Aksai’s mind flashed back to the demon lady he had dealt with at Jaishin Lake.
It was because of her that he was made aware of the larger plot at play in the Wild Devil Lands.
Before killing her, he’d scanned her memories, only pulling out the useful bits related to the larger plot in the Wild Devil Lands.
It wasn’t something he liked to dwell on, especially since there were certain… intimate memories he had skimmed over.
It seemed that the bald elder was already aware of a few things regarding the mysterious opportunity appearing in the Wild Devil Lands. He wasn’t completely in the know of a lot of things. Because of which he had decided to lay low.
However, Haitin’s moves had surprised him. Not only did Haitin not kill the Sun Ocean Lord but he also outsourced a big trouble in the form of Lini Lowanfield to someone else. Just like that, Haitin had avoided two big landmines.
In fact, there was a strong chance for him to establish a form of friendship with the Sun Ocean Lord after becoming his son-in-law officially.
A lot happened during the last few days after Haitin met with Aksai and made the former change his plans. It was bound to become a lot more difficult for other sects in the Big Five to strike decisively in an attempt to seize the mysterious opportunity if Haitin and the Sun Ocean Lord were allowed to join hands together.
This was the reason the bald elder decided to act in advance without receiving any orders from his original sect. As a spy in Haitin’s sect, one had to say he had planned right even though he was not aware of the complete picture.
***
The bald elder’s face at this point became the connecting dot for Aksai to finally understand why he felt like he had seen the person without personally meeting him. It was because the memories related to the bald elder were not his own.
Of course, the Spirit farmer wasn’t interested in watching other people’s bedroom antics, especially not ones involving this bald elder and the demon lady. He had his own maids for that.
But now, staring at the bald elder’s face twisted in surprise, Aksai suddenly remembered something from those scans. The elder’s expression right now—his wide eyes, the slight twitch of his lips—was eerily familiar.
It was the same face he’d seen in the demon lady’s memories during their “moments of passion.” Aksai had wanted to forget that detail, but some things just stuck with you, no matter how hard you tried to erase them.
A few days ago, the bald elder hadn’t been bald. That was another reason Aksai hadn’t recognized him at first. In those memories, the elder had a full head of voluminous hair, clearly the result of some Spirit spell.
No one would bother with wigs in the cultivation world, after all—that was strictly mortal behavior. But Spirit cultivators had their ways to alter appearances.
Now, without the hair and in a completely different context, it took Aksai a bit longer to connect the dots. He had dismissed most of the personal details from the demon lady’s memories, focusing instead on the strategic information he needed.
But this face—the one the elder was making in his shock—was unmistakable. It was the same expression the man had when he was… “at the peak” of his euphoria with the demon lady. Someone from the modern times on a certain planet would describe it as a comeface.
With that realization, everything clicked into place. This was the same elder who had treated the demon lady as his secret mistress, cheating on his wife and betraying his sect.
The bald elder had leaked valuable information to her, contributing to the current chaos in the Wild Devil Lands. Whether he had done it deliberately or out of sheer carelessness, Aksai couldn’t be sure. He also didn’t care.
Aksai let out a low chuckle, shaking his head slightly as the bald elder glared at him. “No wonder he leaked the sect’s secrets so easily during your little bedroom adventures. He was never loyal to the sect in the first place,” he muttered, his tone casual, almost amused.
The elder’s expression shifted from surprise to something darker. “What do you mean by that, lad?” he demanded. He still didn’t realize the demon lady had been killed, let alone that Aksai was responsible. Given how often she vanished for weeks at a time, it would likely take him another week or two to figure out she wasn’t coming back from her last mission.
“Oh, nothing,” Aksai said, his voice calm but with a subtle edge. “I just wanted to thank you for making that face.”
In the next moment, someone appeared behind the bald elder like a ghost.
As soon as the young woman appeared behind the bald elder, her presence drew immediate attention as she did nothing to hide it. Her figure was veiled, with only her piercing eyes visible above the scarf that covered the lower half of her face.
She moved with fluid grace, her voice soft yet laced with a seductive undertone as she spoke.
“My dear black bear, what are you doing here?”
The term “black bear” struck the bald elder like a thunderbolt. It was the intimate nickname only the demon lady had ever used, a name reserved for their private moments.
Hearing it in that familiar tone caused the elder to freeze for a moment. His emotions flashed through a whirlwind of shock, confusion, and, briefly, happiness. *Could it really be her? Had his lover found him in the midst of this chaos?*
Unable to control himself, the bald elder turned instinctively to face the woman. It was a reflex—a mixture of desire and disbelief that clouded his judgment.
His heart raced, a part of him hoping to see the demon lady standing there, ready to help him from the predicament he had found himself in.
But as he turned, his logical mind kicked in, asking *Why would she appear here, now?* The thought passed through him in a split second, but by then, it was already too late.
That brief moment of distraction was all Aksai needed.
While the elder’s attention was fully captured by the figure behind him, Aksai made his move. His body moved like a shadow, swift and calculated.
The silver glow of Qi shimmered around his hands, forming the deadly strike of the Qi Palm Arts. His palms were sheathed in silvery energy as they tore through the air and found their target—the bald elder’s unprotected back.
Caught off guard, the elder had no time to react, his innate Spirit defense layer proving no match for the concentrated force of Aksai’s Martial Arts. Aksai’s palms slammed into the elder’s back with brutal precision, bypassing his defenses and digging deep into his flesh.
Simultaneously, the mysterious woman—who was no woman at all but one of Aksai’s Sentient Scarecrow Puppets—moved in.
With a sudden, vicious attack, she struck at the elder’s solar plexus, driving her fist into his abdomen before following up with ruthless strikes aimed at his neck and eyes. Her movements were quick and relentless, designed to incapacitate in seconds.
The combined assault was merciless. Aksai’s Qi-infused palms crushed through the elder’s ribs, shattering bone with the sound of snapping wood.
The impact traveled deep into the elder’s body, and Aksai’s hands, like spears, tore through flesh and muscle until they found their mark—his heart.
With his fingers wrapped around the elder’s heart, Aksai squeezed, feeling the organ burst into pieces under his grip.
The bald elder’s body convulsed violently. His spine, shattered by the blow, sent waves of pain through him, but it was nothing compared to the searing realization that hit him a moment later.
This wasn’t his demon lady. This was a puppet. A puppet that Aksai had crafted to perfection, used to manipulate his emotions and render him defenseless.
How could a puppet talk so naturally? How could it be used to deal with a Foundation Building Expert? Even Haitin’s major demonic sect didn’t have a puppet technique this advance.
This was something only Aksai had. And he made use of the puppet at the right time. He also made use of the seemingly useless memories to have a desired effect on the bald elder.
The elder’s mind struggled to comprehend the deception even as life ebbed from his body.
His breath came in short, ragged gasps as he stared wide-eyed at the puppet, whose blank, emotionless gaze revealed the truth too late.
‘Damn it. She… she doesn’t even look the same as her. Why… why did I fall for such an obvious trick?’
Blood poured from his mouth, and his vision blurred as darkness crept in.
All of this happened in the span of two or three seconds. The brutal efficiency of Aksai’s attack, combined with the lethal precision of his puppet, left no room for recovery. The bald elder was dead before his body crumpled to the ground.
Aksai withdrew his blood-soaked hand from the elder’s back, shaking off the gore with a look of mild disdain. He cast a glance at the scarecrow puppet, which stood still and emotionless as if awaiting further orders.
“Hmm. My puppets still have some use against ordinary Spirit cultivators. Even the current level of my Martial Arts are useful as long as I don’t have to deal with someone really talented.”
Aksai remarked, his tone casual as though the entire incident had been nothing more than an experiment.