Chapter 17: Old Grandma…

“Your problem lies in these two rings.”

Lin Feng smiled lightly, his finger lightly tapping the two rings hanging before Xiao Yan’s chest.

Xiao Yan’s expression became a bit cold: “This senior also believes that there is a curse on these two rings of mine?”

Towards Xiao Yan’s change in expression Lin Feng treated it like he didn’t see it, his tone suddenly changing: “But these two rings of yours have nothing to do with curses. Instead of saying that the massive change in your body is a natural disaster, it would be better to say that it is man-made disaster.”

“Man-made disaster?” Xiao Yan was slightly confused, and then closely following his face became extremely somber: “Senior is saying that someone is deliberately harming me? It’s definitely not my parents… Then that means even the death of my parents is also related to the person harming me?”

Lin Feng secretly gave a big thumbs up in his heart: “Good kid, nice connection, you have a bright future!”

He waved his hands, casually looking at Xiao Xan’s small, overcast face: “Right now I cannot lay claim to whether or not the deaths of your parents have something to do with these rings, but the massive change in your body is precisely the result caused by these two rings.”

“In the rings there lives spirits, these spirits are constantly absorbing your mana to strengthen themselves.” Lin Feng slowly said, his voice was calm but it weighed on Xiao Yan’s heart like a massive mountain: “This is the reason why your level suddenly regressed three years ago. This is also the crux of the matter as to why even though you also trained hard in the three years afterwards, you didn’t obtain any advancements.”

“Because the mana you trained hard for to obtain all became the nourishment of the spirits!”

Xiao Yan lowered his head looking towards the two rings at his chest, his dazed expression slowly revealing hatred.

Looking at the change in his expression Lin Feng let out a breath of relief in his heart, secretly laughing.

“This is what’s called a preemptive strike!”

Putting you guys in the role of the villain first, let’s see how you guys fight with me?

Didn’t you guys think that you guys were in a favourable position? Still there putting on noble and magnificent airs, waiting for Xiao Yan to come and beg you guys? Are you dumbfounded now?

Lin Feng was complacent in his heart, he was not framing people. Maybe those old grandpas in the rings can help Xiao Yan soar to success, but it is also most likely them that caused Xiao Yan to fall from the clouds before.

Without the addition of Lin Feng they would naturally be able to trick Xiao Yan and use large amounts of techniques and medicines to atone for themselves. But now with Lin Feng’s preemptive strike and not giving them a chance to fix things, all that remains between them and Xiao Yan is hatred.

At the same time as being smug Lin Feng was also secretly on guard, next up he might have to go head on against the old grandpas in the rings.

Lin Feng lifted his head glancing at the sky. Summer’s weather is like a child’s mood, changing without notice, before it was still bright and sunny, now it is already cloudy and overcast with rolling thunder.

Lin Feng breathed a slight breath of relief in his heart: “Good thing the weather changed or else Nine Heaven Thunder Summoning wouldn’t be able to exert its full power. Now, I have enough cards up my sleeves to play with you guys.”

Arriving at the point where the only thing that remains is a crippled soul and living in a ring waiting to be the old grandpa for people, regardless of how great their backgrounds were in the past and how powerful their strength was, right now they are still in an extremely weakened state.

The eastern wind blows, the war drums sound, we’re all old grandpas who’s afraid of who?

Right when Xiao Yan was grinding his teeth and grabbing the rings at his chest, a long, soft sigh rose up beside his and Lin Feng’s ears.

“If not for your sacrifice I don’t know how much longer I’d have to sleep for.”

Xiao Yan blankly stared at the ring in his hand. A white mist of light surfaced on the ring gradually forming a human figure in the air, from hazy to clear, in the end becoming intricately detailed and vivid.

Lin Feng also stared at the figure of light blankly. Accurately speaking, since the person’s voice rose up Lin Feng had already descended into a blank state.

Because that is clearly a woman’s voice!

… It’s not an old grandpa but an old grandma?

Lin Feng’s mind was in a bit of a mess. Looking closely at the figure of light, saything that she is an old grandma is undoubtedly a bit rude.

This is an extremely beautiful woman, a light green long gown blowing with the wind. She possesses an indescribable elegance, gazing at the clear stream from above with a calm composure.

The green-gowned woman’s eyes turned, her gaze landing on Lin Feng’s body after only taking a glance at Xiao Yan.

Looking at her, a literary work that he had read in his past life suddenly appeared in Lin Feng’s mind, “On the Goddess of Luo River“: Her body soars lightly like a startled swan, gracefully like a dragon in flight, in splendor brighter than the autumn chrysanthemum, in bloom more flourishing than the pine in the spring. Dim as the moon mantled in filmy clouds, restless as snow whirled by the driving wind.

“This is the feeling of Cao Zhi when he first saw the Goddess of Luo River?” Lin Feng’s mind thought randomly, but in his heart there sounded the highest-level of alert. (TL: Cao Zhi is the brother of Cao Cao and a famous poet.)

Compared to the green-gowned woman’s beauty, Murong Yanran lacks composure and Xiao Zhen appears a bit too young. Of all the people that Lin Feng has seen in his life there is probably only that peach tree demon Long Ye that can compare to her.

Long Ye and her are both fine blossoms in their season, equally matched.

But just like when he faced Long Ye before, facing this stunning beauty right now Lin Feng could not muster up a single shred of passion in his heart, on the contrary his heart felt a bit cold. This green-gowned woman’s danger level is definitely at the level as Long Ye.

Maybe spending everyday with Xiao Zhener and growing up with her trained Xiao Yan’s outlook. Right now Xiao Yan also has no thoughts of praise or admiration, instead staring at the green-gowned woman with a face of hostility.

“Sacrifice?” Xiao Yan’s tone was deathly cold: “The change in my body is really your doing?”

The green-gowned woman lightly sighed: “Mingyue also had no choice, please do not blame me.” (TL: Mingyue is the name of the woman speaking, her full name is 燕明月, Yan Mingyue, mingyue means bright moon and her surname means swallow (bird))

“I don’t blame you… Fuck you!” Xiao Yan could no longer hold back, tugging apart the string around his neck and throwing out the ring the green-robed woman’s figure of light takes shelter in. (TL: For the fuck you part, directly translated he says something like “I blame fuck you”, in Chinese it sounds like I blame your mom)

The ring strangely stopped in mid-air, just silently floating in the air like that. After slightly shaking the projected figure of light re-stabilized itself.

The green-gowned woman lightly sighed: “Mingyue can understand that you are mad, but please note that the other ring you are wearing is actually the true source of your misfortune these past three years.

While speaking her gaze looked towards Lin Feng: “This fellow daoist has eyes like a torch that pierces through the dark, the mana that Xiao Yan painstakingly cultivated these past three years was indeed absorbed by me, for this I express my deep apologies.”

“But the misfortune three years ago of Xiao Yan regressing from Qi Disciple great perfection to Qi Disciple level one has nothing to do with me.”

Xiao Yan’s face was cold like a pool of frozen water, looking at the green-gowned woman and then looking at Lin Feng, in the end his gaze landing on the second ring in his hand.

Lin Feng’s expression was indifferent as if everything was in his control, outsiders could not tell what he was truly thinking from his expression.

But in actuality the sense of crisis in Lin Feng’s heart was becoming increasingly more serious.

This woman is not easy to deal with, with just a few short lines not only did she get rid of the majority of her responsibility, she also obtained the leading position in the conversation making Xiao Yan’s attention start to follow her rhythm

The green-gowned woman calmly stared at Lin Feng and Xiao Yan: “In that ring there lives the crippled soul of an ancient beast, a Taotie.”

“Taotie?” Xiao Yan was shocked. In legends Tao Tie is one of the ancient four great fiends, known together with Hundun, Qiongqi and Taowu as the king of fiends. (TL: These will appear in the future with descriptions but you can google them if you want.)

Tao Tie’s nature is avarice, devouring all. At their peak they can even swallow the heavens and devour the earth, destroying all life.

Even great Primordial Spirit cultivators get a headache if they encounter this kind of fierce beast. All attacks against Tao Tie will be swallowed by it with its large mouth, being so savage and gluttonous it is truly difficult to deal with.

Lin Feng also slightly wrinkled his brows, looking towards the second ring in Xiao Yan’s hands.

The green-gowned woman continued saying: “10 years ago due to being seriously injured, I was forced to place my soul in this ring of yours. After that I was asleep the whole time until three years ago when I discovered that Taotie had devoured all of your mana and even wanted to devour your life force.”

“I used the Heaven Cage Sigil to seal that Tao Tie’s soul but my own soul had expended too much energy and was forced to enter a deep sleep again.” The green-gowned woman had an apologetic expression: “It is also in the process of this second deep sleep that I unconsciously absorbed the new mana that you cultivated to repair my soul, and yet this created trouble for you, please forgive me.”

Even though Xiao Yan had a face of doubt, his expression had clearly already softened down.

The expression on Lin Feng’s face didn’t change, but his heart became increasingly heavier

Especially when he flipped through the trading system and found the ability of the Heaven Cage Sigil, after he saw the description of it his heart sank to the bottom.

Heaven Cage Sigil, a sigil using one’s own mana to set down a cage, sealing the mana of others, against spiritual targets the effect is increased.

Note: A unique esoteric ability of the number 1 sect in Heaven Primal’s cultivating world, the leader of the three great holy lands the Void Temple!