"This old woman…"
Yi Yun used his perception to observe the old woman in red. He could keenly sense a lingering ghostly aura around her.
On top of that, the old granny just looked extremely horrifying, like a corpse that had crawled out of the grave.
He looked back at Ji Shuiyan, who carefully walked to the door of the old woman's loft room after hearing the granny's voice transmission. After several attempts to muster her courage, she opened the door.
Immediately, a cadaveric gas effused from the door as though an ancient tomb had been opened.
Ji Shuiyan's lips were pale as she looked at the old woman's ghastly white face. However, she made herself stand firm and bowed before her elder.
"Greetings Granny."
"Heh! Heh!" A harsh laughter emitted from the granny's throat. Every laugh was followed by a pause that made one shudder. "Greetings Granny? So, you still know about greeting me? Do you think that I know nothing of what you have been doing these past few days while I have been isolated in recuperation?"
"You spared no expense to save a person in the desert. Tell me, why did you save him?"
Upon hearing the old woman's words, what little color remained in Ji Shuiyan's face drained once again. However, she forcefully composed herself, saying, "An acquaintance is also considered fate."
The granny laughed. "Yan'er only saved him because of fate…Ah!"
Ji Shuiyan suddenly screamed as the old woman suddenly reached out her scrawny palm that resembled a chicken's claw, slapping Ji Shuiyan in the face!
"Pa!"
With a crisp sound, Ji Shuiyan slammed into the door. Her veil had been torn, leaving behind three bleeding scratch wounds on her face courtesy of the old woman's fingernails.
Almost instantly, the wounds turned black, and the blood that flowed out seemed to rot.
Pain, an excruciating pain!
There was cadaveric poison in the old woman's fingernails. The pain inflicted upon entry into the body was agonizing.
However, Ji Shuiyan held her face and tolerated the pain without even uttering a sound.
Upon seeing this, Yi Yun finally understood the reason behind Ji Shuiyan's scars.
It was no wonder she wore a veil to hide her scars. It was also the reason why she did not treat the scars despite being a mistress of a powerful trading company.
If the scars were remnants of a cadaveric poison, they would be extraordinarily difficult to treat. Secondly, even if Ji Shuiyan did heal them, the granny could just inflict more. Such a cycle would leave Ji Shuiyan in despair, making her abandon any hope of seeking treatment!
"To not utter a sound despite the pain. You sure have some mettle! I know what goes on in the head of a little broad like you. You thought the kid as some senior with extremely high cultivation levels. You hoped that with him owing you a favor, you could request him to finish me for you, isn't that so?"
The granny continued: "What the kid cultivates in happens to be an orthodox power filled with vitality. When you saw the grasses growing in the desert around him, you must have thought of using his power of vitality to gain an advantage over my ghostly cultivation?"
"What a pity! Your plans might be shrewd but he was really just a junior. You despaired when you realized your mistake and were afraid that I would seek revenge, so you quickly urged him to leave the convoy?"
In a few simple words, the granny exposed Ji Shuiyan's schemes.
There was more and more black blood flowing down Ji Shuiyan's face. However, she did not bother wiping it off. She only held her face and gritted her teeth, remaining silent.
Against this granny that neither seemed human nor ghost, Ji Shuiyan could not put up any resistance. Taking advantage of the fact that the granny was in isolation, Ji Shuiyan had saved Yi Yun. Unfortunately, things did not go as she wished and everything was noticed by the old woman in red.
With her plans defeated and exposed, a feeling of despair rose up in her heart.
Her death did not matter, but was the Divine Secrets Trading Company her grandfather bequeathed her going to decline because of her ineptitude?
"This is your final warning, Yan'er: obey me, do a good job finding herbs for me, and I will not treat you badly. But if you try any of these tiny schemes ever again, I will not hesitate to destroy that beautiful face of yours. It might even lose all its essences, turning into a face like mine."
The old woman's tone suddenly softened. She gently caressed Ji Shuiyan's face. But despite her seeming softness, her fingernails deliberately brushed Ji Shuiyan's wounds. It was a heart-wrenching pain for Ji Shuiyan as her face turned paler and her lips quivered. However, all she could do was bear with it.
"Hahaha, what a beautiful face. Unfortunately, I cannot let your little scheme go without a cost. That person you saved displeases me. I have a Heart Dismembering Worm here that is more than sufficient to deal with a junior. Kill him."
As she spoke, she flipped her scrawny palm and a tiny worm appeared in the middle of her hand.
Upon seeing the worm, Ji Shuiyan shuddered as her chest tightened. She knew that the punshiment was really meant for her. She was a kind person, so to kill someone she had saved would absolutely devastate her psyche.
"Granny, let that youth off. He is innocent. Furthermore, I have already bidden him farewell. He should be far away from here."
Ji Shuiyan hoped that Yi Yun would go as far as possible. However, the next sentence the old woman said made Ji Shuiyan's body freeze. "Gone? Unfortunately, he hasn't left. How can he bear leaving after being saved by such a beautiful girl? He is following the sand boat on an Azure Linhorse!"
He didn't leave?
Ji Shuiyan felt her entire body lose its strength. Why didn't Yi Yun leave after she told him to do so? He was certainly doomed, for she understood the old woman's character. In order to rear a Yin ghoul, she would wipe out an entire city without batting an eye. Why would she hesitate for even a second at killing one young man?
Yi Yun clearly saw everything that happened in the sand boat. He never expected that the sand boat so lavishly adorned with the sentiments of a young girl would harbor such an old monster.
Heart Dismembering Worm?
Yi Yun was not worried about such a worm at all. Although he was indeed at the Dao Manifestation realm and he had been cultivating for less than a hundred years, his strength was beyond imagination among warriors at the Dao Manifestation realm. It was even beyond his own imagination.
Yi Yun did not know how strong he had become after condensing four nine-leaf Dao fruits, with one of them being a Major Destruction Dao fruit. Furthermore, there was a divine tree seed in his dantian.
Now, he could test himself. Although the granny's cultivation level was high, Yi Yun could identify it clearly after fusing with the divine tree seed.
She was at the four-story Dao Palace realm, a full realm plus a little more than him.
This old monster would be a good litmus test for his newfound power.
However, the divine tree seed in Yi Yun's body still had control over a portion of his meridians.
Yi Yun had a feeling that as the divine tree seed slowly sprouted, the Heaven Earth Yuan Qi that it needed would increase. If he did not provide it with sufficient essence, he might find himself like in the desert. The divine tree seed would take over his body again, and he'd be immobilized.