Li Yao smiled delightedly. "Exactly. Neither you nor I have a choice except to open our hearts and cooperate sincerely."
"Then, you have to help me take back the Seven Seas Grand Market and the control of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors first!"
Looking at his slightly clumsy body, Jin Yuyan sighed and said, "With my current appearance, it is impossible for me to fight those people in any way."
"No problem!"
Li Yao agreed readily. "Like I said just now, your wealth and my strength make us invincible!"
"Also, even though your performance was so clumsy just now, and you even made up such nonsense that was full of loopholes to bewitch me, I would rather believe that it was all a disguise. That you deliberately pretended to be shameless and incompetent to lower my vigilance."
Jin Yuyan looked at Li Yao. "Am I right?"
Li Yao: "… Of course, it was all a disguise. I didn't expect that you would see through it anyway!"
"You are obviously an unparalleled expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage, but you have concealed your magnificence, dominance, and dominance so flawlessly that you do not look like a superior at all. Instead, you have simulated the vibe of a shameless man so vividly. It is indicative of your computational ability!"
Jin Yuyan continued, "Since your computational ability is so high, you must've calculated that the two of us are not enough to fight Blackstar the Great and the four Kurfürsten at the same time. Then, let me boldly assume that you must have strong reinforcements outside and even a whole set of plans to defeat the enemy, right?"
"Of course I have strong reinforcements and plans. Of course, everything has been taken into consideration. However, plans alone cannot destroy the enemy. I still need your help. I need the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors to play a major role in the revival of the 'new Imperium'!"
Li Yao said, "However, we have to figure out what happened to you first and how you were tricked into this body by Qi Yuanbao and your wife. Also, what's the situation of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors right now? Which deacons might've been bribed by Qi Yuanbao and your wife to take Blackstar the Great's side, and which deacons' lives are tied to the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and they will never surrender? As the director, you must know the answers to those questions, right? "
Jin Yuyan was stunned for a long time. Scratching his rough face in disgust, he said coarsely, "The Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors has grown from a small business organization at the edge of the Imperium three hundred years ago to the largest business group in the entire Imperium today. of course, there was a lot of bloodshed on our rise. We even established and protected the business routes of Ten Thousand Sectors with violence...
"Among them, killers and assassins played an important role. The four most powerful assassin groups in the Imperium right now, namely Black Flag, Bloody Skull, Life Claimer, and Lamp of Death, are all deeply connected to the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors. They are sort of our peripheral organizations. The leaders of the four assassin groups, the super assassins known as the 'four gods of death', are also our partners. We have cooperated with each other for more than a hundred years and control a lot of branches under the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors. We know each other very well and trust each other very well.
"Of the 'four gods of death', the one that I trust most is Qi Yuanbao, the leader of 'Life Claimer' and nicknamed 'Hanged Man'."
"Wait —"
Li Yao was surprised. "Qi Yuanbao, a senior deacon of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, is' Hanged Man 'of the' four gods of death '? But I'm told that 'Life Claimer' is an assassin group made of spectral Cultivators, and 'Hanged Man' is one of the strongest spectral Cultivators in the Imperium!
"Was the bald man who tried to assassinate you with flying daggers outside of the Commodity Market not Qi Yuanbao?"
"No, he was Qi Yuanbao, one of the strongest spectral Cultivators in the Imperium."
Jin Yuyan explained, "That's exactly why he's terrifying. However awesome the regular spectral Cultivators are, they can only crawl into artificial bodies and control the iron bones to move. But Qi Yuanbao has practiced a weird secret art named 'Corpse Puppet Art'. He soaked and polished the fresh bodies that have just died in special drugs. After eighty-one days of refinement, the bodies are neither rotten nor stiff but as vivid as real people. They even have temperature and air, making them exactly like living people.
"His remaining soul, on the other hand, can hide inside the corpses and regard the real corpses as his' artificial body '. In such a way, he will be able to turn into anyone easily. He can appear and disappear unpredictably. It is impossible to guard against him.
"Except for me and my wife, few people knew his secret. Everybody was only concerned about the rigid mechanical bodies when they were wary of his assassination. It was often the case that he took advantage of their weakness and killed them by manipulating the fleshly bodies."
"Corpse Puppet Technique. In that case, the bald man who fought with me just now wasn't a living person at all, but a specially refined corpse?"
Li Yao felt that his head was dizzy. The universe was too vast and full of unorthodox arts. He did not know that there were such weird secret techniques.
If Qi Yuanbao could transform and escape among the countless bodies easily, his real combat ability could not be determined by his level.
"Yes, it was just a 'corpse puppet' that Qi Yuanbao often used. As for exactly how many similar corpse puppets he had secretly produced, I don't know."
Jin Yuyan sighed and said, "He was one of the five senior managers. His position in the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors was not much lower than mine. It was impossible for me to monitor his every move."
Deep in thought, Li Yao said, "The so-called 'Corpse Puppet' sounds like it involves the combination of the soul and the body. The secret techniques in this field are rather similar to the 'Soul Transfer Technique' that you mentioned just now. So to speak, it was also Qi Yuanbao who suggested that you transfer your soul to the body of this … strong woman?"
"Exactly."
Jin Yuyan said in frustration, "A month and a half ago, Qi Yuanbao came to me and told me that there was unquestionable evidence that the four Kurfürst families were planning a shocking assassination against me, and their trump card was the person closest to me. They had already bribed one of the 'four gods of death' who could stab me in the back at any moment!
"Qi Yuanbao was a senior manager of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors who was responsible for the armed forces and guards of the black market. He was responsible for my safety too. Naturally, I couldn't ignore his intelligence.
"Also, I've checked the intelligence through other channels. There was nothing wrong with it. All kinds of evidence suggested that the four Kurfürst families were indeed planning to assassinate me, and it was very likely that they had bribed one of the 'four gods of death' around me.
"The problem is that the four gods of death are all old men who have cooperated with me for almost a hundred years. They boast a lot of connections and resources in the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, and they have also raised a bunch of disciples who are adept at assassination. They are truly powerful and deeply rooted in the business world.
"Without clear evidence, it was impossible for me to accuse them. Not only would it dishearten the partners, but it would also raise their dissatisfaction. Wouldn't it be suicide to piss off a bunch of assassins for no good reason?
"However, if I left them alone, it would be a hidden problem all the time. Since the ancient times, you can be a thief for a thousand days, but you can never be on guard against a thief for a thousand days. If one of the 'gods of death' was really bribed by the four families and made up his mind to assassinate me, the other three 'gods of death' might not have been able to save me no matter how hard they tried.
"I was not a battle-type Immortal Cultivator. Being targeted by one of the best assassins of the Imperium certainly did not feel good at all. During that period of time, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown before the assassin surfaced.
"Seeing that I was so upset and panicked, Qi Yuanbao suggested to me that I use a stand-in to lure the enemy out and capture the assassin."
After hearing that, Li Yao nodded and said, "It's not unusual for a big shot like you to prepare ten stand-ins."
"Yes. I have seven stand-ins on standby at all times. They have all been modified by surgeries and mystic rays. I guarantee that they look exactly like me. Even their walking posture, their tone, and their habitual movements have all been trained. Sometimes, even I can't tell them apart."
Jin Yuyan said, "However, such stand-ins could only fool the common assassins at best. If it were the super assassins such as Black Flag King, Red Lady, Hanged Man, and Returner of the Dead Sea, who had cooperated with me for a hundred years, how could I fool them easily?
"No fake stand-ins could fool them, unless I modified my own body into a very special stand-in!
"Of course, it was highly risky, but if I could not find the traitor 'God of Death' as soon as possible, I would also be in great danger. After weighing the pros and cons, I accepted Qi Yuanbao's suggestion and performed the 'Soul Transfer Technique' with a loyal female bodyguard. My soul entered her shell, and her soul entered mine, making her the most perfect stand-in."
"Wait —"
Li Yao frowned and said, "You are too trusting. Do you not feel that the 'Soul Transfer Technique' is full of schemes? It is a taboo for a Cultivator to separate the soul from the body. Should anything go wrong at such a moment, it will be very easy for you to fail miserably. Do you trust Qi Yuanbao so much? "
"Even if I don't trust Qi Yuanbao, I at least trust my wife, Wuying Qinxin."
Jin Yuyan said gloomily, "The suggestion was made by Qi Yuanbao, but the 'Soul Transfer Technique' was implemented under the supervision of my wife. My wife shares the same origin as Qi Yuanbao. She is also a distinguished Meditation Healer adept at all kinds of secret arts in the field of soul training. Every procedure was supervised by her in person. What's there for me to doubt?"
"What should I say?"
Li Yao glanced at Jin Yuyan and hesitated for a long time before he finally said, "Not that I'm criticizing you, but although you are an invincible dominator in the business world, aren't you a bit too careless in your life? Your wife and Qi Yuanbao share the same origin. They are fellow disciples of the same sect, and they suddenly proposed such a scheme. Why were you not prepared for it at all? Why did you not consider the possibility that they conspired to kill you together? Did you really not notice anything unusual in your daily life? Did you not notice that they were always together, whispering and sneaking around? "
"What are you thinking exactly? Has Firefly really been corrupted by darkness for a thousand years, and the most distinguished Cultivators on board have become so filthy and filthy?"
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