149 Back Against The Wall (1/2)
Wang Lu suddenly vanished.
When all the people, whether they were stupid, smart or ignorant, had been stimulated until their blood boiled by the performance of the city officials and gained confidence by the continuous good data provided by the bureaucrats, when they thought it was the perfect time to act, Wang Lu actually vanished.
He ran out of town alone, leaving all the guards and subordinates behind. When his personal guards found no one in his official residence the next morning, Wang Lu had already left the city hundreds of miles away.
At this time, even the spectators outside the Gate of All Living Things couldn’t guess where he would go. However, before long, the answer was revealed, and once again caused other people’s jaws to drop in surprise.
Wang Lu actually went straight to the Devil Sect’s Headquarters! Of course, he had changed his appearance; disguised as a wandering Daoist, he went straight to the guard guarding the entrance.
”I am Daoist Ju Yang [1], and I come to visit your vice sect leader.”
”Daoist Ju Yang!?”
The guard was astonished and then sized Wang Lu up. He then revealed an evil grin. ”Who dares to be so reckless…”
Before he could continue, a cold, sharp object had touched his forehead. Wang Lu’s Sword of Mount Kun wasn’t known for its ability to kill, but it wasn’t too poor that this small guard could resist.
The guard furiously roared, ”Even if you kill me, I…”
”I won’t kill you. I just want you to tell your Vice Sect Leader that Daoist Ju Yang is here, and he would know.”
That guard fled back in panic.
Before long, dozens of Devil Sect’s demon cultivators came from all directions, surrounding Wang Lu in the middle. However, no one dared to make a move. After a while, a stooped old man appeared from the inside. He then signaled Wang Lu with his eyes to follow him.
Wang Lu smiled and fearlessly followed the old man into the Devil Sect’s headquarter, as if before him was not a dangerous den.
Actually, Wang Lu’s timing was on point. At this moment, the Devil Sect’s Sect Leader, two Vice Sect Leaders, as well as a large number of subordinates were out of the Headquarters; only one Vice Sect Leader guarded their headquarters. This was the most opportune time to strike, yet Wang Lu didn’t show even a shred of hostility, moreover, the identity of Daoist Ju Yang appeared to have been recognized by the Vice Sect Leader. Hence, since the guess had no intention to provoke a dispute, the Devil Sect didn’t immediately go into action. Being led by the stooped old man, Wang Lu soon arrived at a secret room where he saw the goal of this trip—a huge man with a sturdy figure, which was also the most junior of the Vice Sect Leader.
”Daoist Ju Yang? Do you want to take advantage while my brilliant sect is currently empty of people, Magistrate Wang Lu!”
Wang Lu didn’t care at all that his identity had just been laid bare, instead, he countered, ”I have given you a favor by showing my face here, yet you don’t know how to appreciate a favor.”
”Humph!” The huge man angrily humphed, however, inwardly, he was happy.
The Devil Sect was full of hate toward this City Magistrate who, in just a few short days, had been suppressing the spread of insect poison in the city and its outskirts. In the Cloud Peak City, not only did he had solve the crisis, but he had also spread the detailed methods in quarantining the insect poison and how to handle the general situation all across the Black Country, causing the Devil Sect to gain very little in their effort to spread the poison in several other cities. If not for the fact that there was still no cure for the insect poison, causing the number of victims, in general, to continue increasing, the Devil Sect’s plan would’ve completely failed. Yet, the originator for all this trouble had actually come to their lair by himself. This was simply a heaven sent opportunity. The Vice Sect Leader couldn’t help but question whether his luck had turned for the better?
As long as he took the other person’s head, then he would be the most senior of the three Vice Sect Leaders.
”In any case, since you have come, don’t expect to leave this place alive.”
The Vice Sect Leader spoke as he revealed a ferocious smile.
However, Wang Lu only let out a sentence, and the Vice Sect Leader’s countenance drastically changed and stopped his action.
”I’ve already gotten the cure, you guys won’t stand a chance.”
”What!?”
Seeing Wang Lu’s confident expression, the Vice Sect Leader hesitated; he was confused. The Devil Sect took years and years to develop the insect poison, and it wasn’t too long ago since they first spread it, so how could it be so easy to develop the cure? However, the other side didn’t appear to be bluffing… Nonsense, who would risk their lives to come here just to bluff? Was he mental?
Wang Lu said, ”I know you don’t believe that, so I’m going to prove it to you… Here, you recognize this, don’t you?”
Wang Lu shook a bottle of thick black liquid. The Vice Sect Leader naturally recognized it to be a highly concentrated insect poison, enough to turn hundreds of people instantly into zombies. Thinking about this, the Vice Sect Leader’s complexion suddenly changed, thinking that what if this guy broke the bottle here, could this place’s array able to suppress it? If the poison rapidly spread in their headquarters, that would be troublesome… However, this was the special move of trying to perish together; even if the other side managed to get the Devil Sect’s especially made antidote for the insect poison, it wouldn’t be able to counter such a thick concentration of poison. Let alone the Devil Sect’s insect poison antidote was a top secret only known by the higher-ups—it didn’t even appear on any of the sect’s record, moreover, he didn’t hear any news about missing antidote, therefore, the Vice Sect Leader had no reason to believe that the other side had managed to get their antidote!
However, the next moment, to the Vice Sect Leader’s surprise, Wang Lu directly broke the lid of the bottle.
As soon as he broke the lid, he immediately swallowed the black juice straight into his mouth!
Soon, not one drop of poison left in the bottle.
”You…” The Vice Sect Leader was stunned for a long time, completely speechless. Then he silently prepared for the next move, ready to fight the zombie who was known to have an amazing strength to the death.
Even for their Sect Leader, that Jindan Stage cultivator, directly swallowing such a high concentration of insect poison would be a death sentence...
However, under the Vice Sect Leader’s bewildered and confused eyes, Wang Lu’s smile remained on his face; he even opened his mouth to speak, ”This taste reminds me of the craftsmanship of a certain friend of mine.”
The young man seemed at ease, without suffering any pain, and wasn’t poisoned by the insect poison… The Vice Sect Leader’s heart was bitter, but he had no choice but to believe the other person’s claim. Indeed, this was the ultimate proof. The other side’s antidote was even better than their own.
At the same time, outside the Gate of All Living Things, the crowd of Ten Thousand Arts Sect cultivators deeply frowned.
When did Wang Lu get the cure? They didn’t see it at all! Let alone when did Wang Lu had the time to develop the cure? In this insect poison outbreak scenario, every time it started, the poison would be different. Even if he had just witnessed the whole process of developing the cure by Zhan Ziye, it was impossible for him to cut that much research time. Unless he was an expert in creating elixirs, with a very high level of accomplishment, so that he would be able to deduce the formula in just a glance, however...
This group of cultivators naturally could not guess that Wang Lu had just simply used a brute force method. Relying on his Non-Phase Method, he was able to guard against all kinds of poison invading his body! The black tide poison on the Western Mountain was far stronger than this insect poison, yet it could do no real harm to Wang Lu. Therefore, swallowing this insect poison was indeed nothing to him.
However, this move had actually frightened the people inside and outside of the illusion.
It took a long time for the Vice Sect Leader to quell the agitation in his heart, before he finally managed to ask, ”Do you really have the cure?”
Wang Lu smiled. ”What do you think? Don’t you know the strength of the poison that was created by your own sect?”
”...” Vice Sect Leader once again fell into silence. ”Then, what are you doing here?”
”No need to play dumb. I brought such a domineering trump card to your Devil Sect’s headquarters, can’t you guess what I want?”
”Do you want to persuade us to capitulate? In your dreams!” The Vice Sect Leader was adamant. ”You look down on me too much if you think you can deceive me with this kind of graceful words, flowery speech…”
”Shut up, you idiot!” Wang Lu mercilessly interrupted the other side. Facing the Vice Sect Leader’s anger, he said with cold eyes, ”Graceful words, flowery speech? Don’t you realize that in this insect poison crisis, your Devil Sect’s defeat has already been decided? And you think this is just graceful words and flowery speech? Your insect poison is indeed fierce, but as long as there’s a targeted and effective prevention, it would not lead to an uncontrollable situation, not to mention the cure that I have in me. The turmoil in the Black Country will soon be over, so how long do you think your Devil Sect would be able to withstand our country’s full blown retaliation?”
The Vice Sect Leader wanted to say several angry words very much, yet he couldn’t say the words that were already on the tip of his tongue. He was not a fool; it was very difficult to deceive himself.
Finally, he went back to the old question. ”What do you want?”
”…”