Chapter 199 The Decoy
Jin was surprised by the sudden honesty of Yang Ling. Did she notice that Shu was collecting information on her so she decided to play the card of an honest businessman… or maybe she really wanted to start a partnership with Jin?
In spite of that, Shu did his job by transmitting the information to Jin as he continued with the dungeon instance. In addition, Ku Wai and Yang Ling were nevertheless closer to the true ending of this particular dungeon than anyone had ever been. Ku Wai had even understood the meaning of the 'Theatre' part in the title Music Theatre Dungeon instance.
Yang Ling was still sitting on the ground whilst holding onto the suitcase that Ku Wai had opened. She was so vulnerable and defenceless that she was almost begging to be a target and so Shu commanded Sandy to attack her. This time around though, Sandy looked at him and blasted her sand powers at Shu instead.
The blood contract on her back was not activated and Shu was surprised as he used his branches to fend off the sand blast. "Oh ho? You managed to deactivate it?" Shu was slightly irritated by the sudden development as Sandy walked towards Ku Wai and displayed her fighting stance to the other blood contracted monsters.
Ku Wai was surprised by Sandy as she grinned at him. "You have to thank your princess for planning it all." Both Ku Wai and Sandy looked at the back to see Yang Ling posing with a peace sign on her right hand and as she smiled deviously.
From the seemingly impenetrable barrier of roots and vines came Hui the One Eyed Panda. He was riding on the Great White Snake and there was someone else seated behind him. Ku Wai took a closer look and realised that this 'person' had the face of Yang Ling.
Only then did he realise what was happening and he started laughing at Yang Ling's ingenuity. "Princess, I cannot believe you actually used that despite the warnings from the Sect Head not to use it. No wonder I felt that you were dumber than usual… uhhhh…. No offence intended." Ku Wai spoke to the Yang Ling that was on the snake.
"The Sect Head destroyed me once, I will not let him take control of my life again. I am going to do what I want! I will use all of his resources if necessary so that I can carve a name for myself, so that my destiny will be in my own hands." the 'other' Yang Ling said as Hui helped her get down from the Great White Snake and brought her to the Yang Ling that was with Ku Wai.
As both the Yang Lings touched each other, they combined into one whole again. Yang Ling stretched her upper body a little before Hui carried her again. Not only were the monsters present taken aback, but even Jin was also flabbergasted by the current scene.
"What the heck?!" Jin could not comprehend the current scene. Shu was also confused as hell and demanded to know what was happening.
"I lost my cultivation… but that does not mean I lost my mana circuits." Yang Ling gave Shu a hint, and Shu then realised that what she had used was Western Magic. "I see, so I guess you have an Epic Level Mastery of Manipulation Magic," Shu spoke with great understanding, which made Yang Ling astonished by the level of knowledge that the ancient Treant held.
"You flatter me, I merely have an Intermediate Level Mastery of Manipulation Magic. I combined it with Intermediate Level Mastery of both Summoning and Psionic Magic to create this original magic of my own. I have yet to fully master it, but it seems to be working quite well at the moment." Yang Ling wanted to brag a little since it was her first time using it in the field.
Jin became really curious after hearing that conversation and immediately stopped eating his midnight snack to enter the Dungeon Maker. He pulled out the entire records of the current dungeon instance that Yang Ling was still in to see what he had missed.
To his surprise, during the dungeon instance, Yang Ling was already acting before the start of the fight against the Sand Witch. She suspected that Sandy was being manipulated by another person/monster or waiting to be manipulated by that person/monster based on her intuition when Hui introduced them to her. By then, she had already noticed that something was off.
Hence, she started casting her own Psionic magic as she let her own mind control Sandy, which allowed Sandy to fight against the mind control from the blood contract. Yang Ling knew that in order to break a mind control contract, she either had to destroy the source, which she now knew was the Ancient Treant or help the victim break out of it using his/her own will.
Unfortunately, she could not let the Treant know that. If he could manipulate one monster, why would he not manipulate the rest of the monsters? It meant that he was just waiting for the right time to do so. It was at this point that Yang Ling realised how ruthless the Treant was.
If the cultivators managed to kill Sandy, the other monsters would be in grief, making them easier targets to manipulate, and using a contract would cover the way he would mind control the monsters, hence making the cultivators assume that the contract was just a one off thing.
When the Treant managed to lure the cultivators into his own playing field where he had the home advantage, he would utilise his abilities to the fullest. Judging from the current scene, Shu did just that. Everything was going according to Yang Ling's predictions.
Hence, Yang Ling decided to make a decoy by summoning a transparent slime blob and utilising it to replicate herself via manipulation magic. By using psionic magic, she was able to transfer a part of her consciousness into the transformed slime decoy, allowing her to partially take control of it. Considering the fact that she was crippled, Ku Wai would not have noticed it at all.
"After many months of training, you finally look prettier than me…" Yang Ling said proudly in the playback as the decoy nodded her head in agreement. It was a pity that Ku Wai could not see the difference. An acceptable level of deception was required when making the features of the decoy. She remembered the first time she had made the slime blob replicate her features, there was nothing but a 🙂 on its face.
Yang Ling had to perfect her manipulation magic in her spare time but she did not regret it at all, especially since there were many times where she was needed in events as a 'special' guest but in actual fact, it was just to show the presence of Royal Zodiac Tiger Sect. Her father used her as a showpiece for minor events… and there were a lot of minor events.
With the decoy all ready, the slime blob threw Yang Ling into the tall grass on the other side of the road, where it was not being burnt by Mr Hot's flames, and of course, Yang Ling broke the fall with her psionic magic before she subsequently dragged the unconscious Hui and the Great White Snake away from the scene of battle with her psionic powers.
Once the truck had left and Sandy had her guard down, Yang Ling took the opportunity to cast a telekinesis hold onto Sandy. To her surprise, the Great White Snake was already awake and assisted Yang Ling with the hold. Sandy tried to retaliate but she had just reformed from her sand form, making her extremely vulnerable, so the Great White Snake had a major advantage against her.
"Ah Ah Ah! To think that my troupe members fell to that stupid tree." Hui woke up rubbing his head to ease the pain from the throw. "Thank you, my fellow guard, and you, little snake, for saving this old life of mine. I shall return the favour." Hui walked towards Sandy, who seemed agitated to see Hui. Despite this, she was also crying.
"I will release you from your pain." Hui removed his eyepatch, only for Yang Ling to see an empty void through that eye socket. Sandy's blood contract was forcibly removed as it was being absorbed into the void of the Panda's eye.
"I am sorry Manager Hui, I did not mean to hurt you." Sandy cried as the Great White Snake released its grip.
"It's okay, it's okay. Now… let's get back our other troupe members."