Pef returned to the command center in the Indigo Realm, where the rest of the restaurant management sat in their command chairs, overseeing the various operations ongoing.

He took the mind crystal and downloaded the newest finds and scry results, then sat in his own chair and turned towards the Mirror Goddess.

The woman smiled smugly, as if her knowledge was still superior. It probably was though. The Mirror of Samsara could access even the Violet Realm of the Seven Color Pagoda, even after Pef took control over its old Formations once he became the Seven Color Sect's core disciple by completing its trials, just like the Jade Emperor before him.

Only the newer Formations that imprisoned the Taotie remained, but Pef was far away from being able to mess with those, being set up by a Tier 11 powerhouse and likely just as complex and powerful as those of the Tao Symbol, only still intact.

And since the jade Emperor died so tragically after messing with the prison array, Pef could only copy it and try to understand it slowly by himself, and not very successfully either. He almost died by draining his own qi and soul the first time he activated his own copy.

"Will the Temple attack us again?" He asked Gena Feng in a serious tone.

"Of course. They will want to recover the blood emblem and attain their Bronze inheritance. But we have some time. Decades, at least. Losing their Punishment Elder is a big loss for such a small sect." the Mirror Goddess said in a wry tone.

Pef glared at her, then sighed. A sect with a dozen Tier 9s wasn't small by any means, but he did select the Cloud Province exactly because they didn't have any second-tier sect. Those had hundreds of Tier 9s in their ranks and even a Tier 10 at their core.

As for first-rate sects, those had multiple Tier 10s and thousands of Tier 9s, and also recruited heavily from the Lower Heavens, forcefully inducting new Tier 9s as front line fighters.

The Temple would be considered a third-rate sect, just like his own restaurant, if its inner details would become public.

At least for now, the Dragon Burger was considered a lower tier organization, with a few Tier 8s visible in the management, but that will change as news of the last battle will spread.

Battles among cultivators rarely resulted in death, simply because they all had escape methods and artifacts, so the death of a 6th Star Tier 9 will warn others that things were more serious with the Dragon Burger restaurant.

Luckily, Pef had begun building lots of karma with his clients, since every Star or Realm gained in his restaurant created good will and karma with the beneficiaries, and sometimes their own relatives and sects. While he didn't preach the Dao to the clients like a sect would, the results were the same, but even faster and without strings attached. Visible strings anyways.

Already the Cloud City Guard sent a few of their Guards every week to boost their cultivation with expensive meals, with the expenses paid by the Cloud Governor himself. Traders and merchants kept begging for the rights to re-sell the burgers to distant clients, but Pef wasn't about to agree.

The golden goose was not for sale.

"We could make a deal with the Governor." Lia proposed all the sudden, mirroring Pef's thoughts.

"He will come to ask for it himself. No need to propose it ourselves." the General intervened in a certain voice.

Pef nodded. Probably a discount for the Cloud Guard, if the product quality did not decline.

The Cloud Governor was still testing the waters with the new restaurant outside his walls, possibly annoyed at the loss of sale taxes, but glad of the extra Transport fees of his Transport Array, since many restaurant customers came from ever more distant cities or even nearby provinces.

"We did crack his walls..." Lara muttered in a lower voice.

"The Temple Elder did that. The city walls are behind us." Kalima said with a snort.

Pef sighed. It only took three breaths to push that Temple guy into a Violet Portal, but at Tier 9 that was enough time to level half a multiverse. Luckily his Dampening Formations absorbed most of damage, and only the shockwaves spread out a little, splattering the other Temple forces and nearby mountains. The restaurant survived mostly intact, and a single Repair Array undid the minor damage to the walls.

The harder battle took place inside the Violet Realm, where both himself and the Taotie struggled a billion accelerated years to kill the Temple Elder.

Of course, the same battle now would take merely a year or less, since both himself and the Taotie gained new Stars.

He still needed to reach his own 6th Star, to equal the Taotie, but he wasn't in a big hurry. Maybe the Silent Monk would bring back some decent stuff from that secret realm, before the Temple returned in force.

--------

The Silent Monk pushed her in front, then followed at a slow pace, while examining the stone murals and the ancient statues that filled to tomb.

For it was certainly a tomb, Shang Wei was certain. Nobody alive would stay in a crypt, even one as richly decorated as this one.

They walked for days, slowly exploring tunnels and halls, sometimes stopping to memorize a Dao scripture glowing on a stone tablet or to let the Silent Monk deploy his own mind crystal to copy the interior of a hall directly.

A week later, they arrived in a silver hall, with a strong aura of Divinity flowing from somewhere above. Beside the walls there were dozens of casket-like vases that held red and purple flowers, while in the front there was a small peach tree with a single pink peach hanging from a low branch.

"Welcome, young Wei. It must have been hard, reaching this place only in Golden Realm. Is this elder from your Temple?" someone asked in a majestic voice, coming from all around.

'It wasn't hard at all...' Shang Wei muttered inward as she turned and saw the Silent Monk sit down at the entrance, refusing to enter the silver hall.

"Well met, Ancestor. Are you still alive?" she asked instead, a bit uncertain.

"I've died long ago, young Wei. This is only my Will, imprinted into the Memorial Array. These holy herbs are my proudest achievements, the Resurrection Lilies, the Paramita Flowers and the Immortality Peach Tree. You can store them in that Copper Realm ring, or consume them right away, as you wish." the voice spoke in a sad tone.

"How...I didn't think a Bronze Realm can die?" she asked a bit curious. Wasn't she an Immortal now? Was it all a sham?

"Even those Eminences in the Upper Heavens can still die, what about poor me. The Tribulations become so hard...so immensely hard. Maybe I shouldn't have tried to Ascend. My Will fled after the second thunderbolt, but I'm certain my body and soul were erased. Even my Bronze Dharma treasure broke in the second strike." the Ancestor said in a tragic voice, filling the entire hall with sadness and regret.

"I understand, Ancestor. But we are immortals, are we not? Can't we reincarnate?" she asked a bit fearful now.

The voice stopped for a long minute. "...The Heavens always leave a chance, that's true. Perhaps a wisp of my soul still lingers in the Six Paths, but I can't sense it anymore. Under the tree there's a chalice with a few drops of my essence. If you do find my soul, a single drop will reconstruct my body.

This elder here, will you help?" the Ancestor asked in a more level voice.

The Silent Monk just rose and left, walking slowly back towards the entrance.

"Don't mind the Silent Monk, he's a bit damaged and mute, but he's nice. So, wanna hear how I Ascended?" Shang Wei asked in a more carefree voice, now that she wasn't as worried. She never knew a relative until now, being an orphan inducted as a child in the Temple, so even a dead relative was better than nothing.

"You have a kind heart, little Wei. Sure, tell me everything about you. It's not like I don't have the time..." the Ancestor answered in a mildly amused voice.