109 Extortion
'Crap!'
Xu Miao never expected that Xu Xiuying would appear here. His hearts stopped beating for a second from fear and worries.
In a panic, Xu Miao glanced at Jia Shan. He reviewed his options to come up with an emergency solution. He already assumed that Xu Xiuying would come toward their direction and capture them.
'Should I surrender again? Can I talk my way out this time? I can sell out this Jia Shan for my life, but it will lose my opportunity to get his tutelage and the plot armor. But if my negotiation fails, everybody will die here!'
While Xu Miao and others were nervous, Xu Xiuying snorted and turned around. The silhouette ignored them and walked the other way, heading northeast toward the way that Yao Lan and others had planned to use.
As everyone thought that Xu Xiuying didn't notice them, she suddenly appeared before Xu Miao as if she had teleported.
With a cold voice, she whispered, "Son. Surrender Xie Tian's time-and-space technique to me right now, or I'll kill you. Don't you ever think that I didn't notice you lots hiding behind the corner!"
Xu Miao's heart sank. He felt as if he was in a horror movie and Xu Xiuying was a boogieman. Her glowing red pupils stared into Xu Miao's soul in his eyes, ready to kill him at any moment.
The situation was hopeless.
Without a choice, Xu Miao revealed his hand and tossed a scroll, a backup manual that he had copied from the mural, to Xu Xiuying.
The scroll didn't fall into the dirty water. It floated in the pink fog, it flew toward the silhouette of Xu Xiuying. She caught it with one hand and muttered.
"You should have done this earlier."
Xu Miao negotiated, "You have what you want. Leave us alone."
"Honestly, I could have killed you and refined your corpse to get your bloodline and secrets right now…"
Xu Miao bit his lower lips. It was frustrating that he was powerless against this monster right now, but he had to do anything to survive.
"What else do you want?"
"How did you cure those 10 girls?"
As expected, Xu Xiuying noticed the 10 new yin slaves, who had practice a demonic art and gone insane.
"I turned them into my yin slaves."
"That's nice. Give them back to me."
"What if I refuse?"
"I'll kill you."
"…"
Everyone gulped. None of them moved an inch, praying that Xu Miao wouldn't abandon the girls to save his skin.
"I'll give you spirit stones in exchange for the 10 girls."
Fortunately, Xu Miao chose not to give up the girls just yet. He wanted to bribe Xu Xiuying and free them.
"Why should I accept your puny offer when I can kill you and steal all your treasures?"
Jia Shan, Wei Yuan, Jiang Lan, and Kang Yan's faces changed. This was what they feared the most.
"I know a secret space that only I can access. If I die, all items in the space will disappear with me. It's up to you if you'll kill your golden goose," Xu Miao continued to bluff Xu Xiuying with a half-truth. He knew full well that she could easily kill him and rob all his items, but he had to try.
Yet, the trick worked. As Xu Xiuying overly relied on her eye artifacts, she used the eyes to scan if Xu Miao told the truth. Of course, he didn't lie.
Xu Xiuying hesitated. She clicked her tongue as she didn't dare to open the golden goose's belly to take the golden eggs since she might not be able to take anything.
"Give me your heaven-grade weapon."
In the end, Xu Xiuying compromised. She succumbed to the bluff.
There was no way that Xu Miao would yield Killer Queen since she held the key to counter Xie Tian's time-reversing skill. He refused, "Not possible. The heaven-grade weapon is bound to me. If I give it to you, you'll kill me and override the ownership."
"Tsk! Then, give me all your sky-grade and earth-grade items! I still remember that you said you have 20 sky-grade and 100 earth-grade. Give them all to me!"
Sky-grade weapons might be weaker than Killer Queen, but they were still uncommon among 6th-stage cultivators. Among the top sects other than the Silver Phoenix Sect or the Imperial Clan, they usually had 3 to 4 sky-grade weapons as their organization's secret treasures.
By having all of Xu Miao's items, the Silver Phoenix Sect could recover from the loss that Xiong Zhenzhen had caused. The Xu Clan would also become as prosperous as the Imperial Clan.
But Xu Miao never complied with Xu Xiuying's demand.
"That's also unfortunate. I don't have them anymore. You see this ring? All items in my ring are everything I have. How about this? I'll give you my spatial ring. Will you let us go?"
Again, Xu Miao used his dummy spatial ring as a decoy. He always deposited important items in his invisible ring, [Ring of Yin Slave Master], so Xu Xiuying could never steal his items.
As such, Xu Xiuying couldn't detect Xu Miao's lies again as the latter revealed half-truth.
Xu Xiuying's face twitched, "Don't you know your position? Do you think you can bargain?"
"As I said, take it or leave it! I could have offered you a meager raw spirit stone, but it's against my principal. I'm a generous nobleman that knows how to repay someone's kindness with even more kindness. You should be grateful that I'm willing to give you this much."
"…"
Xu Xiuying's killing intent soared. The pink miasma condensed around everyone and choke their necks. With a slight force, they would be forced to inhale the gas and die.
Yet, Xu Miao didn't faze. He chose not to do anything, but he waited for Xu Xiuying to accept his offer.
One minute passed, but it was as long as an hour. Everyone's neck was squeezed, but they endured the torture.
Two minutes passed. Their legs cramped, and their stomach churned. The fog tried to enter their orifices, but everyone used their Qi to block the fog. Xu Miao also protected Jia Shan on his back from the pink miasma.
Five minutes passed, but nobody uttered a word. The fog fight became a tug-of-war. If someone let up, they would die.
Ten minutes later, Xu Xiuying snorted and gave up.
"What a waste of time! Give me all your spatial rings. That's my final negotiation. If you're still playing with your tongue, I'll kill all of you even if I won't get anything in return!"
Xu Xiuying was serious this time. She wanted all Xu Miao and his slaves' spatial rings, including Wei Yuan's ring.
Sensing the determination and the killing intent, Xu Miao compromised and gave up his dummy ring. The rest of the girls, except Wei Yuan, threw their rings into the dirty water in the sewer.
"There, you have them. Now, let us go."
Xu Xiuying's face grimaced as she knew that Wei Yuan didn't give up her ring, "That bitch, too! I can see you from here. Do you wanna die!?"
Wei Yuan was still unwilling. She shouted, "If you want to annul the alliance between my clan and your clan, go ahead and kill me! My grandfather tattooed a Life Brand on me since I was a baby. If I die, he will see your face, and his alliance will crush your sect!"
Life Brand tattoos were common spells that noble parents usually gave their children. The presence of the tattoos could intimidate local cultivators not to kill the weak children of powerhouse noble clans as the face of the children's murderer would be revealed to the parents. Then, the murderers would be hunted down, including their families and friends.
Wei Feng and Wei Xiang also had them. However, Xu Miao, who wasn't Xu Xiuying's biological son, didn't have it.
Upon hearing that Wei Yuan had this tattoo, Xu Xiuying was taken aback. As Wei Huang had gathered several 7th-stage demons to strengthen the Wei Clan, she was afraid of the consequence and the threat of multiple 7th-stage demons.
"Tsk! Fine! I won't take your ring."
Xu Xiuying collected all rings in the sewer by using her Qi and pink gas manipulation. She checked the content inside the rings.
Aside from Xu Miao's ring, which only contained raw spirit stones as his pocket money, the slaves only had weak low-grade weapons, clothes, and a few refined stones to cultivate. However, she found interesting skill books.
They were the copies of Moon Meridian Scripture!
"You guys have been practicing an interesting technique. Ah, I see. That's why you're so adamant about protecting those trashes, right?"
Although Xu Xiuying didn't get a heaven-grade, sky-grade, or earth-grade item from Xu Miao, she obtained something precious in return for her trouble.
The succubus burst into laughter. She retracted her pink gas, "For the sake of the alliance, I'll let you go. I can't promise that I won't tell Wei Huang about your little elopement. Have fun making babies when you can."
"…"
Xu Miao gnashed his teeth, swallowing his anger. He regretted that he didn't have enough essence to buy system rings for his girls, and their secret manuals were robbed easily. The more his foster mother laughed, the more frustrated he was.
As Xu Xiuying was laughing and mocking Xu Miao's blunder, her phone rang.
Xu Lanying sent her a message.
[Stop playing around in the sewer. If you want your treasures back, you shouldn't waste your time in there. I've spotted a large group of women fleeing toward the Crimson River. You should hurry and get there before they reach the Sky Duck City.]
Being reminded of her primary objective, Xu Xiuying clicked her tongue. Her body flashed and disappeared, flying in the sewer toward the path where Yao Lan and her company had passed.
"…"
Everyone let out a sigh of relief. It was the longest nerve-wracking 10 minutes of their entire lives.
"We're safe," Jia Shan wiped his sweat on his forehead. His back was also soaked that his clothes got stuck with his skin.
Despite being in a bad mood, Xu Miao was curious about Xu Xiuying's ability. He wanted to know her weaknesses, "Senior Jia, do you know what that pink fog can do?"
"That's a demon's miasma, a succubus miasma to be exact."
Xu Miao and everyone, except Wei Yuan, widened their eyes in surprise, "Succubus miasma?"
"To be honest, I'm shocked, too. I never thought that Xu Xiuying is actually a succubus," Jia Shan hunched his shoulders and back, regretting that he didn't discover this sooner. "Well, succubus miasma is a racial ability. Anyone who inhales that pink fog will be under the miasma owner's hypnosis spell. A high-rank succubus can instantly kill everyone who inhaled the fog while the weaker ones can only make the victims their puppets."
"That's quite an interesting ability. I meant, she's fucking dangerous, right?"
"Ha! You've realized that just now? Do you even know that you've been living in the same building as a high succubus? She could have absorbed your Yang Qi and killed you."
"… Yeah, that's why we're running away from her. Welp, let's get going. We need to go the other way and leave this hell hole."
Xu Miao guided the group and took another sewer route, turning away from Xu Xiuying and Yao Lan's path. At every intersection of the sewer, Xu Miao kept heading west, walking away from his initial goal.
Xu Miao changed his plans. At first, he was going to exit the sewer and head east, getting away from the Sky Duck and Mountain Goose City. But now, Xu Miao set off toward the west of the continent, where the capital city was located.
As for the loss of manuals, Xu Miao would make more copies of the scripture for the girls later.
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