scheme could indeed bring stability to the Northern Frontier. Controlling one tribe was always easier than controlling all of them.

It seems that this Toya Lier was the key to controlling Suhe, but now that Suhe is dead, Chen Ye has become the second tribal leader who needs to be controlled.

However, that's not what Chen Ye cares about.

"Young lady, you are also a cultivator, not just someone who worships ancestral spirits and practices witchcraft. I have a question, and I wonder if you could answer it for me?"

"Of course, please ask, Sect Master."

Her soft and fragrant appearance made Chen Ye even more wary.

"Excuse me, young lady, are you a disciple of the Nirvana Sect?"

A thousand years ago, the entire Northern Frontier was the territory of the Nirvana Sect. This holy city they resided in was built by the Nirvana Sect after they enslaved the people of the Northern Frontier. What other possibility is there besides the Nirvana Sect that Toya Lier could cultivate?
While questioning her, Chen Ye was already prepared; if Toya Lier made any unusual move, he would use fire snakes to bind the woman tightly.

No spell can be cast faster or more conveniently than supernatural powers.

However, Toya Lier seemed to have no intention of hiding anything, and frankly admitted: "It was the High Priest who taught me the method of cultivation. He said that it was indeed a technique passed down from the heavens, but few people in the Northern Frontier are qualified to learn it."

"A celestial being?"

Toya Lier explained, "The monks who built this holy city were the gods worshipped by all people a thousand years ago. At that time, the people of the Northern Frontier called them the Celestials. Before the ancestral spirits appeared, the Celestials were the only faith."

Chen Ye asked, "Is the High Priest also a celestial being?"

The High Priest was probably a member of the Nirvana Sect back then, and his cultivation level should have been quite high, which is why he was able to live for a thousand years. When the Nirvana Sect was destroyed, he disguised himself as a commoner from the Northern Frontier, which is how he escaped the calamity.

This explanation is reasonable.

But Toya Lier said, "Perhaps the first High Priest was a Celestial, but the current High Priest has only inherited the title and has little connection with those Celestials. Otherwise, when the Suhe tribe was sacrificed by the Celestials, the High Priest would have tried to stop it, instead of only finding out when hundreds of thousands of people in the Northern Frontier had died."

Qiqigesang asked in surprise, "Didn't the High Priest live for a thousand years?!"

Toya Lier laughed and said, "Of course it's fake. It's just that they know how to cultivate, so they do live longer than ordinary people. But in the past thousand years, the high priest has changed several times. This high priest is already the sixth one."

Chen Ye calculated that if one cannot break through the Qi Sea Realm, the longest one can live is two hundred years old. According to this calculation, none of the high priests in history have been able to break through this realm.

Chen Ye thought for a moment, then asked, "So, you are actually the next High Priest?"

Toya Lier nodded and said, "The sect leader is indeed incredibly wise. For the Northern Frontier to be stable, we need an elder with such a transcendent position. He can mediate the conflicts between the various tribes and point out the direction for everyone, which is why the Northern Frontier is becoming more and more prosperous."

Qiqigesang asked in surprise, "The tribal leaders pay homage to us every year, how come they didn't notice?"

Without needing Toya Lier to explain, Chen Ye said, "The tribal leaders don't live past a hundred years old, while the high priest can live to be two hundred. From birth to death, they have only seen the same high priest, so there will be no flaws. Moreover, with just a little disguise, and only once a year, it's not easy to distinguish the real from the fake."

Qiqigesang was shocked. She had always believed that the high priest had lived for a thousand years and believed all the legends in the tribe. Now she was being told that they were all false.

Chen Ye was also somewhat surprised. Even if Toya Lier wanted him to win the deer hunt, there was no need for her to reveal all these secrets.

Unless, she was already prepared to be honest about everything, which must have come with other conditions.

Chen Ye didn't want to waste time with this "beauty" and got straight to the point: "The High Priest sent you here, there must be other arrangements. You might as well tell me directly."

Toya Lier couldn't help but glance at Chen Ye, and sighed inwardly.

As expected of cultivators from the Central Plains, despite her flirting for so long, they showed no sign of wavering. Since that was the case, Toya Lier had no choice but to say, "The celestial beings slaughtered 100,000 people in my Northern Frontier; we want revenge."

"revenge?"

Toya Lier dropped her seductive demeanor and said solemnly, "That's right. A thousand years ago, the Celestials enslaved us and killed countless people in the Northern Frontier. Later, the Celestials were driven away by the cultivators of the Central Plains, and we thought we could finally live in peace. Who would have thought that we would still be slaves at the Celestials' mercy? With just a single evil thought, they slaughtered hundreds of thousands of our kin. We don't want to sit and wait for death anymore, we don't want to wait another thousand years to be slaughtered like pigs and dogs again."

“Originally, we were outnumbered and powerless, and had no way to take revenge, but Sect Master, you have come. I know that you saved those hundreds of thousands of our fellow clansmen’s ghosts, so I suggested to the High Priest that we ask you to avenge us. As long as you can kill all the Heavenly People, the High Priest will fully assist you and make you the true king of the Northern Frontier.”

Chen Ye asked doubtfully, "But the High Priest didn't say that in the Ancestral Spirit Hall just now. He even incited everyone to be my enemy. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been besieged by all the tribes."

Toya Lier knelt down again and said sincerely, "Please forgive me, Sect Master. The High Priest only heard my side of the story and still has doubts. If you want to become the King of the Northern Frontier, you will inevitably be targeted by all the tribes. If you can show mercy in the first duel, then the High Priest will be willing to believe that you are truly benevolent."

"And Sect Master, not only did you win brilliantly, but you also took the initiative to heal the wounded people of the Northern Frontier. The High Priest no longer had any doubts and sent me to offer up the Northern Frontier with both hands. Please stand up for the people of the Northern Frontier and avenge them against the Heavenly Beings. From now on, you will be the King of the Northern Frontier."

Chen Ye wasn't particularly moved by what he heard. Although the Nirvana Sect had suffered many heavy blows, it was not something that a mere Tongxuan Realm cultivator like himself could handle.

Besides, the five major sects have been searching for so many years but haven't found the true location of the Nirvana Sect. What can they do?
unless……

Chen Ye asked, "Can the High Priest find the location of those celestial beings?"

Toya Lier quickly said, "In the third trial of the Deer Hunt, everyone must hunt the Nine-Colored Deer, which is actually a magical artifact left behind by the Celestials. However, this artifact has been damaged for many years and can only be used as an illusion. If it can be repaired, perhaps we can find the location of the Celestials through the Nine-Colored Deer. Back then, this artifact was part of the Holy City's sacrificial ceremony. The Nine-Colored Deer ascended the Heavenly Ladder and could reach the Celestials' Palace of No Desire."

If it were that simple, the five major sects wouldn't have searched for a thousand years.

Chen Ye felt that the so-called Desireless Heavenly Palace must have moved away long ago, and the Nine-Colored Deer might not be of any use.

However, this is a good deal.

If we can really find the Nirvana Sect, we can just hand it over to the Qinghe Sword Sect without having to do it ourselves.

With this in mind, Chen Ye said, "Alright, I promise. If I can find those celestial beings, I will do everything I can to avenge you."

(End of this chapter)