"Second option; I use this…"

Min Hong raised his hand as a mysterious and super, duper ancient seal appeared on his palm as everything within the female cultivator including the grey stake in her body instantly became wary of that seal…

​​

In fact the lady could even sense the activity within the wooden stake reduce significantly just from the presence of that seal…

"This is an 'Imperial Edict' one of the perks of my bloodline and it only ensures that anyone I enslave with it, though will retain every of their memories and mental faculties, but will always ensure that whatever their doing at any point in time, and anywhere, would always be with my best interest in mind and my absolute benefit…"

Min Hong flatly explained the properties and effects of the 'Imperial Edict' seal with an expressionless face before moving to the final option;

"The third and last option; is that you agree to join my charade and shenanigan, before swearing a life and death oath by the heavens to loyally support us to the best of your abilities and to do everything from now henceforth for the benefit of both yours and our group and finally to never do anything that would harm the best interest of our group…"

Min Hong explained in one breath before adding;

"This specific option also comes with three perks that would benefit you greatly, but you will have to make your choice first before I tell them to you…"

Min Hong gave the ancient cultivator two sticks before adding a carrot that had lush vegetables at the bottom…

But the main reason why he decided not to tell the lady the benefits of joining them was because, if he did that, then he will never know if she agreed to joined them just for the benefits alone or because she truly wanted to join them…

Furthermore, if she had joined them because of the benefits alone, that meant she would not think twice before betraying them under the clause that her promised benefits wasn't granted or came too late…

Thus, he had pushed the ancient cultivator into a dead end with only three options causing the level of interest this lady had in him to level up another stage…

But despite all this, being as experienced, wise, and prideful as she was, she was never going to allow a mere mortal conquer her in such a manner…

As a result, the lady smirked sneeringly at Min Hong because apart from the three options Min Hong had given her, she still had a single personal option which could at least guarantee that she would neither have to choose any of the three options available nor will Min Hong be able to benefit from her in anyway, that is even after suffering a loss himself…

But Min Hong's next statement was like a red hot pin that effortlessly sank into the candle that was her heart, shattering every plans and the last option available to her, before bleeding every ounce of confidence, arrogance and pride that were left within it, before leaving her to succumb of her own will and accord… The statement was;

"And don't even think about detonating your soul as I have my way of making sure that is nothing but a pipe dream…

I have come this far already and I am not a person who wastes this much effort and time only to not get what I am after in the end…"

Min Hong foiled her plans as he exposed the option that was still giving her a hope of bargaining or negotiating her way out of death…

But as tragic as that sounded, it only upped her level of interest in this little mortal kid the more and even some part of her was starting to think that it might not be too bad to join and help the kid after all…

At least, that was better than completely vanishing from existence…

"You have three minutes and it starts now…"

Min Hong finished and went silent as he ignored her and rather began to look around this beautiful dimension within her soul…

It was a space which stretched out as far as his eye could see, but he could also see a massive tree in the distance which would seem to be her Dao Tree right at the center of this dimension, thus he felt like he should go take a look as he spoke;

"I will be back in time to receive your response…"

Min Hong left as he felt he might learn something from just studying the Dao Tree of a cultivator who was from the ancient era, thus he fleeted off into the distance whilst the lady simply followed behind whilst thinking about the three options she had been given…

Though, there was nothing to think about as such a decision was a total no-brainer, but she felt that she should at least not jump into her decision, so she would not appear desperate…

But the next thing that happened was what ended her thought process, as she simply stared at Min Hong in utter shock…

Min Hong who reached the area around the Dao Tree in less than three seconds felt some sort of repulsive barrier and aggressive reaction coming from the tree, but he simply scoffed sneeringly as he activated his Oblivion and Chaos Dao…

When the two Daos came into contact with this barrier, they simply crushed it like it was tofu, as the aggressive reaction coming from the Dao Tree vanished like a frightened ghost…

Min Hong then got into close proximity with the Dao Tree as the tree instinctively sent several attacks towards the intruder, but Min Hong simply unleashed his extremely violent and arrogant Chaos Dao as well as his Primus Dao which made short work of the attacks before he finally proceeded to the Dao Tree and touched it, immobilizing it with his Primus Dao…

When the Dao Tree finally calmed down and stopped its futile struggles, Min Hong finally sat cross-legged in front of it, hovering at a middle height to the massive 9000 feet tall tree, as he began to scrutinize and study it like he was some sort of treasure appraiser.

But all that wasn't what shocked this female ancient cultivator, but rather because, she had comprehended the Space Dao and had actually planted her Dao Tree within another plane within this same dimension...

Thus, it is nigh impossible for anyone else asides her to actually find her Dao Tree which she had used a Ninth Plane Law Level Space Dao to hide…

But in front of Min Hong, she might have as well not gone through the trouble because Min Hong saw the tree like he was the one who placed it in there…

But little did she know that even Min Hong wouldn't have seen it if not for the 'Eye of Infinite Dao' which was on another level of power compared to herself and her Daos in their primes…