Nonsense! How could my adopted son be a villain?

The faint morning light dispelled the last trace of chill lingering in his dream, but it could not dispel the gloom in Xu Lingguang's heart.

The dream was too real, especially the moment the monster turned its head at the end. Although he couldn't see its face clearly, the malice and fear that pierced his soul left him unable to calm down for a long time.

Xu Lingguang took a deep breath to calm the heaviness brought on by the nightmare before getting up to wash up.

After changing his clothes and going out, Liu Zhu was already waiting in the courtyard. When he saw him come out, his gaze lingered for a moment on the dark circles under Liu Zhu's eyes: "Didn't sleep well again?"

Xu Lingguang rubbed his temples, which were throbbing and tight, and gave a wry smile: "Hmm."

Liu Zhu stared at him, feeling that he still had something to say, but she was not one to meddle. Since Xu Lingguang didn't bring it up, she didn't ask any further questions. Instead, she said, "Shall we go have breakfast first? It seems that Master Fu and Master Tie had something to discuss. They went to the reception room early this morning and asked me to wait for you here."

Upon hearing this, Xu Lingguang and Liuzhu went to the reception room together.

They arrived rather late; there were already quite a few people in the hall.

Xu Lingguang glanced over and noticed that Zhao De'an was not among the Grandmasters, and two of his accompanying disciples were also missing. If he remembered correctly, they should be Zhao De'an's disciples.

The atmosphere in the hall was somewhat strange. The grandmasters all looked rather unwell, but this was not surprising. Ever since the Human Emperor vomited blood yesterday, their expressions had been consistently grim, with each of them looking worried and unhappy.

This made the disciples extremely cautious, not daring to breathe too loudly, for fear that their words would ignite a firecracker.

However, unlike Tie Yao, who is a disciple of a junior grandmaster, she is cheerful and has a clear preference for Tie Kuang. She is always the most lively and outspoken. Whenever everyone gathers together, it is hard to ignore her chattering.

But she was unusually silent today.

Xu Lingguang and Liu Zhu sat down in the empty seats next to Tie Yao and whispered, "What happened?"

Seeing that he and Liu Zhu had just arrived and were obviously unaware of what had happened, Tie Yao whispered to him, "Just a little while before you arrived, one of Zhao De'an's disciples suddenly went mad. You didn't see it, but it was terrifying."

Recalling the previous scene, Tie Yao couldn't help but rub the goosebumps that were springing up on his arms and muttered to himself, "I knew this place had bad feng shui."

"go Ape?"

Xu Lingguang asked in bewilderment, "Why would someone suddenly go crazy?"

Moreover, not only was the Pill Emperor present, but also so many Grandmasters, and even the accompanying disciples were among the best of the best among alchemists. Even if he had really gone mad, the atmosphere shouldn't be this heavy.

"Who knows? My uncle was discussing the Emperor's condition with several other grandmasters, and we disciples were just chatting idly when he suddenly went mad. He collapsed to the ground, rolling around and screaming that he was in so much pain and that someone was biting him."

Tie Yao's words are rather limited and cannot accurately recreate the scene at that time.

In fact, after the male disciple fell to the ground, he rolled around on the ground, as if he had a hysterical fit, desperately trying to drive something away, and crying out things like "It hurts" and "Don't bite me".

Because it happened so suddenly, everyone was stunned and stood there for a moment without being able to react.

The disciple seemed to realize that begging for help was useless, so he gritted his teeth, took out his magic weapon, and was about to stab himself with tears streaming down his face. After he stabbed himself twice, the other disciples who were stunned by his actions reacted and hurriedly stepped forward to hold him down.

Instead of regaining his senses, he screamed even louder, crying and begging everyone to give him a quick death, saying that he was going to be eaten.

Tie Yao crossed his arms and said, "Later, it was Master Zhao who knocked him unconscious. But my uncle and several other masters examined him and found no injuries on his body. Another disciple who lived with him also said that he hadn't shown any unusual behavior before, except that he hadn't slept well at night and was a little listless in the morning. But after arriving at the reception room, he suddenly went crazy."

His whole body aches? And something is biting him?

Xu Lingguang's heart skipped a beat, and for some reason, he remembered the dream from last night.

The sticky chewing sound and the figure being devoured in his dream flashed through his mind instantly. Although he did not see the monster's or the person on the ground clearly, he had seen Zhao De'an's disciple before. The other party was named Lu Dong, with a slender figure and a thin face. He was about four hundred years old, a high-level alchemist, and Zhao De'an's last disciple.

However, Lu Dong seemed to be somewhat taciturn. Xu Lingguang had not had much contact with him and could not be considered familiar with him. But after hearing Tie Yao's words, Xu Lingguang couldn't help but compare him to the figure being devoured by a monster in his dream.

The figure was wearing a white undershirt and had no obvious distinguishing features, but the two people had very similar slender builds.

Xu Lingguang's left eye kept twitching. He didn't know if he was just being paranoid or if Lu Dong's sudden madness was really related to the dream.

He forced himself to remain calm and asked, "Where is Lu Dong now? Even the Pill Emperor and several Grandmasters can't figure out the problem, so it's probably even harder for others to find the cause of the illness, right?"

Tie Yao sighed and said, "I think Grandmaster Zhao seems to be a little embarrassed by Lu Dong. In addition, since Dan Huang and the other Grandmasters can't see anything wrong with Lu Dong, Grandmaster Zhao probably thinks that Lu Dong is having a fit of hysteria. He has already taken people to find Eunuch Zhong, saying that he plans to send him back to recuperate first."

While claiming to be recuperating, it's more likely that he's annoyed by the trouble the other party has caused and is preparing to get rid of this trouble from the palace, so he won't have to see it or worry about it.

As the two were talking, Zhao De'an returned with another disciple, Zhang Min, looking dejected.

People gathered around to inquire, "Zhang Min, how is Lu Dong?"

Zhang Min pursed his lips and said dejectedly, "Eunuch Zhong asked a physician to examine Lu Dong, but the physician couldn't find anything wrong. He only said that Lu Dong might have been stimulated by something, which caused him to suddenly have hysteria. This kind of thing can happen. Some cultivators, or even ordinary people, might suddenly go crazy after being stimulated."

"Then what should we do? Can Lu Dong still stay in the palace?"

"That shouldn't be possible, right? Didn't Master Zhao say he was going to send the person back to recuperate?"

The crowd discussed amongst themselves, even drowning out Zhang Min's voice, which made Xu Lingguang listen intently to what Zhang Min was saying. He heard Zhang Min say dejectedly, "Originally, we were going to send him back to recuperate, but Eunuch Zhong said that the Emperor's illness cannot be spread outside. Before the Emperor recovers, no one can leave without permission. So we set up a quiet courtyard for Lu Dong to stay there temporarily."

Xu Lingguang's mind raced. The strange dream urged him to go and see Lu Dong's condition for himself, so he said, "We have known Lu Dong for a while now. He's sick and can't go back. It's pitiful that he's recuperating alone. Do you know where he's staying? Why don't we go and visit him together? Maybe he'll calm down and get better."

Zhang Min said, "Lu Dong has been placed in the Jingsi Hall, which is quite far from the Yuling Palace. Moreover, my master told me not to disturb him, and Eunuch Zhong has already arranged for people to take care of him."

As Xu Lingguang listened, the doubts in his heart grew heavier and heavier.

The timing and symptoms of Lu Dong's illness were too strange; he probably wouldn't feel at ease without seeing it for himself.