Chapter 45: Gazing on the thin lips right before his eyes, he finally couldn’t restrain the impulsion...(1)
Mu Chen took the pill over, grinded and sniffed it, his face instantly getting more serious. At that time, Yu Mingze had also come to the stage. Seeing Mu Chen’s expression, he casted a stern gaze at Fu Haolong, “Say! Who gave you the pill?”
“It’s just a pill to recover my spirit power. Nothing in the rules suggest the pill is forbidden...” Fu Haolong refuted when Mu Chen suddenly grabbed Fu’s wrist. Mu Chen’s temperature, just the opposite to the coldness of his attitude, would rise up in the use of his fire spirit. His body could feel so scorching hot that seemed to burn Fu’s skin. Looking at Mu Chen’s side face so closely, Fu Haolong, who was originally resentful, suddenly calmed down and tailed off into silence, feeling like choked by something in his throat.
Gu Yunjue at his side squinted eyes to conceal the chilling murderous intent, feeling the hand grabbed by Mu Chen extremely detestable. Luckily, Mu Chen just loosened his grip without additional actions to stimulate his little disciple. Gu Yunjue uttered coldly in a grievant voice, “Toxin already exists in his body. He has taken some.”
“Bloody hell!” Yue Mingze felt a sting in his heart. ‘Fu Haolong is apprenticed at the main peak where he can obtain abundant resources. How come he takes others’ pills? When on earth did he get in touch with outsiders?’
Hearing toxin, Fu Haolong was shocked.
“Am I able to live?”
“It won’t kill you.”
Saying that, Mu Chen just turned around and left. Mu Chen had given all the detoxification pills to Jing Ting and Jing Ming, so he had to concoct mores pills to cure Fu.
Despondent as Gu Yunjue was, he had to remain on the stage until the competition was over. In the end, Gu Yunjue won the championship and Fu Haolong came in second. Since Fu took the poisonous pill himself without any devil intention, for the sake of fairness, Fu’s accomplishment couldn’t be erased.
“Who gave you this pill?” Yue Mingze interrogated Fu Haolong in the hall of the main peak where no one of other sects were around.
Not reconciled as he was, Fu Haolong bowed his head and clenched his fist, answering in a low voice, “This disciple picked up a scroll a few days ago which records elaborately the pill’s concocting method...”
“Gross nonsense!” Yue Mingze thumped on the table, apparently exasperated by Fu, “If not with dozens of years’ cultivation, how could you concoct such a pill? Totally absurd!”
“Sect master brother, please calm down!” Gu Yunjue tapped lightly on the table and the tense atmosphere suddenly came into silence, as if he had a weird charm to attract people’s attention whenever he spoke. The young person in white smiled and asked gently, “Maybe he had no idea about the seriousness of the matter. Would you please tell us the true story about the pill?” Gu Yunjue had seen clearly the expressions on Mu Chen’s cold face that implied some killing sense. If not being extremely angry, how come master looked like that? With that doubt in his mind, Gu Yunjue just came here to dig out the internal causes.
Yue Mingze heaved a sigh and told the story in detail. Seventy years ago, this kind of pills had ruined dozens of talents in Lofty Cloudy Sect. At the very first, an inner disciple in Yanyang Palace concocted some pills that could enhance cultivation for a moment and conducted experiments on some disciples in Lofty Cloudy Sect. Whoever took the pills were destroyed in their future seeking of immortal cultivation, with their meridians totally broken. He was an inner disciple apprenticed by Dan Yangzi, enjoying almost the same treatment as direct disciples. He was Mu Chen’s senior brother in the true sense, named Wei Huaitong.
At that time, Yue Mingze was just a teenager. One disciple who got along quite well with him was destroyed by the pill. Actually, Yue Mingze also had one before. He was weak in those years, but the last sect master was too busy to take care of him, so he was brought to Yanyang Palace and entrusted to the care of Mu Chen. Sequentially, Mu Chen found the wickedness of the pill.
The affair being exposed, Wei Huaitong was punished to break all his meridians and was beaten off the De-Devil Cliff by Dan Yangzi himself. So he was supposed to be a pile of skeleton now. But the pill in Fu Haolong’s hand aroused doubt that Wei was still alive. If Wei Huaitong had given the pill to Fu Haolong, he’d known Mu Chen would recognize it in a glance. His real intention was to tell Mu Chen that he had come back, since Mu Chen was the one that had disclosed him. If he still bore hatred against someone, it would be Mu Chen.
Hearing that, Gu Yunjue nodded with understanding, ‘According to master’s temper, he must want to find and kill him. No wonder murderous intent appeared on his face. Lofty Cloudy Sect is his home. How can he forgive the man that sacrificed brothers within the same sect to test pills and put their’ lives in danger?’
“The great talents he was endowed with were just wasted in the wrong path. What a pity!” Saying that, Yue Mingze looked down at Fu Haolong, and snapped, “Since you’ve known the reason, you still mean to shield him. Then you tell the truth in the Penalty Hall.” Assuming the posture of sect master, Yue Mingze seemed quite awe-inspiring.
Penalty Hall, as the term suggested, imprisoned only those disciples who had made serious mistakes. Not to mention physical sufferings, they would be labelled with “serious mistakes” through their lives, which could have tremendous impact on their prospects. On hearing that, Fu Haolong suddenly got blue.
“Sect master uncle, please cool off!” A male cultivator of thirty-five or so in a navy bookish robe sheltered before Fu Haolong, holding a writing brush in his hand and presenting himself a benign look, “Haolong was still young. The mistake he had made was totally this disciple’s fault of improper discipline. Please forgive him once for this disciple’s sake.” Having said that, he turned his head and rebuked in a hurry, “Just tell all the things you know. What on earth are you thinking about?”
Seeing that, Gu Yunjue felt a little funny. ‘Fu Haolong is so arrogant, while his master should be so mild. No wonder he acted recalcitrantly.’ Then he thought about his own master...Gu Yunjue bowed his head, full of gentleness on his face. If today he did the same thing, little master would kick him out of the hundred-foot hall and claimed with aggressiveness, “Who dare to touch my disciple?” With that in mind, Gu Yunjue shuddered inexplicably out of thrill, feeling enchanted at the tip of his heart, ‘So adorable!’
Hearing his master’s words, Fu Haolong in the middle of the hall bowed his head and confided, “This disciple once entered the forbidden area by mistake, where I saw a man, a weird man.”
Yue Mingze at once sent people to search the forbidden area, his face livid with anger.
The navy-dressed man sighed in his heart and then made another bow toward Yue Mingze, with faint tiredness in his tone, “Martial uncle, Haolong is a gifted child. I’m afraid he’d be delayed by me to achieve great successes under my guidance.”
Fu Haolong was startled. Something complicated flickered in his eyes as he stared at the slender figure before him. This master in his view was not at all competent, with soft disposition, humble status, low qualification and shallow cultivation. Generally, among all masters in Lofty Cloudy Sect, only great Elder Mu was qualified to match his talent. If by normal procedures, Mu Chen would apprentice the most gifted person through trial. But the man who had taken his place just sat above and looked down to see his jokes. Now even his own master was reluctant to accept him anymore? Fu Haolong clenched his fist, his nails poking against his palms. Only pains could restrain him from becoming insane.
Yue Mingze growled with a hum, “The best is not necessarily the most suitable. His talent can’t represent anything. If he hasn’t tempered his mind well firstly, he doesn’t have the qualification to be cultivated into an immortal. If you don’t want to discipline him anymore, just kick him out!”
Fu Haolong bowed his head and paid his respect, “This disciple beg master to retract your order!”
Yue Mingze snorted coldly, “How dare you break into the forbidden area! I sentence you to Reflection Peak to ponder upon your faults. You’d better figure out then what’s the most suitable for you.”
Fu Haolong obeyed with a response, showing more or less repentance.
Smelling the faint odor of blood, Gu Yunjue curved the corner of his mouth, a sense of irony skimming over his eyes. With no more interest in this affair, he just extended his respect to Yue Mingze and left.
After a round of search at the forbidden area, Yue Mingze only found a letter on a rock, with “Private, to Mu Chen” written on the envelope. Obviously, Wei Huaitong had foreseen the situation and left before Yue Mingze came to find him. At this moment, Yue Mingze began to worry about Mu Chen, because he remembered the formidable devil cultivator who had attacked Mu Chen before. Could it be Wei Huaitong?
What a lovely misunderstanding!