"Your problem lies in these two rings."
A smile crept onto Lin Feng’s face, his finger tapping lightly on the two rings hanging before Xiao Yan’s chest.
Xiao Yan’s expression turned rather cold, "This senior also believes that there is a curse on these two rings of mine?"
Lin Feng carried on as though he didn’t see Xiao Yan’s change in expression, his tone suddenly changing, "But these two rings of yours have nothing to do with curses. Instead of saying that the massive change in your body is a natural disaster, it would be better to say that it is a man-made disaster."
"Man-made disaster?" Xiao Yan was slightly confused, and soon after, his face became extremely somber, "Senior is saying that someone is deliberately harming me? It’s definitely not my parents… That means even the death of my parents is related to the person harming me?"
Lin Feng gave a big thumbs up secretly in his heart, "Good kid, nice connection you made, you definitely have a bright future!"
He waved his hands, casually looking at Xiao Yan’s small, overcast face,"Right now I cannot know whether or not the deaths of your parents have something to do with these rings, but the massive change in your body is precisely the result of these two rings."
"In the rings there live spirits, these spirits are constantly absorbing your mana to strengthen themselves." Lin Feng said slowly. His voice was calm but it weighed on Xiao Yan’s heart like a massive mountain, "This is the reason why your level regressed suddenly three years ago. This is also why you haven’t obtained any advancements despite training hard in the three years afterwards."
"The mana you trained so hard to obtain nourished the spirits instead!"
Xiao Yan lowered his head, looking towards the two rings at his chest, his dazed expression slowly revealed his hatred.
Looking at the change in his expression, Lin Feng let out a sigh of relief in his heart, while laughing secretly...
"This is called a preemptive strike!"
Putting you guys in the role of the villain first, let’s see how you challenge me?
Didn’t you guys think that you were in a favourable position? Putting on noble and magnificent airs, waiting for Xiao Yan to come and beg you? Are you dumbfounded now?
Lin Feng was complacent in his heart, he believed he was not framing them. Maybe those old grandpas in the rings can help Xiao Yan soar to success, but it was also most likely them who caused Xiao Yan’s fall from the clouds before.
Without Lin Feng, they would naturally be able to trick Xiao Yan and use large amounts of techniques and medicines to atone for themselves. But now, with Lin Feng’s preemptive strike and not giving them a chance to fix things, all that remains between them and Xiao Yan was hatred.
He might be smug, but Lin Feng was also secretly on guard, as he might have to go against the old guys in the rings next.
Lin Feng lifted his head, glancing at the sky. Summer’s weather was like a child’s mood, changing without notice, it was still bright and sunny before, now it was already cloudy and overcast with rolling thunder.
Lin Feng breathed a slight breath of relief in his heart, "Good thing the weather changed or else Nine Heaven Thunder Summoning wouldn’t be able to exert its full power. Now, I have enough cards up my sleeves to play with you guys."
Arriving to the point where the only thing that remains was a crippled soul and living in a ring, waiting to be the old grandpa for people. Regardless of how great their backgrounds were in the past and how powerful they were, right now they are still in an extremely weakened state.
The eastern wind blows, the war drums sound, we’re all old grandpas, who’s afraid of who?
Right when Xiao Yan was grinding his teeth and grabbing the rings at his chest, a long, soft sigh rose beside his and Lin Feng’s ears.
"If not for your sacrifice I don’t know how much longer I’d have to sleep for."
Xiao Yan stared blankly at the ring in his hand. A white mist of light surfaced on the ring, gradually forming a human figure in the air, becoming intricately detailed and vivid.
Lin Feng also stared at the figure of light blankly. Accurately speaking, since the person’s voice rose, Lin Feng had already descended into a blank state.
Because that was clearly a woman’s voice!
… It’s not an old grandpa but an old grandma?
Lin Feng’s mind was in a bit of a mess. Looking closely at the figure of light, saying that she was an old grandma would be undoubtedly rude.
She was an extremely beautiful woman, donned in a light green long gown blowing with the wind. She possessed an indescribable elegance, gazing at the clear stream from above with a calm composure.
The green-gowned woman’s eyes turned, her gaze landing on Lin Feng’s body after taking a glance at Xiao Yan.
Looking at her, a literary work that he had read in his past life suddenly came across Lin Feng’s mind - On the Goddess of Luo River.
Her body soars lightly like a startled swan, gracefully like a dragon in flight, in splendor brighter than the autumn chrysanthemum, in bloom more flourishing than the pine in the spring. Dim as the moon mantled in filmy clouds, restless as snow whirled by the driving wind.
"This is the feeling of Cao Zhi had when he first saw the Goddess of Luo River?" Lin Feng’s mind wandered, but in his heart on high alert.
Compared to the green-gowned woman’s beauty, Murong Yanran lacked composure and Xiao Zhen appeared a bit too young. Of all the people that Lin Feng has seen in his life, only that peach tree demon Long Ye could compare to her.
Both Long Ye and her were fine blossoms in their season; they were equally matched.
But just as he faced Long Ye before, Lin Feng could not muster up a single shred of passion in his heart, on the contrary, his heart felt a bit cold against this stunning beauty. This green-gowned woman’s threat was definitely similar to Long Ye’s.
Maybe spending everyday with Xiao Zhen’er and growing up with her trained Xiao Yan’s outlook. Right now Xiao Yan had no thoughts of praise or admiration, staring at the green-gowned woman with a face of hostility instead.
"Sacrifice?" Xiao Yan’s tone was deathly cold, "The change in my body is really your doing?"
The green-gowned woman sighed lightly, "Mingyue also had no choice, please do not blame me."
"I don’t blame you… F*ck you!" Xiao Yan could no longer hold back, tugging the string around his neck apart and throwing the ring which the green-gowned woman’s figure of light resided in.
The ring strangely stopped in mid-air, silently floating in the air just like that. After shaking slightly, the projected figure of light re-stabilized itself.
The green-gowned woman sighed lightly, "Mingyue understands that you are mad, but please note that the other ring you are wearing is actually the true source of your misfortune these past three years."
While speaking, she gazed upon Lin Feng, "This fellow taoist has eyes like a torch that pierces through the dark, the mana that Xiao Yan painstakingly cultivated these past three years was indeed absorbed by me, I express my deep apologies for this."
"But Xiao Yan’s misfortune of three years ago, the regression from the Great Perfection of Qi Disciple to Qi Disciple Level 1 had nothing to do with me."
Xiao Yan’s face was as cold as a pool of frozen water, looking at the green-gowned woman and then Lin Feng; in the end his gaze landed on the second ring in his hand.
Lin Feng’s expression was indifferent, as if everything was under his control. Outsiders would not be able tell what he was truly thinking based on his expression.
But in reality, the sense of crisis in Lin Feng’s heart was becoming increasingly more serious.
This woman was not easy to deal with, with just a few short lines, she not only got rid of the majority of her responsibility, she also obtained the leading position in the conversation influencing Xiao Yan into to following her rhythm.
The green-gowned woman stared calmly at Lin Feng and Xiao Yan, "In that ring there lives the crippled soul of an ancient beast, a Taotie."
"Taotie?" Xiao Yan was shocked. In legends, Taotie is one of the four great ancient fiends, known together with Hundun, Qiongqi and Taowu as the kings of fiends.
Taoties are avaricious, they devour everything. At their peak, they can even swallow the heavens and devour the earth, destroying all life.
Even great Primordial Spirit cultivators get a headache if they encounter this kind of fierce beast. All attacks against Taotie would be swallowed by its large mouth; they were so savage and gluttonous that they were truly difficult to deal with.
Lin Feng also wrinkled his brows slightly, looking towards the second ring in Xiao Yan’s hands.
The green-gowned woman continued saying, "10 years ago, I was forced to place my soul in this ring of yours as I was seriously injured. After that, I was asleep the whole time until three years ago, when I discovered that Taotie had devoured all of your mana and even wanted to devour your life force."
"I used the Heavenly Cage Mantra to seal that Taotie’s soul but my own soul had expended too much energy and was forced to enter a deep sleep again." The green-gowned woman had an apologetic expression, "It is also in the process of this second deep sleep that I unconsciously absorbed the new mana that you cultivated to repair my soul, and yet this created trouble for you, please forgive me."
Even though Xiao Yan had a face of doubt, his expression had clearly softened.
The expression on Lin Feng’s face didn’t change, but his heart became increasingly heavier.
Especially when he flipped through the trading system and found the ability of the Heavenly Cage Mantra, after he saw the description of it his heart sank to the bottom.
Heavenly Cage Mantra: A mantra which uses one’s own mana to set down a cage, sealing the mana of others. Effect is increased against spiritual targets.
[1] Cao Zhi is the brother of Cao Cao and a famous poet.