Chapter 275: Not a Single Word of Truth

It had been three and a half years since Yu Feng became a disciple.

During those years, Fifth Senior Brother hadn’t felt great—Third and Fourth Senior Brothers had been messing with him both openly and in secret.

Fourth Senior Brother, who’d clearly suffered some kind of blow, came to pick his spiritual plants every day. If he only picked the unimportant ones, fine. But no—he just had to pick from the spots tied to the formation cores.

After Fourth Senior Brother picked them, he had to replant them.

The grand formation composed of spiritual plant root systems was extremely particular, following yin-yang transformations and five-element principles. You couldn’t just plant anything there. Like the Heartlotus Yu Feng had picked earlier—only Heartlotus could be planted in that location.

Planting anything else wouldn’t function as a core.

Fourth Senior Brother’s picking spree made his heart bleed.

D*mn it, when I contact the real master and spring the trap from within, you’ll be the first to die, Fourth Senior Brother!

Fifth Senior Brother looked at Fourth Senior Brother like he was a walking corpse.

Actually, Fourth wasn’t the biggest problem. The real issue was Third Senior Brother.

Who knew what Junior Brother was thinking, giving the Spiritual Plant Manual to Third Senior Brother—and letting him discover the hidden cultivation method!

The problem was, that method couldn’t control cultivators of the same level.

As a mid-Golden Core Stage cultivator, he could easily control Yu Feng, who was at Foundation Establishment Stage.

But Third Senior Brother was also at mid-Golden Core. He couldn’t control him.

Clever Third Senior Brother had, through the technique, realized that he intended to control Yu Feng and plot against Daoist Tongchen. Then he came to him.

He had thought Third Senior Brother would report him. Who’d have guessed that Third instead proposed an alliance.

They struck a deal to work together and plot against Daoist Tongchen.

An alliance was great and all—but the issue was, Third could break through to late Golden Core at any time, and then he’d be able to control him.

“What kind of f***ing mess is this!”

Fifth Senior Brother realized that ever since Junior Brother showed up, he hadn’t had a moment of peace.

“Old Five, this flower’s not bad. I’m taking it. Here’s some spirit stones.” Fourth Senior Brother shouted from afar, plucked the flower, and handed it to Yu Feng for pill refining.

Spirit stones? You think this is about spirit stones?! That flower you just picked is priceless, do you even know that?!

Fifth Senior Brother couldn’t take it anymore and stormed off to find Third Senior Brother.

“Third Senior Brother, let’s get rid of Fourth!”

Third Senior Brother was puzzled. “Why? It’s just a few plants. Why such a big reaction? Didn’t he even give you spirit stones?”

Idiot. Spirit stones can’t weaken Master’s talismans. If the formation fails, Daoist Tongchen might counterattack and kill them all.

Fifth kept that to himself.

The spiritual plant formation was his trump card. No way he’d tell anyone about it.

“If we kill Fourth Senior Brother, I’ll work with you completely from now on!” Fifth gritted his teeth.

Fourth wasn’t just ruining his setup—he was also totally loyal to Master. He was the biggest obstacle to their plan.

Fifth even suspected Fourth already knew about his and Third’s plan but hadn’t told Daoist Tongchen.

In any case, Fourth had to die!

“Alright.” Third figured he had nothing to lose and much to gain, so he agreed.

Seeing Third agree, Fifth relaxed a bit, sneering inside. Work with you? Once I activate the spiritual plant formation and summon the true master, forget cooperation—you surviving will depend on my mood.

Third was also sneering. Old Five didn’t know Master had hidden injuries and was far weaker now. He still saw him as a peak Nascent Soul cultivator and was probably preparing lots of trump cards.

Those traps wouldn’t be ready yet.

But Third knew Master’s strength was far from that level. Though he hadn’t prepared as many tricks, he could prepare them more quickly.

Whoever acted first would be the final winner.

With sinister thoughts in mind, the two shook hands and declared unity.

…

“Junior Brother, here are the herbs you needed.” Fourth Senior Brother handed over the freshly picked medicinal plants to Yu Feng.

Over the last three and a half years, Yu Feng had refined many pills that boosted Fourth Senior Brother’s strength—expanding the Spiritual Platform, stabilizing his foundation—making him far stronger than an average Golden Core cultivator.

It could be said Fourth was the strongest among the three senior brothers.

He found that Junior Brother trusted him deeply. Whenever he got a good pill recipe, he shared it with him first. He picked the herbs, Junior Brother made the pills.

They worked very well together.

But it was a pity—Junior Brother still guarded himself and never taught him the fortune-divining technique.

Fourth Senior Brother secretly made a plan to get Yu Feng to hand it over.

He intended to bring in some external enemies, then escape with Junior Brother. After saving him, he’d use “learning the technique will help me protect you better” as an excuse to get the method.

Aside from the sect being destroyed, he had nothing to lose. It was a perfect plan.

Yu Feng was currently studying the Dao of Talismans. His power from the Nourishing Pill had accumulated, and now he had just broken through to the Golden Core Stage.

But the past three and a half years had been tough—he ran into death tribulations all the time.

He’d had qi deviation during practice, nearly strangled himself with his own talismans, and almost turned himself into a zombie trying to learn corpse-driving techniques…

Thankfully, with Jiang Li’s help, he always survived misfortune.

“Fourth Senior Brother, you…” Yu Feng looked at him with hesitation.

“What is it?” Fourth got nervous.

He knew that as Yu Feng’s cultivation improved, he might gain the ability to foresee others’ fortunes.

“You’re marked for great misfortune!” Yu Feng said gravely. He hadn’t expected kind-hearted Fourth Senior Brother to face such a trial. It looked like he’d be lucky to survive.

“What?!” Fourth got even more nervous. If Yu Feng said it was a bad omen, it meant death was likely—a one-in-a-million survival rate.

“Do you know where the misfortune’s coming from?”

Yu Feng calculated with exaggerated mystique. “How could it be them?”

“Who?”

“I-it’s Third Senior Brother and Fifth Senior Brother. They’ve always smiled at us as fellow disciples… They’re both such good people. How could they, how could they…”

Yu Feng was shocked by the result—he couldn’t believe it.

“It’s really them?”

Fourth Senior Brother was suspicious. Could they have discovered his plan to destroy the sect?

But that didn’t make sense. If they had, why didn’t they report him to Master?

Wait—they might think Master is too kind to kill him, so they decided to take matters into their own hands and deal with him secretly.

So ruthless!

“Should we tell Master about this?” Yu Feng suggested.

“Absolutely not.” Fourth stopped him immediately—otherwise Master would learn about his plan to collaborate with outsiders and steal the technique.

But he couldn’t tell Yu Feng that.

“You must have your reasons, Fourth Senior Brother. I won’t press. I won’t tell Master either,” Yu Feng said thoughtfully, dropping the matter.

“But you don’t need to worry. You’ve helped me so many times—now it’s my turn to help you.” Yu Feng clenched his fist.

“I’ve foreseen it—helping you secretly has a better chance of success than doing it openly.”

“I believe you, Junior Brother.”

“I won’t let you down, Senior Brother,” Yu Feng said with firm conviction.