16: Chapter 16 Zhao Feng's Demise, Year-End Assessment Approaching

Indeed.

Late the next night, Zhao Feng secretly left the Xuantian Sect and hurriedly rushed to the Ghost Market.

When he saw the qingmu vine radiating dense vitality, the greed in Zhao Feng's eyes almost turned into substance and gushed out!

"Good stuff! It's definitely a top-tier item!"

Zhao Feng was trembling all over with excitement.

He had been stuck at the Qi Condensation 8th Layer for too long; as long as he absorbed the Spiritual Qi of this qingmu vine, he had a ten-tenths certainty of breaking through to the Qi Refining Ninth Layer in one go!

By then, his status in the Outer Sect would be unshakable, and that Su Qinghan from the Luoxia Sect would just be at his mercy, right?

Zhao Feng practically hollowed out his entire net worth, and even borrowed a huge sum of usurious money, just to gather the Spirit Stones requested by the Ghost Market merchant and snatch the qingmu vine into his hands.

Outer Sect of the Xuantian Sect, Zhao Feng's residence.

The stone door was tightly closed, and the Formation was fully activated.

Zhao Feng sat cross-legged on the futon with a flushed face, impatiently holding the qingmu vine in the palm of his hand.

"Qi Refining Ninth Layer... Here I come!"

He frantically circulated his wood-attribute Cultivation Technique, beginning to greedily devour the Spiritual Qi contained within the qingmu vine.

As the pure Spiritual Qi entered his body, Zhao Feng felt entirely comfortable, and his Dantian Qi Sea was rapidly filling up.

He was completely immersed in the ecstasy of his impending Breakthrough.

However, he didn't notice at all that as the Spiritual Qi was inhaled, wisps of invisible purple poisonous gas had slowly seeped into his mind, heading straight for the depths of his Soul!

Half an hour later, Zhao Feng's aura climbed to the extreme, only a hair's breadth away from the Qi Refining Ninth Layer!

Just as he was preparing to break through the Bottleneck in one go, the toxicity of the illusion heart demon vine erupted completely!

Boom!

It was as if a thunderclap rang out in Zhao Feng's mind, and the scene before his eyes suddenly changed drastically.

He didn't see the boundless glory after the Breakthrough; instead, he saw countless servants and Outer Sect Disciples he had harmed crawling out of Hell with blood-covered faces, tightly gripping his neck!

"Return my life!"

"Zhao Feng! You will die a horrible death!"

Heart Demons intertwined! Illusions arose one after another!

"Get lost! All of you, get lost! I am at the Qi Refining Ninth Layer! I am a Genius!"

Zhao Feng's eyes were bloodred, and he completely lost his sanity.

He frantically waved his fists inside the Immortal Cave, smashing the surrounding stone walls to pieces.

Under the interference of the Heart Demon, the Spiritual Qi inside his body completely spun out of control!

The originally mild wood-attribute Spiritual Qi had now turned into countless violent thorns, rampaging through his Meridians!

Puff! Puff! Puff!

Large clouds of blood mist gushed out from all the pores of Zhao Feng's body.

"Ah!!!"

Accompanied by a miserable scream, the violent Spiritual Qi directly tore apart his Dantian Qi Sea!

Bang!

Zhao Feng slammed heavily onto the ground, twitching all over, bleeding from his seven orifices, rolling his eyes back, and foaming at the mouth.

His Qi Condensation 8th Layer Peak cultivation base was dissipated in an instant!

His Meridians were completely destroyed, and his Dantian was shattered.

He didn't die, but he had fallen into a complete cripple who was even worse than a Mortal!

The next day.

The news of Zhao Feng experiencing Qi Deviation and becoming a cripple spread across the entire Outer Sect as if it grew wings.

The Outer Sect Elder was furious, and the elites of the Law Enforcement Hall went out in full force to thoroughly investigate the matter.

Chen Yan led people and almost turned Zhao Feng's Immortal Cave upside down, ultimately only extracting a faint trace of the illusion heart demon vine's aura from the residue.

Following the clues to the Ghost Market, the clue was completely cut off at that mysterious Daoist Mu.

How many evil cultivators were there in the world? Where could one go to find a masked Daoist Mu?

In the end, this case could only be left unsettled and was attributed to Zhao Feng being eager for quick success, mistakenly buying poisonous herbs, and bringing this upon himself.

Along with Zhao Feng's downfall, the evaluation steward he had bribed was so frightened that Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering occurred, so how could he still dare to tamper with the evaluation?

The crisis of the Outer Sect Herb Garden resolved itself without an attack!

In the herb garden.

Su Qinghan looked in the direction of the distant main Peak, let out a long sigh of relief, and finally relaxed her grip on the tightly held longsword.

She didn't know which expert had secretly acted to eliminate Zhao Feng this scourge, but she knew that she had survived.

In the courtyard.

Qi Yang was wearing that washed-out coarse linen robe, with a hunchbacked back, holding a broken broom, and slowly sweeping the fallen leaves on the ground.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

He coughed violently twice, a smile of deeply hidden merits and fame flashing through his murky old eyes.

"Competing with me?"

Qi Yang poured the swept-up fallen leaves into the Spirit Field to serve as fertilizer.

"Next time, remember to polish your eyes a bit brighter."

...

Outer Sect of the Xuantian Sect, the cold wind was biting.

More than half a month had passed since the incident where Zhao Feng suffered Qi Deviation and became a cripple, and the disturbances in the Outer Sect gradually subsided.

But following closely behind was the year-end evaluation that terrified all the low-level servants and Disciples of the Outer Sect.

In the Cultivation World, the weak are the prey of the strong, and the Sect does not raise idle people.

The rules of the Xuantian Sect were strict to the extreme, and every year's year-end evaluation was a guillotine hanging over everyone's head.

On the large plaza in front of the Outer Sect Servant Hall, tragic human scenes were currently being staged.

"Lord Steward! I beg you to grant a few more days of leniency! The soil quality of this Spirit Field is too poor, I really cannot grow three stalks of ten-year Crimson Blood Grass!"

A servant at the Qi Condensation 2nd Layer tightly hugged a deacon's thigh, crying with snot and tears streaming down.

The deacon sneered and kicked him three zhang away with one kick.

"Rules are rules! If the quota is not met, the evaluation is rated as inferior! Someone come, drag him to the Heifeng Mine and mine for three years!"

Two Law Enforcement Hall Disciples rushed forward and dragged the servant away like a dead dog.

The plaza echoed with the servant's desperate miserable screams.

The surrounding servants were as silent as cicadas in winter, each of them looking ashen-faced.

Most of them were Five-Element Mixed Spiritual Roots, absorbing Spiritual Qi as slowly as a turtle crawling, with no hope of reaching the Foundation Establishment Stage in their lifetime.

In this Sect, they were the lowest-tier consumables, not even daring to breathe loudly.

Meanwhile, the stewards with four-attribute human Spiritual Roots, and the Outer Sect Disciples and Inner Sect Disciples with Three-element Profound Spiritual Root, looked down upon all this from high above, their eyes filled with indifference.

The Spiritual Root determined the upper limit of talent, and also determined one's status in this man-eating Cultivation World.

The Outer Sect Herb Garden was still in that dilapidated and dead-silent appearance.

Inside the West Wing Room, Su Qinghan was sitting cross-legged on the bed, her delicate brows slightly furrowed.

Although she was already at the Qi Condensation 6th Layer and even a Genius with a Three-element Profound Spiritual Root, in this Xuantian Sect Outer Sect, she was still an outsider without backing.

"Although Zhao Feng is crippled, the year-end evaluation is the real deal."

Su Qinghan worried inwardly.

Through the gap in the window, she looked at the hunchbacked figure in the courtyard who was slowly sweeping the floor.

Qi Yang was a centenarian with Mixed Spiritual Roots, and usually even coughing twice made him sound like he was about to run out of breath.

Over the past few months, two deacons had died consecutively in the herb garden, and no one came to collect the quotas, but the year-end evaluation involved Outer Sect Elders personally leading teams to inspect, which couldn't be fooled past at all.

If the Spirit Medicine handed over by Qi Yang was unqualified and he was exiled to the Heifeng Mine, then a new servant would take over this herb garden, and her hard-earned peaceful days would come to an end.

"If all else fails, I can only use that little foundation brought out from the Luoxia Sect to make up the quota for him."

Su Qinghan sighed and tightened her grip on the longsword at her waist.

She would rather lose money than stir up any more changes.

Meanwhile, Qi Yang, who was sweeping the floor in the courtyard, felt completely composed and unfazed inside.

"Heifeng Mine? Whoever loves to go to that kind of ghost place can go; I still want to live long and view eternity in this herb garden."

A sharp glint flashed through Qi Yang's murky old eyes.

He had long ago arranged the matter of the year-end evaluation clearly and thoroughly.

Last night in the underground secret room, he carefully selected a batch of Spirit Medicine.

Of course, he wouldn't be foolish enough to take out those top-tier Spirit Medicine with hundreds of years of age to shock the world; that was courting death.

What he prepared were all Spirit Medicine with ordinary ages, most conforming to the production standards of the Outer Sect Herb Garden.

These Spirit Medicine were all watered with green liquid diluted by over a hundred times using the black gourd.

Although their age was only ten or twenty years, the thickness of their roots and stems, the plumpness of their leaves, and the purity of the Spiritual Qi contained within them could definitely crush the output of any herb garden in the Outer Sect!

The Law of Laying Low: never appear too special, but do your best within the scope permitted by the rules, so as to achieve maximum stability.