The golden sword light seemed on the verge of slicing through the dome of the sky. It contained overwhelming, nigh-endless destructive force as it exploded into the emissary.
The emissary’s disdainful smirk finally disappeared, replaced with terror. He hurriedly formed hand seals, but just as he was about to retaliate, he seized up. He glanced northward, then immediately gave up his plan of resisting the golden light.
The dazzling golden light and vast power surged uncontrollably outward for a full fifteen minutes. It was so bright that Jiao Qi, Meng Huairong, and Chi Mei couldn’t look directly at it. Ye Zichen, who was right in the thick of it, had temporarily disabled his sense of sight before swinging his blade.
The light dissipated.
A chasm so deep you couldn’t see the bottom scarred the grassy plain. It was as if beneath that sword, the pocket dimension itself had split in two.
“Ha….” After the light swallowed him up, the emissary disappeared. Ye Zichen felt as if he’d just barely escaped calamity. He plopped to the ground and took deep, ragged breaths. He was drenched in sweat. Just now, facing a supreme expert had almost terrified him out of his wits.
Fortunately, he’d already been through a lot, and was mentally tough. Otherwise, he feared he’d be reporting in at the River Styx by now.
At that moment, Chi Mei led his subordinates over to him. The two heavenly yao rushed to his side immediately to examine his condition.
Chi Mei, however, simply put her hand to her mouth and widened her eyes and the endless chasm.
“Sweetie, did you do this?” She asked in astonishment. “Did you kill the emissary?”
Ye Zichen, who was still sitting on the ground, looked up at her, narrowed his eyes, and said somewhat mockingly. “I have no idea if the emissary is alive or not, but I am. What, are you disappointed?”
She’d brought him here intentionally, then tricked him into facing a ninth-stage earth supreme all on his own. She hadn’t even told him that the Xiao Family bore a deep grudge against yao. She’d put his life in peril!
Furthermore, if he weren’t mistaken, his temporary inability to connect with the Yao-Sealing Pagoda was her doing as well! He was lucky to be alive.
Given all that, it would be ridiculous if Ye Zichen could still sit there and smile at her as if nothing had happened.
“Sweetie, what are you saying….? Nevermind all that, the emissary of the Gao Family is here. Hurry up and disguise yourself as the Xiao Family Emissary to trick him out of his treasures.”
Without waiting to see whether Ye Zichen would comply or not, Chi Mei put on her long black robes. She passed Ye Zichen another set, and before long, a team of men on horseback appeared in the distance. There were about five in total.
“Hurry up and put it on! The emissary didn’t recognize you, but do you really think the Gao Family won’t?”
“If you’ve got a problem, we can talk about it later, okay? We’ve come this far; don’t ruin it now!”
Ye Zichen gave her a meaningful look, then threw on the black robes. When Jiao Qi and Meng Huairong saw that even their master had put them on, they put theirs on as well.
In about an hour, the Gao Family delegation reached their location.
The man riding in front was the eldest son of the Gao Family, Gao Yunting. He was accompanied by four of his trusted allies.
When they saw the deep ditch Ye Zichen had cut into the earth, they were stunned despite themselves, and their gazes grew somewhat cautious.
“You’re here?” asked Chi Mei with no regard for their confusion.
“Esteemed Emissary.” Despite his suspicion, Gao Yunting dared not offend them. He bowed deeply, as did his four companions.
“Hm. Did you bring everything?” Chi Mei nodded coolly at them.
Gao Yunting still seemed somewhat hesitant. His gaze fell on the deep chasm as he asked, “Esteemed Emissary, what….?” This was their first time here, but it was obvious that a battle had just taken place. The surrounding space was still unstable, and one look at that chasm was enough to tell him it was newly-formed.
If he weren’t mistaken, just before they arrived, there had been a battle between supreme experts.
He didn’t know how many supremes had been involved, but from the look of things, the battle exceeded the stop of immortal kings.
“This? When I got here, a few enemies caught wind of our location. Just now, we fought it out. I already scared them off. The others are my attendants. They suffered severe injuries in order to protect me.”
“Then you’re not injured, are you?”
“That’s none of your concern. Deliver your tribute, then you can return home.” Chi Mei got fully into character. She fully embodied the disdain a lofty figure like the emissary of a major clan from the Divine Mountains would have for a small-fry from the world below.
She repeatedly urged Gao Yunting to finish the transaction, but the ring had yet to appear.
Since there’d been a battle, who could say for sure that the woman before him was the real emissary? What would happen if one of their enemies was impersonating her?
“Esteemed Emissary…..”
“Alright, I understand your concerns.” With that, Chi Mei squinted and transmitted something to Gao Yunting. Before long, his gaze changed. His suspicion faded, replaced by respect and friendliness.
“Are you certain now?”
“I’m certain. Please forgive my rudeness; I did this to ensure the security of our transaction.
Just now, Chi Mei had sent him a transmission containing the exact same code phrase his father had taught him. You could fake your identity, but there was absolutely no way anyone else could have known that code phrase.
If she knew all the secret signals, she was definitely the real emissary, right?
“No harm done,” she said, waving her hands magnanimously. Gao Yunting, meanwhile, no longer hesitated. He took out his fire element spatial ring and handed it over.
Chi Mei examined the treasures within indifferently. At the same time, Gao Yunting cupped his hands respectfully and said, “Esteemed Emissary, this transaction is now complete. If there’s nothing else, I’ll return home to report to my clan.”
“Wait a moment…..” To Gao Yunting’s surprise, Chi Mei called him back.
He immediately turned around to face her. “Esteemed Emissary, do you have any other commands?”
A jade ring appeared in Chi Mei’s palm. Two beams of light left the fire element ring and entered the jade one. Next, Chi Mei took the jade ring and tossed it back to Gao Yunting.
Gao Yunting instinctively caught it.
He was baffled, but before he could ask, he heard Chi Mei explain, “This ring contains twenty percent of the resources you offered in tribute. The family head commanded that, in light of your timely contributions over the years without any tricks or deception, he’ll reduce your future tribute by twenty percent. In the future, you only need to provide eighty percent of your former tribute. This news has yet to reach your father, however. How about this? You take this twenty percent back to him and tell him the good news in person.”
