A Villain Through and Through

"Steward... Zhou... please calm down..."

Chen Yang struggled up from the ground.

Enduring the pain of his broken bones, he tucked his tail between his legs and walked over to Zhou Xiaotian.

He forced a smile onto his face and spoke with utmost deference.

"Steward Zhou, I had no idea this Chen Yang, who looks so honest, would prove so unreliable and ruin this important pill-refining undertaking."

"Rest assured, Steward Zhou. I will give you a satisfactory answer."

"I'll send someone to bring Lin Shisan back right away."

"Even if he runs to the ends of the earth, I'll drag him back for you and nail him to the Pill Room's entrance."

"Even if the Grand Elder has me executed, I will give you a full accounting of this matter, Steward Zhou."

"The Grand Elder?"

Zhou Xiaotian's gaze abruptly sharpened.

He turned his right hand over, and an overwhelming tide of killing aura gathered in his palm.

Rumbling waves of murderous intent spread outward.

One reason he had still been unable to rise to the rank of elder was the Grand Elder's veto.

"How dare you toy with me! You deserve ten thousand deaths!"

"Spare me, Steward Zhou... spare me, Steward Zhou..."

Chen Yang and the four Servant Disciples dropped to their knees together, knocking their heads against the ground like pestles pounding garlic.

Zhou Xiaotian roared repeatedly in fury.

With a sweep of his sleeve, the killing aura in his palm became a howling tornado.

It swept straight toward Chen Yang, passed over the kneeling Servant Disciples, and surged out through the Pill Room's entrance.

The next moment, the tornado howled back in, carrying a person with it.

Who else could it have been but the ill-fated Lin Shisan?

"Squeak, squeak..."

"Crack, crack..."

Before Chen Yang and the others could react.

With a roar, the shadow of a dragon appeared within Zhou Xiaotian's tornado.

It swept Lin Shisan bodily into the air.

Shaking its head and lashing its tail, it whirled Lin Shisan around, on the verge of tearing him to shreds.

"This..."

The four menials and Chen Yang looked sick.

They stared dumbfounded at Lin Shisan, who could not even speak.

Protecting their own skins, they all hoped this walking plague, Lin Shisan, would not drag them down with him.

Just as before, none dared so much as let out a fart, much less speak a fair word for Lin Shisan.

When their lives were at stake, everyone instinctively protected themselves.

Lin Shisan's face was pale and his lips purple. His hands and feet struggled instinctively, and his eyes rolled back.

He was about to give out.

"Pfft... pfft..."

Two streams of black blood spurted simultaneously from the two sunken electrical wounds on Lin Shisan's chest.

Amid two sizzling arcs of electricity, the tornado finally swept Lin Shisan down to the ground.

He hit with a thud, bruising his face and sending blood streaming from his mouth and nose.

"You're Lin Shisan?"

A gust of wind swept past, and Zhou Xiaotian appeared beside Lin Shisan.

Divine sense as vast as the sea bore down on Lin Shisan, battering his own divine sense until it felt ready to explode.

"I... I..."

Lin Shisan struggled for a long time but still could not get any words out.

Only then did Chen Yang and the others see that Lin Shisan was already covered in wounds.

There was not a single uninjured spot on his body.

His hair stood on end in curls, and his clothes had been shredded into scraps.

Several wounds marked his face, and blood still gushed from the sunken injuries across his chest.

He was wretched and battered beyond description.

If not for the faint light remaining in his eyes, someone would probably have taken him for a corpse and thrown him out.

They even wondered dazedly how Lin Shisan had managed to reach the Pill Room with such severe injuries.

"Black Maple Bamboo... thunderwood..."

Zhou Xiaotian's eyes were sharp, and his methods sharper still.

Turning his right hand over, he stripped the Locator Ring straight off Lin Shisan's hand.

His divine sense swept inside.

The rumbling murderous intent slowly faded.

Inside the Locator Ring, he saw rows of stacked Black Maple Bamboo and thunderwood, cut into pieces.

The final pill-refining materials had arrived.

Zhou Xiaotian's crushing divine sense faded as well.

Only then did Lin Shisan, Chen Yang, and the others feel a weight lift from them, having snatched their lives back from the brink of death.

"Dead yet?"

Zhou Xiaotian looked at Lin Shisan, who had barely managed to stand. His words were as cold as ice in the depths of winter.

"...Not... dead... yet... I... Immortal... Lord... back... back..."

Lin Shisan practically forced the words out one at a time.

His heavy gasps and pounding heartbeat filled the gaps between them.

He still did not know that this was Steward Zhou of the Azure Cloud Lineage.

Instinctively, he assumed Zhou Xiaotian was Steward Zhao Xun, who was supposed to come refine pills that day.

"Heh, heh, heh... good, good, good..."

Grinning, Chen Yang stepped forward.

His eager face was practically pressed against Zhou Xiaotian's cold backside.

After serving as the Servant Steward for so long, he certainly knew how to trim his sails to the wind.

Seeing the situation, his thoughts raced. He found something to say and took the initiative to ease the awkward silence.

"Steward Zhou, good things are worth waiting for."

"Now that Lin Shisan has returned, bringing the Black Maple Bamboo and thunderwood with him."

"All the pill-refining materials are ready, so we can count this mission as completed."

"The auspicious hour is almost here. Shall we prepare to welcome Immortal Lord Zhao?"

"We cannot let Lin Shisan's mistake alone spoil your mood or affect Immortal Lord Zhao's important pill refining."

"Rest assured, Steward Zhao. I, Chen Yang, will handle this impartially. I certainly won't show favoritism or lighten the punishment out of regard for someone else, will I?"

Chen Yang's words flowed smoothly.

But they grated on Lin Shisan's ears.

What did he mean by one person's mistake, and what did he mean by regard for someone else?

Even the other four Servant Disciples felt unsettled by what they heard.

He was shifting all the blame onto Lin Shisan.

And dragging in the Grand Elder, who had brought Lin Shisan into the lineage, for good measure.

Part of the reason Zhou Xiaotian had been unable to become an elder was the Grand Elder's veto.

This was already a secret that had never been openly acknowledged.

Chen Yang's words only made things worse, as though Lin Shisan were not dying fast enough for him.

He had added fuel to the fire.

Sure enough.

After Chen Yang finished speaking, Zhao Xun's fading killing intent rippled outward once more.

It enveloped Lin Shisan, who had only just recovered a little, and his divine sense once again felt ready to explode.

"Squeak, squeak..."

Violent fluctuations appeared in the air.

The atmosphere turned icy and eerily oppressive.

No one dared speak. They even held their breath.

Only deep in the corners of Chen Yang's eyes was there an expression as unfathomable as an ocean abyss.

"Chen Yang, assign each of them their remaining tasks."

"Everything must happen precisely at the appointed auspicious hour, including opening the Pill Room and the Pill Furnace. There must not be the slightest deviation."

"I'll go welcome Immortal Lord Zhou."

"Remember, Immortal Lord Zhou is not as easy to talk to as I am."

"He is decisive and ruthless. Once angered, he will make blood flow in rivers. Your little lives will all hang on a single thought of his."

"Yes. Chen Yang will remember."

Chen Yang answered respectfully.

Inwardly, he cursed eighteen generations of Zhou Xiaotian's ancestors eighteen times over.

Zhou Xun is decisive and ruthless, and you're easy to talk to?

You nearly slammed me to death!

Zhou Xiaotian gave Lin Shisan one last look, then turned and left angrily with a sweep of his sleeve.

"You'll burn the wood and light the Pill Furnace in a moment."

"Burn the wood?"

Lin Shisan blurted out instinctively.

"What? You don't want to?"

Chen Yang stared at Lin Shisan with icy eyes.

"I'm willing."

Lin Shisan hurriedly answered with deference.

It was not that he did not want to. He simply did not know how.

His father had explained that the most important part of refining pills was controlling the heat.

If the heat was too high or too low, it would affect the pills' grade, or even determine whether the refinement failed altogether.

As a lowly menial who had only just arrived at the Azure Cloud Lineage, this would be his first time tending the fire. He truly feared that a moment's carelessness might affect the pill refining.

Judging by Zhou Xiaotian's towering rage and rumbling murderous intent earlier, any mistake later would mean his immediate, violent death on the spot.