Promise!

Chapter 275, Conspiracy

Cangzhou City, First Ring Road, Shangguan Family Residence.

A crescent moon hangs in front of the window, the sparse shadows of laurel trees cast across the sky, and not far away, a few peach and apricot trees are in full bloom, the stream is babbling, and petals are falling with the flowing water.

After bathing, Shangguan Yunchang exuded a light and refreshing fragrance. She asked, "Husband, have you severed your last corpse?"

"That's right, this is also due to the power of that Super Gang Yuan Pill."

As Zhuang Jin spoke, she also looked over and said, "It seems I've run into Yun Chang again."

A few days earlier, Shangguan Yunchang had already severed her three corpses. The old lady Shangguan Jinfeng would naturally not treat her granddaughter and the next head of the family unfairly. She also had a 'Super Gangyuan Pill' and severed her two corpses earlier than Zhuang Jin, so she naturally broke through before Zhuang Jin.

However, compared to the two months that separated the two corpses, this has already shortened the distance.

Furthermore, he was confident that he would break through to the Yin God realm much faster than Shangguan Yunchang, even if she had the Heavenly Mirror as a cheat.

At this point, Zhuang Jin took the opportunity to ask if he could exchange his unused 'Super Condensing Qi Pill' for a 'Super Qi Essence Pill'.

Upon hearing this, Shangguan Yunchang said, "Husband, you should not take out that 'Super Condensing Qi Pill,' it will only attract attention unnecessarily."

Zhuang Jin understood what he meant. If he broke through the bottleneck of the Three Corpses without using the 'Super Condensing Pill', it might arouse the suspicion of the Cen and Ge families, and even the old lady Shangguan Jin Feng would be worried. After all, isn't Shangguan Yun Chang in charge of the Shangguan family now?
That's indeed the case. He had considered this point before, but he was thinking of using speed to overcome slowness, quickly completing the accumulation of the Three Corpses Severing Realm, and breaking through to the Yin God Realm while the three great families were caught off guard. Now that he thinks about it, it was a little risky.

'That was my mistake. With my talent, I should have played it safe and steady, and if possible, I shouldn't have taken any risks at all,' Zhuang Jin thought to himself.

After reminding her, Shangguan Yunchang returned to the topic of the precious pills that had been nurtured in the treasure basin for hundreds of years: "There are not many of those precious pills. Even if our family gets 40%, there are no more 'Super Gangyuan Pills' now. They are all for our use. The Ge family, the Cen family, and the state government may still have some, but they are not easy to exchange."

"Then let it be. Speaking of the prefectural government, I'm reminded of something related."

Zhuang Jin recounted: A few days ago, Li Shizong came to visit. He had broken through to the Three Corpses Severing Realm. He sensed an unusual aura and was attracted by the Essence Fruit. He also learned about the Yin-Yang Union Technique and exchanged the Essence Fruit for various things.

One should not have the heart to harm others, but one should not be without the heart to guard against others. These days, Li Shizong came to see him again and invited him out, which made his original suspicion more serious. Unsure whether the other party had malicious intent, he decided to hand it over to the Shangguan family to investigate whether the other party was innocent.

He's not the kind of person who, even if he senses a potential threat or is being targeted, will remain silent and let things develop, thus raising a tiger to cause trouble later.

'Besides, I now have connections. If I notice anything amiss, I just need to point it out, and I won't have to worry about it myself. I can just let the Shangguan family do the work. This also gives Old Madam Shangguan something to do, so she won't have any free time to use her cunning and end up targeting me one day,' Zhuang Jin thought to himself.

“Oh, is that so? After the Bian Zhihao incident, I remember that among the precious pills, there was a ‘Super Spirit Nourishing Pill’. Governor Xuanyuan wanted to exchange it for either the Essence Fruit or the Qi Fruit, but my grandmother declined. Now that I think about it, there might be something fishy about this.”

Shangguan Yunchang was suspicious and became wary: "Husband, let's go find Grandmother!"

……

In just two days, the Shangguan family had a result.

That evening after dinner.

Shangguan Yunchang called Zhuang Jin to the quiet room and said to him, "The matter is now roughly clear. There may be some minor discrepancies in the details, but the general outline should be correct."

She began her story from the beginning: "Grandmother believed that the source of everything, the Chunling Qiu Monster, would be a breakthrough. In the past two days, she secretly used various channels, and even contacted many families through the Suspended Sky Mirror, and finally found more information about the Chunling Qiu Monster."

“Every forty years, the spirit of the autumn monster transforms from a spirit into a seed of the spirit toon. In an environment rich in the primordial energy of heaven and earth, it can often grow into a spirit toon tree in a day or two, and then blossom and bear fruit.”

The flowers of the Spirit Toon Tree, as well as the Three Elements Fruits—Essence Fruit, Qi Fruit, and Divine Fruit—give off a strange aroma that attracts exotic beasts. After the exotic beasts devour the Three Elements Fruits, they become extremely attracted to each other. Eventually, the exotic beasts that have swallowed the Three Elements Fruits fight and devour each other until only one remains. When the Three Elements converge, the Spirit Toon Autumn Monster will burst out of the exotic beast's body in the form of a spirit monster.

Because of this mechanism, the Three Elements Fruit of Chunling Qiuguai inherently possesses a great attraction to humans and strange beasts, which is also the source of her husband's urge to devour the 'Essence Fruit' upon seeing it.

Zhuang Jin nodded upon hearing this. He had been puzzled when he first learned about the Chunling Qiu Monster. From a spirit monster to a spirit Chun, he thought that without any protective measures, such a creature should have become extinct long ago. Now he understood, and it made sense.

"So, the Three Elements Fruit of Chunling Qiuguai itself is problematic?"

"No, beasts are ultimately limited in their intelligence and are prone to acting on instinct. If a martial artist consumes one of the Three Elements Fruits, overcomes the urge to devour each other, and moves a certain distance away from the Spirit Tree to escape its influence, then there will be no problem."

Shangguan Yunchang said, "Grandmother guessed that many years ago, the ancestors of the Li family discovered the Chunling Qiu Monster and planted restrictions and methods. Li Shizong's own cultivation method was biased towards the wood attribute. During the seven transformations of the Chunling Qiu Monster, he used his own special cultivation method or some kind of secret method, combined with the ancestors' methods, to refine the mother plant of the spirit Chunling. In this way, he was able to control the person who swallowed the Three Yuan Fruit and turn him into a human puppet."

"In this way, the Three Yuan Fruit has been transformed from a treasure into bait. Ao Zhiqi was plotting for an opportunity, and Li Shicong was probably setting a trap for him as well. Ao Zhiqi snatched the Divine Yuan Fruit and escaped, but little did he know that it wasn't Li Shicong's doing on purpose!"

Zhuang Jin nodded upon hearing this, and it all made much more sense.

No one is a fool. Those who scheme against others for their own gain often find themselves scheming against you. Being too clever for your own good often leads to your own downfall. Therefore, upholding one's principles and remaining free from greed and greed is the true path!

Just like the time when Ao Zhiqi wanted to exchange Li Shicong's secret for the "Yin Yang He Shen Shu"; and when he encountered Ao Zhiqi after hunting the Kui Niu in the Funiu Mountains, he did not rob the treasure... It was precisely because he adhered to his principles and bottom line that he avoided a lot of trouble.

“Ao Zhiqi may have escaped, but if what I said is true, Li Shicong refined the Spirit Toon mother plant and can sense and contact the fruit. He has probably already tracked it down and refined it into a human puppet.”

Shangguan Yunchang explained: "The lowest level of human puppet is naturally the corpse puppet; a more advanced one can be made into a living dead; and an extremely advanced one can split a consciousness from a person, hide it in the shadows, and not be aware of it unless it actively uses its methods. It does not think of itself as a puppet and will act normally on a daily basis."

'Isn't this just rewriting or splitting one's personality? The higher the realm, the deeper it delves into the soul and touches upon the great secrets of the human body, the more terrifying it becomes!' Zhuang Jin thought to himself.

"My husband was puzzled before. It is likely that Li Shizong learned about the Yin-Yang Union Technique from Ao Zhiqi after Ao Zhiqi was turned into a human puppet. Also, after Li Shizong broke through, his aura quickly stabilized. This forbidden technique is naturally extraordinary, so it is not hard to understand."

Shangguan Yunchang said with a hint of amazement, "Just as Grandmother guessed, if Li Shizong releases the Three Yuan Fruit and can find three good seedlings to refine three human puppets that have severed the three corpses, breaking through to the Yin God realm will not only be a piece of cake, but the success rate will also increase significantly, at least seventy or eighty percent. In fact, after they break through to the Yin God realm, they can be nurtured in return, elevating the three human puppets to surpass the Innate realm as well." The Yin God realm emphasizes the word 'god,' and such extremely advanced human puppets, with their divine souls intact, do indeed possess the potential to become Yin Gods.

"What grand ambitions! What a deep scheme!" Zhuang Jin couldn't help but gasp as he listened.

"Not only that, my husband, carefully recall what Li Shizong did before and after. After Ao Zhiqi snatched the Divine Essence Fruit and escaped, this man acted as if he was irreconcilable enemies, saying that the medicinal power could be extracted from the corpse, inciting others to pursue him, and afterwards, choosing the other two puppets."

As Shangguan Yunchang spoke, she looked at Zhuang Jin and said, "One is you, my husband, who is still determined to target my Shangguan family. The other is Ge Zhaoqing, who is practically a member of the Ge family and has his eye on the Ge family."

"By the way, that Ge Zhaoqing isn't exactly honest either. He's using a secret technique to condense a Gangyuan Pearl, waiting for the right opportunity, plotting to 'enter a major sect from a minor one' and become the next head of the Ge family!"

"This……"

Zhuang Jin was also shocked. From Zhan Shengchu, Mai Yinghuang, Ao Zhiqi, and Bian Zhihao to Li Shicong and Ge Zhaoqing, none of them were honest. They all had their own plans!
Now, Li Shizong and Ge Zhaoqing have run into each other, with the latter being targeted by the former.

"Perhaps Li Shizong still harbors the idea of ​​controlling Ge Zhaoqing and indirectly controlling the Ge family in the future, but he has miscalculated."

Shangguan Yunchang then revealed another secret: "The three great families of Cangzhou are closely related, and their cultivation techniques belong to the wind, thunder, and ice attributes respectively. This is related to a certain trump card of the Suspended Sky Mirror. Due to the pressure from the clans above, there are indeed struggles and mutual sabotages within the three great families, but they would never be driven to the brink of death. Otherwise, why would the three great families have been passed down for eight hundred years without interruption until today?"

"Cen family head Cen Chongxuan did set traps and made moves against the Ge family, but he didn't want to eradicate the Ge family from its roots. He just wanted to wait for the Ge family head to be unable to bear it and take the initiative to ask for help, so that he could compete for more access to the Suspended Sky Mirror."

Since the Ge family had no successor, they turned to the Shangguan and Cen families for help. With certain permissions granted by the Suspended Heaven Mirror, both families would join forces to help them cultivate their seed and push it to the Yin God realm.

This is an extreme case. In reality, the Ge family patriarch himself was already secretly grooming someone else. Ge Zhaoqing's idea of ​​"entering the main branch from a minor branch" was utterly wishful thinking, and Li Shicong's fantasies were also futile.

Actually, there's another point that Shangguan Yunchang didn't mention: the infighting and mutual sabotage among the three major families is also a deceptive tactic, a way to lure out unaffiliated martial artists, and even big fish like Li Shicong and Governor Xuanyuan Zhengji.

"That being said, my grandmother has been in contact with the Cen and Ge families about this matter. The Ge family has taken the favor, and so has the Cen family. Li Shizong is not doing well with her husband. Recently, she has been in contact with an elder of the Cen family, presumably as a candidate for a puppet. If we are not prepared, this person may really cause quite a stir."

"Yes!"

Zhuang Jin recalled the whole story. Li Shizong's various arrangements were all interconnected, and it was indeed a huge conspiracy. There was a high probability that Governor Xuan Yuanzhengji was also acting as an accomplice. If we were not prepared, it would indeed cause considerable damage.

He then recalled Bian Zhihao's dying whispered warning. How did Bian Zhihao know this? Now that he is dead, it is impossible to know.

However, Zhuang Jin had a guess: Bian Zhihao was an extremely cautious person when not under great temptation, and it was possible that he had discovered something during one of Li Shizong's tests.

What Li Shicong didn't expect was that Bian Zhihao would be extremely vigilant, harboring suspicions in his heart. Before dying, he sent a telepathic message to Zhuang Jin. Zhuang Jin noticed something amiss, and combined with Bian Zhihao's reminder, this suspicion intensified. Then, he acted unpredictably, decisively exposing Bian Zhihao's suspicions and informing the Shangguan family.

Now that the Shangguan family is in charge of the Suspended Heaven Bureau, the cunning old lady Shangguan Jinfeng has taken action and exposed all of his secrets.

—For Shangguan Jinfeng, as long as she attracts attention and suspicion, she can follow the clues from some information and combine them with her own experience and knowledge to make a complete deduction.

This is like this: a secret is only a secret if it is buried in one's heart and taken to the coffin after death. If a second person knows it, it becomes a hidden secret. A conspiracy is the same. It is a conspiracy if it is sudden, secretive, deceptive, and erupts unexpectedly. If it is noticed by others and loses its "yin" attribute, it is just an ordinary strategy.

"Now that Grandmother knows, what are your plans?"

Now that Li Shizong and Xuanyuan Zhengji have been exposed, the roles of hunter and prey have been reversed. Zhuang Jin naturally wants to eliminate Li Shizong, a venomous snake who has his eyes on him, as soon as possible.

"Grandmother has mentioned a plan; what is your opinion, my husband?"

Shangguan Yunchang said, "The outside world does not know that you, my husband, have severed your three corpses. You have concealed your realm with the Holy Spirit Pearl and maintained your position at the level of severing two corpses in the Innate Corpse-Severing Realm."

"Grandmother will get another 'Super Gang Yuan Pill' from the Cen and Ge families for you, my husband, to take and quickly accumulate the Three Corpses to perfection."

"Then, the elder of the Cen family is nearing the end of his lifespan and is ultimately Li Shicong's alternative. He should not abandon her husband. After you, my husband, complete the Three Corpses Realm, go out with Li Shicong. Grandmother, Cen family head, and Ge family head will secretly wait and lure out Xuan Yuan Zhengji behind the scenes."

Shangguan Yunchang didn't explain it clearly, but it was obvious that the 'Super Gangyuan Pill' allowed him to quickly complete the accumulation of the Three Corpses Severing Realm. Even if it was a reward for this plan, it was precisely because of this benefit that she spoke to Zhuang Jin.

"Used as bait?"

After thinking it over, Zhuang Jin decided to join the game.

All these events made him somewhat uneasy, and he wanted to complete his accumulation as soon as possible, break through to the Yin God realm, and truly escape the chessboard.

Furthermore, being targeted by a vicious dog like Li Shizong, one should be wary of thieves even after a thousand days of thievery; it's best to kill him once and for all.

"Most importantly, the plan's risks are manageable. With Shangguan Jinfeng, Cen Chongxuan, and Ge Daoqian in the shadows, they can handle Xuanyuan Zhengji. I only need to deal with Li Shicong, oh, and perhaps two of his puppets."

'Li Shicong has reached the Three Corpses Severing Realm. To be generous, I'd estimate that his two puppet figures are also at the Three Corpses Severing Realm. Even in a three-on-one situation, with my ultimate attributes and the accumulation of power to reach the Three Corpses Severing Realm by then, what is there to fear?'

Not to mention, after the previously exposed Kui Niu Drum, there are also trump cards such as the Holy Spirit Pearl Shield and the Half-Step Yin God Realm Jade Token.

Of course, in the end, we're still just pawns this time. But being a pawn isn't scary; what's scary is not even having the right to be a pawn, to be used.

'This is the last time. Next time, I will never be a pawn again, but only the player who jumps off the chessboard,' Zhuang Jin thought to himself.

……

(End of this chapter)