Luo Qi's face was slightly pale. His limbs felt weak and he couldn't move them at all. Jiang Ning and his men had to carry him back to his study. "Hurry up!"

The men moved Luo Qi back to his study within moments.

"Get out!" The man shouted and chased Jiang Ning and the rest out of the room.

Luo Qi had been poisoned by the same poison that he had drugged the other sects. The antidote was a precious commodity that shouldn't be easily seen by others, especially lowly disciples of the sect. "Yes, sir."

The disciples left the room. Jiang Ning followed them out without saying a word.

Luo Qi and the butler remained in the study.

Chief, where is the antidote?" asked the butler. "We have to treat your poison immediately."

His face was lined with worry and anxiety.

Luo Qi leaned back and pointed at his cabinet.

"There's a secret compartment behind the cabinet. Open it."

The butler hurried over to the cabinet, stuck his hands inside and started searching for the switch. He found something protruding from the wall, grabbed it and twisted. A series of loud clanks rang out. The cabinet slowly shifted and revealed a secret compartment.

"It's inside. Take it out," said Luo Qi with a nod and a note of exhaustion in his voice.

The butler was quick to reply. "Yes, sir. I'll bring it over for you right this moment."

He reached out and pulled the lid open. Suddenly-

SWOOSH!

A shadowy streak darted out. Before the butler could do anything, an intense sting of pain erupted in his neck. He howled in pain, reached out instinctively and yanked. It was a venomous snake.

"Chief..."

The butler's face contorted in terror. A bout of dizziness came over him. The snake must be extremely poisonous!

Before he could say another word, his face took on the shade of a dark, toxic green. The blood in his body froze. With a loud thud, he fell to the ground and went still. The man was dead.

Luo Qi glanced at the body and scoffed lightly. "You think you can lie to me? You're the only one who has the chance to slip poison into my food."

He rose to his feet, walked right up to the butler's corpse and gave it a slight kick. He had to make sure that the man was dead.

He was a cautious man who wasn't easily deceived or tricked. He would have been dead a long time ago if he were one who paid little attention to what he put in his mouth.

The doors to the study slid open. To the shock of everyone, including Jiang Ning, Luo Qi appeared fine as he stood at the doorway. Jiang Ning couldn't believe that Luo Qi wasn't poisoned. That wasn't right. He must have been poisoned.

He had seen Luo Qi drink the soup

with his own eyes. There was no way that he had escaped being poisoned There was only one. explanation. He had taken the antidote before he had drunk the soup, which meant that...he had the antidote on him.

"Take the body away," said Luo Qi coolly.Original content from .

"Yes, sir."

Jiang Ning did not strike then. This wasn't the right moment.

He couldn't believe that Luo Qi had used himself as bait so that he could lure out all possible traitors and eliminate them.

He felt sorry for the butler. The man

had been nothing but loyal, but he had died because of Luo Qi's

paranoia The butler must have been filled with disbelief and

bewilderment up to the final

vel.i

moment of his death. He couldn't

have foreseen a death in this

manner.

Jiang Ning entered the room and eyed the butler's corpse on the ground His face was black. He had clearly died from a strong poison. Next to his body was the body of a snake ripped into two.

He shook his head. Luo Qi was heartless.

He showed no mercy to both his enemies and his own.

"Let's take him away."

A few men carried the butler's corpse out of the room. Jiang Ning took the chance to take a silent look around the study before following them out.

Luo Qi was a sly one and Mr Lang even more cunning than he was. Neither of them was an easy opponent.

He watched as they carried the butler's body away, then scoffed. The look on his face became increasingly colored with indifference as time passed. So, they wanted to kill him and get the antidote? It wasn't going to be that easy.

He had been exercising the utmost caution. He wasn't going to let his guard down and let anyone have the chance to do anything to him. "Summon the elders to the grand hall!" ordered Luo Qi.

Within moments, Luo Qi was seated on the chief's seat in the grand hall and gazing down upon his elders.

"I'm reaching the limits of my patience," Luo Qi said brusquely. "What are the other sects doing? Have they declared their submission to us?"