Chapter 2962 — Kneel and Apologize

"Young Master Tian, since you have stepped in, isn't it enough that we leave? What is the meaning of blocking our way?" The black-clad elder furrowed his brow. Could it be that the Silkworm Mutation intended to pursue the matter further?

"Kneel and apologize to him!" Tian Die'er pointed at Wei Zhao and said coldly to the black-clad elder.

"You—" At Tian Die'er's words, the black-clad elder's face flushed crimson. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that the Silkworm Mutation would make him kneel to a lone wandering cultivator! What an insult that was!

"Did you not hear me?" Tian Die'er frowned. She had been imitating Tian Chan all along. Whenever Tian Chan wore the identity of the Silkworm Mutation within the Xuandan Sect, she was always a woman of absolute authority, utterly cold and ruthless—that was the image universally acknowledged by the outside world. But what Tian Die'er did not know was that Tian Chan also had a tender side...

"Young Master Tian, do not push us too far! It is true that the Dark Night Palace was in the wrong to interfere with the Xuandan Sect's trial rewards, but we are all of the ancient tier—we are bound to keep running into one another. And you would have me kneel to a junior wandering cultivator? Did I hear that correctly?" the black-clad elder said in fury. "The Dark Night Palace is not so easily bullied."

"Kneel." Only that single word from Tian Die'er.

"Zhao Qibing, we are leaving. Let us see what he dares do!" The black-clad elder flung his sleeve and made to drag Zhao Qibing away by force. In his mind, even if the Silkworm Mutation was an expert of the peak late heaven-tier, he would not dare strike without cause!

"Aah—" A shrill, blood-curdling scream made the black-clad elder's heart clench so hard it nearly stopped. But the very next moment, his heart was about to burst, for he discovered to his horror that Zhao Qibing beside him—one of his arms was gone!

The black-clad elder had not even seen how the Silkworm Mutation made his move, and yet Zhao Qibing's arm had already come off.

"If you do not kneel, I do not mind breaking your legs to make you kneel!" Tian Die'er said flatly. "I hear the art you cultivate is called something like the Thousand Legs? Cultivating by breaking your legs? But perhaps I will be more thorough—I will simply sever both your legs, and then, like this... I wonder whether you will still be able to cultivate your Thousand Legs?"

As she spoke, Tian Die'er flicked a finger, and a fireball burst forth from her hand, landing directly upon the severed arm lying on the ground beside Zhao Qibing. The arm instantly crumbled to ash!

"My hand..." Watching his own arm turn to ash, Zhao Qibing's eyes rolled back in terror and he collapsed headlong to the ground. He had been fantasizing about retrieving his severed arm and having it reattached at a hospital. But now the arm was ash—what was there left to reattach? From this day on, he was a cripple with a single arm...

How could Zhao Qibing not faint at the thought? Though his specialty was leg techniques, as a cultivator, the loss of an arm was still a grievously fatal injury.

Cold sweat streamed down the black-clad elder's forehead. The rumors in the outside world had indeed been true—the Silkworm Mutation was a domineering and vicious man. He might look like an elegant young gentleman, but those tales of him seizing beauties as cauldrons to cultivate his arts were most likely not false at all. From this display alone, one could see he was a ruthless, merciless character.

"This... what kind of flame is this? To think it burns so hot! Is this pill fire?" the black-clad elder asked, aghast. Yet he was somewhat puzzled as well: "No, that cannot be right—this should not be pill fire. How could pill fire be this powerful?"

At that moment, Wei Zhao too was staring in horror at the handsome white-robed youth before him, and he nearly blurted out—forging fire! This handsome white-robed youth was actually using forging fire! Could forging fire be channeled directly as a martial technique? Could it truly burn with such heat that even a cultivator's body was reduced to ash?

Yet though Wei Zhao was bewildered, he absolutely could not say a word of it now.

The Silkworm Mutation's sudden appearance left Wei Zhao deeply puzzled—even more puzzled than Yu Yi's arrival the day before. Yu Yi had Yu Ning's connection, so that was understandable enough, but what of the Silkworm Mutation? If the Silkworm Mutation had come to stir the waters on Kang Jingming's account, Wei Zhao could believe it—but that the Silkworm Mutation's purpose was to help him, that was a little too unrealistic!

Could it be, as the Silkworm Mutation had said, that he had come merely out of outrage at injustice, to uphold the fairness and justice of the Xuandan Sect's trial? That too was a little... too inconceivable, was it not?

Looking at the Silkworm Mutation before him—someone who seemed somehow familiar, yet whom he seemed never to have met—Wei Zhao racked his brains. Had he and this handsome youth ever met before? But to his disappointment, Wei Zhao found that no such person existed in his memory!

Even if he looked familiar, Wei Zhao truly did not know the Silkworm Mutation!

Yet no wonder—Tian Chan had been cross-dressing as a man to begin with, which already made her somewhat different. Though Tian Die'er and Tian Chan resembled each other in appearance, and dressed as men they looked even more alike, they were two different people after all, and having changed back and forth several times, it was only natural that Wei Zhao could not recognize them.

"You want to try?" Tian Die'er asked coldly.

"N-no... I do not..." the black-clad elder stammered, his face already ashen. Zhao Qibing was of the early earth tier; though the elder himself stood at the peak of the late earth tier, before the Silkworm Mutation he was nothing but a lamb awaiting the slaughter!

The crux of the matter was that though the Silkworm Mutation's visit appeared justified, the real point was that his side held the power. Even if the other ancient sects knew the Silkworm Mutation was making a mountain out of a molehill, none would dare speak out of turn—this was a top-tier ancient sect, after all. Who would willingly step forward over a third-rate Dark Night Palace for no reason?

"Then it depends on how you conduct yourself," Tian Die'er said.

The black-clad elder's face shifted from white to red, but in the end he weathered the struggle in his heart. With a "thud," he dropped to his knees before the Silkworm Mutation and said, "Young Master Tian, please spare this humble one. I too came on the orders of the Supreme Elder. This humble one was wrong... I will never dare interfere in the Xuandan Sect's affairs again..."

"Not me—him." Tian Die'er pointed at Wei Zhao, her expression utterly unchanged by the black-clad elder's conduct.

"Wei Zhao, Young Hero Lin, I was wrong, I am sorry, I will never dare again. Please, just say a word..." The black-clad elder knew that unless Wei Zhao spoke, this matter would not be settled. Though he could not fathom why the Silkworm Mutation insisted on Wei Zhao's opinion, he had no choice but to comply!

Wei Zhao did not wish to let the black-clad elder off so easily, but the one speaking up for him now was, after all, the young master of the Xuandan Sect, and Wei Zhao was not close to him—naturally he could not go too far. He merely nodded and said, "Since you were wrong, then get out of here. And do not come back." (To be continued)