Chapter 194 - 193: Jade Slip (2)
Deep within his Spiritual Sea, Lin Yuan’s thoughts raced at a speed that was only possible due to his comprehension ability.
In the span of a single breath, countless possibilities flashed through his mind, each one analyzed, weighed, and discarded with terrifying precision. His mind remained utterly calm, yet the sheer speed at which he processed the situation was astonishing, allowing him to grasp the changing circumstances almost instantaneously.
Hours ago, while consolidating his strength in the immortal beast’s cavern, he had utilized the Great Evolution Divine Ability. He had drawn upon the faint intent of the Origin Dao at the intersection of his Thunder Rain Dao to predict the currents of fortune and disaster under heaven.
The Great Evolution had returned nothing. No fortune. No disaster.
The Heavens had abstained from this conflict. The fate of this standoff was not dictated by luck or divine intervention; it was left entirely to Lin Yuan’s own wits, his own psychological warfare, and his own blade.
Lin Yuan analyzed Chu Kuang’s threat.
Will Chu Kuang truly risk killing fifteen Golden Diting cultivators? Lin Yuan pondered silently.
Killing them here, inside the pocket realm, violated the rules laid out by Elder Xuanji. But more importantly, the logistics of the pocket realm made mass murder a terrible cover-up. The Void Ascension Battlefield was an artificial construct. When the thirty days ended, the spatial array would automatically eject every living entity back to the Grand Court.
If fifteen prominent Golden Diting cultivators went completely missing after the tournament, they would be undeniably declared dead. The Golden Diting Province, despite their fear, would not let the simultaneous murder of fifteen of their finest elites slide. They would petition the emperor, and Emperor Tianxu would be forced to seek justice, and a Void Refinement Emperor possessed methods of investigating the dead that a Spirit Severing cultivator could not even begin to fathom.
Furthermore, Chu Kuang’s entire motivation for committing the capital crime of harvesting the immortal cores in the first place was his burning desire to win the Peerless God Tournament. He had risked a death sentence simply to raise his cultivation to Half-Step Transcendent so he could compete on equal footing with Xuan Mingzhe.
Therefore, any reckless action that guaranteed his immediate disqualification, investigation, and probable execution upon leaving the pocket realm completely contradicted his primary goal. Chu Kuang wanted glory, not a swift execution.
He would not crush the soul blood. He could not afford to.
But Lin Yuan was not a man who left victory to assumption. He was someone who planned for the infinitesimal chance of irrationality.
If Chu Kuang was truly reckless, and not as intelligent as Lin Yuan gave him credit for—if the heir succumbed to his rage and actually made a move to crush the soul blood—Lin Yuan was already perfectly positioned to stop him.
Lin Yuan’s right hand rested lightly on the hilt of the Emperor’sPrimordial Sovereign Sword.
If Chu Kuang’s aura spiked with lethal intent toward his spatial ring where the soul blood was kept, Lin Yuan would instantly activate the sword’s innate ability: Absolute Severance of the Heavenly Mandate. He would swing to sever Chu Kuang’s connection to Heaven and Earth Qi.
And for three vital seconds, Chu Kuang would be rendered utterly powerless, unable to cast a spell to crusht the blood. In those three seconds, Lin Yuan would paralyze him, retract his threats about the jade slips, and find another, more violent way to obtain the Dao Tokens to ensure Jin Rou’s brethren survived.
But Lin Yuan preferred to win the psychological war without swinging his blade.
Lin Yuan looked at Chu Kuang. A slow, chilling smile spread across his face, entirely devoid of empathy.
"Crush them," Lin Yuan said, his voice echoing in the ruined crater with absolute, sociopathic indifference.
Chu Kuang blinked, his rage faltering for a moment. "What?"
"I said, crush them," Lin Yuan repeated, taking a step closer to the net, his deep purple eyes locking onto Chu Kuang’s with a terrifying intensity. "Shatter their soul blood. Execute all fifteen of them right now. Do you honestly believe I care if a handful of Lower Division rats die?"
Chu Kuang’s jaw tightened. He stared at Lin Yuan, searching for a bluff, but he found absolutely nothing.
"I am from the Zhao Province," Lin Yuan continued, his tone dripping with disdain. "The Golden Diting cultivators mean absolutely nothing to me. Their brotherhood, their secrets, their lives—they are all completely irrelevant. The only thing I care about in this desolate realm is securing my position in the Upper Division bracket."
Lin Yuan raised the two glowing jade slips again, tapping them lightly against his palm.
"You completely misunderstand the dynamic of this negotiation, Chu Kuang," Lin Yuan lectured, his voice cold and sharp as a scalpel. "I did not come here to save them. I came here to ruin you. If you kill those fifteen hostages, you merely add mass murder within the tournament grounds to the list of capital offenses I will present to Emperor Tianxu once the battlefield ends. You will not just be executed; the entire Chu Province will be purged from the Central Continent for harboring a demonic heretic who slaughters orthodox disciples and harvests divine beasts."
The color completely drained from Chu Kuang’s face. The heavy halberd trembled in his grip.
His entire strategy of extortion and hostage-taking was built on the assumption that his enemies possessed a moral compass. Against the Golden Diting Province, it was a flawless weapon. But against this terrifying, cold-blooded cultivatior from the Zhao Province, his hostages were utterly worthless.
Lin Yuan had completely, masterfully cornered him.
"What do you want?" Chu Kuang rasped, his voice finally losing its booming resonance. He was a Half-Step Transcendent, yet he felt entirely powerless.
"A simple transaction," Lin Yuan replied, his smile fading into a smirk. "I require sixty Dao Tokens. You currently possess exactly sixty."
Chu Kuang’s eyes widened in outrage. "You want all of them?! If I hand over every token I possess, I will be dropped to the bottom of the rankings! I may lose my seeding!"