After hearing her out, Zongzheng Huangyue did not believe her immediately. Instead, she regained her composure and demanded proof.
“What proof do you have that what you say is true?”
“The one who needs to prove it isn’t me—it’s you.”
Wen Li shrugged with an utterly fearless expression, a faint, gentle smile curving her lips as she looked back at her.
“After all, what they want is your life, not mine.”
Wen Li raised an eyebrow, her expression brimming with wicked cunning.
“...”
Zongzheng Huangyue’s heart sank. Compared to her ambitions of dominating the Eastern Province, staying alive right now was paramount. Even so, if Wen Li’s claims were true and she really could divine her fate, then this so-called Foundation Establishment Great Perfection cultivation was merely a front.
“Fine. Give me seven days. I will send people to investigate. As long as what you said is proven, I will take you as my master.”
“No, I think you misunderstand.”
“I’m not the one begging here. I don’t necessarily need you as a disciple,” Wen Li countered with a turnabout. “However, you definitely need me as your master.”
Zongzheng Huangyue naturally understood the implication: Wen Li wanted her to place herself in a subordinate position and show genuine sincerity in seeking tutelage. Her gaze narrowed slightly, and her fists clenched as her expression tautened.
“Fine. Wait for me.”
With that, she turned to leave.
“According to the timeline, your people have already made their move. What you need to check now is the bottom of the cliff at Mount Yunwu, southeast of the Beiqiong Kingdom, to see if there is no corpse. If Wangquan Sheng is lying there unconscious, don’t bother trying to kill him—you can’t. He is protected by karmic fortune, and you will only suffer a backlash. What you can do is seize the miraculous encounter he stumbles upon: a bone ring.”
Wen Li offered this alternative to avoid wasting both their time.
“If his body isn't there, then stake out his home. Once he wakes and recovers, he will naturally return to visit his parents. As for what to do next, I shouldn’t need to teach you, should I?”
Hearing this, Zongzheng Huangyue’s eyes darkened with her back turned, and she gave a sideways nod.
“Understood. Thank you.”
She immediately left with her entourage.
Gu Linshu stepped into the room. “M-Master, d-didn’t it work?”
Wen Li said, “We’ll know when she returns in seven days.”
Though she said that, Gu Linshu knew that whatever Wen Li set out to do would never end in failure.
...
The Western Province.
Inside a faint-blue ice cave in the Far Cold Lands.
“Pfft!”
A figure slammed violently against the ice wall, falling to the ground amid showering shards of ice. The blood she spat up was thick and tinged with black, staining her deep crimson-purple sect robes even darker.
“A mere Early-Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, yet you have the guts to fight me for treasures.”
A cold-faced young male cultivator strode over. Crouching down, he seized Yao Dai by the throat and glanced across her sect robes.
“You’re a disciple of the Xuandu Sect.”
Heavily wounded, Yao Dai looked pale and terrified, her breath faint. “D-Don’t kill me... I am a disciple of the Xuandu Sect. If you spare me, I swear I won’t cause you any trouble.”
The young girl’s pitiable demeanor seemed harmless and innocent.
Perhaps the young man truly feared the Xuandu Sect—after all, it was one of the controlling sects of the four Fourth-Grade Cultivation Kingdoms in the Western Province. The hand gripping Yao Dai’s throat eased, applying no further force.
Yao Dai’s gaze fell upon the sword hanging at his waist, and she recognized something.
“Are you a senior brother from the Lingjian Sect? I know Senior Brother Du Mojin and Senior Brother Lin Qing! They are my friends—we’ve shared life-and-death bonds together.”
“Since you know them, so be it. I suppose you can’t be a wicked person.” Hearing this, the young man’s expression softened. He slowly rose and released his grip on her throat.
“Out of respect for the Xuandu Sect, I will spare your life. Leave at once, and watch yourself.”
His strike earlier had used his full strength, serving as adequate punishment for her attempting to snatch his pill.
Her face devoid of color, Yao Dai gave a look of grateful, pleasant surprise with a smile. “Thank you, Senior Brother! I will never forget your kindness today. If I have the chance to visit the Lingjian Sect in the future, I will surely repay you for sparing my life.”
The young man spared her a cool glance and turned to depart.
On the ground, Yao Dai’s eyes chilled. With a flick of her fingers, an object flew out from her storage bag.
“You really harbored evil intentions!”
Fortunately, the Mid-Stage Foundation Establishment young man had remained somewhat guarded. Sensing the chill draft behind him, he dodged instantly and drew his sword to parry the Blood Vine Whip flying through the air.
Yet he underestimated the whip, thinking it was merely an ordinary magical weapon. To his shock, the moment his blade clashed against the Blood Vine Whip, it seemed to possess sentience, instantly splitting into six vines that shot toward him with blistering speed.
The young man’s pupils constricted. “What demonic creature is this?!”
He jolted spiritual energy through his palm, trying to wrench his sword free from the whip’s grasp, but it wouldn’t budge at all. Worse still, in the next second, the whip secreted a dark red liquid that rapidly corroded and dissolved his Low-Grade Rank 7 treasure sword!
He had no choice but to let go of the blade and rapidly weave a hand seal to conjure a defensive shield.
By now, Yao Dai had swallowed a medicinal pill and bitten the tip of her tongue, using the sharp pain to maintain the last vestige of consciousness. Supporting herself against the wall with one hand, she cracked the Blood Vine Whip with the other.
“Kill him.”
Discarding the young man’s sword, the Blood Vine Whip whipped ferociously at his defensive shield.
“Boom!”
His defensive shield trembled violently. Yao Dai lashed out with another strike, and the Blood Vine Whip unraveled once more, transforming into dozens of slender vines that surged toward him.
This time, the venom secreted by the blood vines instantly shattered his defensive shield, and the tendrils slithered onto his body like ghosts.
“Ah!”
“Y-You... I was going to spare you just now, and you repay kindness with enmity!” Wrapped tight by the blood vines, the young man’s agonized screams echoed throughout the ice cave.
“Ah! I... Lin Qing and I are sect brothers! If you kill me, h-how can you face him?!”
The venomous thorns of the blood vines dug all over his body, greedily draining his flesh and blood.
“Heh, Lin Qing? If the timing hadn’t been wrong back then, I would have killed him to silence him on the spot.” Yao Dai approached, clutching her chest through the agonizing pain. Her smile was malicious, devoid of the slightest guilt, the dried blood at the corner of her lips accentuating the porcelain paleness of her skin.
“As for you, your so-called kindness in sparing me was only because you were stupid. You were far too merciful. Dying by my hands can be considered helping you reach your next life that much sooner.”
She extended her hand, and the blood vines wrapped around the young man’s abdomen plunged in, tearing open the area around his dantian by brute force.
“Ah!” The young man blacked out from the sheer pain.
Using the secret technique Wen Li had taught her, Yao Dai gouged out the spiritual root from his dantian. After pasting talismans at the cave entrance to erect a barrier and leaving the blood vines to stand guard, she finally carved a bloody slit across her own abdomen and fused the new spiritual root into herself.
“Ngh!”
Cold sweat beaded on Yao Dai’s brow and her lips were pale from the pain, yet she no longer cried out in agony as she used to. She was now capable of enduring this suffering all on her own.
Collapsing to the ground, her consciousness on the verge of being swallowed by the heart-rending pain, her vision blurred. In her daze, she seemed to see someone gently reaching out a hand toward her.
Yao Dai, who hadn’t shed a single tear even during the moment of life and death earlier, could not stop warmth from welling in her eyes. Pouting her lips, an aggrieved look washed over her face.
“M... Master...”
Her fingertips reached out toward that phantom illusion, tears at the corners of her eyes dissolving into her heart along with a fragile, faint smile.
...
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