Chapter 1021: That’s a Good Boy
As the dao lineament in Xu Qing’s right eye glittered, he looked off into the distance and coolly said, “If we want to know what treasures or other secrets Feng Lintao has, we can just ask him. And if he doesn’t provide the answer, we can ask Lan Yao and Yue Dong.”
Erniu chuckled darkly, and his eyes gleamed with anticipation. He and Xu Qing accelerated, maintaining the concealment of invisibility as they raced through the canopy of heaven.
***
A few more days went by.
During that time, the middle-aged cultivator who had captured Feng Lintao proceeded with utmost caution. He constantly shifted directions as he traveled, and he kept a close eye on his surroundings. Eventually, in a small random city somewhere, he handed Feng Lintao over to an unremarkable-looking old man. Then he flew away, and the fate threads that had formed the face of Yue Dong disappeared. His fate went back to normal, and he permanently forgot everything that had just happened.
As for the old man, he left the small city and continued the journey that had been started by the other cultivator. The same thing happened about five times over the following two weeks.
Every time Feng Lintao was handed over, a different person would take over and continue on the journey. There were different species involved. Sometimes it was a human, sometimes it was a Firemoon Darkheaven.
In that manner, all traces of passage were wiped out, and the karma with any pursuers was severed.
However, Erniu’s Grand Five Ox Essence-Tracing Grand Merciless Dao had been created by a god during one of Erniu’s past lives. It could even lock down onto the personhood of an Imperial Sovereign. Therefore, it didn’t matter how many times Yue Dong switched agents, in the end, Erniu was always able to keep track of Feng Lintao. Yue Dong never interfered, and they were able to track the target the entire time.
Eventually, Xu Qing and Erniu caught up with Feng Lintao and personally witnessed the strange handover procedure. At that point, Erniu’s pupils constricted, and Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed.
“Little Ah Qing, these people... are very unusual. There’s no way they’re Devilbird spies, right?”
Erniu had no authority to tap into. Although his essence-tracing ability was able to lock onto Feng Lintao’s fate threads, he wasn’t able to see how Yue Dong meddled with the emotions of the agents she was using, and he had no way to see their fate.
But Xu Qing could see such things clearly. The dao lineament in his right eye flickered as he looked at what was happening. After a moment, he came to a realization.
“Eldest Brother, the fate threads attached to those people are actually clumped together to form the face of Yue Dong....”
Upon hearing that, Erniu’s eyes shone. “Fate threads that form a face.... We’re obviously dealing with some sort of puppetry magic. Wait, could it be that Yue Dong is actually controlling Lan Yao?”
Xu Qing thought back to everything that happened with Yue Dong and Lan Yao when dealing with that golden rat. Although that alone wasn’t enough to prove anything, he definitely remembered how much Yue Dong had hated Feng Lintao.
“Let’s wait until the fish is fully hooked,” Xu Qing said. “Then we can see if Lan Yao has a similar face in her fate threads. Then we’ll know what's really going on.”
And thus, the two of them continued to follow the various cultivators that were traveling with Feng Lintao.
Eventually, snowflakes appeared in the sky. Looking down from above, it was possible to see the dark soil slowly being covered with white. The further one went north, the more ice and snow there was.
The person currently transporting Feng Lintao was a beautiful, middle-aged woman. She was obviously an important person in the area, as she was able to travel freely and without any obstructions.
Although this area was technically controlled by the Firemoon Darkheavens, it was very close to the border with the north of Revered Ancient. The territory controlled by the Firemoons was like a long, thin strip, with the top part bordering the north, and the bottom part connecting to Fardark County. Therefore, from the current position, it wasn’t necessary to rely on teleportation to reach the north of Revered Ancient.
As the beautiful woman moved onward, she eventually accelerated a bit. Apparently, she was very close to her destination. And that meant that the fishing expedition would soon conclude.
Three days later, the beautiful woman landed on top of a snow-covered mountain. There, she dropped to her knees and touched her head to the ground. She didn’t speak a word.
Feng Lintao’s eyes were shut tight, making him look like a corpse. In fact, the woman had set him down to the side, and he wasn’t moving at all. Silence prevailed for a time, with the only sound being the wind. Snowflakes drifted along.
Eventually... a person appeared within the snow and the wind. It was a woman.
She was graceful, with a skirt decorated with the image of a starry sky. Her facial features were as lovely as a hibiscus flower, and she had long, black hair that flowed down her back like a waterfall, drifting back and forth as she walked, and slowly interweaving with the falling snow. Her slender waist was particularly eye-catching. It was as lithe as a willow branchlet. Her long legs were barely visible through the flowing skirt, but that only made her more tempting to look at.
She was none other than Lan Yao! She had both the daintiness of a youth and the charm of a mature woman. Those elements mixed together to make her alluring in a way that could shake the soul. She also had a pair of snow-white wings behind her that added something holy to her.
Emerging from the snow and wind, she alighted on the mountain in front of the middle-aged woman.
“Well met, Fellow Daoist Lan,” the woman said respectfully. “I have accomplished the task you and Miss Yue Dong assigned to me, and have brought the heaven-damned Feng Lintao here with me.”
Lan Yao nodded. She looked at the unconscious Feng Lintao, and her beautiful eyes gleamed with hatred. She waved a jade-like finger.
Feng Lintao shivered and opened his eyes. He looked confused. It almost seemed as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. However, the reality was that his mind was already spinning as he analyzed the situation and tried to come up with plans to escape. The blank look in his eyes was a facade.
Unfortunately for him, Lan Yao knew him all too well. Before he could say a word, she waved her hand, and Feng Lintao’s face distorted. A scream escaped his lips. Blue veins bulged out on his face and neck. He even started trembling, as if... his soul were being ripped out of him!
“Lan Yao, wake up!” Feng Lintao howled. “Haven’t you noticed that your personality has changed since you and I first met? During this time in which the two of you were chasing me, I thought long and hard about the past, and I came to realize... that something is off about Yue Dong! Lan Yao... you....”
Lan Yao wasn’t moved by his words. She just kept her right hand extended as she extracted his soul. Feng Lintao’s eyes shone with despair as afterimages of himself popped up around him. It seemed that his soul really was about to be pulled out of him.
Right in that moment of crisis, just when Feng Lintao was about to run out of strength, he shouted into the sky in a bitter voice.
“Help, Your Majesty! Your Majesty, I know that you approved of the assassination attempt in human territory. You probably wanted to use me as bait.... Your Majesty, Lan Yao and Yue Dong hate my guts! Please, help!”
Lan Yao looked around. Everything remained the same. The wind blew and the snow fell. Nothing changed.
The despair in Feng Lintao’s heart grew stronger. In reality, he had no idea if the human empress was around. However, during his travels... his ruminations had left him with the increasingly strong suspicion that the humans were using him as bait.
Feng Lintao felt like his soul was about to be ripped to shreds. As the anxiety within him increased to a fever pitch, he decided to throw caution to the wind.
“I have the legacy of the Fardark holy ancestor!! That’s the legacy of a Quasi-Immortal Grand Emperor! Back in the day, the Fardark holy ancestor was just on the verge of becoming a Summer Immortal! Your Majesty, my legacy is what Lan Yao and Yue Dong are after. I’m willing to give it to humankind! It could be very useful to your species!!”
There was no response. The wind and snow grew stronger.
Slowly, Feng Lintao’s soul was being extracted by Lan Yao. When it was in her hand, his fleshly body crumbled into ashes, which were carried away by the wind.
Feng Lintao in soul form trembled as Lan Yao’s hand clenched down onto him. In his despair, he shrieked, “Wake up, Lan Yao! You’re being controlled by Yue Dong! Lan Yao!!!”
However, there was more to the shriek than met the eye. Ignoring the risk of damaging his soul, he used that shriek to unleash a secret magic that formed a soul spike. The spike shot with incredible speed into Lan Yao’s forehead.
That soul spike attack had a name. It was the Fardark Soulstirring Technique! When used, the person who was struck would find their soul devolving into chaos, to the point where they couldn’t control it. All of a sudden, Lan Yao shivered from head to toe. Her eyes became blank, and the hand with which she held Feng Lintao loosened.
In the blink of an eye, Feng Lintao’s soul shot backward. The reality was that Feng Lintao would have loved for the humans to show up and interfere. But even if they didn’t, calling out to them was a tactic to escape from this deadly situation. And he had been hiding that soul spike move the entire time, to use at just the right moment to catch his enemy off guard.
Yet even as Feng Lintao’s soul began to speed away, Lan Yao’s eyes turned bloodshot. Looking up, she glared at him and spoke for the first time since she showed up on the mountain.
“Looking to die!?”
The moment the words left her mouth, her heart instantly filled with deep regret. Before coming here, Yue Dong had issued strict orders that she not speak. She wasn’t supposed to say even one thing. At first, she had obeyed completely. However, Feng Lintao’s soul spike had proved very effective, and the disturbance to her soul caused her fate threads to blur. In her moment of laxness, she had spoken those three words.
However, now wasn’t the time to ruminate on what she had done. Reaching out, she prepared to grab Feng Lintao.
Unfortunately, that was when a cool voice echoed out from the horizon.
“You finally spoke.”
The words became like an explosive sound wave, a tempest that converged on Lan Yao. Her face fell as a familiar figure walked out of the tempest.
He had a long robe, flowing hair, and beautiful facial features that formed the perfect contrast to the wind and the snow. He was none other than Xu Qing.
The moment Lan Yao saw Xu Qing, she took decisive action. She closed her eyes, whereupon her fleshly body withered up. In the shortest of moments, she collapsed into ashes! As it turned out, she was nothing but a clone! The moment the clone self-destructed, a storm wind blew through the area.
Xu Qing’s facial expression didn’t change. He had taken note of how Lan Yao didn’t speak, and that tipped him off that something strange was going on. It seemed obvious that the enemy had intelligence reports about him, and were aware that they should avoid making sound around him. That was why he hadn’t shown himself earlier. It was only when Lan Yao spoke that he stepped out into the open.
Although the enemy was only a clone, and her words had already dissipated, Xu Qing had heard enough of her voice... that her true form wouldn’t be able to escape him now. He looked up, sent out his god perception, and then unleashed his godly authority of sound. He used her words, the wind, the surrounding living beings, and all sound in the area... to track her down!
Feng Lintao had already fled over the horizon. But now, his face fell before he quickly flashed a fawning expression. Turning to the side, he said, “Is that you, Fellow Daoist Erniu? I guessed early on that you were using me for a fishing expedition. That’s why I was so cooperative. That’s why I held nothing back, even going so far as to die multiple times, all for the purpose of making sure you people were able to hook your fish....”
The air rippled and distorted as Erniu stepped out into the open in front of Feng Lintao. Smiling enigmatically, he said, “That’s a good boy!”