Ghost Vine Twines Around the Tree and Climbs with the Momentum

The truly unexpected turn of events made Liu Dongqing's response lag by a beat.

Meanwhile.

Without waiting for Liu Dongqing's answer, Zhang Qiwei's voice continued to echo through the empty hall.

"But if you accept this art, there are certain things that must be said beforehand.

Tending the Jade Cloud Fruit will thus become part of your duty. No matter how well you do it from now on, there will be no further rewards from me.

I am telling you this upfront, lest you harbor expectations only to be disappointed in the end, and grow resentful because of it.

Furthermore.

Passing on an art is different from rewarding you with those spirit stones, Spirit Beads, and spirit brew. It cannot be compared with ordinary cultivation resources.

If you accept an art I created, it means outsiders will regard you as a true part of my foundation, and you will inevitably be drawn into the storm of the struggle for position.

That means Senior Brother Zhao will certainly make another move against you.

But all such turmoil will be confined within the rules of the struggle for position.

Fortunately, you are somewhat gifted. Before this, you were already able to fight and kill your senior brother's Dao Slave across a minor realm. Not to mention that after learning the <Little Thought Primordial Furnace Fire-Nurturing Art>, you can sever stray thoughts and cast them into the Candle Flame, adding another thirty percent to the fire's force.

And precisely because of that, once you accept this art, my requirements of you will no longer be limited to protecting and properly tending those Jade Cloud Fruit.

I also require that, in the coming turmoil of the struggle for position, you are not to disgrace yourself!

Otherwise, would that not mean the art I, Zhang Qiwei, passed down is inferior even to the cultivation of one of his Dao Slaves?

When the time comes, even if you are lucky enough to survive, you will still have to answer for it before me!"

When Manager Hou heard that she intended to pass on an art, he had already abruptly raised his head again. In great astonishment, his gaze kept circling Liu Dongqing.

His lips even began to move faintly, as though he were choosing his words and preparing to speak at any moment, to interrupt Liu Dongqing's stroke of fortune.

But after hearing the "conditions" Zhang Qiwei added afterward.

Manager Hou's expression immediately returned to calm indifference. He lowered his head again, watching his nose with his eyes and his heart with his nose, wearing an air of "none of my business."

Yet Liu Dongqing, upon hearing Zhang Qiwei's words, appeared very calm.

Some of those "conditions," Liu Dongqing had already anticipated long before Zhang Qiwei added them.

He had long been mentally prepared for that so-called Senior Brother Zhao to strike again.

Though his purpose this time had been to throw the great trouble onto Zhang Qiwei, he had never "imagined" that he could keep himself completely untouched.

He had killed the man's Dao Slave. How could Senior Brother Zhao possibly have no reaction at all?

If Zhang Qiwei could shield Liu Dongqing so thoroughly, would that not mean she had already completely crushed Senior Brother Zhao in terms of momentum? What position would there be left to contest? Why not simply declare Senior Sister Zhang the winner?

From beginning to end, what Liu Dongqing feared and what he needed Senior Sister Zhang to "hold back" was the unknown nature of Senior Brother Zhao's methods—the unreasonable, crushing blow from a higher dimension that might come directly from an inner sect senior brother, another scion of a great family.

Viewed from that angle, being confined by the rules was instead Liu Dongqing's greatest protection.

Being confined within the rules of the struggle for position is good!

Liu has been kindhearted by nature, and all his life, he has loved obeying rules most of all.

Thus, beneath Zhang Qiwei's gaze, Liu Dongqing merely smiled calmly.

Rather than answer Zhang Qiwei directly, he asked another question.

"Then according to Senior Sister, if there are cultivators like them again, who come to visit this junior brother uninvited, and if I were to..."

Liu Dongqing drew out the last word, then raised his hand like a blade and slashed it diagonally downward.

That question was practically a direct answer in itself.

And as he made that gesture, Liu Dongqing had his head slightly lowered and did not see the flash of appreciation that passed through Zhang Qiwei's eyes. The brightness in those clear eyes at that instant even surpassed what had appeared when she saw the Azure Flame Flying Bird Spirit Aspect.

But Liu Dongqing heard the undisguised amusement in Zhang Qiwei's voice.

"Do not worry. Kill them if they deserve killing; bury them in the fields as fertilizer.

In an inner sect struggle for position, does the death of one or two people even count as a matter?"

As she spoke, Zhang Qiwei pressed him with another question.

"What exactly do you think?"

Hearing this, Liu Dongqing answered without the slightest hesitation.

"This junior brother is willing to accept this art!"

This time.

He truly saw the smile bloom across Zhang Qiwei's exquisite face.

"Good! There is one benefit I could only tell you after you agreed—once this art is upon you, if you truly enter Rising Mist Dao Academy in the future, the Seven Emotions Enter the Flame lineage of Departure Peak will have a threshold three parts lower for you than for others!"

As her words fell.

Manager Hou, who had been lost in thought, abruptly raised his head.

But this time, before he could gather himself to say anything.

After Liu Dongqing stepped forward and accepted a handwritten manual, Zhang Qiwei's utterly cool voice had already rung out.

"Enough. We will end here today. You may both leave at your leisure. I will not see you out."

Thus, Manager Hou could only swallow his words once more.

A moment later.

On the bluestone path leading down from Departure Peak, Manager Hou walked ahead with slightly heavy steps.

But from the corners of his narrow eyes, he kept glancing at Liu Dongqing, who trailed half a step behind him.

At this moment, Liu Dongqing carried two or three bundles of varying sizes over his shoulder. One hand pressed against his chest, where he had tucked away a Daoist manual, yet his gait was incomparably light.

Several times.

Manager Hou seemed to want to say something to Liu Dongqing.

But when the words reached his lips, they were forced back by his tightly pursed mouth.

And just when he seemed to have truly figured out what he wanted to say.

His courtyard, nestled amid the mountain forest, happened to be right before them.

"Manager Hou, it is late. I will take my leave first."

Rarely, Liu Dongqing greeted him with great warmth. Then, without waiting for Manager Hou's response, he continued down the bluestone path on his own.

Thus.

Manager Hou stood silently at the entrance to his own courtyard.

He only felt that he had swallowed more words tonight than he had spoken in the previous month.

"Alas..."

All those carefully composed words in his belly ultimately turned into nothing more than a breath of turbid air and an incomparably complicated sigh, scattered into the night wind.

Small courtyard, bedroom.

When Liu Dongqing sat down again, his expression was composed, and the lightheartedness he had deliberately put on to disgust Manager Hou was gone from his face.

The scorched stench of Jade Cloud Fruit being burned by blazing flames had yet to fully dissipate from the courtyard, but Liu Dongqing found this brief span of time unbearably long.

He placed the bundles and the Daoist manual on the table, yet did not look through them first.

Fortunately... the outcome was good!

As he thought this, a fleeting smile even crossed Liu Dongqing's face.

Zhang Qiwei added a final set of conditions, then only after I made my choice did she reveal the hidden benefits of cultivating this art.

She struck with the stick, then hurriedly offered a sweet date.

It seems that although this Senior Sister Zhang is somewhat young at heart by nature, she is still a scion of a great family. She truly understands everything Manager Hou understands; she merely lacks a little experience. And that experience will be filled in during the struggle for position.

Therefore, I can take advantage of the timing to slip through a few cracks, but I must never treat her like a fool simply because of today's matter. Otherwise, the one who loses out in the end will certainly be me!

In the end, her insistence on using such tactics on Liu is simply because she instinctively felt she had suffered a loss after giving me the art and wanted to make up for it.

At the root of it, she simply believes Liu is not irreplaceable.

After all, the Jade Cloud Fruit do not belong to me alone. At worst, if I die in the aftermath of the struggle for position, she merely needs to seek Jade Cloud Fruit elsewhere. With the world so vast, are there truly objects money cannot buy?

Moreover, how can I be certain that the several months, or even half a year, delayed by this matter would truly affect the overall situation of her struggle for position?

So in her eyes, my presence merely makes things more convenient and reduces risks and complications, but cannot determine the critical point of victory or defeat in her struggle for position.

I am the optimal solution, but not the only solution.

By the time he thought of this, the smile on Liu Dongqing's face had become deeply meaningful.

He took out the jade vat and the Ghost Vine hidden in the secret chamber beneath his bed.

Senior Sister Zhang, what you miscalculated was that you do not know the wondrous mysteries of the profound methods of my Mystic Sect's Ghost Vine Lineage...