Chapter 354 - A Borrowed Identity and a Willing Accomplice

Chapter 354: Chapter 354 - A Borrowed Identity and a Willing Accomplice

Ning Shuang watched the prisoner for a moment before continuing.

"Our companion was always careful around me," she said. "He resented taking orders sometimes, and he wanted more than he was willing to admit. I knew what those intentions felt like."

Su Bai listened while she gathered the memory.

"That evening, someone else was looking through his eyes. He was deciding whether I would be useful."

The certainty in her voice came from something more immediate than the differences in his behavior.

What she encountered that evening carried an unfamiliar confidence, accompanied by an interest in her that made her skin tighten.

"So you suspected the takeover before he admitted it?"

"I was certain something had happened. When he asked the others to leave, I decided to find out what."

They had still been inside Jadeleaf City. Ning Shuang let the men go into the courtyard while she remained near the open doorway.

She watched the stranger follow them with his eyes, assessing each one before turning back toward her. Whatever he intended, she had no wish to make carrying it out convenient.

She asked him who he was and what he had done to their companion.

The question caught him unprepared.

He tried to dismiss it, but Ning Shuang continued watching him without pretending she had made a mistake.

Irritation sharpened behind his expression, followed by a sudden pressure against her spiritual sense.

Her shoulders stiffened beneath it. Then the force faltered, and the man’s fingers dug into his own knee.

"He tried to frighten me into obedience," she told Su Bai. "It worked for a moment. But he could not sustain it."

She had noticed the strain he tried to conceal afterward. His breathing became uneven, and a tremor passed through the hand resting against his leg.

Ning Shuang kept her expression respectful while paying close attention to what he wanted next. The anger remained, but so did a growing reluctance to force the matter.

"That was when he admitted borrowing the body," she continued. "He said his original one had been destroyed and an urgent matter had forced him to take shelter here. Apparently, I was fortunate enough to have discovered him before his enemies did."

Her mouth curved slightly.

"He wanted me to understand how fortunate I was."

Su Bai glanced toward the captive.

The man had turned being exposed into an opportunity to demand gratitude. He had also revealed enough weakness that Ning Shuang knew his confidence required assistance. Considering her account of the failed spiritual pressure, the damage seemed to extend beyond the body he struggled to control.

"He then claimed to be an elder of our sect," she said. "I asked how I should address him. He told me his identity concerned matters beyond my position."

"Did he offer anything you could verify?"

"He knew things he should not have known."

Her expression grew more serious.

The man had mentioned places used by the sect and procedures followed when disciples were sent outside.

He spoke with enough familiarity that she could not safely dismiss everything he said. More importantly, those details would have made his claim convincing to the others.

"They would have listened," she said. "If he offered a reward for restraining me, some might have acted before asking questions."

Su Bai remembered their enthusiastic praise while they stood around the prisoner.

They had accepted Ning Shuang’s authority once she gave them a clear explanation for the man in chains.

Someone else might have supplied an explanation that placed her there instead. She had understood the danger before allowing the conversation to continue.

"So I asked what assistance Senior required."

She spoke the title with a respectful softness that made Su Bai look at her.

Ning Shuang’s lips moved slightly in response. She had lowered her eyes that evening and asked whether helping him might improve her position inside the sect.

The stranger’s suspicion eased as he listened, and his interest in keeping her cooperative became much clearer.

"He needed blood essence and spiritual power," she said. "He thought the others were suitable. Taking enough from them would help him recover and settle into the body."

"He intended to consume them?"

"He began telling me which one to bring first."

Su Bai looked toward the unconscious men. Ning Shuang followed his gaze without concern. Their survival had depended on a private conversation none of them knew had taken place. She had regarded them as pieces she might need before the encounter ended.

"I asked whether their masters would cause trouble," she continued. "He said he would handle it."

"And you believed him?"

"I believed he wanted me to stop asking."

A faint smile appeared on Su Bai’s face.

The stranger had offered resources first, then promises of a better position once he recovered.

Ning Shuang encouraged him with questions about what she should prepare, allowing him to imagine that she was already working for his benefit. When she listened without interrupting, his satisfaction grew.

Eventually, he informed her that sufficient loyalty might earn her the honor of becoming his concubine.

Su Bai’s expression cooled.

Ning Shuang noticed and gave a quiet laugh.

"I thanked him. He seemed pleased."

She had continued paying attention to the intentions beneath those generous promises. His interest in her remained possessive and calculating, even as he spoke of keeping her close.

She could feel how little consideration he gave to what she might want. Once he recovered enough strength to stop requesting cooperation, her ability to refuse him would disappear.

"I had no intention of waiting until then," she said.

Jadeleaf City’s restrictions kept the man cautious while she arranged the next part. Consuming a cultivator’s blood essence inside its walls would draw attention.

He needed her to bring the group outside without giving them a reason to become suspicious. Ning Shuang agreed readily and suggested a secluded clearing along their previous route.

"He wanted them brought individually," she said. "The first one was supposed to have his circulation sealed before entering. He told me resistance would interfere with his recovery."

Su Bai glanced toward the chains.

"That saved you the trouble of guessing his intentions."

"By then, he thought I understood them perfectly."

She selected a disciple who had been complaining about his slow progress. He was eager enough to follow the promise of an inheritance and suspicious enough to become frightened if the opportunity began feeling wrong.

Ning Shuang told him their companion had returned with something connected to a senior’s guidance. If he behaved properly, he might be allowed to benefit.

Then she warned him to maintain control of his own circulation.

"I told him unfamiliar inheritances sometimes carried soul-stealing methods," she explained. "If anything felt wrong, he should call for me immediately."

"You warned him?"

"I needed him frightened enough to shout."

Su Bai paused before smiling.

She had allowed several others to hear the warning, giving them a reason to become interested in what would happen.

The stranger believed she was keeping them occupied while preparing his first offering.

Ning Shuang had instead made certain they would be listening for a disturbance. Their curiosity required very little encouragement once they thought someone else might receive a benefit before them.

They left Jadeleaf City yesterday.

By the time they reached the clearing, the man had become impatient.

Days spent controlling an uncooperative body had worn through much of his restraint, and Ning Shuang could sense his eagerness when she brought the selected disciple forward.

He demanded that she seal the man’s circulation. She asked him to begin explaining the guidance first so she could understand where the seals should be placed.

The disciple hesitated when ordered to kneel.

That hesitation irritated the stranger enough that he seized the man’s wrist himself.

Ning Shuang felt the satisfaction that followed and knew he expected her to finish the restraint. She stepped aside, leaving the disciple free to feel the first pull at his blood essence. The shout came almost immediately.

"The others arrived while he was still holding him," she said. "I asked him to release our companion and identify himself."

The man demanded obedience.

Ning Shuang requested his name, a command token, or something they could verify.

He refused while continuing to draw from the struggling disciple. The others could hear the man screaming that his blood was being taken.

Ning Shuang let their fear gather before accusing the stranger of taking over their companion to prey on the group.

Su Bai considered the scene.

"A genuine elder might have done the same thing."

"I know."

Her answer came without hesitation.

"But he had promised guidance, refused to identify himself, and begun draining someone they recognized. I was standing there telling them he was an infiltrator. He was telling them to help him restrain me."

She looked toward the unconscious men.

"They had to choose which order to follow."

The old teachings still held them tightly. They feared offending an elder and wanted to believe that obedience would be rewarded.

Ning Shuang had given them a way to preserve those beliefs while defending themselves. They could restrain an intruder under their leader’s orders and report that they had acted to protect the sect.

Accepting the stranger’s claim offered a much less attractive future.

She struck when his attention shifted toward them.

The body he occupied belonged to someone whose weaknesses Ning Shuang had observed during months of practice.

She attacked a familiar exposed junction, forcing his grip to loosen long enough for the disciple to tear himself free. Then she ordered the others to restrain the infiltrator. The man injured one of them while struggling, and the frightened hesitation around her hardened into anger.

"That helped," she said.

Su Bai looked at her.

"Afterward, they were quite willing to hear that he was a spy."

Once the chains were secured, Ning Shuang kept watching him. His breathing steadied whenever he tried to recover, and the confidence behind his anger gradually returned.

She had learned to interrupt the process before he could make use of it. Her companions enthusiastically treated the repeated beatings as part of the interrogation.

"Sometimes he pretended to remain unconscious," she added. "I could feel him waiting for me to come closer."

"That failed too?"

"He became too eager about what he intended to do once I did."

A quiet laugh escaped Su Bai. Her sensitivity had exposed the change before the stranger claimed an identity, helped her judge when he accepted her cooperation, and warned her whenever he believed he had recovered an advantage.

She had built the rest of the trap around the people available to her. The result remained chained against a tree while his would-be offerings praised her judgment.

"Were you never worried that he might truly be an elder?"

Ning Shuang’s hand moved toward her chest.

She checked the sleeping Gu before looking back at the prisoner. The familiar restraint that usually guarded such thoughts remained absent.

A smile spread across her face with a freedom Su Bai had rarely seen from her. He began to suspect the answer before she spoke.

"Then I would enjoy this even more."

Su Bai raised his eyebrows.

"I have wanted to settle a few things with those old monsters for years," she continued. "Usually, I have to wait until I am strong enough. If one arrives barely able to control his own hands and asks me to arrange everything for him, I should make good use of the opportunity."

Su Bai laughed properly this time.

Ning Shuang watched him with a faint warmth in her eyes, apparently pleased that he understood.

She had survived by learning when to lower her head, when to agree, and when another person’s weakness finally gave her room to act.

Her companions had become useful because their interests briefly aligned with hers. She felt no need to dress the matter in a kinder explanation.

When the laughter settled, Su Bai turned toward the prisoner again.

"There is something you should know about him."

Ning Shuang immediately became attentive.

"Several Void-Shattering demonic cultivators attacked my sect recently," Su Bai said. "One abandoned his body and escaped as a soul. I suspect you have been questioning the same man."

Her smile disappeared.