Ye Tian chuckled. "Alright, brother, out with it. What secret made you suddenly become Brother Shi master?"
The blue-robed man didn't reply, his gaze fixed on Principal Feng, who was leaning closer with growing curiosity.
Principal Feng leaned in further, his caution overridden by intrigue. The blue-robed man's smile widened as he watched Principal Feng Qing draw near.
"You see, Brother Feng," the man began, his voice dropping to a sinister whisper, "sometimes the hunter becomes the hunted."
Before Principal Feng could react, the blue-robed man's mouth opened unnaturally wide, revealing razor-sharp teeth that gleamed like serrated blades.
With lightning speed, he lunged forward and tore a chunk of flesh from Principal Feng's neck, blood spraying in a crimson shower.
"Ahhhh!—" Principal Feng's agonized scream pierced the air as searing pain exploded through his neck.
He pressed his hand desperately against the torn flesh, channeling his profound ki to suppress the injury. In the same desperate motion, he kicked the table where he sat with tremendous force.
The table exploded into splinters, fragments flying in all directions. Using the momentum from his kick, he launched himself backward, putting distance between himself and his attacker.
Ye Tian jumped to his feet, his chair scraping loudly against the floor.
"Brother, what the hell did you do to Brother Feng?"
The blue-robed man slowly turned to face Ye Tian, blood still dripping from his lips, his smile never fading. "The same thing I'm about to do to you, brother."
Principal Feng Qing managed to stop the bleeding as he vigilantly looked at his friend who had torn flesh from his neck and was now chewing it with relish.
Principal Feng Qing was about to ask about the attack when suddenly he felt a chill run down his spine. All the hair on his body stood on end as he felt something the size of a rice grain squirming and crawling into his brain.
He was horrified as all the color drained from his face.His body trembled, but he couldn't move. He stared at his friend, once kind, once trusted,now chewing his flesh with the slow, satisfied smile of a demon.
Blood dripped from his mouth, lips stretched wide in delight, eyes gleaming with something inhuman. Then the pain in his neck flared again, not from the bite, but from something else.
When he sank his teeth in, he hadn't just bitten, he had slipped something inside.
A small, squirming insect.
It wriggled beneath the skin, crawling through tissue, digging deeper. He could feel its sharp legs scraping against nerves.
"You... who are you?" asked Principal Feng Qing as he tried to crush the rice-sized gu insect with his profound ki, but squirming Gu had already reached his brain.
To his horror, he couldn't do it. If he tried to kill it, he would damage his own brain, making himself an idiot or killing himself.
"I am your dear friend. Hahahah," said the blue-robed man as he swallowed the flesh and licked his lips.
Suddenly, Principal Feng Qing's body shuddered as he felt himself losing control. He couldn't even control the flow of profound ki in his body and limbs.
"Good. Now let's take care of our last friend, Brother Ye Tian," the blue-robed man said.
Ye Tian put himself on alert as he saw that three of his brothers were now against him, all looking at him menacingly.
Ye Tian looked at the blue-robed man. "Brother, what did you do to Brother Feng Qing?"
The blue-robed man didn't reply.
"You are not my brother..." Ye Tian said as realization hit him. As the dots connected, he felt terrified. The man in blue standing before him wasn't the brother he knew, he was a Witch Spawn disguised as his brother.
Ye Tian couldn't fight all three of them. Ru Shi was the strongest cultivator in the city at Element Master Realm 9th stage, Principal Feng Qing was at 8th stage, and he was only at 7th stage.
With the Witch Spawn also being stronger than him, he couldn't defeat all three of them.
He had to flee.
Panic surged through him as he gathered every ounce of his profound ki. He slammed his foot into the ground, the force cracking the stone beneath him.
In a burst of speed, he launched himself in the opposite direction, wind howling past his ears as his body blurred through the air.
But suddenly he felt weakened, his steps faltered, his vision blurred. He soon realized he had been poisoned, and the poison was accelerated by his use of profound ki.
He fell to the ground with ragged breath, his eyes heavy as he watched the blue-robed man approach him with slow steps.
Ye Tian felt foolish.
He couldn't believe the Witch Spawn had hidden beside him for a decade, and he hadn't seen it. How could he even call himself a brother?
"Bastard Feng move your legs and drag him and follow," said the blue-robed man.
Principal Feng Qing obeyed. He picked up Ye Tian and followed the blue-robed man toward the door.
Ru Hei, the City Lord's son, stood nearby. The blue-robed man pulled something from his robe and handed it to Ru Hei.
"Bastard, stand guard at the entrance," he ordered.
Ru Hei saluted silently and left without a word. The blue-robed man, Ru Shi, and Principal Feng still dragging Ye Tian headed to the ground floor.
The blue-robed man kicked the table. It exploded, revealing a large circular formation on the floor, with two smaller circles inside it.
"Bastard Feng, stand in the circle with that bastard."
Principal Feng obeyed without hesitation, stepping into the circle with Ye Tian like a loyal dog.
The Witch Spawn took out a tube-shaped container and poured its contents onto the formation. It started to glow. Then he stepped into the second formation.
"Bastard, break the seal when the blood sacrifice array activates," he said.
"Yes, Master," Ru Shi replied, then descended into an underground passage. After a while, he reached a sealed chamber. Inside were hundreds of cultivators, puppets created by the Witch Spawn. Red-eyed, silent, and waiting.
Ru Shi raised his hand. Cracks appeared on the chamber door.
He was an Element Master Realm cultivator, and his element was earth. He stood beneath the arena, where the people of Azure Sky City had gathered to celebrate his own son's coming-of-age ceremony. Now, they would be sacrificed, fuel for the Witch Spawn's breakthrough.
He was ready. All he needed was the signal. It was all for his son's future, even if it meant dying by his own hand, soaked in blood.
Above, the Witch Spawn's smile widened as he poured another vial into his formation. The glow intensified.
Below, in a separate basement chamber, hundreds of thousands of ki stones hummed with energy. Their numbers started to fall slowly.
A beam of light shot up from the large circle, covering both smaller ones. It pierced through the roof and soared into the sky, then curved and descended like a dome, forming a shimmering cage .
At the same moment, the arena cracked open.
Red-eyed cultivators burst from below in a frenzy. Screaming, laughing, tearing, grabbing nearby spectators and ripping their heads.
Chaos had begun.