Ghost Fang glanced at him. "What? Unconvinced?"
Liu Zi'an hurriedly said he wouldn't dare, but the disgruntled look on his face was plain for all to see.
Back in the day, he had fought to the death for the Human Race as well, been corrupted by the power of the Ink on the battlefield, and even severed a portion of his own Small World.
By the time he became an Ink Disciple, his Small World was naturally incomplete.
It took a full three hundred years after that, along with some merit earned on the battlefield, before Ghost Fang finally bestowed upon him a Xuanpin Spirit Fruit to repair his Small World.
Comparing his own past experience with the treatment Yang Kai was receiving now — one was heaven, the other earth. Liu Zi'an was naturally resentful, but when Ghost Fang asked, he didn't dare speak his mind outright.
Seeing the look on his face, Ghost Fang gave a soft snort. "You heard what Zhaku said earlier. This human is remarkably strong. If he weren't, the Domain Lord wouldn't hold him in such high regard. How can you compare to him?"
A flash of defiance crossed Liu Zi'an's face. "I'd have to fight him first to know that."
Ghost Fang said leisurely, "That is the Domain Lord's own Ink Disciple. If you actually did something to him, the Domain Lord might not let you off easy once he emerges from seclusion."
Liu Zi'an grinned viciously. "Rest assured, Master. If the opportunity arises, I'll only teach him a small lesson. It's not as if I'd take his life — I definitely won't put Master in a difficult position before the Domain Lord."
Ghost Fang nodded. "Good that you understand." He paused briefly in thought, then shook his head. "Still, it's best not to stir up unnecessary trouble. The Domain Lord may be healing inside the Ink Nest, but he will eventually emerge."
Liu Zi'an frowned. "So the Xuanpin Spirit Fruit is just going to him?"
Ghost Fang sneered. "The Domain Lord merely asked me to find a Xuanpin Spirit Fruit for him. When I find one is my business. As for whether I actually give it to him — that depends on whether he knows his place." He tapped lightly on the tabletop. "He'll probably come looking for you again. When that happens, you should know what to do."
"Rest assured, Master, I know exactly what to do." Liu Zi'an replied respectfully.
"Go." Ghost Fang waved his hand, and Liu Zi'an withdrew.
Inside the side hall, Yang Kai cultivated in silence. A full ten days or so passed, and still no Xuanpin Spirit Fruit arrived.
In theory, the Domain Lord's territory should have had every resource imaginable. When Yang Kai had returned here with Heiyuan, he had witnessed the prosperity of this place. The Xuanpin Spirit Fruit was precious, certainly, but the Ink Race's demand for it was far smaller than the Human Race's. There should have been some in reserve within the fortress at the very least.
Moreover, this had been a public order from Heiyuan, and Yang Kai had even asked Liu Zi'an to help inquire about it. By all rights, Ghost Fang should have delivered the Xuanpin Spirit Fruit by now.
Yet it was nowhere to be found. Yang Kai couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.
On top of that, his cultivation efficiency while refining the Open Heaven Pills during these days had been abysmally poor, nowhere near what it had been before. Under the current circumstances, he couldn't very well take out seventh-grade resources to refine openly, and he couldn't easily employ the various restriction-setting techniques either.
After much deliberation, Yang Kai decided to go find Ghost Fang himself and ask what was going on.
Stepping out of the side hall, he quickly spotted an Ink Race member hurrying along. This one's strength was modest — roughly equivalent to a Fifth-Order Open Heaven cultivator.
Yang Kai grabbed him by the arm. "Where is Lord Ghost Fang?"
The Ink Race member froze, looked Yang Kai up and down as if he had seen a ghost. After all, Ink Disciples had always held extremely low status among the Ink Race. Ordinarily, an Ink Disciple who encountered an Ink Race member would be meek and submissive. An Ink Disciple who grabbed someone and interrogated them like this was something he had never seen before.
But then he remembered that this human had been personally converted into an Ink Disciple by the Domain Lord himself, and his status wasn't quite the same as an ordinary Ink Disciple. He calmed down, swallowed his anger, and shook his head. "I don't know."
With that, he shook off Yang Kai's grip and walked away.
Yang Kai let out a helpless sigh and asked several more Ink Race members. Not a single one knew where Ghost Fang was — or perhaps they did know but simply wouldn't tell.
This made Yang Kai frown deeply.
If he couldn't find Ghost Fang, how was he supposed to ask about the Xuanpin Spirit Fruit?
Standing in place, lost in thought for a moment, Yang Kai decided he had no choice but to cast out his divine sense to probe the entire fortress.
His powerful divine sense surged outward like a tide, quickly triggering reactions from various points throughout the fortress.
There were quite a few Lord-level Ink Race members inside, and Yang Kai's brazen use of his divine sense to scan the premises naturally provoked fury among them.
However, Yang Kai retracted his sense almost immediately — before any of those Ink Race Lords could counterattack, he had already pulled back.
In that brief instant of perception, he had genuinely failed to detect Ghost Fang's aura. It seemed the Ink Race members he had questioned earlier hadn't been lying — they truly didn't know where Ghost Fang was.
After a brief moment of consideration, Yang Kai set off in a particular direction.
Soon, he arrived before a small courtyard. The courtyard was sealed with a restriction. Yang Kai flicked his finger lightly, sending out ripple after ripple of force.
Shortly after, the restriction deactivated and the courtyard gate swung open, revealing Liu Zi'an's furious face.
The fact that Yang Kai had found Liu Zi'an wasn't a blind guess. When he had swept the fortress with his divine sense moments ago, the restriction here had been triggered, and for one brief instant, Liu Zi'an's aura had been exposed — which was how Yang Kai had pinpointed his location.
"Brother Liu!" Yang Kai took a step back and clasped his fists in greeting.
Liu Zi'an's face was contorted with rage, and when he saw it was Yang Kai, his irritation flared. "It's you. I was wondering who had the audacity."