As soon as Jiang Kai arrived at the Bewitching Fog Zone, he heard Liu Shen urgently calling for him.
This area was normally inaccessible to ordinary people. Jiang Kai had already been here several times, so he moved through the fog with ease and found that enormous willow tree.
"Did you bring the Flower of Life?"
Jiang Kai directly took out a Flower of Life and handed it to Liu Shen.
"Didn't you pick four?"
"You only need one," Jiang Kai said.
"Give me the other three as well!"
Jiang Kai frowned. "You're quite greedy. You asked for one, so I gave you one. I've already completed the task you gave me. We're even now."
"What use do you have for those three? After some time, they'll wither on their own!"
If someone else had asked Jiang Kai for them, he might have given them away. But Jiang Kai had no goodwill toward Liu Shen at all. If he weren't unable to defeat Liu Shen, he would have loved to uproot it right now.
Under these circumstances, even if keeping the Flowers of Life was useless to him, he still had no intention of letting Liu Shen benefit.
"What's it to you? Can't I keep them as decorations?"
"Do you believe I'll—"
Jiang Kai hurriedly took out the Flowers of Life and clenched them in his hand. "Hey, don't push me. If you use force, I'll destroy them. You're not getting any extra Flowers of Life!"
Even though Jiang Kai couldn't beat Liu Shen, crushing a few small flowers was easy enough.
The willow branches swayed, but it did not attack Jiang Kai.
"I didn't expect that around the Life God's ruins, such a huge forest has already formed, and even the Flowers of Life have mutated and bloomed several extra flowers… Jiang Kai, give me these three Flowers of Life, and I can give you some extra rewards."
Jiang Kai was rather surprised. Back then, he had casually picked a few extra Flowers of Life, and now he could actually scam some rewards out of it.
"I don't want rewards. Answer a few questions for me!" Jiang Kai said. "You answer one question, I give you one more flower."
"Speak!"
Jiang Kai thought for a moment and said, "What do you want this thing for?"
"Can't tell you. Change the question."
Jiang Kai hesitated a little. Liu Shen clearly wasn't a good thing. It needed the Flowers of Life so badly that they must be extremely useful to it.
If it became even stronger, who knew what kind of consequences that would bring.
But Jiang Kai also had many questions that he absolutely needed answers to right now…
After weighing things, Jiang Kai asked again, "You created an evil duplicate. What do you want to use him for!"
"I didn't create him. You did! I merely set him free. As for what kind of person he'll become in the future, and what kind of things he'll do, that doesn't depend on me. It depends on you!"
Jiang Kai frowned deeply. Liu Shen only released the evil duplicate?
"You're not lying to me?"
"Heh heh heh heh." Liu Shen chuckled softly. "Same as always. I have no need to lie to you."
This answer left Jiang Kai speechless. For now, he could only choose to believe Liu Shen.
Jiang Kai tossed the second Flower of Life to Liu Shen, then picked up the third one. "You're so powerful. Where is my brother Jiang Lan right now?"
"He is training in an unknown region of your Huaxia Ninth Zone. At the moment, the area he's active in is quite large, and he and his companions are constantly moving toward other regions."
Jiang Kai narrowed his eyes slightly. Big brother went straight to an unknown region as soon as he arrived on Ghost Star?
That was like learning to fly before even learning how to walk!
However, Liu Shen mentioned that big brother had companions, which should be Jiang Fang. That meant big brother was safe for now.
There was only one chance left to ask a question. Jiang Kai thought it over again and again. Since big brother was safe, there was no need to keep pressing about his situation for now.
"Last question. What connection does Ghost Star have with the Beast Gods on Earth?"
"Can't tell you!"
"Tsk… You even pick and choose which questions you answer? Fine then, I'll just keep this last Flower of Life for myself." Jiang Kai was about to put it away.
Liu Shen suddenly said, "It's not that I don't want to answer you. Do you really think I know everything?"
"You don't know?"
"I don't know!" Liu Shen said. "If you insist, I can give you some hints."
Jiang Kai listened intently. An existence like Liu Shen clearly surpassed the limits of his current understanding. Even if it didn't know the true nature of Ghost Star, its hints were absolutely worth hearing.
"Work hard to make yourself stronger! Your current strength is far from enough!"
"When the ancient ones awaken, all answers will surface!"
Jiang Kai fell silent for a long time.
Ancient ones… The 'ancient' here probably didn't refer to Earth, but to Ghost Star!
What kind of beings were they?!
"I can answer this question for free. Now you can ask a fourth question," Liu Shen said. "Trying to understand things beyond your comprehension does you no good, and the price you're offering isn't worth me answering such questions."
"I suggest you ask about your current doubts."
Jiang Kai nodded slightly, agreeing with Liu Shen's words. After thinking for a moment, he said, "How do you obtain Heaven's Punishment materials?"
"I don't know."
Jiang Kai shook his head. As expected, Liu Shen wasn't all-knowing.
"What was the content of your deal with Dong Li?"
"Finally a sensible question…" Liu Shen said. "The Sky Fox clan has a special ability. They have an innate perception for plants that contain true essence."
"What I had her do was simply help me collect another rare plant."
"As a reward, I will help her break free from Ghost Star's restraints to a greater extent."
"If Dong Li wants to be with Hu Yan, she must completely break free from Ghost Star's restraints."
Given Liu Shen's great power, Jiang Kai had originally worried that Dong Li was being forced to carry out the task. Now, he finally let out a sigh of relief.
Although Liu Shen was detestable, its deals were quite fair.
Old Hu was really lucky. It seemed Dong Li truly loved him deeply.
Jiang Kai kept his promise and threw the last Flower of Life to Liu Shen. The tree roots and willow branches wrapped around that pink flower.
"I want to improve the strength of the duplicate—"
"Do you think I have many things that require your help?" Liu Shen said. "Jiang Kai, leave this place before I change my mind."
Seeing Liu Shen's hostile tone, Jiang Kai realized that being threatened by him had probably angered Liu Shen.
Thinking about how he had been trapped by Liu Shen for several months last time, Jiang Kai immediately withdrew from the Bewitching Fog Zone.
After reaching a safe area, Jiang Kai looked from afar at the region shrouded in purple mist and frowned. "This Liu Shen seems to be collecting some plants. It's probably afraid I'll guess something, so it didn't give me many tasks all at once."
"No idea what it's planning!"
However, if Liu Shen really hadn't lied to him, Jiang Kai had already gained three important pieces of information.
The evil duplicate was currently in a state of survival of the fittest. Big brother was safe for now, and Dong Li should also be able to handle her task on her own.
Aside from the duplicate's issue still being unresolved, the other two pieces of news were both good.
Jiang Kai's mood lightened quite a bit.
"I'll head back and see how Sun Yuan and the others are doing."
......
Four days later, Jiang Kai first went to the trading area to buy a new mask, then rushed to Qingyun Sect.
As soon as Zhou Chu saw Jiang Kai, he immediately pulled him into his room.
"Grandmaster, this is bad. Your identity has been exposed!"
Jiang Kai frowned. "What happened?"
Zhou Chu said anxiously, "Earlier, we received a system message that mentioned your name."
"Huaxia's Jiang Kai discovered the Life God's ruins! Sun Yuan and the others, along with the people from the Dongfang family, were all present at the time. They immediately realized that you weren't Han Yi!"
Jiang Kai nodded. "Old Zhou, are Sun Yuan and the others alright?"
"They all have to undergo severe death penalties, but aside from that, there's nothing serious. In a couple of days, they'll log back in through the green channel."
"The Dongfang family's people, I heard, have already logged back in," Zhou Chu hurriedly added. "They're now in the ancient martial arts circle, exposing your real identity."
Jiang Kai frowned. The Dongfang family clearly had no intention of letting things go.
He wasn't surprised that his identity had been exposed.
Even if the system hadn't mentioned his name, during the battle with the Dongfang family back then, he had used Soul Chaser and the Main God Token. As long as Dongfang Ming and the others weren't idiots, a simple investigation would reveal everything.
"So what if they know? I don't want to use Han Yi's identity anymore anyway. What are they planning to do?"
Zhou Chu said, "As long as they seize on one of your weaknesses, they can fabricate countless accusations!"
"For example, if your identity was fake, then the last martial arts matchmaking was impersonation, fooling Kunlun and offending the Kunlun sect. They can pull Kunlun in to deal with you."
"They're also loudly spreading your agreement with Mount Hua, saying your goal was to disrupt the order of all major sects, with malicious intent."
"In short, you used someone else's identity. In other people's eyes, that really is a problem. Those who don't know the truth will easily believe the Dongfang family!"
Jiang Kai snorted coldly. "This Dongfang family secretly hunted us down before, then messed things up and ended up helping me instead. Now they're probably furious and embarrassed."
"Old Zhou, what does Elder Hu say? Did he believe their claims?"
"He hasn't made a statement yet, nor has he notified us that your qualification to participate in the martial arts matchmaking is canceled. It's just that we originally agreed to hold it after you returned, but now it's been moved up to five days later."
"This one will be on a large scale. That child Ling Sha is different from Si Yao. Si Yao prefers freedom and dislikes constraints. She has no interest in martial arts matchmaking at all."
"But Ling Sha has been obsessed with martial arts since she was young. Her matchmaking event will be much bigger. Mount Hua has invited top young talents from all sects to participate."
"I heard they've also invited many experts from the War God Hall to observe."
Jiang Kai frowned slightly. This Ling Sha was quite interesting. She seemed even more enthusiastic than Elder Hu.
"Old Zhou, the matter of my exposed identity really needs a chance to be clarified. Public opinion is scary. Even if I personally don't care, I'm afraid the Dongfang family will drag Qingyun Sect into this."
"Then, Grandmaster, are you going to participate in the martial arts matchmaking?"
Jiang Kai looked at Zhou Chu. "Didn't you tell me not to hang myself on one tree?"
Seeing Zhou Chu take it seriously, Jiang Kai smiled. "I'm joking. I don't even know Ling Sha. How could I really go on a date with her…"
"This time, I want to use the martial arts matchmaking to explain everything clearly!"
Zhou Chu frowned. "But what if you win? Ling Sha really is a very special girl. You could give it a try!"
"I won't win. I'll just hold back a bit." After saying that, Jiang Kai walked over to the table and poured himself a cup of water. "Don't worry about it."
While the two were chatting, Elder Wan hurried into Zhou Chu's room.
"Sect Master… Han…" Seeing Jiang Kai, Elder Wan froze for a moment, not knowing what to call him.
"Jiang Kai," Jiang Kai introduced himself.
Zhou Chu said, "He is Jiang Kai, but he is still a member of our Qingyun Sect!"
Elder Wan nodded thoughtfully. For now, he set aside his concerns and said, "Sect Master, Marshal Dong from the military, Luo Ping from the War God Hall, Hua Tianchen, and Wei Ying are waiting outside. They said… if Han Yi is here, they hope to meet Han Yi…"
"Marshal Dong?" Zhou Chu immediately stood up.
Someone of Marshal Dong's status was not someone ordinary people could meet, yet this time he had come personally!
Then, Zhou Chu looked at Jiang Kai.
Jiang Kai was equally surprised.
The identities of these four people were no simple matter.
"They're already here. Let's go take a look," Jiang Kai said.
"Alright!"
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