Joining the Joyful Union Sect, My Life in the Grip of My Senior Sister

Chapter 136: The Root of Everything

However, Huang Long remained calm and sneered, “Everything requires evidence. Without evidence, don’t talk nonsense here.”

Seeing his defiant attitude, Lin Fengmian became slightly angry.

He stepped forward with his sword and coldly said, “I guess I’ll have to give you a taste of torture before you confess.”

But at that moment, Liu Mei grabbed his hand and giggled, “Why make things so complicated? Leave it to this sister.”

She took a few graceful steps forward, leaned down and exhaled a pink mist at Huang Long, then smiled sweetly, “Daoist, do you think I’m pretty?”

Huang Long hurriedly held his breath, but the mist seemed to seep through every pore. He couldn’t help but be affected.

He accidentally made eye contact with Liu Mei and felt as if there were stars and oceans in her eyes, pulling him in.

He immediately sensed that something was wrong and tried to concentrate and resist, but all of his spiritual energy was bound by the Spirit Binding Rope. After a moment of struggle, he succumbed.

“Pretty…”

Liu Mei smiled and said, “Good boy. If we ask you something, just answer us.”

Huang Long nodded dazedly. Liu Mei turned around with a smile, “All done. Ask whatever you want.”

Lin Fengmian couldn’t help but admire Liu Mei’s bizarre enchantment technique; it was truly infallible.

However, Luo Xue commented strangely, “This Liu Mei has such powerful soul power, but she seems to need this mist to work.”

Lin Fengmian secretly thought that it was lucky that Liu Mei hadn’t used this technique on him before, otherwise he would have lost everything.

What he didn’t know was that Liu Mei had already used it on him, but he had been saved by the Fish Pendant.

Without hesitation, Lin Fengmian asked Huang Long, “Did you give the Demon Core to Zhao Yazhi?”

Huang Long nodded obediently, “Yes, I did!”

Under Lin Fengmian’s questioning, Huang Long told the whole story.

Due to his limited talent, he was unable to break through to the Core Formation realm. He had only been able to form a fake core by using some dubious methods, which left him feeling very frustrated.

Therefore, he had spent years traveling and searching for ways to break through. A few years ago, he had obtained a cultivation technique for demon practitioners that he treasured.

Six months ago, he came to Tai Xu Temple to study this demon cultivation method in depth, but he had a hard time finding demon practitioners with demon cores to extract.

However, fate was unpredictable. Three months ago, two powerful demon auras clashed outside of Ning City.

After the battle, he rushed to the scene and found a teenage fox demon in the remains of the battlefield.

The little fox demon was obviously badly injured, and when she encountered him, she fled. He pursued her relentlessly.

The fox demon knew his ultimate goal. In her severely wounded state, she spat out her demon soul to attract his attention, and then she fled.

Huang Long obtained the Demon Core he had long coveted, but he discovered that this Demon Core was different from the one described in the records, and seemed even more mystical.

According to the records, this Demon Core could not be used directly and had to be contaminated with human blood qi.

He also feared retaliation from righteous cultivators and the fox demon, so he found a person with spiritual roots to cultivate the demon core for him.

After considering his options, he finally chose Zhao Yazhi, who had a distinguished background and an arrogant disposition.

At that time, Zhao Yazhi was unhappy about being rejected by the Joyful Union sect because of her poor spiritual roots, and she was jealous that Lin Fengmian could cultivate while she could not.

She was easily fooled by Huang Long’s eloquent and charismatic persuasion and soon fell for it, swallowing the so-called immortal pill.

He chose Zhao Yazhi because he found her easy to control, and since she was not closely related to him, he could distance himself if anything went wrong.

As the daughter of the city lord, Zhao Yazhi was well informed about the city’s movements and was responsible for the city’s security, making her the perfect mole.

Later, Zhao Yazhi was influenced by the demonic aura within the Demon Core and killed several people in the city. He helped clean up the mess she left behind.

At first, Zhao Yazhi was angry, but under his persuasion, she began to believe that she was different from ordinary people.

She was destined to become an immortal, and these commoners were no different from cattle.

Her lack of empathy and coldness surprised Huang Long, but it suited his purposes even more.

Zhao Yazhi began to slaughter ordinary people in the city without restraint, and he followed behind to help clean up the mess.

Since the refinement of the demon core was not an instantaneous process, but required gradual contamination with human blood qi, otherwise Zhao Yazhi would have been able to kill enough people in one go.

Three months passed, and he never forgot to search for the fox demon who had lost her demon core, but he could not find her.

The other demons who had fought the fox demon did not appear either, and everything went smoothly except for the demon hunters.

Those demon slayers died at his hands, and he gave their blood qi to Zhao Yazhi to refine the demon core.

But after killing the Celestial Master from the Astronomical Bureau, he feared attracting more trouble and decided to take matters into his own hands.

After that, Zhao Yazhi also laid low and stopped killing, which prevented Zhao Yucheng from reporting to the imperial court.

Everything should have gone smoothly, and once the Demon Core was refined, he would kill Zhao Yazhi to obtain it and consume it himself.

However, at this critical juncture, Lin Fengmian returned.

After Zhao Yucheng rejected her, Zhao Yazhi sought Huang Long’s help, crying and begging to end her engagement to Lin Fengmian.

To appease her, Huang Long reluctantly accepted her as a disciple and sent Lu Xun to break off the engagement.

But things took an unexpected turn, and Zhao Yazhi was humiliated. Unable to vent her frustration, she killed someone that night.

By the time Huang Long found out, it was too late. He could only advise her to be more discreet, and then pretended to be angry and returned to Tai Xu Temple to enter a closed retreat.

After gathering information about Lin Fengmian and the others, Huang Long became even more worried about being exposed and instructed Zhao Yazhi to be cautious and quickly refine the Demon Core for herself.

Lin Fengmian and the others suspected as much, but they discovered Lu Xun’s misdeeds that he had not anticipated.

With the Demon Core almost refined, to avoid arousing Lin Fengmian’s suspicion, he let himself be captured and feigned innocence.

The punishment would not be severe, at most a month or two in prison.

As long as Zhao Yazhi did not expose herself and successfully refined the Demon Core, he could escape and use his backup plan to kill her, take the Demon Core, and ingest it to become a Demon Cultivator of the Core Formation Realm.

Lin Fengmian listened with a complex expression, and Liu Mei released Master Huang Long from her mental control.

Master Huang Long woke up as if from a dream, remembered what had happened, and soon turned pale.

He fell weakly to the ground and muttered, “No, no… I didn’t mean to kill her, I…”

But Lin Fengmian did not listen to his explanations, and reinstated the restrictions before leaving the hall.

Zhou Xiaoping looked at Lin Fengmian with admiration and said, “Lin Fengmian, just like you said! You’re so amazing!”

Lin Fengmian casually replied, “It’s no big deal, just basic stuff. Anyone with a little intelligence could figure it out.”

The few people present felt insulted at the same time, and Zhou Xiaoping said unhappily, “You’re insulting me!”

Lin Fengmian laughed and said, “How could I? Xiaoping, seeing you actually made me realize that one proverb is wrong.”

“What proverb?” Zhou Xiaoping asked curiously.