Chapter 241: Chapter 179: Will We Win?

Midnight. Yuwen Mansion.

The household servants on night patrol were making their lazy rounds, lanterns in hand, merely going through the motions.

Their laziness was understandable. In all the years since the Yuwen Family had taken up residence, not a single incident had ever occurred.

This was only natural, of course. Across the entire Jiangnan Prefecture, who would dare to provoke the Yuwen Family?

The Celestial Essence Sword Sect could, of course, but they were considered to be on the same side. For a true conflict to erupt, something would have to go wrong with the Great Yan Royal Family.

“Huh? What’s that? Is it getting foggy?”

A household servant pointed in confusion toward the top of the courtyard wall.

Everyone’s attention was drawn to it, and they all saw the anomaly that had suddenly appeared.

In the moonlight, they could see a roiling black fog spreading rapidly from beyond the courtyard walls.

At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before the black fog blotted out the sky and completely shrouded the surrounding area.

Just staring at the black fog made the household servants’ hearts pound, stirring an instinctual fear.

It was as if, at any moment, some man-eating monster could come howling and pouncing out of the black fog.

This sudden turn of events left the household servants frozen in place, at a complete loss.

Fortunately, several guards heard the commotion and rushed over.

Upon seeing the black fog, the guards exchanged glances, clearly having no idea what was going on either.

“I’ll go check it out!”

A rather bold Seventh Grade Guard volunteered.

“Be careful!”

“It’s fine. Probably just some hocus-pocus from the Southern Border!”

He was a formidable Martial Artist, after all, and had a decent eye for things.

Though no one had ever dared cause trouble at the Yuwen Mansion before, these were times of war. It was possible some fool with a death wish had actually shown up.

The words had barely left his mouth when the guard leaped high into the air and plunged into the black fog.

Only a moment later, a blood-curdling scream echoed from within.

“AHHHHH—”

The once-confident guard came scrambling back, practically wetting himself in terror.

The look on his face was no different from that of a child scared out of his wits.

“Mon… Monsters! AHHHH…”

With the Seventh Grade Guard’s blood-curdling scream, the nightmare for the Yuwen Mansion had begun.

If one were to look at the Yuwen Mansion from afar, they would find the entire estate had been completely swallowed by a black fog so thick it seemed impossible to disperse.

Meanwhile, the architect of this chaos, Zou Feng, was perched atop the tallest building in the Yuwen Mansion, surveying his surroundings.

Beside him lay several Sixth Grade guards of the Yuwen Mansion, all on the verge of death.

Among them was Fu Zhouchen, the Yuwen Mansion’s Chief Instructor for basic skills, whose strength had reached the Fifth Grade.

“Who… Who in the world are you…”

Fu Zhouchen had actually noticed the disturbance early on. He had launched a powerful counterattack, only to be swiftly defeated.

Now, grievously poisoned, Fu Zhouchen found it difficult to even move a muscle.

Zou Feng stared at him, his face devoid of expression. “Where have you hidden Yuwen Zheng?”

Before making his move, Zou Feng had confirmed that Yuwen Boxi’s most promising son, Yuwen Zheng, was currently in the mansion.

Aside from turning the entire Yuwen Mansion into a Poison Domain, his other primary objective for this trip was, of course, to capture Yuwen Zheng alive.

Everyone knew that Yuwen Zheng was Yuwen Boxi’s greatest pride.

Unlike Yuwen Shuo, a counterfeit who had bought his way into the Gang Qi Realm with resources, Yuwen Zheng had been exceptionally talented since childhood and was also incredibly hardworking.

He was now a genuine Fifth Grade Expert.

Furthermore, he had just placed first in the Great Yan Dynasty’s martial examination, becoming the “Top Scholar.”

With Yuwen Zheng’s strength, it was highly probable that he would also seize the title of Grand Champion in the upcoming final imperial martial examination.

If the Yuwen Family were to produce a Martial Dao prodigy who achieved the “Triple First,” what a glorious honor it would bring to their ancestors.

Unfortunately, Yuwen Boxi’s recent audacious maneuvers had, in effect, thrown his own son under the bus.

“No matter who you are or why you have come… stop this at once!”

“The military experts stationed in Jiangnan Prefecture, along with the Jianghu swordsmen who are friends with my lord, have undoubtedly surrounded this place completely…”

“But if you stop now, I can swear a Heart Demon Poison Oath and guarantee you can leave here safely!” Fu Zhouchen pleaded, his tone earnest and sincere.

However, his words only earned two derisive chuckles from Zou Feng.

“Then let me ask you: those experts and swordsmen you mentioned, the ones who have supposedly sealed this place off… why haven’t they come in to save you?”

The question indeed made Fu Zhouchen falter.

’He had, of course, considered this question. Even though it’s nighttime, the entire Yuwen Mansion is shrouded in a black, poisonous fog. It’s impossible that the outside world hasn’t noticed something is wrong.’

’Plenty of experts should have arrived by now.’

’And yet, to this moment, no one has entered the Yuwen Mansion to stage a rescue…’

’There could only be one reason… they can’t get in!’

The black, poisonous fog made all the experts hesitate. They either didn’t dare enter, or they had made a tentative foray only to discover how bizarrely potent the poison was and beat a hasty retreat.

’Saving people was one thing, but if it was highly likely to cost them their own life, anyone would have to weigh the options. Was it worth it?’

’It wasn’t their own family in trouble, after all…’

And indeed, the Poison Domain Zou Feng had created was no small matter.

Although it was his first attempt at creating a large-scale Poison Domain, Zou Feng had held nothing back, unleashing his entire arsenal.

He had even activated his “Three-Minute True Man” state ahead of schedule, just to infuse the Poison Domain with even more toxins.

There were the toxins from the Five Poison Creatures, which had mutated many times; the mind-corrupting poison of the Great Universal Hand; the Corpse Poison from the Corpse Luo Heart Scripture; the bone-dissolving poison of the Bone-Softening Palm; and the Blood Poison from the “Blood Coagulation Claw,” a skill he had already integrated into the Great Universal Hand…

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