He had recently interacted with her, and the last thing he had eaten was the tea she had poured for him. The scenes of her pouring tea kept replaying in his mind, and indeed, they were somewhat unusual.
Recalling Xiao Cong'er's inexplicable closeness to him, her constant attempts to please him, and even her coquettish behavior, he realized it was all to manipulate him into refining medicine for her.
So, it wasn't his handsome looks that attracted her! Mo Qi's heart was struck by a critical blow! He began to doubt his own dashing appearance.
Anger surged within him, and a malicious thought arose. Mo Qi thanked Sima Shan, took back the black sphere, and bid farewell. He headed straight for Xiao Cong'er's residence.
As soon as he entered the courtyard, Mo Qi couldn't suppress his raging anger and shouted, "Bitch, come out here, let me teach you a lesson."
There was no response. Seeing that her door was ajar, Mo Qi considered kicking it open. However, as he stepped onto the stone stairs, he retreated. This woman was so venomous; who knew what other tricks she had up her sleeve? It was better to have her come out herself.
So, he shouted again in the courtyard, "Xiao Cong'er, you bitch, get out here!"
Still no response, so his curses grew more vulgar, "You slut, you have the nerve to play dirty tricks, but not the guts to show your face?"
The female cultivators nearby were drawn out by his commotion. Among them was Xiao Cong'er's good friend, Shen Nanzhu. Hearing Mo Qi's foul language, she immediately became furious and cursed back, "You slut, who are you calling names? I saw you two leaving together this morning, you were so affectionate with Cong'er, and now you've turned your back on her. Have you found someone new?"
Egging her on, the others also became indignant, and in an instant, they surrounded Mo Qi.
In the residential area of Shaoxia Peak, he had faced a similar pack of ferocious individuals without fear. But these were all women, and a good man doesn't fight with women. Mo Qi immediately backed down, muttering, "She poisoned me, look." He then showed them the black sphere, "This is what she put in my tea, it's poison. Fortunately, I managed to force it out. If any of you don't believe me, try eating this."
This was what he had spat out from his mouth, and he was certain no one would dare to eat it! This way, he could bluff them.
However, he had completely underestimated the unreasonableness of women, especially so many of them.
One woman snatched the round object from his hand and knocked it to the ground. "Who would eat your dirty things? You can just pick up anything and claim she poisoned it, then I can say you poisoned this," she said, picking up a stone from the ground and offering it to Mo Qi. "Do you want to try it for me?"
Mo Qi was rendered speechless by her retort. Seeing that Xiao Cong'er still hadn't appeared, he had a sudden idea. "Then why is Xiao Cong'er afraid to show herself? Ask her to come out and confront me."
Indeed, at this point, the female cultivators also realized why Xiao Cong'er had been so unusual today. With so much noise outside and someone cursing her, she was actually tolerating it. If it were in the past, she would have come out long ago.
Shen Nanzhu led the chant, "Cong'er, come out! Cong'er, can you hear me?"
However, there was still no response. Everyone finally sensed that something was wrong.
The next moment, led by Shen Nanzhu, they all entered Xiao Cong'er's room. The room was empty; she had already fled.
It seemed the bitch had fled out of guilt!
Mo Qi was still not convinced. He tried to move the bottle again. The bottle turned, but there was no reaction from the wall. The formation had been broken! Mo Qi became even more certain that the other party had absconded.
Shen Nanzhu suddenly glared at Mo Qi. "Did you abduct her? She was fine, why did she suddenly disappear?"
Women are truly terrifying when they are unreasonable. Mo Qi was also filled with rage, and he retorted sharply, "I am the victim! She disappeared suddenly, she must be guilty and afraid of me coming back to find her."
"Or perhaps you abducted her, and then, to distract everyone, you deliberately came back to accuse her," Shen Nanzhu retorted without backing down.
Mo Qi was speechless. "Didn't you see us leave the room together this morning? Did I leave alone in the end?"
Shen Nanzhu remained silent. Another female cultivator chimed in, "Yes, I saw Cong'er return to her room alone, and later she came out of the room and even came to my place to return something I lent her."
Like a much-needed rain after a long drought, Mo Qi felt immense gratitude. He looked at the female cultivator, almost wanting to prostrate himself.
Just then, another female cultivator suddenly exclaimed, "There's a letter here!" Everyone looked in the direction of the sound. They saw the female cultivator picking up a letter from beside the pillow. It was addressed: "For Junior Brother Mo!"
Mo Qi snatched it and read it at a glance. "Junior Brother Mo, first of all, congratulations on the successful refinement of the pill. By the time you read this, I will have already left. I believe you will be very angry when you see that I've left, but I hope you will be more sad, haha. I did approach you with a purpose, but it wasn't entirely out of necessity. I also wanted to get close to you... haha. In the end, this outcome is not your victory, but my defeat. Do you remember the three cups of tea? You only drank two cups; I poured one out of a moment of softheartedness. At that time, I didn't want to see a mere puppet of you appear before me. I will surely be punished when I return to report, but I believe one day you will come to save me. If you don't come... sob sob sob..."
A letter, inexplicably filled with laughter and tears, just like the impression he had of her.
Mo Qi's anger surged as he read the first half, but as he read the latter half, he felt an urge to cry, and his heart was filled with mixed emotions.
"You didn't tell me where you went, how can I save you?" Mo Qi murmured to himself.
Seeing everyone leaning in to look at the letter, Mo Qi quickly folded it and put it away.
The female cultivators were displeased again, saying he had abducted Xiao Cong'er and planted a forged letter there.
This commotion alerted Li Xuemei, the Peak Master of Shaoxia Peak. Mo Qi had no choice but to show her the letter. Li Xuemei recognized Xiao Cong'er's handwriting, but she was completely bewildered by the content of the letter.
Some female cultivators added that handwriting could be imitated, and Xiao Cong'er could have been coerced into writing it.
Mo Qi almost fainted.
To verify, Li Xuemei asked Mo Qi for details, such as the matter of the pills and the tea. Mo Qi recounted everything from beginning to end. Before he could finish, an uproar erupted among the female cultivators.
"What? He's that talented alchemist? I'm just playing around?"
"How shameless, throwing away all dignity just to escape."
"Exactly, so shameless, daring to say any lie, truly boastful."
"I think he genuinely wanted to play around, but it wasn't me playing around."
Li Xuemei felt the matter was serious and that the Sect Master must be involved, as the person before them might well be the future Deputy Sect Master.
After calming everyone down, Li Xuemei took Mo Qi to the summit of Shaoxia Peak.
When he heard Mo Qi explain the entire sequence of events, Wu Fan looked at Mo Qi repeatedly, his expression extremely complex. However, overall, it seemed the previous gloom had been completely swept away.
Wu Fan then summoned the other five Peak Masters. Mo Qi recounted the events again.
Most of the five Peak Masters were greatly surprised, especially Han Yang, whose eyes never left Mo Qi's face, making Mo Qi feel quite embarrassed.
At this point, Wu Fan addressed Han Yang. "Han Yang, what do you think?"
Han Yang stated resolutely, "I believe what he says." He then looked at Wu Fan again. "A long time ago, I sensed that our Lingxiao Sect had sleeper agents from the Four Great Sects, but I didn't expect that this sleeper agent might have deeper roots. And if he is truly a talented alchemist, then everything makes sense. Other sects employ all sorts of means to compete for talent, resorting to any extreme. Now, the only thing that needs to be proven is that Mo Qi is that 'I'm just playing around'."
Mo Qi felt greatly comforted. Wasn't that easy to prove? He could do it with ease.
However, Jin Hai, the Peak Master of Shaoqing Peak, looked at Mo Qi with displeasure. He could not accept that such a person would become the Deputy Sect Master in the future, surpassing him.
He immediately said, "I don't think so. There are still many doubts here. For example, he claims he was poisoned by that... If it's as he described, then it should be the Soul Shifting Technique of the Taihe Sect. This technique has a fifty to sixty percent chance of successfully controlling a person's soul without any medium, but it requires extremely high cultivation for the caster. If a medium is used, such as poisoning, the caster's cultivation requirement is very low, but the success rate is over ninety percent." He then glanced at Mo Qi. "With his current cultivation, it is extremely difficult to escape such a poison."
Mo Qi was hesitating whether to mention the arrow in his body when Li Xuemei let out a soft scoff and gave Jin Hai a sidelong glance. "From the content of the letter, I think the young girl couldn't bear it in the end and showed mercy. You will never understand." She then turned her gaze to Wu Fan. "I have read the letter, and the handwriting and tone are undoubtedly Xiao Cong'er's." She then sighed softly. "Over the years, I have interacted with Xiao Cong'er quite a bit, and I believe I understand her very well, but I never expected..." She suddenly bowed deeply to Wu Fan. "Please punish me for my negligence, Sect Master!"
Wu Fan waved his hand. "It's nothing, it's fine. She didn't do anything, just gathered some intelligence. Our Lingxiao Sect doesn't have much intelligence at the moment..." He glanced at Mo Qi. "Fortunately, no major mistakes were made."
Jin Hai, however, looked bewildered. "A letter? What letter?"
Wu Fan was about to hand the letter to Jin Hai when Li Xuemei coughed lightly. "Sect Master, I don't think it's appropriate. On the surface, it's a letter, but in reality, it's a love letter from the young girl. It's not appropriate to make it public like this."
Wu Fan paused, his hand freezing, his old face slightly flushed.
"A love letter?" Mo Qi himself hadn't reacted. He pondered it carefully at this moment, and the more he thought about it, the more it seemed likely.
He no longer cared about propriety. With a swift movement, he snatched the letter from Wu Fan's hand and tucked it into his chest. His speed was such that even someone of Wu Fan's cultivation could not help but admit defeat.
"Excuse me, Sect Master, it's better if I keep this myself."
Wu Fan cleared his throat and stared at Mo Qi, speaking earnestly. "Let's not discuss other matters. If you want to prove what you're saying is true, you need to do one more thing."
Mo Qi naturally knew what he was referring to. He readily agreed and asked, "Here or in the Medicine Testing Hall?"
Before Wu Fan could speak, Han Yang said, "I think the Medicine Testing Hall would be better."
This was because he believed that the birth of a Deputy Sect Master should be witnessed by all disciples. Han Yang had personally selected Mo Qi, and he had a good impression of him throughout his journey.