"Sigh..." When the matter came up, Wang Wei's face fell with helplessness as she said, "It was someone from our Southern Forest of Green Wood."
"What? Someone from the Southern Forest?" Hearing this, Chu Feng was even more shocked, finding the whole thing utterly baffling.
"That's right. They were senior brothers from our Southern Forest," Wang Wei confirmed.
"Sister Wang Wei, what exactly happened here?" Chu Feng was thoroughly confused. Disciples of the Southern Forest all came from the same roots. As senior brothers who had set foot on Green Wood Mountain first, they should have been looking after their juniors — how could they have beaten people?
"Several of our Southern Forest senior brothers established a branch here in the Core Area, but things didn't go well for them. They couldn't seem to recruit any members, so in order to bolster their ranks, they started forcibly dragging Southern Forest disciples like us into their branch. The first ones they caught were Zhang Bingnan and Liu Chao."
"But Zhang Bingnan and Liu Chao were dead set on joining the Ascension Branch, and the branch those senior brothers had put together was laughably weak. Their branch leader was only a second-rank Martial King, and he was already over forty."
"Over forty years old, second-rank Martial King — in the Core Area of Green Wood Mountain, that was completely unremarkable. You could even call it the absolute bottom of the barrel in terms of overall disciple strength."
"A branch like that, naturally nobody wanted to join, so Zhang Bingnan and Liu Chao politely declined those senior brothers."
"But who could have guessed they'd fly into a rage out of humiliation, claiming Zhang Bingnan and Liu Chao were being disrespectful to their elders — and beat them."
"Not only that, they took them away on the spot, then spread the word that all of us Southern Forest disciples had better show up at their branch's doorstep. If we weren't all there before today, Zhang Bingnan and the others would face the consequences."
"After getting the news, Zhao Genshuo, Kong Lianfeng, and the others were worried something would happen to Zhang Bingnan and Liu Chao, so they rushed over."
"But with their strength, they can't change a thing. So they had me stay here and wait for you to come back." Wang Wei laid out the whole situation, and the way she looked at Chu Feng was brimming with reliance — she clearly saw him as their pillar of support.
"How outrageous!" The moment Chu Feng heard this, fury surged through him and he ground his teeth in anger.
Now he understood. These were disgruntled Southern Forest disciples who had cobbled together some pathetic branch of their own. Because they were too weak to attract any members, they'd turned their sights on their fellow Southern Forest disciples and come to bully their own juniors.
If they had been bullying all the disciples equally, that would be one thing. But it seemed they were only targeting Southern Forest disciples.
And what did that tell you? It meant they didn't dare lay a finger on disciples from other factions — they only had the nerve to bully Southern Forest disciples. The classic type who throws their weight around at home but crumbles the moment they step outside. Of all people, Chu Feng had zero tolerance for that sort.
"Sister Wang Wei, do you know where those scum senior brothers from the Southern Forest set up their branch?" Chu Feng asked.
"I do. The junior brother who came to warn us gave me the address." Wang Wei nodded.
"Lead the way." Even as the words left his mouth, Chu Feng launched himself into the air, eager to go meet these degenerate senior brothers from the Southern Forest.
Wang Wei didn't dare dawdle either. She immediately leaped up and followed the address they'd been given.
The Core Area was vast, but that so-called branch wasn't far from their territory, so the two of them arrived in short order.
This place was indeed a territory of its own, but above its main gate hung a gleaming golden plaque bearing the words: "Stable Branch."