Confrontation at the Law Enforcement Hall

A murderous atmosphere hung over the Law Enforcement Hall of the Supreme One Divine Sect.

The seven Peak Masters and the master of the Law Enforcement Hall sat on either side, while five people knelt below them.

Primordial Lord Chixiao was the first to lose his patience. He swept a sleeve and demanded, "Senior Brother Lingxiaozi, what is the meaning of this?!"

His gaze swept over Su Ruanruan, who was kneeling on the floor. Spiritual power flowed around his fingertips as he moved to help her up. "Ruanruan just came out of the secret realm. Why is she kneeling here instead of returning to the peak to recuperate?!"

"Hmph!"

A rare look of anger appeared on Lingxiaozi's round, usually smiling face.

He had assumed his junior brother had come to mend their relationship, only to find that it was his disciple who had done something wrong again!

"Why don't you first ask your fine disciple what good deeds he did in the secret realm?!"

If more than a hundred disciples who had returned to the sect had not witnessed Chu Yunfei trying to kill Feng Zhuo, he might still have thought his junior brother was prejudiced against Chu Yunfei.

But now the evidence was as solid as a mountain. How could he not feel disheartened?

Chixiao, however, paid it no mind. He sneered, "Ruanruan, tell us everything that happened to you in the secret realm, one thing at a time."

He glanced at Lingxiaozi. "With your master here, I'll see that justice is done for you!"

His words were firm and decisive, as though he had already concluded that Su Ruanruan was the victim.

After all, the sect's pills were supplied entirely by the Crimson Firmament Peak lineage. Even if the sect master came in person, he had nothing to fear!

Yunxiaozi snorted coldly, giving Chixiao no face at all. "You old fool, have you grown so old that your ears have gone deaf too?"

Chixiao had always lived in comfort and privilege within the sect. The other five main Peak Masters all treated him with deference, but he repeatedly came away frustrated when dealing with Yunxiaozi.

Chixiao flung his sleeve and said angrily, "I disdain to argue with a brute like you!"

Yunxiaozi said with amusement, "What a coincidence. I don't want to bother with a hypocrite like you either."

"You...!"

"Ruanruan,"

Chixiao said, forcing down his anger as he turned to his beloved disciple, "what exactly happened in the secret realm? With your master here, speak freely!"

The other four Peak Masters also pricked up their ears.

What had happened to bring all six Peak Masters together in such a gathering today?

Su Ruanruan began performing again.

"Master..."

Tears instantly filled her almond-shaped eyes, and her voice trembled like willow fluff in the wind. "Senior Brother Feng... he colluded with a poison cultivator from the Purple Yang Pill Sect in the secret realm..."

"He ruined my face... and caused my meridians to become blocked..."

"If this poison isn't cured, I'll never be able to cultivate again..."

"What?!"

Chixiao flew into a rage, his Spirit Transformation pressure surging like a tide toward Feng Zhuo behind Yunxiaozi. "Feng brat, do you really think I'm afraid of your Feng Household?!"

Feng Zhuo immediately felt the air around him solidify, and even his breathing stopped.

But only for an instant-

"You old fool, do you take me for dead?!"

Yunxiaozi's sword-shaped brows shot up.

He still had not drawn his sword, but his Body Integration Realm pressure had already left everyone except Lingxiaozi feeling as though mountains weighed on them.

Chixiao, who bore the brunt of it, felt as though he had plunged into an icy cavern. Even his fingertips were too stiff to move.

If Yunxiaozi had not deliberately restrained himself, the five kneeling below would have perished in an instant.

"Su Ruanruan,"

Yunxiaozi said, his voice as cold as if it had been tempered in ice, "go on. Why were there fifty people in the secret realm trying to hunt down my disciple? And why did Chu Yunfei try to kill my disciple outside the secret realm?"

Su Ruanruan felt as though she had been thrown into a glass bottle emptied of air, every inch of her skin subjected to an invisible pressure.

Her mouth hung open, but like a fish out of water, she could make no sound. She could only open and close her lips in vain.

In those almond-shaped eyes so practiced at acting, only the most primal fear remained.

"Nothing to say?"

Yunxiaozi turned to Feng Zhuo, his tone gentle. "A-Zhuo, you tell us."

Ling Shuanghua had deliberately applied a layer of face powder to Feng Zhuo's face, and his pale complexion now made him look a little more pitiful and endearing than even Su Ruanruan. "This disciple truly knows nothing about any poisoning."

"Junior Sister Su and I only met once in the secret realm."

He continued slowly, "I was gravely injured at the time. Junior Sister Su saw me and seemed to want to come over, but I don't know what she saw. She suddenly fled in panic like a bird startled by the mere twang of a bowstring."

"If Fellow Daoist Nangong of the Purple Yang Pill Sect hadn't saved me, I fear I would have died in the Green Wood Illusion Forest."

Chixiao finally managed to adjust to Yunxiaozi's pressure and said sharply, "Words alone are no proof! Since Ruanruan says she was poisoned, I'll personally examine her today and find out whether her words are true!"

Naturally, Lingxiaozi could not let Chixiao test for poison. With a look, he signaled the hall master to bring in other Alchemists who were not from Crimson Firmament Peak.

He then noticed that Xuanfeng had looked agitated when Su Ruanruan spoke, so he said, "Xuanfeng, do you have anything to add? Speak freely."

Xuanfeng immediately shuffled forward on his knees and knelt in front of Chu Yunfei and Su Ruanruan. "Disciple Xuanfeng greets the Peak Masters."

He stole a glance at his master, the Peak Master of Taisu Peak, who sat above with her eyes closed in repose, and continued, "This disciple does have the truth to report."

"Junior Sister Ruanruan found Spirit-Cleansing Grass in the Green Wood Illusion Forest. Senior Brother Feng saw that she had obtained such a precious treasure and harbored malicious intentions. He therefore colluded with a poison cultivator from the Purple Yang Pill Sect to poison and harm her, intending to seize the spirit grass."

"How can you prove it?"

Xuanfeng straightened his back. "This disciple originally had dual Water and Fire Spirit Roots. I have now taken a Spirit-Cleansing Pill and successfully cleansed away my Fire Spirit Root."

The master of the Law Enforcement Hall signaled a disciple to bring in a Spirit Testing Stone.

Upon hearing this, True Person Taisu, seated above, had a flash of disappointment in her eyes.

The cultivation method she had specially chosen for Xuanfeng could have helped him fully harmonize his dual Spirit Roots later on and cleanse his Water Spirit Root to maximum purity.

Now all that effort had gone to waste!

What was more infuriating, those who did not know the truth would likely think that she, his master, was so stingy that she was unwilling even to obtain a single Spirit-Cleansing Pill for her disciple!

Lingxiaozi continued questioning him. "In that case, Feng Zhuo did not succeed?"

Xuanfeng shook his head and said with certainty, "Junior Sister Ruanruan obtained two stalks of Spirit-Cleansing Grass. The ten-thousand-year-old one is in Senior Brother Feng's hands."

That was exactly what Su Ruanruan had instructed him to say beforehand.

It was also because Su Ruanruan really did possess the extremely rare Spirit-Cleansing Grass that her offhand false accusation against Feng Zhuo could win everyone's trust.

Idiot!

Su Ruanruan cursed inwardly.

The reason she had not dared to accuse him directly was that she was unsure whether Feng Zhuo had truly obtained the ten-thousand-year-old Spirit-Cleansing Grass from the original story.

After all, there was still the unpredictable factor of someone who knew the plot.

But that idiot Xuanfeng had actually blurted out her excuse!

If there's no Spirit-Cleansing Grass in Feng Zhuo's storage ring at all...

Everyone looked at Feng Zhuo, waiting for his answer.

"Ten-thousand-year-old Spirit-Cleansing Grass? There is indeed a stalk in my storage ring."

There was no point denying it, so Feng Zhuo admitted it without hesitation. "I don't know how Junior Sister Su learned of it, but are you sure I only stole one stalk of Spirit-Cleansing Grass from you?"

It really is with Feng Zhuo?!

Su Ruanruan's pupils contracted.

Could Feng Zhuo have been the one who entered the cave, and also the one who knew the plot and was reborn?!

Or is there no reborn person, and the Heavenly Dao has simply realized that an outsider has invaded and is correcting the plot?

Su Ruanruan was frightened, but still leaned more toward the latter.

She recalled that in the original story, Feng Zhuo had only obtained one stalk of Spirit-Cleansing Grass and a stone basin of thousand-year-old Bell Spirit Milk in the cave.

Convinced that Feng Zhuo was bluffing her, Su Ruanruan said, "Yes... Senior Brother Feng did steal one stalk of ten-thousand-year-old Spirit-Cleansing Grass from me..."