After a long while, a bitter smile tugged at the corners of Ma Hongjun's mouth.
"Young Master Ning, I really had no other choice. If I had the time to cultivate step by step to the highest level, who would be willing to use a method that so obviously damages their own foundation to raise their cultivation?"
"You may not know this, but I may not have much longer to live. So while I'm still alive, I want to push my cultivation as far as I possibly can, just to experience what it feels like to be strong."
Ma Hongjun's half-complaining approach made the smile at the corners of Ning Bei's mouth deepen even further.
"There's nothing I don't know. Although your Martial Soul is powerful, because it mutated from a grass chicken, the flames within it contain many impurities. That has turned your cultivation into a death warrant. Once the Evil Fire fully erupts, you will lose your mind within endless Evil Fire, and even your life."
"Uh..."
Ma Hongjun stared at Ning Bei in front of him, dumbfounded. He clearly had not expected the other man to understand his Martial Soul so thoroughly. After all, in the past, only the people closest to him knew these things, such as Flender and Oscar.
Before the fatty could recover, Ning Bei immediately dropped another bombshell.
"When Tang San invited you to Slaughter Town, he must have lured you with the Cockscomb Phoenix Sunflower, right?"
"H-how did you know?"
Ma Hongjun could no longer maintain the fake smile on his face. His entire back was soaked with sweat. In front of Ning Bei, he had no secrets at all, and that feeling of being completely seen through made him uncomfortable all over.
"You don't need to worry about how I know.