Li Jing quietly gazed at the imposing middle-aged man that had her elder brother in his grasp.
'And I'm supposed to trust you?' she sneed in her heart and prepared to make her move as spontaneous as possible.
Just as she was about to rush forward, the Emperor raised his hand.
''I'm serious.''
Two words.
These two words were enough for her to change her mind. She understood that the Emperor would absolutely destroy her already half dead brother the moment she tried to make a move.
She looked at his serious face for a second before sighing internally.
''Fine, what is the deal?'' she spoke crudely and fastly as she couldn't delay this any further.
Wang had fought multiple geniuses who were at the peak of the Dao stage despite being only at the Deity Ascension stage. Multiple fights didn't only exhaust him, but he had also suffered injuries and exposed his trump cards. Delaying any of this any further would only hurt her elder brother who was depending on her for the first time in her whole life.
The Emperor smiled slightly and opened his mouth.
''Cripple your cul-''
His sentence was cut off in the middle by an annoyed Li Jing.
''Cut the empty talk, you know I won't agree to that. Let's skip the bargaining and get to the point.''
She said with a minor frown.
Emperor held back a frown and continued after a brief hesitation.
''I have the upper hand, little lady. You don't get to talk to me that way in a situation like this.'' he said slowly.
He actually didn't care about her words or her rudeness, what mattered was her being too casual in a situation like this. He had to remind her that he had the advantage and that making a deal was for her own good, he had to make sure to brand this on her mind and get the most profit from the deal.
But, contrary to his expectations, Li Jing merely sneered.
''You think? I might not have your two friends over there as my hostages yet, but both of them-'' she pointed at the Emperor's advisor and brother, one of them severely injured, the other in his soul form.'' -would die the moment I decide to kill them.''
''When they die, your Empire won't be as invincible as it used to be. Well, it's easy to imagine what would happen, right? I wonder if you and your family could survive all of it. You must have made many enemies until now, it would be a shame if they got a whiff of your weakness and decided it was time for some petty revenge.'' she said with a small smirk, threatening the Emperor shamelessly.
Wang, who heard all of this, raised his arm to give a thumbs up.
'That's my girl! I didn't drill those techniques into your head for them to be useless after all. Good to see you making use of them.'
The Emperor's heart started to beat even faster than before, not just from the fury as a little girl just threatened him, but also because of fear.
'She figured it out...'
He tried to calm himself, but it wasn't easy in a situation like this.
He considered making excuses or trying to trick her into believing into something else like, 'Do you really think our Empire doesn't have any backings, any ancestors?' but it all seemed worthless at this point.
'She looks too sure of herself... I couldn't make her believe about a 'secret force' even if it was the truth.'
''Go ahead.'' she said impatiently, waiting for his demands.
''If you won't make a decision, I will.'' she said, leveling his gaze.
''Let my brother go, that's all. I don't want anything else. In exchange, I will spare your Empire.''
They stared at each other for a few seconds as the Emperor looked to be thinking about the deal, until he smiled.
''That's fine with me.''
''Why don't we... discuss the details?'' he said, his smile slowly widening, becoming slightly vicious.
''Of co-'' as Li Jing was answering, she was interrupted by a shout.
''BEHIND YOU!'' Wang shouted with all his strength, almost tearing his throat in the process but he couldn't care less.
Little Jing's eyes widened and dodged to the side, but she was too late.
A blade went through the side of her stomach, drawing a red arc in the air with her blood.
Her eyes shook in pain she didn't let it take over her and sent a blast of ice to the attacker in an effort to get away from him for a second.
The attacker slashed through her attack and got between her and the Emperor.
A man garbed in all black, including a black mask that covered his entire face, stood in front of her.
Behind the man, the Emperor smirked.
They talked to each other leisurely as if they had already won as Li Jing nursed her injuries and Wang thought of new plans.
''Took you a while, little brother.'' the Emperor said, revealing the identity of the stranger.
''I thought you were joking when you said you needed my help.'' the man replied in a monotone manner.
He was the last Peak Dao stage being in the Empire. Previously, he had stayed behind in the Empire to protect the capital in case someone took advantage of the Emperor and 3 other Peak Dao cultivators' absence, but minutes ago, he was abrutly called to this place by an artifact only the Emperor could use.
''Is everyone safe?'' the Emperor asked, for the first time since the young man came here, his voice had a bit of edge to it.
''Yeah, anyone who has even a little bit of the royal bloodline is in the Royal Treasury, locked behind seals even we can't tear off.'' the young man garbed in black waved him off, telling him not to worry about it.
''Good, we can fight without worries then.'' the Emperor nodded with a satisfied smile.
Things were going off the rails for a while now, and seeing a turn of events like this felt great.
''You won't explain anything?'' the young man looked behind him for the first time, his voice laced with hidden shock.
His older brother was a monster of exposition, he would explain even the most boring and worthless things no matter what.
Seeing that they were lacking Li Mong entire being and Li Yan's physical body, he nodded to himself.
'It seems like someone finally beat that nasty habit off him.'
He secretly thanked Li Jing.
''Later. Right now, we have to kill that girl.'' the Emperor with a small growl.
'Finally, time for some good old revenge.'
--
[An: Shock, the little girl with the mysterious bloodline isn't the jade beauty, she is the protagonist!
Honestly, I have been trying to make the enemy competent. Not just some random weekly enemy all the xianxia authors use to create face slap situations, but actually competent and smart individuals who all have their own thoughts and personalities. But because of it, I kinda dragged it off a little bit. I apologize for that.
This whole volume is about to be finished though, I can promise for that.]