CHAPTER 338: CHAPTER 292: THE MASTERMIND BEHIND THE PARASITE

"Ah!"

A sharp pain erupted from her abdomen, Mei Lan let out a piercing scream. On the brink of unconsciousness, she was jerked back to agonizing awareness. Her small face, the size of a palm, was deathly pale, sweating profusely, and trembling, she looked at Lan Tian and mouthed, "Why?" When she finished, she realized no sound came out.

Mei Lan still didn’t know the consequences of a shattered Dantian; if she knew that with a shattered Dantian she couldn’t cultivate and that her Immortal Path was now severed, perhaps she would hate Lan Tian even more.

Lan Tian remained silent and from his Sleeve Universe pulled out a medicine bottle, tipping out a pill for Mei Lan to swallow. Mei Lan shook her head, refusing, but what could a dying person do against Lan Tian?

He pinched her chin, exerting a slight force, Mei Lan’s mouth involuntarily opened. The feeling of being utterly at someone’s mercy caused Mei Lan to experience fear, the pill rolling down her throat as Lan Tian lifted her chin, making its way to her stomach.

She hadn’t gotten an answer to her questions; Mei Lan couldn’t die just yet.

"You came here looking for this, didn’t you?"

Divine Sense swept over Mei Lan without discretion, catching sight of the dusky bag in her arms. Lan Tian’s eyes narrowed—a Storage Bag. Mei Lan actually had a Storage Bag. With a downward gesture, the Storage Bag landed in Lan Tian’s palm, and without a glance, he tossed it into his Sleeve Universe. Then he twisted Mei Lan’s wrist with a snap; it dislocated. Another ’snap’ sound and her other wrist was also dislocated.

Extending his hand forward, hovering above his palm was the child poison from his Sleeve Universe. "You recognize this, don’t you?"

The Chaotic Fire of Lan Tian’s credit system flared up instantly, melting the ice in the blink of an eye and revealing the child poison inside.

Seeing the child poison in Lan Tian’s hand, Mei Lan’s already pale face turned even whiter, and two lines of tears streaked down her cheeks. Her voice trembling, she said, "Why do you have the child poison? What’s your purpose in luring me here with it? What’s your goal in lurking near Ji Feng? Don’t hurt him; he knows nothing."

"You certainly seem deeply in love with him," Lan Tian said coldly, "If you like him so much, why did you poison Ji Feng with a gu?"

"You’re slandering me!" Mei Lan was so angry her chest hurt. This woman had her own unspeakable motives and now she was trying to shift the blame.

"You think I’m framing you? You think you’re something so special, worth my effort to frame?" Catching a glimpse of Mei Lan’s frustrated expression, Lan Tian spoke nonchalantly, his face bearing a smile that was not quite a smile, leaving Mei Lan with no place to hide.

"Why has Ji Feng been frail for over a decade? Someone poisoned him with a gu. That’s why he couldn’t have a normal childhood. While you lived a happy, carefree childhood, he could only lie in bed, staring out the window at the unchanging scenery all year round."

Mei Lan’s pupils suddenly dilated, staring at Lan Tian in disbelief, her gaze shifting to the child poison in Lan Tian’s hand. Could it be...

The voice of Lan Tian, that demon, echoed in her ears again, full of malice within its bland tone, "That’s right, just as you thought, this child poison was extracted from Ji Feng’s body. As the master of the gu insect, you should know that this kind of gu is a mother-child poison; the child poison was on Ji Feng’s body, so tell me, who has the mother poison? In the Ji Mansion, who else is suffering from the same illness as Ji Feng, bedridden for years?"

With every word Lan Tian uttered, Mei Lan trembled more violently, like a leaf in the wind, unable to stop shaking, the fear in her heart no longer containable. The only thought in her mind was that she had been set up. But why? And by whom? Could it be her senior sisters acting on their own behind his back, or was he himself trying to set her up?

"I..." Mei Lan couldn’t utter those three words. She genuinely didn’t know that the gu insect had been planted in Ji Feng’s body.

"Don’t tell me you are the master of the gu but have no idea whose body the gu has been planted in. Do you believe such an assertion yourself?"

Mei Lan shook her head, she couldn’t believe it. Even a three-year-old child wouldn’t believe such a thing.

"You see, even you don’t believe it, right!" Lan Tian’s voice remained calm as a gentle breeze, devoid of any fluctuation, and that in itself was what made it all the more frightening. "I believe, I believe you don’t know, but tell me, who is the person behind all this? You’re so clever, you must have figured it out. This person is using you, but to what end? Why is he doing this?"

Taking out a handkerchief, she gently wiped away the tears streaking Mei Lan’s face, "Haven’t you ever thought, what if Mr. Ji passes away and the chronically ill Ji Feng steps up to control the Ji Family? Even if he can manage, what about the others? You’ve been in Beijing for so many years; you’re well aware of how deep the waters run here. Without two years passing, Ji Feng will be gobbled up so thoroughly that not even scraps will remain. Is this the outcome you want to see?"

Mei Lan still shook her head; she only wanted to protect Ji Feng and had never thought of harming him.

"There’s one more thing that I suspect the person behind this has never told you. This gu insect also goes by the name ’Bloodthirsty Spirit Worm.’ Not only does the Bloodthirsty Spirit Worm devour the life force from its host’s body, but it also turns its master into a ’furnace.’ The notion that a Bloodthirsty Worm could nurture a ’furnace’ is something I learned from the miscellaneous records left by my cheap Master. Honestly speaking, when Lan Tian saw this, she began to doubt the intentions behind Mei Lan’s master’s actions.

"Do you know what a ’furnace’ is? It means you are being cultivated into a container, a vessel that can store and filter Spiritual Energy, which after passing through your body, can enhance a male cultivator’s Cultivation. Do you know how male cultivators acquire that Spiritual Energy from your body?"

Mei Lan’s heart pounded with panic as she shook her head; she didn’t want to know, nor did she want to hear. He wouldn’t do that to her. She didn’t want to listen, but would Lan Tian stop because of it? That was impossible.

"Intercourse, you understand the meaning of intercourse, right?"

"Stop talking, please, I beg you to stop," Mei Lan wanted to cover her ears, but after trying to lift her hands for a while, they felt weak and limp, and that was when she remembered this woman had dismembered her hands. Mei Lan shook her head in disbelief, "He couldn’t possibly treat me like that, he said I had the best talent among all the sisters, he said I was the most likely to cultivate to become Immortal."

Her? Or him? The senior sisters?

Indeed, Mei Lan was not the only cultivator in Beijing; she also had a Master above her, though her level of Cultivation was unknown.

"Even now, are you still going to cover for him?" Lan Tian shook her head, "You are so naive. Haven’t you noticed anything abnormal about your Master? I assume your Master is a male cultivator and has sustained injuries, spending years in seclusion. His pretext to you was that he needed to increase his Cultivation through seclusion, but aren’t his relations with your several sisters somewhat unusual? Does he treat you most specially so you think you’re different in your Master’s eyes? Heh, that’s because they are saving you for the most critical moment."

Mei Lan’s face turned even paler. Despite knowing Lan Tian’s words were not to be trusted, the usual attitudes he showed her and her sisters were just as Lan Tian described. She felt a chill in her heart, a coldness rushing over her.