Chapter 200: Conspiracy and Revenge

Ruan Xing was startled and subconsciously reached out to push him away, causing a ripple to stir in the air.

Her heart trembled, as if she had grasped something ethereal and elusive.

That feeling was just like... that night in the Six Suns Study, when she controlled hundreds of Puppets at once, plucking the invisible threads upon them.

But—

Qintai He was a person; he was not a Puppet.

Why did she have such an illusion? Ruan Xing asked herself with some suspicion in her heart.

After being pushed away, Qintai He hit the wall and fell to the ground with a heavy thud; he seemed not to feel the pain and wanted to pounce over again.

Cang Lin, who was outside, heard the noise and hurriedly opened the door to enter.

Seeing the scene before him, he was extremely shocked and blurted out, "How could this be? Wasn't it said to be a fake seclusion? The Young Master has not broken through to the Nascent Soul stage, so how could he suddenly suffer from Qi deviation!"

"Need you ask? It must be that there is a problem with the things sent by the Clan Leader," Ruan Xing said.

It was just that she did not yet know exactly which part was the problem.

"Now the Young Master is left all alone, yet they still refuse to let him go!" Cang Lin cursed with hatred, then immediately acted to activate the Isolation Array in this small courtyard to prevent others from knowing the situation inside.

Cang Lin turned to Ruan Xing and said, "Please help me temporarily restrain the Young Master; the fact that he has suffered from Qi deviation must absolutely not be known within the clan."

He flew forward to intercept the pouncing Qintai He; without using any Dharma Artifact, he used his hands to press down on Qintai He's shoulders with extreme speed, flipped over him, and used his other arm to clamp Qintai He's chin, restraining him tightly.

Ruan Xing also walked over quickly, took out a few Calming Pills, and stuffed them into Qintai He's mouth.

She pointed at the Meridian points on his collarbone and chest, using her own Spiritual Power to help Qintai He sort out the medicinal efficacy.

Yet a quarter of an hour passed, and Qintai He still showed no signs of improvement.

He seemed to have completely lost his reason.

"The Pill is not working," Ruan Xing frowned and said.

If it were only an external factor triggering his Spiritual Power to become chaotic and cause Qi deviation, the Calming Pill would have been enough to handle it and make him calm down.

"Then please think of another way," Cang Lin said, sweat dripping from his forehead as he gritted his teeth and pleaded.

Ruan Xing also wanted to rule out the problematic parts on Qintai He, so she said in a deep voice, "Otherwise, we must first injure him so he cannot resist; with him struggling like this, I really have no way to examine him in detail."

"No!" Cang Lin hurriedly shook his head. "I have already opened the Isolation Array; although we cannot let others know what happened inside for now, when the Clan Leader comes to ask, we must provide a reasonable explanation. If the Young Master's demonic possession is discovered, the best outcome is being suppressed in a place of extreme evil never to see the light of day, and the worst is being purged from the sect. The Young Master cannot be injured; he must recover to normal as soon as possible to survive this danger!"

To make the irrational Qintai He stay still, one would have to beat him until he was half-crippled or unconscious.

At that point, it would definitely be visible on the surface.

The few mouthfuls of blood he spat out and the minor injuries he sustained just now were only slight; taking a few more Healing Pills to dissolve the medicinal power would allow him to recover in one night.

Cang Lin did not agree with Ruan Xing's proposal; she even thought about ending the Simulation and starting over, and next time, she would isolate everything sent by the clan to see if he would still suffer from Qi deviation.

However, thinking of the anomaly she sensed in her Divine Soul just now, Ruan Xing was a bit suspicious that it was not an illusion.

Should she try it?

Ruan Xing hesitated for a long while, then suddenly pursed her lips and gently grasped with her fingers, attempting to find that invisible thread on Qintai He.

In an instant, a wisp of her Divine Sense intertwined with her Divine Ability, merging with her fingertips, and touched an extremely flexible thin thread.

The moment she touched it, the only thought in her mind was to make Qintai He stop.

Qintai He rolled his eyes, his body stiffened and trembled, and then he fainted in Cang Lin's arms.

Cang Lin breathed a sigh of relief and said gratefully, "Many thanks, Immortal."

There was a hint of respect in his tone.

Rubbing her fingertips and feeling the lingering sensation, Ruan Xing only felt that everything that had happened was somewhat surreal.

How did she do it? Controlling a Puppet through a Divine Ability was one thing, but how could she control a living person now...

Although she had only plucked that invisible thin thread for less than a second, she could be certain that the string was related to Qintai He, and Qintai He's fainting was absolutely caused by her previous action.

It was just that now was not the time to study these things.

Ruan Xing said silently, "It's not over yet; we need to see what caused it. You first take off all the Dharma robes and Dharma Artifacts on him to test them. When he wakes up later, if he still has his own consciousness, ask him about the specific details of his seclusion today. Although I was also in the room, I failed to observe in detail what exactly happened just now."

"Alright." Cang Lin nodded in cooperation, helped Qintai He to the bed in the next room to lie down, took off his clothes, accessories, Storage Bag, and other items, and brought them back into the quiet room.

"Immortal, please take a look; these are all the items."

Apart from having a cultivation base, Cang Lin was almost ignorant in all other areas.

As a protector, he spent all his time outside of cultivation secretly guarding his master or doing things according to his master's instructions.

The clan would not invest in them to learn other auxiliary skills.

Ruan Xing actually did not have any good examination methods, but she knew that Qintai He had problems while cultivating just now.

She took these items in her hands and ran her cultivation technique to practice.

Qintai He's Storage Bag could not be opened for the time being; if she finished checking the things outside and there were still no problems, then it would confirm that the problem lay with the items inside the Storage Bag.

If she were also controlled, she would just end the Simulation.

Just like that, she touched them one by one, while Cang Lin watched eagerly from the side.

Suddenly, when touching a ring-shaped Jade, Ruan Xing felt a surge of irritable emotion rising in her heart.

The desire for slaughter churned in her eyes.

Kill... kill all those who stood in the way! Even the Nascent Soul figure in her dantian was stained with a faint red color.

The Nascent Soul figure opened its eyes and let out a silent, long cry.

Clatter—

The Jade fell to the ground. The Jade, shattered into two halves, emitted a wisp of black smoke. Ruan Xing hurriedly called out, "Sword, come!"

A pure white figure appeared in mid-air, wrapping the black smoke with Yin energy around itself and beginning to refine it slowly.

The pale red in Ruan Xing's eyes quickly faded. Cang Lin looked at her with some worry, "Are you alright?"

Ruan Xing shook her head and smiled, "I'm fine."

Unexpectedly, hidden within this Psychic Jade was a Residual Soul of the Transformation Stage! And it was a Residual Soul of a Demon Cultivator who followed the path of slaughter!

However, its soul was in a fragmented state, retaining only pure slaughter and demonic nature, with almost no consciousness remaining from its time as a Cultivator.

Originally, it would have been most appropriate to capture it with a Ten Thousand Soul Banner, but since she had already given the Ten Thousand Soul Banner to Cui Yurong, she could only let Sword Lai refine it now; Sword Lai's soul was wrapped and protected by his Puppet essence, so it would not be contaminated, and his Yin energy happened to be adept at dealing with souls—although the refining time would be a bit long, it was still a viable solution.

Presumably, just when Qintai He was cultivating earlier, this Residual Soul had quietly emerged and entered his body; caught off guard, his state of mind was contaminated by the Residual Soul, and the Residual Soul's instinct to attempt Possession caused Qintai He to suffer a Qi deviation.

Just now, that Residual Soul had also wanted to enter Ruan Xing's dantian to devour her Nascent Soul and attempt Possession, but unfortunately, Ruan Xing's Nascent Soul was not ordinary; her Divine Soul was already perfectly integrated and had incorporated a Divine Ability, so the power of her Divine Soul did not fear Possession.

That was why the Nascent Soul figure had driven the Residual Soul out and shattered the Jade that had been housing it.

Sword Lai returned to the Invisibility Channel to refine the Residual Soul, and Ruan Xing said to Cang Lin, "This thing has been dealt with; now let's go back and see how the Senior Brother is doing."

The two turned and went into the room next door, where Qintai He lay on the bed with his brows tightly furrowed, still breathing in a somewhat labored manner in his sleep.

Ruan Xing had spent half an hour in the quiet room checking items and subduing the black smoke, yet Qintai He had slept quite peacefully.

She pressed her fingers together and cast a ray of spiritual light; a bone-chilling cold spread across Qintai He's brow, and he sat up instantly with a start.

"Young Master, you're awake!" Cang Lin said excitedly, "That's great, Young Master, you look like you've returned to normal."

Qintai He hissed, touched his ice-cold brow, and looked somewhat dazed: "What happened to me?"

After speaking, he felt the lingering taste of blood in his mouth, and looking down, he saw that his clothes were covered in bloodstains.

"I... I just suffered a Qi deviation!?" Qintai He's expression changed as he recalled the blurred memories from when he lost consciousness.

"Yes, you suffered a Qi deviation and almost killed Cang Lin." Ruan Xing said while tossing the two broken Jade fragments to him, "This is the cause of your Qi deviation; I have already dealt with it."

"Thank you, Sister, for saving me again!" Qintai He was deeply moved, then turned his head guiltily to look at Cang Lin, "I'm sorry..."

Cang Lin lowered his head and turned his body to block the view, "As long as the Young Master is safe and sound, that is all that matters."

When he had restrained Qintai He earlier, he had not used any Dharma Artifacts in order not to hurt him, and instead, he had sustained some injuries on his body caused by Qintai He's struggle.

"We are all our own people, so there is no need to say words of thanks; you first take a look, what is the origin of this piece of Jade?" Ruan Xing urged.

Qintai He pieced the two Jade fragments together to look at them, then said firmly: "This is the Psychic Jade the Clan Leader gave me a few days ago; it is said to have the effect of calming the mind and stabilizing the Divine Soul, so I carried it with me while cultivating. I never expected that the Clan Leader would actually want to kill me..."

His expression was somewhat sorrowful.

His grandmother's dying wish was for him not to seek revenge.

Yet the other party refused to let him go.

Being weak is an original sin; if he had no strength and did not seek revenge, others would only treat him as a coward and a weakling who was easy to bully, rather than sparing a spark for his branch out of consideration for the Qintai Family bloodline he carried.

Ruan Xing herself had always believed in repaying grievances with vengeance and acting when things arose; if she couldn't win, then a woman's revenge was never too late even after three years.

Once her strength increased, the first thing she would do was to reclaim the face she had lost back then.

Perhaps the current Qintai He did not yet have the strength for revenge, but considering Qintai He's unwavering attitude toward her over these years, saving his life was the principal, and helping him get revenge would just be the interest.

She had received quite a bit of help from Qintai He over these years; she had received tens of thousands of Spirit Stones alone, and Qintai He had even told her the secret recipe for raising fish in his family without holding anything back.

First, she had to ask for Qintai He's wishes, and second, she had to test the strength of that Clan Leader.

According to the tacit rule that whoever advanced to the Transformation Stage first would become the Clan Leader, Qintai He's grandfather had died from a Qi deviation over thirty years ago while breaking through to the Transformation Stage, and the current Clan Leader had only taken office a few years later, which proved that not much time had passed since he broke through to the Transformation Stage.

According to the normal cultivation speed of a Cultivator, he was ninety-nine percent likely still in the Transformation Initial Stage.

Ruan Xing's mind was perfectly integrated, and she was only one step away from breaking through to the Transformation Stage; she was already a quasi-Transformation Daojun, and in terms of overall strength, she still had a chance to fight that Clan Leader.

"Then are you still going to listen to your grandmother and continue to suffer in silence?" Ruan Xing asked.

Qintai He clenched his fists, and after a long while, he smiled bitterly: "Do I have a choice? Even now, my life is in his hands with a single thought. If he asks me tomorrow why I suddenly activated the Isolation Array in the middle of the night and my answer doesn't satisfy him, I might not even have the chance to return to the Central Province to see my master."

"Then what do you want to do now?"

Qintai He glanced at Cang Lin and whispered: "While they don't yet know that I have overcome the crisis of the Qi deviation, let's leave Xizhou now. Cang Lin will come with us back to the Xuanbing Sect. After I advance to the Transformation Stage, whether it is my grandfather's revenge, my own revenge, or my father's remains left outside, I will reclaim them one by one!"

His dim eyes erupted with an incomparably firm will, mixed with a trace of grief and anger.

"If you run away with your tail between your legs now, I'm afraid it will leave you with a heart demon." Ruan Xing sighed, "If I hadn't returned, you would have already died here today. In the future, the fear of death left behind tonight will haunt you forever; can you really cultivate with a focused mind?"

Qintai He was not afraid of death; when no one in the Xuanbing Sect cared about him, he could even have volunteered to die.

But he could not die so miserably, dying at the hands of the enemy who had destroyed his home and left him lonely for half his life.

His fingers had already turned white from gripping so hard, "Then, what should I do?"

"Fight him!" A trace of killing intent leaked into Ruan Xing's tone, "Since he dared to harm you, he must be prepared to die. While he hasn't discovered it yet, we will sneak into his residence tonight; he definitely won't expect us to do this and will absolutely have no precautions."

Qintai He seemed to be shocked by Ruan Xing's words, and he said blankly: "But, he is in the Transformation Stage... and I am only in the Golden Core..."

The Transformation Stage and the Golden Core were not the same gap as between Qi Refining Layer 3 and Qi Refining Layer 5.

That was an uncrossable chasm.

The mere release of the realm pressure of the Transformation Stage could cost Qintai He half his life.

On this point, Ruan Xing had already experienced it profoundly from Qingyuan Daojun.

"No!" Cang Lin hurriedly advised, "Not to mention whether the three of us can beat the Clan Leader, there is more than one Transformation Stage cultivator in the manor. Although the previous Clan Leader does not have much lifespan left, he can still exert eighty percent of the strength of the Transformation Stage, and there are two other Elders in the clan who are also in the Transformation Stage..."

Finally reached two hundred chapters!

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