Boom!
Instantly, a blindingly bright emerald-green spiritual pattern burst forth on Yinzhi's forehead. The intricate lines spread out, finally settling into nine-layer leaf veins.
“One, two, three... nine?!”
“Wait, why are there nine layers?!”
Qimeng gasped, nearly slipping off her throne.
“Wasn't the Leaf Vein Ritual back then just Yinzhi cheating with the power of nature?!”
As the contract was established, a heavy spiritual weight pressed into her consciousness.
This was no private, exclusive vassal contract at all. At the other end of the thread of karma, it was connected to hundreds, even thousands of life fluctuations.
Those were... the entire Wood Elf race.
Qimeng's brain overloaded.
The scattered, discordant clues in her mind suddenly connected into a single line at this very moment.
“No... this isn't a one-on-one contract spell at all. It's a contract agreement between the Sacred Spirit and your entire race, isn't it?!”
Qimeng instantly bolted upright from her slacker posture, looking at Yinzhi in disbelief.
“The reason a Spirit Maiden is a Spirit Maiden is because you alone hold the spirit marks of the entire race. So you actually represent your entire kind! You were pulling a forced sale just now, forcibly binding me to your whole race!!”
“You played me! Your entire race played me?! What 'soft, cute, adorable Wood Elf loli'? If you cut them open, they're probably made of black magic stones through and through!!”
Facing Qimeng's frantic accusations, Yinzhi had now completely dropped her weak and helpless act.
She very elegantly adjusted her skirt, lightly tapped her heels, and returned an impeccable, textbook-perfect curtsy.
“My, you've finally figured it out.”
Yinzhi winked, her voice sweet.
“Actually, from the very moment we met, Yinzhi had already seen through everything. You are the great Sacred Spirit who can save our entire race.”
“Why do you sound like you read the script?! I didn't even know that myself, okay?!”
Qimeng began to ruffle her hair, feeling her blood pressure spiking.
“Come to think of it, you treated me so well from the moment we met, and then you went all out to defend me later... Was that all an act?!”
“Not entirely.”
Yinzhi tilted her head, launching a highly destructive, cute offensive.
“My initial favorable impression of you, my lord, was entirely built on the premise of you being the Great Spirit. After all, you are the fated Spirit Lord that Yinzhi has been searching for.”
“You big liar! I was feeling so good about myself, thinking I had conquered you with my supreme charm!”
Qimeng punched the air in impotent rage.
Yinzhi playfully stuck out her tongue.
“But you agreed to the contract yourself, my lord. In the Wood Elf tribe, you ate our food, took our things, and even made promises! You can't back out now!”
“I... I only did that because...!”
Qimeng almost choked on her breath, feeling like a naive victim who had fallen headfirst into a romance scam. She stared unblinkingly at the scheming loli before her.
“Since you saw through it so early on, why didn't you just tell me straight away??”
“Because according to the records, Great Spirits are all freedom-loving wanderers. Their rarity is on par with legendary-rank phantom beasts; they are practically impossible to find.”
Yinzhi put on an innocent little expression, tapping her index fingers together.
“If we were direct, we couldn't guarantee your reaction. What if you found it troublesome and just ran away? For the future of the Wood Elves, our Grand Elder said we had to cook the rice first—force the issue and make it a done deal!”
“Wait a minute! Just what kind of human books has your Grand Elder been reading?!”
“Ah, well, some strange vocabulary always gets mixed into our inherited memories.”
Yinzhi waved her small hand, smoothly ignoring the retort.
“In short, this is how things turned out. Rest assured, we are the ones responsible for offering tributes to you, so you won't have to support us! Whatever you need, our entire race will satisfy you~”
“Really? Fine, let me ask you then: when exactly did you start setting up this trap?”
“It started when we gifted you the high-grade black magic stone.”
Yinzhi puffed out her little chest, looking quite proud of herself.
“That magic stone was meant to help awaken your mana. Not only that, but while the Hundred-Fruit Brew at the gathering wasn't poison, it was a completely natural plant-based aperitif. The reason you developed such a powerful appetite was entirely due to the combined effect of the mana and the alcohol. So, you can't entirely blame yourself for being greedy, my lord~”
“Fine, fine, fine... You little rascal! Come to think of it, how could a high-grade item like a black magic stone be casually given to an outsider?! And that alcohol too—I was prepared to make an enemy of your entire race just to commit that outrageous act, and now you're telling me it was all a trap you deliberately set?!”
Yinzhi smiled beams, immediately delivering a follow-up combo:
“Yes, to ensure you could smoothly consume the six-layer spirit, the Chief even deliberately withdrew the elite guards from the scene. Actually, I was hiding in the shadows watching you the entire time... Wow, seeing you swallow the Sacred Spirit with my own eyes, my fingers were trembling with excitement! After all, only the Great Sacred Spirit could devour a six-layer spirit!”
“No wonder! I felt something was off back then, but unfortunately, I didn't think too deeply about it!”
Qimeng felt like she had taken another arrow to the knee.
Yinzhi smiled and continued to reveal the shocking inside story.
“If it were only those four at the gathering, you might have just thought it was an accident. The Grand Elder was worried that wouldn't make you feel a perfect sense of guilt.”
“So, to make you feel an even deeper sense of guilt and forge a stronger karmic bond with us, we immediately launched the second step of our plan! I led the way into the underground treasury and deliberately let you discover the final two little Sacred Spirits. This way, the karma between you and our race was locked in. Hehe, the Grand Elder calls this 'playing hard to get.'”
“Madmen... you long-lived races are absolutely out of your minds!”
Qimeng slumped against her armrest, feeling like she was about to turn into wood again.
“What if I were actually a cold-blooded, ruthless magical beast, and I wiped your entire race out after taking your things?”
“You wouldn't, because you are Lady Qimeng.”
Yinzhi's eyes suddenly lit up, and she spoke with absolute certainty.
“The moment you told me in the Wood Elf Incubation Room not to disappoint that 'idiot mother'—from that very moment, I knew we had won this game.”
“But what if I just refused to cooperate with you today? If I never took the initiative to form that spirit mark contract with you, wouldn't it be a stalemate??”
“It wouldn't have mattered. Even before you cooperated, the Grand Elders' trap was already complete.”
Yinzhi flashed a triumphant smile.
“We did so much before with only one core purpose: to get you to willingly participate in the Leaf Vein Ritual. The moment you stood on that ritual platform and nodded, your fate and the fate of our entire race were intertwined.”
“But even now, I don't feel like some Sacred Spirit! I'm definitely not that kind of pure lifeform, am I?!” Qimeng said, going crazy.
“Ah, you mean that.”
Yinzhi tilted her head playfully.
“The so-called 'pure lifeform' is just a common misconception spread by the outside world. Six-layer leaf veins are the limit for those Sacred Spirits, which only establishes a six-layer alliance with us—essentially us hiring the Sacred Spirit. But your nine-layer leaf veins, my lord, are a completely different story.”
“Wait a minute, then the Leaf Vein Ritual back then... wasn't that a fake test?!” Qimeng couldn't help but interrupt her.
“How could it be? The power of nature back then was only used to activate the illusion of the Leaf Vein Alliance. It couldn't interfere with the measurement results at all.”
Yinzhi raised an index finger and wagged it.
Rate on N.U.
