To sit as an equal with a Holy Master, one would need to reach at least the third level of the Saint realm.
An Ling'er didn't believe Yang Kai could pull that off. She figured he was just a brash young man shooting his mouth off.
"Just watch." Yang Kai chuckled, his face brimming with confidence.
"You really won't reconsider?"
"No need." Yang Kai shook his head. "Though I will say, the way you pick your Holy Master is awfully careless. The master of a major power shouldn't be decided so casually."
"It's not careless at all!" An Ling'er shot back, a little heated. "The cultivation method we practice is fundamentally tied to finding the Holy Master. If there's a suitable candidate within a certain range, we Holy Maidens can sense them. That kind of person is the best fit to become Holy Master. Your situation falls under a different selection method. If we absolutely can't find someone through the first approach, the Holy Land has to step in and seek out talented young people, then use an infusion process to see if they can comprehend the Holy Land's divine techniques… Today's events may have been an accident, but you did pass my test and qualify to enter the Holy Land. Mm, your performance was especially outstanding — you're very well qualified!"
Yang Kai scoffed. "And you can guarantee that someone chosen this way will be fiercely loyal to your Holy Land, without a shred of ulterior motives?"
"I can!" An Ling'er nodded solemnly. "Once he enters the Holy Land, he'll change his mind."
Yang Kai narrowed his eyes. He didn't fully understand the inner workings, but he guessed the Nine Heavens Holy Land had some special method of brainwashing whoever they selected.
"Alright, enough about that." Yang Kai had no desire to dig any deeper into the Holy Land's secrets — the more he knew, the worse off he'd be. As he spoke, a burst of exquisite energy suddenly erupted from his spiritual soul body. Before An Ling'er could react, it enveloped her completely.
"What are you doing?" An Ling'er's face changed. They'd been talking just fine, and now she found herself unable to move. His Divine Sense was far more powerful than she'd estimated. The energy wrapping around her spiritual soul body carried a scorching heat.
Yang Kai looked her up and down, his gaze flickering with a complex light, and gave a slight nod. "Mm. By my usual inclinations, I ought to kill you to tie up loose ends."
"Kill me?" An Ling'er blanched. "Because you think you know too much?"
"That's part of it," Yang Kai admitted candidly. "I know this much. If you walk out of here alive, I'd bet my life your Nine Heavens Holy Land won't let me off. Either you drag me back to be your Holy Master, or you kill me outright to keep your secrets safe. Neither outcome is one I want."
"Why are you so paranoid?" An Ling'er frowned, gazing at him reproachfully. "I simply won't tell anyone about today. And don't forget — I saved your life before. You can't bite the hand that fed you."
"Don't bring that up." Yang Kai pursed his lips. "Truth is, I wasn't sure what to do with you. If I really killed you, I'd feel guilty for the rest of my life — might even develop some kind of heart demon over it. But if I bring you back out, I can't relax either."
Hearing this, An Ling'er's tense expression eased noticeably. She asked softly, "So do you know what to do now?"
"Yep!" Yang Kai grinned and reached out a large hand toward her spiritual soul body.
An Ling'er's face went pale with horror. She tried to struggle, but couldn't move a muscle.
But just before that hand touched her, it suddenly pulled back.
An irresistible wave of suction surged from his palm. An Ling'er's vision blurred, and her spiritual soul body crumpled weakly, drained of all strength.
Stubbornly, she raised her head and fixed Yang Kai with a look of pure hatred, through gritted teeth: "So you comprehended more than two divine techniques!"
"Sorry about that — it was actually three!" Yang Kai flashed a grin. "This one's called Heaven's Pull, right?"
An Ling'er pressed her red lips together and said nothing.
"Mysterious Heaven Sword, Dark Heaven Lock, Heaven's Pull…" Yang Kai murmured to himself. "Your Nine Heavens Holy Land's divine techniques really are something. Convenient and practical."
"Convenient? I spent over a decade of bitter cultivation to comprehend these!" An Ling'er bristled at his casual evaluation.
Yang Kai paid her no mind, focusing instead on the delicate wisp of spiritual energy in his hand — a fragment of soul he'd peeled away from An Ling'er's spiritual body. Shrunken ten-million-fold, a tiny version of her sat cross-legged in his palm, small and delicate, serene and solemn, perfectly still.
This was the imprint of An Ling'er's soul!
With this imprint in hand, Yang Kai could control her life and death at will.
"Just to be safe, I'll be keeping your imprint. Hopefully, once we get out of here, we'll go our separate ways and never cross paths again. Mm, and the day I can sit as an equal with your Holy Master, I'll come to your Nine Heavens Holy Land and return this imprint to you." As he spoke, Yang Kai absorbed her imprint into his own spiritual soul body.
An Ling'er glared at him, fuming, powerless to resist.
Though she was also proficient in Heaven's Pull, her Divine Sense was weaker than Yang Kai's. Even if she wanted to fight back, she couldn't.
This man was beyond exasperating. She'd made him an incredibly favorable offer, and not only had he refused, he'd found a way to control her.