THIS MASTER UNRAVELED THE FORMATION

The people in Dewsip Pavilion showed various reactions when they caught sight of the black chess piece on Chu Wanning's palm. Chu Wanning swept a gaze over the crowd and observed the facial expressions of those who were present.

As expected, Mo Ran widened his eyes in shock and the muscles in his cheeks went taut. The others merely looked at each other in confusion and started to talk at once.

"What is that black thing?"

"A chess piece?"

"Why is there a chess piece inside the Truth Pill?"

"Is this part of the ingredients?"

At the end of the last question, everyone looked at Hua Binan, who had graciously donated the two thousand Truth Pills. The Medicine Master looked as confused as everyone else.

"The recipe for the Truth Pill was founded by earlier generations of Guyue'ye Sect, and I am sure it does not include a chess piece."

At the end of his explanation, Hua Binan turned to Jiang Xi for support. The latter confirmed, "Hua Binan is correct. There should not be chess pieces inside the Truth Pills."

The Elder Immortal furrowed her brows.

"Then why are there chess pieces inside the Truth Pills? As soon as the Truth Pills arrived, the Guyue'ye sect seals on the crates were replaced with ours. The feathered tribe has no reason to insert chess pieces into these pills, not that we could do it with a flip of our hands."

The feathered tribe folks agreed with their leader.

"If anything, the chess pieces came with the Truth Pills."

"Peach Blossoms Spring did nothing wrong!"

Chu Wanning's gaze moved among Hua Binan, Jiang Xi, and the Elder Immortal. If the black chess piece were any other inconspicuous chess piece, naturally it came with the Truth Pills. The pills were made in Guyue'ye and took a long time to produce.

But, the black chess piece was a Zhenlong chess piece. It was made of condensed spiritual energy. Given the correct method, the perpetrator could easily insert it into a finished Truth Pill.

So who was the perpetrator?

Guyue'ye made the pills for commercial purposes. It was highly doubtful that anyone in Guyue'ye would tamper with commercial products. Not Jiang Xi, and also not Hua Binan who donated the pills himself.

It had to be someone from the feathered tribe.

Chu Wanning looked at Eighteen, who stepped forward and bowed to her superior.

"Elder Immortal, wherever the chess pieces came from, I would assume that someone did a harmless prank. It is still possible to let everyone take the Truth Pills. If they discover chess pieces in their pills, they are free to spit them out. In my opinion, the Truth Pills should still be distributed."

Chu Wanning quickly interjected, "It is not a normal chess piece."

The statement caused a deafening silence to descend over the Dewsip Pavilion.

"It's not?"

Hua Binan, "Chu-zongshi, how is it not a normal chess piece?"

Chu Wanning pinched the chess piece between two fingers and lifted it for everyone to see.

"This is a Zhenlong Chess Piece, used in Zhenlong Chess Formation."

The information still did not elicit a big reaction from the feathered tribe folks, as they were not familiar with the dark techniques from the mortal realm. Hua Binan and Jiang Xi on the other side understood right away when they heard the term "Zhenlong Chess Formation".

Jiang Xi, "Zhenlong Chess Formation is one of the three forbidden techniques. It is used to control living beings and corpses alike to do the master's bidding."

Xue Zhengyong, "Yuheng, is this similar to what you found at Jincheng Lake?"

Chu Wanning nodded.

"Sect Leader is right."

Xue Zhengyong, "Luckily we found out in time, then! Imagine what would happen if all the cultivators and everyone in the feathered tribe happen to take the Truth Pills!"

Before everyone heaved a sigh of relief, Eighteen licked her lips and commented, "Too much luck, I would say. Not to offend, Chu-zongshi, but you seem to know a lot about this... Zhenlong Chess Formation. You also happen to discover the chess piece inside the Truth Pill. Is it not all a big coincidence?"

Chu Wanning's face darkened.

"Are you suspecting me?"

Eighteen, "I have to. Else who am I going to suspect? Is this not all planned by Chu-zongshi just so the Truth Pills cannot be used anymore? Maybe the chess piece was not even in the Truth Pill. Maybe you faked it."

The crowds were fickle. When given a piece of evidence, they quickly sided with a person. When presented with another piece of evidence from the opposite side, they quickly switched sides. 

Those from the feathered tribe were larger in number and they naturally sided with Eighteen.

Jiang Xi and Hua Binan were not there to make any comments.

Xue Zhengyong, Mo Ran, and Chu Wanning were slowly being pressured to the corner.

Eighteen made a suggestion, "We can check the Truth Pills randomly. I am sure that we will find no more black chess pieces."

"Agree!"

"Let's do that!"

Elder Immortal nodded in assent.

Jiang Xi and Hua Binan exchanged glances. Hua Binan subtly closed his eyes and shook his head. The two leaders from Guyue'ye thus stepped aside and watched as the feathered tribe folks opened all crates and took some samples.

Chu Wanning suddenly had a very bad feeling. He forgot that the black chess pieces required a lot of spiritual energy to make. How likely was it to have two thousand chess pieces ready in such a short time inside the pills?

Indeed, even after crushing the tenth Truth Pill that was taken randomly from the crates, the feathered tribe folk could not find any black chess piece. Eighteen's words started to make more sense. All eyes were trained at Chu Wanning.

Eighteen folded her arms in front of her chest and spoke haughtily, "Care to give some explanation, Chu-zongshi?"

Chu Wanning narrowed his eyes. By then he was sure who the person who put the black chess piece into the Truth Pill was. It was none other than Eighteen, who handed the Truth Pill to him!

Black chess pieces were very valuable. It made more sense to hand-select the cultivators to give the black chess pieces to. Skilled and strong cultivators for example. Or those who sat in high positions in their sects.

"If Chu-zongshi cannot give any explanation, then your disciple will."

Chu Wanning's eyes widened in shock. Feathered tribe guards came up from all directions to restrain him, Xue Zhengyong and Mo Ran. Eighteen took another pill and walked toward Mo Ran, who struggled to free himself in vain.

Xue Zhengyong, "What are you trying to do???"

Eighteen, "Sect Leader Xue, we just established that your elder Chu-zongshi is trying to prevent the Truth Pills from being consumed. Let's hear the truth from his disciple's mouth."

Not good!

After Mo Ran swallowed the black chess piece, whatever lies he said under the black chess' influence would be taken as the truth.

There was no more room for negotiation.

Eighteen wanted to make him out as the villain, so he would play out the role to her utmost satisfaction.

What followed afterward was great chaos. Tianwen lunged forward like an angry dragon, throwing the guards backward and breaking the pillars at Dewsip Pavilion. The feathered tribe folks screeched in anger. All of them moved to attack at the same time.

Chu Wanning did not have much choice. He put some distance between himself and the other four cultivators before flinging Tianwen into the air to call forth Wind. Before he unleashed the technique, his wrist was grasped by Jiang Xi, who urgently spoke to him.

"Get away from here. Let the others handle this," he hissed.

"I cannot just leave," Chu Wanning replied indignantly.

"All cultivators including my Guyue'ye disciples are coming back to this place. If we don't do this the right way, they might perish at the sea this very moment!"

Chu Wanning's blood ran cold.

"Go! Go now!" Jiang Xi shouted. He did not wait for Chu Wanning's answer. Jiang Xi grabbed Chu Wanning by his waist and threw him out of Dewsip Pavilion. Then, he turned back to scatter numbing powders at the feathered pursuers.

Chu Wanning still had something to do before he left. If the Zhenlong Chess Formation was truly being deployed in the Peach Blossoms Spring, how did Chu Wanning not detect it during the six months that he was there? The center of the formation was supposed to be brimming with resentment energy. Chu Wanning wanted to find it and destroy the set-up.

He flew to the center of Peach Blossoms Spring and murmured a spell. A golden haitang flower bloomed at the tip of his finger and he blew it away.

"Seek," he commanded.

The haitang flower scouted throughout the Peach Blossoms Spring and quickly pointed him out in a direction. The Ancestral Abyss.

It did not take long for Chu Wanning to discover that there was no fire at the bottom of the Ancestral Abyss. The eerie bright red light that the disciples saw when they peeked underneath the cliff came from thousands of lingchi fruits that were stuffed into the mouths of thousands of dead feathered cultivators. Their bloodied corpses were hung on crosses with their ends stabbed into the ground. The crosses were made of dead, burned-up trees and together they formed a gruesome forest of corpses.

All of them were there, dead. Their souls were locked in a Soul-Locking Array to prevent the resentment energy from leaking out.

Clap, clap...

Chu Wanning turned around and saw the corpse of a feathered tribe child sitting on a cross and clapping her hands.

"Well done, Chu Wanning. Very well done. You have won again."

Again.

Chu Wanning gritted his teeth in fury.

"It's you. You again. What are you planning to do? First Jincheng Lake, and then Peach Blossoms Spring."

"Well... At first, I was only looking to get the wonderful wood elemental spiritual essence but you ruined my plan. Now I believe that if I must first get rid of you before I can move on."

The child smiled as blood dripped from her eye sockets and formed two black lines down her cheeks.

"Looks like that is also not an easy feat. I have underestimated you," the child added with a gracious bow.

Then she sighed.

"Now that the center of the formation has been found out, I don't see any reason to continue staying in here. Watch your back, Chu Wanning. Don't think that you can protect that little disciple of yours forever."

The child flashed Chu Wanning a scary grin before her body disintegrated into bloody pieces, revealing a single white chess piece in the middle of bloodied flesh and entrails. The Soul-Locking Array was broken. The resentment energy leaked out of the Ancestral Abyss, drawing the other four cultivators to come near.

Just as Chu Wanning leaped back on top of the cliff, Jiang Xi and the others arrived. As soon as the Zhenlong Chess Formation was destroyed, all the feathered tribe puppets collapsed in a sea of blood.

The five of them left the then empty Peach Blossom Springs and rushed to save the other cultivators who were still floating on the sea. By the time Chu Wanning and the others arrived, they were in a state of disarray because the feathered tribe guards that came with them had suddenly crumbled into pools of blood.

After cooperating with everyone to send all the disciples back to their respective sects, Xue Zhengyong arranged for a small vessel to take them back to Sisheng Peak. Unexpectedly, Chu Wanning refused to go back with them.

Xue Zhengyong furrowed his brows.

"Why not, Yuheng?"

Chu Wanning had an exhausted smile on his face. There was a deep sorrow that was engraved in his little body. A burden too heavy to bear on the tiny shoulders. Nevertheless, Chu Wanning knew that he was not allowed to buckle. He had to do what he had to do.

"I have somewhere else to go to."