Cautious, But Not Cautious Enough

Wang kept staring at the Emperor as if he was hesitating on a decision but his mind was elsewhere.

He secretly sent his thoughts to his little sister with telepathy as his eyes rested on the Emperor.

''Li Jing, I will need you to escape. Don't try to argue with me, I have an idea that could work but I need to be alone. Alright? Just go.'' he said but to his disappointment, he didn't receive an answer.

Behind him, Li Jing still looked to be mentally unstable.

'This can't be normal...' Wang thought but had to chase that thought away as it wasn't the time to think about such things.

He sighed internally.

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'Why don't we just attack?' the Emperor's advisor and best friend asked through telepathy.

'We can't risk another permanent injury, or even worse, death in our ranks. If just another Peak Dao falls other empires would heavily pressure us.'

'We a-'

'Enough, I am not taking any risks on an important matter like this.' the Emperor finished.

The reason his empire was slowly growing stronger and more prosperous each day was because of his cold decision making and stable policy. The Empire didn't experience any growth explosions but it still grew slowly but surely each and every day. This was a policy he used in everything and it rarely failed him.

'Brother, I suggest you to take action. That kid is really insidious. He used various traps and trump cards and always comes up with something weird to turn things in his favor. Giving him time to think of a plan might be a mistake.' his brother advised behind them.

He still remembered how that brat used his nephew's body as a bomb, or how he gritted his teeth and silently administered a painless and almost impossible to notice poison into Li Yan's body. Kid was experienced in stealth and acted similar to an assassin, it wouldn't be wise to give him any time to breathe at all.

The Emperor resisted the urge to raise his brow in surprise and considered his options.

His brother, Li Yan had always been a genius. Ever since birth he always managed to surprise their parents and was seen as the next Emperor. If Li Yan didn't publicly announce that he had absolutely no interest in ruling the Empire and he only loved cultivation and cultivation alone, he would have been the Emperor.

The Emperor, Li Yang absolutely admired him and gave utmost importance to Li Yan's thoughts. Especially when it came to cultivation.

'Okay.'

He didn't even need a second to decide and quickly agreed. His brother was a genius who could take down Peak Dao level beings when he was just a Deity Ascension stage cultivator after all. If a genius like him was taken down, that kid in front of them must have some truly insidious tricks that could warrant great danger to all of them.

Just as he was about to move, Wang raised his hands above his head in a submissive manner.

''Alright, if you promise to kill my sister quickly without any pain, I will come with you without making any fuss.'' he said with a sad expression. ''But that's my bottom line! You need to have some mercy on my innocent sister!''

Li Yang was taken aback.

'Is he saying the truth? Hmm, just killing his sister and torturing him is doable. It would be far too merciful but I would rather not take the risk...'

'He is not trying to trick us, isn't he? No. Why would he even try to negotiate then? He must be saying the truth.'

Just under a second, he thought through all the possibilities he could think of and came to a firm decision.

''Alright.'' he nodded. ''Cripple yourself.''

''How can I be sure you will kill my sister quickly?''

''Kill her yourself.''

''Alright... Sigh, I will try to make it painless so I need to hit her with all my strength. The problem is, I can't even use much of that said strength due to my grievous injuries.'' he nodded to Li Yan as if he was greeting an old friend.

''I hope you won't be alerted when my aura raises a little bit, it's just to make sure that I can kill my sister in under a second.''

''Sure, just let my advisor Li Hong stand next to you at that moment and we will be fine. I hope you understand.'' Li Yang smiled amicably.

'Li Hong is the strongest among us when it comes to restriction, he should be able to stop him from escaping especially when he is this injured.' he smiled to himself.

Now, there was no way for him to escape.

'My Lord, I have a bad feeling about this.' he heard a voice inside his mind.

The leader of his assassination unit, Li Mong another Peak Dao level being voiced his concerns.

'Brother, why don't you send Li Mong with Li Hong? Under stealth, of course.'

Hearing the voice of his brother, Li Yang happily agreed.

'Go.'

Li Hong nodded to the Emperor and slowly made his way to Wang.

While Wang's attention was on his sister and Li Hong, Li Mong used his best stealth technique to creep up on them.

Wang slowly nodded to Li Hong and released a bit of his aura and turned to his unstable sister.

'Run when you feel my strength reach Dao stage.' he warned her and raised his hand.

Sweat dripped down his face as a purple blade made out of the poison and blood inside his own body. The sharp blade was about 30cm long but gave a sense of dread when one looked at it.

Li Hong's knuckles whitened as he gritted his teeth and tightened his fist unconsciously. He raised his shield and got closer to the blade, ready to restrain Wang the moment he tried something different than they agreed on.

Wang raised his blade with teary eyes and... brought it down.

''AAAAAAAHG'' A short but gut wrenching scream came out.

But the voice came from a male.

''WHAT?!

Neither Li Hong nor Li Jing were hurt, the one who screamed just now was Li Mong.

His invisible body was split into two and both sides of his body were visibly rotting quickly from the purple poison that was latched onto the wound.

''H-how?'' he barely said as his vision got blurrier and blurrier.

'You hid your aura and body quite well, but you didn't do anything for the air currents that went around your body. They basically told me that there was something in the space that air couldn't go through, thus noticing me about your location. Not that I would ever tell you that.' Wang thought with a sense of smugness.

Wang grinned as things were looking up for them.

Everything was going better than he expected, except, Li Jing was still standing still for some reason.

'What is wrong with you today..?'

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