The Vicious Beauty Faked His Death Three Times [Transmigration] - Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Cooperation

Inside the immortal vessel, a woman dressed in luxury and a man with a slight look of worry sat across from each other over a chessboard.

“Madam, it is not that I am making things difficult for you, but the Clan Leader has instructed that the Tianhai Pavilion only allows those who are meant to enter.” Qi Tonghe shook his head and placed a white stone, his tone filled with helplessness.

Hearing this, Xu Ji, sitting opposite him, let out a scoffing laugh. She held a pitch-black chess piece between two fingers, not in a hurry to place it, but slowly engaging the other party. “Young Master Qi’s words are belittling yourself. Most people in the Immortal Realm feel that the Clan Leader values the eldest son most among his three sons, but in my view, it is the second son who is more trusted by Clan Leader Qi.”

Qi Tonghe narrowed his eyes at her, his tone unfriendly: “May I ask what Madam means?”

“The fact that Tianhai Pavilion is managed entirely by the second son is enough to prove the Clan Leader’s trust in you.” At this point, Xu Ji looked up at him with a slight curve of her lips, continuing pointedly, “How precious the Tianhai Pavilion is the second son should know better than anyone.”

Upon hearing this, the smile faded from Qi Tonghe’s face, and his gaze fixed on Xu Ji.

The fact that Tianhai Pavilion belonged to the Qi family was known to very few, let alone who managed it. This woman, who rarely left her courtyard, had actually spoken it out directly.

Not only that, she actually used his father to pressure him.

Qi Tonghe couldn’t help but feel a sliver of hostility toward the person before him. It was known to everyone in the Immortal Realm that he and his elder brother did not get along; he almost subconsciously categorized this person into his brother’s camp.

Xu Ji didn’t seem to take his clearly hostile gaze to heart, but lowered her head to contemplate the chessboard before her, as if struggling to break the deadlock.

The door was suddenly thrown open. The person who just stepped into the room abruptly halted their hurried pace, looking at Xu Ji and then at Qi Tonghe, unsure if they had arrived at the right time.

Seeing the servant’s panicked appearance, Qi Tonghe’s heart sank. He glanced sideways at Xu Ji, and finally looked at the servant with a dark expression: “What’s with this panic? Making a fool of yourself for others to see. If you have something to say, say it quickly!”

Hearing this, the servant didn’t dare delay and knelt directly.

His body was bowed very low, and Qi Tonghe’s face became even uglier as a result.

“Reporting to the Young Master, Tianhai Pavilion… something has happened.”

“What?!”

Qi Tonghe stood up abruptly, about to lose his temper, but his peripheral vision caught Xu Ji, who remained motionless. He forcibly suppressed his rage and asked stiffly: “What exactly happened?”

Isn’t that kid Qi Bocang guarding Tianhai Pavilion?

How could something happen?!

The servant bowed his body even lower, practically crawling on the ground.

“It is… a problem with the foundation.” The servant, after hesitating for a long time, gave a roundabout explanation.

To others, these words might seem like a trivial matter, but to Qi Tonghe’s ears, they were like a clap of thunder. He knew better than anyone what was hidden beneath Tianhai Pavilion.

His father originally favored his elder brother more, and he had put in great effort to snatch this Tianhai Pavilion from the things his brother didn’t want. If something happened to Tianhai Pavilion, how could he compete with his brother for the position of the next head of the Qi family?!

Moreover, Tianhai Pavilion had never had an accident in all these years. How could a problem suddenly arise from underground now?

At this thought, Qi Tonghe looked at Xu Ji beside him with scrutiny: “Were you sent by my elder brother?”

Xu Ji shook her head at the words, slowly placing the black stone in her hand. The prayer beads on her wrist swayed with the movement.

Her tone was flat: “I said when I arrived that I came to see the second son, to ask if I could enter Tianhai Pavilion.”

“I am merely a woman who has lived in a deep courtyard for a long time. How could I meet the eldest son? The second son truly thinks too highly of me.”

Qi Tonghe did not respond but sized up the person before him carefully.

The atmosphere in the room was extremely heavy; only Xu Ji sat before the chessboard, waiting for Qi Tonghe to make the next move.

“Turn around, go to Tianhai Pavilion.” Qi Tonghe’s voice was terrifyingly cold. “Find the mastermind and keep them alive.”

“I want to see who is so bold as to run wild on the Qi family’s head!”

With that, Qi Tonghe flicked his sleeve and left in a rage.

In an instant, only Xu Ji was left in the room. She sat before the chessboard, looking down at the situation, and shook her head slightly: “What a pity.”

If someone who understood chess saw this board, they would surely let out a gasp of amazement, because the white stones on this board were already destined for defeat. No matter what the next move was, it was nothing more than a struggle before death.

Tianhai Pavilion.

Ling Yanhe leaned against the stone wall, holding his breath in meditation, and before him was that five-hundred-year demon core.

At this moment, the demon core was emitting an unusual light, and the thick power contained within was slowly being drawn into Ling Yanhe’s body.

During this time, rocks continued to fall from overhead, but not a single one landed near Ling Yanhe or the man in black, as if an invisible barrier separated the two.

After a moment, Ling Yanhe slowly opened his eyes. His originally deep eyes were now even darker; just one look made one feel as if they were falling into an abyss.

The demon core that had been suspended in the air returned obediently to Ling Yanhe’s hand. Its light had not diminished at all, as if the power he had just consumed was merely a ladle of water taken from a deep well.

Ling Yanhe put the demon core away. He didn’t get up immediately but turned his head to look at Lin Qinghan leaning beside him.

Lin Qinghan’s face was pale at the moment, but it was much better than before—at least some color could be seen, unlike the previous appearance of a dead man who had just crawled out of a coffin.

Ling Yanhe half-closed his eyes and sized the person up.

The face, which could be described as bewitching, revealed a trace of abnormal paleness at this moment. His long, thick eyelashes cast a shadow under his eyes, and a spot at the corner of his eye looked fragile and pitiable.

He had heard the rumors about Qi Bocang, but he never expected that this person before him would actually attract the other’s favor to the point of allowing them to run wild on his territory at will.

It was truly a face that caused trouble.

A hint of gloom appeared between Ling Yanhe’s brows, and a chill settled in the depths of his eyes.

Then, he stood up and leaned down, his massive shadow completely obscuring Lin Qinghan.

Ling Yanhe raised his hand, applied slight force with his fingertips, and hooked a gap in the tight belt. The Black Bone Fan in his hand was slid into that gap along Lin Qinghan’s taut waistline.

His gaze never left the other’s face for a second; his direct stare seemed as if it wanted to see right through the person beneath him.

If Lin Qinghan were awake now, he would surely be unnerved by that look.

Having done this, Ling Yanhe seemed to feel it wasn’t enough. He raised his hand and rested it on the lean waist, sliding across the silk, his fingertips smoothing out the tiny wrinkles on the belt bit by bit.

Finally, that troublemaking hand was caught loosely by someone.

“Is the Young Master trying to take liberties with me?”

Lin Qinghan spoke in a tone that wasn’t exactly friendly.

He had just woken up, and the previous stinging pain had not completely dissipated; his gaze also subconsciously turned cold.

Ling Yanhe didn’t feel there was any problem with being caught red-handed; his expression was as usual.

He looked down at Lin Qinghan, his gaze falling on the jade-like hand grasping his wrist, scanning from the fingertips down to the knuckles that were tinged with pink.

In the next instant, that hand was withdrawn by its owner.

It was clearly just a trivial look, yet it made Lin Qinghan feel uncomfortable all over.

Before the other’s gaze could fall elsewhere on him, Lin Qinghan stood up first.

A wave of darkness hit his eyes, almost making him stagger. Fortunately, he reached out a hand to prop himself up against the stone wall from behind, the cold touch calling back his thoughts.

“Just as you said, deep master-servant affection.”

What?!

Lin Qinghan almost asked aloud. He looked at the Ling Yanhe before him with some confusion, his brow slightly furrowed.

What was wrong with this person? Besides the two of them, there was only a corpse that had long since gone cold. Was the act of “deep master-servant affection” being performed for a corpse?

Ling Yanhe didn’t think there was anything wrong with his words and still waited for his response with composed ease.

Facing the other’s teasing gaze, Lin Qinghan didn’t back down and met it directly, sizing up the person before him openly.

The sword wound on the other’s chest had actually recovered? Even his cultivation had broken through to the middle stage of Foundation Establishment.

Lin Qinghan could feel the dense demonic aura on the other party.

As expected, Ling Yanhe used that demon core.

A “Dragon Aotian” is indeed a “Dragon Aotian.” Even if a divine medicine like the Everspring Ivy is gone, a hundred-year demon core will be delivered to the door. The upgrade points that should be completed cannot be avoided no matter what.

What a powerful protagonist halo—he doesn’t suffer even a bit of a loss.

“What are you thinking?”

Ling Yanhe, who usually didn’t like to talk to him, suddenly spoke to ask.

At some point, the youth had become half a head taller than him. Now Lin Qinghan needed to look up slightly to meet the youth’s gaze.

He hadn’t felt this way before; perhaps it was because the other had broken through a realm, or perhaps it was too dark underground, but Lin Qinghan actually saw a faint sense of oppression in the other’s eyes.

Lin Qinghan didn’t like this feeling of being overshadowed. He subconsciously frowned, wanting to step out of the shadow the other brought, but he only touched the cold stone wall behind him.

Feeling some irritability in his heart, Lin Qinghan simply took a step forward. The distance between the two instantly closed. He looked up directly into Ling Yanhe’s gaze, refusing to back down.

“I was wondering why you didn’t kill me.”

This time Lin Qinghan didn’t use the title “Young Master” again.

Clearly, Ling Yanhe noticed this as well. A layer of black mist gradually covered his eyes, then vanished in an instant, leaving only an indelible inky blackness.

“I need you—that’s what you said.” Ling Yanhe brought up their previous words without any hesitation.

Lin Qinghan raised an eyebrow at the words. He took another step forward, until the two of them were almost pressed together.

Even the other’s breath could be felt—an incredibly ambiguous entanglement.

Ling Yanhe’s eyes instantly half-closed.

Lin Qinghan didn’t feel there was anything strange about this posture. On the contrary, he even felt it was great; the sense of oppression the other gave him, he would return in kind.

So those eyes, which looked affectionate to everyone, looked directly at Ling Yanhe. His gentle voice fell with an air of irresistible authority.

“Can I assume that you have boarded my ship now, and we are grasshoppers on the same rope?”

The sentence was a question, but the meaning was certainly an affirmation.

Lin Qinghan hooked his lips slightly, a hint of sharpness in the depths of his eyes. The mole at the corner of his eye also looked incredibly enticing.

Almost at the moment that slender, fair finger landed on Ling Yanhe’s shoulder, an unignorable burning gaze and a raspy voice fell simultaneously.

“Indeed so, but…”

Before he could finish, Lin Qinghan suddenly let out a laugh. His eyes curved slightly, bright and alluring, suppressing even the paleness brought by his illness.

Ling Yanhe’s eyes darkened. His gaze stayed on Lin Qinghan’s face, and he raised his hand toward his shoulder.

In the next moment, the person before him laughed lightly, and the finger resting on his shoulder was withdrawn. Then a hand pressed against his back, applying slight force, pushing him toward the side.

“In that case, Young Master, lead the way and take me out.”

When Ling Yanhe turned his head, he saw Lin Qinghan leaning against the stone wall, his head tilted as he smiled at him teasingly.

Like a cat that had intentionally done something bad, triumphantly curling its tail.

In an instant, he understood. Lin Qinghan was playing him.

But the expected rage did not surge in his heart.

On the contrary, he was very satisfied with the face the other showed. Lin Qinghan was stripping away the mask he wore in front of others bit by bit.

Only in front of him.

Current Trust Value: 23

Hearing the system’s broadcast, Lin Qinghan’s eyelid twitched, and he looked at the Ling Yanhe before him in surprise.

The other party wasn’t angry because of his actions; even a hint of a smile had stained his eyes.

Lin Qinghan recognized the meaning of that smile almost instantly. It was like the secret, bold satisfaction unique to youth when he had guessed the last big question of an exam correctly back in high school.

Ling Yanhe? Bold? Satisfaction?

The three terms placed together made a chill run down Lin Qinghan’s spine.

Before he could carefully investigate what was hidden in that smile again, the other party retracted his gaze and actually walked toward the depths of the secret passage.

At almost the same moment, the alarm bell in Lin Qinghan’s heart was struck hard.

The other party must have thought of some other way to get back at him.

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