(Elder Feng POV)
I looked down at the slime core I held before letting out a long sigh.
What a waste.
To think the slime I had picked up and slowly trained to be my secret tool would end up meeting such an end…
Well, I guess it's to be expected seeing who the opponent is. I would have been surprised if Master Lin actually got killed by something like this when quite a number of others have already tried assassinating him in the past.
Somehow, all of those attempts were stopped even before reaching him by some unknown group of people which I am unable to find out who they were to this day. My guess is a group of trained Practitioners within Heaven Sect itself dedicated to protecting Master Lin.
I originally wanted the slime to assassinate the Sect Leader of Nirvanic Gate Sect. She had once turned her nose at me just because one of her disciples bested mine during the Sect Showcase Festival, trying to push her 'women are superior' thing on me.
Hmph… If the slime could get close to her and then murder her, that Sect would have fallen into chaos with the girls blaming each other and I can swoop in and claim the the women for myself as their saviour.
But that damned woman just had to send the slime to Master Lin as a peace offering and I only came to know it after the decision for the merger had been made.
However, that also gave me another idea.
The slime is now the closest any assassin has ever gotten to Master Lin. If she can somehow kill him, no, just wounding him was enough, she can then take the fall for it as a member of the Nirvanic Gate Sect and bring the entire Sect down.
Heaven Sect will definitely call out the Nirvanic Gate Sect for blood and she won't be able to defend herself against it, seeing the slime was her Sect member after all and she even sent her here.
That would definitely ruin her life.
Of course to make sure no suspicion lands on me, I became a target of the assassination as well.
But life didn't go my way.
Master Lin managed to defend himself from the attack and even revealed the existence of his God pill to me, something that I had never thought possible before.
The antidote I had prepared as an incentive was also rendered useless too.
At least the slime told me they had directed the suspicion on the servants, so the situation was still salvageable.
Though the next few assassination attempts failed as well, I was informed my initial plan of using copies of his disciples did not work as intended. Thus my new idea of using their camping trip to drug Master Lin's disciples and use them against him instead.
The slime should then make its way back here and try to kill me and depending on the success of the plan, either plant a body double of herself to simulate her defeat in case of success or wound me in case of failure.
And once again, Master Lin had to thwart my plans with the inscription he had set up to protect me.
I had thought it was merely a trap inscription which would allow me to 'kill' the slime when she was caught in it but it had doubled as a barrier to protect and confine me within the house.
I couldn't even get out to 'kill' her even if I wanted to and had no idea what was going on outside even when I heard agonised screaming.
I was hoping that Master Lin might have killed her himself… But he came back telling me he had captured her instead and was going to interrogate her.
The fact that she didn't kill herself meant she was prevented from doing it somehow, since that was usually the procedure in case of her capture.
Despite my best efforts to convince Master Lin to give her to me to interrogate instead, Master Lin was adamant about doing it himself since his disciples were involved.
I thought that meant he actually did kill his disciples to escape the trap but he started saying how he needed to return to his disciples which made little sense.
How did he actually manage to escape the trap?
Did he manage to dispel it?
That could be possible considering who he is.
But this did not change my current precarious situation.
If Master Lin manages to make the slime talk, then my involvement would be revealed and everything I had done so far would have fallen apart.
It seems like I have no choice but to get rid of her.
Such a waste indeed.
She has served me well over the decades, helping me get rid of all my competition by means of impersonation, assasination and even blackmail.
That was how I rose to this position and kept Phoenix Sect as one of the top few Sects before Master Lin appeared.
I admit I had thought of sending her to get rid of him in the beginning, but I thought it would be a better idea to keep him as an ally than an enemy at first.
Of course that mentality shifted a little when I witnessed his capabilities and realised how big of a threat he had become.
If I was given the chance to get rid of him, I would take it in a heartbeat.
His power has grown too great for one man to have. If he wished to, he could do anything he wanted and no one would be able to stop him. Such is the making of a tyrant and we definitely don't like tyrants.
But it seems like right now I'm paying for my insecurities.
After making sure Master Lin had left the courtyard, I took out the small chest that held the slime's slime core.
Unlocking it, I cracked it open to retrieve the small, blue orb that is the slime's heart.
Once I destroy this, Master Lin would return to find the slime dead and he would never suspect that it was me who did it.
I set the orb on the table and retrieved my knife, preparing to stab into it and end the slime's life.
Before I could, there was a loud crash coming from the courtyard.
I quickly threw the orb back into the chest and shut it, swiveling my head in the direction of the sound.
If I'm right, the sound came from the courtyard.
Worried that Master Lin had returned, I snuck to the door and took a peek outside, only to see my phoenix pecking at what seemed to be a broken stone vase.
Tch… Stupid bird must have toppled it. Made me anxious for nothing.
I went back to the chest and opened it, finding the orb still inside.
Without wasting any more time, I stabbed my knife into it, cleaving it in two.
The orb popped and burst into a puddle of water, an indication that the deed was done.
Just to be safe, I incinerated the box as well, leaving no trace of its existence.
Heh… Now I can sleep peacefully tonight.