Chapter 967: Treatment P7: Yaksha Lord’s Trickery in Dao Oath

Aksai’s expression darkened.

"It seems they were gathering resources for his Yaksha transformation. And later, for his cultivation as a False Nascent Soul. The other activities they carried out were just a form of distraction."

Aksai had started deploying his Sentient Fiends as low-level cultivators to act as sleeper cells and spies a long time ago, gathering intelligence related to various regional sects (Chapter 534).

However, his infiltration attempt into the core regions of the Mroot Yaksha Sect through the use of Sentient Fiends had failed completely. It seemed that the Mroot Yaksha Sect had peculiar methods to weed out any potential spies within its midst (Chapter 723).

Only now did Aksai understand the reason behind the failure. It made sense that a sect with connections to an imperial faction from the Shinayin Empire would have special methods to deal with various situations that could be detrimental to its interests.

Selene nodded.

"Yes. That’s what the intelligence report suggests."

Aksai leaned back and slowly rubbed his forehead.

"So the timing was just convenient."

"Extremely convenient," Selene sighed before adding, "The Yaksha Lord had already prepared the foundation for his transformation. Then the Empire arrived and turned the entire region upside down."

"And suddenly, the Mroot Yaksha Sect had something it didn’t possess before."

"An excuse to step onto the largest stage."

Aksai slowly looked toward Humeyin when this round of conversation was over. He was glad that Humeyin hadn’t let her anger take control of her emotions even after learning that her father’s killer was not only alive but had returned to destroy their sect.

"I just don’t understand one thing," Humeyin finally spoke up as she looked in Selene’s direction for an answer.

"Even if the Yaksha Lord had swindled us by drinking the Ten Thousand Deaths Poison and using it to refine a Yaksha body for himself, the other Lords present at the scene, including my father, were no fools.

"He had also taken a Dao Oath to ensure the peace treaty remained active under any circumstance unless provoked by external factors. The Dao Oath should still have restrained him, no matter what kind of tricks he used or what transformation he underwent. How did the Dao Oath not bind him?"

Selene was about to say something but found that she had no answer to Humeyin’s question. It was Aksai who spoke up at this time.

"Humeyin, you might not know this, but your father was already aware that the Dao Oath taken by the Yaksha Lord would be exploited by him one day. We discussed this in private, and it is only now that his words back then are truly making sense to me." (Chapter 464)

Aksai shook his head before adding further.

"We just didn’t know at the time what kind of loophole he’d use. If my guess is correct, the fact that the Yaksha transformation process requires one’s physical body to die is the reason the Dao Oath became invalid. Once the body died, the Dao Oath became invalid.

"This is because, after repossessing his own dead body, the Yaksha Lord had transformed into something completely different from his past self. And since he was no longer the Yaksha Lord who had taken the Dao Oath but an actual Mroot Yaksha, the Dao Oath couldn’t stop him from directly breaking the peace treaty with his own hands and finally acting upon his ambitions."

Humeyin nodded at Aksai’s explanation, not asking him anything further regarding the matter. She found Aksai’s words to be reasonable and comforting at the same time.

Since her father had signed the treaty with the Yaksha Lord knowing the latter would one day break it, her mood wasn’t as sour as before. It turned out that her father hadn’t been duped by the Yaksha Lord but had willingly participated in his scheme to further his own interests and the interests of his sect.

Aksai sighed as he realized how much of a visionary his in-name master, Hayaat Blackblood, truly was. Aksai guessed that if he had been alive during this time, when the Dao Paths had been released, there was a chance that the late Blackblood Lord would have truly become a Nascent Soul cultivator one day.

After all, his talent and comprehension were top-notch, and his bloodline was not weak either. In terms of schemes, he was smarter than Haitin and in terms of the bloodline talent, he was only a few steps away from Humeyin.

Too bad the Yaksha Lord killed Hayaat before he had a chance to realize his potential. Or perhaps the reason the Yaksha Lord killed him was also related to this possibility.

Aksai shook his head and got rid of the stray thoughts. No matter what the deal with the Yaksha Lord was, he realized that he was going to get stuck between a rock and a hard place if things continued the way they were going.

"I probably shouldn’t say this and jinx it... but I really do hope I don’t run into Ya— I mean, I don’t run into any trouble on my way out of this mess."

Selene gave him a sympathetic look.

"Lord Aksai, since you are an ally of the Blackblood Sect, perhaps I can share our secret route with you once I receive confirmation from the Sect Master."

"Considering how much the Sect Master values you, he’d probably say yes. This route should help you avoid most troubles while traveling through the mainland."

She paused before adding, "Unfortunately, you’d still have to pass through the Wild Devil Lands. And despite it being our territory, we won’t be able to help you much on the ground. We are caught in a storm of our own, you see. I... I hope you’ll understand."

Aksai nodded in understanding. He then scratched the back of his head and pressed his lips together, as if he had just remembered something important.

"Also, there’s one more thing. Tell Haitin that... um... the Sun Ocean Lord died on Emerald Cove Island."