Is It Wrong to Bully the Novice Village for System Rewards?

Chapter 223: This Subordinate Will Capture That Bastard and Tear Him to Pieces!

A brief silence settled over the room.

Taking a deep breath, Ji Chan’er finally decided to lay all her cards on the table. Since Qi Yuan had already accurately deduced the clan’s darkest secret, continuing to hide the details was entirely pointless.

“Although the Ancestor technically has about a decade of lifespan left, his physical vitality and Spiritual Energy have already entered a steep, irreversible decline. He absolutely cannot engage in high-level combat. If he is forced to fight, the exertion will drastically burn through whatever little time he has left.”

Her expression turned incredibly grim. “What’s worse is that soon, the physical signs of his decay will become impossible to hide. The Situ and Shen clans are already moving toward an alliance. The moment their spies confirm the Ancestor’s true state, the Ji Clan will face an unprecedented war of extermination!”

Hearing this, Qi Yuan stroked his chin, his eyes flashing with calculation.

The political landscape of The Saint Sect was suddenly crystal clear. The Ji Clan, which outwardly projected the terrifying image of an unshakeable demonic juggernaut, was actually a flimsy paper tiger one stiff breeze away from total collapse.

If this secret leaked, the other two major families would immediately unite to slaughter the Ji Clan. Even if Ancestor Ji Qingcang was still breathing, it wouldn’t matter. A Great Ascension cultivator who couldn’t actually fight was about as intimidating as a declawed kitten.

Once a cultivator entered the twilight of their lifespan, their combat power plummeted alongside their fading vitality. Unless they found a heaven-defying method to extend their life, the process of their internal oil lamp burning out was absolute and irreversible.

As a Great Ascension expert, Ji Qingcang’s natural lifespan spanned hundreds of thousands of years. Having only a decade left meant he was functionally on his deathbed. Forget engaging in a heaven-shattering duel; just managing to walk around the room was a testament to his sheer willpower.

Ji Qingcang was undoubtedly aware of this. Beyond locking himself in Secluded Cultivation and hiding from the public, he was intentionally leaking a mix of true and false rumors to muddy the waters.

This upcoming longevity banquet isn’t a celebration, Qi Yuan realized. It’s a grand theatrical bluff orchestrated by the old demon to terrify the other clans into backing off!

Having connected the dots, a sudden thought popped into Qi Yuan’s head: Wait. That golden ginseng root I swindled from the old mountain ginseng could easily extend the Ji Clan Ancestor’s lifespan! That would instantly solve all of Ji Chan’er’s problems!

A millisecond later, he violently killed that thought.

Are you insane?! He was the dignified Holy Scion of the Supreme Mystery Sanctuary! There was absolutely zero chance he was going to save the life of a tyrannical, bloodthirsty demonic path titan. If the weakened, dying Ji Qingcang suddenly bounced back to full health because of him, it would be literal treason against the righteous path!

But… Qi Yuan’s eyes narrowed. Is there a way to artificially inflate Ji Qingcang’s lifespan just enough to maintain the delicate balance of power within the Demonic Sect, while simultaneously ensuring the old demon is permanently crippled and unable to do evil?

Suddenly, his eyes lit up. A slightly unhinged, highly risky idea surfaced in his mind, growing more appealing by the second.

Seeing Qi Yuan fall into a deep silence, Ji Chan’er assumed he was overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the crisis. Her voice softened as she tried to comfort him.

“You don’t need to worry too much. My grandfather is currently exhausting every conceivable method to buy the Ancestor more time, while simultaneously preparing for the worst-case scenario. If we can just bluff our way through the next eight to ten years, the clan will finish securing its fallback plans. At the very least, our bloodline won’t be entirely wiped out.”

Qi Yuan nodded calmly, though internally, he was highly cynical about the Ji Clan Head’s desperation plans.

The more you scramble, the more flaws you expose.

A place like The Saint Sect was overflowing with cunning, audacious predators. Sometimes, the mere suspicion of weakness was enough to incite a bloody rebellion. Right now, Ji Qingcang’s lingering reputation was the only thing keeping the wolves at bay.

But no one knew how long that bluff would hold. The moment the other two super-clans smelled blood, the situation would instantly violently spiral out of control. Trying to flawlessly maintain a high-stakes bluff for an entire decade was harder than ascending to the heavens.

After repeatedly warning Qi Yuan to take this secret to his grave, Ji Chan’er hurried off. Knowing the absolute peril her family was in, she couldn’t afford to sit still. Her only play now was to help orchestrate the upcoming longevity banquet and ensure the clan’s grand theatrical bluff went off without a hitch.

Watching her slender figure disappear into the distance, Qi Yuan’s eyes narrowed. He had made his decision.

With a blur of motion, he shot out of his courtyard, sprinting directly toward the inner sect’s black market.

Meanwhile.

Situ Yan had just returned to her luxurious cave mansion. Her very first priority was heading straight into her inner chambers to bathe.

The grand bathroom was draped in sheer, incredibly soft mermaid-silk curtains. Thick, perfumed steam billowed from the heated lotus pool, transforming the room into a hazy, dreamlike fairyland.

Her outer dress slipped off her shoulders, pooling on the floor to reveal skin as flawlessly white and smooth as fine jade.

If any of her maidservants had been present, their jaws would have hit the floor. The dignified, untouchable eldest daughter of the Situ Clan… wasn’t wearing her intimate undergarment.

Of course, this wasn’t because Situ Yan had developed some bizarre new exhibitionist habit. It was because the intimate garment she had intentionally left on the table during her honey trap had been frantically confiscated by a certain guilty-conscienced man trying to scrub the crime scene.

Just picturing her handsome ‘Husband’ flustered and panicking as he stuffed her undergarment into his robes caused the corners of Situ Yan’s lips to curl into a deeply affectionate, sickeningly sweet smile.

Her heartbeat accelerated, and a heavy blush dusted her charming cheeks.

Strange, she thought, her eyes practically turning into hearts. Why didn’t I notice how absolutely endearing and irresistible Big Qi was before? I let that bitch Ji Chan’er get a head start for nothing!

But this is even better. I can openly snatch my Husband right out from under her nose! I can’t wait to see the look on that arrogant Ji princess’s face when she loses everything…

Situ Yan bit her lower lip, her eyes flashing with a terrifying, obsessive brilliance.

After finishing her bath, a line of maidservants filed into the room carrying fresh, luxurious silk robes, diligently helping her dress.

Sitting before her vanity mirror as a maid pinned up her hair, Situ Yan lazily waved a hand. “My clan brother has been waiting outside the mansion. Go fetch him.”

“This servant obeys!” The maid bowed respectfully and hurried out.

A few moments later, Situ Yun was escorted into the main hall. The man practically threw himself into a bow. “This subordinate pays his respects to the Eldest Young Lady!”

Situ Yun looked like he was about to have a heart attack. He was sweating profusely, trembling like a leaf as if he had just committed an unforgivable sin.

Situ Yan cast a lazy, sideways glance at the trembling man. “Clan Brother, what brings you here in such a panic?”

Hearing her nonchalant tone, Situ Yun’s panic skyrocketed. With a heavy thud, he dropped to his knees, his face twisted with shame and aggressive indignation.

“This subordinate has failed the task entrusted by the Eldest Young Lady! Please forgive my uselessness!”

He clenched his fists, his face turning red with fury as he tried to desperately appease his boss. “That arrogant bastard Big Qi actually dared to refuse your generous offer right to your face! He simply doesn’t know what’s good for him! He deserves ten thousand deaths for insulting you! The next time I see him, this subordinate will personally beat him half to death to vent your anger!”

“If you give the word, Eldest Young Lady, this subordinate will go drag that bastard back here right now and tear him to pieces!”

In a desperate bid for self-preservation, Situ Yun had completely thrown caution to the wind. He delivered the threat with impassioned, righteous fury, acting as if he and Qi Yuan shared a blood feud.

Not long ago, a maidservant had informed him that Qi Yuan had rejected the honey trap. Terrified that Situ Yan would execute him for setting up a failed recruitment, Situ Yun had sprinted over to grovel and prove his loyalty.

What he didn’t know was that Qi Yuan had only erased the maids’ memories of the events after the banquet started. Their memories of Qi Yuan loudly rejecting the seduction and declaring his loyalty to Ji Chan’er remained perfectly intact. To the maids—and by extension, Situ Yun—the subsequent sounds of “enjoyment” from the room were just a cover for a failed negotiation.

Thus, armed with completely outdated, fundamentally wrong intelligence, the foolish Situ Yun was aggressively trying to distance himself from Qi Yuan by verbally slaughtering him.

Having delivered his masterful, loyalty-proving speech, Situ Yun waited for his boss’s approval.

Instead, he suddenly felt a terrifying, suffocating gaze lock onto him.

The ambient temperature in the grand hall violently plummeted. A layer of actual, physical frost began rapidly creeping across the stone floor. The very air turned heavy with a bone-chilling, psychotic aura of pure murder.