Douluo Continent
Southern Lands.
6 hours later.
He quietly opened his eyes and turned his head towards his right. His gaze met with Leng Yaozhu who was sitting a few meters away from him.
"What I meant was that I am going to aid Qiangu Dongfeng enough that he doesn't need to do anything while als acting suspiciously close to you and Yun Ming and the other Elders of the Spirit Pagoda."
"My excuse to him is going to be the same one that I was giving for you: I have a co-operative give and take relationship with them all and 'am just using everyone for my gains."
"But he needs to doubt me. You will give him the reason. We are going to talk for huge amounts of time everyday. It could be about anything. It could even be a rant on your side while I listen or me just counting or you humming. But to him, it should look like we are in discussion of something important but with no clue as to what we might be talking for so long."
"I am not going to act "abnormal" anymore as well. I will act nice, just like my time at the Pagoda and I am going to visit all the Elders at regular intervals in my journey of the continent's replantation cuz they just happened to be on the way and I just happened to feel a little sociable nowadays that you are on my life. You will 'secretly' visit them out of nowhere as well, showing your concern about my intentions regarding my work plans with Qiangu Dongfeng and such."
"All in all, we are to create an illusion of importance of our reason for chatting along with the sudden shift of my attitude towards the Elders, you and Yun Ming. This is the part where he will come to play and your actions are going to become bolder as the Vice President of the Spirit Pagoda."
"Lastly, I am going to take Yun Ming out of Shrek and deliver him to you to discuss something "that can't be discussed over lins"; just choose any of the options I give you later on."
"Keep in mind, you both have to act like I had given you some crucial Intel or information and you are taking your next actions based on that. I will talk to Yun Ming as well; he will most likely hide it from his wife for a while but he would agree to our cause."
"Now everything I have said till now is going to set in motion from the exact same time, that is, tomorrow. You will play your part and I will play mine and Yun Ming is to prepare for his own."
"Repeating it once again, I will act like I am playing all sides. You have to act like you are onto something unknown and need my help. Yun Ming will have to act like I gave hima strong reason/Intel/information/evidence whatever that he had no choice but to leave Shrek City and attend to it, thus meeting with you and proceeding with the plan."
"That's it. We have to follow this till Gu Yue calls. Why? I will explain later. Just know that will be the cue for you to leave. The plan would have already succeeded and by the end of the next 180 days, he will either commit suicide or run for his life."
"Why?" [Leng Yaozhu]
"Telling you has no meaning. I have prepared everything, we just need to follow it. I will call you on your soul communicator. We can start by you teaching me about spirit souls tomorrow. That won't be an awkward subject to talk among us." [Fan Lin]
'Among?'
"That is indeed a time consuming topic." [Leng Yaozhu]
"What we need." [Fan Lin]
"Okay. So I just have to stay here and talk to you on a soul communicator while you are taking care of the matters of the Spirit Pagoda, future replantation, doing Dongfeng's bidding, socialising with the Elders and you want to learn about spirit souls in between all this as well. I would have said that it's bitting more than you can chew but this easily explains how you were able to plan those massacres. If you did. You might be truly capable if you can pull it off." [Leng Yaozhu]
"Your opinion is of no concern to me. Are you going to inform your disciple about your change of plans?" [Fan Lin]
"And what makes you think I haven't?" [Leng Yaozhu]
"Cuz you haven't." [Fan Lin]
"How did you know? Did she tell you that?" [Leng Yaozhu]
"She didn't, that's why." [Fan Lin]
"What is your relation to her exactly? I don't think you are close or are in a category that I could call 'friends'. What is she to you?" [Leng Yaozhu]
On her words, the emotional face broke as he took out a tomato and ate it with a smile before shaking his head and returning to his emotionless face, leaving Leng Yaozhu more amused than befuddled.
"What's funny?" [Leng Yaozhu]
"If you saw Yun Ming in me, what would you do?" [Fan Lin]
"That's a stupid question because it isn't possible. You are not even on a quantitative aspect of his existence." [Leng Yaozhu]
"Just suppose." [Fan Lin]
"..." [Leng Yaozhu]
"I don't know. I just can't think of it." [Leng Yaozhu]
"It could also be old age for you." [Fan Lin]
"What was even the context of that statement?" [Leng Yaozhu]
"I see someone in her and that thought is making me mad with rage and disgust, destroying my mind with my own emotions. That's why I am avoiding her because if I didn't, I am going to kill her, not just her. I am going to end all. I want to ravage everything that exist. Nothing here matters to me in my emotional state." [Fan Lin]
"So I have been locking them up one by one and spend most of my time in my emotionless state. This is my relation to her. There's nothing else." [Fan Lin]
'That explained nothing?'
"Did you get influenced by some crappy theatre play or something? You are barely 14, match your words with your age." [Leng Yaozhu]
"See, telling you has no meaning. You won't be able to understand me. You lack the youth that I had." [Fan Lin]
"Why do you think so? You are not that hard to read." [Leng Yaozhu]
"It's adorable of you to think like that." [Fan Lin]
"..." [Leng Yaozhu]
"Let's play with your whims then. What do you think I am doing the replantation for? What about my cultivation? Why am I not increasing it? Let's hear the misconceptions that you may have. And not clear it." [Fan Lin]
"Will you hold a grudge if I throw you in the sea?'' [Leng Yaozhu]
"I will." [Fan Lin]
"I thought the same." [Leng Yaozhu]
Not even letting her words finish, Leng Yaozhu yanked him to the seas.
"Disrespectful child!"
She slowly whispered while watching him calmly rose from the seas and looking at her with nary a change in his expression.
"That wasn't very of polite of you."
He flew towards her and this was the first thing that he said to her as he landed near her.
"You don't look like you are angry at me?" [Leng Yaozhu]
"Anger doesn't need to be shown. I will make you feel it later on. Are you staying here for the night?" [Fan Lin]
"Why are you asking that?" [Leng Yaozhu]
"I am sleeping there. I will wake up when it's time so don't disturb me again." [Fan Lin]
He said and conjured the whiteboard into a blanket which he covered himself and went to sleep, still drenched with the seawater.
"Again? Didn't you just woke up?" [Leng Yaozhu]
"It's my rest day. I had planned to sleep the whole day. You woke me up out of nowhere, disrupting my sleep schedule. Now I am trying to cover it up." [Fan Lin]
"Why are you covering yourself with a blanket when you are already drenched. You should dry yourself." [Leng Yaozhu]
"I don't want you looking at my sleeping face or body or anything. That's disturbing." [Fan Lin]
"Why would I even do that?" [Leng Yaozhu]
"I don't know. I just don't trust strangers of the opposite side with my self." [Fan Lin]
"What do I even answer to that?" [Leng Yaozhu]
"..."
"Do you have the habit of sleeping once in a while? Do you even like sleeping? You know that meditation far outclasses it in every single aspect, so any reasons for sleeping like this? At least change into some clothes suitable for sleeping. You must have some, right?" [Leng Yaozhu]
"You have a lot of questions. Well for first, I don't sleep the normal sleep that you are talking about. I don't even like to sleep that much. I currently sleep to keep myself in check and, I don't have any, neither do I need them. My sleeping was never about comfort. Now meditate yourself or do anything and don't disturb me." [Fan Lin]
"Good night." [Fan Lin]
He said and forcefully entered sleep state, cutting himself from his surroundings.
Leng Yaozhu sensed the flicker of body activities die down in his body, along with the freezing of his spirit sea and patiently waited for the time to pass.
There was a lot for her to do and yet there wasn't since she had work but not the access to it. Most of the Elders were scattered throughout the world and her assistants were quite capable in handling her everyday share of work.
For now, she had other plans in her mind, one of which was to keep an eye on Fan Lin, or the former Child Killer, the current Mysterious Death phenomenon and an Envoy of the Spirit Pagoda into what he was trying to achieve or not.
From the day that she had learnt about Qiangu Dongfeng planning to kill Yun Ming(and destroy Shrek) and engage her disciple to his Grandson, Qiangu Dongfeng had died to her.
If she can kill him, she would have done so already. But her strength was unfortunately not enough for the task. But...
But there was someone else who was also of the same thinking. She had shared the information of treachery that Qiangu Dongfeng was planning and his alliance with the Evil Soul Masters to the person that was involved, that is, Yun Ming.
Yun Ming had handled the situation in calmer manner than her though since he didn't get angry. Neither did he show much change in his face after he got the information. He had been in the presence of his wife Ya Li and he knew that any abrupt actions that he showed would warrant her attention.
Hence he had made a small lie and left to meet the information provider after asking Leng Yaozhu who sold Fan Lin without much thinking. She at least kept his identity as the Mysterious Death phenomenon and child killer but that was due to her concern for the safety of Yun Ming and others.
Yun Ming met Fan Lin, got to know that the he was related to her adopted daughter and had even threatened Fan Lin to not think anything untoward in Shrek.
After that both of them had returned to their respective ways with Fan Lin going to the Bright city for the replantation there and Yun Ming returning to the Seagod Pavilion and utilising the Tang Sect to find out about what Qiangu Dongfeng was doing for all these years.
Leng Yaozhu, on the other hand, thought about leaving her work and returning to the Douluo Continent before finding out that it would be incredibly hard for her to continue her work again if she were to leave then.
So after some talking here and some talking there and seeing that the situation was fine, Leng Yaozhu continued on her research, achieved the promised partial success and hastily returned.
Then Fan Lin called her a week or so before she reached the Douluo Continent and just casually spewed that Qiangu Dongfeng was making a deal with the Evil Soul Masters and he needed her help and cut the call and destroyed his soul communicator leaving her hanging with context as she thought that the unforeseen destruction of Shrek that she was told was closer than she had thought.
Except she didn't know that Fan Lin had lied to her and that Qiangu Dongfeng currently had no contact with the Evil Soul Masters. To be precise, he was avoiding them and had cut contacts for a while and was solely and completely focusing on the Conservational parks so he could start the various research that had been halted for years now.
Fan Lin knew this and that's why he was planning to use this in his favor to help Qiangu Dongfeng hasten the conservation parks. That's it. There was nothing else that he planned to do with Qiangu Dongfeng. There was no need to.
Most of what he had said to Leng Yaozhu was just something he made up on a whim. His main goal was her and the knowledge that she possessed. He wanted her to stay away from the Star Duo Forest for a while since someone naive has decided to either use her mind or someone else's suggestions and created a mess. Thankfully it was a salvageable mess.
She must have some plans of her but Fan Lin can't trust her since he had been proven wrong twice and maybe things had already slipped long ago when he even saw her like that.
Hence Leng Yaozhu needed to be kept away from the Pagoda for a few more days. The same with the Elders who had research related to it.
'No, let's get all the Elders.'
The rest was taken care of by Fan Lin's loyal men and a few small tweaks in the schedule and other changes. On the other hand, even if Fan Lin could not trust Gu Yue's actions, he could at least put some faith in her cautious and extremely vigilant nature when it came to the secrecy of the Spirit Beasts. If she had taken this step, surely there have to be some sort of preparation for it.
With that in mind, he had lured Leng Yaozhu away and was going to keep her in the Southern Lands for around a week just to be on the safer side.
Fortunately Leng Yaozhu didn't know his thoughts. If she did, the result would have been tragic.
....
"Any results."
"No, My Liege. Still no changes even after 14 days."
"Maybe it's useless like him."
..
Nothing serious between us - 8
I have an emergency and won't be able to post for the week so the next five chapters will be posted today.