12. Gotta keep your assets in line!

Wang Feng made his way to the Su Family residence, claiming that he knew Yi the bastard and was there to divine Su Ning's whereabouts. Drama ensued within the Su residence as some made snarky comments about how Yi's denouncing of his surname was just for show.

Naturally, Su Ning's mother was the one most enthusiastic about Wang Feng's arrival. Su Ning's mother was one of the people who tried to kill Yi, and Yi was under oath never to take a step into the Su Family house again. Wang Feng arrived at the Su Family residence on behalf of Yi to divine Su Ning's location. If he wanted to divine her location without visiting the Su Family residence, he would have to use her blood relations with Yi, which goes through Yi's father and towards Su Ning, exponentially increasing the expenditure for spiritual qi. Su Ning's personal belongings, however, had a direct relationship with Su Ning.

Wang Feng received permission from the Su patriarch for divination and proceeded to visit Su Ning's room. The Su patriarch was guilt-ridden as Yi still cared about innocent members of the Yi family despite the wrongs committed against him. Allowing Wang Feng to perform his divination was the least the Su clan patriarch could do.

Wang Feng picked up a doll and a strand of hair, then crawled on the ground for a bit before turning to the Su family and stating, "Your daughter was kidnapped by the Demon Cult. One of your servants was a spy for the Demon Sect. The reason for her abduction was because your daughter has superior spiritual roots."

After dusting off his clothes, Wang Feng continued, "This is way beyond Yi and me. You must do what you must with this information, Su clan patriarch. You must do it post-haste. Your daughter is still alive."

The Su clan patriarch was doubtful and asked, "How do I know what you are saying is the truth? How can I ensure that you are not using the Su Clan to deal with the Demon Sect?"

Wang Feng smirked. "You don't know. You either believe me or you don't. I'm not here on behalf of the sect master. I'm here on behalf of my friend, Yi the bastard. I don't know all that political nonsense." Wang Feng knew all about that political nonsense. It was a classic case of desperation politics, a tale as old as time. When a person, organization, or community has something they care about in peril, a bargaining phase starts with powers that can solve the problem. Afterward, it becomes a question of losing everything else you have for the sake of the thing you care about. Su Ning had incredible price elasticity for the Su family. She was a blank cheque for whoever saved her.

After Wang Feng left, Su patriarch contacted Shi Hong. Thousand Puppets Venerable was overjoyed. It was a chance to reclaim what was lost during the Yi debacle. Shi Hong agreed to help under the condition that Su Ning becomes a disciple. That way, he would have the same deal he had with the Su patriarch about former Su Yi, but this time regarding Su Ning. He missed his Su clan coin pouches so much.

A giant puppet appeared in the skies above the demon sect headquarters. With a tap, it drained half of the spiritual energy reserves of the demon sect's protective formation.

Six Wings Demon Venerable was startled. He quickly took to the skies, with Six Wings buzzing behind his back as he darted back and forth. A chunk from the giant puppet's cheek fell off, and one of the arms was hanging on by a thread. Parts that fell off quickly rejoined with the giant puppet. The puppet was not made of wood or iron or anything like that. It was a qi construct, working with the same principles as Wang Feng's tendrils, with qi given form through thoughts.

The giant puppet's skin started boiling. every boil morphed into another puppet. Its skin birthed a bunch of identical puppets. Puppets had baby heads and adult bodies. They moved in the air like ragdolls being pulled by a string, chasing Six Wings Demon Venerable around.

One of the puppets catches Luo Geming by the leg and immediately turns into a swarm of jittering spiders that cover and crawl upon Luo's skin, biting, and hammering. Luo Geming, wanting to get the spiders off him, slams his body into the ground. Unfortunately, Luo Geming's eyes resided in sockets. perfect for two small spider puppets to nestle in. As sixteen small spider legs dug into his face, they enveloped his eyes. Blood-curdling screams, buzzing sounds, and slamming sounds echoed in the mountains.

With a sadistic smile, Shi Hong approached.

"Luo my friend! You have spiders in your eyes! Let me take them off for you! Shi Hong pulled the spiders out along with Luo Geming's eyes. A high-pitched shriek could be heard. Shaking hands search for what's missing to no avail. Extreme pain induces vomiting.

Shi Hong sighed.

"My friend, didn't I tell you not to get uppity?"

Six Wings Demon Venerable was not able to form cohesive sentences anymore. Stange moans and salivating were all he could do as of now. Shi Hong grabbed Luo Geming by the hair and started dragging his body toward the demon sect gates.

"Bring me the girl named Su Ning or I will scramble your sect master like an egg."

Demon Sect was held together by Luo Geming's charisma. There was no way they would leave him out to die. They quickly brought Su Ning out.

On the ground lay the Demon. He is belching and moaning. His body and his clothes are in a sorry state. A voice from distance could be heard.

"Don't be such a baby. Don't you cultivate chimera dao? Just steal something's eyes."

Demon Venerable was bitter. Every replaced organ was essentially a qi deviation. The organ never had the same cultivation level as the host, causing problems in cultivation.

Shi Hong disappeared with Su Ning in his arms.

Luo Geming, decrepit and with his eyes hollowed out, stumbled towards his abode. He caught one of his concubines by the throat, put his face onto hers, and started screaming. His dao marks lit up, and the flesh around her eyes started moving towards Demon Venerable's hollow eye sockets. It was a harrowing sight to behold. During the excruciatingly painful process, her screams turned silent because she lost her voice. After the arduous process, her eyes were hollow, and a pair of beautiful eyes adorned Demon Venerable's face.

Luo Geming led the concubine by the arm and made her sit on the bed. He called the servants and said, "Take care of her. She doesn't need eyes for what she does for a living anyway." And then he left, abandoning the poor concubine.

After that day, he visited the girl less and less because a girl with no eyes was not as pretty as a girl with eyes. And that was it. There was no justice for the concubine, no valiant hero to save her. For the rest of her life, she sat in total darkness forever. No one within Demon Sect or outside it cared about her enough to offend Luo Geming. All she could do was smile and be accommodating. This was not because she was kind but because she had nothing. She had no power. The word concubine was the kinder version; she was nothing but a demon palace slave.

Weeks later, Luo Geming made a speech about the evilness of gauging somebody's eyes out, about how Shi Hong was the worst person ever, and how the Shaushan sect was now the mortal enemy. Devil Sect's operations didn't change. Devil Sect's modus operandi was "kill and rob" anyway.

Kilometers away, Shi Hong was giddy. He now had the Su clan's money back! The giant puppet trick took a lot out of him. His finances took a dip, but with Su Clan's new support, he would be in tip-top shape in no time. At this level of cultivation, the spiritual energy from nature didn't cut it anymore. Using the mechanisms of his own cultivation base, he had to compress spiritual energy to a level sufficient for a venerable body to function. With greater power came a greater financial drain. To get to the next level of his cultivation, he had to learn a lot about the dao of puppetry until his puppetry dao marks were complete. Only then could a venerable become a sage. Until he got enough attainments in the puppet dao, he had to play this resources game.

He was jealous of Wang Feng. The boy had an almost complete understanding of the great dao of karma. He didn't have to make do with a minor dao like the dao of puppets or the dao of chimera.

Meanwhile, at the Shoushan sect, a mission was about to commence.