"So what if I did?" Yang Kai frowned. Ma Liu and Jiang Sheng were both Open Heaven Realm cultivators, after all. Sending them to protect Yang Kai just because they were chasing after a single Fang Tai was a bit of overkill, and Yang Kai knew it well enough. The so-called protection likely carried just as much surveillance as anything else.
The man chuckled lightly. "Didn't you notice anything unusual when you killed that Fang Tai?"
"Unusual how?" Yang Kai grew more confused the more the man talked. With a hint of impatience, he said, "If there's something you want to say, Senior, please just say it directly."
"Let me show you something first." As he spoke, the man pinched a hand seal with one hand and slowly pressed his thumb down toward the space between Yang Kai's eyebrows. Yang Kai's instinct was to dodge, but the thought quickly followed that his life was already in this man's hands — if the other party truly intended to do something to him, there was no way to resist anyway. He might as well let it happen.
The next moment, the man's thumb pressed against Yang Kai's forehead. An invisible force surged through him, and Yang Kai's entire being felt as though it had gone weightless, his soul seemingly separating from his body. His field of vision stretched sharply backward.
The sensation was bizarre. He was clearly standing in place, yet his vision could see his own back. When he looked upward, Yang Kai's expression changed involuntarily — he could see a thin layer of dark mist clinging to the surface of his body, like clouds or fog shrouding his entire form.
Yang Kai stared in shock and uncertainty. He had never noticed anything like this before. It was clearly the work of the secret technique the man had just performed, allowing him to perceive things that were hidden.
The man let out a soft laugh and slowly withdrew his hand. Yang Kai immediately returned to his normal state. "What was that?" he asked in alarm, holding his hands up before his eyes. But he could no longer see anything. He swept his divine sense through his own body and found nothing wrong whatsoever, as if the dark mist had never existed at all. Yet what he had just seen was absolutely no illusion.
"That Fang Tai seems to have some kind of background," the man said with a light hum. "A powerful figure placed a restriction on him. Whoever kills him will trigger the restriction, leaving a mark on the killer's body. This mark is extremely well-concealed — unless your strength vastly exceeds that of the one who placed it, you'd never discover it. The only reason I knew about it is because I witnessed you kill Fang Tai with my own eyes."
"A restriction… a mark…" Yang Kai's jaw went slack.
The man chuckled darkly. "This means that in the future, if you ever appear before that powerful figure, he'll know you were the one who killed his junior. Do you think he'll let you off easily?" He paused, then continued, "For the Seven Auspicious Lands to kill a traitor, did they really need to go through all this trouble? And they had you do the killing. Think carefully about why that might be."
Yang Kai's expression shifted as a flurry of thoughts raced through his mind. Before long, he seized on the crux of the matter and asked, "The Seven Auspicious Lands already knew about the restriction that powerful figure placed on Fang Tai?"
The man let out a raspy laugh. "I never said that. But it's more likely than not. The Seven Auspicious Lands didn't want to provoke that powerful figure either, so they found a scapegoat — you — to kill Fang Tai. Once that was done, all they had to do was find a way to deal with you, and everything would be settled."
The realization hit Yang Kai like a bolt. He murmured, "No wonder…"
He had already harbored some doubts before. The Seven Auspicious Lands were covered by layer upon layer of formations — how could a mere menial servant like Fang Tai have escaped? He had assumed Du Rufeng was creating an opportunity for him to earn merit by deliberately letting Fang Tai go. Now it seemed that yes, letting him go had been deliberate, but not to give Yang Kai a chance to shine — rather, they simply didn't want Fang Tai to die within the Seven Auspicious Lands, lest someone trace it back to them later.
No wonder his promotion to Disciple of the Seven Auspicious Lands had come so easily. It wasn't that Du Rufeng appreciated him — he had been chosen as a sacrificial lamb.
He had no reason to doubt this man's words. From this person's perspective, he already held Yang Kai's life in his hands. There was no need to lie about something like this. Besides, what Yang Kai had just witnessed with his own eyes could not have been wrong.
Once he had pieced it all together, Yang Kai gritted his teeth in silent fury. Fine, Du Rufeng. The Crimson Sky Golden Flame had been collected thanks to his help, and in the end this was how he was repaid? All that prior favoritism and advancement had been nothing more than a facade.
Though he had no real sense of belonging to the Seven Auspicious Lands and felt no particular gratitude toward Du Rufeng, being used so blatantly still stoked a fire of anger in his chest.
He suddenly remembered that back in the Small World of Guardian Venerable Duan Hai, Fang Tai had produced a token, claiming it was something given to him by a senior from the Black River World. The restriction on Fang Tai must have been placed by that Black River World expert.
Though the cosmos was vast and he might never cross paths with that Black River World figure in the future, it was still better to be prepared. Who knew when a stroke of bad luck might put him right in that person's clutches? If that happened, he might not even understand how he had died. Cupping his fists, he asked, "Senior, how can this mark be removed?"
The man smiled. "Unless your strength surpasses that of the one who placed the restriction, there's no way to dispel it."
"Even you can't do it?"
"Setting aside whether I have the ability — even if I did, why would I bother helping you?"
Fair enough. He and this man had no personal connection. To put it bluntly, Yang Kai was essentially his subordinate now. Why would the man go out of his way to help remove the mark?
The man added, "But don't worry. As long as you help me achieve my revenge, I'll give you whatever you want."
Yang Kai clenched his jaw. "If he shows no mercy, I'll show no righteousness. In the future, whenever you have need of me, Senior, just say the word."
"Good!" The man burst into laughter. With the Heavenly Flying Black-Backed Centipede keeping Yang Kai in check, the man knew the younger man wouldn't dare harbor any treachery — but having Yang Kai willing to cooperate of his own volition was naturally even better. If not for that, why would he have bothered sharing all of this information in the first place?