Absolutely hoodwinked!
That was exactly Jiang Yi’s state. He had experienced many highs and lows in life, but this high was a bit too high. It was so high that he was having difficulty accepting it.
Just a moment ago, he was expecting to die at any moment—or at the very least be tortured. The next thing he knew, the enemies turned against one another. One of them killed the remaining four and then turned towards him and knelt down, referring to him as Young Lord?
“The Phantom Race’s rebel?”
In the mess, Jiang Yi began to understand something. This Poison Spirit knew his mother and wanted Jiang Yi to ask his mother to take him back to the Phantom Race?
Was he injuring himself to gain Jiang Yi’s trust?
Jiang Yi felt like something was amiss. The main problem was this was too coincidental. If this had not been happening to him, he would never have believed it. Jiang Yi eyed the Poison Spirit suspiciously, trying to guess if the latter was trying to keep the Primitive Spiritual Treasure for himself. Was that why he was putting on this act?
Jiang Yi averted his gaze and then laughed mirthlessly. “Poison Spirit, are you for real?”
The Poison Spirit looked up and said confidently, “Of course, I am. From now on, you are my Young Lord. Whoever wants to hurt you will have to step over my—Yi Fan’s—dead body first.”
“Alright then!”
Jiang Yi shrugged his shoulders. “If you really take me as your lord, then give your soul to me. Then, I’ll believe you!”
“Uh—”
The Poison Spirit stiffened, his eyes filled with inner conflict. Jiang Yi smiled subtly. This Poison Spirit was putting on a show indeed. It looked like he had been trying to keep the Primitive Spiritual Treasure for himself. The Poison Spirit pondered for a moment and then gritted his teeth and said, “If I hand over my soul seed, will Young Lord promise to do your best to bring me back to the Phantom Race?”
“I can make a Heavenly Thearch Blood Oath that I’ll do my best to bring you back to the Phantom Race!”
Jiang Yi said this casually. He wanted to see how long the Poison Spirit would put up this show. He did not expect that what would happen next would stun him into silence. A golden soul seed floated out of the Poison Spirit’s head and slowly made its way towards Jiang Yi’s.
Buzz!
From the start, Jiang Yi acted as if an enemy was invading his head. However, on surveying the soul seed, he realized that there was nothing suspicious about it. Without caring too much about anything else, he quickly refined this soul seed using his spiritual powers.
“Uh…”
Once the soul seed was completely refined and he established a spiritual connection with the Poison Spirit, Jiang Yi suddenly felt like everything was surreal. It was almost as if it was too ridiculous to be true. It was amusing, almost. No one would have imagined something like that could happen.
“Young Lord!”
The Poison Spirit bowed down deeply and said sincerely, “You don’t have to make the Heavenly Thearch Blood Oath. As long as you do your best to help me return to the Phantom Race, Yi Fan will be satisfied.”
“I, I…”
At that moment, Jiang Yi felt very bad. He rubbed his nose awkwardly and said, “Poison Spirit, I thought you were lying to me earlier, so… I casually agreed to your request. Honestly, I have no power to bring you back to Phantom Race.”
He could not even get to Saint Spirit Domain even though he wanted to. Even if he could get there, what was he? Yi Piaopiao was being crushed under a sacred mountain. She could not even help the Poison Spirit, who had been chased out of the Phantom Race. A great race like that would surely not take a rebel back!
“You do!”
The Poison Spirit’s eyes were twinkling as he said confidently, “As long as Young Lord says the word to your mother, I will have a chance to go back to the Phantom Race.”
“Mother…”
Jiang Yi’s eyes darkened. With no intention to hide anything from the Poison Spirit, he said, “Poison Spirit, it is said that my mother is being crushed under a sacred mountain right now…”
“I know!”
The Poison Spirit’s reply shocked Jiang Yi to the core. He continued, “Young Mistress Piaopiao is being crushed under the Saint Spirit Mountain. She went to the Lower Domain in secret, married a mortal, and even gave birth to a child. She was breaking the race’s law. She is thus being punished under the Saint Spirit Mountain for ten years. This entire issue caused a huge uproar in the Earth Domain.”
Jiang Yi averted his gaze and then quickly and seriously asked, “Do you mean to say that my mother’s status in the Phantom Race is not low?”
The Poison Spirit nodded. “She is the Clan Head’s youngest daughter and the most beautiful Saint Spirit Flower in our clan. She is second among the top ten beauties in Earth Domain, too!”
“Uh…”
Yi Piaopiao’s face appeared in Jiang Yi’s mind. For some reason, his heart began to hurt. Yi Piaopiao was indeed being crushed under a sacred mountain for ten years. In Lower Domain’s terms, that amounted to about a thousand years. Not only was she in physical pain, but she was also going through unimaginable emotional turmoil. She probably missed Jiang Yi terribly and felt unbelievably worried about him. This woman’s life was too bitter, and Jiang Yi and Jiang Bieli were the primary causes of this.
The Poison Spirit did not notice that Jiang Yi’s expression was amiss. Instead, he became more agitated as he said, “I made a mistake back then. I was chased out of the family clan, never allowed to return. Neither I nor my descendants would be allowed to use the Phantom Race’s name. To us of the Phantom Race, this is one of the most painful punishments. My only wish in this life is to gain the forgiveness of my family clan. I want to go back to be with my race. We of the Phantom Race can die, but we cannot lose our honor!
“Young Lord, your mother is the Clan Head’s youngest daughter. Although she made a mistake, ten years will pass by in a flash. The Clan Head loves her dearly. For all we know, he might even release her before her time is up. As long as Young Lord takes me with you and asks Young Mistress Piaopiao to put in a good word for me, Yi Fan will be able to go home to my family!”
Jiang Yi slowly calmed back down. He completely understood why the Poison Spirit was acting this way now. It looked like there really was this innate sense of pride in the people of the indigenous divine races. They would rather die than lose the pride that came with belonging to their own race. Jiang Yi did not even know why Yi Piaopiao fell for Jiang Bieli back then.
He made up his mind. For now, he would not think about Yi Piaopiao. In a low voice, he said, “Are there any of you around here?”
“None!”
The Poison Spirit said, “There were only five of us this time. We bribed a few groups of god bandits, and you killed three of those groups. There are still two more, but their skills are not great. That’s why we decided to take you out ourselves.”
“Then, clean up this battleground. Let’s leave this place before we discuss any further,” Jiang Yi urged him, waving his hand. Many Demon-Killing Battle Gods came this time. They could not afford to mess up again. The Poison Spirit killed people of the Xuanyuan Clan. Nobody could find out about this.
“Alright!”
In a flash, the Poison Spirit made one round, scattering a fine powder as he went. The powder caused Third Young Master and company’s corpses to burst into flames. A few seconds later, they were reduced to dust.
Swish!
The Poison Spirit returned, holding a few interspatial rings and handing them to Jiang Yi. “Young Lord, these are for you. I don’t need them.”
Jiang Yi did not stand on ceremony either. He reached out and took the interspatial rings, then refined them easily. Soon after, his eyes began to twinkle. He retrieved a pagoda, refined it for a while, and then shook his head in frustration. “This spatial divine item is not much bigger than my Chaos Essence Pearl. It’s too small.”
“Young Lord, do you want a spatial divine item?”
The Poison Spirit’s ring lit up, and he retrieved a pearl from it. “This is a treasure that I obtained a long time ago. It’s called the Great Zen Pearl. There’s a lot of space inside it. Young Lord, why don’t you see if it is sufficient?”
The Poison Spirit got rid of his spiritual imprint from the Great Zen Pearl and then handed it over to Jiang Yi for refining. After a while, Jiang Yi nodded and said, “Not bad, it’s about a hundred times bigger than my Chaos Essence Pearl. It’s enough.”
“Young Lord, take it. I have no use for it,” the Poison Spirit said respectfully. Then, he asked curiously, “Young Lord, what do you want such a big spatial divine item for? Could it be…?”
“Hehe!”
Jiang Yi giggled and nodded. “That’s right. I want it to keep yellow sand worms.”
They came to kill the Poison Spirit this time. Now, the Poison Spirit had become his soul slave. Jiang Yi was naturally ready to go back. However, he could not bring an entire group of yellow sand worms by his side. The best alternative was to store all of them in his interspatial ring.
Thinking about going back made Jiang Yi’s expression harden. In a low voice, he asked, “Poison Spirit, who sent you this time? Was it Xuanyuan Shanshan or Xuanyuan Lingyan?”
The Poison Spirit looked conflicted. At last, he said, “It was Young Mistress Lingyan!”
“Hehe, Pavilion Lord Lingyan!”
Jiang Yi’s body emanated killing intent. At that moment, Xuanyuan Lingyan was a dead person in his heart.
This had been Jiang Yi’s character all along: he would repay kindness and evil in kind. He did not care how strong the other party was. He would kill them first.
