Heaven Handed Me the Knife

Rage solves nothing; it only clouds one's judgment.

Li Pingsheng needed a meticulous plan, one that would leave the Zhao Family crippled.

Inside the cave, the man in the black robe chuckled several times before pulling an object from his robes and handing it to Zhao Zhentian.

It was a pale bone whistle, roughly three inches long, covered in intricate, dark engravings.

"This is the Beast-Controlling Bone Whistle, refined from the brow bone of a century-old ferocious beast. Only by combining it with my secret technique can you drive the blood slaves."

"Patriarch Zhao, I have already wiped away the spiritual imprint, but the process of binding it to a master is quite dangerous. It must be done by someone of direct bloodline."

Zhao Zhentian took the whistle and gripped it tightly.

He turned around and handed the whistle to Zhao Ming.

"Ming'er, listen well."

"This whistle is the key to our Zhao Family swallowing the Outer City. You must sit alone on that stone platform in the center of the Cold Spring Deep Pool and drip your direct essence blood into the whistle."

He pointed to the stone platform in the middle of the cavern, surrounded by a deep pool.

The cold pool emitted wisps of white vapor, the mist carrying a biting chill.

"Then, close your eyes and circulate our family's Mystic Yin Technique to guide the yin energy of the Cold Spring to fuse with your essence blood and nurture the whistle."

"The entire process takes half an hour. During this time, you must absolutely not open your eyes, nor can you stop the circulation of your qi and blood."

"Otherwise, the remnant soul of the beast inside the whistle will immediately reject your essence blood and erupt. At that moment, the whistle will fall into the abyss of the Cold Spring and be lost forever!"

Zhao Ming nodded. "Father, don't worry! To kill that bastard Li Pingsheng, I will definitely succeed!"

"Very good."

Zhao Zhentian nodded in satisfaction and cupped his hands toward the man in the black robe. "Sir, we shall not disturb you any further."

The man in the black robe let out a laugh, his figure flickering as he melted into the shadows at the cave entrance and vanished.

Zhao Zhentian took his trusted guards and turned to leave the cavern.

Soon, the vast cavern was left with only Zhao Ming and the Cold Spring.

Behind the ventilation shaft, Li Pingsheng watched everything.

The Beast-Controlling Bone Whistle was proof of the Zhao Family's collusion with monsters and their manipulation of the beast tide; it was also something Zhao Ming could not afford to lose.

Originally, he had thought about stealing one of Zhao Ming's jade pendants to frame him.

Now, he had a better option.

This was a perfect opportunity.

Li Pingsheng watched as Zhao Ming took a deep breath, leaped onto the stone platform in the center of the Cold Spring, and sat cross-legged.

His Martial Wisdom talent activated. The structure of the cavern, the properties of the Cold Spring, the flaws in Zhao Ming's cultivation technique—all information integrated in his mind, forming a plan.

Beneath the stone platform lay the bottomless Cold Spring Deep Pool.

Through the insight of Martial Wisdom, he knew that the deep pool connected to a swift underground river.

Anything that fell in would be swept away instantly.

This was the place to make the evidence "reasonably disappear."

A plan took shape in Li Pingsheng's mind.

Li Pingsheng's goal was not just to steal the whistle, but to make Zhao Ming believe that he had lost the item himself.

On the stone platform, Zhao Ming had already closed his eyes.

He pricked his fingertip and dripped a drop of essence blood onto the pale bone whistle.

The whistle vibrated slightly, and the dark patterns on its surface lit up.

Zhao Ming immediately began to circulate the Mystic Yin Technique. Wisps of cold air rose from the pool water, surrounding his body and seeping into the whistle.

Li Pingsheng waited quietly for the right moment.

Time ticked by, second by second.

Zhao Ming's breathing gradually steadied; he had entered the critical stage of refining the whistle.

Now.

Li Pingsheng did not reveal himself, nor did he make a large disturbance.

He channeled a thread of the vibration force from Thunderclap Explosion, gathering it at his fingertip.

With a flick of his finger, a pebble the size of a grain of rice was shot out silently.

The target of the pebble was not Zhao Ming, nor the bone whistle, but a stalactite hanging from the cave ceiling directly above the Cold Spring, already eroded and fragile from the spring water.

The impact was not great, but it was enough to snap the stalactite.

The half-man-tall stalactite broke off with a sound and plummeted straight toward the Cold Spring.

The stalactite crashed into the Cold Spring, splashing a massive spray of water.

The water in the pool surged violently, a torrent of water slamming against the stone platform in the center.

Zhao Ming, who had been circulating his energy with his eyes closed, felt a massive force strike him. The blood energy circulating within him via the Mystic Yin Technique stalled, and his body swayed violently.

Distracted by the churning of his blood energy, he instinctively opened his eyes.

In that moment of chaos, a black shadow moved.

Li Pingsheng pushed his Wind Treading talent to its limit.

He cut through the swirling mist and swept across the stone platform in a flash.

His speed was blinding.

His hand reached out with precision, snatching the Beast-Controlling Bone Whistle just as it was about to fall into the Cold Spring Deep Pool after being knocked up by the water.

The item was in his grasp.

Li Pingsheng did not leave immediately.

As he snatched the whistle, he flicked his wrist, tossing a common white animal bone he had prepared beforehand—one similar in weight and texture to the whistle—out from his sleeve.

The substitute bone traced an arc through the air and splashed into the water not far from Zhao Ming.

Having done all this, Li Pingsheng's figure had already returned to the shadows of the ventilation shaft.

The entire process was completed in a heartbeat.

The mist slowly dissipated.

On the stone platform, Zhao Ming finally steadied himself and suppressed his roiling blood energy.

He looked down, only to find his knees empty.

The Beast-Controlling Bone Whistle that had been resting there was gone.

"What's going on? My... where is my bone whistle?"

Zhao Ming only remembered the water erupting, his blood energy backfiring, and then the sound of something falling into the water.

He turned his head stiffly toward the direction of the sound.

The turbulent Cold Spring Deep Pool churned with whirlpools, its depths bottomless.

Did the bone whistle fall in?

Zhao Ming was stunned.

It was his own instability during his cultivation, his loss of focus, that had caused his aura to go haywire and knock the whistle away.

He had lost it with his own hands.

That was the Beast-Controlling Bone Whistle, the key to the Zhao Family's grand plan to annex the Outer City, and his father's hope for him.

If his father found out he had lost the item for such a reason, Zhao Ming dared not think further.

His father might strip him of his status as heir, or even beat him to death.

The color drained from his face instantly.

What should he do?

A thought emerged in his mind.

He couldn't let this get out.

He would claim he had successfully refined it, that the whistle had acknowledged him as its master and was now tucked away in his robes.

His father wouldn't check every time; as long as he made excuses later, claiming the whistle required essence blood to nurture and couldn't be shown to others, he could always bluff his way through.

Zhao Ming forced himself to calm down, straightened his clothes, and jumped off the stone platform.

He spoke in a low voice to the empty cavern.

"Hmph, Li Pingsheng, once the Martial Hall Grand Exam is over, that will be the day you die!"

Behind the ventilation shaft, Li Pingsheng watched the entire scene unfold.

This idiot is already a dead man, he thought, he just doesn't know it yet.

Li Pingsheng opened his palm, looking at the pale bone whistle resting there.

Now, the evidence was in his hands.

Next, it was time to deliver this "grand gift" to the Black Water Gang.