"Is this the beginning of an internal conflict?" Yuan Ming wondered.
If they were going to such lengths to use poison, it certainly wasn't to target himself. With Ba Da and Yang Chan behaving like followers, it wasn't hard to guess whom Kun Tu was after.
Before Yuan Ming could fully understand, Wu Bao's voice rang out, "Reporting to the honored ones, the wild boar meat is ready. Please taste it."
"Are we about to make our move?" Yuan Ming hesitated for a moment before deciding not to intervene just yet.
"Bring it here," Kun Tu ordered.
Wu Bao immediately moved the whole roasted wild boar meat in front of Kun Tu and the others.
Kun Tu took out a short dagger and gently made several cuts on the pig's flesh, splitting the large piece of wild boar meat into seven or eight sections.
"Junior Sister Chen Wan, the meat looks quite good. You should have some too." He reached for a piece from the back and handed it to Chen Wan first.
Chen Wan felt it would be rude to refuse and accepted it.
The others also each picked up a piece of meat and began to relish it eagerly.
At that moment, Kun Tu suddenly thought of something and said to Wu Bao, "Go and get a piece for Yuan Ming as well."
"Master… The lord has rewarded you with this." Without hesitation, Wu Bao immediately brought a large piece of the pig's leg over to Yuan Ming with both hands.
Yuan Ming accepted it with an expressionless face and thanked him perfunctorily. Had he not known there was something wrong with the meat, he might actually have been touched by Wu Bao and Kun Tu's sudden show of goodwill.
"Try it," Wu Bao said with a smile that did not reach his eyes as he watched Yuan Ming.
Yuan Ming took a bite and chewed, mumbling, "Tastes good."
Seeing this, Wu Bao turned and went back to the temple. Yuan Ming immediately spat out the wild boar meat in his mouth and rinsed with a mouthful of rainwater before stopping.
From within the temple came occasional praises of the food, even Chen Wan felt Wu Bao's cooking was not bad.
However, it wasn't long before Yuan Ming heard a disturbance from inside, seemingly the sound of someone falling.
Followed by Kun Tu feigning concern, "Junior Sister Chen Wan, what's wrong, sister?"
As Yuan Ming listened to the noises inside, he inwardly sneered. With the cover of a thunderclap, he sheared off and discarded the meat he was holding, leaving only the bone in his hand as he lay down against the wall, pretending to be poisoned.
Inside the temple, Kun Tu continued to call out for Chen Wan, though she was now unconscious with closed eyes and trembling lashes.
"Enough, stop calling her, she has already passed out," Yang Chan said with her arms folded under her chest, casting an impatient glance at Chen Wan.
Heh heh, "This little beauty," Kun Tu spoke with evident pride in his tone, "always looks down on me with the Fire Refining Hall's old hen guarding her. Today, she's in my hands, and I'll make sure she knows what true bliss is."
"Brother Kun Tu, that… the drug is too strong. I didn't dare use too much of it. You need to hurry, lest she wakes up halfway and causes trouble," Ba Da approached and whispered, sneaking glances at Chen Wan on the ground.
"Alright, you think I don't know what you're thinking? Don't worry, after I've had my fun, I won't forget to share the spoils with you, haha…" Kun Tu laughed heartily.
Yang Chan glanced at the two men with disdain, muttering, "Not a single good man among you."
At these words, Kun Tu glanced at her with slight displeasure.
Seeing this, Yang Chan quickly changed to a smile and said,
"Men have to be a bit bad for women to love them. It's just this little wench, Chen Wan, who's clueless. She's only because she's inexperienced - once she's had a taste, even the Fur Beast Slave here would probably be unable to resist throwing himself at her."
Wu Bao, upon hearing Yang Chan mention him, quickly lowered his head, not daring to sneak another look at Chen Wan.
"Wu Bao, we're almost at our destination. Yuan Ming is of no use to us now. Go and slaughter him now, to avoid future trouble," Kun Tu bent down, reaching out to touch Chen Wan's cheek and then remembering something, tasked Wu Bao with an order.
"Yes, master." Without delay, Wu Bao hurried toward the temple entrance.
"Take him farther away for the job; don't let the smell of blood drift in here and spoil my good time," Kun Tu reminded him once more.
Wu Bao, stepping outside, glanced at Yuan Ming, who lay collapsed on the ground, and revealed a twisted smile.
He bent down, seized Yuan Ming's arms, and began dragging him into the downpour, heading deeper into the dark and silent forest.
Kun Tu affectionately stroked Chen Wan's cheek, pinched it with a smile, and said, "Such a lovely face, tsk tsk, it's a shame really, but it's your fault for not recognizing what's good for you."
As he spoke, he reached for her collar and gave it a tug downward. Her red dress was torn, opening her neckline to reveal an undershirt and a generous expanse of her fair, voluptuous skin.
Kun Tu was enthralled by the sight but was suddenly interrupted by a soft 'gulp' from behind – it was Ba Da ogling, unable to help swallowing his saliva.
Yang Chan glanced at him with even more contempt.
Kun Tu also felt somewhat uncomfortable being watched like that by the pair. T%hi!s^ co!ntent was fi@rst rel&e&ased% on *#.
He immediately reached for a green cloth bag at his waist with an elaborate rune stitched on it. The bag flashed with light.
At the next instant, a beautifully carved bed with a canopy appeared out of nowhere in the temple.
"Brother Kun Tu, you have a Storage Bag now?" Yang Chan was first taken aback and then realized, staring fixedly at the green bag hanging from his waist and exclaimed in surprise.
"Before I came out this time, Elder Meng Shan rewarded me with it," Kun Tu said with pride.
"To have earned such appreciation from Elder Meng Shan, this return, you're almost guaranteed to become an Inner Sect Disciple," said Yang Chan, her eyes filled with envy.
Kun Tu cracked a smile but said nothing, though internally he was full of disdain: "That old geezer has reaped so many benefits from me over the years, it's about time he promoted me to Inner Sect Disciple."
"Brother Kun Tu, don't talk too much now, you better hurry up," Ba Da urged impatiently on the side.
With a cold laugh, Kun Tu bent over and picked up Chen Wan, tossing her into the bed's canopy.
A flicker of resentment passed through Yang Chan's eyes as she twisted her waist and headed towards the temple's entrance, while Ba Da sat down reluctantly by the fire pit.
Outside the temple, a storm raged with black wind and pelting rain, lightning flashing and thunder roaring.
In the forest a hundred yards from the temple, Wu Bao, drenched to the bone, dragged Yuan Ming to a pit and carelessly threw him in, then drew a short dagger from within his clothes.
Looking at the man he had long resented, now limp like a clod of mud, a smile played on his lips. He bent down, aimed the tip of the dagger at Yuan Ming's heart, and was about to plunge it in.
He completely failed to notice that the sword Yuan Ming had always carried behind his back was now quietly grasped in his hand.
A bright white flash of lightning illuminated the scene, reflecting off Wu Bao's short dagger and onto Yuan Ming's face.
To his horror, he saw that under the chilling glow of the blade, Yuan Ming had opened his eyes and was smiling back at him.
Before he could react, a surge of acute pain exploded from under his feet as a wooden thorn rose abruptly from the ground, piercing through his entire foot and driving into his crouched abdomen.
Wu Bao fought through the intense pain and pressed down with the dagger in his hand, attempting to kill Yuan Ming with one strike.
But Yuan Ming, ever vigilant, would not give him that chance. His hand shot out, clamping down on Wu Bao's wrist, while his other hand wielding the sword, swept it forward.
The blade reflected a faint cyan light, flashing swiftly across Wu Bao's neck.
In an instant, a jet of blood spurted out as a round head was sent flying into the air, rolling aside.
"Ah, now it's impossible to stay out of this," Yuan Ming retreated backward, sitting on the cold, slippery ground, raising his hand to wipe his face of both blood and rainwater.
Through the curtain of rain and dense tree shadows, he saw the faint glow of fire from the temple. Slowly standing up, he flicked the blood from his sword and walked towards it.
Returning to the temple, Yuan Ming did not rashly rush in, but instead carefully climbed onto the rooftop.
Peering through a hole in the roof's tiles, Yuan Ming saw the finely made bed that was out of place in the surroundings, the petulant Yang Chan sitting at the entrance, and Ba Da with a lewd expression sitting next to the fire pit.
Inside the canopy bed, Chen Wan's outer clothing had been completely stripped off, revealing her jade-white, glowing skin beneath the thin undergarment. The scene was enticingly alluring.
A gust of wind lifted a piece of the canopy, and Yuan Ming saw Kun Tu straddling Chen Wan's long legs, his head buried in her red skirt, greedily sniffing at its scent.
"How vile…" Yuan Ming muttered to himself as goosebumps formed on his back upon seeing this.
At that moment, he hesitated.
From his observations over the past few days, he realized that Kun Tu and the others' cultivation was not weak, all being at least at the Qi Refining Fourth Level. Even facing one of them, he had no assurance of victory, let alone three at once.
Yet if he did nothing, not to mention his own conscience, Kun Tu and the others would not let him go just for killing Wu Bao.
Not because of Wu Bao's life, but because he had witnessed what was happening now.
So, Yuan Ming only had a chance at saving his own life if he rescued Chen Wan.
"It can only be this way." His eyes flashed with a decisive light.
Just as Kun Tu reached out towards Chen Wan's delicate body, from beneath the two fire pits in the temple, suddenly two cyan thorns broke through the soil and overturned the campfires in one fell swoop.
Burning logs scattered in all directions, showering sparks and startling Ba Da, who was sitting by the fire.
The flying sparks landed on the bed, instantly igniting the canopy and causing flames to surge up, swiftly engulfing the entire bed structure.
Amidst the flames, Kun Tu's furious roar could be heard.
The next moment, a ring of white Wind Blades suddenly expanded from the bed's center, sweeping in all directions.
A chaotic clatter ensued as the encircling flames were blown apart by the gusts, along with the bed's canopy and posts, all severed by the Wind Blades and shooting outward.
With the Wind Blades scattering every remaining spark on the ground, the light inside the temple dimmed significantly, plunging into darkness.
"Hey, Ba Da, what the hell are you doing?" shouted a bare-chested Kun Tu, his rage boiling over.
Despite the commotion, Chen Wan remained unconscious.
"Brother Kun Tu, I didn't do anything," Ba Da quickly cried out in protest.
Without waiting to be accused, Yang Chan immediately denied any involvement, shouting, "It wasn't me either, I didn't do anything!"
At that moment, a crack of thunder suddenly sounded!
The already crumbling roof of the temple collapsed, "clang," as countless tiles fell, creating a gaping hole exposed to the sky.
A towering white shadow crashed through the open hole and descended with the force of a mountain, aiming straight for Kun Tu on the bed below.