Chapter 214: A Fated Encounter Sent, Not to be Refused

Besides the diary entry that recorded the names of the junior brothers and sisters coming to help, the earlier entries also contained information about their strengths, Talisman Beasts, preferences, and personalities.

Seeing this, Qin Haoxuan’s brow furrowed. He said to Xing, “This Jin Yanling also has an extremely powerful Talisman Beast. And she used to be a member of the martial world; her skills are extraordinary. After she began cultivating, she integrated mortal martial arts into her combat spiritual arts, so her combat power is extremely astonishing. It’s said she’s also skilled in the art of Plucking Yang to Supplement Yin, and has the nickname ‘Pink Immortal.’ And that Long Tian’ao is even more formidable. His personality is bloodthirsty, and his trump card is an extremely evil Soul-Summoning Talisman. Anyone hit by it, even a cultivator, will die.”

Xing also frowned. The strength of the enemy was clearly beyond their expectations.

“Why don’t we run?” Qin Haoxuan thought for a moment and sighed. “We’ll leave this army camp, use the Mortal Talisman to conceal our auras, and hide somewhere else. Any one of these three has a terrifying trump card. In a one-on-one fight, perhaps with my physical strength, my various killing moves, and our cooperation, we could win by a fluke. But if all three of them attack at once, even with you helping me, we’re dead for sure.”

Xing shook his head. “We can’t run. Running would be even more troublesome. Master Chi Lian’s Spirit Tree Realm strength is much more terrifying than these three. And your Mortal Talisman costs five hundred low-grade spirit stones a day; you simply don’t have enough to use it for long. If you run into him, it’s certain death. But against these three, as long as we dare to fight, there’s still a way to live.”

“A way to live?” Qin Haoxuan’s eyes lit up. “Quick, tell me!”

Xing thought for a moment, and a sly grin spread across his face, the tension on his face vanishing. He said in a tempting tone, “Since we don’t have the confidence to defend passively, then we’ll take the initiative and attack.”

“Take the initiative and attack?” Qin Haoxuan was taken aback. Seeing his expression, a sense of vigilance rose in his heart. “First, explain.”

Xing pointed to the black diary in his hand and said with a wicked smile, “Doesn’t this diary record their strengths, personalities, and preferences? In that case, we’ll use the Mortal Talisman to conceal our auras, then approach them by catering to their tastes. The moment they let down their guard, we’ll launch a surprise attack and kill them!”

Hearing this plan, Qin Haoxuan was visibly stunned. He looked Xing up and down with a wary eye, then a smile of understanding appeared on his face. “You sly old thing. It’s a good thing I got to know you early, before you could use such a sinister method on me. I used to think I was quite mature and resourceful for my age, but compared to you, I’m still very naive. After meeting you, I realize I still have a lot to learn.”

Xing patted the diary and showed a happy smile, a hint of pride on his handsome face. “But of course. If I didn’t even have this much intelligence, how could I call myself a genius demon? As long as we use this diary to target their personalities and preferences, we can set a trap and wait for them to walk into it.”

Qin Haoxuan thought for a moment. It was indeed a good plan, though the risk was quite high. But risk and reward were directly proportional. You can’t catch a wolf without being willing to risk the child. And compared to the Spirit Tree Realm’s Master Chi Lian, these few Spirit Sprout Realm rogue cultivators were much less frightening.

After thinking it over, his expression hardened, and he made his decision. “Let’s do it. We’ll study their personalities first, and then find a way to ambush them one by one. Tsk tsk, in my hands, this diary would only give me basic information about the enemy. But in your hands, it’s practically a guide to treachery.”

Xing smiled proudly. “I like to hear that. As a genius demon from the Netherworld, my intelligence goes without saying. Since we are good brothers, of course I will do my best to advise and assist you.”

Taking the diary from his hand, Qin Haoxuan flipped through it and pointed to Hua Yang’s name. “This person is Xu Changsheng’s junior brother, at the Fifteenth-Leaf of the Spirit Sprout Realm. He’s not too far from here and should arrive by tomorrow morning.”

“This Hua Yang is extremely greedy. He’ll run over for the benefit of even a single spirit stone. We’ll start from there,” Xing said. After thinking for a moment, he added, “This Hua Yang is also very suspicious by nature. He certainly won’t trust anyone easily, so our trap must be set perfectly, without the slightest flaw. Otherwise, if he escapes and notifies the other two, and all three of them come at us, we’ll be the ones running.”

Qin Haoxuan looked at him with a calm expression. “What kind of trap should we set for him?”

“Isn’t that simple? This guy is extremely greedy. Xu Changsheng’s diary says he’d work his fingers to the bone for even one spirit stone. In that case, we’ll pretend there’s a spirit stone mine nearby. With his personality, even if he’s suspicious, he’ll definitely go and check it out,” Xing said almost without thinking. “He’s coming from the south. There’s a small mountain to the south. We’ll just find a cave, lead him there, and then kill him by surprise.”

Hearing this, Qin Haoxuan’s eyebrows jumped. “Good plan. Truly a plan that only a genius demon from the Netherworld could come up with. Tell me the details.”

Flattered by his praise, Xing became smug. He thought for a moment and said, “First, we must activate the Mortal Talisman. Spend the five hundred stones, conceal your cultivator’s aura, and then you’ll pretend to be a nearby farmer who has discovered a coal mine in that cave. You’ll carry a load of coal home, and we’ll put a few spirit stones in your basket. After he ‘happens’ to run into you and ‘happens’ to see the stones, he’ll definitely ask where they came from. You’ll lead him to the cave and tell him you dug them up there. You’ll hide the Formless Sword in the cave beforehand. Once he’s inside and has let down his guard, you’ll activate the sword and use a killing move. I’ll ambush him from behind. The two of us, working together, will kill him.”

After hearing the plan, Qin Haoxuan’s brow furrowed again. “Activating the Mortal Talisman costs five hundred low-grade spirit stones. What if we can’t kill him? We’ll have wasted five hundred stones.”

Xing rolled his eyes at him and said temptingly, “Fortune favors the bold! Didn’t you see in the diary that this Hua Yang is not only good at making money but is also very frugal? According to his senior brother’s understanding of him, he probably has eight thousand low-grade spirit stones on him. As long as we kill him, those eight thousand stones will be ours. According to my plan, as long as you don’t reveal any flaws on the way to the cave, we have a one hundred percent chance of killing him.”

Qin Haoxuan felt that made sense and nodded. “Your plan is not bad. If we really succeed, then we should split the spirit stones in advance, right?”

Hearing this, Xing became anxious. “This demon is not greedy. Since the plan was my idea, let’s go sixty-forty. I get sixty, you get forty.”

“Twenty-eighty?”

“What else? Don’t you know? Knowledge is priceless! For me to give you forty percent is already looking at our shared life-and-death…”

“I was wondering, how much is the Dao Heart Seed Demon Art worth?”

“I’ve just thought about it again. A sixty-forty split would make my conscience uneasy. How about thirty-seventy? I get thirty, you get seventy. What do you think?”

“Oh?” Qin Haoxuan looked at him with a mischievous expression.

“Twenty-eighty?”

“Oh?”

“Damn it! Don’t be so greedy! Do you want one-ninety? Then you might as well just take it all!”

“Many thanks, Great Lord Xing, for your reward…” Qin Haoxuan said, dragging out his words and cupping his hands. “This little brother has been chased like a dog by Master Chi Lian these past few days. When I have sufficient resources, I will certainly share them with you. But this time, if we make a profit… please let me have it all…”

Xing nodded helplessly. He couldn’t just watch Master Chi Lian slaughter Qin Haoxuan. And even if he ate all eight thousand spirit stones in one go, he wouldn’t recover enough to be able to challenge him. Most importantly… it would take a while to digest them.

Qin Haoxuan thought over the entire plan in his head. “There’s one more problem. My Formless Sword is too precious; I can’t just leave it in a cave. Since you can transform, why don’t you just turn into a pile of coal? After he arrives, you can suddenly attack. That would be even more unexpected.”

“Coal? You want me to turn into coal?” Xing pointed at himself and stared at Qin Haoxuan in disbelief. “Do you know that I am a genius demon of the Netherworld? Do you know how precious the dignity of a genius demon like me is, how high my taste is? And you want me to turn into a pile of coal? I would never do something so classless!” He decisively shook his head in refusal.

But Qin Haoxuan ignored his refusal and began to massage his shoulders. “If I don’t use my Formless Sword properly, it could damage my foundation and affect my future cultivation progress. Can you really bear to see me unable to advance?”

“Damn it! You win!” Xing said irritably. “Stop massaging, stop it… It’s giving me the creeps. You remember, you owe me another big favor. You should still keep the Formless Sword on you. What if that idiot gets a crazy idea, knows about the spirit stones, and decides to kill you without you leading the way? At least you’ll have something to protect yourself. According to the diary, that centipede Talisman Beast of his is also very formidable.”

Qin Haoxuan punched him in the chest. “That’s my brother.”

Xing just pouted and said nothing, but in his heart, he still remembered the matter of the Blood Demon. Qin Haoxuan had been willing to risk danger to let him go. That was a kindness he would not forget for the rest of his life.

In the twenty days they had been surrounding the enemy, Su Wu, following Qin Haoxuan’s instructions, had sent out troops to search for spirit stone mines many times. They hadn’t found any, but they had discovered a coal mine on a nearby mountain. Before the war, the nearby commoners had mined coal here, but now, with the mine so close to the army camp, no one dared to come.

After everything was decided, Qin Haoxuan and Xing went out at night to make their preparations. They also had Su Wu prepare some mortal clothes and a carrying pole for him.

The next day, the weather was clear and sunny, with not a cloud in the sky. In this fine weather, Hua Yang, who had been traveling for more than ten days, was in a good mood. He was getting close to his destination; he could vaguely smell the stench of blood from the battle between the two armies. Since receiving the paper crane message from his fellow disciple, Perfected Man Hulu, he had been rushing here without stopping. But because he was farther away, he would surely arrive after his senior brother, Xu Changsheng. He only hoped that the little brat from the Taichu Sect wouldn’t die too soon.

Hua Yang rode his horse at a frantic pace but stopped when he came to a four-way intersection.

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