Sovereign of the Three Realms

The group burst into raucous laughter after Elder Chen’s question. It was apparent that they all had similar thoughts, but they didn’t hold a grudge with the Regal Pill Palace. The sect usually conducted themselves well, so although they’d felt the same, they hadn’t voiced their thoughts. However, Elder Wu Hen had an odd smirk on his face. He was happy to watch a good show, and he also wanted to see what Jiang Chen was up to.

Elder Tan Lang snorted dismissively, “Yun Nie, your Regal Pill Palace really needs to teach your younger generation proper manners!”

“Indeed, if something’s wrong with his mind, we should take care of it early! If he goes out and blabs nonsense, he might reveal the entire secret of the ancient herb garden!” Elder Wu Hui spoke up as well.

It was apparent that no one cared about Jiang Chen’s status as the champion of the genius group in the Pill Battles. Or, it could even be that the others had the motivation to suppress Jiang Chen precisely because of his status.

Elder Xiang Gan only smiled coldly, not saying a word. It was clear that he was also dissatisfied that Jiang Chen was seemingly creating trouble out of nothing, but he wasn’t at liberty to publicly censure the Regal Pill Palace due to their transaction with the Longevity Pill.

It was actually an elder of the Dark North Sect who smiled. “Alright, alright. The young are always so hot headed. Don’t take it seriously, we should leave while it’s early.” He walked over to Elder Yun Nie after speaking, “Daoist Yun Nie, just quickly apologize to everyone so we can leave. This place truly does feel uncanny.”

Elder Yun Nie was also quite taken aback. He had no idea why the normally calm Jiang Chen would suddenly voice such stunning words. They were an absolute affront to the experts present! The items had already flowed into their pockets, but he was suddenly discussing matters of distribution. This was without a doubt, a highly forbidden topic. However, he was someone who protected his own, so he naturally wouldn’t lecture Jiang Chen. He only smiled faintly, “A joke from a young man. Everyone can just disregard it.”

Elder Chen from the Sacred Sword Palace snorted. “A joke? If he keeps voicing these kinds of jokes after we leave Mt. Rippling Mirage, then it’s not so simple as just a joke!”

It looked like Elder Chen wasn’t going to let this matter just pass by, but wanted to keep worrying away at it like a dog with a bone.

Elder Tan Lang also nodded. “I too think that voicing these kinds of words shouldn’t be treated as a joke. He should be punished!”

“Right, if the Regal Pill Palace doesn’t bear to discipline him, then we don’t mind disciplining him in place of the Regal Pill Palace!” Elder Wu Hui also called out.

Elder Yun Nie frowned, looking at Elder Xiang Gan and hoping that he would step forth to smooth everything over.

Yet, Elder Xiang Gan had a distant expression on his face. It would seem that he quite minded what Jiang Chen had said and didn’t plan on intervening. It was rather Xiang Qin who murmured some words to Elder Xiang Gan in a low voice, but was glared back down into submission. It was apparent that Xiang Qin wanted to intervene, but his elder had fiercely rebuked him. It looked like Jiang Chen’s words had also breached Elder Xiang Gan’s bottom line.

On the Regal Pill Palace side, they too were also baffled. Apart from Elder Yun Nie, the other elders were looking at Jiang Chen, baffled. Some even looked at him with mounting anger. This was to be a joyous occasion, what was Jiang Chen mouthing off for?

As for Mu Gaoqi and Ling Bi’er, they supported Jiang Chen unconditionally. Although they didn’t understand why Jiang Chen had spoken these words, they didn’t even think of censuring him at all.

Wang Han from the Sacred Sword Palace couldn’t wait to see the matter grow bigger. He would be absolutely delighted to see Jiang Chen rouse public ire.

Through all this, Jiang Chen remained indifferent. He hadn’t spoken again before now because he wanted to clearly observe everyone’s reactions. After he’d taken a look at all the sects’ reactions, he finally smiled faintly, “I won’t waste time in speaking nonsense, since I’ve noted all your reactions just now. I’ll say only this, you all are free to leave if you want to die. Or, leave if you’re confident in being able to cure the Miasma.”

The crowd was stunned after these words. The Divine Befuddlement Miasma? These three words were like a spell. One mention of them was enough to induce a sense of horror and drain the color away from everyone’s face.

“What do you mean by that, Jiang Chen?” Zhu Feiyang from the Tristar Sect roared. “Don’t think you can be an alarmist just because you’re the champion of the Pill Battles.”

Jiang Chen didn’t pay the slightest attention to Zhu Feiyang. He just smiled nonchalantly. “I’d planned on telling you this earlier if you’d divided up the earth rank spirit herbs fairly. But what a pity you listened to the Sacred Sword Palace’s counsel and subjected my Regal Pill Palace to unfair treatment when apportioning the spirit herbs. Since you wished to exercise a tyrannical hand over the distribution rules, then I’m sorry, I’ll be domineering for once as well. Those who say I’m just spreading alarm can leave right now and pretend that I’m just farting. But I can definitely say that you won’t even make out of the mountain. Your graves will be made right here!”

A bizarre smile appeared on Jiang Chen’s lips. “If you don’t believe me, you can search your own consciousness. See if you’ve fallen victim to the Miasma on this island.”

Although everyone felt that this was highly unlikely and just hyperbole, some of the young geniuses still did as Jiang Chen said. Their faces changed drastically when they did, because they discovered a faint layer of Miasma drifting around their consciousness!

The reactions of the young instantly drew attention from the elders, and they too all checked their respective consciousness. Expressions of stunned terror soon appeared on their faces.

“Didn’t you think that the atmosphere on this island was bizarre? That wasn’t a misconception. You thought the feeling of danger came from the formations on the island, but didn’t realize the true danger lurked within those multi-colored hues of fog instead! I trust you’re all familiar with the Miasma?” Jiang Chen’s tone was casual, without the slightest bit of warmth to it.

Apart from the Dark North Sect having a bit of heart just now, the Sacred Sword Palace, Tristar Sect, and Walkabout Sect had all wanted to kick him when he was down, even hoping to sentence him to death if possible. Although the Great Cathedral hadn’t spoken up, it was evident that Elder Xiang Gan had also wanted to punish him. This had opened up Jiang Chen’s eyes to the reality of human emotions. That so-called relationship arising from the Longevity Pill had been but a piece of paper, unable to withstand the slightest test. Since this was the case, he had no need to be polite about anything any longer.

The heavyweights all had darkened expressions as they probed the fog around them, then took a look at the Miasma in their consciousness. They’d discovered tragically that Jiang Chen had spoken the truth!

Careless!

They’d been too careless.

They hadn’t thought at all that after successfully reaching the island, exerting such minimal effort to open the restrictions, and smoothly claiming the earth rank spirit herbs and sky rank spirit herbs, that what would truly threaten them would be the entwining mists of this island, the colorful mists that looked like they belonged to an immortal realm. There really was spirit power within them, but there was also Miasma mixed in as well, taking one completely off guard. No wonder they’d had a foreboding feeling rise in their heart that they hadn’t been able to shake since leaving the island. So this had been the case!

Solemn gravity was writ all over the heavyweights’ faces. Whether it was the young geniuses or elders present, everyone there was familiar with the Miasma. Ling Bi'er in particular swayed slightly. She hadn’t thought that following her father being infected, she would be infected as well, and by a strain that was more than ten times stronger than her father’s.

The heavyweights that’d called for Jiang Chen’s punishment earlier were now all flabbergasted, left without words to utter.

The elder from the Dark North Sect laughed dryly. “Sage nephew Jiang Chen, how did you see through this Miasma? Were you not poisoned?”

Jiang Chen was impervious to poison because he had refined the bloodline of the Golden Cicada. He naturally hadn’t been poisoned. However, he naturally wouldn’t be speaking of that anytime soon. He only smiled faintly, “Although I was poisoned, I was on my guard well beforehand. I used some methods to diffuse the poison.”

“Oh?” The Dark North Sect elder’s eyes gleamed. “You know how to cure the poison?”

Everyone breathed an inner sigh of relief to hear that Jiang Chen had handled the poison. Things would be simple if there was a cure. It was said that the Miasma was an incurable poison. They had fallen to the utter depths of despair just a moment ago, and had almost thought that they would perish within the ancient herb garden.

Jiang Chen smiled nonchalantly when he saw everyone turn their gazes to him again. “I can cure it, but why should I give it to you?”

The crowd was left speechless again, sinking into an awkward silence. As thick-skinned as they might be, they couldn’t bring themselves to voice words of having Jiang Chen cure them. After all, they’d just wanted to lecture Jiang Chen just a moment ago, and to harshly discipline Jiang Chen on behalf of the Regal Pill Palace. They’d only just finished proclaiming those words to suddenly realize that Jiang Chen grasped their fates in his hands. Even though they didn’t know if that was true or not, no one dared take the risk. They were well aware that they were completely helpless in the face of the Miasma. Jiang Chen had no need to help them. He could just pick up the spoils after they all died. This meant to say that no matter whether they were willing or not, they didn’t control their destinies anymore at this moment.

However, these weren't Wang Han’s thoughts. His eyes were bloodshot as he screamed, “Jiang Chen, I suspect this Miasma is something you’ve cooked up!”

“That’s right! I think the same too!” Zhu Feiyang from the Tristar Sect also yelled.

Jiang Chen sniffed. “Your suspicions are your matter. As to whether I cure you or not, that’s my matter. Since you two idiots have the moronic idea to hop up and down to try and frame me even now, it would a shame indeed to not admire your ugly posture in death.” His eyes swept those present after he spoke, smiling, “Who else thinks I released the poison?”

Even the various elder heavyweights felt themselves unable to meet Jiang Chen’s eyes. They were all very rational and knew that it was impossible for the poison to have originated from Jiang Chen. That fog had been there long before Jiang Chen had arrived. The haze was also all over the lake. It just wasn’t on a scale that Jiang Chen could’ve managed to pull off.