Under One Person, your rebellious life has reached the heavens?

Chengzhen nodded in agreement.

"Uncle-Master, would you like to join us for a stroll?" Lu Jin asked Jiang Mo, who was playing chess with Cheng Zhen.

"No."

As Jiang Mo placed his piece, he replied, "With you watching over Lu Lin, that's enough. It gives me some peace and quiet."

He has been traveling for twenty years, visiting famous mountains, rivers, lakes and seas all over the country, and has seen all kinds of magnificent landscapes. He is not interested in the boring competition among the younger generation. Now that he has returned, he would rather spend time with his disciples and stay in a place he is familiar with.

"Yes, disciple understands."

Meanwhile, in front of Qingxin Hall, Zhuge Yu and Lu Linglong were sitting under an ancient tree drinking tea.

Perhaps out of pampering for the little fellow, he pulled out a number of magical artifacts from his robes, splendidly spread them on the stone table, and generously declared:

"Linglong, it's rare to see you like this. Your advisor has prepared some little trinkets for you. Take a look and see if you like any of them. Pick whatever you like."

"Oh! Really? Thank you, Master Zhuge!!"

The girl was overjoyed, her bright and clear eyes immediately drawn to the dark gold gourd on the far right.

"Master Zhuge, what is this?"

"Wow! Good eye."

Zhuge Yu picked up the Xuanjin Gourd and introduced it:

"It's called the Sword-Nourishing Gourd. Your great-grandfather had one in his early years, but let me tell you, yours is much more powerful than his. As long as you use your Qi to activate it, it will release strong sword energy. This is for saving your life."

"Take it."

"Here, there's also this."

"Huh? Master, why did you give me a tortoise shell?!"

"This is the Xuanwu Armor, which pairs perfectly with your sword-nurturing gourd, providing both offense and defense."

"Thank you, Master!"

........

Three days before the Luo Tian Grand Ritual.

Lüjia Village.

The stone door leading to the underground prison slowly opened, revealing an endless expanse of dark steps. Wang Ai, one of the Ten Elders, had come from afar at the invitation of his old friend Lü Ci.

"Da da da...."

The sound of footsteps echoed in the dim environment as the two reminisced and chatted before reaching their destination.

How have you been lately?

"The same as always, hehe." Wang Ai laughed with a calm yet strange expression.

"Eat less unclean food, or you'll eat yourself to death."

Lu Ci's words were pointed, and his tone carried a warning.

Since the tragic loss of the Wang family seventy years ago, Wang Ai's personality has changed drastically. He has been cultivating like a madman. Perhaps it is because of his ability to control spirits and command generals. Every time they meet, his old friend gives him a vague feeling of being a wild beast eating raw meat and drinking blood.

"Hedgehog, don't you know me? You know your limits."

Wang Aici's kind face concealed a chilling, sinister glint in her eyes.

"That's good....."

Lu Ci continued walking, then changed the subject, asking, "Have the arrangements been made for the people going to the Luo Tian Grand Ceremony?"

"Ah."

Wang Ai, leaning on his cane, stroked his beard and smiled: "The Celestial Master's Mansion wants to protect that little thing? It won't be that easy. If it weren't for the company keeping a close eye on things, I would have dealt with this remnant long ago."

"Oh? You want the Qi Source Flow?" Lu Ci's eyes narrowed slightly.

"You do not want?"

Wang Ai asked a question in return, and his answer was self-evident.

“Naturally, I’d like to find out more,” Lü Ci readily admitted.

Since the Jia Shen Rebellion, even though the Lü family obtained the incomplete Shuangquan Hand, they have been blessed with good fortune. The Qi Body Source Flow, which is on par with it, has appeared in the martial arts world. How could they not be tempted?

However, the current environment is different from before. If things are done too blatantly, the Lü family is still wary of crossing the company's bottom line and causing unnecessary trouble.

Knowing her concerns, Wang Ai spoke slowly and deliberately:

"For me, the source of Qi is secondary. The key is that the Celestial Master's Mansion wants Zhang Huaiyi's descendants to live, so I want them to die."

His calm words were laced with naked murderous intent; the hatred that had lasted for seventy years left no room for compromise.

"Ugh......"

"Fatty, I won't try to persuade you to give up."

"Since you want to fight the Celestial Master's Mansion to the death, then make more preparations and act cautiously."

Lü Ci understood what Fatty Wang had done.

If an old friend has the courage to bear all the possible consequences, he will not only not stop it, but will also add fuel to the fire at the right time.

Chapter 239 Soul Binding and Spirit Devouring: The Past of the Lü Family

The company's mission is to maintain the existing stable order; whoever causes trouble, they will deal with.

A thousand-year-old family versus a thousand-year-old tradition, even if they tear each other apart and make a scene in private, the company can just turn a blind eye. But if it's brought into the open, some things are as heavy as a thousand pounds if weighed out.

Speculation for profit, keen insight into current affairs, and winning people's hearts have always been traditional skills mastered by certain long-standing families.

Wang Ai was well aware of this, and he dared not touch the company's iron fist for the time being, nor did he ever want to.

"Look forward to my good news."

"Hmm... I hope everything goes well for both of us."

As they talked, they reached the end of the stairs, where a dark, damp dungeon reeked of decay.

As Lü Ci lit the torch in his hand, Wang Ai could clearly see, by the gradually spreading flames, an old woman with white hair hanging on the stone wall several feet away, her limbs pierced by rusty broken bone nails.

She was barely breathing, covered in filth, with many of her meridians severed in her hands and feet, and numerous painful wounds oozing pus.

His eye sockets were empty, oozing scarlet blood. Even his tongue had been cut off, and his vocal cords in his throat had been poisoned, rendering him unable to speak.

Wang Ai remained expressionless. He had witnessed many such scenes of torture and torment of prisoners, but he was puzzled.

"Who?"

“My sister,” Lü Ci replied coldly and numbly.

"Your sister?!" Wang Ai was quite surprised, as this was far from his original guess.

"It used to be..."

A bitter feeling welled up in Lü Ci's heart. He quickly glossed over the secrets of his family's Soul-Clearing Technique inheritance, and continued:

"Fatty, you and I both know that back then, Feng Tianyang and Duanmu Ying fell into the hands of our respective families."

"Your Wang family is quite lucky; you obtained the Spirit Binding and Commanding Technique, and after cultivating it for so many years, there hasn't been a single mishap."

"However, the Dual-Handed Brush that my Lu family obtained is incomplete. More importantly, that demoness also planted some kind of magic on my clansmen."

Lu Ci was filled with resentment and regret. He hadn't been ruthless enough back then; he should have killed that witch and her husband long ago to prevent future troubles.

"After many years, I belatedly realized... As you can see now, the soul residing in my sister's body is that demoness."

When Lü Ci said this, his face was gloomy. He wished he could kill this beast with one blow. He had tried all sorts of methods, but still couldn't get any useful information out of her.

Deep down, his keen intuition told him that perhaps the sudden death of Lü Huan, a genius among the younger generation of the clan, seemed to be related to the defector Lü Liang, but in the eyes of the demoness, it was also definitely related to her.

Even... due to the ability of the Dual-Handed Soul to modify souls, Lü Ci couldn't be sure whether Lü Huan, whose body was found back then, was truly dead, or whether he had been kidnapped and brainwashed by Duanmu Ying.

In recent years, Lü Ci instructed his children who had awakened the Minghun Technique to examine the souls of all the villagers in the clan, including his own, and found nothing unusual.

Even so, he couldn't eat or sleep properly, since that demoness might have borrowed a member of his clan's body a long time ago and escaped like a ghost.

The absence of parasites now does not mean that they were not present before.

Moreover, seventy years have passed, and as one of the comprehenders of the extraordinary technique, Duanmu Ying's mastery of the Double-Edged Sword is far superior to any other clansman in the village who possesses the Soul-Brightening Technique. It would not be difficult for her to evade the Blue Hand's exploration and continue to hide in a certain body.

Wang Ai listened patiently to this story until Lü Ci's voice gradually faded, at which point he continued:

"So... you called me here to try and capture her soul?"

“I have no way to deal with her except you. I’ve used all the torture instruments I could, and even the Soul-Brightening Technique didn’t work.”

"No matter how badly she is abused, as long as she has a breath left, she will recover in no time."

Left with no other choice, Lü Ci had to ask Wang Ai for help.

Faced with this threat of being placed within the tribe, years of torture had exhausted his patience.

Rather than continue wasting time pointlessly, he would rather have Duanmu Ying's soul scattered so that he could retrieve Lü Wan's body for burial.

"No problem..."

“My methods are perfect for dealing with this vile beast.”

A glint of instinctive greed flashed in Wang Ai's eyes. She licked her chapped lips, her smile sinister.

The spirit devoured through the Spirit Binding Technique not only grants the user a permanent boost in strength, but more importantly, regardless of the spirit's wishes, some of its abilities from its previous life will be inherited by the spirit devourer.

In other words, by consuming this soul, Wang Ai may obtain a portion of the Dual-Hand Technique.

Just thinking about this made him unable to suppress his appetite, and he asked Lü Ci:

"So, shall I make my move, Hedgehog?"

“When you bring her out, I can forcibly enslave her. Do you want to ask her anything? I'll eat after you've asked her.”

Wang Ai's mouth was drooling, and his heart was pounding. The soul of a superhuman was a great tonic, and he couldn't wait a moment longer.

"Do it."

"After I finish asking my questions, you can do whatever you want with me," Lu Cihan said coldly.

"Okay, I like your straightforwardness!"

Wang Ai suddenly activated the Spirit Binding and Commanding Technique. A black mist like a hurricane instantly emerged from his large, fleshy palm, transforming into six soul hooks that shot straight out, penetrating the old woman's limbs, throat, and head.

"come out."

The soul hook suddenly pulled back, and a pale gray, indistinct figure was gradually pulled out of the old woman's body by Wang Ai.

Immediately following was the faint, indistinct wail emanating from the blood-soaked, aged body.

Witnessing this scene, Lü Ci clenched his fists tightly, his teeth almost grinding to powder; no one knew how raging his hatred was.

The separation of the soul from the body was completed quickly.

However, upon seeing the pale gray, vacant spirit floating in the air, Wang Ai's expression turned cold, and he instinctively cursed:

"That bitch, without telling you or me, has already reset her soul, leaving not a single memory behind."

"..."

Lu Ci's chest heaved slightly with anger as he forced out the words through gritted teeth: "Eat her."

"sieve--"

The black mist entangled the unconscious soul and forcibly bound it to Wang Ai's front.

With a wide-open mouth, countless black mists, along with Duanmu Ying's divided soul, were sucked into his body, disappearing without a trace like a mud ox sinking into the sea.

Wang Ai's irritable emotions subsided slightly. The strength of that soul was still within his satisfactory range, and the power within his body, which was almost overflowing, increased slightly again.

"Humph."

"Hedgehog, don't blame me for not warning you, that old hag is still alive, you have to figure something out..."

Wang Ai was about to offer some advice when Lü Ci interrupted her, saying, "It's no use."

"She's a vengeful ghost that won't leave me alone. If she can infiltrate the bodies of my people, she can infiltrate the bodies of others. In this vast sea of ​​people, let alone if I wanted to find her, even if the company were determined to find her, it would be difficult..."

The Dual-Handed Technique can silently invade a person's mental world, seize their body, and take control of their physical form.

On this point alone, Lü Ci was very clear that unless the other party was willing to show himself, he would never have a chance to find him.