Anger wouldn't solve anything. If anything, it would cloud his judgment.
Li Pingsheng needed a meticulous plan, one that would deal a devastating blow to the Zhao Family.
Inside the cave, the man in black robes chuckled several times, then pulled something from his robes and handed it to Zhao Zhentian.
It was a pale bone whistle about three inches long, covered in dense, dark markings.
"First published on Taiwan Novel Network..." ### "This is a Beast-Controlling Bone Whistle, refined from the brow bone of a hundred-year-old vicious beast. Only with my secret method can you use it to command blood slaves."
"Clan Leader Zhao, I've already erased the mental imprint from this item. But the process of claiming it is dangerous, so it must be done by a direct descendant."
Zhao Zhentian took the Bone Whistle and gripped it tightly.
He turned and placed it in Zhao Ming's hands.
"Ming'er, listen carefully."
"This Bone Whistle is the key to my Zhao Family's takeover of the Outer City. You must sit alone on the stone platform at the center of Cold Spring and drip your direct-line blood essence into the whistle."
He pointed to the stone platform in the middle of the limestone cave, surrounded by a pool of water.
Wisps of white mist rose from the cold pool, and the vapor carried a chill.
"Then close your eyes and circulate my Zhao Family's ancestral Mystic Yin Technique, guiding the yin energy of Cold Spring to merge with your blood essence and nourish the Bone Whistle."
"The entire process will take half an hour. During that time, you absolutely mustn't open your eyes, and you mustn't stop circulating your qi and blood."
"Otherwise, the vicious beast's remnant soul inside the Bone Whistle will immediately reject your blood essence and go berserk. Then the whistle will fall into the abyss beneath Cold Spring, never to be recovered!"
Zhao Ming nodded. "Father, don't worry! For the sake of killing that bastard Li Pingsheng, I'll succeed!"
"Very good."
Zhao Zhentian nodded in satisfaction, then cupped his hands toward the man in black robes. "Sir, we won't disturb you any longer."
The man in black robes chuckled, his figure swaying as he melted into the shadows at the cave entrance and disappeared.
Zhao Zhentian also brought several trusted guards and turned to leave the limestone cave.
Before long, only Zhao Ming and the pool of Cold Spring remained in the enormous cave.
Behind the ventilation shaft, Li Pingsheng watched everything.
The Beast-Controlling Bone Whistle was evidence that the Zhao Family had colluded with demonic practitioners to manipulate the beast calamity. It was also something Zhao Ming couldn't afford to lose.
At first, he'd thought about stealing one of Zhao Ming's jade pendants and framing him with it.
Now he had a better option.
This was a perfect opportunity.
Li Pingsheng watched Zhao Ming take a deep breath, leap onto the stone platform at the center of Cold Spring, and sit cross-legged.
His Martial Wisdom talent activated. The cave's structure, Cold Spring's properties, the flaws in Zhao Ming's technique—all the information was sorted and synthesized in his mind, forming a plan.
Beneath the stone platform lay Cold Spring Deep Pool, an abyss with no visible bottom.
Through the insight of Martial Wisdom, he knew that a swift underground river ran beneath the pool.
Anything that fell in would be swept away at once.
This was the perfect place for the evidence to "disappear without a trace."
A plan took shape in Li Pingsheng's mind.
Li Pingsheng didn't just want to steal the Bone Whistle. He also wanted Zhao Ming to believe that he'd lost it with his own hands.
On the stone platform, Zhao Ming had already closed his eyes.
He pricked his fingertip and let a drop of blood essence fall onto the pale Bone Whistle.
The Bone Whistle trembled slightly, and the dark markings on its surface glimmered.
Zhao Ming immediately began circulating the Mystic Yin Technique. Wisps of chill rose from the pool, curled around his body, and seeped into the Bone Whistle.
Li Pingsheng waited quietly for his chance.
Time passed, second by second.
Zhao Ming's breathing gradually steadied. He had entered the crucial stage of refining the Bone Whistle.
Now.
Li Pingsheng didn't show himself or make a scene.
He circulated a trace of the quaking force from Thunderclap Explosion, gathering it at his fingertip.
With a flick, he silently sent a grain-sized pebble flying.
The pebble's target wasn't Zhao Ming or the Bone Whistle, but a stalactite above Cold Spring. It hung from the cave ceiling and had already been weakened by the spring water.
The impact was small, but enough to break it.
The stalactite, half a man's height, snapped and fell straight toward Cold Spring.
It crashed into the pool, sending up a huge splash.
The water surged violently, and a wave slammed into the stone platform at the center.
Zhao Ming, eyes closed as he practiced, felt a powerful force hit him. The qi and blood circulating through his body seized up, and he swayed violently.
His qi and blood roiled, distracting him for an instant. He opened his eyes instinctively.
In the chaos, a shadow moved.
Li Pingsheng pushed his Wind Treading talent to its limit.
He darted through the spreading mist and swept past the stone platform.
His speed was blinding.
His hand shot out with pinpoint precision. Just before the Bone Whistle, swept up by the current, could fall into the pool, he snatched it into his palm.
He had it.
Li Pingsheng didn't simply leave.
As he snatched the Bone Whistle, he turned his wrist and flicked an ordinary white beast bone from his sleeve. He had prepared it in advance, matching the whistle's weight and texture.
The substitute traced an arc through the air and fell into the pool not far from Zhao Ming.
By the time he'd done all this, Li Pingsheng had already returned to the shadows behind the ventilation shaft.
The entire process took only an instant.
The mist slowly cleared.
At last, Zhao Ming steadied himself on the stone platform and suppressed his surging qi and blood.
He looked down. His knees were bare.
The Beast-Controlling Bone Whistle that had been resting there was gone.
"What happened? My... where's my Bone Whistle?"
Zhao Ming only remembered the pool surging violently, his qi and blood flowing in reverse, and then the sound of something falling into the water.
He turned stiffly toward the sound.
The water in Cold Spring Deep Pool rushed past, its surface swirling into a vortex. The bottom was nowhere in sight.
Had the Bone Whistle fallen in?
Zhao Ming froze.
His unstable breathing had caused him to lose focus. The resulting disorder in his qi had sent the Bone Whistle flying.
He had lost it with his own hands.
That was the Beast-Controlling Bone Whistle, the key to the Zhao Family's plan to take over the Outer City, and the embodiment of his father's expectations.
If his father found out he'd lost it for such a reason, Zhao Ming didn't dare imagine what would happen.
His father might strip him of his right to inherit—or even beat him to death.
His face drained of color.
What should he do?
An idea surfaced in his mind.
He couldn't tell anyone.
He would say he'd successfully refined it and the Bone Whistle had recognized him as its master, then that he'd tucked it away.
His father wouldn't check every time. As long as Zhao Ming later made an excuse—that the Bone Whistle needed to be nourished with blood essence and couldn't be shown to others—he could keep up the charade.
Zhao Ming forced himself to calm down, straightened his clothes, and leaped down from the stone platform.
Facing the empty limestone cave, he muttered, "Hmph, Li Pingsheng. Once the Martial Hall Grand Exam is over, you're a dead man!"
Behind the ventilation shaft, Li Pingsheng had seen it all.
He thought, That fool is already dead. He just doesn't know it yet.
Li Pingsheng opened his palm and looked at the pale Bone Whistle resting there.
Now he had the evidence.
Next, it was time to deliver this "grand gift" to the Black Water Gang.
Before you continue