Chapter 1019: So Obedient

What treasures or secrets does Feng Lintao possess? We'll find out by asking him. If he refuses to speak, we'll simply question Lan Yao and Yue Dong instead! Xu Qing's right eye shimmered with dao marks as he gazed into the distance, speaking calmly.

Er Niu chuckled, his eyes filled with anticipation. He and Xu Qing sped up, remaining concealed in the sky as they continued their rapid pursuit.

Several more days passed in this manner.

Over these days, the middle-aged cultivator who had captured Feng Lintao proceeded with extreme caution, constantly changing direction and maintaining vigilance. Eventually, within a city, he handed Feng Lintao over to an inconspicuous old man. Afterward, the cultivator departed, and the face of Yue Dong, which had been interwoven with his threads of fate, rapidly dissipated, restoring his destiny to its original state. He also permanently lost all memory of this period.

The old man, like a relay runner, then left the small town from a different direction and continued the journey.

This sequence of events repeated five times over the next half month. Each time, a different person took over, with the previous individual departing and the new one continuing the journey. Moreover, each participant belonged to a different race, including both humans and members of the Flame Moon Profound Sky Clan.

This method was designed to sever all traces, ensuring that any potential pursuers would lose the karmic connection.

However, Er Niu's Tracing Origin Ruthless Dao, which he created in his past life to scheme against deities, possesses an extremely high spiritual rank, capable of locking onto even the bodies of rulers. Therefore, regardless of how many times Yue Dong's agents swapped places, Er Niu maintained his grasp on Feng Lintao's threads of fate. They remained undisturbed by Yue Dong and consistently locked onto the target.

During this process, Xu Qing and Er Niu finally caught up with Feng Lintao and witnessed these peculiar substitutions. Er Niu's eyes narrowed slightly, while Xu Qing squinted his.

"Little A Qing, something isn't right with these people. They can't all be Demon Feather spies, can they?" Er Niu suddenly remarked.

While Er Niu lacked the direct authority to perceive the destinies of those whose emotions were controlled by Yue Dong, he could still sense Feng Lintao's threads of fate through his Origin Dao. To Xu Qing, however, the situation was far clearer. With dao marks shimmering in his right eye, he gazed intently, his expression growing solemn as he discerned the true cause.

"Senior Brother, Yue Dong's face is interwoven within the karmic threads of fate of these individuals..." Upon hearing this, Er Niu's eyes gleamed with curiosity.

"Weaving threads of fate into a face... that's clearly a method of turning people into puppets. Could it be that between Lan Yao and Yue Dong, Yue Dong is the real mastermind?"

Xu Qing recalled the events with Lan Yao and Yue Dong in the Golden Rat Cave. He wasn't entirely certain about the mastermind, remembering only Lan Yao's intense hatred for Feng Lintao.

"Once the fish takes the bait, we'll know by examining Lan Yao's destiny for a similar face," Xu Qing said, stepping forward in the sky as he continued to follow the cultivator holding Feng Lintao.

Snowflakes began to drift from the sky. Looking down, the black earth was already covered in white, and the further north they traveled, the denser the ice and snow became.

The individual currently holding Feng Lintao was a beautiful middle-aged woman. She evidently held some status in the nearby region, which allowed her to travel with fewer impediments.

Although this region also belonged to the Flame Moon Profound Sky territory, it lay very close to the border with the Wanggu North Realm. The Flame Moon Profound Sky Clan's domain was long and narrow, with its northern edge bordering the North and its southern edge connecting to Liaoxuan. Therefore, traveling north from this location required no further teleportation.

As they proceeded, the middle-aged woman's pace quickened, and her destination appeared clear, as if this "fishing" operation was nearing its conclusion.

Indeed, it was. Three days later, atop a snow-covered mountain, the middle-aged woman, who had been trekking tirelessly, abruptly halted. On the peak, she knelt, head bowed, and remained silent.

Feng Lintao, his eyes tightly closed, had been carried like a lifeless body throughout the journey. Even as the middle-aged woman knelt and set him beside her, he remained unconscious.

The surroundings were relatively quiet, save for the howling wind blowing from the horizon, swirling up flurries of white snow that blended seamlessly with the fresh snow falling from the sky.

After a long moment, a blurred figure emerged from the wind and snow. It was a woman with a graceful physique, adorned in a long, star-spangled gown. Her face was as beautiful as a lotus, and her long, dark hair flowed like water, billowing behind her as she moved, intertwining with the falling snow. Most striking was her waist, slender and supple, resembling a delicate willow branch—light and agile. Her long, exquisite legs, faintly visible beneath the starry gown, added a touch of alluring charm. It was Lan Yao.

Lan Yao embodied both the delicate grace of a maiden and the alluring charm of a young woman, a combination that endowed her with a captivating magnetism. Her pristine white wings, in particular, imbued her with an additional sense of sanctity, complementing her delicate frame and seductive allure.

She now emerged from the blizzard, ascending the snow-covered mountain to stand before the middle-aged woman.

"Greetings, Fellow Daoist Lan," the middle-aged woman said respectfully, taking a deep breath. "I have not failed the trust placed in me by you and Miss Yue Dong. I have brought this damned Feng Lintao here."

Lan Yao nodded, her gaze settling on the unconscious Feng Lintao beside her. Her beautiful eyes burned with intense hatred as she raised her jade hand and pointed a finger.

The next moment, Feng Lintao's body shuddered, and his eyes slowly opened, revealing a dazed expression. Everything before him seemed surreal, as if he had just awakened. Yet, beneath this facade, his mind was racing, continuously analyzing various strategies to navigate his predicament. His confusion was merely a pretense.

However, Lan Yao evidently knew him too well. Before Feng Lintao could speak, she waved her jade hand, instantly causing his face to contort and a shrill wail to escape his lips. Veins bulged on his face, and his body trembled violently, as if his soul was being forcibly torn from him.

"Lan Yao, snap out of it," Feng Lintao shrieked. "Haven't you noticed how much your personality has changed since we first met? During this time, being hunted by you and Yue Dong, I've replayed our past encounters and recalled memories many times. I've realized... Yue Dong isn't right. Lan Yao... you..."

While howling, Feng Lintao spoke in a high-pitched voice, attempting to rouse Lan Yao. But Lan Yao remained unmoved, her raised right hand continuing its soul extraction.

Soon, despair filled Feng Lintao's eyes as overlapping shadows appeared on his body, his soul seemingly on the verge of being ripped out. In this critical moment, Feng Lintao mustered his last ounce of strength, crying out desperately to the heavens for aid: "Your Majesty, save me!" He continued, "Your Majesty, I suspect the assassination within the human race must have been implicitly sanctioned by you, likely with the goal of using me as bait... Your Majesty, Lan Yao and Yue Dong despise me to the core; please, save me!"

Lan Yao looked up, her gaze sweeping across the surroundings. The sky remained as usual, the wind and snow unchanged, and everything appeared precisely as it was.

Seeing this, Feng Lintao's despair intensified. He wasn't entirely certain if the Empress was present, but retrospectively, recalling his journey, he had a vague premonition that he had been used as bait. With his soul already torn and half extracted, Feng Lintao, consumed by intense anxiety, threw caution to the wind.

"I possess the inheritance of the Liaoxuan Saint Ancestor," Feng Lintao declared, "a legacy from a quasi-immortal emperor. My Saint Ancestor was once but a hair's breadth from achieving true immortality. Your Majesty, this inheritance is precisely what Lan Yao and Yue Dong seek. I am willing to offer it to the human race; it would be of immense benefit."

Yet, there was still no change in the surroundings; only the wind and snow intensified. With a final howl, Feng Lintao's soul was ultimately extracted by Lan Yao.

As his soul was seized in her grasp, Feng Lintao's physical body disintegrated into dust, scattered by the wind. "Lan Yao, wake up," he pleaded. "You are being controlled by Yue Dong!"

Feng Lintao's soul trembled. The instant Lan Yao seized him, he, filled with despair, uttered a final desperate cry. However, within this desperate plea, he secretly expended soul energy to activate a secret technique, manifesting a soul-piercing thorn. It erupted suddenly, plunging into Lan Yao's glabella.

This soul thorn, fully known as the Liaoxuan Soul-Stirring Art, upon activation, could throw the recipient's soul into chaos, thereby causing them to lose control.

Consequently, Lan Yao's body instantly shuddered, and a bewildered expression flickered in her eyes. Her grip on Feng Lintao's soul loosened slightly. In the blink of an eye, Feng Lintao's soul suddenly shot backward.

In truth, for Feng Lintao, calling out to the human race was a gamble: if successful, it was ideal; if not, he could frame the action as a desperate struggle before his demise. This allowed him to conceal his soul-piercing strike until this precise moment, when it erupted in a sudden, unexpected burst.

But just as Feng Lintao's spirit rapidly darted away, Lan Yao's eyes became bloodshot. She suddenly looked up, staring intently into the distance, and uttered the first words she had spoken since her arrival: "You seek death."

The moment these words left her lips, she was immediately filled with regret. Before her descent, she had received strict instructions from Yue Dong: she was not to utter a single word upon her appearance, not even a sound.

Normally, she would have obeyed completely. However, Feng Lintao's soul-piercing thorn ultimately had its effect, causing her soul to fluctuate and her threads of fate to momentarily blur. The three words she spoke slipped out during that brief lapse in control.

But at this moment, she paid no heed to anything else, raising her hand to seize Feng Lintao. Just then, a calm voice resonated from the horizon: "You finally spoke!"

These words reverberated powerfully in all directions, drawing in the howling wind and snow to form an abrupt storm that instantly enveloped Lan Yao.

Lan Yao's expression changed. She then saw a familiar figure emerge from the storm: a man in a long robe, with flowing hair and a remarkably handsome face, framed by the swirling snow. It was Xu Qing.

The moment she saw Xu Qing, Lan Yao acted with extreme decisiveness. She immediately closed her eyes, and her physical body rapidly withered, turning directly into dust within moments. The figure that had appeared was merely a clone.

As the clone self-destructed, the storm swept through the area.

But Xu Qing's expression remained calm. He had noticed earlier that the opponent hadn't uttered a single word upon appearing, which had immediately raised his suspicions. He surmised that they must have acquired information about him and known not to make any sound.

That was why he hadn't revealed himself until Lan Yao spoke those three words; only then did Xu Qing step out.

And now, even though it was only a clone that had confidently self-destructed, for Xu Qing, merely hearing her voice meant her true form could not evade him.

Xu Qing looked up, his divine consciousness spreading out as the Divine Authority of Sound erupted. Following the lingering echoes of her words, he began an unseen search, leveraging the wind, all surrounding elements, and every sound.

Meanwhile, on the horizon, Feng Lintao, who was fleeing at full speed, also underwent a drastic change in expression. He quickly adopted a fawning demeanor and spoke rapidly towards his side: "Is that Fellow Daoist Er Niu beside me? I guessed from the very beginning that you were planning a fishing operation, so I cooperated fully, sparing no expense, even enduring multiple deaths, using every trick I knew. I finally helped you catch this fish!"

As Feng Lintao spoke, Er Niu's figure materialized from a distortion in the void, appearing before him with a half-smile. "Oh, so well-behaved, are we?"