But, the snake yao innocently blinked. "What did I do? Weren't I just talking to you here? How can I do something?" he asked.
Indeed, what the snake yao said is right. But, how can the boss dare to believe this yao?! The East's mystic arts have always been profound thus the West sailed to learn from their land. The boss also thinks so since he hired this snake yao.
But, the snake yao even dared to betray his land, his fellow yao, so how can he not betray them even if he already pledged his loyalty to them?
"No wonder that snakes were always used as a symbol of betrayal… you damn snake!" the boss shouted as he raised his gun and pointed it to the snake yao. He felt infuriated when he saw that more of his subordinates collapsed and remained unmoving. "You! Tell me what you did to… ack!" he coughed when he felt that something blocked his throat. His eyes widened in disbelief as he looked at the snake yao.
The boss can feel that his body froze, as if fallen under someone's control.
"You said that you have always wanted to learn from our land, so let me tell you something." The snake yao smiled as he approached closer to the boss of the monsters. "'don't use someone you don't trust and don't trust someone who you can't use'. Boss, you don't trust me, so why use me? You also can't use me, so why still keep me?" he asked as he sweetly smiled at the boss of the monsters.
The boss' face turned pale in horror. He wanted to scream but he can't, and his body won't listen to him.
"And yes, I am using you to deal with the yao… it is called 'borrowing someone else's knife to kill'." The snake yao said as he stopped right in front of the boss.
Then, under the boss' horrified gaze, the snake yao took out a familiar remote control. Before the boss could react, they all suddenly heard a loud explosion. It was the plane that didn't explode and just crashed in their base! The boss' pupils shrank and trembled as he watched the fire and smoke rose in the air.
"Oh, yes. Another thing – " the snake yao said when he remembered something.
The boss felt that his whole body started to ache and felt his insides and muscles churned painfully. His pale face turned red due to pain that he is unable to let out.
" – you don't trust me, so shouldn't have let me stay with you, much less enter your circle." The snake yao said and snapped his hands. "Your biggest mistake was to not send me in that plane." He told him.
Collectively, the monsters around them collapsed in a single motion and remained unmoving, as if they were ugly dolls. THUD! The boss also collapsed on the ground with his mouth foaming and trickling with blood.
"Ai." The snake yao sighed as he threw the remote control to the fire. "I forgot to say 'it was a pleasure working with you'." He said and shook his head, as if regretting. Then, he walked away, treading the white blanketing the ground.
The falling cold snow accompanied his lonesome, and fading, figure.
…
"A snake yao! It is Jie Yao!" Fei Xuli exclaimed when he recognized a face in the picture.
"Jie Yao…" Hao Baiyun frowned.
"Who is he?" Gu Xingfeng asked.
Xiao Hualing also perked her ears up. Yi Bing left, obviously not interested in the yao's affairs. But, Xiao Hualing has to report to Yi Bing thus she remained to listen.
"Former colleague. Assumed dead." Jing Yu answered with an emotionless face.
"'dead?!" Zhuo Xia exclaimed.
"En. We thought that he died." Fei Xuli sighed.
Everyone frowned. They can guess that there is something fishy going on here.
Hao Baiyun's expression looked complicated. He feels happy that his former subordinate is actually alive. But, now, he found out that he is actually a spy! He helplessly sighed, feeling his head aching.
"He was once my attendant. To be exact, he is my seventh attendant." He said.
The first and second attendants are Fei Xuli and Jing Yu, and the remaining four are Lan Tian, Zi Chen, Jin Chulin and Zheng Jian.
"What happened, then? Why did you think that he is dead?" Mu Li asked.
"Two years ago, he told me that he will be returning to his hometown because his parents called him back." Hao Baiyun answered. "But, he never came back. I sent some people to inquire about his situation, and even sent Fei Xuli and Jing Yu to look for him. But, his address given to me was fake." He sighed.
Gu Xingfeng frowned. "Did he start scheming two years ago?" he asked.
Hao Baiyun shook his head. "I don't know." He answered, feeling lost. "I can feel that he was sincere to me before, as well as towards Fei Xuli and the others. This is why I can't believe that he is actually alive, but then become a spy." He explained.
Silence fell upon them.
"But, he just went missing, right?" Mu Li spoke after a while. "Why did you assume that he is dead?" he asked.
"Even the mortal world would assume someone dead after two years." Gu Xingfeng said. "Especially he yao world… even just being missing in an hour, one would assume dead." He said.
Mu Li shut up. He now understood. The yao world is extremely more dangerous than the mortal world. If someone wanted to kill you, then they would kill you. They don't have a law, until they enter the human society. They are forced to abide by the humans' rules. But, if they are in their hometown, then, it would be an entirely different story.
"Sorry." He apologized.
"It's fine." Hao Baiyun sighed.
Another silence fell. Only the sound of the rain can be heard outside.
…
The next day, Huo Ling woke up. But, unfortunately, Hao Baiyun left with a great number of his subordinates to attack the enemies' base. He can only entrust the overseas matter with Fei Xuli and Jing Yu, his right-hand man and left-hand man. Zi Chen and Lan Tian have a keen sense of smell and sight, so they are the best ones to gather evidences. Meanwhile, Mu Li and Zhuo Xia are young men who looked like teenagers. They are a deceptive combo so they are the best people to use to trick people. Especially Xiao Hualing who is a beautiful lady.
Huo Ling sat up from the bed and felt his whole body is aching. He felt his whole body is heavy.
"Don't move." A cold voice spoke as soon as the door opened.
Huo Ling turned and he saw Yi Bing.
"I had to break Shen Taizi's Conferment Seal to extract your soul from your body in order to weaken your powers that had gone berserk after you first transformation to your grim reaper form stimulated your soul's powers." Yi Bing explained.
Huo Ling fell silent for a long time. "… so you froze my soul?" he asked.
Yi Bing didn't answer. His silence served as an affirmation. Huo Ling remembered that Yi Bing also froze his soul before when he was greatly stimulated after he found out that he was killed because of his former classmate's jealousy of him.
"It was a neglect on my duty." Yi Bing spoke. his voice pulled Huo Ling from his thoughts. "I should have considered the possibility of your soul being stimulated in your first transformation to your grim reaper form, as well as this world, where you are a pure nine-tailed fox, which is the strongest among the yao race." He explained.
Huo Ling didn't speak and just silently listened.
"After I froze your soul, and then thaw it when your powers were finally suppressed, I returned your soul to your body." Yi Bing continued. "I also have requested from Shen Taizi the authority to reseal your soul in your body by recreating the Conferment Seal." He told him.
"You can do that?" Huo Ling was surprised.
Yi Bing didn't answer. Huo Ling turned silent again. This is Yi Bing's secret, so he didn't continue asking him.
Yi Bing heaved an imperceptible sigh. "Now that your soul has returned to your body, you would feel sluggish for the time being and feel your body is heavy since your soul has to reintegrate with your body." He told him.
Huo Ling nodded in understanding. "Okay." He muttered.
Yi Bing stared at him. he was about to speak when his cellphone suddenly beeped. Someone has sent him a message. He looked at the sender before he fell silent. "You rest first." He told Huo Ling and then went outside without waiting for the other's response.
Just as the door closed, Yi Bing teleported. In just a second, he arrived in a vast expanse of white. Hao Baiyun and his subordinates are there. "Jiang Ce sent me a message.. The black market heard that one of the bosses died…" he told Hao Baiyun, who wore an ugly expression as they all looked at the corpses before them.