"Good! Good! Since you refuse the toast and insist on defiance, this prince will show no mercy and will teach you a lesson!"
Jin Lingyun cut the last strand of net and waved his fan. Several golden blades appeared in the air, flying towards Bai Shengyi.
"Clang!"
The blades were all stopped one meter away from Bai Shengyi.
Not only that, Bai Shengyi flipped her wrist, pouring out Wood spiritual energy. Green vines like falcons instantly wrapped around Jin Lingyun. This time, Bai Shengyi didn't give Jin Lingyun a chance to take out his dagger. She first bound Jin Lingyun’s hands tightly, then trapped him with a "confinement" character.
Before Jin Lingyun could react, Bai Shengyi stepped forward quickly, and with two "crack" sounds, she dislocated Jin Lingyun’s arms.
Jin Lingyun grimaced in pain, but to Bai Shengyi's surprise, he managed not to cry out.
"Senior Brother Jin, pardon me." Bai Shengyi curled her lips, her tone as cordial as Jin Lingyun's, smiling playfully.
"But I think Senior Brother can understand, right? After all, as a blind person, I can only use all sorts of means to contend with Senior Brother, can't I?"
Bai Shengyi said with a smile, then casually kicked Jin Lingyun’s fan away. With pointed fingers, she drew out the dagger from his chest.
"No wonder it could break my net. Yellow-grade high-quality. Senior Brother is truly generous. However, this should be mine now, shouldn't it?" Bai Shengyi tossed the dagger into her storage bag.
Jin Lingyun watched helplessly as Bai Shengyi confiscated his favorite weapon. Yet, she smiled with such unrestrained nonchalance, as if he were just an insignificant passerby, not worth Bai Shengyi’s effort to deal with. His face instantly turned as dark as a storm cloud.
"You plotted against me? Bai Shengyi! You’re not in the Qi Refining stage, are you?"
If she were in the Qi Refining stage, her spiritual energy wouldn't be so abundant, and her attacks wouldn't be so sharp and smooth, as if she could see normally. Only cultivators in the Foundation Establishment stage could use external spiritual energy to replace their eyes and see normally.
Jin Lingyun stared intently at Bai Shengyi, his gaze terrifyingly grim.
Bai Shengyi, who was checking the changes in the surrounding illusion, ignored him. She was pondering whether Jin Lingyun could only control the Qingmeng Vine or the illusion as well.
Bai Shengyi remained calm, but Jin Lingyun couldn't.
"Junior Sister Bai, don't waste your effort. Without my help, you won't be able to get out of this illusion." Jin Lingyun threatened with a cold laugh. "If you beg me nicely and serve me gently, I might consider forgiving your past transgressions and let the Qingmeng Vine release you."
The core of this illusion array was the Qingmeng Vine, which could stir up the deepest desires in people's hearts, causing the assessors to be lost in sweet dreams and fall into an endless slumber. Only by breaking their desires could cultivators escape the illusion.
However, in order to get Bai Shengyi, Jin Lingyun had violated the academy's original requirements, turning the entire illusion array into a simple array within an array. He had removed the special assessments, instead controlling the Qingmeng Vine and using its hallucinatory effects to do as he pleased.
If Jin Lingyun had remained quiet, Bai Shengyi wouldn't have thought of him so quickly, but now…
Bai Shengyi leaned down, "So, I just need to get you to loosen up, right?"
Before Jin Lingyun could understand what Bai Shengyi meant, he saw Bai Shengyi tap his shoulder with a pen, followed by a sharp sting.
"Ah! You slut, what are you doing!" Jin Lingyun cursed.
Bai Shengyi retracted the mental energy hidden beneath the pen, her tone as cordial and gentle as before. "Senior Brother Jin, I just want to threaten you into letting me out. It's all for the assessment, don't be angry."
She herself didn't realize how much she resembled the villain leader in novels with this tone paired with her sudden actions.
Although Jin Lingyun was lecherous, he was quite stubborn. He gritted his teeth and said, "Dream on! Unless you serve… Ah!"
Bai Shengyi tapped his other shoulder again with her pen.
Bai Shengyi said slowly, "Senior Brother Jin, you know I'm from the Bai family, so I also understand a bit of medicine and healing. For example, which bone to break to make someone unable to stand, or which acupoint to stimulate to make a man impotent…"
As Bai Shengyi spoke, the Reincarnation Brush moved towards the area below Jin Lingyun’s Dantian…
"Stop!" Jin Lingyun's expression changed drastically, and he hurriedly said.
Bai Shengyi did not stop her actions.
"Stop! Stop! I'll let you out, alright!" Jin Lingyun conceded. Killing or injuring him was fine, but making him impotent… Thinking of this, Jin Lingyun shuddered, unable to imagine such a life.
Bai Shengyi smiled and stopped her movements, "Senior Brother Jin should have agreed earlier."
Jin Lingyun said with a dark expression, "Junior Sister Bai, aren't you afraid that this prince will retaliate later…"
"However, you’ll have to make a Dao Oath that you won’t trouble me in the future."
Jin Lingyun listened to Bai Shengyi's casually spoken words, looking at her smiling, beautiful face. The words he hadn't finished were stuck in his throat, unable to go up or down, and he had to respond to her quickly.
"Fine!"
Jin Lingyun said this word through gritted teeth.
He had no choice but to agree; Bai Shengyi's pen was like a sentient being, still stuck to him!
"Qingmeng Vine, release her." Jin Lingyun felt his back crawl and his lower body turn cold under Bai Shengyi's smiling gaze. He wanted Bai Shengyi to leave quickly.
"Oh?" Bai Shengyi raised her eyebrows.
"This prince swears that I will not trouble Bai Shengyi after leaving the illusion!" Jin Lingyun, looking unbearable, made a Dao oath and asked Bai Shengyi coldly, "Satisfied?"
Bai Shengyi did not expose the flaw in his words and said with a smile, "Of course. After all, I don't want to offend Senior Brother Jin."
Jin Lingyun: "..."
He had never met such a shameless woman!
But he had, unfortunately, misjudged the situation this time!
Jin Lingyun's face turned green, then yellow, then white. He hated her inwardly, and as he looked at Bai Shengyi's retreating back, he instructed the Qingmeng Vine in his heart: "Qingmeng Vine, teach this woman a harsh lesson!"
However, after he spoke, much time passed, and the illusion remained unchanged. After a while, Bai Shengyi had already disappeared.
"Qingmeng Vine? Qingmeng Vine?" Jin Lingyun was greatly alarmed and hurriedly communicated with the Qingmeng Vine in his heart.
Unfortunately, because he had previously disdained the Qingmeng Vine as not being a combat spirit plant and was unwilling to let it occupy his only contract slot, he had only signed a temporary transactional contract with the Qingmeng Vine. Now, he couldn't contact it at all.
Jin Lingyun recalled what had just happened, and a guess that made him want to vomit blood suddenly appeared in his mind. Had it run off with Bai Shengyi?
After all, although the Qingmeng Vine was default among the "hardship fees" the academy provided to these trial examiners, the assessors could also contract it.
The more Jin Lingyun thought about it, the more sinister and ugly his expression became. He struggled ferociously, trying to get rid of the spiritual energy and net that bound him…
On the other side, Bai Shengyi walked, passing through a thin mist, and the sounds of shouts and clamor reached her ears again.
"I'm back… hiss…" Bai Shengyi hadn't finished speaking when her finger felt a sharp sting, and she gasped.