When Lu Ren walked out of the gate of the Ordinary Alliance's stronghold, he took a deep breath of fresh air from the ground, and the remaining underground dampness in his lungs was swept away by the dry autumn wind.
He moved his neck, the joints made a few slight snapping sounds, and his face returned to its usual casual expression.
Ye Guyi followed him, and when he walked out of the secret door, he subconsciously raised his hand to cover his eyes.
After staying underground for a long time, the sunlight was particularly dazzling.
She looked at the back of Lu Ren in front of her through her fingers, finally breathed a sigh of relief, patted her chest, and said with a hint of joy in her voice:
"I thought you were really going to have a fight with the Ordinary Alliance. With your posture just now, I was ready to help you block a few of them. I didn't expect that it would end in such a friendly ending."
Lu Ren kept walking and spoke calmly:
"I would never do anything to the Ordinary Alliance. I just scared them."
Ye Guyi paused in his steps, a trace of nervousness appeared on his pretty face:
"Ah? Is it just scary? As for that? Can't we sit down and have a good talk? You have created such a tense situation. You don't know. As soon as the aura on your body came out just now, I almost thought you were going to blow up the entire box in the next second. My heart is still beating so hard now."
Lu Ren stopped, turned around, and looked at Ye Guyi's face that was slightly red with excitement.
He looked at it for a few seconds and suddenly asked a question that puzzled Ye Guyi:
"Do you know how to write the character ""?"
Ye Guyi was stunned for a moment, then stamped his feet angrily.
Her blond hair swayed back and forth on her shoulders as she moved, reflecting dazzling light in the sunlight.
"Aren't you talking nonsense? I'm not illiterate, so of course I know how to write!"
Lu Ren didn't care about her annoyance. He raised his hand and made famous gestures with his index finger:
"If you look carefully at the word "person", it is supported by two directions: one stroke and one stroke, so that you can stand up straight."
"If you remove it in any direction, the person will fall. It will not be able to stand up with just one stroke of its own."
He put down his hands and continued:
"And the word "Peng" for a friend is made up of two months. The two months stand side by side. No one is overpowering the other, and no one is superior to the other. Both parties are equal and rely on each other. This is a friend."
His eyes fell on Ye Guyi's face, and his tone became a little more serious:
"So what I want to say is that human beings are essentially about interactions between interests."
"You don't have what I want, why should I help you?"
"And if I have what you want, and you have what I want, then we can work together to achieve each other's goals."
"This is the underlying logic of interpersonal relationships. I want you from Shangguan Wei'er because you are useful to me. Shangguan Wei'er agreed to give you to me because I can give her the benefits she wants."
"The reason why you are willing to follow me is because I can make you stronger and give you protection. And when you become stronger, it is also good for me. Everyone in this chain is getting what they want. This is the basis for a cooperative relationship."
"Without this, relying solely on emotion, morality, and favor is called charity, not cooperation."
"Alms will not last long, cooperation will last long."
He paused and continued:
"What's more, for a woman like Shangguan Wei'er who has climbed from the bottom to where she is today, every decision she makes cannot be made based on emotion."
"From the beginning, she was suspicious of me, so she hesitated and tried to take advantage of me."
"Until I showed my hand and confirmed her suspicion, letting her see with her own eyes the strength and value I displayed, and having an equal status with her, letting her experience for herself that I am indeed capable of making her pay a heavy price, do you think her attitude changed immediately?"
"From suspicion to warmth, from alienation to intimacy, it took less than a blink of an eye. Do you think she was really fascinated by me when she sat next to me in the end? She was investing, and she was using her own way to show her goodwill to me, to close the relationship, and to pave the way for deeper cooperation in the future."
Ye Guyi blinked, thought about it blankly, and found that this seemed to be the case.
Lu Ren looked away and his tone became more relaxed:
"At this time, there is no need for me to continue to be aggressive. She has given in, and I have shown my value. Both parties can benefit, so the attitude will naturally become friendly."
"We will continue to cooperate in the future. There is no need to make the relationship too tense. This is why we can end on a friendly note."
He raised his eyebrows, and a hint of a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth:
"Otherwise, do you really think I'm a fool? If I say I want to fuck you Ordinary Alliance, do I really want to do it?"
Ye Guyi nodded subconsciously, then immediately reacted and quickly shook his head.
Her cheeks turned redder. This time she was not angry, but ashamed, because Lu Ren was right.
At that moment in the box, she really thought Lu Ren was going to take action.
She even began to quickly calculate in her mind how many people in the box she could stop and how many people she could not stop. As a result, after a long time of doing this, they had no intention of hitting them from the beginning to the end.
"I thought you really wanted to kill someone..." She muttered in a low voice with some shame.
Lu Ren shook his head, the smile on his face faded a bit, and his tone returned to that calm and almost cold rationality:
"Killing is the only choice for the inferior. I will not kill Ordinary Alliance's people unless it is absolutely necessary. Killing Shangguan Wei'er's people would be equivalent to forming a deadly feud with the Ordinary Alliance."
"No matter how strong I am, there will be endless follow-up troubles, not to mention that I still need their help. A Ordinary Alliance who is alive and willing to cooperate is much more useful than a Ordinary Alliance who was killed to pieces by me."
He raised a finger, as if he was telling a very simple truth:
"So the strategy I set from the beginning is that even if there is a conflict with the Ordinary Alliance, I will only injure half of them and leave the other half."
"Injury but not killing, just enough shock is enough so that they can see my power without forming an irresolvable hatred. This way, there is room for cooperation afterwards."
He retracted his fingers and spread his hands.
"Of course, the best result is that you don't even have to fight. It turns out that Shangguan Wei'er is smarter than I thought."
"She made the right choice before I took action. There is a reason why you Ordinary Alliance are where you are today."
Ye Guyi was silent.
She followed Lu Ren with her head lowered, her long golden hair covering half of her face, and her expression could not be seen clearly.
After walking for a while, she whispered in a low voice, as if she was talking to herself:
"... I really don't know what you have been through. You are obviously the same age as me, but you think so thoughtfully."
"You have even figured out Sister Shangguan's thoughts. At your age Soul Master, it is a great time to practice. Besides practicing, who would think so much?"
Lu Ren curled his lips, too lazy to explain.
"Lu Ren."
Ji Juechen, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke. His voice was a bit lower than usual, as if he was brewing some important topic.
"Your second Self-Created Domain..." He paused, as if he was considering his words, "I want to see it."
In the box before, Lu Ren made that new gesture when preparing Domain Expansion, which Ji Juechen still can't let go of until now.
He created a prototype of Sword Intent Domain and already felt that he had no regrets in this life, and Lu Ren actually mastered at least two completely different fields.
This gap could no longer be described as a chasm, but he still wanted to witness it with his own eyes. There was no other way. This was a swordsman's desire for a higher realm.
Lu Ren's expression rarely became serious. He looked at Ji Juechen's flaming eyes, was silent for several breaths, and then slowly shook his head.
"That area... how should I put it, is somewhat special and will cause great harm to you. If I don't control it well, you will die."
Death will not die.
But he didn't want to expose Reverse Cursed Technique's trump card of being able to heal others unconditionally, so the time had not yet come.
Ji Juechen was silent for a few breaths, and his eyes stayed on Lu Ren's face for a while, as if he was confirming something.
Then he nodded slowly.
"Okay."
Since Lu Ren said he would die, he really would die.
And he believes that if one day the time comes, Lu Ren will definitely let him see that field.
Until then, he just needs to keep sharpening his sword.
"What Self-Created Domain?" Ye Guyi looked back and forth between the two of them with a confused expression, "What are you talking about? Self-Created Domain? Can you even make that thing yourself?"
"It's none of your business." Lu Ren glared at her and blocked her curiosity with one sentence, "Let's go and see Aodu Chamber of Commerce. I don't know how they are doing now."
Ye Guyi shrank in response to his glare, but he muttered, "I'm just curious," and kept up with Lu Ren's pace.