Chapter 87: Mountain Goose Uprising – Betrayal (2/2)

”Hahaha! Wei Huang and his clan can't do shit!”

Everybody let their guard down. They forgot about the hardship and the cruel reality while they were drinking.

On the other hand, Jian Meng, the right-hand man of Jia Shan, only had tea instead of wine. He gazed at his colleagues with a faint smile. Then, he turned to his sect master, who had already poured several liters of wine down his throat.

Jian Meng grinned. He took out a transparent bottle of tea, and he walked toward Jia Shan.

”Sect Master Jia, you've contributed a lot to the sect. Let me pour you a cup.”

Jia Shan smiled and nodded. He had already drunk a lot, so there was no harm in drinking tea instead of alcohol, ”Sure. A toast to you too, Elder Jian. Without you, I wouldn't be able to maintain this sect for this long.”

”Hahaha. Cheers.”

Jia Shan raised his cup and drank Jian Meng's tea. However, Jian Meng secretly replaced his cup with the tea to his spatial ring with a cup of water. Then, he drank the water instead.

Jian Meng returned to his seat, and he switched the previous tea bottle with a new one. The old one entered his spatial ring.

Five minutes later, Jia Shan frowned. He began to sweat and coughed.

At first, Jia Shan thought that he was drunk. But when he recalled that a 7th stage grandmaster like him couldn't get drunk, he circulated his spirit essence to check his body and his nascent soul.

Within a few seconds, he found the problem. Pathogen parasites had infiltrated his dantian and corrupted his essence.

These parasites were commonly known as essence eaters. One of the unorthodox sects, the Poison Pavilion, had cultivated these pathogen beings as they were odorless and tasteless. When they were mixed in tea or water, nobody could notice or sense them until the parasites had reached their dantians.

The essence eater parasites were harmless against low-level cultivators as their main food was any type of energy essence. However, if the host had condensed at least one essence, these parasites would consume the essence and multiply by a thousand per one essence. The more essence the host had, the faster these pathogens spread.

The host's blood would harden and block the bloodstream. Their Qi wouldn't listen to the owner and ran amok. In serious cases, these parasites would consume all essence and destroy their dantians, which would cripple their cultivation life forever.

In short, essence eater parasites could cripple Jia Shan if he couldn't find a cure within a few minutes!

”BASTARD!! WHO POISONED ME!?”

Jia Shan roared in frustration. He glared at everybody in the grand hall as he suspected all elders here. Because of his panic, Jia Shan couldn't recall or organize his thoughts.

All elders in the hall fell silent. They looked at Jia Shan in shock.

Jian Meng covered his mouth with his arm sleeves to hide his faint smile. He coughed, pretending to choke some food.

The complexion of Jia Shan worsened. His face lost color, and his lips whitened. The parasites already entered his muscle, bones, and skin. 50% of his essence was consumed, and he could no longer summon his persona aura.

”Sect master!” Jian Meng shouted and rushed to Jia Shan's side, ”Hurry! Call the physicians!”

All elders in the room were panicked. Half of them rushed to Jia Shan's side while the rest ran out to find physician elders. The latter group even forgot that a few of the banquet participants were doctors.

Intoxicated and confused, the physicians in the grand hall failed to diagnose Jia Shan on time. It took them five minutes to scan through the sect master's dantian to find the source of poison.

It was too late. Jia Shan's life-long hard work was ruined because of a sinister tea from Jian Meng. The culprit tried his best to hide his killing intent and his smile while he touched his J-Phone.

Jian Meng texted to the oni lord.

'Wei Huang. It's done.'

[Good job. Now, control your colleagues for me. Once I return, convince everyone to surrender.]

'The contract is only Jia Shan. I'll have to charge you 100,000 refined stones for the job.'

[Your Poison Pavilion sure is stinky. I've already paid you 300,000 and you want more!?]

'No pay, no job.'

[Well, I'll pay. Be warned, though. The sect's treasury is mine.]

'I know. I won't touch your [Treasures].'

[Good. We have a deal.]

Jian Meng was, in fact, an agent from the Poison Pavilion, an evil sect from another province. He was hiding in the mountain goose province and working for Jia Shan per Wei Huang's request decades ago.

At first, it was only a spy job to learn Jia Shan's secret techniques and weaknesses. But yesterday, Wei Huang invested more refined stones to hire Jian Meng to assassinate the sect master.

The mission was a success. It was too late to cure Jia Shan, so the sword saint was now a crippled old man. Once Wei Huang brought back his forces, the sect would fall.

”Pfft!”

Meanwhile, Jia Shan vomited several mouthfuls of blood. Tears of anger and frustration rolled down on his cheek as he lost all cultivation base. He became nothing more but senile old man with exceptional swordsmanship experience.

Unable to accept the reality, Jia Shan fainted. All elders got more panicked and yelled in chaos.

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The next day

Wei Huang revisited the sect. However, he brought back his clansmen to attack the mountain without the help of Xu Xiuying or Fu De.

As promised, Jian Meng convinced all elders that they were no longer in a good shape to fight against a peak 6th stage master like Wei Huang. As Jia Shan was unconscious and crippled, nobody opposed Jian Meng's idea.

The mountain goose elders reluctantly surrendered to the Wei Clan.

Without resistance, the Wei Clan seized the mountain goose sect. Wei Huang became the new sect master by default.

Jia Shan might have won a battle, but Wei Huang won the war.