"Chu Feng!!!"
"Junior Brother Chu Feng, it's wonderful that you're safe!!!"
Upon seeing Chu Feng, Elder Gongsun, Wang Wei, and the rest — whose faces had been twisted with grief and fury — instantly broke into ecstatic smiles.
They had already accepted that Chu Feng might be dead, that the Southern Forest's last hope had been shattered. For him to suddenly appear before them, alive and breathing, was nothing short of a miracle — a joy that set their hearts racing.
"So that bastard's still alive? Could it be that Qin Guang..." Compared to the Southern Forest's elation, Yuan Qing's expression turned rather grim.
"Elder Gongsun, Senior Brothers and Sisters, I lost my way deep within the Celestial Pool, so I ended up surfacing in the wrong area. I'm sorry for making you worry." Chu Feng bowed to Elder Gongsun and the others with a smile, seizing the opportunity to conceal the real reason he had returned from a different location.
"As long as you're safe, that's all that matters." At this moment, Elder Gongsun couldn't have cared less about why Chu Feng hadn't returned from the central waters. Seeing him unharmed was enough to set his heart alight with irrepressible joy.
"Lost your way? So many people ventured into the depths of the Ancient Celestial Pool — how is it that only you got lost? Your cultivation must be lacking, hm?" Yuan Qing suddenly cut in with a mocking sneer.
"Oh? So you're saying that out of everyone who entered the depths this year, I'm the only one who got lost?" Chu Feng replied with a puzzled look. Then, after sweeping his gaze across the crowd, he continued: "That's strange. What about Qin Guang of your Constellation Observatory? He must have entered the Ancient Celestial Pool together with you, right? How come you're standing here perfectly fine, but Qin Guang is nowhere to be seen? Can you honestly guarantee he didn't get lost just like I did?"
"You—" Yuan Qing's composure cracked at those words. He knew perfectly well why Qin Guang had separated from him — Qin Guang had gone to hunt down Chu Feng.
And now Chu Feng stood before them completely unscathed, while Qin Guang still hadn't shown his face. That could only mean one thing: Qin Guang had met a tragic end. Though Yuan Qing had no idea what means Chu Feng had used to overcome Qin Guang, it was obvious that Chu Feng was exploiting Qin Guang's disappearance to humiliate the Constellation Observatory and slap him across the face. How could he possibly tolerate that?
"My Senior Brother Qin Guang is not someone you can insult." With that thought, Yuan Qing's long hair whipped about wildly, his robes snapping in the wind, and a tremendous wave of pressure erupted forth — like an invisible, ferocious beast, like an unseen tempest — bearing down on Chu Feng. It was the pressure of a Second-rank Martial King.
"This is bad." The moment Yuan Qing's pressure was unleashed, Elder Gongsun's brow knotted tightly, his expression shifting dramatically. He knew exactly what Yuan Qing was doing.
This place was the territory of the Ancient Elves, where humans and demon beasts were strictly forbidden from fighting freely.
Yuan Qing knew this perfectly well, but he still wanted to teach Chu Feng a lesson, so he released his pressure, intending to crush him.
The pressure was released openly — while the Ancient Elves might not have been able to sense it, everyone else present certainly could.
Under normal circumstances, someone might have stepped in to stop Yuan Qing, or even called him out publicly. But now, Yuan Qing was the hero in everyone's eyes. People were scrambling to curry his favor — who would dare intervene?
Not only would no one stop him, but if Elder Gongsun were to act at this moment, he would likely be turned on by the crowd, accused of bullying a junior with his own pressure. Then it wouldn't just be him who suffered — the entire Southern Forest would be implicated, inviting the Constellation Observatory's retaliation.
Thus, he found himself trapped in an impossible dilemma: on one side was Chu Feng's safety, on the other, the fate of the Southern Forest.
"BOOM"