Everyone fell into silence.
They had listened to Luo Qi, made a charge for Qingshan Sect and demanded the latter to hand Jiang Ning over.
They had been such idiots. Luo Qi had played them like puppets.Original content from .
"Why would Luo Qi do something like this?" asked Geng Jianba, the chief of the Bajian Sect. "He told us that he wanted to find a way out, that he only wanted the best for his disciples. Why would he...didn't he say that the way out lies outside the mountain and that there are more resources to be found outside?"
Elder Ting Feng smiled mirthlessly and shook his head. "We've all been duped. The world beyond the mountain isn't a place for us. Have you ever thought about where all that gray matter came from? What's their purpose?"
Everyone fell into silence once again.
A long moment passed before Li Xuan frowned. "Are you saying that someone created the gray matter intentionally so that we would be forced to leave the mountain?"
As soon as those words left his lips, revelation struck everyone like a flash of lightning.
Everything would make so much more sense if that were truly the case.
Who was the one who had created the gray matter though?
"Is it Mr Lang?" Li Xuan looked at Elder Ting Feng. "Is Mr Lang the one who killed Master Ting?"
Elder Ting Feng snorted and didn't say a word. The rage on his face told everyone what they needed to know though.
No one had expected Mr Lang to be the central figure and the cause of everything that had happened. Despite knowing that such a person did exist, no one could remember what he looked like at all. Dread and horror filled them gradually as they tried desperately to recall his features. As their fear of Mr Lang grew, their reason returned to them as well.
"That scoundrel!"
"Luo Qi, that bastard! Does he know what he's doing?"
"He probably doesn't know that he's being manipulated by someone," sighed Yun Zhongke. "I've felt something was amiss but I couldn't pin down what was wrong. It seems like we've all fallen for Mr Lang's tricks. Even though we've been poisoned, our minds have regained some measure of clarity."
"This is terrifying." Geng Jianba shook his head. "Who exactly is this Mr Lang?"
No one knew.
Mr Lang was a complete mystery.
He had an ability that allowed him to easily gain the trust of everyone around him. He was seen as an old and trusted friend by everyone. Everyone believed what he said.
But as soon as they turned away, they forgot that he had existed in the first place.
"Our priority now should be to find a way out of this place," said Li Xuan. "We have to leave this place. We
can't let our sects surrender to Tiantian Sect and Luo Qi's rule. That will bring nothing but trouble."
No one wanted their sects to become Luo Qi's puppets and become mere tools for his exploitation.
"But we've all been poisoned." Elder Ting Feng looked at everyone. "Do you know what poison it is and where the antidote is being kept?"
"It's Tranquilizing Dust," Yun Zhongke sighed with some guilt and frustration. "It used to be our sect's secret concoction."
"Do you have the antidote?" Elder Ting Feng wasn't interested in the poison's history, only in knowing what it was.
"There's no antidote," Yun Zhongke
said with a wry smile. "It can only be neutralized through activating your inner energy. Judging by the severity of our condition, it'll take us at least five years to fully neutralize the poison."
He knew that Luo Qi wouldn't go easy on them. He would continue to drug them every day so that they would never regain the power to fight back.
He would be able to gain complete and lasting control over the six sects then.
Alarm flashed across Elder Ting Feng's eyes when he heard Yun Zhongke's words. "There's no antidote?"
What was he going to do?
They could barely stand. How were they going to leave without an antidote?
Jiang Ning wouldn't be able to lead them out of this place even if he were to free them from their cells.
That explained Luo Qi's confidence. The poison had the terrifying ability to trap them here forever, eliminating all chances of their escape.