Yin Fengcong cast a cold glance at Wen Li, clearly displeased that they had made a move; after all, that cultivator was his nutrient now. Fortunately, the man was not dead yet. With a wave of his hand, Yin Fengcong hurled all the remaining cultivators into the fifty-meter attack range, then stood at a distance to cut off any escape, leaving them to their fate.
“Master, he poisoned me.”
Terrified that she might later be used as a bargaining chip and become Wen Li’s weakness, Yao Dai immediately lodged a complaint the instant she threw her arms around her.
Hearing this, Wen Li knitted her brows and raised a hand to take her pulse.
Xie Tinglan lowered his eyes and kept his mouth shut.
“There is indeed a toxin. Fortunately, it isn’t as potent as the other toxin already in your body, so it’s been suppressed. For now, you’re in no danger.”
“Another toxin?” Yao Dai’s voice rose an octave. “But they only gave me a single pill! When was I poisoned with something else?”
Xie Tinglan turned his head to stare at the sky, not uttering a word.
Fortunately, both Wen Li and Yao Dai were used to his aloof, taciturn nature and didn’t pay it any mind.
Wen Li patted Yao Dai’s head. “I cannot identify that toxin, but it hasn’t flared up either; it’s merely lying dormant in your body. In a way, you could consider this a blessing in disguise. But that isn’t the most important matter right now.”
Yao Dai knitted her brows, looking toward the gruesome scene of the disciples being slaughtered by the blood vines. “Master, that man is Early-Stage Nascent Soul. We...”
“Do you trust me?”
Ignoring her worries, Wen Li looked down into her eyes, her cool, indifferent gaze exceptionally earnest.
“...”
Meeting those eyes, Yao Dai felt a tremor in her heart. She did not understand, but she nodded nonetheless.
“I do!”
She did not breathe a word about Wen Li using her as bait earlier. As far as she was concerned, her master had a reason for everything she did, and she was always right. What was wrong with being bait anyway? Wasn't she standing safe and sound right in front of her master now?
Besides, they had successfully located the Soul-Severing White Mi Fruit, proving she was still useful and helpful to her master. The fruit was being sought for her sake to begin with; if she could not contribute through cultivation power, contributing as bait was just as good.
Little did she realize that this would spark a grand tradition among Wen Li’s disciples of taking turns serving as bait.
A path from which there was no looking back.
...
“Ah! Master, why?!”
Cold sweat mingled with tears on Yao Dai’s pale face. She looked down in horror at her abdomen, where a gaping hole had been torn open.
Wen Li’s hand protruded straight through it.
“I told you before: trust no one.”
Expressionlessly, Wen Li withdrew her hand—along with Yao Dai’s spiritual root!
Then, with a strike of her palm, she sent Yao Dai flying directly into the blood vines’ fifty-meter attack range.
Without her spiritual root, Yao Dai’s cultivation dissipated entirely. Catching the scent of fresh blood, countless blood vines lunged toward her in a frantic scramble. Flying over after watching the last cultivator die by the vines, Yin Fengcong wore an inscrutable expression.
He had witnessed with his own eyes Wen Li destroying her disciple’s spiritual root.
What was she doing?
Seeing him approach, Wen Li didn't say a word, taking flight alongside Xie Tinglan to strike.
“What are you doing? Didn't you want to cooperate? Do you really think the two of you combined can deal with me?”
Yin Fengcong sneered, pinching hand seals. In front of him, pentagonal shields gathered like a honeycomb, and with a wave of his arms, they surged rapidly toward the two.
Wen Li said, “Forget cooperation. Your heart is quite black as well—you specialize in killing your own allies, don’t you?”
He was Early-Stage Nascent Soul; Wen Li and Xie Tinglan brought out one hundred percent of their power to face him.
Xie Tinglan offered a rare provocation. “Whether we can deal with you or not, you'll know once you try.”
One drew a blade, while the other shifted into his true form.
Roar-hiss!
Wen Li stood atop the head of the giant serpent, which spanned over a dozen meters with glistening black scales. “Hold On!”
The two attacked together. A sword beam engulfed in silent flames swooped downward like a dragon, barreling toward the pentagonal shields.
Yin Fengcong's eyes narrowed slightly, a mocking smirk on his lips. “Heh, turns out you're an ancient great demon. Pity you're a mere Late-Stage Golden Core and only in your juvenile phase. If you submit to me as my mount, I might spare your life.”
Xie Tinglan loathed being treated as an object above all else. His crimson vertical pupils chilled, the scale spines across his body bristling as he let out a furious roar.
“Roar!” Die!
He spewed forth another wall of fire, surging relentlessly toward Yin Fengcong.
Unfortunately.
Nascent Soul was Nascent Soul.
With a mere flick of Yin Fengcong’s right hand, the pentagonal shields met the full-force strike of Wen Li and Xie Tinglan, pulverizing it bit by bit into tiny fragments.
Bang!
In the end, the attack collapsed entirely. The tremendous shockwave sent Wen Li and Xie Tinglan flying backward.
Mid-air, the two were forced to conjure protective shields, but the overwhelming spiritual power crushed them in an instant.
Pfft! Xie Tinglan was battered straight back into his four-year-old form, vomiting a mouthful of blood.
Wen Li, whose cultivation was even lower, suffered shattered meridians throughout her body. Tiny streaks of blood ruptured across her face from the shockwaves, and fresh blood poured from her mouth as if it cost nothing, dyeing her azure robes into a shroud of crimson.
In the end, both slammed violently against a cliffside.
Boom!
Boom!
Dust and smoke billowed in all directions as pulverized boulders broke away from the cliff and rained down dozens of meters to the ground, the gray haze lingering in the air.
Just as Yin Fengcong prepared to fly over and inspect them, a voice caught his attention.
“Master!”
That voice...
Yin Fengcong frowned and glanced back down. To his utter disbelief, Yao Dai—who had had her spiritual root gouged out by Wen Li and was supposed to have been swallowed by the blood vines—was standing alive on the ground, right beneath the Soul-Severing White Mi Tree!
Within ten meters of it!
Wasn't she dead? How could she have evaded the blood vines' attacks?!
Yin Fengcong paid Wen Li and Xie Tinglan no further heed. With his barrier sealing this space and the two so grievously wounded, there was no way they could flee. He flew down, landing fifty meters from the Soul-Severing White Mi Tree.
Seeing that Yao Dai truly did have a hole in her abdomen, he could sense that her cultivation was utterly destroyed and her spiritual root dug out. Her face was ashen, drained of all color, undeniably a complete cripple.
Yet she had managed to drag her dying breath across the ground, crawling step by step toward the Soul-Severing White Mi Tree on hands and knees. Judging by the wretched trail of blood and mud smeared across the earth, she had crawled from fifty meters out all the way to within ten meters!
What was more, the blood vines were merely circling her, not attacking. They hovered tentatively, as if unable to lock onto her.
How could Yin Fengcong not understand by now?
“Hahaha!” He threw his head back and laughed loudly. “Magnificent! In over a thousand years of cultivation, this is the first time I have ever been played for a fool like this! And by a mere Foundation Establishment ant, no less! Hahaha, I almost don't want to kill you now. I shall keep you to serve as my artifact soul—someone this clever ought to be used by me!”
Wen Li’s little drama of turning against her disciple and digging out her spiritual root had been purely for his benefit, designed to divert his attention and buy her disciple the chance to enter the blood vines’ domain!
“Old bastard... you haven't even seen what my master is truly capable of,” Yao Dai sneered weakly, drenched in sweat from agonizing pain.
“You want to make my master an artifact soul? You aren't even worthy of carrying her shoes! My master's cultivation may not be high, but she can run circles around every single one of you who entered this trial realm... especially a Nascent Soul cultivator like you. You've lived for a thousand years... entirely in vain...”
Yin Fengcong’s eyes turned vicious. “Wretched brat, do you think I can't kill you just because you went inside? You have no cultivation, and that Soul-Severing White Mi Fruit isn't ripe. You will only be trapped to death in there! Your master lied to you; you are nothing more than an abandoned piece used to test the blood vines, no different from the other cultivators!”
“The poison you gave me can't kill me. If Master says I won't die, then I won't. And before she left, Master left a word for you.” Yao Dai scoffed, her pale little face radiant with absolute, godlike faith in Wen Li.
“You’ve seen the solution. Do you dare follow suit?”
In the young woman’s tender features, there even lingered a trace of Wen Li’s calm, unruffled composure.
Rate on N.U.
