章 94: The Puppeteer

Chapter 94 – The Puppeteer

April 15th, Luo Yang.

Within Liu Ping's private hall, he was sitting on the main seat while he was looking at Wang Li, who was sitting by his side.

Her eyes dimmed as if she was a doll. She did not appear to be as lively as the previous months before. She gazed forward into the nothingness. No one knew what she was thinking.

Below the throne, one old man bowed to Liu Ping. Another old man, who was holding a staff, was standing in the middle of the room proudly. There was also another young woman behind the staff old man.

The one who bowed was Wang Yun. He was his helper and his advisor at the moment. The other old man dressed in white. He had white hair and a white long beard. His eyes were pure white, including his pupils.

"Lord Sage Zou Ci, thanks to your help, I managed to get rid of the curse of this woman. Thank you very much."

Liu Ping bowed his head down. His forehead almost touched the red wooden table in front of him.

"It's just a small trick. A mind control sorcery is nothing to me. Something like this can be overturned back to the user with a simple trick."

The white hair old man was Zou Ci, the sage who had mysteriously appeared before Liu Ping in January after he formed soul mate contract with Wang Li. The sage warned him about Wang Li's sorcery at that time, which gave Liu Ping an inspiration.

…

Back in last year, Liu Ping formed the contract with Wang Li in order to take advantage of the trading between partners. He wanted to buy skills and obtain more lifespan from the quests and the trade with Wang Li because he was banned from the system.

He had baited her with the promise of the status of the future Empress. He thought that she would throw her body for him, just like other women in his previous world did for his money and his father's influence.

She did everything he had ordered her to. But he had never thought that she did something on him in secret.

Liu Ping found out later that Wang Li did something to him after Zou Ci appeared and warned him about her. The sage warned the prince. "You were under a wicked spell by the prostitute, my prince."

After asking about his identity, he was astonished. Liu Ping was not stupid. He knew that this sage was a mysterious character in this late Han Era. He appeared before Sun Ce and Cao Cao to show off his magic and left untouched.

With him being here in front of Liu Ping, it was considered a blessing to him.

Zou Ci negotiated with the prince that he would help Liu Ping to counter the hypothesis trick on him. In exchange for that, He would take anything that Liu Ping was willing to give it to him.

Liu Ping agreed. However, he did not allow Zou Ci to break the spell right away. He wanted to use this opportunity to reap more benefits.

He let her continued to manipulate him for a while in order to make her lower her guard, even if it was vexing and it damaged his reputation. While he was at it, he cooked a plan for drawing in otherworlders, so she could steal their skills and all their lifespans.

Liu Ping did not want to recruit any reincarnator. He wanted to kill everyone he found. He was not a fool who would still trust a soul after realizing that even Wang Li betrayed him.

The flyers were just a bait for the greedy or stupid otherworlders. If anybody were to take the bait and followed the instruction of the pamphlets, the officials would arrest the person, chop off their four limbs, and throw him into jail. Afterward, Wang Li would drain all their life force and steal all skill from the victims.

She happily agreed. For months, she slaughtered many reincarnators who fell for the flyer advertisement that they had spread.

Although she kept lying to him that all otherworlders were female and she did not acquire any new skill, he left her be because he had another use for her when this plan ended.

Today, the number of the otherworlders reported in the system went down to 20, which Liu Ping believed that this should be enough as the rest should have noticed the drastic drop in the number of survivors and connected the story with the flyers and his schemes.

After Wang Li allowed him to temporary regain his reason, he ordered Zou Ci to break the spell right away.

Zou Ci did so and made her permanently fell into the hypothesized state instead. She was now under Liu Ping's control!

By turning her into a puppet, she could feed him an endless amount of lifespan and the skills she had stolen!

…

"As promised, I shall bestow you a noble status and 10,000 taels of gold. You shall be known as the Prefect of Mount Tianzhu. You and your sect will be protected by the imperial forces. The rewards will be delivered to you on your mountain."

"Very good! Very good! Then we shall excuse ourselves!"

The sage and the woman behind him disappeared into nothingness after he had spoken.

Wang Yun, who was sneaking a glance at Zou Ci, was in shock. Although he had seen many miracles made by the prince, he still could not get used to seeing another magic.

Seeing the art of the sage, Liu Ping chuckled.

"Zishi, you'd better get used to it. You'll probably witness more magic from me in the future."

He ignored Wang Yun's shock look and ordered Wang Li.

"Show me your current status."

Wang Li lifted her hand slowly, then a status menu appeared in front of Liu Ping.

…

*********************************

**Status**

Name: Wang Li

Age: 17

Lifespan: 716,020 Years

Shopping Pass: 3

*********************************

…

Wang Li had a shocking lifespan of 716,020 years and 20 other skills she was hoarding.

Liu Ping laughed as he looked at her status. Every lifespan she had could easily be stolen by him. All of her skills could also be copied by him.

He did not need the shop anymore. He would simply slowly take in her skill once a year. It might take times, but he could be assured that she would be a fine tool for him in the future.

'Now then. What should I take from you?'

Liu Ping pondered. There were many attractive skills she had. However, deep inside his heart, he was afraid that if he was too greedy and left her be, she might regain her sense in the future.

'No. I won't take your skill this year. I'll take all your lifespan. Without lifespan, you won't be able to cast any spell or any skill you have. I'll just leave you with 10 years to keep you alive until the end of the soulmate quest. After that, I can cancel the contract.'

"System, tell me how to void the contract without a penalty."

[If both sides agree to terminate the contract, you can do so without a penalty. In this case, the girl is under a mind control technique. You will face a penalty if you cancel the contract this way.]

"What's the penalty if I want to break this contract right now?"

[Your lifespan will be halved, and one random skill of yours will be deleted. But the current undergoing mission will remain on you, and the penalty for failing will slightly change.]

"That's it?"

[That's all the penalty you will receive.]

Liu Ping laughed. Cheating someone with a little to no repercussion was his favorite hobby. Losing half of his lifespan was nothing to him if he had half a million lifespan. Besides, he could use a portion of them to grind his necromancy EXP first before he broke the contract to minimize the loss.

"Thank you, system. I hate you. But you are the finest tool I have."

[… You're fudging welcome.]

"Oh, hey! Can you lift the ban, please? I didn't create those skills. Someone posted it on me. It wasn't my fault."

[… Complete the current mission first. And I'll think about it! Goodbye!]

The system terminated the connection and left Liu Ping hanging. He did not mind it. As the matter of fact, he was enjoying everything at the moment.

Wang Yun, who was quietly observing the prince, was puzzled why Liu Ping was talking to himself.

"Err, your highness?"

Liu Ping turned around to look at Wang Yun and laughed.

"Ah, Zishi. Don't pay attention to it. I was conversing with the deity. Anyway, the position of the next empress is vacant at the moment. What do you think about this?"

Liu Ping threw another bait to Wang Yun. He knew that this person was also ambitious.

In his history timeline, after Wang Yun overthrew Dong Zhuo, he did not flee Chang An. He attempted to become one of the keymen for Emperor Xian after the coup. However, he was killed by Li Jue and Guo Si as Wang Yun failed to subjugate the rest of Dong Zhuo's subordinates.

If Liu Ping's vision was right, Wang Yun would not miss this opportunity to offer his adopted daughter as a candidate for the new Empress.

Meanwhile, the eyes of Wang Yun sparkled. He saw the golden chance for his family and his future.

"Although it might sound absurd, I have an adopted daughter. She is still too young at the moment, but if your highness is willing. I can offer her as a concubine."

Liu Ping grinned. He pretended to be ignorant and continued asking.

"How old is she?"

"She's … still a child, your highness."

"Well, it's your daughter to begin with. I don't mind her age. But what is her name?"

"Her name is Diao Chan, your highness."