Chapter 61: Heavenly Dao Oath
｢Name: Bai Ruyi
Status: Healthy.
Age: 20/320
Slaughter Points Value: 200
Cultivation Base: Foundation Establishment Perfection (100%) || Body Foundation Perfection (100%)
Remarks: The Saintess of the Boundless Joy Sect, Bai Ruyi, is an anomaly. Her destiny and Qi luck value are extremely high, her future is meant to be extremely bright and the heavens will bend to make things go her way as one of its chosen favorites. However, her thoughts and considerations are too complex for the Infinite Slaughter System to discern based on your current strength versus hers. However, there is one crucial thing that simplifies the essence of Bai Ruyi, and that is the fact that she is a mirror image of you.｣
Li Ling’s eyes narrowed as he absorbed the details, understanding who he was dealing with but not why. As for the other woman who was at the Nascent Soul, the Infinite Slaughter System plainly told him that it could not discern anything about her due to the strength gap.
"My name? You may call me Li Ling. And to whom do I owe the pleasure?" Li Ling replied with a slight smile, his demeanor calm despite seemingly being in a terrible situation.
After all, from an outside perspective, he was a fugitive of the Boundless Joy Sect and to have two of its most elite members corner him here, even catching him in a hidden cavern containing the precious Spiritual Milk that no sect would refuse, many would be sweating bullets.
Logically speaking, most rogue cultivators in his situation would have already gotten to their knees to beg without even having to be prompted.
It was precisely because of this presumption that Wen Caiyi’s frown deepened while Bai Ruyi’s curious smile thickened due to his languid demeanor. The Nascent Soul Elder stretched out a hand and grabbed towards Li Ling, manifesting a giant pink hand that was three times the size of Li Ling himself.
Li Ling saw the action but made no move to dodge nor resist, because that would be futile and only escalate things. Right now, his goal was to observe and adapt to the changes accordingly rather than take the initiative, because taking the initiative required having some form of control over the situation or its outcome.
As it were, his lack of power robbed him of any control, so he could only be pinched in the grasp of the ethereal hand and lifted out of the pool of Spiritual Milk, dragged towards the female duo while restrained in such a rude manner.
"You are not in a position to ask any questions, vagabond! You will only speak unless spoken to by the Saintess!" Wen Caiyi coldly and calmly asserted before throwing Li Ling to the ground before Bai Ruyi like a piece of trash.
Li Ling casually stood up while unharmed due to his body cultivation, using the Cleansing Spell on himself to remove the dust and dirt without even looking at Wen Caiyi, causing the woman’s frown to deepen further. She found that each second she spent around Li Ling, she liked him less and less for reasons she couldn’t begin to explain.
"No need to be so rough with our acquaintance, Old Cai. He hasn’t caused any trouble yet and he likely doesn’t plan on doing so, isn’t that right Brother Ling?" Bai Ruyi asked while waving her hand towards Wen Caiyi in a ’calm down’ gesture.
Li Ling smiled and assessed Bai Ruyi before him, opting to avoid her answer and test her boundaries a little to ascertain how to best handle her.
"You are currently the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in all my lives. Were I not the weaker party here, I would have captured and made away with you for the rest of time."
Bai Ruyi raised a hand to cover her mouth and giggled sultrily. "Is that your way of flirting? If so, Brother Ling is quite forward~"
Meanwhile, Wen Caiyi was about to make another move to punish Li Ling’s verbal disrespect to the Saintess, but Bai Ruyi anticipated this and raised a hand to stop the elder. While her physical expression was one of joyful amusement, it did not reach her cold crimson eyes which seemed to be fixated on Li Ling with an inexplicable interest.
"Well Brother Ling, you have caused a bit of trouble for my sect, haven’t you? You destroyed one of our marketplaces and killed so many of our customers as well as our subordinates, causing the sect millions of spirit stones in losses, including the loss of face. How do you plan to rectify this?" Bai Ruyi asked directly, naturally not revealing their true goal for being here and rather pretending to have come out to capture Li Ling.
Li Ling thought in his mind that indeed, the destruction of an entire marketplace would mobilize Nascent Souls as he expected. He naturally did not think that it could be incidental that these two would just so happen to come upon him due to a prophecy — which was also about him — and pursue him solely because of Bai Ruyi’s mysterious interest.
Because of this, he naturally followed along this train of thought and reacted to it. With a smile, he released his Blood Qi from the Blood Asura Descent that reached 10 meters around his silhouette with a casual exertion of power.
"I practice the Blood Asura Descent and plan to visit the Six Paths Demon Sect to accept the discipleship offer. As for the market, it was simply an unfortunate casualty in the practice of this method, but I can assure you that I will easily be able to compensate for any losses upon reaching my destination." Li Ling said shamelessly with his hands folded behind his back.
As for the option of lying that he was already a disciple of the number 4 sect in order to intimidate this duo, Li Ling was not foolish enough to try that. The Boundless Joy Sect was not some meager lower sect, but a recognized faction with the equivalent of sovereign authority typically granted to states.
They had ways to verify his claims and could likely contact the Six Paths Demon Sect directly since they were all of the same demonic sect faction. His already thin and dire situation would become even harder to navigate if he was found to be lying right from the get-go.
Meanwhile, Bai Ruyi and Wen Caiyi reacted to Li Ling’s display of his Blood Qi. The Saintess had a gleam in her eye that brightened considerably while the Elder was shocked stupid, her thoughts churning greatly within her head.
’Such pure Blood Qi! He’s only practiced what seems to be the first layer of the Blood Asura Descent method sold in lower markets to perfection, but how can it be so pure, without a hint of impurity? This is... impossible!’ Wen Caiyi exclaimed internally.
’Also... the prophecy from the Heaven Loving Sage said we would find the destined one and named his three titles, of which one was the "Asura War God". Today is the last day of the prophecy and the stated day that we were to meet the destined one, and we did not find anything relevant until this young man appeared, not to mention that the Saintess — the main beneficiary of the prophecy — seemed irrationally fixated on him...’
Wen Caiyi hesitated. With her level of experience and thinking, she could easily identify the key issue and make inferences, but the result was something that she was not easily willing to accept, because it would mean her counsel to the Saintess had been wrong from the start.
Especially because the Joy Sect Elder still couldn’t bring herself to like this young man, along with the fact that her Purple Mansion that was in the initial stage of construction due to her current realm was giving her strong warning signs from him.
At first, she dismissed these warnings as unimportant, likely related to something about him or someone linked to him, but now she thought about her hunch and paused in deeper ponderance.
With her current realization as a backdrop, she began to see these warning signs as a form of validation of her thoughts, with the end result being that the Nascent Soul Elder significantly rescinded her hostility. While she would definitely be able to crush Li Ling so thoroughly that not even an atom would remain if he tried anything funny, there was also no need to antagonize him further lest she interfere with the very beneficial prophecy.
Bai Ruyi also realized and understood this, but her thoughts were not as chaotic and stagnant as Wen Caiyi who forcibly considered the greater good of the sect at all times. In fact, Bai Ruyi’s mind was rather agile and quickly understood the crux of things with just a little thought, so her reaction was natural as well.
"Ohhhh~ Brother Ling is so amazing, you are able to join the mighty Six Paths Demon Sect while so young!~ Your future is surely limitless~~" Bai Ruyi cooed with amazement, looking at Li Ling with a worshipful expression that would inflate any man’s ego.
Unmoved internally, Li Ling nodded imperiously. "That’s right, so you can invest in me early to reap great rewards. I have caused your sect great losses, so why not restrain me with a controlling spell or sign a Heavenly Dao Oath with me that I will be made to make up for it once I join the Six Paths Demon Sect?"
For Li Ling right now, he was gambling. He simply needed to buy himself time and space to grow further so that he would be able to prevent something like this from ever happening again, and he was hoping that his proposal would be at least considered by the opposing party.
Unbeknownst to him, both women, despite usually being at odds, were synchronized in thought at this moment as they tilted their heads to share a glance, thinking ’indeed, as expected’.
They seemed to see the loop of fate tie itself nicely around the events that had transpired so far, so it was now time to pull and tighten those reins. To that end, Bai Ruyi folded her soft arms underneath her sizable chest, making her already eye-catching bosom become even more enthralling as her blue hanfu slipped wider.
"Oh, Brother Ling, is that true?~ Since you say so, we will trust you this once, but we still have to make a Heavenly Dao Oath, okay?~" Bai Ruyi decided quickly, discarding the idea of using any severe controlling methods.
Nothing the Boundless Joy Sect knew would be superior or unknown to the Six Paths Demon Sect, and if they presented this fellow to the upper sect with a slave seal, it was likely that not only would the upper sect reject him, but they also might penalize the poor Boundless Joy Sect for the audacity.
However, a Heavenly Dao Oath was far less intense and oppressive, allowing for much more freedom and leeway for both parties, especially in terms of the preservation of dignity and friendship.
Given what their sect expected from Li Ling — or at least who they suspected him to be — maintaining a positive relationship was more advisable for now.
Li Ling was surprised that they chose the less invasive method, but then thought along the same lines as the duo in terms of the Six Paths Demon Sect, and he smiled internally because it showed that this group at least had the basic intelligence to think this far ahead.
"Hmm, to make things smoother, let’s make the oath not just about repayment, but also bind us. You said earlier that you find me attractive beyond what you’ve experienced so far, so why not make it a reality?" Bai Ruyi suggested with a seductive smile, while Wen Caiyi’s face changed, but she remained silent.
Li Ling’s brows rose. He had spent nearly twenty-one years in this world without being looked at twice by top-quality females despite his handsomeness, yet within a week of awakening his golden finger and activating his protagonist status, a woman that could only exist in imagination was willing to become his partner out of nowhere?
Especially right after he was being pursued for severe crimes that should see him dead by her very faction?
How... convenient.
Of course he agreed on the spot, not out of desire nor interest, but because of utility.
"Good! Would Elder Wen please officiate the oath of us?" Bai Ruyi suggested with a smile, her eyes never leaving Li Ling for one instant.
Wen Caiyi by the side stepped forward without outwardly sharing her opinion, but she and Bai Ruyi had been in contact since the beginning, using advanced-level Voice Transmission to make decisions. This gave them the illusion of a united front, something which made Li Ling feel some slight pressure as he couldn’t yet ’hack’ or even be aware of secret communications.
Wen Caiyi skillfully handled the formation of the oath, making it as formal as possible by even organizing a small-scale ritual using items from her storage space that had high value for offertory to the heavens. In the end, Bai Ruyi simply stated the terms that entailed what the oath would be about.
Li Ling wore a weird expression, unable to suppress it due to the bizarre circumstances, but still made the oath aloud while following the ritual procedure because he logically assumed that he had no choice unless he wanted to die.
"I, Li Ling, do pledge in the name of the Heavenly Dao of Firmament Heaven that I will take on Bai Ruyi, Saintess of the Boundless Joy Sect, as my wife henceforth. As part of my oath, I will suitably provide for, and protect her, in that capacity until my debt to the Boundless Joy Sect is fully cleared."
Despite it being vague and easily exploitable to abuse him by claiming that the exact debt wasn’t specified, so they could say it was not cleared forever, Li Ling went through with it. This oath was completely one-sided as he received zero guarantees to the matter, no amnesty, no escort, no protection from other factions in the Joy Sect who might want to settle scores, no veto on how to ’provide for and protect’ Bai Ruyi.
However, the more it was this way, the more comforted he was, because it guaranteed his survival. With Slaughter Points attainable as well as cultivation techniques and daoist arts from the Six Paths Demon Sect up to the mortal world limit, Li Ling was even confident of slaughtering the heavenly dao itself once he reached the peak, much less some oath made to it.
Still, the current reality was that his face could only shift slightly when he felt a strange power descend from the void that fell on his dantian, Sea of Consciousness, and spiritual space respectively, letting him know that if he breached the agreement, he would suffer destruction of these three things at the hands of the heavens.
Having finally made the poisonous oath, Li Ling relaxed and glanced at Bai Ruyi with interest. "But to become my wife instead of a lover or mere partner, are you sure about this? There is not a shred of romance or such intentions in my heart, so apart from the raw title, you shouldn’t hope for anything else outside of what the oath compels."
Li Ling did not know that Bai Ruyi made this decision to tie him firmly to her chariot outside of just the debt, the young man simply thinking that she was legitimizing herself so that once his status ’soared’ by being in the Six Paths Demon Sect, he wouldn’t just pay the debt and then cut off the connection or seek revenge afterward.
Or even report them to the Six Paths Demon Sect after making a name for himself and having the upper sect put pressure to rescind the oath. How could a prospective elite disciple possibly be bogged down by some group from one of the mid-ranked demon sects on the continent?
Because of this concealment of true intentions by both parties, both had a different reasoning for the actions of the other. It was precisely because of this that Li Ling felt the need to clarify his romantic detachment in order to prevent this voluptuous Saintess from having any plans that would affect his path. However, he was not aware that this was exactly what Bai Ruyi hoped for, as she too did not believe that there was another being in this world that was worthy of her heartfelt devotion.
Affection and intimacy? It was possible if the person was so outstanding and perfectly to her taste, but to break down every defense she set internally to guard her heart down to the last wall and open herself up vulnerably?
Not even the promise of infinite power would make her ever take that route, despite it being her biggest ambition.
In the end, it was here in a glowing cavern of Spiritual Milk that a strange and loveless marriage alliance was forged, not even properly officiated by any of the Boundless Joy Sect, meant to bind two ambitious souls to the same boat for overt and covert purposes!