Chapter 108: Double Act Waiting for the Right Moment
Frost, cold weather.
The jackal offers a sacrifice to an animal; the grass and trees turn yellow and fall, and all the hibernating insects lie down.
The dark evil energy surrounding the Soul Abyss turned into white frost overnight. The upside-down city looked like a mirage, silent and eerie.
And in the depths of this whiteness, a dark shadow moved silently.
When Qi Qing pushed the door open and walked out, the demonic energy in the city had thinned a lot. He looked up at the sky and saw several dark shadows standing in the air, as numerous as black smoke, and Yue Ji was among them.
——The Demon Lord took action.
Before the punitive army from the cultivation world arrives, he will kill the cultivators halfway with lightning speed.
As long as no one sets foot in the Soul Abyss, his goal will be achieved - to stimulate the demon seeds planted in secret and catch everyone off guard before the cultivation world can react.
Over the years, there were quite a few Mirage people who did this for him, but in order to keep the secret forever, they were all dealt with.
If Yue Ji was not his offspring, now that he had fulfilled his usefulness, he would probably have become an abandoned child.
The weak Mirage Clan will eventually become fish on the chopping board. Just as Miao Zheng said before, as long as there is a little sweetness, those mixed-blood children will be the most useful knives for the demon clan.
The Demon Lord always has useful chess pieces in his hands.
The young man pinched the little doll in his arms, turned and walked towards the next courtyard.
Since he came back from breaking through, there were a few more guards outside the courtyard the next day. A righteous cultivator in the Spiritualization Stage always made people feel daunted.
"Stop!" the demon guard said coldly, "What are you doing!"
Qi Qing waved the food box in his hand and said kindly, "Send some food to the children. Would you like to have a bowl to try?"
The demon clan said with a stern face, "Follow the order of the Demon Lord, do not move without permission, go back!"
"No problem."
Qi Qing chuckled, leaned against the door and whistled. Several children immediately rushed out from the next yard: "Food! Food!"
Seeing these children being trained like begging dogs, the guarding demon clan's eyes flashed with disgust. He blocked Qi Qing and shouted at the children: "Go back! Who allowed you to come here?"
The children froze in place, looked at each other, and became a little cautious.
Qi Qing sneered, stepped aside to avoid the guard, raised his eyebrows and asked, "What? I won't go over, and even if I ask them to come over, it won't work?"
"How outrageous!"
Being disobeyed in front of him, the other guard flew into a rage and swung his halberd across Qi Qing's chest with a clang: "If you dare to take another step forward, don't blame me for being rude!"
Qi Qing did not dodge or give way, but instead grasped the tip of the halberd with his backhand.
The frost spread along his fingertips, condensing into tiny ice flowers on the iron.
"I'm trying to cooperate with you in a nice way..." He narrowed his eyes and his voice suddenly turned cold: "You'd better be sensible, otherwise, you will know what regret is."
"court death!"
Seeing that he dared to resist, the two guards attacked at the same time in rage.
However, how could they be a match for a cultivator in the Spiritualization Stage? The young man snapped his fingers, and the biting cold air climbed up along the guard's ankles, freezing him in place in the blink of an eye.
Then, Qi Qing raised his hand and the ice teaching stick appeared in his palm.
“Snap! Snap!”
Two loud slaps exploded in front of the courtyard gate. The sound was so loud that the demons in the distance couldn't help but touch their faces, feeling a slight phantom pain.
He smiled and said, "I am your teacher. I teach you to respect your teachers. This shouldn't be considered an overstep, right?"
"you--!"
The guard's eyes were spitting fire and he had lost all reason. He no longer cared who this person was or who his beloved loved one was. He aimed his long spear with evil energy straight at Qi Qing's throat.
Qi Qing pretended to be panic and dodged a few times, but his hand slipped and the food box fell to the ground with a clang, the hot porridge spilled and the porcelain bowl broke into several pieces.
This voice was like an order. The children who had been cowering suddenly opened their throats and shouted, "Someone is beating someone! The guards are killing people!"
The two guards couldn't catch them even if they wanted to. They fled in all directions like a group of frightened sparrows and disappeared into the alley in the blink of an eye.
Under the furious attack of the two men, the young man seemed to be somewhat defeated and took several steps back, with a look of shock and anger on his face: "I just sent some food, but you want to take my life? Is this also the intention of the Demon Lord?!"
"So what!"
The guard's face was burning with pain, and seeing that he was still provoking him, he raised his halberd high: "I think your life is coming to an end!"
…
Inside the Demon Lord’s tent.
Not long after the expeditionary team left, the confidant who stayed behind hurriedly sent someone to report: two guards in the city took advantage of their power and actually injured the furnace that Yue Ji had placed in the city.
"What?!" The black-clothed young man's face suddenly changed, he was shocked and angry, he turned around and clasped his fists to the Demon Lord on the main seat: "My Lord! These two people knew that Qi Qing was my beloved, yet they dared to be so rampant. It's clearly a deliberate provocation. Please punish them severely!"
No future.
The Demon Lord frowned slightly and said coldly: "It's just a furnace. When this battle is over, I will reward you with eight or ten."
Yue Ji lowered his eyes, a trace of murderous intent flashed in his eyes, and his face became even more angry: "My Lord, please understand. Qi Qing and I have been through life and death many times, and we have a master-disciple relationship. How can an ordinary furnace be compared? If we can't severely punish these two..."
He glanced back in dissatisfaction and said coldly: "Why not let me return to the city immediately and deal with it myself!"
There was an uproar on the scene. No one expected that Yue Ji would dare to say such a thing for a cauldron.
"Are you crazy?" The Tenth Young Master sneered from the back row, "The army is ready to go, and you want to turn back for a toy? Could it be that you and your master have colluded?"
Yue Ji's eyes were as fast as lightning and he immediately swept towards him.
"I want to ask, why is it so coincidental? Why did the guards rush to attack my master as soon as I left the city?"
His tone was grim, and when he looked at the Demon Lord again, he seemed to have regained his senses and suppressed his anger a little: "Now is the time to use people. I know that the Lord is always generous and will not easily argue with others, but whether these two were instructed by others to deliberately disrupt the morale of the army... that is unknown."
Everyone in the tent had different expressions. The Demon Lord even narrowed his eyes, and his suspicious gaze lingered on the Tenth Young Master for a moment.
What Yue Ji said was right. Now was the critical moment when he needed to rely on Yue Ji to command the Mirage Clan. Naturally, he would not do such a stupid thing.
...but that can't be said for some smart-aleck idiots.
The careless expression on the Tenth Young Master's face froze, and he raised his voice: "Are you slandering me?"
"How dare I doubt my own brother?" Yue Ji raised a hint of sarcasm at the corner of his lips, but there was no smile in his eyes: "I just think that those two traitors are too good at picking the right time."
The indirect criticism in the words made a trace of cruelty flash across the face of the Tenth Young Master. He was about to retort when he suddenly caught a glimpse of the gloomy face of the Demon Lord out of the corner of his eye.
Oh no, my father is angry.
The Tenth Young Master was no fool. He immediately suppressed his anger and said, "Very good. Was it my instruction? I will prove my innocence after we return to the city!"
Unexpectedly, the usually taciturn Yue Ji was aggressive today: "Since you have the evidence, why don't you dare to show it now?"
He raised his eyebrows and said sarcastically, "Could it be that... you have to make it up on the spot?"
"…Do you want to die?!"
The Tenth Young Master was so angry that he clenched the hilt of the knife. He had already retreated a step, but this man was still so ungrateful!
"Enough!" The Demon Lord shouted, and the temperature in the tent dropped sharply.
He swept his sinister eyes over the two of them and said fiercely, "With a powerful enemy at hand, you are making such a fuss!"
A strong wind suddenly blew outside the tent, causing the flags to flutter, as if responding to the tense confrontation.
Facing everyone's gaze, the Demon Lord waved his hand with a cold face: "Behead those two pieces of trash immediately and have someone else guard them!"
After saying this, he looked around at the generals coldly and said, "This matter ends here, no further discussion! All troops, move camp!"
…
Qi Qing leaned against the door and played with the little doll for a while, and the two guards lost their heads in the Demon Lord's rage.
He clicked his tongue and shook his head: "How efficient."
There is no need to go through the approval process.
The new guards knew exactly how their former colleague was beheaded, and when they saw him carrying the food box out again from afar, they all shuddered in unison.
For the sake of their own lives, they not only did not dare to stop it, but also gave way a little.
"Thanks."
The young man smiled and nodded at them, took a few steps, and suddenly turned around and said, "Oh, right."
He pointed at the pool of porridge that had already solidified in front of the door, and showed an embarrassment: "Could you two clean it up? If Ah Ji comes back and sees it..."
Qi Qing hesitated and sighed softly, "As you know, he has a bad temper."
The two of them shuddered again and said quickly, "I, I, I, we'll clean it up right away! Please wait a moment!"
As they spoke, one of them picked up a broom and the other picked up a dustpan, and they began to clean in a hurry.
Looking at their trembling appearance, Qi Qing felt an inexplicable surge of sourness of a "witch concubine" in his heart. He admired them for a while with satisfaction, and then walked into the next courtyard leisurely with the food box.
"Food!" The children's eyes lit up instantly.
Qi Qing put down the food box, rubbed their little heads one by one, and said in a low voice: "Thank you for your hard work. You may have to endure more fatigue later."
“It’s not hard!”
Several children held the hot porridge and almost wolfed it down.
In a place like Soul Abyss, a bowl of warm and sweet rice porridge is something that only exists in dreams. After a few mouthfuls, some people licked their lips with satisfaction and couldn't help but look at Qi Qing eagerly.
The young man spread his hands helplessly: "No, I only brought this little rice."
Seeing that they could not hide their disappointment, Qi Qing sighed and said comfortingly: "When we get out, you can drink as much as you want, okay?"
As he spoke, he pulled out the talisman he had hidden in advance from the bottom of the bowl and gave one to each person: "Remember, be careful tonight. When I give the signal, you can take action."
Since we are leaving Soul Abyss anyway, we might as well give the Demon Lord a "big gift" before leaving.
——On the day he met Jiang Chenqiu, Yue Ji revealed this plan to him.
As the young master of the Mirage Clan, Yue Ji has always wanted to free his people from the tragic fate of "Demon Lord Swift Knife", but he has always failed.
Now the situation is finally ripe. The cultivators who have been planted with demon seeds are pawns to gain the trust of the Demon Lord. Jiang Chenqiu and the ancestors of the Mirage Clan are secretly coordinating within the Mirage Clan. Some members of the clan will follow Yue Ji to the expedition, while the rest are lurking in the city and on standby at any time.
The only thing lacking is a suitable guide - this person needs to have good cultivation but not attract attention, be in the Soul Abyss, be able to gain the trust of the Mirage Clan, and break through the blockade of the Demon Clan.
And Qi Qing just happens to meet all the conditions perfectly.
As Yue Ji's master and Taoist partner, his position would naturally not arouse suspicion. Although he was a righteous cultivator, he was despised by the demons because of his "furnace tripod" identity. They all thought he was a caged bird who relied on beauty to get to the top, which made Yue Ji so fascinated that he became weak.
Little did he know that his cultivation level at the Spirit Transformation Stage was enough for him to fight his way out of the unguarded city, not to mention that he also controlled the back door to the Soul Abyss - the long chain bridge over the abyss.
Everything is ready, just waiting for midnight.
Freedom is just around the corner!
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