Chapter 5159 — Playing Hard to Get

"You'd best learn a thing or two from this, kid." Lin Dongfang cast him a contemptuous glance, then looked down at Qin Yuanming on the ground. "What do you plan to do with this one?"

Qin Yuanming's heart quailed at the words; Wei Zhao's answer would decide life or death for him. He knew Lin Dongfang would never openly take his life over something like this—and Wei Zhao had just promised to spare him, besides—but if Wei Zhao demanded he do something impossible, it would still amount to a dead end in the end.

"Do with him? Send him back where he came from, of course. Otherwise all that effort would have been for nothing." Wei Zhao grinned.

"Back where he came from?" Qin Yuanming was taken aback.

"Ask yourself honestly—the Center worked hard to turn you from a respectable late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator into what you are now, a consummate Foundation Establishment master. Don't you think you owe them a proper repayment?" Wei Zhao said with amusement.

"That... how am I supposed to repay them?" Qin Yuanming was utterly baffled.

"Simple. Keep serving them, and make them feel they picked the right man." Wei Zhao said.

"As simple as that?" Qin Yuanming stared at Wei Zhao in disbelief. Even a fool could work out that the man who had put a gu parasite in him would never let him go on serving the Center so simply; his mind turned, and he understood. "Oh, I see. Martial-Uncle, you want me to be your inside man—is that it?"

"Wrong." Wei Zhao shook his head.

"Huh?" Qin Yuanming was dumbfounded for a moment, then said meekly, "You don't want me as an inside man, Martial-Uncle? Then what do you want me to do?"

Apart from acting as an inside man, he genuinely could not think of any reason Wei Zhao would let him live—and it was the best arrangement for him too. After all, if the Center ever learned he had turned traitor a second time, he would be as good as dead.

"To be precise, being an inside man is only the basic condition for keeping your life. If you want to win yourself some kind of future, you'll have to put real thought into it." Wei Zhao said flatly.

"A future? I still have a future?" Qin Yuanming was stunned. Reduced to this state, he felt that keeping his life at all was heaven smiling on him; he had not dared dream of more, and as for a future, he would not even have dared imagine it.

"Don't you want one? You think reaching consummate Foundation Establishment should be enough to satisfy you? Then forget it—pretend I never said anything." Wei Zhao said offhandedly.

"No, no, no—Martial-Uncle, you mustn't say that. This disciple may have no great ambitions, but I do still aspire to climb higher. If there is any use for me, Martial-Uncle, just give the order—this disciple will not shrink from a thousand deaths." Qin Yuanming said hastily.

"That's better to hear. All right then—go and lure Jing Yueming over. Bring him here. And remember, no one is to know." Wei Zhao said at once. This was his true purpose in deliberately sparing Qin Yuanming. A mere inside man was, as far as he was concerned, worthless—he already had a far more senior one in Brother Dafeng. Turning an enemy agent against his masters in secret—that was Qin Yuanming's greatest value.

"Jing Yueming? Who's Jing Yueming?" Qin Yuanming was startled. To keep things secret, the Center's people always recruited targets one on one, through single-line contact. Apart from one's handler, at most only Dr. Glasses and Brother Dafeng would ordinarily know; the others neither knew of one another nor met, so he had no idea who Jing Yueming was—and likewise, Jing Yueming had no idea who he was.

"A disciple of the Thousand Blades Sect, and at the same time one of those secretly in league with the Center." Wei Zhao said.

Although the number of Ancient Alliance experts under the Center's control already amounted to fully twenty, the targets he could turn were very limited. After all, Jing Taiyang's fifteen Foundation Establishment experts had been brainwashed by the Center's drugs; turning them would be far from easy. Apart from Qin Yuanming here, only four truly had any chance—namely Bing Wushuang, Xue Jianming, Yao Long, and Jing Yueming, all likewise threatened by the poison gas in their dantian.

Bing Wushuang and Xue Jianming were both Golden Core experts, not so easy to deal with. Of the rest, the easier targets were only Yao Long and Jing Yueming.

"Truly?" Qin Yuanming was delighted and nodded hurriedly. "Good—this disciple will set to work at once."

"Remember, you must take special care to avoid Jing Taiyang. He is the one who recruited Jing Yueming; if he finds out, you're finished. And the gu the old man planted in you is no simple thing—no one under heaven but him can undo it. If you harbor the slightest disloyal thought, you're finished too." Wei Zhao said, watching him.

"This disciple understands!" Qin Yuanming was full of confidence. He had a distant relative in the Thousand Blades Sect, and had visited it before, knowing many people there. He might not know anyone called Jing Taiyang or Jing Yueming, but luring a single man over should not be difficult.

Watching Qin Yuanming's departing figure, Lin Dongfang suddenly said, "You're really so at ease letting him go alone?"

"What else can I do—I can't very well go with him, can I?" Wei Zhao smiled indifferently. "The boy's no fool, and he clings to life and dreads death—the perfect man for this sort of job. If nothing goes wrong, all the better. If something does, then it's a warning shot across the bow—just the thing to make the Center's lot pull in their horns a little."

"Heh, you really do know how to comfort yourself, kid." Lin Dongfang laughed.

Half a day later, Qin Yuanming returned, with Jing Yueming following behind him.

"Out with it—what secret mission is this, that you bring me to your North Island Cangwu Sect's little island and even avoid Jing Taiyang?" Seeing they were heading further and further into the wilds, Jing Yueming could not help asking.

Jing Taiyang was his handler, and they were moreover cousins; there was no ordinary reason to keep even Jing Taiyang in the dark. But since Qin Yuanming knew Dr. Glasses and the rest with such precision, that proved he really was one of their own—only, what on earth was this secret mission?

"You'll know when we get there." Qin Yuanming said without turning his head.

"Hold on!" Jing Yueming suddenly stopped in his tracks and eyed Qin Yuanming warily. "Just who are you? What is your purpose in bringing me here on purpose?"

"You're still doubting my identity at a time like this?" Qin Yuanming turned to look at him in disbelief, then went on striding forward with an air of indifference. "If you're suspicious, feel free to turn back now—no one will stop you. Only, when the higher-ups ask about it later, don't blame me for telling them the plain truth."

This was a textbook case of playing hard to get. They were now a single step from their destination, and any sign of eagerness at this point would easily give him away. Though this was North Island Cangwu Sect territory, and from the moment Jing Yueming set foot on the little island he was doomed to have no way out, Qin Yuanming well knew that Wei Zhao wanted everything carried out quietly, without anyone the wiser—otherwise, if others learned of it, his mission would count as a failure. (To be continued.)