Yunxi watched the scene without emotion. She wanted to see how long that evil soul could hold out.
"Ancestor, please!"
Feng Jiarong's cry even drowned out the man's howls on the floor.
At the instant Feng Jiarong turned her head, a sphere of light burst from the male cultivator's sea of consciousness and shot straight for the space between her brows.
This was exactly what Yunxi had been waiting for. She raised her hand and formed a seal. A net of thunder snapped into place, stopping the light three inches before Feng Jiarong's brow, then wrapped around it and drew the soul-sphere to Yunxi's palm.
The man who had been screaming fell completely still. Only the faintest breath showed he was still alive. A tiny purple flame swayed up from his body and drifted back into Yunxi's hand. It was the Mystic Thunder Violet Flame.
Feng Jiarong had not recovered from the sudden change. She collapsed to the ground, no longer begging the Ancestor for help, and stared blankly at the soul-sphere.
Yunxi pushed the captured soul to Ancestor Feng Feng. "Ancestor, you had better search it yourself, so no one can claim I am meddling in the Feng clan's affairs."
Ancestor Feng Feng drew a slow breath, shot a glare at the dazed Feng Jiarong, then spread his divine sense and began a soul search.
Without a body's protection, the soul could only be butchered. Moments later, it dissipated into the air.
Ancestor Feng Feng lifted a hand and pulled Feng Jiarong into his grasp. His voice turned cold."Feng Jiarong, you are truly a fine disciple of the Feng clan. What did Zhao Qinan give you that you would even sell out your family?"
Tears streaked Feng Jiarong's face. Her voice hitched. "Ancestor, it is not like that. He said he could help me raise my cultivation quickly. He would not lie to me…"
Yunxi clicked her tongue inwardly. A peak case of love-addled delusion. She believed anything he said. Did she have no judgment of her own? She was a cultivator too. What ways could raise cultivation quickly? Take pills, consume rare treasures, or dual cultivate. But gain for one meant loss for the other. If she rose too fast, why would he allow it? Eight out of ten he was raising her as a furnace.
Ancestor Feng Feng's next words confirmed Yunxi's guess.
"You fool. Zhao Qinan has been feeding you pills because he kept you as a furnace to help him break through to Golden Core. Go open his storage pouch and look at what he has hidden."
He truly did not wish to waste more words on such stupidity.
Feng Jiarong scrambled to Zhao Qinan, unfastened the pouch at his waist, and poured everything out. In moments, a small mound piled up on the floor, filled with a jumble of items.
Yunxi swept her divine sense over it, lifted her hand slightly, and drew several objects to her palm. One was a black token, similar to the one she had used to enter the Su Family's secret realm. Its aura was unmistakably that of evil cultivators, though the pattern was different.
"Could this be a token for entering another secret realm?"
She weighed the token and spoke her guess.
Dian Dian suddenly sent a voice transmission. "Master, this token smells familiar. May Dian Dian take a sniff?"
"Of course."
Dian Dian poked out from Yunxi's sleeve and sniffed the black token with his little nose, then said by transmission, "Master, do you remember the demon cultivator who spied on the Su Family's secret realm at midnight?"
"Naturally. His aura is on this?"
"Yes, although it is very faint. This token once passed through his hands."
The explanation was clear.
"How interesting. That demon cultivator is most certainly a pawn of the evil cultivators."
Yunxi turned to Ancestor Feng Feng. "Ancestor, this token is a pass to one of their hiding places. I will take it back to the sect to track down their lair."
"Good. Take it."
Yunxi flipped her hand and stored the token away, then picked up a second jade slip. There was a restriction on it. She closed her fingers and the seal broke with a snap. One glance at the contents was enough. She tossed the slip to Feng Jiarong and said coolly, "Read the technique inside. Did he have you cultivate it?"
Feng Jiarong looked at the assortments of women's robes scattered on the floor. Her face went green, then white, like a dyer's workshop. They were not styles she wore. They had to belong to other female cultivators. Clearly Zhao Qinan had done many shameful things behind her back.
The jade slip Yunxi had thrown became the last straw. The technique recorded within was not a proper dual cultivation art at all. It was an evil method that plundered a partner's cultivation through dual cultivation. Worst of all, Feng Jiarong was designated as the target of plunder, and she had already begun cultivating it.
"Why? Why is it like this? I love him so much."
Feng Jiarong's hands shook around the jade slip. Yunxi felt not a trace of pity.
Ancestor Feng Feng had regained his calm. His voice was indifferent. "Dao companions are your own choice. You changed your cultivation method without consulting your family. You made the decision alone. Since you did not trust the clan, you must bear the consequences of your choice."
He finished speaking and pulled Feng Jiarong back into his palm, then forcibly reversed her meridians and began to disperse her cultivation.
Feng Jiarong's face twisted with panic. "Ancestor, no. Please. Please do not cripple my cultivation…"
She struggled hard, but her cultivation was insufficient. She could not break free from a Golden Core cultivator's grasp. Before an incense stick burned down, Feng Jiarong had fallen back to the mortal realm. Her body withered with age, wrinkles deep enough to clamp a mosquito.
Only then did Ancestor Feng Feng release his hand and raise his voice. "Send Feng Jiarong to the mortal world. She is never to step into the cultivation world again. If she does, kill without mercy."
Two Feng clan disciples entered the hall to remove the two cripples. Feng Jiarong suddenly glared at Yunxi with vicious eyes and snapped, "You are a jinx. Every time you come to the Feng clan, disaster follows. Sooner or later the Feng clan will be dragged to death by you. I will be waiting to see your—"
The last word never left her mouth. Yunxi twisted her neck from a distance. People who turned black into white should not be left alive. If the evil cultivators used her, she would become a blade pointed at the Feng clan.
"Ancestor, I overstepped. But I am at least a Yuányīng Zhēnjūn. Should the Feng clan not show the bare minimum of respect?"
Ancestor Feng Feng's face stayed cold as he flicked out his Core Flame and reduced Feng Jiarong to ash. Only then did his features ease. "Yunxi, do not be angry. A traitor to the clan is unworthy to bear the Feng name. You were right. My cultivation is lower than yours. I was only a step too slow."
He meant it. The Feng clan had received much of Yunxi's grace. For a clan disciple to be ungrateful and then bite back was nothing he had taught.
Yunxi nodded, satisfied. As long as Ancestor Feng Feng kept his perspective clear, she did not care how the remaining Feng clan disciples judged her. On the cultivation path, no companion lasted forever.
Once the remaining disciples of the Feng clan had been examined one by one and proven clean, Yunxi flashed back to the Wei clan manor.
Dian Dian suddenly sent a voice transmission. "Master, something is wrong at the Wei clan."