Stranger Danger

“My, my… I admit that I’m afraid of master’s punishments. Oh, I’m absolutely terrified…”

Greenlake Bai pretended to be shocked by the revelation. “However, out of all the punishments he could dish out, the Needle of Suffering is the one thing I’m not afraid of. It’s a mighty coincidence, don’t you think?”

“What?” Su Xiu’s calm facade cracked a little. With a thought, he activated the Needle of Suffering he implanted in Greenlake Bai’s body. After the Needle of Suffering had entered the victim’s body, the controller simply needed to think to subject the victim to a kind of torture that was worse than death itself. However, Greenlake Bai was perfectly fine after he activated the Needle of Suffering inside her body. Not only that, she wiped a finger across the wound and extracted an unbelievable number of silver needles—all as thin and small as a bull’s hair—from it.

The name “Needle of Suffering” made it sound like it was one needle, and to be fair, it was a single needle before it was implanted in one’s body. However, once the needle entered a victim’s body, it would split into countless silver needles the size of a bull’s hair and spread to every corner of one’s body and mind. That was why it was so difficult to remove the Needle of Suffering completely. And yet, there was no denying the fact that Greenlake Bai had removed the Needle of Suffering from her body like it was nothing.

“How is this possible?”

Su Xiu panicked. He could not understand what was happening.

“Haven’t I told you that I’m a practitioner of the Needle of Suffering as well? In fact, I’m willing to bet that my mastery is greater than yours. Do you know why?” Greenlake Bai beamed at him.

“Impossible! The old bastard told me that he taught me and only me the Needle of Suffering. There’s no way you would know it!” Su Xiu exclaimed in disbelief.

“And you believe him? Seriously?” Greenlake Bai moved closer to Su Xiu and whispered beside his ear. “Well, he was telling the truth this time. You are the only one he taught the Needle of Suffering.”

“You… that’s impossible! It just cannot be possible!” Su Xiu yelled. He had considered many possibilities, but this was the one possibility that never crossed his mind. It was literally more ludicrous than stumbling onto Nanke by accident.

It had to be the truth though. Otherwise, there was no way she could’ve removed the Needle of Suffering so easily.

It also meant that everything she did until this point was a trap; a trap she had laid for him and Ah Su to obtain the Demon Controlling Jade Manual.

Greenlake Bai was talented, but she was still pretty young. She wasn’t the weakest of all the direct disciples the abode head taught, but she definitely wasn’t the strongest either. In a head on battle, she was absolutely no match for Su Xiu or Ah Su, much less the two of them combined.

That was why Greenlake Bai purposely feigned weakness and allowed herself to be caught. It was because she knew that Su Xiu was obsessed with the Needle of Suffering, and that he would definitely use it on her once he captured her.

Greenlake Bai didn’t fear the Needle of Suffering in the slightest because she knew how to eliminate it. On the other hand, he had grown lax and careless because he thought he had Greenlake Bai’s fate in his palm. When it was time, she could easily turn the tables against him, which she did. Hells, she might even have steered things so that this exact scenario would happen.

A million thoughts raced inside Su Xiu’s head. In the end, it all morphed into a sigh. “You’re well-prepared. As expected of you, junior sister. This is my loss.”

“So, what do you want? I shall fulfill any wish so long as it is within my power to fulfill.”

Su Xiu recognized that there was no turning this around, and that everything he had such as the Demon Controlling Jade Manual or Nanke would soon fall into Greenlake Bai’s hands.

Was he satisfied with this outcome?

Of course not!

Was he resentful?

Of course he was!

But no matter how resentful and angry he was, there was nothing he could do to change this outcome. The only thing he could do now was to survive.

The dead could not affect anything. That was a privilege that belonged solely to the living.

That was why he must live. Only by staying alive would he get the chance to get revenge against Greenlake Bai.

“Do you really need me to tell you what I want, first senior brother?” Greenlake Bai giggled happily while playing with Su Xiu’s hair.

“I know you want me dead, junior sister, but killing me would not benefit you one bit.”

Su Xiu lay out his analysis calmly, “If you kill me, Ah Su would go insane and fight you to the death. She will hunt you to the ends of the earth if it’s the last thing she does, and I’m sure you know better than me just how scary she can be. But if you keep me alive, you can avoid triggering Ah Su and obtain two free helpers.”

“Not only can I get you the Demon Controlling Jade Manual, I can aid you in cementing your position as the new head of the Nethercall Abode as well.”

“Sometimes, the living is far more useful than the dead. Don’t you agree, junior sister?”

There were thirteen abodes in West Kunlun. Some of them were strong, and some of them were weak, but all of them possessed their own unique inheritance and Magias. So long as their inheritance and Magias remained, the thirteen abodes would never die.

Take the Nethercall Abode for example. The Nethercall Abode owned a jade book known as the Demon Controlling Jade Manual. It was a book that only the abode head of the Nethercall Abode was qualified to command and a symbol of their authority.

The Demon Controlling Jade Manual was quite magical in its own right. Anyone who obtained the complete manual would gain the the Nethercall Abode’s complete inheritance, obtain a shortcut that would enable them to enter the Grandmaster stage in just a short time, and know exactly how they should cultivate to become a Sage in the future.

Without exaggeration, the Demon Controlling Jade Manual was one of the main reasons the Nethercall Abode would never go extinct even in the worst case scenario.

Before their master passed away, he had split the Demon Controlling Jade Manual into five copies and bestowed his five disciples—Su Xiu, Ah Su, Greenlake Bai, and two other disciples—a copy each. He promised that any disciple who managed to collect all five copies would become the head of the Nethercall Abode.

It was obvious that the abode head purposely did this to force his disciple into fighting each other to the death for his inheritance, but frankly, it was probably a pointless gesture. They would have killed each other for the Demon Controlling Jade Manual even without his scheming.

After all, the Demon Controlling Jade Manual promised not just the position of abode head, but also a shortcut to become a Grandmaster and a clear path to the Sage stage. This was a temptation no warrior could possibly resist.

This was why Su Xiu was certain that Greenlake Bai wouldn’t kill him. She had always been an ambitious woman. If she really wished to obtain the Demon Controlling Jade Manual and become the new master of the Nethercall Abode, then killing him would only achieve the opposite.

A few breaths later, Greenlake Bai finally let out a giggle. “Hahaha… why so nervous, first senior brother? I was just teasing you. I could never kill a childhood friend, much less wound third senior sister’s heart.”

“Speaking of which, third senior sister is going to return very soon. Allow me to treat your wounds so that third senior sister would not be saddened by the sight of you.”

“Thank you, junior sister,” Su Xiu said with a gentle smile. He knew that Greenlake Bai was really planning to implant some sort of restriction in him so he wouldn’t be able to resist her orders, but he did not struggle. There was simply no point. Besides, it seemed quite short-sighted to provoke a retaliatory response after Greenlake Bai had agreed to his proposal, even if that was what she was planning from the beginning.

In fact, he did not need to reveal his bargaining chips, his trump cards and his plans to her. After all, she was going to let him live no matter what. However, he didn’t dare to gamble with his life especially since he was facing a woman. They said that trying to understand a woman’s heart was akin to finding a needle at the bottom of the sea. He would have to be insane to gamble his one and only life on the possibility that Greenlake Bai wouldn’t suddenly change her mind.

“No! Save me!”

Greenlake Bai was caressing Su Xiu’s head and getting ready to implant a “Soul Isolating Curse” to control his Yin God when suddenly, Su Xiu’s let out a cry of panic and fear.

“What?”

Greenlake Bai was confused by his sudden reaction when her senior brother abruptly ceased trembling, and his pupils dilated. Then, his head exploded in a shower of brain matter and gore.