Volume 3, Chapter 173 – Sisters from Different Parents

“Become… your person?” The black-haired country girl’s eyes instantly widened.

She stared blankly at Chi Xiyan before her, as if shocked by Chi Xiyan’s words.

“Sister Chi, what are you saying?”

While speaking, Lu Zhuxin gently extended her spiritual consciousness. She sensed resistance.

Sure enough, before Chi Xiyan spoke these words, she’d used a talisman to seal this place in advance.

Chi Xiyan was just as cautious as Lu Zhuxin thought.

She’d even used a seventh-order or higher advanced talisman.

With this level of high-grade talisman concealing them, experts below the Seventh Realm couldn’t detect what happened here.

Similarly, Yu Lizhi, confined within the talisman’s seal, couldn’t transmit any information to the outside world.

She couldn’t even call for help now. A mortal girl without cultivation was merely fish on a chopping block before Chi Xiyan.

However, this level of seal naturally had no effect on Lu Zhuxin, an Eighth Realm great demon.

Lu Zhuxin could forcibly shatter this barrier with her cultivation.

But right now, Lu Zhuxin hadn’t expected this girl to say something so shocking.

Of course, Lu Zhuxin, familiar with the setting, knew this proper girl definitely didn’t mean it that way.

This girl meant something else entirely.

From the result’s perspective, it made no difference to Lu Zhuxin.

This was exactly the opportunity she needed to get close to Chi Xiyan.

The Chi family’s eldest young lady wasn’t so easy to approach. If she couldn’t even get close, how could she win her over?

However, Lu Zhuxin hadn’t previously imagined things would progress more smoothly than expected. After all, in her original prediction, Chi Xiyan would only accept her after confirming Yu Lizhi’s bloodline.

Was Chi Xiyan making such a request now because she wanted to invest early?

Why?

Was it because she’d noticed the Chi family’s shadow guards? Or because Lu Zhuxin’s previous mad triggering of landmines had completely infuriated her, making her lose patience for further observation?

Of course, regardless of which reason, it made Lu Zhuxin’s conquest plan proceed exceptionally smoothly.

Lu Zhuxin laughed lightly in her heart.

She moistened her pale, dry lips. “Sister Chi… what do you… I don’t quite understand.”

Chi Xiyan took a small breath and said softly, “It’s exactly what it sounds like. I want you to follow me from now on and become my person.”

Chi Xiyan paused, then continued explaining, “I have something I must do, a goal I must achieve.”

Chi Xiyan lowered her eyes. “But… relying on myself alone would be very difficult. I need someone to help me.”

“Zhizhi, you’re different from others… You’re not from Beihe Commandery. Your background is clean and clear, with no connection to the Chi family, so you’re the most trustworthy candidate.”

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“This is… the content of the transaction I want to make with you.”

Chi Xiyan repeated, “Yes, this is just a transaction.”

“Transaction?” The black-haired country girl stared blankly at Chi Xiyan, murmuring, “Does someone as capable as Sister Chi also need… my help?”

“Mm.” Chi Xiyan gently rubbed between her brows. “Yes… Moreover, I need to tell you in advance that what I need to do is very dangerous… If you get involved, you might face the same danger as me…”

Bearing blood feuds and entanglements in wealthy family interests, she too was helpless.

But these things, she had no way to explain to the girl before her.

Nor could she explain to anyone.

“Mm…” Chi Xiyan stopped her words. She suddenly realized this wasn’t appropriate to say now, nor was it beneficial for business negotiations. So she changed her words. “I’m not trying to force you to decide. I just need to remind you of one more thing.”

“Your mother’s current state is very dangerous. Treatment needs to start as soon as possible.”

“Moreover…”

“In all of Beihe Commandery, physicians who can save your mother number only a few, and I’m one of them.”

“Zhizhi, you can think it over yourself before deciding whether to get involved in a wealthy family’s feuds.”

After Chi Xiyan finished speaking, she silently stepped back and waited for Yu Lizhi’s answer.

“Mm…” The black-haired country girl silently lowered her head.

Perhaps in her shallow understanding, she’d never known what so-called wealthy family feuds looked like. Could family members have conflicts and blood vengeance?

She also wasn’t clear how much bloodshed and turmoil lay behind the danger Chi Xiyan now solemnly emphasized.

But this simple girl from the countryside could understand one thing.

She had no choice.

Chi Xiyan seemed to give her many paths to choose from, but in reality, those were all choices Yu Lizhi couldn’t access.

Physicians who could treat Yu Lizhi’s mother numbered only a few in Beihe Commandery.

Never mind whether Yu Lizhi could find those physicians, just the medicinal materials and medical fees needed to treat her mother were already an astronomical sum Yu Lizhi couldn’t currently afford.

So while Yu Lizhi seemed to have choices, she actually had no room to choose at all.

Agreeing to Chi Xiyan was Yu Lizhi’s only way to save her mother.

Otherwise, not only would Yu Lizhi’s mother die, but Yu Lizhi herself would become a prostitute at Five Immortals House, unable to pay their debt.

“I have no choice… Sister Chi.” The black-haired country girl said.

Chi Xiyan frowned slightly. “Zhizhi, you’re not stupid. On the contrary, you’ve actually always been able to see your situation clearly. You’re just limited by your surrounding environment’s narrow horizons.”

“Sister Chi.” The black-haired girl pressed her lips together. She raised her head slightly, her gaze still full of earnestness. “As long as I agree to you, you can definitely cure my mother?”

For this simple, honest country girl, saving her mother had always been Yu Lizhi’s highest priority consideration.

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Chi Xiyan naturally understood this point. She frowned and thought for a moment. “Her condition is rather poor, but as long as medicines are sufficient, I probably have a sixty percent chance of making her fully recover. Even if she can’t be completely cured in the end, I have a ninety percent chance of preserving her life.”

“And the Chi family lacks only a place to use money and spirit stones. All resources needed to treat her can be advanced by me.”

The simple, honest country girl listened, then contemplated silently.

Sixty percent certainty actually wasn’t a particularly high probability.

Chi Xiyan’s phrasing had already beautified this probability.

If Yu Lizhi truly were just an ordinary girl who grew up in the countryside, perhaps she really would be deceived by Chi Xiyan’s way of putting it, thinking sixty percent was a very high probability.

Unfortunately, the character Yu Lizhi didn’t exist. She was just a character Lu Zhuxin fabricated.

Of course, Lu Zhuxin also didn’t care whether Chi Xiyan could save that old woman.

What she wanted was only to establish a connection with Chi Xiyan through this old woman.

If Chi Xiyan treated this old woman to the later stages, just when it looked like she could be completely cured, and then Lu Zhuxin secretly guided things so Chi Xiyan also felt one hundred percent confident about the cure, let down her guard and made promises to Yu Lizhi, then suddenly—bam!—the old woman died abruptly.

Given Yu Lizhi’s deep feelings for her mother, wouldn’t she then have justified grounds to cling to Chi Xiyan?

Thinking of this, a hint of determination surged on the black-haired country girl’s face. She straightened up seriously and said, “Sister Chi, I agree. I’m willing to help you. So please let me become your person!”

“Mm.” Chi Xiyan nodded.

She felt slightly relieved in her heart.

Persuading this girl was simpler than she’d imagined.

This girl had no choice. Right now, she only had this one path of agreeing to Chi Xiyan.

That Yu Lizhi could see the situation clearly sooner was also a good thing for Chi Xiyan.

However, if this girl truly was the Chi family’s legitimate daughter, would she hate Chi Xiyan after learning this truth?

But thinking carefully, why was Chi Xiyan considering this?

Did she need to consider so much?

Thinking of this, Chi Xiyan retrieved a dao contract from her storage space and placed it before Yu Lizhi.

As a merchant, Chi Xiyan naturally couldn’t entrust her trust to an ethereal promise, so she needed some external objects to guarantee this promise’s stability.

This was that talisman dao contract.

Lu Zhuxin saw the dao contract in Chi Xiyan’s hand and laughed darkly in her heart.

This girl’s preparations were really thorough. She’d even prepared a high-grade dao contract.

However, though Lu Zhuxin grumbled internally, she still asked with feigned doubt on her face, “Sister Chi, what is this?”

Chi Xiyan said, “This object is called a dao contract. It’s a seventh-order spiritual art talisman drawn by an Eighth Realm talisman master.”

“Those who write a contract on the dao contract cannot violate or betray the contract’s contents. Otherwise, they’ll be punished by the contract seal formed in the dao contract.”

“Their spirit and consciousness will be severed, their divine soul obliterated.”

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However, this object was only seventh-order at most and had little effect on Eighth Realm great cultivators.

So with Lu Zhuxin’s true cultivation level, she could completely ignore this dao contract’s binding force.

“Okay, Sister Chi.” The black-haired country girl nodded. “I’ll sign!”

“Mm.” Chi Xiyan responded lightly, using spiritual power to write several lines of terms on the dao contract.

After finishing, she handed the dao contract to Lu Zhuxin.

Lu Zhuxin’s gaze briefly swept over the contract.

Chi Xiyan hadn’t done anything tricky on the contract.

The contract clearly stated the terms both parties needed to observe.

Chi Xiyan must wholeheartedly treat Yu Lizhi’s mother, while Yu Lizhi must completely and unconditionally obey Chi Xiyan’s arrangements and orders, not betray, not harbor different intentions.

After Lu Zhuxin glanced at it, she couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

Don’t look at how this dao contract could only affect cultivators below the Eighth Realm, that wasn’t the surprising part. In reality, Eighth Realm cultivators were already rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns.

Such a dao contract was already extremely precious in itself.

To sign a contract with a mortal girl without much cultivation, where was the need for such a high-grade dao contract?

Chi Xiyan didn’t want to use a low-grade dao contract because she feared that once Yu Lizhi’s cultivation grew high, it would invalidate the dao contract? Wasn’t this thinking a bit too far ahead?

Just this dao contract’s value already far exceeded the value of the rare treasures needed to treat that old woman.

Chi Xiyan was actually so willing to part with it? Wasn’t she afraid Yu Lizhi wasn’t the Chi family’s legitimate daughter at all?

Lu Zhuxin pondered in her heart.

Right, Chi Xiyan was gambling. She planned to invest early.

At the same time, a high-grade dao contract could also effectively avoid others discovering the contract seal in one’s divine consciousness.

Moreover, if Yu Lizhi knew her identity as the Chi family’s legitimate daughter, then trying to trick her into signing a dao contract would probably not be easy.

But signing the dao contract early now, even if Yu Lizhi later learned Chi Xiyan was deceiving her, Yu Lizhi would have no way to resist Chi Xiyan anymore.

This was Chi Xiyan’s plan.

Lu Zhuxin laughed darkly in her heart.

Actually, according to Yu Lizhi’s character design, as long as Chi Xiyan truly saved her mother, with this grace of saving her mother, even if she knew Chi Xiyan was deceiving her, unless Chi Xiyan truly did something utterly wicked and universally condemned, Yu Lizhi wouldn’t harbor different intentions toward Chi Xiyan.

Why was Yu Lizhi’s character design like this? Because Song Shiyuan was such a person.

Back then, if Lu Zhuxin hadn’t painstakingly made Song Shiyuan discover Song Shixuan’s true face of betraying his clan and sword sect, otherwise Song Shiyuan wouldn’t have so easily broken with Song Shixuan.

Thinking of this, Lu Zhuxin hesitated no more. She readily signed her name on the dao contract Chi Xiyan prepared, then returned it to Chi Xiyan.

Seeing this, Chi Xiyan accepted the dao contract and also signed her name on it.

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At this point, the contract was formed. Those who violated the contract would receive the punishment of divine soul burning.

Lu Zhuxin could feel a small contract seal slowly forming in her mind.

After that contract seal took shape, it directly imprinted toward Lu Zhuxin’s sea of consciousness.

However, Lu Zhuxin’s sea of consciousness was different from others’.

Stars filled the sky, vast as the universe.

In the boundless dark sea of stars, this contract seal was as tiny as a candle flame.

If Lu Zhuxin hadn’t wrapped it with her spiritual consciousness in time, perhaps this tiny contract seal would have vanished in that cold, boundless darkness the instant it entered Lu Zhuxin’s sea of consciousness.

Only after being wrapped by Lu Zhuxin’s spiritual consciousness did this contract seal slowly settle down.

Chi Xiyan frowned slightly. She did indeed feel the connection established between herself and Yu Lizhi.

But just now, at the instant the contract seal formed, she vaguely felt that contract seal seemed to tremble.

This feeling was like the contract was about to shatter.

Had Yu Lizhi just signed the contract and already wanted to break it? That wasn’t right!

Chi Xiyan furrowed her brows.

But very quickly, that contract seal stabilized. Everything seemed completely normal.

As if the abnormality Chi Xiyan felt just now was only her illusion.

Was this really just her illusion?

Chi Xiyan felt somewhat puzzled.

“What’s wrong, Sister Chi?” The black-haired country girl raised her head at this moment.

She looked at Chi Xiyan with bright black eyes, her face full of pure innocence. “Does this mean we’ve successfully formed the contract?”

Looking at Yu Lizhi like this, Chi Xiyan found it somewhat amusing.

Right, a mortal girl without any cultivation. What ability did she have to do tricks on the contract?

Moreover, the contract had successfully formed, hadn’t it?

Through the contract seal, Chi Xiyan could clearly sense Yu Lizhi’s soul’s existence.

Weak, flickering, like a candle flame that could extinguish at any moment.

This was a mortal’s soul fire.

Chi Xiyan smiled lightly and said, “It’s nothing. The contract formed successfully.”

“I’m just somewhat emotional.”

“With this contract’s existence, from now on we’re sisters from different parents.”