Family Turmoil Chapter 55: What's Going On? Are You Having a Meeting?

Outside the ruins, the one-hour wager was nearing its end.

The pitch-black entrance, resembling the maw of a silent, giant beast, had swallowed every sound and all hope.

Pei Linfeng could no longer maintain his composure. The mockery and impatience on his face had vanished, replaced by an edgy, restless agitation.

His original intention was simply to humiliate Chu Xing, force him to retreat in the face of difficulty, and then take the opportunity to look magnanimous by granting him a favor. Yet now, this brat was lingering inside, refusing to come out, as if he were delivering a resounding slap across Pei Linfeng's face!

A follower disciple hurried over, his face somewhat pale, and said cautiously, "Senior Brother Pei... It has been an hour, and he still hasn't come out... Could he... could he really have died in there?"

Pei Linfeng's heart plummeted, yet he forced a hard front. "Let him die! He courted his own death, who has he to blame?"

Despite his words, his gaze uncontrollably drifted toward Mu Wanqing, terrified that this senior sister would fly into a rage.

Mu Wanqing's pretty face was deathly pale. Her cold, clear eyes were fixed unwaveringly on the ruins' entrance, terrified of missing a thing.

Reason told her that Chu Xing had zero chance of survival. Yet for some inexplicable reason, deep within her heart, there remained a sliver of unrealistic fantasy.

Just as the atmosphere grew deadlocked and frigid, an aged, majestic voice suddenly rang out behind them.

"What are you all gathering here for?"

The disciples were startled and turned around in unison. They saw the Master of the Pill Hall, Fu Lingchuan, standing with his hands behind his back not far away, wearing a stern expression.

"This disciple pays respects to Elder Fu!" Pei Linfeng's face turned even paler as he hastily bowed in greeting.

Mu Wanqing's delicate body trembled. As if she had suddenly found her backbone, she rushed forward and bowed hurriedly, "Master!"

Fu Lingchuan's gaze swept across the crowd, finally coming to rest on his own disciple's face, his brows knitting slightly. "All flustered and panicked, what kind of decorum is this?"

"Master!" Mu Wanqing could no longer suppress the anxiety burning in her heart. "It's Pei Linfeng! He... he used the pretext of an entry trial to force Chu Xing deep into the Pill Fiend Ruins! Now the hour is almost up, and his fate is entirely unknown!"

Fu Lingchuan's gaze slowly shifted to land upon Pei Linfeng.

"Pei Linfeng."

A mere three syllables caused Pei Linfeng to tremble violently, cold sweat instantly drenching his back.

He hastily defended himself, "Elder, please discern the truth! It was that brat who was arrogant and willful, insisting on going in himself. This disciple even tried to dissuade him—"

"Nonsense!"

Fu Lingchuan refused to entertain his excuses entirely. "The depths of those ruins connect to the Heart Fire Vein, and over the past thirty years, the fiendish aura there has grown increasingly dense. Even the inner sect stewards dare not approach it lightly! You allowed a disciple at the Body Tempering Realm to go in? You were driving him straight to his death!"

These words fell like the final straw, completely crushing the last shred of wishful thinking in Mu Wanqing's heart.

She felt her mind go entirely blank, as if her strength had been violently drained from her body.

Fu Lingchuan was a Heavenly Grade Alchemist; his judgment was the final verdict.

"Impossible..."

Her voice was barely audible, and the final trace of light in the depths of her eyes was thoroughly extinguished, turning into a sheet of lifeless ash.

Yet the next instant, beneath that ash, a sort of stubborn, almost obsessive emotion flared back to life.

Even if... even if there truly was no possibility of survival, she had to go and see with her own eyes, even if the outcome was devastating.

Mu Wanqing no longer cared about the etiquette between master and disciple. Her figure flickered abruptly, lunging directly toward that pitch-black entrance.

"Halt!"

Fu Lingchuan's expression darkened. Without moving his feet, he simply stretched out a hand and pressed it gently upon her shoulder.

That force was silent and soundless, yet it felt like an entire mountain range, rendering her utterly unable to budge an inch.

"Master, let me go! I have to save him!"

"Save him?"

Fu Lingchuan's expression remained unchanged, though his voice betrayed a trace of disappointment. "A Body Tempering cultivator, trapped in the depths of the ruins for an hour, would have long since been reduced to ashes. If you go in now... besides throwing your own life away, what good would it achieve?"

His tone was level, yet his majesty brooked no argument.

Mu Wanqing did not reply. A hazy mist veiled her eyes, and her entire frame shivered faintly, her heart filled with an unspeakable, suffocating despair.

Fu Lingchuan stared at his disciple for a moment, a hard-to-detect flicker of suspicion crossing his eyes.

He knew his precious disciple's temperament better than anyone. Having cultivated by his side since childhood, and possessing the natural Heart of the Pill Saint Holy Physique, her mind was like cold jade—clear and untainted, never once disturbed by external matters. She handled affairs with absolute calm and rarely showed emotion over anyone else.

Even the elders of the sect often remarked that her state of mind far surpassed many alchemists who had spent decades in secluded cultivation.

Yet recently, she had repeatedly lost her composure over the exact same person.

Last time, it was an outer sect disciple, and Wanqing had actually taken the initiative to ask him to step in and mediate—an extremely rare occurrence. And now, because of a mere handyman at the Body Tempering Realm, she had nearly lost her composure in public, speaking with intense emotion and even attempting to recklessly charge into the Pill Fiend Ruins.

And those two people... happened to be one and the same: Chu Xing.

Fu Lingchuan's brows slowly furrowed, a faint sense of gravity rising in the depths of his heart.

If this were mere coincidence, he would never believe it. What on earth made this Chu Xing so special that he could repeatedly shake Wanqing's mental state?

She had been under his tutelage since childhood, possessing a steadfast disposition; she ought not to behave this way. If this continued, it would likely leave fractures on her path of cultivation.

At this thought, Fu Lingchuan's gaze grew slightly heavy, and a nameless sense of scrutiny toward the name Chu Xing stirred once more within his heart.

Mu Wanqing suddenly raised her eyes. "Master, do you remember that hundred-year-old Dragon Blood Herb in the Pill Hall's treasury?"

Fu Lingchuan was taken aback.

Of course he remembered. That hundred-year-old spiritual herb, whose life force had been drained completely dry out of nowhere without leaving a single trace of scorching fire... That tyrannical and refined devouring technique still left him utterly baffled to this day. But why was Wanqing bringing this up now?

Seeing the change in his expression and knowing he had recalled it, Mu Wanqing hurried to say, "The matter of that Dragon Blood Herb... it was his doing!"

"What did you say!" Fu Lingchuan's voice sank abruptly, his gaze narrowing slightly.

Mu Wanqing said nothing further, merely nodding gently.

Beside them, Pei Linfeng wore a look of utter bewilderment, cold sweat oozing profusely. Dragon Blood Herb? What on earth were these two talking about? He clearly remembered that Mu Wanqing herself had personally explained back then that she had misjudged the heat while practicing fire-control arts, accidentally unleashing the medicinal properties and destroying that Dragon Blood Herb.

How had it suddenly become Chu Xing's doing now? Every word seemed to secretly entangle some earth-shattering secret, and not only could he not understand a single sentence, but the more he listened, the more confused he became.

Fu Lingchuan's expression shifted repeatedly between dark and grave. The bizarre, hollowed-out traces of the Dragon Blood Herb were something he had personally inspected back then; and Wanqing's loss of composure today was certainly no falsehood. With the two combined, he could no longer simply turn a blind eye.

His gaze swept coldly toward the pitch-black entrance of the ruins. Weighing things in his mind time and again, a thought finally crystallized within him: if this boy truly possessed such methods, he must absolute not die here!

"All of you, stay right here and do not move a muscle!"

A trace of resolute determination crept into Fu Lingchuan's voice. A vast, majestic aura belonging to a cultivator of the Spirit Realm slowly rose around him—clearly, he was preparing to enter the depths himself to investigate!

Just as the atmosphere froze to the absolute freezing point and Fu Lingchuan was about to make his move,

from that dead-silent, dark entrance, the faint sound of footsteps suddenly echoed.

The entire area fell into an absolute, deathly stillness.

Fu Lingchuan's impending momentum halted abruptly, an expression of sheer disbelief painted across his face. The last vestige of color drained entirely from Pei Linfeng's face, making him look as though he had just seen a ghost.

As for Mu Wanqing, those dimmed eyes of hers trembled violently.

Amidst the horrified gazes of everyone present, a figure that looked somewhat disheveled emerged unhurriedly from the darkness—a darkness that was capable of swallowing Qi Gathering cultivators whole.

Although his clothes were somewhat tattered and stained with blood, his steps were steady and powerful. What was even more alarming was that the aura emanating from him not only showed no signs of weakening, but was instead far more solid and profound than before he went in!

Having stepped out of the ruins, Chu Xing took a moment to adjust to the external light, instinctively squinting his eyes.

Immediately afterward, he caught sight of the bizarre scene before him.

Everyone was standing there like wooden posts, staring at him with wide, bulging eyes.

Senior Sister Mu's eye rims were red, as though she had just been crying. Pei Linfeng's face was as pale as a freshly whitewashed wall. Even Elder Fu of the Pill Hall wore an expression that suggested he had witnessed a living ghost.

"What is going on here?"

Chu Xing scratched his head, looking utterly bewildered.

"Why are you all standing around like this? Is there a meeting going on? And Elder Fu, you're here too?"