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The young woman in black instantly relaxed, then laughed, “Without the Nine Tripod Suppression Barrier Formation, you can’t keep me here.”
She was extremely beautiful, with pearly teeth and fair, clear features. She had a charming smile, and even her voice was sweet and appealing.
Never mind ordinary people; even cultivators who prioritized tempering their hearts would have found her beauty difficult to resist.
Su Yi laughed too. “If there’s no grudge between us, I naturally won’t stop you from leaving. If there is a grudge, you won’t be able to escape, not even if you grow wings.”
The young woman blinked her serene, beautiful eyes, then tittered. “That so? Tell me then, Young Lord Su; is there a grudge between us?”
“Are you the one who hurt the old blind man?” asked Su Yi.
“You mean that Ghost Lantern Sarcophagus Bearer? Yes, I’m the one who hurt him,” she admitted freely.
“Oh,” said Su Yi. He turned over his hand, revealing a gray, crystalline thread. “And is this Soul-Tethering Thread yours?”
She nodded. “It is.”
Kcch!
Su Yi’s fingers closed around the thread, instantly reducing it to ash.
The young woman’s eyebrows knit together, but a moment later, she smiled. “So, Young Lord Su, do you plan to get even on your friend’s behalf?”
“Human life is lived one breath at a time,” said Su Yi. “When you feel pent up, you naturally have to vent. If you obediently make amends, I won’t demand anything excessive.”
“What kind of amends are you looking for?” the young woman asked with great interest.
Su Yi didn’t even pause to think. “Three Yellow Springs Spirit-Condensing Pills.”
The young woman was flabbergasted, and her beautiful eyes widened in disbelief. “Young Lord Su, you… you aren’t joking, are you?”
“I’m not,” said Su Yi.
“Then your demands are outrageous!” The young woman in black scrunched up her nose and muttered, “In the Netherworld, everyone knows how useful those pills are for rebuilding the soul. Even one pill is as precious as a first-rate Spirit Treasure, and here you are, demanding three at once? You sure are greedy!”
Su Yi said calmly, “Compared to what will happen if you’re captured, three pills is nothing at all.”
“That so?” The young woman in black broke into a radiant smile. “Then I’d just love to see whether or not you’re capable of capturing me.”
Her beautiful eyes darted about. She had the features of an enchantress, but the holy bearing of a lady immortal. These contradictory types of beauty were combined into a single person, giving her a unique and distinctive charm.
Su Yi’s gaze was distant as he looked at her calmly. “The Profound Beauty Spirit Bone is a first-rate talent for a soul cultivator, but with your peak Spiritual Incarnation cultivation, it’d be useless even if you used the Classic of Nightmares and Comprehending the Profound’s ninth chapter, the Empty Countenance of the Heart Dream Incantation. You wouldn’t be able to sway my heart in the slightest. If you don’t believe it, you’re welcome to try me.”
The young woman’s graceful figure suddenly stiffened, and her face filled with alarm and bewilderment. Waves coursed through her heart.
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She was indeed astonished.
Su Yi hadn’t just determined her cultivation boundary; he’d even determined the nature of her innate talent, as well as her cultivation technique!
She felt as if all of her secrets were out in plain view, as if she couldn’t hide anything at all.
After a while, she calmed herself and probed, “Young lord Su, how is it that you understand the legacies of the Meng Po Palace in such detail?”
“That’s a secret,” said Su Yi.
“....”
She was truly a bit unsettled, to the point of hesitation.
“What, you’re not willing to admit defeat?” asked Su Yi.
“Of course not,” said the young woman with a soft sigh. “The old blind man you speak of tried to infiltrate the Dark Immortal Grounds and pry into the Meng Po Palace’s secrets. That’s naturally not okay.
“I’ll admit that I hurt him, but a little wound like that nowhere near justifies three Yellow Springs Spirit-Condensing Pills as compensation.” She then looked at Su Yi and extended a single fair, slender finger. “Out of consideration for you, I can give you one pill at most.”
Su Yi shook his head. “I’m not here to debate with you. It has to be three, no more, no fewer.”
The young woman in black was so angry that she laughed. Reading between the lines, he wasn’t at all interested in listening to reason!
This was just too domineering.
This was the young woman’s first time encountering someone who dared extort her, and for a moment, she almost couldn’t suppress the urge to beat him up.
But in the end, she held back.
Over the course of their conversation, she’d discovered numerous suspicious details.
Su Yi was a cultivator of the Azure Continent, but unlike other locals, Su Yi understood Meng Po Palace thoroughly.
He even knew their legacies like the back of his hand. Not even the nature of her innate talent could escape his keen perception.
All of this told her that something strange was going on here.
That was why she didn’t dare do anything reckless.
Otherwise, given her status and abilities, she would have disregarded even a modern Spiritual Revolution Cultivator. She’d even dare teach them a lesson without the slightest politeness!
After giving it a moment’s thought, the young woman said, “How about this? Answer a few of my questions, and I’ll naturally give you three Yellow Springs Spirit-Condensing Pills.”
Su Yi shook his head. “You aren’t qualified to haggle with me.”
He might seem calm, but he was, in truth, utterly overbearing. This left the young woman feeling stifled and angry.
After a while, she said, “Young Lord Su, aren’t you at all worried that Meng Po Palace will target you?”
“The Meng Po Palace ought to be worried about offending me,” he said casually.
“.....”
Before the young woman could respond, he looked up at the gradually darkening skies and furrowed his brow. “Time is precious. I’ll give you three more breaths of time to think it over. After that, you’ll just have to face the consequences.”
The young woman’s bright eyes filled with uncertainty. Suddenly, she gnashed her teeth and said, “Fine, I agree!”
With that, she took a jade battle from her sleeve and poured out three pills.
Each was about the size of a longan, and they were snow-white and crystalline throughout. Faint, silver mist circulated within them, and they emanated a potent and pleasing medicinal fragrance.
These were Yellow Springs Spirit-Condensing Pills!
“Please be careful with them,” said the young woman as she tossed them over, one after another. All three flew toward Su Yi.
For a moment, a hint of a crafty light flashed across her face.
However, Su Yi’s sleeves billowed, and he stretched out his hand. The three pills hovered in front of him.
Then, his fingernails struck quick as lightning, and he tapped on the surface of each of the three pills.
Kcch! Kcch! Kcch!
Ripples of an invisible power shattered on each of the pills, transforming into a faint blue mist and dissipating into nothingness.
Only then did Su Yi put the three pills away.
“You… You….” The young woman found this so hard to believe that she was at a loss for words.
Why? It wasn’t complicated. When she tossed over the pills, she also called upon a secret soul art, “Like a Shadow.” If her opponent lowered his guard and touched the pills directly, his mind would sink into bewilderment, as if he were trapped in a nightmare!
Even a Spiritual Revolution cultivator would have struggled to block an attack like that!
But it seemed that Su Yi had sensed it at a glance! He’d neutralized this secret art with ease!
Of course the young woman in black was surprised. How could she not be?
Su Yi shook his head. “Trying such petty tricks in front of me? Don’t you think you’re being ridiculous?”
The young woman’s beautiful face instantly flushed red with embarrassment, and she glared viciously at him. “Su Yi, just you wait!”
She turned and was just about to leave when Su Yi said, “Stop.”
“I already gave you the pills!” she said in a huff. “What do you want this time?”
“You just attempted to ambush me. You naturally need to be punished for that,” Su Yi said leisurely. “How about this? I won’t make this difficult. Give me another three Yellow Springs Spirit-Condensing Pills. Then you can leave.”
“???” The young woman in black was so angry that she wanted to take a bite out of him. This guy’s simply wicked! Extorting me once wasn’t enough!? Now he wants to extort me again!?
“It’s getting dark,” Su Yi said impatiently. “If you keep drawing this out, three pills won’t be enough to solve this.”
The young woman’s brow furrowed, forming dark lines on her forehead, and she audibly gnashed her pearly teeth.
Just when Su Yi thought she was going to attack, heedless of the consequences, she suppressed her anger. “Fine! I’ll give them to you! But one of these days, I’ll make you pay for this many times over!”
She gnashed her teeth, took out three more pills, and flung them at Su Yi. She then turned to leave, as if afraid Su Yi would seize the opportunity to extort her yet again.
Su Yi smiled and accepted the pills. “If I’m not mistaken, your family name is Cui, right?”
The young woman in black was already several thousand feet away, but when she heard this, she stiffened and whipped around. She instinctively blurted, “How can you tell?”
Her beautiful features were full of utter astonishment.
“If not for your surname, I wouldn’t have let you leave even if you offered me every treasure you had,” said Su Yi.
With that, he waved her off, turned, and left.
Beneath the light of dusk, his tall, upright figure cast a long shadow as he faded into the distance.
The young woman in black watched him disappear from view. A long time passed before she came back to her senses.
“Who was that guy? How did he figure out my surname? Don’t tell me…” She instinctively glanced at the pale purple jade pendant hanging from her waist.
It was a defensive treasure her father had given to her when she left for the Azure Continent. It was the work of their clan’s ancestor, Cui Longxiang!
A terrifying existence known as the Adjudicator of the Netherworld!
“That’s impossible! My ancestor refined that himself; even within the Cui Family, almost no one knows this treasure exists. How could that Su Yi guy possibly have recognized it?”
“But what else could it have been? How else could he have figured out my surname?”
“Or did the old blind man tell him? That’s possible! After all, he was snooping on Meng Po Palace. It wouldn’t have been difficult for him to learn my surname.”
When this possibility occurred to her, she instantly calmed down.
However, when she considered that she’d chased the old blind man here to discover the faction behind him, only for Su Yi to turn around and extort her, she felt incomparably stifled.
When I go back, I’ll ask my seniors and see if they can figure anything out. There’s gotta be something fishy about that Su guy’s origins!
And of course, I won’t just let this humiliation go!
The young woman steeled her resolve, then turned and left.