Staring at Huo Bai’s long, pale hand, Chai Miao clenched his jaw, trying to suppress the terror welling up inside him. He didn’t want to look, but his gaze was completely drawn to that hand. It captivated him completely, and he couldn’t tear his eyes away.
’I’m going to die. Is this really how it ends?’
’My nearly one hundred years of a carefree life... are they going to end in this godforsaken place? Right here, right now?’
Chai Miao stared at Huo Bai’s outstretched hand as scenes from the first half of his life began to flash through his mind. At this final mont, the images that appeared most vividly were, surprisingly, of his wife and their hapless children.
’If I just die like this, what will happen to them? Without my protection, will those relatives from the side branches—the ones who always had to tread carefully around —take revenge on them?’
At these thoughts, an even greater fear seized Chai Miao, and he froze completely.
Huo Bai frowned at the dazed middle-aged Cultivator before him. His hand shot out to the side, grabbing another Cultivator. He then executed his Cultivation Technique and began the Soul Search.
"It shouldn’t be ! I was at the back!"
With a strange, mournful cry, the Cultivator died. Huo Bai dropped his body and looked toward Fang Qingyuan.
Though a Soul Search was a brutal technique, the useful information it yielded was often fragnted. Trying to precisely scoop out a single ladleful of needed information from the vast river of a Foundation Establishnt Cultivator’s seventy or eighty years of mories was an extre test of the user’s skill.
The higher the Cultivator’s cultivation base, the more effective the Soul Search. Although Huo Bai was a Golden Core Cultivator, he found searching the souls of these Foundation Establishnt Cultivators to be fraught with difficulties.
If he were searching the soul of a Qi Refining Cultivator or a mortal, Huo Bai could certainly flip through their mories like reading a book. But in this case, a huge portion of the information was being missed.
Huo Bai wasn’t skilled in Soul Searching. His current actions were part of a plan he had just discussed with Fang Qingyuan. But after searching the souls of two Foundation Establishnt Cultivators in a row, Huo Bai had failed to obtain any useful information.
Furthermore, the two Cultivators he had just searched were only at the Early-stage Foundation Establishnt. There were still two at the Mid-stage Foundation Establishnt and one unconscious Late-stage Foundation Establishnt Cultivator left. Huo Bai was even less confident about searching them.
Receiving Huo Bai’s signal, Fang Qingyuan understood and stepped forward. He crouched down in front of Chai Miao and asked:
"I’ll only ask you one thing: do you want to live, or do you want to die?"
Chai Miao looked up at Fang Qingyuan, his eyes brimming with tears. He didn’t want to die. He didn’t want to die right now, and he especially didn’t want to die by having his soul searched.
Just from watching, he found the agony of a Soul Search unbearable. Fang Qingyuan’s voice now sounded like a lifeline to a drowning man, and he desperately wanted to grasp it.
"I want to live! I want to live! I can’t die just like this! My family is still waiting for ! I’m still young, I still have a chance to advance further! Spare , I beg you, please show rcy...!"
Faced with the imnse terror of death, Chai Miao, a Foundation Establishnt Cultivator and a dignified Patriarch in the eyes of others, was now weeping like a child.
As Chai Miao broke down, Fang Qingyuan consoled him with a pitying expression:
"It’s alright. Wanting to live is a perfectly normal reaction. There’s no need to be ashad. It’s just... I’d like to ask you for a little favor."
Chai Miao wiped the tears from his eyes and asked in terror:
"What favor?"
Fang Qingyuan pointed to the Mid-stage Foundation Establishnt Cultivator next to Chai Miao and whispered to him:
"Help kill him."
"No, no! I can’t do that! I’m willing to give you Spirit Stones! I’ll give you everything I have! Just let go!"
Chai Miao scrambled backward again and again. His Spiritual Power had been sealed by Huo Bai, leaving him unable to use any of his Divine Power. The sight of him shuffling backward on the ground was quite pathetic.
Fang Qingyuan’s expression turned cold. He stared at Chai Miao and said:
"Since you’re unwilling, I’ll just release his restraints and ask if *he’s* willing to help . But once I ask him, there will be no room for you to change your mind."
Chai Miao froze. He looked at his restrained comrade, a flicker of guilt crossing his face. He didn’t dare to take the gamble.
Seeing this, Fang Qingyuan knew the matter was settled. He took a Magic Sword from his storage bag, tossed it to Chai Miao, and gestured.
"Hurry up. We don’t have much ti."
Chai Miao snatched the Magic Sword from the ground, not daring to et his comrade’s eyes. He turned his head away and muttered:
"I’m sorry. I’ll repay you in the next life."
With that, Chai Miao raised the Magic Sword with great effort and plunged it into his comrade’s heart.
...
Chai Wenzhai slowly regained consciousness. He opened his eyes to find himself in a prison cell. He tried to sense the Magical Power within his body, but it was completely empty. He couldn’t feel a thing.
’My power has been sealed,’ Chai Wenzhai realized. He recalled the last scene before he lost consciousness: a giant white Demon Tiger, its ferocious maw, and a roar that shook his very soul.
The scene replayed in his mind over and over. After a long while, Chai Wenzhai gave up, realizing that there was no way he could have dodged that attack.
’Soone from the Huo Family? So young... it must have been Huo Bai. After all our planning, how did Huo Bai end up here? One careless move, and the whole ga is lost. What a waste of an opportunity. If we could have severely wounded the new Chief of the Southern Border Beast Taming Sect’s Miscellaneous Affairs Peak, the sect’s prestige would have been utterly trampled into the mud. How could they have the gall to compete with our Spirit Wood Alliance after that?’
Just then, a groan caught Chai Wenzhai’s attention. He looked over and saw a Cultivator lying in the adjacent cell, looking even more wretched than himself.
"Chai Miao?"
Chai Wenzhai cried out in surprised disbelief. Hearing his na, the Cultivator on the floor struggled to sit up, revealing a battered body covered in the grueso marks of torture.
"Ah, Leader Wenzhai, I’m fine."
Chai Miao gave Chai Wenzhai a blood-stained smile, trying to prove he was alright. But looking at his condition, Chai Wenzhai felt as if Chai Miao might drop dead at any mont.
"You’re here too? Are there any others?"
A chill went down Chai Wenzhai’s spine. Seeing Chai Miao’s state, he could guess what his own fate would be.
Just as Chai Miao was about to answer, Fang Qingyuan’s voice ca from the cell door. He walked in with Situ Jingyu, a smile on his face as he asked:
"You two seem to be having a good chat. I’m afraid I’ll have to trouble you to stay here for a while. I’ll let you go once the power behind you pays the ransom."
Seeing Fang Qingyuan’s smug expression, Chai Wenzhai remained calm and retorted:
"This was your trap, wasn’t it? You deliberately went to the Artifact Talisman Alliance to et Kuai Tong and Qi Wushuang, trying to lure us into making a move so you could even the score."
Fang Qingyuan simply maintained a mysterious smile in response to Chai Wenzhai’s accusation. He offered no explanation, letting Chai Wenzhai guess. After a mont, once he’d had his fill of smiling, he left with Situ Jingyu.
Inside the prison, Chai Wenzhai and Chai Miao continued their conversation.
...
Once outside the prison, Situ Jingyu looked at Fang Qingyuan with a complicated expression. His thods back at that naless mountain stream had made her feel deeply uneasy.
Forcing Chai Miao to personally slaughter his own comrade, then severely wounding him and placing him next to Chai Wenzhai to act as a mole. The goal was for Chai Miao to gain Chai Wenzhai’s trust so that after he was released back to the Spirit Wood Alliance, he could continue to pass on information.
Although Fang Qingyuan carried out these actions as if they were perfectly natural, Situ Jingyu, who had grown up in the Earth Cave Fire Domain, couldn’t accept them so easily.
In Situ Jingyu’s eyes, it was better to fight a glorious battle and lose, blaming only her own lack of skill. How could anyone resort to such despicable, underhanded tactics?
Fang Qingyuan offered no explanation for Situ Jingyu’s quiet displeasure. In his position, he knew he had to do all sorts of dark deeds. Otherwise, he might as well have stayed on Yuanling Mountain in secluded cultivation instead of coming out and becoming a burden to the sect.
This was a realization Fang Qingyuan had co to the day he beca the Chief of Miscellaneous Affairs Peak. As for Situ Jingyu, he decided to observe her for a while longer. If she couldn’t change her way of thinking, he would have no choice but to transfer her away from his side, lest she one day turn against him.
For a mont, Fang Qingyuan’s attitude beca sowhat subtle, but Situ Jingyu, still lost in her own inner turmoil, was completely unaware.
User Comments
0 comments from readers