Chapter 170 - 169: [Come On, Let’s Scheme Against Each Other!]

Chapter 170: Chapter 169: [Come On, Let’s Scheme Against Each Other!]

The Magician opened his mouth. ’You make a good point. I’m actually speechless...’ Bullshit!

SLAP!

He Xiaotian ignored the miserable head and slapped the yellow paper talisman right back onto its forehead.

Then, with a flick of his right wrist, he tossed it in an arc back into the wardrobe.

"Little lady, it’s our turn to talk." As his voice fell, his eyes shifted to the clod of earth condensed from Inner Strength.

"Bastard, let me out!" An angry female voice emanated from the palm-sized paper sedan chair. "If I don’t return tonight, my family will send people. You’ll be in for it then."

’This really is a problem!’

No one knew for sure if the Paperman clan had any truly powerful members.

If someone on par with the Food King in his prime were to show up, he’d probably have his hands full.

"Little lady, no need to be so hostile. We can cooperate," He Xiaotian said, leaning in and lowering his voice. "If you cooperate with me, I swear in the name of X that you’ll get a share of the Netherworld Fissure’s energy tide."

The paper sedan chair suddenly fell silent, its occupant apparently considering his words.

A smile tugged at the corner of He Xiaotian’s mouth. ’Only children care about right and wrong; adults weigh the pros and cons.’

He was confident that, tempted by the energy tide, she would make the correct choice.

And he, in turn, could set his second plan in motion.

The Paperman girl’s appearance was the final piece needed to complete the puzzle of his grand scheme.

’Otherwise, with my temper, I would’ve crushed her long ago. Did she really think I’d be calmly negotiating terms with her?’

’So naive!!’

After a long moment of contemplation, the occupant of the paper sedan chair relented, agreeing to He Xiaotian’s terms.

The energy tide was crucial to her. As for later, she figured there would always be an opportunity to settle the score with this man.

But clearly, the Paperman girl didn’t know what kind of person He Xiaotian was.

Let someone else take advantage of him?

Heh heh!

The woman cast what she called a Concentric Knot, a bond that connected the two of them.

Any injury one of them sustained would also be inflicted upon the other.

With this apparent guarantee for her safety, she immediately sent a signal to her clan, letting them know she was not in any danger.

Then, a paper figure floated out of the sedan chair.

Upon closer inspection, this paper figure looked exactly like He Xiaotian.

The moment it touched the air, it suddenly expanded until it was the same size as him.

Outwardly, it had no paper-like texture at all; it looked just like a real person.

Its voice, speech, and mannerisms were flawless.

If He Xiaotian hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed it.

He had to admit, these ancient, uncanny professions really had a few tricks up their sleeves.

Several days passed, and the Divine Void Temple was eerily quiet.

Forget evil spirits; not even tourists were coming up the mountain to offer incense anymore.

This was understandable. The people who had been lurking in the shadows had witnessed a slaughter involving the Magician and the Paperman.

Everyone who could run, did.

Even those who were too stubborn to give up and returned later saw that neither the Magician nor the Paperman ever came back down the mountain.

Anyone could tell that the Divine Void Temple was a deathtrap—a place you don’t enter!

After five days passed, everyone came to the same conclusion: forget it.

There was no point in scheming anymore.

The energy tide had passed, so what was the damn point of staking out a rundown temple?

The Netherworld Fissure was a prize, true, but anyone who wasn’t a complete moron knew the Daoist Alliance would never give up a sacred cultivation ground.

Better to make an early exit than be driven off or killed.

And so, everyone—both those who had been ready to leave and those who hadn’t—scattered in all directions.

Everyone went their separate ways, back to wherever they came from.

That night, on the very day the diviner had predicted the Netherworld Fissure would open, Shouyangzi asked again, "Did you really convince that Paperman? You just let her go, instead of secretly blasting her to bits?"

The paper He Xiaotian glanced at the old Daoist and replied with a sigh, "How many times do I have to say it before you believe me? You’re the one who said her kind is bad news. Do you think I’m crazy enough to kill her?"

"As long as you didn’t, it’s fine. Let me tell you, those people are uncanny! You can’t ever truly kill them. It’s not like people haven’t provoked them before. But you can kill them again and again, and they’ll just keep coming back.

"That’s why the rumor is they possess some method of immortality. It’s also why I, despite having the Daoist Alliance at my back, was unwilling to make an enemy of her. As for the Magician, killing him is no big deal."

The poor head ranked even lower than the Human-Faced Sunflower in Shouyangzi’s eyes.

He Xiaotian, who had spent the last few days hiding in the wardrobe and only sneaking out at night to steal food, felt his eyelid twitch.

He looked at the Magician’s head beside him, the talisman still stuck to its forehead, and was at a loss for words.

’So after all this, your Red Handkerchief faction has such a low status in the underworld!’

’You’re not even as respected as the people who sell funeral wreaths!!’

In his hand, he was still clutching the earthen seal imprisoning the young woman.

Ever since the Concentric Knot was cast, the woman in the paper sedan chair had been almost completely obedient.

He Xiaotian knew perfectly well that the woman was hiding something, undoubtedly preparing to stab him in the back when the time was right.

After all, the Concentric Knot was her creation. Who would believe she couldn’t undo it in an instant?

’Too bad for you. No matter how cunning you are, you’ll still end up drinking my, X’s, foot-washing water.’

’Just you wait. The moment I lure out what’s behind the curtain, you’ll have outlived your usefulness.’

He Xiaotian shot a meaningful glance at the clod of earth-yellow Inner Strength.

As midnight struck, the space within the meditation room suddenly split open, revealing a fissure.

It was pitch black inside. An endless torrent of yin qi gushed out, mixing with the yang qi of the physical world and transforming into dense Spiritual Qi.

The energy tide was here!!

The three heads buried in the courtyard all wore expressions of intense craving.

’Dammit! All we can do is stay buried here and watch helplessly. This is torture.’

"Wakey wakey. You’ve been lying low all these days, weren’t you waiting for this exact moment?" He Xiaotian, still in the wardrobe, patted the Magician’s head.

The head remained motionless, as if it were dead.

"Stop playing dead. Shouyangzi’s Corpse-Suppressing Talisman doesn’t really work on you. In fact, ever since I pulled you out and heard you snoring, I knew something was fishy. It must have been tough these last few days, huh?

"I stayed in the wardrobe this whole time, leaving you nowhere to run and no chance to seize this opportunity." He Xiaotian could have hidden anywhere in the Divine Void Temple, but he had deliberately chosen the wardrobe.

"Fine, you win. You really win." Seeing his bluff was called, the Magician reluctantly opened his eyes. ’So all my acting these past few days was for nothing. I’ve been completely under his control this whole time.’

’Sigh. I shouldn’t have fallen asleep that night.’

The paper He Xiaotian, the old Daoist, Daoxuan, and the Human-Faced Sunflower—three people and one monster—appeared in the meditation room.

This bedroom had long been left vacant.

In the Daoists’ own words, with three people buried in the courtyard and a head in the wardrobe, who could possibly get any sleep in this room!

"Daoxuan, take off your clothes!"

"GURGLE-GURGLE!" Before Daoxuan could even reply, the Human-Faced Sunflower let out a strange cry, apparently unable to wait.