Chapter 616 - 431: Testing the Waters, Struck Back and Seriously Injured, Facing Threats (Part 2)

Liu Feng had already been waiting here for quite some time.

Lin Chang’sheng landed opposite Liu Feng in a streak of light.

"Elder Liu, why have you summoned me so late at night?"

Lin Chang’sheng asked, unable to understand Liu Feng’s intent.

Liu Feng’s expression was severe, totally unreadable.

"I have just one question for you!"

Liu Feng stared intently at Lin Chang’sheng.

"Elder Liu, please speak plainly!"

Lin Chang’sheng replied, still clueless about Liu Feng’s purpose.

"I want you to be honest with me—are you an evil cultivator?"

Liu Feng finally voiced the doubt plaguing his heart, his eyes never leaving Lin Chang’sheng’s face, trying to read even the slightest giveaway.

But Lin Chang’sheng remained calm and unperturbed, showing zero emotion.

"What prompts you to question me like this, Elder Liu? If I were practicing evil cultivation, how could I possibly pass the Celestial Pride List screening? If I were an evil cultivator, my body would be brimming with evil qi—none of you could have missed it, right?"

Lin Chang’sheng shot back.

This actually left Liu Feng stumped.

Truth be told, things seemed exactly as Lin Chang’sheng had said.

If he were an evil cultivator, there’d been so many sect elders present during the Celestial Pride List event—it would have been impossible for no one to notice.

If Lin Chang’sheng was truly an evil cultivator, how could he be free from any evil qi?

"So explain yourself, then—how has your cultivation increased so quickly? If that’s not an evil technique, then what is it? If you don’t confess, don’t blame me for getting rough!"

Liu Feng demanded harshly.

Hearing Liu Feng’s words, Lin Chang’sheng knew that Liu Feng must have discovered something, otherwise he wouldn’t interrogate him like this.

"You’re suspicious that I’m an evil cultivator—isn’t this all because Spirit Mountain tipped you off?"

Lin Chang’sheng retorted, but Liu Feng remained silent.

This immediately irritated Lin Chang’sheng. He’d turned down all the other major sects because Sword Elder promised, as a member of the Immortal Palace, that if Lin Chang’sheng joined, he’d gain access to a Loose Immortal’s cave mansion. That was why Lin Chang’sheng chose the Immortal Palace.

But once he joined the Immortal Palace, not only did he receive no real help, he had to earn experience points for everything.

So Lin Chang’sheng was forced to go on missions to earn experience points.

And it was precisely because of this latest mission that he almost lost his life—if not for Yan Zhen’s timely arrival, would he have survived?

Just because Spirit Mountain sensed the corpse qi from his corpse refining on the road, they wanted to kill him.

Lin Chang’sheng ended up killing them instead, but now even his sect suspected him of being an evil cultivator.

How could Lin Chang’sheng not feel bitter about this?

"On my way back to the sect, I was ambushed by Spirit Mountain’s cultivators and ended up killing them. They’re the ones slinging mud, and now Elder Liu, you actually fell for it?"

After a pause, Lin Chang’sheng continued, "But truth be told, it’s probably not that you were fooled—it’s that you’ve never trusted me! I heard that the Immortal Palace once had an outstanding pride who grew so strong they tried to unify the sect, and you’ve been paranoid ever since, right? Well, if that’s what this is, I’ll leave the Immortal Palace!"

Lin Chang’sheng of course knew about this, so he said it out loud.

They didn’t trust him; nothing he said would change that.

If things stayed like this, he’d rather join another sect—the resources would be better anyway.

"If you’re being slandered we’ll get to the bottom of it, but only you can know for sure whether you’re an evil cultivator. If you don’t come clean, you may find it’s not so easy to walk away!"

Liu Feng’s eyes flashed coldly.

If Lin Chang’sheng really was evil, Liu Feng would never let him leave alive.

"Thinking of taking me down, Elder Liu?"

Lin Chang’sheng caught the chill in Liu Feng’s eyes, and a deeper bitterness gnawed at him.

"If I don’t act, how can I know if you’re telling the truth?"

As soon as he finished, Liu Feng unleashed the mighty aura of a Middle Stage Mahayana cultivator.

The overwhelming pressure shattered grass and trees all around, and Lin Chang’sheng felt as if a ten-thousand-pound mountain pressed down on his back, making him unable to move.

Lin Chang’sheng had Middle Stage Integration cultivation—almost unbeatable among Integration cultivators.

But facing Mahayana cultivation pressure, he still felt outmatched.

Liu Feng saw Lin Chang’sheng unable to move, so he launched a powerful palm strike.

The palm seal was forceful and fierce, like a divine mountain radiating golden light, coming to crush Lin Chang’sheng.

Lin Chang’sheng knew this attack was no joke—if he took it head on, his eight extraordinary meridians would shatter.

He’d be crippled, unable to cultivate ever again.

Luckily, Lin Chang’sheng didn’t fight alone.

With a wave of his hand, he summoned the Three-headed Ice and Fire Python.

Hiss—

As soon as the spirit beast appeared, it breathed a jet of fiery flame, obliterating Liu Feng’s palm attack instantly.

"A top-level spirit beast?"

Liu Feng was rattled at the sight.

He never imagined Lin Chang’sheng would have such a powerful spirit beast fighting alongside him.

The python didn’t care what Liu Feng’s motives were for attacking Lin Chang’sheng—it immediately unleashed a barrage of ice and fire at Liu Feng.

It struck Liu Feng so hard he was forced to retreat again and again.

With the Three-headed Ice and Fire Python now in play, Lin Chang’sheng felt the pressure ease, and instantly broke free of his restraints.

Then he pulled out the Heaven-Reaching Immortal Treasure Divine Thunder Bow.

If Liu Feng was out for his life, Lin Chang’sheng wasn’t going to hold back, either.

Twang—

Lin Chang’sheng drew the Divine Thunder Bow to its fullest, lightning flickering around them.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh—

He released the bowstring, and bolts of thunderbolt arrows shot forth like phantoms, piercing toward Liu Feng.

Faced with such a sight, Liu Feng was alarmed.

"A Heaven-Reaching Immortal Treasure?"

Liu Feng couldn’t believe Lin Chang’sheng actually possessed one.

Even he himself didn’t have such a treasure!

And Lin Chang’sheng was no more than a Middle Stage Integration cultivator—how had he gotten his hands on something like this?

He had no time to think—the thunderbolt arrows were already streaking across the sky toward him.

Liu Feng immediately summoned a treasure shaped like an umbrella to block in front of him.

As he channeled primordial power into it, a massive light shield shimmered, its glow reaching high into the night and lighting up the darkness.

Boom boom boom—

The thunderbolt arrows slammed into the shield, filling the air with deafening roars.

Liu Feng thought he had blocked every arrow, but in the next instant, a wave of danger surged from overhead and behind.

"What the...?"

Liu Feng was terrified—how could arrows fired from the front appear behind and above him?

Could these arrows actually turn corners?

He had no time to react, so he could only cast an elemental shield around himself.

The Middle Stage Mahayana elemental shield was supreme—even the first few arrows failed to penetrate it.

But these thunderbolt arrows weren’t ordinary—they came from the power of a Heaven-Reaching Immortal Treasure.

When the fifth arrow struck his shield, it shattered the defense right before Liu Feng.

The two remaining arrows scraped past his waist and his scalp.

If not for Liu Feng’s split-second reflexes, he would have been left with two bloody holes through his body.

But even so, blood streaked down his side, and his headband was blasted off—his hair scorched and ruined by the arrows, leaving him looking utterly wrecked.

And it still wasn’t over.

Just as Liu Feng dodged Lin Chang’sheng’s arrows, the Three-headed Ice and Fire Python swung its massive tail, smashing into Liu Feng and sending him flying, crashing hard into the ground.

The impact left a deep crater in the earth.

Fire and ice attacks kept pouring into the pit.

"That’s enough, Xiaonan!"

Lin Chang’sheng called out.

Any further, and Liu Feng wouldn’t make it out alive.

At Lin Chang’sheng’s word, Xiaonan stopped attacking.

Liu Feng lay battered in the pit.

If Lin Chang’sheng hadn’t intervened, Liu Feng wouldn’t have survived the night.

Regardless, Liu Feng had done Lin Chang’sheng some favors over the years.

Lin Chang’sheng didn’t want to kill him.

"Elder Liu, I doubt this was your idea alone. If the Immortal Palace can’t accept me, then I see no reason to stay!"

With that, Lin Chang’sheng casually pulled out both his Immortal Palace disciple token and the Blood Soul Bead Liu Feng originally gave him.

The Blood Soul Bead was a gift from Elder Liu Feng when Lin Chang’sheng joined the sect, meant to aid his cultivation.

But Lin Chang’sheng had hardly ever used it.

Whoosh whoosh—

In one motion, Lin Chang’sheng tossed both items at Liu Feng’s feet.

"You brought me into the sect back then—today I return these to you, and we’re even!"

Lin Chang’sheng declared resolutely.