Inner Demons

Chapter 192: Taking Audacity for Granted

However, it wasn't because the name "Li Chunfeng" was a household name, but rather... he only had a vague impression of it. He couldn't remember where he had heard that name before.

If he truly had no idea, he would have thought the other person was just bluffing.

If he had known him well, he would probably have a good way to deal with it.

But in his current state... he was stunned.

In fact, for a Great Accomplishment Profound Realm cultivator whose lifespan had exceeded five hundred years, for a person to leave "a little impression" in his mind was already an incredible thing.

Five hundred years... how many people must he have met!

A cultivator's mind is clear, and their memory must be good. And it was precisely because of this that the matter became quite strange—a situation that only ordinary people would experience appeared—

"I can't remember where I heard this name."

Li Yunxin let out a small sigh of relief in his heart—he had him. At least temporarily.

The plan did not include the possibility of a Profound Realm cultivator appearing, but the other party had done just that. However, it was fortunate that they arrived at the end of the matter, not after the dust had settled. So, using the lingering power of the million Yin Soldiers and his two months of planning, he had achieved a dangerous and delicate balance with him.—This was all because of the uneasy look in Yue Yunzi's ghost's eyes when he heard Li Yunxin mention Liu Ling to Kun Wuzi.

That one look explained too many problems.

It was like a tiny, tiny crack appearing on an incredibly hard and smooth stone slab—and now Li Yunxin wanted to pry open this crack, shatter that stone slab, and break the current dangerous situation.

Kun Wuzi was stunned and silent. After a moment of frowning and contemplation, he temporarily abandoned his plan to kill Li Yunxin and asked in a low voice, "Who is Li Chunfeng?"

Li Yunxin scoffed arrogantly, appearing fearless and seemingly not at all worried about the threat posed by this Profound Realm cultivator. He even paced back and forth on the Profound Light Precious Mirror for a few steps, challenging the Langya Grotto-Heaven Sect Master's patience before haughtily saying, "You don't know? Tsk tsk, how embarrassing. But while you don't know, Lingkongzi and Yue Yunzi, they both do."

Without waiting for Kun Wuzi to speak, he continued, "But, I guess you wouldn't want to know. And you wouldn't want to kill me either. Because once you kill me, you'll have a hard time explaining it to the Two Saints."

"Make it clear." Kun Wuzi said in a deep voice, "You only have one chance. If I think you're bluffing, I'll kill you immediately. As for what trouble will follow—there's nothing in this world that I, Kun Wuzi, can't handle."

"Alright. Since you're so insistent that I speak, I will. But you can interrupt me at any time—if you think it's necessary."

Li Yunxin let out a light breath, "My father is Li Chunfeng, my mother is Shangguan Yue. My name is Li Yunxin, and if I were still human, I would be fifteen years old this year. Today, June 17th, is my birthday."

Hearing this, Kun Wuzi's expression was calm.

But Li Yunxin had been staring intently at the other person's face—the subtle expressions on the face of a Profound Realm Master, who had never received similar training, couldn't escape his eyes. At this moment, Li Yunxin told himself that if he were to talk to others with a clone in the future, he must make his appearance seem blurry and indistinct.

Just as Lingkongzi had done before.

Kun Wuzi's eyes widened slightly, his mouth relaxed, and his jaw dropped.

The Profound Realm cultivator had done a good job. No one in this world would be able to see through his inner emotions at this moment. However, only Li Yunxin knew some of the instincts—which were still effective even in these high-level cultivators—after all, they had not yet transcended their physical bodies, and essentially, they were still "human."

The micro-expressions of the Profound Realm cultivator, which could not be controlled by his consciousness, conveyed a message to Li Yunxin—he was surprised. And the degree of this surprise was very strong.

Originally, Li Yunxin thought the other party was surprised that he was only fifteen years old today, but he quickly noticed another detail.

When he heard the name "Shangguan Yue," Kun Wuzi's eyebrows raised again... and his nostrils flared.

The scale of these subtle expressions was probably only a hair's breadth—perhaps the changes caused by a strong gust of wind blowing on the face would be more obvious. But the cultivator's powerful observational skills, combined with Li Yunxin's unique knowledge that did not exist in this world, allowed him to see into the Profound Realm cultivator's emotions.

—First, surprise. And then, upon hearing the name "Shangguan Yue," a slight hint of...

..."fear" was revealed at the same time as the surprise.

Kun Wuzi's surprise was also because of his mother "Shangguan Yue," and his fear was also because of her.

Li Yunxin was slightly taken aback. While he slowly said the next sentence, he quickly recalled every detail about his mother in his mind, hoping to get an even more powerful weapon.

"It seems you don't know about this. Then I guess the first time you heard the name Li Yunxin was from Lingkongzi's intelligence—that I appeared in Weicheng and was a powerful Artificer. And you later thought I had died." Li Yunxin looked at him. "Then the strange thing comes. A Manifestation Realm cultivator under your Langya Grotto-Heaven knows my identity, a True Realm cultivator also knows my identity, but you, the Sect Master, do not."

"So, if I tell you now that while they knew about this, it was for another purpose—do you want to know?"

Kun Wuzi was silent for a while.

But Li Yunxin knew that his heart was not as calm as he appeared. The Profound Realm Master's silence lasted for three breaths, so Li Yunxin knew the other party's attitude.

He then said softly, "Lingkongzi knew about me because—you know—she went to see the Two Saints before she went down the mountain."

"Enough!" At this point, Kun Wuzi frowned and interrupted him sharply—as if hearing another sentence would make him uncomfortable.

"It's not over yet." Li Yunxin sneered. "Hearing this, you'll think this is a matter for the Two Saints, and you don't want to get involved."

"Then you should also be aware that since Lingkongzi knows and you, the dignified Grotto-heaven Sect Master, do not, it must be a very secret matter—the Two Saints do not want irrelevant people to know. So, if you kill me, this matter will blow up and become known to the world. Your two great leaders will be very unhappy."

Kun Wuzi took a deep breath, exhaled, and made a move to leave, "Alright. I've listened to your words today, and I will investigate later."

"Don't be in a hurry, friend!" Li Yunxin smiled and looked at Kun Wuzi. "Do you think I said so much just to get a result where you don't kill me?"

The Profound Realm Master frowned again, "What else do you want? Sparing your life is already—"

"Two low-level cultivators from the Lingxu Sword Sect also know about this. Your Daoist Orthodoxy is really like a broken sieve." Li Yunxin stopped smiling.

If someone who understood him like Old Daoist Liu was here, they would realize...

He was about to make a request.

—To a Great Accomplishment Profound Realm cultivator.

When he said this, Kun Wuzi stopped again. A feeling of frustration and anger that couldn't be relieved welled up in the cultivator's heart—he was being led by the nose by this mere True Realm demon, but there was nothing he could do!!

Li Yunxin didn't care about the Profound Realm Master's anger at all. He just continued with a cold face, "Even two low-level Sword Sect disciples know about this, and the mere True Realm Yue Yunzi also knows."

"And they know these things, but it's not the Two Saints' intention—it was told to them by another mysterious person."

"That mysterious person and the organization behind him also have the same goal as the Two Saints. I tried to figure out these things, but Yue Yunzi refused to say. So, the matter with Lingkongzi involves the Two Saints, and you don't want to know. But the matter with Yue Yunzi involves an organization that seems to be unfriendly to the Daoist Orthodoxy—don't you want to know either?"

Kun Wuzi was silent for a while, pondering, seemingly having had enough of the current situation. He snorted coldly, "I have no interest at all!"

Li Yunxin smiled faintly, "Your lack of interest is your business. But I want you to do another thing—deal with the people in the Daoist Orthodoxy who know about this matter. Make them shut up and stop looking for trouble with me."

"If you want to figure out what that mysterious organization's purpose is and what its origin is, then help me accomplish this. I'm also investigating this matter. If I find something and I'm in a good mood, maybe I can share the results with you—don't be so quick to sneer. You're a Profound Realm cultivator, and I know you're countless times more brilliant than Lingkongzi or Yue Yunzi. And since I can sit here and talk to you and save my life today, you should know—I am a worthy opponent to cooperate with."

Kun Wuzi was silent for a while, and then let out a sigh, "Are you... really fifteen years old?"

"Absolutely."

"How can you have such a devious mind?"

Li Yunxin smiled modestly, "There are always geniuses in this world."

Kun Wuzi seemed to not know how to respond to his words. He stared at him with a strange expression for a long time before saying in a low voice, "Tongfu did not die in vain. You... do have some ability."

"This humble Daoist also loves talent. If you hand over Tongfu's soul to me, we can truly talk about 'cooperation'."

"That's impossible. Not to mention I can't create another Profound Realm-level formation, let's talk about his soul itself—I'll be frank." Li Yunxin pointed to his folding fan. "This is my palace. I previously devised a series of schemes to make Yue Yunzi have evil intentions—smart people are rarely good people, and I knew he would take the bait."

"Then, I could get some leverage. This guy was very right about one thing when he was alive—the general trend of the world is roughly two camps. The human race composed of the Daoist Orthodoxy and the Sword Sect, and the loose Divine Dragon Dynasty of the demons. At first, you were making things difficult for me, so I stopped being human and became a demon. Now I have occupied Wei River and Weicheng, caught between the two. So I need a token of allegiance so the demons will cover for me."

He shook his hand and opened his folding fan, "This is my token of allegiance. Yue Yunzi is a high-level cultivator and has a good reputation in the Daoist Orthodoxy. He knows many secrets—which the demons might be interested in. The most important thing is, he knows many cultivation methods. It might not be the most important thing for demons, but it's not guaranteed that no one will want to re-cultivate."

"Besides, he also said a lot of things... similar to the Daoist Orthodoxy starting a war against the Divine Dragon Dynasty. As you know, the demons are a scattered mess. But once they face a huge crisis as a whole, it might be a different story. At that time, they will be happy to accept me. After all, a person understands people best."

Kun Wuzi should have been furious. But he wasn't.

Possible anger would have been due to reasons such as "a mere youth spouting nonsense." However, at this time, Kun Wuzi had already regarded Li Yunxin as a true opponent.

When clashing with a well-matched opponent, one must get rid of all arrogance, pride, and contempt. Otherwise, Yue Yunzi would be a lesson to be learned.

"One person's words are not to be believed." Kun Wuzi tried to point out his flaw—with a serious and rational attitude, "We can say this is your conspiracy to make him form a wrong perception. In the Daoist Orthodoxy, what he says is the truth. But over there, what he says—we don't have to believe it's the truth."

"What you said makes sense." Li Yunxin nodded without hesitation. So Kun Wuzi tried to say something else to him to make him submit. But then he heard Li Yunxin continue, "But what about twenty-five people's words? I don't know much about the history of the Daoist Orthodoxy, but I guess it's been a long time since thirty-six low-level cultivators died—even if they were low-level cultivators. And now I have twenty-five here."

He finished speaking. He shook the folding fan, and with a casual wave, he pulled a ghost out of the mountain.

Although Kun Wuzi couldn't recognize the ghost by name, he could see clearly... it was indeed a cultivator.

As soon as the ghost appeared, it immediately yelled in anger, "Why did Master deceive me?! Why did Master kill me?!"

Li Yunxin then immediately asked him, "Who is your Master?"

But the ghost, which was entirely supported by obsession, really couldn't remember who his master was for a moment. Li Yunxin then said, "Is it the Daoist title Yue Yunzi?"

The ghost immediately scowled, as if angrily trying to gouge out its own eyes, "That's right! Why did Yue Yunzi scheme to harm me?! Why did he harm me?!"

Li Yunxin then smiled slightly, a green light flashing in his palm, and he pulled it back into the fan.

Then, under Kun Wuzi's nose, he pulled out a few more ghosts, all of which were the souls of the cultivators in Weicheng that Yue Yunzi had asked him to kill.

After showing six of them, he looked at Kun Wuzi, "Your Tongfu tricked me into killing them, just for his formation. But I have a way to preserve their souls. And before I killed them, I told them who ordered me to do this. And today, these ghosts have watched my fight with Yue Yunzi from beginning to end—"

"So with so many people, will the Daoist Orthodoxy not admit it?"

Kun Wuzi took a long breath, "You are truly... truly..."

"How can a child have such a way?!"

Li Yunxin smiled and nodded, "So, you should cooperate with me as soon as possible, so you won't regret it later. That Liu Ling was arrogant and I crippled him. That Yue Yunzi was arrogant and I killed him—don't follow in their footsteps."

"...Such a high profile is not a good thing." Kun Wuzi sighed, "Let me think about it."

Li Yunxin's expression changed abruptly, and with a flick of his sleeve, the Profound Light Precious Mirror under him immediately flew directly into the clouds, leaving Kun Wuzi in place.

"Then you should think carefully about how I got those million Yin Souls!"

His sharp shout came from the dense clouds, "You're taking audacity for granted!"