All these factors combined, if the higher-ups at Biyou Palace still insisted on punishing him, it would be utterly ridiculous.

Of course, Zou Feng wouldn’t pin all his hopes on Su Qingyu or the other leaders being reasonable.

His greatest reliance was still the fact that he was about to advance to the Third Grade.

Once he became a True Qi Realm expert, even as an Honored Guest Elder, his importance to Biyou Palace would be completely different.

Thus, whether they chose to reason with him or resort to fists, he would have a firm leg to stand on.

Thinking of this, Zou Feng took out a signal flare used to notify nearby Biyou Palace disciples and fired it into the sky.

A short while later, five Biyou Palace disciples arrived.

Upon seeing the Honored Guest Elder, whose reputation had been soaring recently, they all bowed respectfully.

But when they saw Yin Suhong’s corpse, the disciples’ legs trembled. They began to suspect that Elder Zou intended to silence everyone in the vicinity.

Zou Feng couldn’t be bothered with their wild thoughts.

He simply gave them a brief account of what had just happened.

"Don’t worry about it. Just report what I told you to the palace, exactly as I said it."

Hearing this, the leading disciple breathed a sigh of relief but then mustered his courage to ask, "Then... then Elder Zou, you..."

He clearly wanted to ask why, after such a major incident, Zou Feng wasn’t returning to explain things himself and was instead having a few low-level disciples like them deliver the message.

Zou Feng answered truthfully, "I am on the verge of a breakthrough. Once I succeed, I will return to the palace to accept my punishment!"

"Besides, with the Five Poison Heart Devouring Curse, they have no reason to worry!"

On the verge of a breakthrough!?

The Biyou Palace disciples couldn’t help but raise their heads and look at the Honored Guest Elder again.

Was Biyou Palace about to gain another True Qi Realm expert?

And this was clearly no ordinary True Qi Realm expert. This was a prodigious talent in Poison Skills who, while still at the Fourth Grade, had killed two Third Grade cultivators in succession—someone who defied all common sense.

So, if he really did succeed in his breakthrough, just how formidable would this Honored Guest Elder become?

Zou Feng had been truthful precisely to remind the higher-ups of Biyou Palace that he was about to become a True Qi Realm Poison Cultivator. Soon, he would be sitting at the main table with them, no longer relegated to the kids’ table.

Instead of dwelling on Yin Suhong’s death, they should think carefully about how not to alienate a talent within their own sect.

The next moment, the Biyou Palace disciples lifted the bodies of Yin Suhong and Zhi Shuang and hurried toward Biyou Palace.

After watching them disappear from sight, Zou Feng finally turned and headed for Qingchuan City.

Xiaolv suddenly appeared, flapping its wings furiously beside Zou Feng, seemingly expressing its displeasure.

Zou Feng knew perfectly well what Xiaolv was unhappy about.

It was simply because he hadn’t let it take a few bites of Yin Suhong’s corpse to create Corpse Poison.

This wasn’t an oversight on Zou Feng’s part, of course. It was just unnecessary.

After all, Yin Suhong was technically a fellow sect member. Killing her in self-defense and performing Refinement on the Snake Gu King Poison in her body was one thing.

But turning her body into a source of Corpse Poison would only interfere with the investigation by the Biyou Palace leadership and cast doubt on the authenticity of his "self-defense" claim.

Besides, Yin Suhong had been a Poison Cultivator to begin with; her body was already saturated with various toxins. The effect of converting her into Corpse Poison would be inferior to that of a Sword Cultivator from the Celestial Essence Sword Sect.

After all, many poisons repel or neutralize one another.

It was the same principle as fighting poison with poison, which could end up neutralizing the poison entirely.

Before long, Zou Feng hurried back to Qingchuan City.

He hadn’t even reached the gate of the Hongxing Martial Arts Hall when he sensed that the atmosphere was off.

Not only was the main gate shut tight, but although he could sense many people in the courtyard, almost no one was talking.

Zou Feng thought something might have happened, but after a more careful scan, he found nothing else out of the ordinary.

So he simply pushed the gate open and walked in.

"Greetings, General Leader!"

Over forty members of the Iron Blood Gu Poison Group, clearly prepared for his arrival, bowed in unison.

Although the original Hongxing Gang was now virtually nonexistent and Zou Feng had become an Honored Guest Elder of Biyou Palace,

they were still accustomed to calling him General Leader.

"You’re back?" Tian Yun hurried over to greet him, but her expression was hesitant.

Zou Feng scanned the area and saw the members of the Iron Blood Gu Poison Group lined up in neat rows. A large wooden basin sat in front of each person, and all of them were bare-chested.

This left Zou Feng a little confused about what they were planning to do. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

The next moment, a member from the center of the front row—the one with the highest Realm, having been artificially raised to the Seventh Grade—cupped his fist and said, "General Leader, we understand the principle of ’raising an army for a thousand days to use it for a single moment.’"

"However much Blood Poison you need, General Leader, none of us will so much as frown."

Zou Feng was taken aback. So these men had placed basins in front of them because they were preparing to let blood.

Tian Yun was clearly worried about this as well. After all, she had gotten to know the members of the Iron Blood Gu Poison Group quite well and didn’t want to see a tragedy unfold.

"Zou Lang, how much Blood Poison do you need? Will it... will it harm them...?"

Truthfully, in the past, Zou Feng would indeed have needed them to let blood, and he might have even required some of the flesh and blood from their palms.

But now that his Poison Skill had reached Great Success, he no longer needed to use such a bloody and crude method for Refinement.

He only needed to inject his Gang Qi to adhere to the toxins he needed and then extract them.

"That won’t be necessary. Come forward one by one. I have my own way of extracting the poison!" Zou Feng said with a wave of his hand.

Then he turned to Tian Yun and said, "Don’t worry. I said from the very beginning that I wouldn’t harm their lives."

"Of course, it’s not without a cost. Their Cultivation of their Poison Skills will regress because of this, and it will take a considerable amount of time to recover."

When the Iron Blood Gu Poison Group member with the highest Realm heard that they wouldn’t have to let blood—meaning their lives were not in danger—he was already ecstatic. Why would he care about his Cultivation regressing?

After all, these men had all been low-level gang members before, with no hope of ever Entering Grade. They could have been killed in a gang fight at any moment.

Since following Zou Feng, although they had faced danger during the incident with Yuwen Boxi, the rest of the time had been peaceful and comfortable, allowing them to focus solely on their Cultivation.

Besides, Zou Feng had clearly explained these costs and conditions from the very beginning, letting them make their own choice.

As for Tian Yun, seeing that Zou Feng hadn’t been assimilated by the ruthless Poison Cultivators of Biyou Palace after joining them, she felt a sense of relief.

"What about the Miss? Is she still in seclusion?" Zou Feng glanced around but, as expected, didn’t see Bian Yixia.

Tian Yun replied, "She’s been in seclusion for a while this time, which is actually a good thing. She should have no problem breaking through to the Fifth Grade!"

Zou Feng nodded and asked no more questions.

In truth, having not seen her for some time, he actually missed Bian Yixia a little.

This was especially true after the last time he expelled poison for her, when an enlightened Bian Yixia had decided to join the Three Cultivators.

After all, their Cultivation of the Dragon and Tiger Kan and Li Skill had hit a bottleneck long ago, and it seemed Tian Yun alone was not enough to break through it.

Of course, Zou Feng also had to admit that his passions had been running higher and higher lately—perhaps due to the Refinement of the Poison of the Gu King...

Furthermore, Zou Feng hadn’t forgotten that once he advanced to the Third Grade, Gongsun Jinghong could show up at his door at any moment.

Engaging in dual cultivation with her using the Dragon and Tiger Kan and Li Skill would undoubtedly be of immense benefit.

But the prerequisite was that he had to seize the initiative and not let Gongsun Jinghong take the dominant position.

This, in turn, meant he first had to make some real progress with the Dragon and Tiger Kan and Li Skill...

Shaking his head slightly, Zou Feng pushed these thoughts aside. First things first, he had to extract the poison from the Iron Blood Gu Poison Group.

Not long after, every member of the Gu Poison Group present had repaid Zou Feng for his investment in them.

Although having their toxins extracted would affect their Cultivation to some degree, the spirits of the Gu Poison Group members were still quite high.

However, some of them couldn’t help but secretly worry, ’Will our General Leader make a habit of doing this every so often?’