"I see. Is there nothing that I can do to change your mind? If I gather Leo and Yamgo, we might be able to decide to hire you for your work. How does giving you 0.5 Sect Points sound?" Alosa asked.
"No need to go through all the trouble; I am not for hire. In any case, how long will it take you three to earn those Sect Points to repay me for my services."
"A year, two years, a decade, or maybe when I join your team, I will simply forget about the debt that you three owe me. Alosa, I am willing to work with you and form a partnership."
"As for Leo and Yamgo, they haven't shown me anything but disregard. Working with you can give me benefits and even open up some opportunities for me. But Leo and Yamgo?" Yoze shook his head with disdain.
"They are simply too weak. They have nothing they can do for me that you can do alone. In any case, why don't you form a team with me instead, one separate from our original group."
"I'll treat you much better, and you will actually have someone who can back me up when times get tricky. There will be no need to be so cautious with me by your side." As Yoze tried to convince Alosa, he stirred his Three-Headed Fox spiritual energy.
The instant he allowed his Three-Headed Fox spiritual energy to leave him, a bizarre aura suddenly appeared around Yoze. In Alosa's eyes, she was no longer looking at a human but a giant three-headed demon with a sinister grin on its face.
Even though its appearance was horrid and her heart, body, and soul froze from fright, she felt deeply attracted to listening to every word. His words began to bury deep inside her mind and start to make her doubt her original decision of forming a group with the rogue immortal cultivators.
"Yoze is right. I might not need Leo and Yamgo at all. With him acting as my guardian, I can act like myself for the first time in decades. I can be free to be myself."
"No, he isn't right. I need to get a grip on my mind. He might be strong, but he isn't the strongest. There are plenty of people who can defeat him."
"He isn't invincible. The Ten Kings of the Immortal Palace Sect and all the immortals who control the Sect. If I begin to disregard all of them, I will definitely die and possibly lose the value that Yoze cares about."
As Alosa was undergoing a war in her mind, Yoze stared at her curiously. He could tell that his words had influenced her deeply. More than they possibly should have since he had not only used his Three-Headed Fox demon spiritual energy, but the talents that he gained from the Flower Lord were beginning to show their power.
Even though he wasn't trying to convert her spiritual energy, the moment his Three-Headed Fox demon spiritual energy licked her spiritual energy that was a brown chest, it started to convert it to the same type. Yoze didn't fully understand what would happen when he changed Alosa's type of spiritual energy.
Would she experience a dramatic personality change? Would she become a part of his pool of spiritual energy but remain separate? Maybe she would die instantly?
He didn't know, but he wasn't afraid to try and test it. He had always wanted to use his spiritual energy to influence people's minds ever since he had accidentally scrambled Zeak's mind.
With him only doing this on accident, he was able to convince Zeak that he was some type of trustworthy big brother figure. Unfortunately, it seemed that his influence back then was either not very deep and, with time, lost its effect or could be broken easily by outside forces.
This time he wanted to do it intentionally and use his newfound talents to bury himself so deep in Alosa's mind that he wouldn't have to worry about her betraying him.
"Even if this doesn't work, I can always try again and again until it does. On the bright side, the more attempts I take, the better I will become until I finally succeed." Yoze thought to himself.
Suddenly he noticed that the Three-Headed demon's spiritual energy had converted two percent of Alosa's spiritual energy. Meanwhile, the pressure from the spiritual energy penetrated her defense.
Striking while the iron was hot, he immediately gave her the final push to fully join his personal force.
"Don't worry. I won't force you into anything you don't want to do. I am going to be your teammate, not your boss. I am only going to help expand your freedom to do anything you want, not restrict it."
"So what do you say? Are you interested, at least?"
After a bit of silence, Alosa seemed to have resolved her doubts and looked at Yoze with determination.
"As long as you promise that you treat me like a teammate and protect me against all my enemies, I am willing to join."
Seeing Alosa putting up a tough exterior and making her demands known, Yoze smiled as he felt a bit proud of himself. Even though Alosa's mental defense was stronger than Zeak's, compared to the progress he had made since then, it was nothing.
Even if he said no to her requests, he predicted he would still be able to get her to join his team. But he wasn't interested in that; he had only done this as an experiment to see if he could replicate what he had done with Zeak.
From the results, he felt that everything was almost perfect, she didn't mentally collapse, nor did her personality change much. She only felt that he would be a much better teammate than Leo and Yamgo and was willing to abandon them.
"That is fine with me. I never wanted to be your boss; I just wanted to have a useful teammate that I could trust with my life."
"So I will never restrict your freedom, nor will I make you do anything you don't want to do. As long as you continue to support me and act with my interests in your heart, that is enough for me." Yoze withdrew his Three-Headed demon spiritual energy and went to shake her hand.
After being relieved from the immense pressure of having a small part of Yoze's spiritual energy on top of her, Alosa looked at Yoze's extended hand with curiosity. She had no idea what he wanted to do and asked him.
"Why are you extending your hand?"
"Nevermind, this was a custom from where I came from, which means that we both reached an agreement. But since you don't know about it, we don't have to do it." Realizing that he still hadn't grown out of some of his old habits, Yoze withdrew his hand.
"Where is Jewel from? How does she know what a handshake means?" Suddenly recalling his interactions with Jewel, Yoze realized something interesting.
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