One Against Fifty!

Feng Zhuo watched Bai Wuxia's righteous indignation with a cold gaze, finding it utterly absurd.

Every one of these people seemed to have fallen under an evil spell.

Su Ruanruan had.

Chu Yunfei had.

And now even Bai Wuxia was acting just as inexplicably.

"Feng Zhuo, you asked why I dressed like this today..."

Tears glistened in Su Ruanruan's eyes, and her voice choked. "If you hadn't colluded with outsiders to poison me, why would I need to cover my face with a veil now?!"

"I truly don't know how I offended you, senior brother, that I should suffer such humiliation at your hands! I let the previous times pass, but this time... this time...!"

Her body trembled slightly with anger.

Yet in the eyes of others, Su Ruanruan was like a frail willow in the wind, weak and helpless.

Seeing this, Xuanfeng immediately stepped forward.

Having just received a Spirit-Cleansing Pill, he was ready to obey Su Ruanruan's every word. "Why waste your breath on him, junior sister Ruanruan?! He's disregarding human lives just because he has his Lineage's prestige behind him! Today, we'll carry out justice on heaven's behalf!"

"Carry out justice on heaven's behalf!"

"Carry out justice on heaven's behalf!"

More than fifty disciples shouted in unison, their voices making a mighty uproar.

Someone even threatened him at the top of their voice. "Feng Zhuo! No matter how many Law Treasures you have, can you really fight fifty people alone? If you know what's good for you, surrender without a fight!"

Feng Zhuo stood with his hands behind his back, his red robes snapping in the wind.

He looked around at the crowd, a mocking smile curving his lips. "What a fine display of 'carrying out justice on heaven's behalf.'"

His voice was unhurried, yet it brought the clamoring crowd to a hush.

"Junior sister Su says I poisoned her, but has she ever produced any concrete evidence?"

"Junior brother Xuanfeng keeps saying I use my power to bully others, yet here you are with fifty people to surround and attack me alone."

"As for the rest of you..."

Feng Zhuo's gaze swept over the disciples who had been shouting the loudest, and he slowly raised both hands. "How do you know I can't defeat all fifty of you on my own?!"

Before the words had left his mouth, his left hand swept sharply outward!

In an instant, lines of fire formed from the third-tier Green Vine Heart Flame burst from the earth, winding around all fifty cultivators like living things and wrapping them in cocoons.

The Spirit Control Instruction, an upper-grade earth-rank Cultivation Method, could do more than control the flow of Spiritual Qi within the user's body!

The Feng Household's Alchemists often used it to refine pills in multiple furnaces at once. Feng Zhuo, however, used it for precise control of the Green Vine Heart Flame after transforming it into lines of fire.

With a puff, the Green-Eyed Golden Toad emerged from the ground with Nangong Tang on its back.

Nangong Tang clapped her hands and laughed. "Fellow Daoist Feng, you've got quite a trick up your sleeve!"

Feng Zhuo gave her an indifferent glance. "Your tunneling skills aren't bad either, fellow Daoist Nangong."

"Right back at you!"

Nangong Tang raised her chin smugly.

Of course, avoiding Shen Mingxiao had not been her only purpose in hiding underground.

The Green Vine Heart Flame manifested in the shape of a vine, and the strands wound around Feng Zhuo's ten fingers were all its offshoots.

The Green-Eyed Golden Toad was also adept at escape techniques, so Nangong Tang was the perfect person to bury the offshoots beneath those fifty people's feet.

"Feng Zhuo, what have you done?!"

Trapped in a cocoon of fire, Xuan Mo roared and tried to confront the Divergent Flame head-on with his body.

But even if the third-tier Green Vine Heart Flame was not an offensive Divergent Flame, how could a mere Qi Refining Stage cultivator break through it?

Shen Mingxiao was even more furious. "Feng Zhuo! How dare you?! Do you know who I am?! Let me go at once! When I get out, I'll make sure my master cripples your cultivation!"

"Too noisy."

Feng Zhuo moved his fingertips slightly, and the lines of fire tightened at once, cutting deep into Shen Mingxiao's flesh.

Blood seeped out and spread across the emerald-green lines of fire, creating a strangely beautiful sight.

The lines of fire squeezed Shen Mingxiao's face out of shape, and muffled whimpers escaped his mouth.

His eyes were bloodshot, fear and rage entwined in his heart.

How dare Feng Zhuo!

How dare he!

Once I return to the sect, I'll have my master seek him out at the Supreme One Divine Sect. I'll repay Feng Zhuo for the pain I suffered today, one cut at a time!!!

If Feng Zhuo had heard Shen Mingxiao's thoughts, he would have asked in return: why wouldn't he dare?

The Purple Yang Pill Sect was first in the Dao of Alchemy in the Central Continent, but the Feng Household was likewise first in the Dao of Alchemy in the Western Region.

They did not even fear the Supreme One Divine Sect, so why should they fear the Purple Yang Pill Sect?

Besides, anyone who had resolved to cripple another's cultivation and destroy their Dao Path had to be prepared for retaliation!

Like a predator playing with its prey, the Green Vine Heart Flame cut open Shen Mingxiao's flesh again and again, then healed it again and again.

The nearly torturous method made the surrounding disciples' hair stand on end.

The junior disciples who had harbored greedy thoughts now looked at Feng Zhuo with nothing but deep terror.

"Spare us, senior brother Feng!"

One disciple suddenly burst into tears and cried out, "We were all deceived by senior sister Su! She said you colluded with outsiders to poison her, so we..."

"Yes, yes, that's right!"

Someone immediately chimed in. "Every grievance has its source and every debt its debtor. If you want someone to settle accounts with, senior brother Feng, go to senior sister Su!"

"You-!"

Bai Wuxia trembled all over with anger. "For the past half month, I've been working the furnace day and night to refine pills for you. How can you say I incited you to go against Feng Zhuo?!"

"How is that not true?!"

A mocking laugh came from one of the fire cocoons.

With the green cocoon completely concealing his face, a disciple deliberately lowered his voice. "Senior brother Bai, you're the real fool. You're the one who worked hard refining pills, but senior sister Su got all the credit. And you're still speaking up for her? You might even help her count the money after she sells you off!"

Beneath her veil, Su Ruanruan's face had long since turned deathly pale.

She had not expected the disciples who usually fawned over her to turn against her in the blink of an eye.

Still less had she expected Feng Zhuo's strength to be so terrifying!

"Mmph-!"

Su Ruanruan wanted to explain, but Feng Zhuo was not about to let her speak.

With such a good opportunity, how could he pass up the chance for revenge?

Under the eyes of everyone present, Feng Zhuo could not kill Su Ruanruan outright, but he could still make her suffer the same pain as Shen Mingxiao.

Xuan Mo, who had been the first to try breaking free of Feng Zhuo's Divergent Flame, could no longer speak either.

But Xuanfeng could not bear to see his benefactor slandered like this. "You're a fine lot!"

"Junior sister Ruanruan has a kind heart. She kindly asked junior brother Bai to refine pills for you, and now you turn around and bite the hand that fed you, falsely accusing her of having ulterior motives!"

"Once we return to the sect, I'll ask my master to bring this before the sect master. Such petty people are a disaster, not a blessing, to the Supreme One Divine Sect!"

In the end, the disciples fell silent, afraid their voices would be recognized.

Feng Zhuo watched the farce with a cold gaze.

The Green Vine Heart Flame flowed around his fingertips.

Thanks to the abundant wood-attribute Spiritual Qi in the secret realm and the Everlasting Spring Scripture's astonishing conversion efficiency, he had firmly trapped these fifty-odd people using less than a third of his spiritual power.

"It's recorded!"

Grinning, Nangong Tang tossed him an image-recording jade.

The jade clearly recorded Su Ruanruan and the others' arrogant display as they shouted for Feng Zhuo to be beaten and killed, as well as the disciples' ugly behavior when they later turned against one another.

The former was to prove his innocence after returning to the sect. As for the latter...

Feng Zhuo played with the image-recording jade, a trace of mockery flashing through his eyes.

Didn't Su Ruanruan love forming cliques and pinning labels on people?

Today's spectacle of her being "abandoned by everyone" was so worth commemorating that he naturally had to preserve it carefully for her.

As for the final step, that was to recover the blood resentment Qi from Su Ruanruan's body.

To be honest, Feng Zhuo would have been only too glad to see her die from the backlash.

But the Nine Nether Soul-Devouring Vine had become Feng Zhuo's Life-Bound Spirit Plant, and as such could not escape the scrutiny of high-level cultivators.

If Su Ruanruan really died from the blood resentment Qi, the rumor she had casually made up today would instead be proven true.

"What a pity..."

Feng Zhuo sighed inwardly.

He could not put up a gravestone for Su Ruanruan today, so it would have to wait for another time.

The Nine Nether Soul-Devouring Vine quietly slithered along the ground and recovered every trace of blood resentment Qi from Su Ruanruan's body.

By then, the Green Vine Heart Flame had tormented Su Ruanruan into a daze, and she could not detect the changes in her body at all.

"Fellow Daoist Nangong,"

Feng Zhuo turned to her. "You go first..."

Before he could finish, a sharp sound suddenly pierced the air!

At the same time, Yun Li's warning rang out. "Look out, senior brother Feng-!"