"Brother Xin, you hold my biggest weakness in your hands. How could I ever turn the tables? You can feast on me for the rest of my life."
Dai Yueying felt that Lianshan Xin was far too cautious-so cautious that he was being unreasonable.
But her explanation failed to move him.
He did indeed have leverage over Dai Yueying now.
But that could only keep Dai Yueying the Demon Cult demoness in check.
It could not keep Dai Yueying the Great Yu princess in check.
If Dai Yueying really was a princess, and her identity came to light after he reported her ties to the Demon Cult...
His Majesty might simply ask, "My daughter is colluding with demons too?"
How would Lianshan Xin answer?
"How much do you know about your mother's identity?" Lianshan Xin asked.
Dai Yueying was thoroughly puzzled. "My mother died giving birth to me. Didn't you already know that, Brother Xin?"
Lianshan Xin did know, because that was the story Dai Yongzhen had told the world.
He saw no signs that Dai Yueying was lying, though of course he could not be absolutely certain.
He could only make his own judgment. It seemed Dai Yueying really knew nothing about Blood Guanyin.
That made sense. If Dai Yueying knew she was Blood Guanyin's daughter, taking Thousand Faces as her master would have been very strange.
The Demon Cult was rife with scheming and infighting, its four elders representing four factions. The complete lack of contact between Dai Yongzhen's network and President Qu made it clear that Blood Guanyin and Thousand Faces had no intention of cooperating for mutual benefit.
Allowing Thousand Faces to control her daughter's life and future would naturally have been a very foolish thing to do.
Blood Guanyin did not care about Dai Yueying.
He could even venture a bolder guess: Blood Guanyin did not know that the man who had seduced her back then was now the emperor of Great Yu.
Otherwise, Dai Yueying should have been a rare treasure to hoard and bargain with.
If all those conjectures were correct, then even if he killed Dai Yueying, Thousand Faces would have no grounds to threaten him over it.
At that thought, Lianshan Xin breathed a little easier.
"Your father belonged to the Demon Cult. Have you never considered that your mother might have belonged to it too?"
Lianshan Xin's question left Dai Yueying stunned.
"You have an innate alluring constitution. Have you ever considered that you inherited it from your mother? Who else in the Demon Cult has an innate alluring constitution?"
"Blood Guanyin," Dai Yueying blurted out.
Lianshan Xin raised his brows slightly.
His confidence in his conjecture had risen from ninety percent to ninety-nine.
In truth, at this point, there was no need to agonize over that last one percent.
"Master said he wanted to turn me into a second Blood Guanyin," Dai Yueying hurriedly added.
Lianshan Xin smiled. "You're a clever woman. By now, you should have realized what I'm trying to say."
"Impossible, Brother Xin. Blood Guanyin has always given men the cold shoulder. What could my father possibly have had to offer her that she would bear his child?"
"Exactly. Dai Yongzhen wasn't worthy."
Lianshan Xin said softly, "So there's more to your parentage than meets the eye. Dai Yueying, you come from either wealth or nobility. Tell me, can I really keep you under my thumb?"
Dai Yueying shuddered, snapping back to reality. "You can. You absolutely can. Brother Xin, I would never dare betray you."
"I can listen to words like that, but you don't actually expect me to believe them, do you?"
"I'll take medicine. I'm willing to take poison and submit to your commands. Uncle Lianshan is Jiangzhou's miracle physician. He must have medicine like that."
For an instant, Lianshan Xin was sorely tempted.
Unfortunately, it was only an instant.
Dai Yueying's proposal was quite feasible in itself, and from her current perspective, it showed considerable sincerity.
But she had no idea just how powerful her origins might be.
Nor did Lianshan Xin know just how deep the resources of the Great Yu Imperial Family, with its thousand-year legacy, truly ran.
However gifted Lianshan Jingcheng might be as Jiangzhou's miracle physician, how effective would his methods be against the emperor of Great Yu, who held the entire realm in his hands?
Lianshan Xin had no confidence.
After all, this was a world of mighty martial powers, where even immortal cultivation was possible. There were too many unknowns.
"Brother Xin, take me. Once you've taken me, I'll be yours. Whatever my origins, I'll belong to you from then on."
Dai Yueying was truly fighting hard to snatch survival from a hopeless situation.
Smiling, Lianshan Xin patted her pretty face. Along with that reward, he offered sincere praise. "I'm beginning to admire you. When all is said and done, we're both struggling with everything we have. I come from humble origins, and you're caught in a whirlpool. If we want to climb higher, we have to stake our lives. We're both fallen souls adrift at the ends of the earth. We really should help each other. Besides, you can help me cultivate."
Joy finally appeared in Dai Yueying's eyes.
Had her acupoints not been sealed, she would have nodded vigorously.
She was only eighteen this year, in the flowering years of her youth. She had nowhere near lived enough.
"Brother Xin, release my acupoints. I'll help you cultivate right now."
Lianshan Xin did not release them.
"The vengeance owed for a father's murder leaves no room beneath the same sky for both parties. Can you really let it go?"
"That vengeance does leave no room beneath the same sky. But Father is already dead, and I can't possibly take revenge on you, Brother Xin. If you're still worried, I'll sever my ties with him right now."
Dai Yueying displayed her ruthless decisiveness. "As long as I'm not his daughter, there's no vengeance for a father's murder between us."
Lianshan Xin could not help laughing. "You really are willing to go all out."
"Brother Xin, according to you, he and I weren't truly father and daughter to begin with," Dai Yueying explained in her own defense.
"The debt of being raised outweighs the debt of being born."
That was Lianshan Xin's belief.
Nor did he think Dai Yueying believed the debt of birth outweighed the debt of upbringing.
Of course, if her birth father was the emperor of Great Yu and the man who had raised her was merely an ordinary Demon Cult member, that was another matter.
Dai Yueying did not want to dwell on this question. She continued taking the initiative. "Brother Xin, if you still don't trust me, why don't you give me a child? Once the raw rice is cooked, even if my birth parents find me someday, they'll have no choice but to accept you."
Once again, Lianshan Xin revised his opinion of the woman before him.
She really was trying hard.
In some respects, she was trying just as hard as he was.
And the solution she proposed was not entirely without a chance of success.
Lianshan Xin was not a bloodthirsty man, either.
He considered Dai Yueying's suggestion very seriously.
Just then, Du Jiu knocked on the door from outside.
"Sir, I have something to report."
Lianshan Xin set Dai Yueying down and stepped out of the room.
"What is it?"
Du Jiu reported in a low voice, "I stationed men at the clinic to protect your parents. Just now, the men posted there caught someone outside."
After a pause, Du Jiu continued gravely, "A Demon Cult disciple. We at Nine Heavens had already identified him. This time, he came with serious injuries, seeking treatment from your father."
Lianshan Xin's expression turned cold. "To frame my father for secretly colluding with the Demon Cult?"
Judging others by himself, he immediately thought of that possibility.
Du Jiu nodded. "Our men used a few methods and discovered that a woman secretly instructed him to go there."
With that, Du Jiu pointed into the room.
Lianshan Xin glanced at the Demon Cult disciple at Qi Wenbin's feet.
He walked over, set his blade against the man's neck, and questioned him again.
After obtaining a definite answer, Lianshan Xin tilted his head toward the sky and let out a long, quiet sigh.
At that moment, he thought of Dorgon.
How difficult it was to bed a woman into submission-especially an ambitious woman.
Dai Yueying's advantage was that she did not already have a child in tow. If she truly became pregnant with his child, she would be easier to bed into submission than Da Yuer.
But Lianshan Xin had no intention of having children now. A child would not merely be Dai Yueying's weakness, but his as well.
Most importantly...
Trust was hard to build, but easy to destroy.
His parents' safety was Lianshan Xin's reverse scale-the one place no one could touch.
"Kill him."
Lianshan Xin did not personally kill the Demon Cult disciple.
He returned to his room.
He looked at Dai Yueying's expectant face.
His voice and gaze were both very gentle.
"Demoness, fulfill your promise. Help me cultivate."
"All right..."
Dai Yueying had only just been overwhelmed with joy when her body went rigid and her gaze froze, filled with utter disbelief.
Lianshan Xin gently brushed her eyes closed. After drawing the blade from her heart, he lightly swept it across her throat.
"Not touching you before killing you was my bottom line as a man. If you have any awareness beneath the springs of death, you ought to be grateful!"
Before you continue