Aksai nodded to himself, pleased with the thoroughness of the cleanup.
His gaze shifted to Lini, who remained silent but watchful, her eyes flicking between Aksai and the puppets with a mix of wariness and shock.
“Well, that takes care of that,” Aksai said casually, as if they hadn’t just executed two enemies and erased all evidence of the act. He walked over to the severed heads, nudging one with his boot before looking back at Lini.
“Ready to disappear from the face of the Dadangar Subcontinent?” he asked, his tone light, almost conversational, as if this were just another routine task. In many ways, it was—for him, at least.
Aksai noticed the fear in Lini’s eyes as she stuttered, backing away instinctively. “What… what are you planning to do?” she asked, her voice trembling, unable to mask the terror building inside her.
Aksai tilted his head slightly, his expression calm and indifferent as he observed her. She had watched him kill their former teammates without batting an eye, and now the cold truth of her situation was dawning on her.
Even though she had assumed her status as a core disciple of a Core Formation Lord would protect her, that illusion shattered the moment she saw him mercilessly dispatch the bald elder and his ally.
“You were quite chatty a few minutes ago. Now you are short of words once again. Don’t you think that your nature is very flippant?” Aksai asked, almost conversationally, his voice soft but unsettlingly detached. He didn’t move any closer, yet his presence felt overwhelming.
Lini’s heart pounded in her chest as she desperately tried to step away. But her movement was abruptly halted as her foot pressed against something solid. Startled, she glanced behind her and found herself face-to-face with one of Aksai’s Sentient Scarecrow Puppets.
Its blank, unfeeling eyes stared down at her, making it clear there was no escape. Surrounded and with her cultivation base sealed, she had no means to retaliate.
She turned back to Aksai, her voice barely more than a whisper. “You… you’re going to kill me, aren’t you?”
Aksai raised an eyebrow at the question, a hint of amusement flashing across his face. “Kill you?” he repeated, as if the idea was absurd.
“If I wanted you dead, you’d already be lying next to those two.” He gestured casually toward the now headless corpses that had been reduced to ash and smoke by his puppets.
Lini’s body trembled. She had thought earlier that the Green Glory Lord would find her eventually, maybe even save her if things went south. But Aksai’s efficiency, the way he dispatched enemies with such cold precision, made her realize she had no control over the situation anymore.
“Don’t you know the deal I have with Haitin? It only talks about making you disappear, not killing you. Of course, Haitin doesn’t know that and you shouldn’t either,” Aksai continued, his eyes narrowing as he studied her, “I said those words for a reason. So that you and Haitin could assume some things for yourselves.”
Lini’s heart skipped a beat but she calmed down a bit. It seemed that Aksai was keen on killing her.
“Disappear?” She didn’t understand what he meant.
Initially, she had assumed Aksai would just take her to the Duya Forest, as they had initially planned, and hide her there until the Green Glory Lord found her. But now… she wasn’t so sure. After all, they were still quite far away from the Duya Forest.
Aksai took a step forward, and the puppets shifted slightly, tightening the circle around her. His movements were calm, measured.
“You think I’m going to take you to Duya Forest and hide you there? Then the arrangements of the Green Glory Lord would get triggered, right?” Aksai asked, as if he could read Lini’s mind like an open book.
Lini swallowed hard, her throat dry. That was what she had assumed, but now, with Aksai’s words, she wasn’t so sure anymore.
Her mind flashed to the layers of protection the Green Glory Lord had placed on her. She had thought she only needed to wait, to survive for a few days, and he would find her.
But now, standing in front of Aksai, who seemed unfazed by those layers of protection, she realized her escape might not be so simple. In fact, he had even guessed the nature of the arrangements placed by a Core Formation Lord.
Here is the revised version:
“I… I thought…” Lini began, but her voice faltered. She couldn’t finish the sentence, not with Aksai’s calm, almost bored expression making her question everything she had planned.
Aksai sighed softly.
“Look, you’re important for a lot of reasons, but don’t flatter yourself. I don’t need to kill you. What I need is to make sure you disappear in a way that no one—not even the Green Glory Lord—can trace you.”
He stepped closer, and the air around them grew heavier.
“Sometimes I wonder if Spirit cultivators avoid thinking straight because they’re allergic to it. Your fear of me doesn’t help you at all.
First of all, why would I kill you and create unnecessary trouble for myself? If I were to harm you, wouldn’t those arrangements trigger early? You’re a piece on the board, but if you disappear the right way, the game becomes much more interesting.
Secondly, I don’t have much time.”
Aksai snapped his fingers, and the ash from the incinerated bodies of his enemies began to swirl in the air. Two distinct masses formed, coalescing into two gray spheres that hovered in front of him.
With another snap of his fingers, his puppets vanished into thin air, disappearing as smoothly as they had appeared.
Lini didn’t have time to react. Before she could so much as flinch or ask another question, Aksai appeared right in front of her. His hand landed lightly on her shoulder, and in the blink of an eye, she too vanished, as if she had never been there in the first place.
Aksai stood alone now, the clearing silent except for the faint whisper of the wind through the trees. The scene was eerily peaceful, considering what had just transpired moments ago. He took a deep breath, savoring the tranquility.
Aksai then cast a few wood-element Spirit spells to doctor the battlefield some more. As a druid, it was easy for him to do a lot of things in a dense forest. His ability to make things as they were in a forest was unmatched across the Foundation Building realm.
“Some plans don’t even see the light of the day. I can only adapt as per my circumstances,” Aksai sighed as he thought to himself.
Sending Lini away to the Enchanted Everwood Farm hadn’t been part of his original plan—not yet, at least. He’d expected to bide his time, waiting for the sect elders sent by Haitin to leave him and Lini alone before he made his move.
The battle with the bald elder and his ally, though slightly troublesome, had actually worked in his favor. It forced his hand, sure, but in doing so, it allowed him to accelerate his plans. Aksai smiled at the thought.
He had to thank them for that, in a twisted way. Their interference had pushed things along quicker, and now, with Lini out of the picture for the time being, the path ahead seemed much clearer.
She, like Siya Solaris, had been a ticking time bomb—one that could have exploded at any moment, threatening his every move. But now that she was tucked away in the Enchanted Everwood Farm, that particular bomb was no longer visible.
No more hovering threat from the Green Glory Lord, no more constantly looking over his shoulder for potential retaliation from a Core Formation expert. He could operate freely, without the lingering shadow of consequences weighing him down.
Aksai glanced at the now-empty space where Lini had been and exhaled, his thoughts already shifting toward his next steps. “One problem dealt with, a few more to go,” he murmured to himself, satisfied with the way things had unfolded.
Aksai quickly stored the two gray spheres of ash in his storage ring, watching them vanish into space. His movements were swift and fluid, no time wasted.
The commotion from his recent battle with the bald elder and his ally still echoed in the back of his mind, even though the special array formation had kept it from being noticed by others.
Still, caution was his nature, and he didn’t like leaving loose ends or unnecessary risks.
With a thought, Aksai activated his Flash Steps and disappeared from the spot. The trees blurred past him as he zipped through the nameless forest, the air rushing by in a controlled blur.
Aksai wasn’t worried about pursuit—there was no one in the immediate area—but it was his principle to never linger too long in one place after a fight, especially when the fight had involved killing sect members of a major demonic sect.
A few hours later.
The Spirit farmer made his way through the forest, zig-zagging through dense patches of trees, until he found a small clearing, far from the original battle site.
This place was quiet, untouched by any conflict. A small stream ran nearby, trickling softly over smooth stones, and the faint rustle of wildlife could be heard in the distance.
It was remote enough to be safe, for now. This place was a good exit point for his cheat-like ability. He could enter the farm without any worries from here.