Chapter 514: Jie Jie Jie
Chapter 514: Jie Jie Jie!
I never would have guessed the foolish prince kept a golden cage for his hidden beauty.
Among mortals, Yue’er was considered a rare beauty, highly sought after within the Fragrance Pavilion.
He vaguely recalled Long Xiyao, dressed in her male guise, showering the girl with favor and reserving her company for days on end.
Then, for reasons unknown, she vanished into the mortal dust without a single whisper.
To think she had intertwined her fate with the foolish prince.
Inside the dimly lit chamber, Mo Yin spoke with palpable delight, “Yue’er, just a little longer, and I shall break through to the late Foundation Establishment stage.”
Zhao Yingyue glided forward to knead his shoulders. “You have labored bitterly, my Lord Mo.”
Mo Yin hastily waved her off. “It is no burden. The swifter I condense my Golden Core, the more secure our future becomes.”
Zhao Yingyue leaned in, pressing her soft curves against his back, her voice like silk. “I know. If you are weary, close your eyes and seek rest.”At her touch, Mo Yin’s mortal coil trembled, a fierce blush spreading across his cheeks.
When their paths first crossed, Lady Zhao had been surrounded by a constellation of outstanding talents.
He could only linger in the shadows, his eyes burning with silent envy.
Who could have foreseen that this fiercely desired jewel would now be wholly dependent on him, surrendering everything a woman could offer?
Yielding to the warmth, Mo Yin nestled into her embrace and let his eyelids fall.
Bathed in her soothing presence, it felt as though he had reclaimed the maternal devotion stolen from his childhood.
A smile of absolute contentment unconsciously touched his lips.
He drifted in a twilight state, lost between deep slumber and intoxicated bliss.
Yet, merely moments later, the docile aura around Zhao Yingyue vanished, her gaze sharpening into a predator’s stare. She parted her cherry lips, inhaling sharply toward the sleeping man.
A barely perceptible strand of life-essence was siphoned away into her maw.
Initially, Mo Yin remained placid. But after five breaths of time, his brows furrowed in discomfort.
Zhao Yingyue instantly severed the connection, her inner thoughts churning. “It is the same every time. This idiot’s spiritual resonance reacts far too swiftly.”
“My Master promised that beneath my ‘Gentle Embrace,’ a Qi Condensation cultivator would be oblivious, while a Foundation Establishment expert would need at least a quarter of an hour to glean the truth.”
Stirring from his daze, Mo Yin opened his eyes, a veil of confusion over his features. “How long did I sleep?”
Zhao Yingyue offered a melodic chuckle. “Only a fleeting moment.”
Though loath to leave her warmth, Mo Yin forced himself up. “It is enough. I must visit the auction house to peddle our wares.”
“Without the accumulation of wealth, your solitary life here in Green City would be far too arduous.”
Hidden in the void, Jiang Chen observed this display, utterly dumbfounded.
There was no doubt in his mind-the current Yue’er was no mortal flower. Unless the heavens were playing a cruel joke, she had walked the path of a demonic cultivator.
“A foolish prince playing the idiot is one thing, but to also hoard a massive Fated Chance!”
“And a mortal girl devoid of a Spirit Root miraculously metamorphoses into a demonic cultivator!”
“The karmic threads of this tale are weaving a rather fascinating tapestry.”
Shortly after, Mo Yin departed the courtyard.
Yet, the grand play was far from over. Zhao Yingyue unlatched the rear gate, welcoming a man whose coarse features and ragged aura marked him clearly as a Loose Cultivator.
The rogue cultivator was evidently a frequent guest, drawing her into a practiced, rough embrace.
Zhao Yingyue offered no resistance, her hips swaying cooperatively against his grip.
Witnessing the brazen betrayal, Jiang Chen felt a sudden pang of pity for the supposedly foolish prince.
He chose not to tail Mo Yin, remaining in the shadows to glean further truths.
In short order, history repeated itself. Zhao Yingyue began to feast upon the life-essence of her new paramour, but this time, the harvest lasted considerably longer.
Jiang Chen tracked the time; it was exactly a quarter of an hour.
Afterward, the Loose Cultivator stumbled out, his mortal coil visibly drained, yet his face was plastered with a sickeningly euphoric grin.
Jiang Chen assumed the demonic seductress would meditate to digest the stolen Qi, but the back gate swung open once more to admit a second Loose Cultivator.
This time, however, the guest was a female Loose Cultivator, one boasting rather decent features.
Jiang Chen shook his head in silent amusement, then blurred away to tail the first male cultivator.
He shadowed the man through the twisting alleys until they reached a dilapidated dwelling.
The moment the rogue crossed his threshold, he collapsed onto his bed, consumed by an unnatural exhaustion.
Jiang Chen materialized like a phantom beside the cot, sweeping the man with his divine sense. “Just as I suspected. A fraction of his foundational vitality has been permanently severed.”
“Should this karmic drain persist, even with the vitality of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, his mortal coil will rot away within a decade.”
Such was the insidious nature of Zhao Yingyue’s dark art.
Yet, the ultimate zenith of this demonic technique remained obscured.
Was it designed to forge an artificial Spirit Root?
To plunder longevity and defy the heavens?
Or perhaps to fuel a transcendental metamorphosis of her own physique?
Tangled in his deductions, Jiang Chen suddenly caught himself. “Wait, what does any of this have to do with me? Why am I courting unnecessary karma?”
“Damn this accursed curiosity!”
As the wheel of time turned and the bodies piled high, the stench of this demonic art would inevitably draw the gaze of the righteous sects.
To stir up such filth right beneath Perfected Master Wang’s nose-was this not brazenly courting death?
Unless the shadow master orchestrating Zhao Yingyue’s ascension was themselves a Golden Core Perfected Master, or perhaps even a Nascent Soul True Lord.
Regardless of the hidden currents, this muddy water was not his to tread. Thus, he dissolved into the wind, resuming his pursuit of the foolish prince.
His instincts had not betrayed him. Cloaked in a mundane disguise, Mo Yin swiftly arrived at the city’s grand auction house.
Soon enough, the registry displayed the Four Seasons Fruit Tree and the Jade Dew Spirit Buds.
The presence of such treasures was no mere coincidence.
Without a shadow of a doubt, the prince had unearthed the lost legacy of the Jade Dew Sect.
Only a sect’s foundational inheritance could sustain a constant supply of such rare spirit flora.
Chen Tian harbored the prince, yet provided nothing more than the basic three meals of spirit food.
As for Spirit Stones, talismans, ambient Spirit Qi, or Spirit Pills-he was given absolutely nothing.
Furthermore, the prince had lost access to his sole Spirit Farm, severing any legitimate avenue to accumulate wealth. No matter how far his cultivation advanced, he dared not reveal a sliver of his true might to the outside world.
To do so would undoubtedly draw the terrifying, suffocating gaze of the imperial dynasty’s hidden factions.
His sole recourse was to periodically siphon the Jade Dew Sect’s exotic plants into the mortal markets.
It was the most pragmatic and rapid method to amass Spirit Stones in the shadows.
After all, a single successful gavel strike could yield over a thousand Mid-grade Spirit Stones-a sum that could tempt even seasoned cultivators.
Isolated on the water-aspected Water Immortal Peak, devoid of the vital Wood Spirit Qi his roots craved, Mo Yin was forced to bridge the gap by digesting spirit meals and aggressively burning through Spirit Stones.
This brute-force expenditure was the secret behind his miraculous breakthroughs.
Roughly two hours later, the auction concluded, both the Four Seasons Fruit Tree and the Jade Dew Spirit Buds claimed by the highest bidders.
With the Spirit Stones secured within his spatial ring, the foolish prince decisively exited the premises.
His initial intent was to procure heavenly treasures for Zhao Yingyue and reserve the remainder for his own tempering.
But in the span of a single heartbeat, before his divine sense could even flare in warning, the world plunged into an inky abyss.
When his consciousness clawed its way out of the dark, he found himself stripped of the comforting hum of Green City. The oppressive, ancient canopy above suggested he had been dragged deep into the heart of the Dark Forest.
He was shackled within a suffocating water dungeon, its arrays far too profound to shatter in short order.
Looming before his watery cell was a phantom.
Draped in robes as black as the void.
A faceless entity, its visage swallowed by an unnatural, shifting oblivion.
Mo Yin fought down a shiver of primal fear, his voice trembling. “I do not believe I have offended your esteemed self?”
Jiang Chen, adopting the tone of an immortal monarch looking down upon a trapped insect, let out a grating, otherworldly rasp. “Jie jie jie… My business is not with the vessel, but with the ancient parasite festering within your soul.”
Mo Yin’s pupils shrank to pinpricks, yet he clenched his jaw in a desperate bluff. “I haven’t the faintest clue what you are raving about.”
Unleashing a visceral spiritual pressure that sought to crush the boy’s will, Jiang Chen sneered. “You dare pilfer the legacy of my Jade Dew Sect, and you truly believed the heavens would not demand an accounting?”
The weight of those words slammed into Mo Yin like a falling mountain, draining the blood from his face. Deep within his spiritual sea, the parasitic Lord of the Abyss recoiled in absolute, unadulterated horror!