Chapter 160: Subjugation [Seeking Collection]

Jiao Yuncan let out a cold, derisive sneer. "Wait until you reach the Void Integration Stage before you start preaching to us! What you know is merely hearsay anyway."

Liu Junhuai replied with an enigmatic smile, "Are you so certain it is hearsay? Why couldn't I have perceived the primordial spirit through my own enlightenment?"

Jiao Yuncan's tone became even more disdainful. "Do you take us for fools? Go do whatever it is you are supposed to do, and stop wasting time here!"

Without a word, Liu Junhuai executed a thought, and a crimson golden core abruptly materialized in the empty air. It dissolved into a mist, condensed into form, and transformed into an external avatar identical to Liu Junhuai in every way.

"Look at what this is. Is this divine sense, perhaps?" Liu Junhuai asked, looking at Jiao Yuncan with a half-smile.

Jiao Yuncan was already struck dumb with astonishment, his eyes filled with terror as he looked back at Liu Junhuai. "You—you—you have truly cultivated a primordial spirit? And you have even condensed an external avatar? How is that possible? To have your primordial spirit leave the body while still in the early Nascent Soul stage? Have you lost your mind?"

Jiao Yuncan's voice grew louder and louder, ending in a near-shriek.

Yemei also stood frozen on the spot, her mouth agape and her mind blank, staring blankly at Liu Junhuai as if she had been hit by an immobilization spell.

Liu Junhuai's voice remained laden with contempt. "Hiding away year after year in places untouched by sunlight, you have no inkling of the vastness of heaven and earth, nor the true depth of the cultivation world. How could the path of cultivation ever be窥探 (glimpsed) by petty and insignificant people like you? Years of dark and gloomy days have riddled your state of mind with holes. What error is there in calling you the equals of trash?"

With that, he shifted his thoughts, and the external avatar instantly turned into a streak of golden light,遁入 (disappearing) between his brows without a trace.

Ignoring the two people who were still in a stupor, Liu Junhuai turned and walked toward the exit.

"Sect Master Liu, please wait! I have more to say!" Just as Liu Junhuai stepped toward the threshold, Jiao Yuncan's hurried cry came from behind him.

A quiet delight stirred within Liu Junhuai, though he slowly turned around with a stern and cold expression still plastered across his face. "Sect Master Liu, I want to know why the Blood-Slaying Alliance views everyone else as mere programmed instruments for killing. The power of the Blood-Slaying Alliance far exceeds your imagination. The Western Region's branch alone is not something you can afford to provoke."

Liu Junhuai looked at him with a mocking smile. "Is that so? As I recall, the Blood-Slaying Alliance in the Western Region now has only a single female leader left, doesn't it? Oh, wait, and a few stray fish from your Night King organization."

A cold snort rang out, and Jiao Yuncan's tone carried a mocking edge as well. "How could the true power of the Blood-Slaying Alliance ever be understood by a petty alliance of sects like yours? Hand over the cultivation technique you practice, and find a way to let us out of here, and perhaps I will tell you a heaven-shaking secret."

Yemei, standing beside him, quickly tugged at his sleeve as if trying to stop him. After exchanging a glance with Jiao Yuncan, she sighed and ceased all movement.

Liu Junhuai let out a hearty laugh, casting a playful glance at Jiao Yuncan. A rich smile lingered at the corners of his mouth. "I wonder where you get your confidence from, even daring to say 'perhaps'? I see that being assassins for over a decade has truly made you both foolish. There is indeed something wrong with your brain. You want my cultivation technique? Hahaha..."

Jiao Yuncan's self-righteousness was simply too much to bear, prompting Liu Junhuai to burst into loud laughter.

Jiao Yuncan's expression twisted into a strange sort of anger. "Stop laughing, Liu Junhuai! Let me put it this way: if you let the two of us go, I can tell you the identities of the key figures of the Blood-Slaying Alliance in the Western Region!"

Liu Junhuai abruptly cut off his laughter, a sharp, piercing glint flashing through his eyes. "Your offer is certainly tempting, but isn't it just a matter of telling me a name? I think I might as well say it myself, saving you from lingering in your sweet dreams!"

With that, Liu Junhuai stepped forward and whispered four words into Jiao Yuncan's ear. Ignoring Jiao Yuncan's horrified and despairing look, he turned to Yemei and said, "If you wish to continue living, stay as far away from this senior brother of yours as possible." He tapped his own temple with a finger. "There really is something wrong with his head here. He's showing a distinct tendency toward becoming mentally deficient."

As the words fell, Liu Junhuai flashed out of the room, leaving the martial siblings staring at each other in blushing embarrassment.

The moment he stepped out of the interrogation room, Fang Yexu strode up to him. "Well, Junhuai, have you developed an interest in interrogations as well? I saw how severely you crushed that senior brother in there. Are you scheming something else in your heart again?"

Liu Junhuai chuckled self-deprecatingly. "Nothing can escape Hall Master Fang's discerning eyes. I could see that those two are not truly sinister people, so I was wondering if we could win them over and perhaps dig up some covert information along the way. Ordinary methods wouldn't work on people like this, and what they confessed initially was only a fraction. What surprised me is that Jiao Yuncan actually knows that Liangqiu Tuochu is a member of the Blood-Slaying Alliance. It seems these two still have secrets they haven't spat out."

With an air of righteousness, Fang Yexu patted Liu Junhuai's shoulder and said, "Junhuai, this arduous task is entrusted to you. You're the only one here who can shake those two. If they can be won over, wouldn't that add important members to the Wanxiang Sect?"

Too lazy to bicker with Fang Yexu over his petty scheming, Liu Junhuai asked, "Can I have full authority over the two of them?"

Fang Yexu smiled. "Rest assured, no one is going to fight you for them! As long as you can unearth something more, you have the final say on how to settle them."

On the day that martial brother and sister were captured, Liu Junhuai's Heavenly Eye perception had given him a vaguely familiar feeling, suggesting that he would cross paths with them again in the future. This was the primary reason why Liu Junhuai attempted to recruit them. To his surprise, they actually knew major secrets regarding the Blood-Slaying Alliance. If he could bring them under his banner, it would be a great help to the Wanxiang Sect and deepen his understanding of the Blood-Slaying Alliance.

Liu Junhuai knew they would seek him out again, both because he was the one who could rescue them and because following him would aid their cultivation.

Fang Yexu, meanwhile, deeply admired Liu Junhuai's judgment. On Whale Island, Liu Junhuai hadn't participated in any interrogations because he knew no truly confidential matters could be extracted from those people. Yet upon returning to the Wanxiang Sect, the only interrogation Liu Junhuai got involved in happened to touch upon the most powerful faction of the Blood-Slaying Alliance in the Western Region. Who among the interrogators, himself included, could have imagined that two assassins would be linked to the highest echelons of the Blood-Slaying Alliance in the West?

Sure enough, not long after, a guard disciple of the sect alliance came to report that the two members of the Night King requested an audience with Liu Junhuai.

Liu Junhuai, conversing with Fang Yexu, did not react immediately. Instead, he continued talking with Fang Yexu about various matters until the disciple came a second time, whereupon he unhurriedly walked inside.

The moment Jiao Yuncan saw Liu Junhuai arrive, he stood up and said, "Sect Master Liu, the two of us have discussed it. From now on, we will follow Sect Master Liu's lead implicitly. We are thoroughly convinced by your words; if we stay in the Night King any longer, we truly have no future. To be able to follow you, we are willing to disclose everything we know, purely in exchange for Sect Master Liu's trust."

Liu Junhuai lowered his gaze and remained silent for a long time. "I only require absolute loyalty from those who follow me, and I will spare no effort in providing them with cultivation assistance. As for what you wish to tell me, I already have more direct sources of information. Hearing your accounts of things I am unfamiliar with would give me no way to immediately verify them. This is the main reason I cannot easily agree to your request."

Jiao Yuncan hurriedly said, "The two of us can swear a Heavenly Dao oath! If we violate Sect Master Liu's will by even a fraction, we are willing to suffer the wrath of the heavens!"

Without waiting for Liu Junhuai to respond, the two of them straightened their robes with solemn expressions, bit their fingers, and swore the Heavenly Dao oath. Only when the faint sound of rumbling thunder echoed in the sky above the Wanxiang Sect did their expressions gradually relax.

With a wave of his hand, Liu Junhuai produced two jade bottles. "Welcome both of you to the Wanxiang Sect! To show my sincerity, these two jade bottles each contain two Meridian-Clearing Barrier-Breaking Pills and two Infant-Nurturing Pills, which will help you break through to the Nascent Soul stage. I only hope the two of you will steadily assist me in achieving great accomplishments."

Seeing the jade bottles in Liu Junhuai's hand, Jiao Yuncan and Yemei were secretly shocked. They hadn't expected their new master to be so generous on their very first encounter, and any lingering worries in their hearts instantly vanished into thin air.

Liu Junhuai smiled. "Since we are now our own people, I won't keep things from you. I am abundantly supplied with heavenly treasures, possess numerous grade-eight and grade-nine pills, and have countless cultivation manuals at my disposal. In short, I will not treat you unfairly. I only hope that once you have learned successfully, you will put your skills to use for me and for the Wanxiang Sect. Very well, why don't you first speak of the inner workings of the Blood-Slaying Alliance that you know? That way, I can use it as a condition to secure your release!"

The two looked at each other, and Yemei began to speak. "As for the situation of the Blood-Slaying Alliance in the Western Region, Sect Master has likely already eradicated the greater part of it. The heaven-shaking secret my senior brother spoke of concerns the Western Domain Lord, Liangqiu Tuochu. The two of us only learned by chance that he is a member of the Blood-Slaying Alliance headquarters.

"Two years ago, in order to carry out an assassination mission, we lurked for three days and three nights in a restaurant outside the domain governor's mansion in Daba City in the Central Region, because our target was a minor leader of the mansion's guards. Everyone who joins our Night King has a specialized skill, and Senior Brother's specialty is lip-reading. During those three days and three nights, the people from the domain mansion drinking at the restaurant mentioned giving gifts to the Domain Lord no fewer than ten times. Liangqiu Tuochu usually accepted no gifts, but whenever agarwood was offered, not only would he accept it with great pleasure, but he would also give back precious items such as pills and magical treasures in return.

"The year after the mission was completed, Alliance Leader Chu accidentally mentioned while arranging a task for us that we should pay attention to collecting sinking agarwood, claiming that a high-ranking figure at the Blood-Slaying Alliance headquarters needed it. At the time, we didn't think much of it, until we went back and checked some records, only to discover that sinking agarwood is precisely agarwood.

"Back then, we were just joking, saying wouldn't it be great if that high-ranking figure turned out to be Liangqiu Tuochu, and talking about how the Western Region's Blood-Slaying Alliance was such-and-such. But during another operation a few months later, I happened to capture a piece of agarwood the size of an apricot and handed it to Alliance Leader Chu. At the time, Alliance Leader Chu was overjoyed and immediately rewarded me with ten thousand contribution points.

"Just the next day, Senior Brother saw Alliance Leader Chu meeting with a mid-stage Integration cultivator, and during their conversation, Domain Lord Liangqiu was brought up repeatedly. That was what led the two of us to deduce these circumstances."

Liu Junhuai nodded. "The reason Liangqiu Tuochu so urgently needs agarwood is to mask the foul odor emanating from his body. He was infected with a parasitic gu insect known as the Central Harm Spirit."

Jiao Yuncan and Yemei exchanged glances of astonishment; they had not expected Liu Junhuai to be even better informed than they were.