"Do you know Dantai Xue?" Chu Feng asked.
"I... I do." Yan Gui dared not hide anything.
"Then do you know where she is now?" Chu Feng asked.
"She... she..." Yan Gui hesitated, but ultimately said, "She's inside our Curse Earth Gate."
"Inside your Curse Earth Gate? She isn't a disciple of your Curse Earth Gate — so why would she be there? Did you capture her?" Chu Feng asked coldly.
"Yes. She was captured by our Headmaster," Yan Gui replied.
"Why did you capture her?" Chu Feng asked.
"Not only did she steal the Headmaster's Rune Soul-Stealing Flute, but she also killed four of my junior brothers. Naturally, the Headmaster wouldn't let her go," Yan Gui said.
Hearing this, Chu Feng's heart trembled. Who was Dantai Xue? She was the mysterious woman who had come to the Sacred Martial Land alongside Jiang Qisha and the others.
Dantai Xue had helped Chu Feng many times — she had shown him extraordinary kindness. Originally, Chu Feng and Dantai Xue were supposed to travel to the Sacred Martial Land together, but something had gone wrong along the way. They failed to enter the Curse Earth Domain together, and instead, Chu Feng had ended up in the Greenwood Domain.
Because of this, Chu Feng had been worried about Dantai Xue this whole time, not knowing whether she had made it back to the Curse Earth Domain safely on her own.
Now, hearing Yan Gui's words, Chu Feng grew even more worried. Clearly, things were not going well for Dantai Xue.
"You haven't killed her yet? Why not?" Although Chu Feng had learned that Dantai Xue was captured, he could tell from Yan Gui's words that she had only been taken prisoner and was not yet dead.
"Because the Headmaster's Rune Soul-Stealing Flute was hidden by her. Until the flute is found, she can't be killed," Yan Gui said.
"The Rune Soul-Stealing Flute — what exactly is that?" Chu Feng asked.
"It's an incomplete Emperor Weapon, a treasured heirloom of our Curse Earth Gate," Yan Gui said.
"And if Dantai Xue refuses to tell you where she hid the Rune Soul-Stealing Flute, even in the face of death — what then?" Chu Feng asked.
"If she won't talk even under threat of death, then given the Headmaster's temperament, he would make her wish she were dead. She would eventually break." Yan Gui confessed everything truthfully — he truly dared not hold anything back, terrified that Chu Feng would cripple his cultivation.
"Hahaha... Good, good. Dantai Xue, I never expected you'd end up like this." Suddenly, Chu Feng burst into laughter, laughing with great joy, wild and unrestrained.
He was doing it on purpose. Yan Gui and the others were disciples of the Curse Earth Gate. Chu Feng could cripple their cultivation, but he couldn't actually kill them — that would cause an uproar, potentially even triggering a war between Greenwood Mountain and the Curse Earth Gate, two transcendent powers.
To avoid such a war, Greenwood Mountain might very well hand Chu Feng over to the Curse Earth Gate for punishment.
So Chu Feng couldn't kill Yan Gui and the others. And since he couldn't kill them, the questions he had just asked would inevitably make Yan Gui suspicious.
If Yan Gui became wary and reported everything to the Curse Earth Gate's Headmaster upon his return, things would go very badly. Dantai Xue would either be moved elsewhere or killed outright.
To prevent this, Chu Feng deliberately laughed. He wanted Yan Gui to believe that he and Dantai Xue were bitter enemies.
His inquiries about Dantai Xue weren't out of concern for her — he simply wanted to know whether she was still alive.
This way, Yan Gui and the others would let their guard down and might not even mention it to the Headmaster. After all, they had revealed a secret — if the Headmaster found out about their slip, they would be in deep trouble.
"Junior Brother Chu Feng, could it be... that you also have a deep grudge against that Dantai Xue?" Sure enough, Yan Gui fell for Chu Feng's act, believing that Chu Feng too harbored a deep hatred for Dantai Xue.
"A very deep grudge. A very great hatred. But it doesn't matter — as long as she's doing poorly, I can rest easy."
"Seeing as we share a common enemy, I'll spare your lives today."
As he spoke, Chu Feng waved his sleeve and dissolved the Auspicious Cloud Formation in the sky, finally releasing Yan Gui and the others from their bindings.