Trump Card

As his words fell, silence descended upon the mist-shrouded mountain forest. Suspended midair, Tang Ruofu did not reply at once. A trace of thoughtfulness surfaced in his eyes, as though he were pondering the junior's motives below. Xu Yuan did not press him either, simply waiting in silence. Wagering lives. If he had a choice, he would never choose to wager his life against the hidden trump card of the Semi-Saint before him. Unfortunately, he had no choice. The current situation seemed in his favor, but that advantage was largely an illusion. The clash just now had made Xu Yuan keenly aware of one fact: The gap between them and Tang Ruofu was so vast that scheming was virtually useless. Tang Ruofu's strength was overwhelmingly dominant compared to theirs. Yet precisely because of this overwhelming might, Xu Yuan had developed a guess about what Tang Ruofu aimed to do, deduced from the identity Tianyan had inherited. Yuchu was the unrivaled candidate to be refined into the Meishen tree spirit. Because of this, those two behemoths—the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion and the Taiqing Dao Palace—would never allow the two of them to die here. And this detail meant the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion had inevitably pressured the Yaoyue Sect during their cooperation, issuing an absolute order: they could not be killed. Of course, that was merely the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion's stance, not the Yaoyue Sect's. Infighting existed within the same organization, let alone with a mere partner like the Yaoyue Sect. Human greed was boundless. Compared to playing it safe to share a leftover scrap, taking some risks to swallow the entire prize was far more enticing. And just as Xu Yuan had anticipated, The fact that this Yaoyue Sect group had come alone meant they had no intention of handing him and Tianyan over. Thinking along these lines, Tang Ruofu's goals became straightforward. First, ensure that the Charm God tree seed would not be destroyed by them in desperation. Second, uncover why the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion and the Taiqing Dao Palace forbade their deaths. The prerequisite for both was capturing them alive, yet that was a nearly impossible task. After all, both of them were Origin Realm experts. With the strength Tang Ruofu had displayed just now, he could most likely incapacitate either him or Tianyan in an instant, but the problem was that there were two of them. If he struck down the wrong person and the Charm God tree seed was on the other, the survivor, seeing the insurmountable disparity in strength, might destroy the seed in despair and die with them—and then all would be lost. Therefore, Tang Ruofu had chosen a safer route: Feign weakness, disrupt Xu Yuan's judgment through various tricks, give him and Tianyan hope of victory, and finally spring some unknown trump card to capture both of them alive in an instant. Unfortunately, plans could never keep up with changes. Just as Xu Yuan had not anticipated an expert like Tang Ruofu being among their pursuers, Tang Ruofu had never imagined they possessed the means to capture a Transcendent Realm cultivator alive. Both of them had botched their plays. The time it took to drink a cup of tea slipped by in a flash. In the end, Tang Ruofu's voice broke the silence within the white mist: "Kid, I... seem to like you even more now." Xu Yuan chuckled faintly upon hearing this. "Like me? Like what about me? Like that I'm taking liberties with your Dao companion?" "..." After a moment of silence, Tang Ruofu stared at Xu Yuan's hand gripping Xia Qing's hair, glanced at the flush on her face, and suddenly laughed softly. "I like your methods. If not for the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion hunting you down, you would surely become a great figure in your own right someday." "..." Xu Yuan narrowed his eyes. The hand pressed against the woman's Zhongji acupoint exerted slight force, sinking gently into her soft, tender skin. During the wait just now, he had not been idle. As his Source Qi imbued with Meishen Dao Charm continuously flooded into Xia Qing's body, her meridians had by now lost all ability to resist his qi. His Source Qi could come and go freely within her. In an era without slave seals, the simplest way to hold someone's life in the palm of one's hand was to plant Source Qi bombs inside them. Just like what he had done to Tianyan when they had first entered this illusion. With the continuous influx of Source Qi, Xu Yuan had planted several Source Qi bombs in Xia Qing's dantian, sea of consciousness, and various vital acupoints. In other words, a single thought from him was now enough to end her life. Having finished, Xu Yuan let out a low chuckle and casually tossed the alluring woman onto a nearby flower bed. Freed from restraint, this gentle woman of the Transcendent Realm made no attempt to stand. By now, she had completely succumbed to the charm poison; her slender, luscious jade legs clamped together and rubbed against each other, her shapely, seductive body writhing ceaselessly on the ground. Glancing at her, Xu Yuan looked back up and smiled. "Aren't methods like this the work of a despicable villain?" Tang Ruofu shook his head slightly, amusement in his voice. "Calling someone a despicable villain is just the impotent fury of the mediocre. Winning by any means necessary is the true way of heroes." Hearing his relaxed tone, Xu Yuan felt his guard rise internally, though he still replied with a smile: "I don't disagree with that philosophy, but from your tone, it sounds like you're ready?" Facing this question, Tang Ruofu suddenly countered: "Do you want to know why they call me the Sword Madman?" With those words, the qi around Tang Ruofu surged violently, and a rapid series of explosions erupted from within his body. Seeing this, the confusion in Xu Yuan's eyes deepened. In his perception, Tang Ruofu had shattered nearly every organ in his own body, including his meridians, sparing only his dantian and sea of consciousness. All fell silent. The white mist drifted; the waterfall flowed as before. At the bottom of the mist, the lake water suddenly rippled with dark, murky waves. *Squelch—* Without any warning, a brilliant shower of crimson suddenly splattered across Xu Yuan's vision. Blood spilled from the corner of his lips. Xu Yuan instinctively lowered his gaze to his chest. There, without any precursor, a piercing blade wound had appeared. Struck at the exact same moment was Tianyan, a hundred zhang away. Crimson blood soaked her black robe. Tianyan stared at the sudden wound upon her body, her dazzling golden pupils filled with bewilderment and shock. She, too, had failed to detect Tang Ruofu's method. Yet a mere puncture wound like this was far from fatal for an Origin Realm cultivator. Soon, however, An abnormal flush crept up her cheeks. The charm poison lying dormant inside her was coaxed out completely by this wound. Eh? Meishen Dao Charm— Why did this strike contain Meishen Dao Charm? Tianyan instinctively looked toward Xu Yuan on the ground, and Xu Yuan happened to look up at her as well. Their gazes met for an instant, and both saw shock in each other's eyes. They had roughly guessed what his trump card was. In the next instant, Xu Yuan's figure vanished. At the same time, Another unhealable wound tore open across Tianyan's chest, followed immediately by the complete shattering of every organ, bone, and meridian in her entire body—