### Chapter 182: Diary, Paradise, Celestial Spirit Spring!
“Here it comes, here it comes!”
“Fellow Daoists, the diary has been exposed again!”
Across the Nine States, the communication array glittered as letters appeared one by one.
The diary continued to update.
Eternal Emperor’s Diary, Page Sixty-Six:
“I’m laying my cards on the table; I’m here for the secret techniques of the Mud Pill Ancestor!”
“That witch, Han Xingmian, really knows how to play her cards…”
“She said there are two conditions for me to get the Mud Pill techniques, and one of them is to help her fish out the mastermind behind the Punishment Hall Master!”
“During this period, the Extreme Ice Celestial Palace is going to fully cooperate with me, and I can mobilize a large portion of the palace’s forces.”
“This condition is tricky!”
“I interrogated the Punishment Hall Master for months, toiling endlessly, and got no useful information.”
“Moreover, the deeper reason is that anyone bold enough to sneak into the Extreme Ice Celestial Palace and set such a long-term scheme is definitely no ordinary force; I might get into big trouble.”
“And there’s one more tricky reason!”
“I’m worried that even the Punishment Hall Master can’t contact the higher-ups; she probably doesn’t even know who’s above her. If this is the case, investigating would be like climbing to the heavens.”
“I glanced at her and could feel her hatred for the mysterious backer, along with a great determination. I thought to myself, ‘This is troublesome; she’s dead set on having her eyes on me.’”
“I considered asking her what the second condition was…”
“Who knew?!”
“The witch smiled faintly, her charming eyes glancing at me, the smile growing more brilliant as she said she hadn’t thought of it yet and would tell me after the first condition was fulfilled!”
“I shook with shock, my scalp tingling; that gaze felt oddly familiar, hmm, just like the young lady from Drunken Spring Building…”
“Ah, speaking of Drunken Spring Building, I can’t help but remember my days at Xuanqing Sect, where I mixed work and play during my cultivation—such a carefree time, indeed!”
“Uh, back to the main topic.”
“I thought and coldly sneered to myself: this girl, she’s not trying to pull a Zhao Min on me, is she? You think you’re Zhao Min, and I’m Zhang Wuji?”
“And asking for another condition after the first one… what if I finish the first condition, and she adds another condition after that? I can’t agree to such an uncertain arrangement.”
“In the end!”
“After some back-and-forth, the second condition was scrapped. Unless I failed to complete the first condition, she couldn’t mention the second one.”
“But there were also stipulations: she couldn’t covet my body, had to ensure my physical and mental safety, and if she truly couldn’t control herself, she absolutely had to provide enough nutritional compensation and various medicinal herbs…”
“I hadn’t finished speaking when she kicked me out—I saw her blushing; I guess I hit a nerve and she got embarrassed!”
“After all, she’s a female demon, the master of a palace, managing so many people, and without much experience in this area, it’s normal for her to be shy.”
“Next…”
“For the next half a year, the Extreme Ice Celestial Palace unleashed a great storm, a severe operation to catch wrongdoers—truly a bloodbath, and they indeed turned up quite a few people.”
“It involved many core departments of the Celestial Palace.”
“Sadly, these people were all nurtured little by little by the Punishment Hall Master, and they knew nothing about the backer. They had no clue who was above.”
“We couldn’t extract any useful information.”
“They were directly turned into ice sculptures by the witch and displayed around the palace, serving as a warning for future generations.”
“Turns out being an undercover agent doesn’t end well…”
“Fortunately, I’m not an undercover agent after all.”
“Though the wrongdoers in the Extreme Ice Celestial Palace were dealt with, where could I find the mysterious backer? After much thought, I realized I had no choice but to push further with the Punishment Hall Master!”
“But her mouth is really hard!”
“Even with Han Xingmian using all the tortures of the Extreme Ice Celestial Palace, it was useless. She revealed some things, but those weren’t enough to find the backer, and we couldn’t even narrow down the investigation scope.”
“The clue hit a deadlock, which really gave me a headache!”
“I thought…”
“Warm reminder: In the upper right corner, there are options to switch between Simplified and Traditional, adjust font size, and change reading background color.”
“Set up.”
“Hypothetically, if Conan encountered such a situation, what would he do? Where would he start, slowly peeling back the layers, ultimately finding the real culprit?”
“Uh, I can’t think of anything!”
“That witch Han Xingmian kept pushing me, asking if I had found any leads yet. Wasn’t she the one who swore up and down that she’d crack the case in three months and find the culprit in five? What’s with the silence now?”
“Ahem, during this time, I had interacted with her more, and our relationship… no, our friendship had warmed up a bit. Indeed, I had boasted a little in front of her.”
“I just made the classic mistake every cultivator makes.”
“Who doesn’t boast a little?”
“Actually, I had considered other methods, like delving into the origins of Punishment Hall, the places it had been, and the people it had contacted.”
“But the Punishment Hall was brought back by an elder of the Celestial Palace, having cultivated here for thousands of years without a hitch; that elder had already passed away, and the deeper leads just severed.”
“No other angles seemed promising.”
“All this shows it’s not that I’m incompetent, but my opponent is just too cunning and powerful.”
“Moreover, I’m just a newcomer to the Celestial Palace, merely here to set up the array, not to catch undercover agents. If I managed to achieve this, it’d be quite impressive; no need to blame myself!”
“Having hit a dead end…”
“So, I decided to fool the witch into temporarily locking up the Punishment Hall, to see if we could catch a rabbit waiting for a hare.”
“If we can’t find them, we might as well let them come to us.”
“The other side put in so much effort setting the sneaks up in the Punishment Hall, and just when they were close to succeeding, something went wrong; they definitely wouldn’t give up so easily.”
“Once the other party realizes the Punishment Hall is locked up, they might slip up; if they plan a rescue operation, that’d be even more productive.”
“Then we could catch a few more!”
“Haha, Han Xingmian was indeed convinced by my idea and didn’t push me anymore.”
“However, waiting became another few months of emptiness!”
“Not a single thing moving!”
“I panicked; at this rate, when would it end? Am I supposed to stay in this den of demons forever?”
“And I noticed…”
“Recently, the witch has a habit of summoning me for no good reason, always in her personal palace, or the Extreme Ice Paradise…”
“Deep within the Celestial Palace there’s a Celestial Spirit Spring, soaking in it can increase cultivation by fifty years and greatly improve one’s physique.”
“She wanted me to accompany her to check the water quality and effects of the Celestial Spirit Spring after the palace celebration!
“I had a nagging feeling something was off; why does this game feel so familiar?”
“Should I go or shouldn’t I?”
“I hesitated, feeling this journey wouldn’t be that simple.”
“But!”
“I am, after all, a gentleman, and over the past two years, I’ve enjoyed all kinds of resources and benefits from the Celestial Palace.”
“Facing the palace’s minor request, I simply couldn’t refuse!”
“So, after deep contemplation, I made a decision that went against my ancestors…”
This diary ends here.
Needless to say, it caused a stir throughout the Nine States, with cultivators from various celestial mansions wide-eyed as they read on.
Almost everyone looked at the last few sentences of the diary with expressions of envy and a hint of slight lewdness…
Tsk tsk tsk.
The witch often summoned him to her personal palace and the Extreme Ice Paradise?
The Extreme Ice Paradise is a breathtakingly scenic place within the Extreme Ice Celestial Palace, said to have many shocking views that are hard to imagine.
And there’s a Celestial Spirit Spring deep within the Extreme Ice Celestial Palace? The Desolate Heaven Emperor is truly blessed!
Truly a person of amazing fortune!
