More people, evidently, had already run out of time.
Those low-cultivation cultivators, the merchants watching the spectacle, the maids and stewards of Golden Treasure Pavilion—all of them turned red-eyed within only a few breaths after inhaling the black mist.
Their breathing quickened, and their body temperatures soared.
They began tearing at their own clothes.
Then they began tearing at the clothes of those around them.
"Ah—! What are you doing? Let go!" A maid screamed and struggled, but a cultivator who had already lost his mind grabbed her around the waist and slammed her onto a table.
"Hehehe... beauty..." Saliva streamed from the cultivator's mouth, his eyes so red they seemed ready to bleed.
Elsewhere, two merchants grappled with each other. They were not fighting over anything, but clawing at each other's collars, their eyes glazed and crazed.
In mere moments, their struggle turned into another kind of entanglement.
Throughout the hall came the sounds of clothes ripping, obscene panting, and the occasional scream or sob.
Those sounds blended together, swept along by the thick black mist, becoming a strange clamor that made one's scalp tingle.
The private rooms on the second floor did not escape either.
Tang Feng was the first to realize something was wrong—his reactions were swift, and he held his breath the instant the black mist spread.
He did not even have time to warn Xuanyuan Que. Instead, he struck open the window behind him with one palm and leaped out of Golden Treasure Pavilion like a swallow.
The moment he landed, he looked back.
Through the shattered window, he saw that the inside of Golden Treasure Pavilion had already fallen completely into chaos.
Tang Feng's mouth twitched. Without saying a word, he turned and left.
As for Xuanyuan Que in the private room, he had