Changqing was not in a hurry to tell Luo Hongyan his thoughts, but instead pondered how to best use this information to his advantage.
He suddenly thought of a crab shedding its shell on Earth.
"No matter how hard a crab's shell is, it will be incredibly fragile when it sheds."
Liu Lu and Luo Hongyan were like shedding crabs; Liu Lu was the old shell, and Luo Hongyan was the new flesh.
He was the one trying to catch the crab but was afraid of being pinched.
He had two choices: first, to not wait for the crab to finish shedding and kill it while it was at its weakest.
The second was to wait until the crab had finished shedding, and its new shell was still soft, then seize the Moment to kill it.
Before being knocked unconscious by Liu Lu, he personally saw that madwoman Liu Lu swallow the colorful jade token into her stomach.
That jade token was, in all likelihood, the legendary Hundred Flowers Token.
This also made him determined that if he wanted to get the Hundred Flowers Token and leave this place, stealing was definitely not an option.
There was only one way: snatching food from the tiger's mouth, which meant killing Liu Lu.
He could choose to cooperate with Luo Hongyan, who was proficient in Refining Method.
He could have Luo Hongyan devise a method, and he would tamper with the Possession technique he was translating for Liu Lu, causing Liu Lu to die during the Soul Exchange.
Of course, he could also choose not to cooperate with Luo Hongyan and instead cooperate with Rose, one of the Four Guardians.
This female demon, Rose, had the lowest loyalty to Liu Lu but a deep obsession with the position of Sect Master of the Hehuan Sect.
In his previous life, when he was a Mortal, he cooperated with Rose. This woman seemed to have no interest in sexual cultivation and replenishment. Her only flaw was her opportunism.
In his previous life, to help Rose become the Sect Master, he designed a plot to poison the immortal seeds of the other Protectors. When the plan was on the verge of exposure, Rose unhesitatingly betrayed him, trying to clear herself completely.
But her strength was considerable, with a Cultivation of eight turns in a Moment, which should be able to steadily suppress Luo Hongyan.
He could completely allow Liu Lu to complete the Possession of Luo Hongyan, and then, together with Rose, kill for the token. Rose would get her wish and ascend to the Sect Master's throne, and he would simply leave.
Before weighing the pros and cons and making a choice, Changqing did not plan to tell Luo Hongyan about Liu Lu's attempt at Possession.
Besides himself, he trusted no one. What if Luo Hongyan wasn't a female demon but a human? What if she was sincere in cooperating with him? What if her beauty was outstanding? To him, she was merely a chess piece that could be discarded at any Moment.
Seeing that Changqing had asked a series of questions but hadn't come to a conclusion, Luo Hongyan grew a little anxious.
"Do you have a conscience, you guy? There isn't even half a Healer cultivator in the entire Hehuan Sect. If those human seeds get injured or sick, those who can be cured will heal themselves, and those who can't will be taken by them for Alchemy."
"I'm the only one in the entire Hehuan Sect who understands medicine. If I hadn't saved you, you would have died long ago, and you show no gratitude at all."
"You and I have the same goal. If you don't cooperate with me, do you think you can do it alone?"
Heh, Changqing sneered inwardly.
It sounded good, but in reality, it was just mutual utilization. If Luo Hongyan hadn't wanted to know Liu Lu's secrets from him, she probably wouldn't have gone to such lengths to save him.
Changqing was not an ungrateful scoundrel. Regardless of her motives, Luo Hongyan saving him was indeed a genuine act of kindness.
But special times call for special measures. Now, he could barely protect himself with the slightest carelessness, so he naturally had no spare capacity to repay such an impure, purposeful kindness.
"Why are you so anxious? Since we both want to escape, of course we can cooperate. But you must first tell me, besides teaching her Refining Method all these years, what else has Liu Lu made you do?"
"That's what I wanted to say," Luo Hongyan said seriously, "You must have noticed, right? The Wen Character Branch used by the female demons in this cave, including those who mistakenly entered, is different from the Wen Character Branch you and I use."
"These years, besides learning Refining Method from me, Liu Lu would pick one or two characters every day and ask me what they meant."
"At first, I didn't think much of it, but over time, I guessed she must have an untranslatable book in her Possession. But she didn't want me to know the contents of the book, so she scrambled the Wen Character Branch within it, asking me to teach her one or two characters each day, hoping to translate it herself."
"So later, all the characters I taught her were wrong. I have a premonition that if I finish translating that book, I will lose my usefulness to her."
Changqing understood, finally realizing where the annotations in that book came from. It seemed Liu Lu had written them herself.
This Luo Hongyan was clever. If she had truly honestly translated for Liu Lu, she might not have lived to this day.
"So when you saw the characters on my token, you realized I also knew those characters, and you were worried I would help Liu Lu translate that book?"
Luo Hongyan rolled her eyes at Changqing.
"I'm not that foolish. Since Liu Lu still had me save you, it proves you haven't told her anything."
With that, she looked at Liu Lu.
"But since she can personally guard us, it means she doesn't want you and me to communicate, proving that you already know the content of that book, and Liu Lu is worried that I also know."
After Luo Hongyan finished speaking, she looked seriously into Changqing's eyes.
Through the thick mask, Changqing saw the girl's firm and sincere gaze.
"She is our common enemy. Shouldn't we make what she doesn't want to happen, happen even more?"
"So, what is the content of that book? Only if you tell me, do we have a chance to win."
Changqing no longer hesitated, nodding, "Indeed, cooperating with you gives us a greater chance of winning."
"I can tell you, that book is called Soul Exchange and Body Seizure."
......
"So, everything Liu Lu has done all these years has been for the sake of Possessing me?"
"Nine times out of ten, that's the case. She hasn't acted all these years, so she must still be missing something."
Changqing's deduction was well-reasoned and without any exaggeration. He had expected Luo Hongyan to be surprised or even fearful upon hearing this news, but she was unexpectedly calm, instead analyzing the situation with Changqing.
"This Evil Path technique is unheard of, and its execution method is very complicated. She definitely can't translate it completely with just the ambiguous characters I taught her. Moreover, according to your statement, performing this technique requires a special Soul Shifting Spirit. This Imperial Spirit is extremely rare, and even I don't know the Refining Method. The Refining Method recorded in the book must also be very complex. With Liu Lu's half-baked Refining Method skills, she definitely hasn't refined the Soul Shifting Spirit yet. I think what she's missing are these two points."
"I have a plan. If I tell Liu Lu that to perform this Soul Exchange and Body Seizure technique, she needs some special Cultivation Technique, do you have any Evil Path Cultivation Technique that can cause Qi Deviation after cultivation?"
"How would I have such things? I'm not some Evil Path Cultivator," Luo Hongyan said helplessly.
"However, I do have other methods. I'm good at Refining Method. If I can use some special Imperial Spirit to enter Liu Lu's body, combined with a special Refining Method, it can cause a chain reaction during the refining of the Soul Shifting Spirit, making the Imperial Spirit within her body explode."
"That's a good method. Give me the specific method, and we'll give her a powerful one."
"There's still one problem: even if we do kill Liu Lu, how should we deal with her Four Guardians? The two of us are no match for them."
Changqing smiled disdainfully.
"Liu Lu went through so much trouble just to Possess you, but she doesn't recognize a single character in that book."
"She's like a blind person, and I am her eyes. If I tell her to go east, she wouldn't dare go west. Even if I tell her to jump into a pit of fire, she would have to meekly comply."
......
