Luo Long stepped forward and pretended to knock Luo Qi out with a blow to the back of his neck.
"Guards!" He yelled. "Lock the chief up!"
Fury colored his face. The other elders looked equally livid.
Luo Qi might be the chief of the sect, but even the chief wasn't allowed to disrespect the ancestors. This was an act of blasphemy! It was a grave crime!
Jiang Ning had knocked Luo Qi out earlier but Luo Long had concealed that fact with his timely blow. Luo Qi lay motionlessly on the floor right now.
"I'm glad everything worked out." Luo Long released a sigh of relief secretly. He wondered how powerful Jiang Ning truly was. The man had managed to knock Luo Qi out without injuring the latter. He must be way more powerful than Luo Qi.
"He's a monster," cursed Luo Long. It seemed reasonable that he wasn't Jiang Ning's match.
They restored the tablets to their rightful places immediately. The elders got down on their knees then and sought their ancestors' forgiveness.
After some time, they finally got up and left the ancestral hall quietly.
"What should we do now?" Everyone eyed Luo Qi's prone form. "The chief's broken the rules of our sect with his actions."
This wasn't a mere misdemeanor. Anyone else would have been executed on the spot.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.
"He's still the chief. Let's lock him up, then discuss what we're to do with him," said Luo Long.
This wasn't the time to deal with Luo Qi. Besides, he was the chief of Tianlian Sect and the most powerful man in the sect. They couldn't just kill him.
He had been manipulated and used.
His top priority was to assist Jiang Ning in freeing the other sects' sect leaders and elders. They would need to put up a performance and it had to be sufficiently realistic that Mr Lang believed it. Luo Long was the one who was in charge now. He immediately made changes to the sect's defenses.
Under the guise of strengthening the sect's defenses, he secretly created loopholes that would aid Jiang Ning's rescue mission.
He wasn't doing it for Jiang Ning or the prisoners. Once they were cured of their poison, it would be a piece of cake for them to walk out of Tianlian Sect.
He simply didn't want Tianlian Sect to suffer too many casualties.
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Meanwhile, Jiang Ning had returned to the cave where Elder Ting Feng and the other prisoners were held. No one dared to show any disrespect to the prisoners this time. Everyone was afraid of incurring Luo Long's wrath and being killed.
"Esteemed elders, please enjoy your meal." The disciples delivering the meals spoke to their prisoners in a deferential tone. They dared not do anything inappropriate at all.
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Jiang Ning slipped the antidote to Elder Ting Feng and gave the later a slight nod.
The elder nodded as well, then took the antidote discreetly. When Jiang Ning and the other disciples from Tianlian Sect left, he distributed the antidote to the rest. Outside the cave, Jiang Ning was waiting.
"Did you know? Elder Luo Long killed the last group of disciples who delivered the meals because they'd disrespected these sect leaders and elders."
"They were asking for it. These prisoners are still sect leaders, after all."
"Humiliating them is akin to
dishonoring Tianlian Sect's name. Of course Elder Luo Long was angry." "We should all watch out and accord these seniors the respect that they deserve."
The disciples spoke in hushed tones. None of them wished to suffer the same fate that the previous group of disciples had.
Having packed everything, they got ready to leave. That was when they realized that Jiang Ning was just standing there. "Aren't you leaving?"
"I'm waiting for someone," said Jiang Ning.
"Who are you waiting for? Is there someone else still inside?"
A few disciples looked around in confusion. All of their fellow disciples had left the cave.
"They're coming out any minute." Jiang Ning turned and looked. Upon hearing the sound of footsteps, he nodded. "They're out."
As soon as he said that, the disciples saw Elder Ting Feng and the other prisoners step out of the cave.