Bribe.

Ling Jun was sitting up on a tree branch, one leg dangling off, whilst his back was leaning against the main trunk. His deep red eyes were focused on Meng Li and the sprawled out disciples in front of her.

They had chanced upon a group of seven eighteen year olds ambushing four others. Ling Jun had swiftly incapacitated all eleven individuals with a lightning bolt each, before leaving the rest to Meng Li.

Meng Li took a deep breath. She turned back to look into Ling Jun's eyes before resolution filled her eyes. She promptly turned to one of the seven ambushers, a lean, fair skinned youth with a well toned body. His stomach was charred black with smoke still rising from it, and his groans of pain constantly sounded.

"Please dont kill me, I beg of you. I swear to never harm you and become your slave forever, please just dont kill me!"

All around them, the eleven disciples were all begging for mercy, triggering Meng Li's trauma. Screams of pain rang out and Meng Li was beginning to feel overwhelmed.

She closed her eyes, her fists clenched at her sides. She thought of her mother's pleas as she was whipped and beaten.

"Hoooohhh." Meng Li let out a deep breath before opening her closed eyes. Clear green eyes reminiscent of the simple beauty of nature revealed themselves. Her fists slowly unclenched.

"In the end, begging was useless, wasn't it?..." She flicked her fingers and a dagger appeared in her right hand. She stared at it quietly for a moment.

Seeing this, the toned youth began to babble harder.

"Shut the fuck up, please." Meng Li buried her dagger deep into his heart with no hesitation, up to the hilt. Her dagger remained there for a few seconds before she yanked it out, the squelching of blood accompanying it.

She stared at what she had done for a while before sighing and proceeding to stab the already deceased youth in various vital areas just in case. Meng Li then took a step back, the blood still dripping from her blade. There was pin drop silence. All the disciples had been scared shitless, and forced themselves to shut up.

Meng Li ignored them as she turned her head to look back at Ling Jun. Ling Jun stared back with a light smirk playing at the corner of her lips. A few seconds later, Meng Li also smiled. Then she turned to one of the four victims.

"I hope you have thought this through." Ling Jun's voice rang out, stopping Meng Li in her tracks.

Ling Jun's smile had disappeared. He had incapacitated all eleven disciples in order to see Meng Li's choice. His goal had not been to change her morals similar to his, only to help her overcome her fear. The fact that Meng Li had turned to the four innocent victims, indicated what her choice was.

Meng Li had known this all along and she decided to reveal to Ling Jun her decision.

Meng Li didn't turn around as she spoke. "As a self-proclaimed professional thief, I have no use for morals." Her dagger ended up in another disciples heart. "They are all simply unlucky to meet us here."

Of course, Meng Li wouldn't become a mass murderer of innocent people. But she wouldn't hesitate to eliminate innocents in order to protect herself or achieve her objectives. Similar to Ling Jun.

Had she decided not to kill the four victims, Ling Jun would have simply killed them himself as he would never leave such loose ends. Ling Jun watched on silently as Meng Li methodically ended all the disciples lives. The smile was back on his face now.

Meng Li had made her choice and he would not interfere.

...

A few hours later...

Ling Jun and Meng Li were now hidden in a cave dividing the loot they had decided to check out.

Yuan Huan's spatial ring had opened proving that he had died, much to their joy. He had various treasures such as pills, weapons, herbs, and just under 100,000 spirit stones. They halved the spirit stones before taking a look at the various other things.

Ling Jun pulled out a book from the ring called classifications. After reading through it he realised that it was a new method for determining tiers of different treasures. Though Ling Jun knew the classifications as Mortal, Black, Yellow, Earth, Sky and Heaven, he found out that it was actually an outdated method of classification because it only considered How much Qi could be utilised through it.

The new and more widely used classification was definitely more simple and easy to follow. It was simply grade 0 to grade 9, embodying the nine realms of cultivation. This was also applicable to herbs, pills and other various treasures so one didnt have to learn a different method of classification for everything.

This new method incorporated various thing into its grading, such as materials used in forging and efficiency of Qi manipulation. In herbs and pills it was to show which were applicable in which cultivation realms. For example, Qi gathering pill would be grade, even if it was exquisitely made, because it could be used by Qi realm cultivators.

However, efficiency of pills was measured by percentage of herbal Qi lost in refinement. They could be separated into minor with 50%, superior at 60%, genuine at 70%, flawless at 80% and consummate at 90% and above.

Most of the pills were grade two, with a few grade three pills mixed in, though they were lower ranked grade three pills. With the new classification, Ling Jun's new sword and Meng Li's dagger would now be classified as peak grade three, as they could only be used to full potential by peak soul realm cultivators.

Even the Floating Cloud sect would only have few such weapons! They had lucked out, though they had come close to death at the time.

They decided to leave all the everything hidden in Ling Jun's spatial ring until they had use for it. That was when Ling Jun's eyes fell upon a strange square shaped crystal.

Curious, he stretched his hand out to fiddle with it. After probing with some Qi, abruptly a screen appeared in mid air. Meng Li and Ling Jun stared with shock at the screen, before they noticed Tang Zhelong on the screen.

Meng Li and Ling Jun both figured out the situation instantly. Tang Zhelong must have struck a dirty deal with Yuan Huan and that's why he was followed by Tang clan disciples. This must be some sort of recording crystal which could be used in case Tang Zhelong backed out of the deal.

As they watched, they heard Tang Zhelong's voice.

"I, Tang Zhelong, offer you this Earthvine fruit that I have treasured my whole life. In return, you must get enter the forest somehow and eliminate the disciples of the other two clans."

Tang Zhelong grudgingly held out a strange looking vine, before clasping his hands.

"Hmmm, this is not even close to enough." Yuan Huan's voice sounded out, though they couldn't see him.

In actual fact, Yuan Huan was more than happy with the vine as it would be able to purify his own earth type energy by a fold. With that, his prowess would soar and he would have much more value to Shi Kun. Yet he had noticed a much better treasure.

"Do you know what this is?" Yuan Huan must have pulled something out.

"No, I don't, please explain." Tang Zhelong was getting nervous.

"This is a treasure that lets me discover Yin energy close by and its density." As soon as he said that, Tang Zhelong's eyes widened.

"No way, I cant let you..."

"Then this deal is off. With no evidence left with you, I just have to reveal this ploy of yours to the other families and it will be the end of your clan! Don't even have any thoughts about killing me to silence me, that would bring an even more disastrous end to your clan. You have no choice!"

Tang Zhelong's face was twisted in rage as he fought to control himself.

He had thought through everything carefully. Yet he had overlooked one thing. The true treasure of Tang Zhelan.

He knew that the Earthvine was definitely enough to enlist Yuan Huan's help. Yet how could he have predicted that Yuan Huan also cultivated a Yin type Qi and also had a treasure to detect Yin Qi.

The plan had been to enlist Yuan Huan's help, then harvest the Yin leading to an increase in power, before wiping out the other clans himself. That was the perfect ending.

Yuan Huan smiled smugly. "Tang Zhelong, bring your wife to me!"

Tang Zhelan had found out that his wife had a three point Yin meridian, which allowed her to cultivate Yin in her body at extreme speeds. He had been planning to harvest that Yin later, though only half, which would leave no harm done to his wife.

Yet now, Yuan Huan had found this irresistible treasure. And he wanted it.

The rest of the recording was 18+.

"Ooft, that's one for the hub, dayum!" Ling Jun exclaimed. Though he had expected a bribe, this was far different to what he had thought of.

Meng Li laughed out loudly clutching her sides. "He actually allowed his wife to be fucked like that! He may be even worse than Meng Jian! Hahaha..."

After they had finished laughing, they stored all the treasures and left the cave. They quickly hunted the beasts they needed to hunt before looking around to rejoin their initial group.

Ling Jun left the memory crystal in a conspicuous place a few hundred metres in front of the direction Ling Ji and co were travelling in. He didn't want to expose the truth himself, yet he also wanted Tang Zhelan dead in case he noticed any irregularities with the whole situation. Who knew if Tang Zhelan had some other plans in place which would expose Ling Jun if he tried to come up with an excuse as to why Yuan Huan died.

It was best for Ling Ji to expose it. His status was sufficient and he also knew nothing of Yuan Huan's death. His expressions would all be genuine and no one would doubt him.