Cai Di, at the Integrated Body Middle Stage, could have dealt with two cultivators whose highest realm was only the Division Spirit Realm with effortless ease.
Cai Di tossed Nangong Shenyao and the pretty young woman down in front of Chen Xiao, looking thoroughly disgruntled. Then he stood off to the side and sulked.
A renowned master of the Body Integration Realm, a Poison Immortal of his generation, had actually resorted to ambushing someone like a street thug. If word got out, Cai Di might as well quit the business.
Chen Xiao didn't bother with pleasantries. He immediately stripped the Storage Ring from Nangong Shenyao's hand, then said to Cai Di, "Do you have any particularly vicious slow-acting poison? Give Nangong Shenyao some."
Only then did Cai Di's face break into a smile. Poisoning people was his specialty, after all. He preferred it to clubbing people from behind.
At Chen Xiao's instruction, Cai Di set up a ward in a room to seal it off, then blocked all six senses of the young woman. After that, he sealed Nangong Shenyao's cultivation and brought him around.
"Who are you?"
The instant Nangong Shenyao regained consciousness, fear flashed in his eyes. Then he composed himself. After all, he was the head of the Nangong Family and Nangong Shenhe's younger brother. He wasn't so useless as to fall apart.
He wasn't foolish enough to invoke the Nangong Family's name to threaten them. If these three masked men had dared to come here, they clearly weren't afraid of the Nangong Family.
A sinister smile spread across Cai Di's face. He flipped his right hand, revealing a black pill, then flicked it with his fingertip and sent it straight into Nangong Shenyao's body.
Nangong Shenyao's face changed dramatically. The moment the pill entered his body, it turned into a black flame that began burning inside his Nascent Soul. In an instant, his once-golden Nascent Soul turned black.
"Infant Shadow Poison! You're Poison Immortal Cai Di!"
Feeling the change in his Nascent Soul, Nangong Shenyao let out a shrill cry, terror filling his voice.
Infant Shadow Poison followed the Nascent Soul like a shadow. It didn't harm the body, only poisoned the Nascent Soul. Once the poison took effect, the victim's three souls and seven spirits would be sealed inside the Nascent Soul forever, unable to pass on. The body would become a puppet, a Poison Chief under the poisoner's control.
"Nangong Shenyao, you know a thing or two. You actually recognized my Infant Shadow Poison. Since the last great battle, I've lost all my Poison Chiefs and am in desperate need of new ones."
Poison Immortal Cai Di cackled eerily.
Hearing the Poison Immortal's words, even Chen Xiao and Mengmeng couldn't help shuddering. The old man was truly terrifying. He could refine cultivators into Poison Chiefs while they were still alive. No wonder cultivators in the Immortal World couldn't stand him.
But although the Poison Immortal said all that, he didn't act on it. Nangong Shenyao was very useful to Chen Xiao. If he were refined into a Poison Chief, he would become a mindless corpse, useful for nothing but fighting.
By now, Nangong Shenyao's eyes had gone vacant, and his whole body was trembling like a leaf. Even Nangong Shenhe would probably have struggled to stay calm in this situation.
No cultivator was unafraid of death. Otherwise, why pursue immortality? Most people's dream of becoming an immortal was simply a desire to live a little longer.
But there was something even more terrifying than death: being unable to live and unable to die. Being refined into a Poison Chief was clearly one such fate.
"Still, I'm merciful. Since you've cultivated all the way to the Division Spirit Realm, it wasn't easy for you. So I don't intend to refine you into a Poison Chief."
Cai Di's tone changed as he spoke.
Before Nangong Shenyao could breathe a sigh of relief, Cai Di continued as if to himself, "But the Infant Shadow Poison is already inside your Nascent Soul. If I so much as stir my mind, I can turn you into a Poison Chief at any time."
Nangong Shenyao's eyes rolled back, and he slumped to the ground.
"Lord Poison Immortal, is there anything you need me to do?" After a while, Nangong Shenyao came to his senses. He wasn't some good-for-nothing. Nangong Shenhe wouldn't have sent him here if he didn't have something going for him.
Nangong Shenyao only had to think for a moment to realize the Poison Immortal had probably done this to control him and make him carry out some task.
"You're clever enough." Cai Di casually handed him the Storage Ring Chen Xiao had just taken and said, "Put all the Heavenly Mystery Stones your family has mined from the mines on Mingyu Mountain into this ring. Then解除 the blood pact on it."
At Cai Di's words, Nangong Shenyao felt his vision go dark, and he nearly fainted. Though he was deeply unwilling, he was even less willing to become a Poison Chief in an instant. So he did as the Poison Immortal ordered, gathering all the Heavenly Mystery Stones from the mines and putting them in the ring.
Nangong Shenyao felt like crying. Between his life and his family's interests, he had chosen his life.
"Good, good. Very good."
The Poison Immortal nodded in satisfaction. Chen Xiao and Mengmeng remained masked throughout, standing beside Cai Di like attendants without saying a word. They left everything to Cai Di.
Chen Xiao feared that if he revealed his identity, Nangong Shenyao might fight back. After all, Poison Immortal Cai Di had no grudge against the Nangong Family. Nangong Shenyao merely thought he needed Heavenly Mystery Stones and had come to rob some.
But the Nangong Family had been plotting against the Chen Clan all along. If Nangong Shenyao discovered the Chen Clan's involvement, the whole family could be wiped out. Who knew whether he might risk everything and reveal the truth?
That would put both the Chen Clan and Chen Xiao in a dire situation.
Everything had to be done through Cai Di.
"Lord Poison Immortal, could you remove the poison in my body now?"
After finishing all this, Nangong Shenyao asked cautiously.
"Remove it? Why would I?" Cai Di snorted. "I need a great deal of Heavenly Mystery Stones for my cultivation. Starting today, I'll come here on this day every month to collect them. Just give me nine-tenths of the mine's monthly output."
"Don't try anything clever, or I'll turn you into my Poison Chief this instant!"
This was too much for Nangong Shenyao. His eyes rolled back, and he fainted completely.
But just before he passed out, he secretly rejoiced that the Nangong Family's main mines weren't here. Otherwise, this would have cut off the roots of the entire family, and he would never have agreed, even if it meant self-destructing his Nascent Soul.
The Nangong Family could afford to lose a mine on Mingyu Mountain.
But Nangong Shenyao had no idea that from this moment on, he had become a hidden pawn Chen Xiao had planted in the Nangong Family. With Infant Shadow Poison in his body, one stir of Cai Di's mind would turn him into a terrifying Poison Chief.
"The Nangong Family really is wealthy."
Chen Xiao inspected the Heavenly Mystery Stones in the ring, his expression darkening slightly. There were no fewer than seventy thousand high-grade Heavenly Mystery Stones alone—more than the total annual output of the several large mines under the City Lord's Mansion.
That could only mean one thing: the Nangong Family had clearly tampered with Mingyu Mountain's main Spirit Vein.
"The Nangong Family really is no simple matter."
Chen Xiao pondered silently. Even the Immortal Martial Sect seemed wary of this family. Now they had dared to tamper with Mingyu Mountain's Spirit Vein too. Were they not afraid the Glazed Heaven Palace would come after them?