Chapter 1426 - 1429: Hope You Don’t Embarrass Yourself Too Much!

"Even though I think what you said kind of makes sense..." Lin Feng nodded, then looked seriously at Ye Liangdao and asked in a low voice, "But I still want to ask one more thing—are you begging me right now?"

"Begging you?!" Ye Liangdao’s face went pale. He looked at Lin Feng, clearly embarrassed, and forced out, "Lin Feng, what kind of bullshit is that? How could I possibly be begging you?! I... I’m just suggesting you go up and challenge Wang Bing..."

"Heh, a suggestion..." Lin Feng curled his lip, shot Ye Liangdao a slightly mocking glance, and said in a flat tone, "How come I don’t remember being that close with you?"

Ye Liangdao was instantly choked speechless...

The Hong Sect brothers who didn’t know about the grudge between Lin Feng and Ye Liangdao finally saw it clearly: turns out these two don’t get along at all, and Master Ye is trying to egg Lord Lin on to go up there and serve himself as fodder... Damn, Master Ye is way too sly!

Just then, Wang Bing on the stage suddenly spoke up, "I thought all the brothers in the Hong Sect were real men, but I didn’t expect you’d all be this cowardly... I, a woman, have taken over the ring, and not only do you not come up to challenge me, you’re actually down there shoving each other around. Anyone who doesn’t know better would think you’re politely taking turns to go receive an award! Heh... I was planning to play around a bit more, but looks like there’s no need. How about this: all you leaders who don’t dare get on stage, just admit defeat and acknowledge me as Sect Leader! I’m not all that interested in this Hong Sect Sect Leader position, but I heard that in over a hundred years, Hong Sect has never had a female Sect Leader. Might be fun to give it a try..."

This time when Wang Bing spoke, she secretly infused her Inner Strength. Every spectator in the venue heard her loud and clear, and for a split second, almost everyone’s expression went blank... Are they really going to let Wang Bing take the throne and become Hong Sect’s first female Sect Leader? No way—where would the Hong Sect men’s pride go?!

The next second, the crowd below the ring practically exploded. One after another, people started shouting angrily:

"What kind of joke is this? How can we let a woman get this cocky?!"

"Yeah, I already couldn’t accept her back when she became a leader. How can we let her become Sect Leader?"

"Any leader is fucking not allowed to chicken out. All of you get up there. I don’t believe this—just wear her out..."

"Everyone go up. If you can drain even a bit of her strength, drain a bit..."

...

In an instant, the whole basement almost turned into a noisy vegetable market...

"Silence!"

At that moment, an old yet still authoritative voice roared out. It was like a gust of wild wind sweeping through the basement, instantly quieting everyone down...

The speaker was none other than the Hong Sect patriarch, former Sect Leader Xu Yishan!

Xu Yishan’s face carried a cold, stern look. His sharp eyes swept across all the Hong Sect brothers present as he said in a deep voice, "What kind of occasion do you think this is? The Hong Sect annual meeting—you think it’s a sports day?! Electing a Sect Leader is a serious business, and you’re all here yelling and messing around like this. What are you acting like? With so many fellow jianghu people watching, you’re not afraid of making us a laughingstock?!"

Hearing Xu Yishan’s angry voice, many people silently lowered their heads.

"Lin Feng! Step out for me!" Xu Yishan looked toward the crowd and suddenly called Lin Feng by name.

In an instant, all the Hong Sect brothers’ gazes once again locked onto Lin Feng, every pair of eyes filled with expectation.

Lin Feng looked at Xu Yishan with a bitter smile. This old man really had a way of dumping trouble on him...

"Brother Feng, you... you’re okay with this, right?" Zhu Xiuyue stared at Lin Feng nervously. She had just witnessed Wang Bing’s performance and her heart was already starting to pound. She didn’t even dare believe Lin Feng had a real chance of beating Wang Bing...

Even Zhou Yang, Xie Nan, and Xiang Wang were all looking at Lin Feng with questioning eyes. They could all tell that Wang Bing’s strength probably wasn’t below that Mage Ci Yun from a few days ago... Last time, Lin Feng had already struggled to win in a head-on fight against Master Ciyun. He’d used a trick—taking advantage of the fact that Ci Yun didn’t dare clash with him directly—to secretly use the Innate Vitality Returning Finger to pull off a sneak attack. This time, can Lin Feng still win?

Lin Feng didn’t turn around. He just replied to Zhu Xiuyue lightly, "Xiuyue, don’t forget, we’ve staked our entire net worth on this. Can we afford to lose?"

Zhu Xiuyue stiffened slightly. After sneaking a glance at Zhou Yang, she didn’t say anything more... She hadn’t told Zhou Yang that she’d put all the money he gave her into the betting pool.

After speaking, Lin Feng started walking toward Xu Yishan.

"What do you mean, staked your entire net worth? Xiuyue, you went gambling?" Zhou Yang asked Zhu Xiuyue curiously.

Zhu Xiuyue’s face flushed red. She cleared her throat lightly and said, "That’s Brother Feng’s classified secret. You’ll find out tomorrow!"

Zhou Yang froze for a moment, then said, a little depressed, "I’ve followed Boss for so many years, and he actually has secrets I don’t know about?"

Zhu Xiuyue only smiled and kept her mouth shut.

...

"Old Xu, what instructions do you have for me?" Lin Feng walked up to Xu Yishan and asked, his expression looking rather nonchalant.

"Hmph, kid, drop the act!" Xu Yishan glared coldly at Lin Feng and said unhappily, "Letting a woman stand up there on the stage for this long—are you thinking we haven’t lost enough face as the Hong Sect already?!"

"Old Xu, that’s something I don’t like hearing..." Before Lin Feng could speak, Wang Bing on the stage cut in to refute Xu Yishan. She slanted a glance at Lin Feng and said coolly, "I joined the Hong Sect with your personal approval, at least. What, does that mean I’m not one of Hong Sect’s people?"

Right now, what Wang Bing was actually curious about was: on what basis did Xu Yishan think Lin Feng could beat her?

"Of course you’re not one of Hong Sect’s people..." Xu Yishan shot Wang Bing an annoyed glance and said in a deep voice, "I owe the Qiushui School a favor, so I agreed to let you join Hong Sect for a period of training and broaden your horizons. I didn’t agree to let you come here to mess around with Hong Sect!"

Wang Bing’s face went pale. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she sneered, "Old Xu, that’s really unreasonable of you. I know I didn’t do things the way you wanted, so you’re upset. But I haven’t broken any Hong Sect rules—how exactly have I messed anything up?! Since you’ve put it that bluntly, then I really want to see who tonight can beat me off this ring! Old Xu, if you’re in a bad mood, you can come up and give it a try yourself too..."

Arrogant. Utterly arrogant.

When the Hong Sect crowd heard Wang Bing actually provoke Xu Yishan, they nearly exploded again... Unfortunately, Old Xu had just gone off on them, so right now no one dared to make him any angrier.

Xu Yishan narrowed his eyes, gave Wang Bing a cold smile, and said blandly, "Little girl, don’t think that just because you come from a Hidden World Sect, you can look down on everyone else. My seniority is higher than yours, so it’s not appropriate for me to fight you. Lin Feng is of my nephew’s generation—let him play with you. I just hope you don’t end up disgracing yourself too badly."