Chapter 4759: A Choice of Life and Death
Song Qian could clearly sense the killing intent in Chu Feng’s eyes, so she hurriedly clarified, “Junior Chu Feng, that’s not what I mean. It’s just that…”
Before Song Qian could finish her words, Chu Feng had already butted right in and interject, “All is fine as long as you harbor no such intentions. Just know that if you d attempt to backstab me, regardless of whether you’re a woman or not, I won’t let you off easily.”
After saying his piece, Chu Feng turned to Li Muzhi and the others and said, “Senior Li, you all should enter first.”
Chu Feng didn’t enter the spirit formation gate first out of fear that Li Muzhi and the others would be done in by Zuoqiu Yanliang once they weren’t under his protection anymore.
Li Muzhi and the others also understood Chu Feng’s intention and made their way into the spirit formation gate.
“I’ve already placed the opportunity into your hands. If you don’t trust me and think that I intend to harm you, you’re more than welcomed not to enter the spirit formation gate and remain here. Of course, you won’t get anything good by remaining here, and you’ll have to wait till the energy in the formation fully dissipates before you’re able to leave the area.”
With those words, Chu Feng leaped into the spirit formation gate himself too.
Upon seeing this, the others also prepared to make their way into the spirit formation gate, not wanting to miss this opportunity.
“Halt your footsteps!”
However, a furious howl suddenly echoed at this moment, causing all of the disciples’ bodies to tremble in fear. The one who had just shouted was no other than Zuoqiu Yanliang.
The crowd turned to look at Zuoqiu Yanliang. His cheeks were still stained with tears, but his expression had already changed greatly from before. It made the crowd realize that Zuoqiu Yanliang’s earlier ‘mental breakdown’ might have been feigned,
However, this was no longer important in the current situation anymore. What was key here was that he had an incredibly glacial look on his face, and the crowd had no idea what he was planning in mind at the moment.
“Don’t worry, I won’t stop you from entering the Hidden Dragon Illusory Palace. This is a precious opportunity, and I have no intention of passing it by myself either. I just want to leave you with a warning—whose words do you think truly counts in the Hidden Dragon Martial Sect? If you feel that Chu Feng can cover you even after leaving this place, by all means, heed his words. Otherwise, listen to my instructions.”
Afterward, Zuoqiu Yanliang began delegating some tasks to them. He wanted them to frame Chu Feng and pin all of the blame on him. Everyone realized that Chu Feng’s earlier act of infusing the balls of light into them was indeed a wise decision on his part, for the shameless Zuoqiu Yanliang really started to coerce them to do his bidding.
However, this also put them in a spot too. They dared not to offend Zuoqiu Yanliang, but at the same time, their lives were grasped in Chu Feng’s hands too.
“Junior Song, feed this to all of our juniors here.”
Zuoqiu Yanliang took out a black bottle and handed it over to Song Qian.
Song Qian uncapped the bottle, and a black aura immediately gushed out. When the black aura finally diffused into the surroundings, all that was left were many small colorless pills.
Despite the ordinary appearance of the pills, the faces of the crowd paled in horror. They knew that this was a delayed poison that could take one’s life if one failed to consume the antidote within a given amount of time.
Chu Feng had already planted the power of the Hellking into their bodies to govern their life and death, and now Zuoqiu Yanliang wanted to feed them poison too.
Weren’t they doomed already?
“Senior Zuoqiu, Junior Chu Feng doesn’t seem to be a bad person. There’s really no need for you to do this.”
Knowing that they would be doomed if things continued proceeding down this direction, a female disciple began speaking up hesitantly. She didn’t want to consume the poison, so she was trying to persuade Zuoqiu Yanliang otherwise.
Boom!
But the next moment, Zuoqiu Yanliang suddenly thrust his palm forth. There was a dull thud, and the female disciple was reduced to bits.
This sight shocked all of the disciples. Even Song Qian had a tight frown on her forehead.
“Shouldn’t the rest of you know better as to what you should do now?” Zuoqiu Yanliang asked.
Song Qian quickly handed the pills into the hands of all of the disciples present. Most of these disciples were hesitant to swallow the pills, but with Zuoqiu Yanliang eyeing them with murderous intent, they had no other choice. Without any hesitation, they quickly swallowed the poisonous pills down.
“That’s more like it. Remember, Junior Luo’s death was caused by Chu Feng.”
The ‘Junior Luo’ Zuoqiu Yanliang spoke of naturally referred to the person whom he had just killed.
“Also, there’s no need for the rest of you to be afraid. The balls of light that just entered your body poses no threat to you at all. We’re all cultivators, so how could we possibly be oblivious when something life-threatening enters our bodies? Can you feel the ball of light anywhere in your body right now?
“Besides, Chu Feng’s strength was granted to him by the Hellking. Once he leaves this place and loses control of the Hellking, how could he possibly continue controlling the Hellking’s powers? The lot of you should at least understand the basic principles of world spiritist techniques, so you should know that what he said is impossible.
“Chu Feng’s threat is nothing more than a facade, but the poison I’ve fed you is no lie. However, as long as you do as I say, not only will I give you the antidote, but I’ll reward you for your service too.”
After saying his piece, Zuoqiu Yanliang leaped upward and began heading toward the spirit formation gate. However, right at the entrance of the spirit formation gate, he suddenly halted his footsteps and turned to Song Qian.
“Junior Song, return me my pill,” he said.
Song Qian quickly leaped over to Zuoqiu Yanliang’s side and passed the bottle filled with the colorless pills back to him. Zuoqiu Yanliang took out a pill before stowing the bottle into his robe.
“Junior Song, you sure are careless. You distributed the pills to all of your juniors, why didn’t you keep take one for yourself?” Zuoqiu Yanliang said.
“Senior Zuoqiu, do you not trust me too?”
Song Qian began panicking. There was no way she would be willing to consume that poisonous pill too.
“Junior Song, how could I possibly not trust you. It’s just that there’s something which Chu Feng said that I agreed deeply with. It’s better to be safe than sorry,” Zuoqiu Yanliang said.
“I won’t eat it. If you don’t trust me, you might as well just kill me.”
Song Qian turned around and began walking away.
“Junior Song, don’t be mad. How could I possibly bear to kill you?” Zuoqiu Yanliang said with a smile.
However, in the next instant, he suddenly rushed forth to grab Song Qian and pried open her mouth before forcing the pill in.
“Cough cough! You…”
Song Qian bared her teeth furiously. However, Zuoqiu Yanliang paid no heed to her anger and sneered disdainfully, “As long as you’re obedient, I’ll give the antidote to you and everyone else.”
After saying those words, he made his way into the Hidden Dragon Illusory Palace.
“Senior Song, what should we do?”
The other disciples looked at Song Qian worriedly, not knowing what they should do here.
In fact, they weren’t in a mood to cultivate at all. No matter what benefits they might obtain here, it looked like the only fate awaiting them was death.
“We can only make a gamble here. We can only stake our bets that Chu Feng is lying to us and that he doesn’t have the strength to kill us. That’s the only way we can live. Chu Feng’s claim might be false, but Zuoqiu Yanliang’s poison is the real deal.”
Song Qian hated Zuoqiu Yanliang more than anything right now, but she knew that she had no choice but to stand on his side if she wanted to survive.