Once that thought arose, the mountains no longer appeared as mountains, and the waters no longer seemed as waters.
Power can blind people.
"Father, I know I was wrong... I was wrong..." Zhong Tianque didn’t dare to explain, nor could he refute, he could only keep apologizing.
Zhong Daolong vented his anger and felt much better afterward.
He kicked Zhong Tianque and said, "Stand up and talk. At your age, always kneeling down and wiping tears... What does that look like?"
"Yes, I was wrong..."
"Stop apologizing," Zhong Daolong interrupted, "Tell me exactly what happened at the White Crane Academy... who you met, what you talked about, what you ate... Tell me everything, without missing a single word..."
"Yes, Father." Zhong Tianque wiped the blood from his face and threw his handkerchief on the table.
After pondering for a moment, he said, "When we arrived at the White Crane Academy, it was President Si Yinchuan who led a team to receive me... I first went to the president’s grape courtyard, where I had a cup of tea..."
Zhong Tianque glanced at Phoenix and said, "Tang Fei poured the tea for me; he is now the president’s Direct Disciple..."
Phoenix’s heart sank sharply. What was his elder brother trying to do?
Could this incident somehow be related to Tang Fei?
Or did his elder brother want to implicate Tang Fei?
"Tang Fei?" Zhong Daolong frowned deeply, with disdain, "How is he everywhere?"
"There was a little episode..." Zhong Tianque continued, "At the time, the president had Shen Xinglan pour tea for me, Xing Lan and I are close friends, friends who grew up together."
"Xing Lan has always been cultivating at the White Crane Academy, and we hadn’t seen each other for a while, just catching up... I didn’t let him pour the tea; instead, I asked Tang Fei to help me pour a cup... Tang Fei picked up the teapot, tested it, and said there was no water left in the pot, then he took the empty pot to fill it with boiling water..."
Zhong Daolong’s eyes sharpened as he stared at Zhong Tianque, "From what you’re saying, you suspect that Tang Fei poisoned you?"
"Yes," Zhong Tianque nodded and said, "I asked him to pour tea; he might have felt his dignity was hurt... Holding the empty pot, he left our line of sight, so he had the time and opportunity to poison..."
"Do you have evidence?" Zhong Daolong asked, "Have the tea cup you drank from and your body... even the cells in your blood and urine been checked?"
"They’ve been checked. That’s why I went to the Marine Hospital yesterday, to get a comprehensive examination and figure out what type of toxin it was, to find the true mastermind behind this..."
"And what were the results?"
"They were fine." Zhong Tianque said, "The plates and chopsticks I used for eating and the cups I drank from were all checked, and there was nothing wrong."
"That’s really strange," Zhong Daolong said with a hint of mocking smile, "Could it be that your stomach was simply upset from bad food?"
"Father, it was absolutely not like that..." Zhong Tianque tried to contain his sense of humiliation as he recounted his experience, "I’m a Cultivator. If it was just an ordinary upset stomach, I would have been able to control it... but this was an uncontrollable sensation..."
"I believe that the food I ate or the tea I drank must have been tampered with. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been in such an embarrassing situation..."
Zhong Daolong turned to Zhong Tianyi and asked, "What do you think?"
Zhong Tianyi pondered for a moment and then said, "Having heard the elder brother’s account of the examination process, I think Tang Fei is indeed quite suspicious... He appears good-natured, but is actually extremely arrogant and unyielding at heart..."
"It is quite possible that he harbored resentment against our elder brother and in a fit of anger, poisoned him... After all, these Barbarians are capable of doing anything..."
Zhong Daolong neither agreed nor disagreed and turned his gaze to Phoenix, "What do you think?"
"Hearing the elder brother’s account and the second brother’s analysis, I also think there’s something wrong with Tang Fei," Phoenix answered straightforwardly.
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