Chapter 67: Negotiation Like This

"Is this method really a good idea?" Zhou Yan almost lost his footing. Junior Sister, did you even consider the ecological balance when you came up with this?!

"Then what else can we do?" Heaven knows Lin Jiuge only wanted to borrow a little demonic beast blood; she never intended to trigger a beast tide!

"Senior Brother, is there a formation we can use to trap them all together?" Lin Jiuge stared at the trees below, a new idea forming in her mind.

"That's quite difficult." Zhou Yan had never set up a formation of such a massive scale before.

"Senior Brother, how about we make use of the trees down below?" Lin Jiuge suggested.

"Let's give it a try. Junior Sister, stall them for a while." Zhou Yan felt that through this kind of intense sharpening, his mastery of array formations would skyrocket.

"Leave it to me." Lin Jiuge drew her golden sword, slashed forward, and a wave of demonic beasts collapsed to the ground. Then, she tossed a handful of talismans, causing major chaos among the horde.

"You're all ganging up on just one person, yet you're struggling this much. Do you really have to hold such a grudge?" Lin Jiuge shouted while throwing more talismans.

For the first time in his life, Zhou Yan felt that his Junior Sister was utterly infuriating, a sentiment echoed by the even more ferocious roars of the beasts.

As she dodged and weaved, Lin Jiuge realized she couldn't keep running forever. To capture the bandits, one must first capture their leader; if she could just beat those five bosses into submission, would the rest of them stop?

With this thought, Lin Jiuge put away her golden sword. With a pair of iron-hard fists, she charged straight at the black wolf, beating it until its howls changed pitch.

Riding firmly atop the black wolf, Lin Jiuge rained heavy punches down upon its head, making the beast feel as though there were an unusually high number of stars out tonight.

Ignoring what was happening behind her, she delivered one final blow that knocked the black wolf flat on its stomach, then rushed toward the red fox—and nearly threw up on the spot.

She quickly backed away. This fox was utterly filthy! Standing atop a tree canopy, Lin Jiuge took a deep breath. The stench was unbearable. Weren't demonic beasts supposed to have extremely keen senses? What was wrong with the beasts surrounding the red fox? Had their noses stopped working?

Lin Jiuge decided to run an experiment. Having comprehended the seed of the wind, she could sense the currents flowing through the air. Channeling the wind element, she blew the pungent odor radiating from the red fox straight up toward the gray eagle and winged tiger hovering in the sky. Hit by the sudden wave of stench, the two beasts nearly plummeted from the air.

Seeing this, Lin Jiuge realized the trick worked remarkably well. She no longer targeted just the red fox; all fox-type demonic beasts fell into her crosshairs, and low-cultivation flying beasts began dropping from the sky over a large area.

Lifting his gaze to witness this scene, the corners of Zhou Yan's mouth twitched violently. Did he even need to set up a formation anymore? With that thought, he began accelerating the layout process.

The demonic beasts had suffered heavy casualties; only the giant ape and the red fox retained any real combat capability.

Lin Jiuge didn't bother beating them up, choosing simply to contain them. After all, she simply could not tolerate body odor! Even using her sword on them felt like an insult to the blade.

"Junior Sister, lure them toward the tallest tree ahead," Zhou Yan sent his voice via telepathy.

Lin Jiuge drew her golden sword, slashed once at the beasts, and then darted swiftly to the crown of the tallest tree. Her face was pale, and she feigned breathlessness. Seeing this, the entire horde of demonic beasts lunged forward, letting out a chorus of enraged roars. They had never seen someone who bullied demonic beasts this badly, and now she was finally out of stamina!

With reddened eyes, the beasts rushed ahead—only for Lin Jiuge to suddenly vanish. Where did she go? Meanwhile, an invisible barrier sealed off this entire patch of heaven and earth, trapping them inside with no way out.

Trapped, the beasts let out a flurry of anxious roars laced with unease.

"Junior Sister, you're truly amazing." Zhou Yan genuinely admired Lin Jiuge. Neither of them noticed anything abnormal about themselves; despite exerting themselves for so long, they didn't need spirit stones to replenish their energy at all.

"Senior Brother is the brilliant one." This formation blended seamlessly with the surrounding environment, erected with incredible naturalness, and the positioning of the core eye was exceptionally clever.

"I was just inspired by Junior Sister," Zhou Yan said with a smile, feeling as though the surrounding foliage was losing its color.

"Me?" Lin Jiuge tried hard to recall, but she couldn't think of anything special she had done.

"That's right. That eagle must cherish the very last feather on top of its head," Zhou Yan said, eyeing the location of the formation's core and silently offering a moment of silence for the gray eagle.

"What do you think they'll do next?" Lin Jiuge asked with some curiosity.

"They should probably start by beating up the winged tiger that summoned them here in the first place," Zhou Yan guessed.

"How about we negotiate with them individually? We'll just take a little of their blood, and once we're safely away, we'll let them out," Lin Jiuge said, still holding onto her original plan.

"Besides, there are plenty of them with lower cultivation realms than the bosses. Once they get busy fighting over who gets to be the leader, they'll have even less time to care about us," Lin Jiuge continued to explain.

"We can give it a try." Even if it was rather dishonorable.

First, the two of them targeted the giant ape.

"Can we skip the ape? It's just too dirty," Lin Jiuge frowned. Even if she managed to collect its blood, she wouldn't dare use it.

"How about we make it take a bath first?" Zhou Yan was equally disgusted.

"Alright, toss it into the water to clean up, and then we'll negotiate. Senior Brother, you control the formation," Lin Jiuge agreed.

Suddenly, out of all the trapped beasts, the giant ape vanished.

Before the giant ape stood Lin Jiuge with a radiant smile. The ape roared and charged forward, but in a blink, Lin Jiuge appeared behind it and kicked it squarely into the lake.

Planting one foot firmly on the ape's head, Lin Jiuge forcefully shoved it underwater to soak.

"As a leader, you must lead by example and keep yourself clean. Raw strength isn't the only standard of evaluation; once you wash up and reveal your strong physique, potential mates will be falling over themselves to follow you," Lin Jiuge nagged while keeping it pinned down.

The giant ape seemed to understand her words and stopped struggling. So *that* was the reason it had no wife?

Judging that it was about enough, Lin Jiuge stepped back onto the shore. When the ape stood up, the water level of the lake had dropped by half.

Barely acceptable, though Lin Jiuge was still disgusted.

"Let's make a deal. I need your blood, but it won't threaten your life. After that, today's conflict ends here—after all, our only real grudge is with the winged tiger," Lin Jiuge stated.

"Of course, if you refuse, I can handle it myself. But if I draw too much and leave you drained, that's your own problem," she added with a sweet, threatening smile.

"Roar." The giant ape weighed its options and accepted Lin Jiuge's proposal. Nearby, the golden sword stood like a bodyguard, gleaming with a chilling light, and its intuition told it that Lin Jiuge wasn't bluffing. If it refused, it truly had no counter to Lin Jiuge's underhanded methods.

After taking the ape's blood, they used the same method to collect blood from the fire fox and the black wolf. The black wolf was the most cooperative of all; the mere sight of Lin Jiuge's face filled it with dread, so it obediently flattened itself on the ground and waited to give blood.

As for the winged tiger, they beat it up thoroughly first, knocked it flat, and took a slightly larger share of its blood. Finally, terrified that its head would end up completely bald, the gray eagle also agreed.

As for the lower-ranked demonic beasts, Lin Jiuge collected plenty of their blood as well, considering her younger sister still needed low-tier beast blood.

After sealing the final vial, the two traveled a great distance away before revealing the location of the formation's core. Every single demonic beast glared fiercely at the gray eagle, focusing intensely on the very last feather upon its head!

*Screeech—!*

The gray eagle's cry was filled with rage and despair. Those two humans were too wicked! Its final feather was gone; it was now a completely bald eagle. How could it ever hold its head high in front of other flying beasts again?!

"Junior Sister, the gray eagle will remember you."

"No, it will remember *us*."