Chapter 1199: Finally Made a Move

When a group of Half-Saints saw Chu Feng and the Monkey exchanging knowing glances, clearly communicating something in secret, they immediately felt quite annoyed, wishing they could rush forward and give them a good beating!

In fact, Chu Feng was secretly recommending an ancient sage's handbook, "The Self-Cultivation of Evolvers," to the Monkey. He told the Monkey that his performance earlier was too clumsy; he could have milked the fake injury for all it was worth, but instead he needlessly jumped up, making the whole act look terrible!

The Monkey felt like lashing out again, but remembering the secret plot Chu Feng had just hatched with them, he held back. This time, they genuinely intended to play dirty against the Half-Saints, and they needed to rely on Cao De as their main asset!

The Half-Saints were furious. The God-King had warned them that they must report to the Black Jail within two days, or face severe punishment. This granted them some time to make their own arrangements.

In the distance, the youthful and radiant Mi Qing witnessed the entire scene and was quite speechless. Her brother was truly embarrassing, resorting to staging a fake injury! And Chu Feng was definitely the instigator; he was the one who egged her brother on! Beside her stood an elegant and transcendent man, frowning and watching the scene with profound speechlessness. This was Chi Lingkong, from the Exotic Desolate Crane Clan. He felt a surge of doubt. Was this kind of collaborator truly reliable? To stoop to faking an injury was truly disgraceful, and he found it deeply unseemly.

At that moment, several elders stepped away and vanished.

“Cao De, you're something else!” the Half-Saints exclaimed, their eyes blazing with fury as they stared at Chu Feng.

“Oh, you really are quite the ‘Scam Monkey’!” Jin Lin scoffed, personally tagging the Monkey with the new moniker.

Upon hearing this, the Monkey's face turned green, and he immediately bristled with anger. If that nickname spread, how would he ever show his face again? It was a truly dreadful moniker.

Not letting him say more, Jin Lin sneered disdainfully, “Don’t fidget so nervously, and don’t come near me! I’m afraid that if you deliberately bump into me, you’ll bleed from all seven orifices and your body will crack open. I simply can’t afford to provoke a 'Scam Monkey' like you!”

“This is… truly enough!” The Monkey bristled with shame and rage, but found himself utterly speechless.

In fact, Jin Lin didn't waste any more words on him. Instead, she walked over to Chu Feng, her eyes blazing with a murderous glint, crackling with electric sparks, absolutely seething with rage! She genuinely wanted to strike, but in the end, she could only hold back. She secretly communicated, signaling the group of Half-Saints to approach. They weren't to attack directly, but rather to suppress Chu Feng with their mental power. This was an invisible force! Including Jin Lin herself, a total of twelve Half-Saints surrounded Chu Feng. None of them laid a hand on him, but instead, they unleashed the full extent of their mental pressure.

With the cream of the crop among the twelve Half-Saints acting in concert, the sheer mental force they unleashed was astounding. For an evolver at the Golden Body level, it was an unbearable burden! Any other person would likely have collapsed to the ground, utterly unable to withstand such suppression. Strictly speaking, these Half-Saints were once again breaking the rules, but since Chu Feng was still standing and resisting the pressure, not collapsing to the ground, outsiders found it difficult to definitively say they had crossed a line. Most critically, everyone could see that Jin Lin and her companions were deliberately trying to provoke him, skirting the very edge of the rules. They knew that if Cao De truly succumbed, they would immediately back off and cease their suppression.

“Cao De, you’re not brave and upright; it’s clear now you’re just a scoundrel! How dare you trick us?!” Jin Lin spoke, her gaze chilling as she stared at Chu Feng. Remembering how he had poked her chest just a short while ago, she nearly lost control of her rage. She said contemptuously, “I’ll give you one chance: publicly kowtow and apologize to me, and all our past grievances will be forgotten!” With Chu Feng immobilized by their combined mental suppression, she brazenly made this insulting demand.

Though she was stunningly beautiful, with a slender figure and captivating curves, her long golden hair shimmering brightly, her fair skin radiant, and her eyes sparkling enchantingly, she made Chu Feng’s pupils contract. He wanted to lash out immediately, utterly enraged that she was pushing him so far. At that moment, his bones were creaking ominously. Any other person would likely have cracked and then exploded under the suppression of the twelve Half-Saints!

“Jin Lin, you’re going too far! I’m going to call for help!” The Monkey and his companions’ expressions changed, and they quickly summoned the elders, worried that Chu Feng might be crippled.

“Don’t worry, we haven’t laid a hand on him!” Jin Lin and the others didn’t dare to push their luck too far. Before leaving, they delivered a final coordinated assault, using invisible mental soul-light resonance to teach Cao De a lesson. They even hoped to rupture his soul-light in the process! To their surprise, however, Cao De’s mental energy proved incredibly strong. Though it reeled from the attack, it remained extraordinarily resilient and did not rupture.

“Alright, you refuse to back down today. This means you want to fight me to the bitter end. Just you wait and see!” Jin Lin extended her hand, this time directly reaching out her index finger and repeatedly tapping Chu Feng’s glabella. “You’re nothing but a wild cultivator,” she sneered, “Soon you’ll understand your own insignificance and weakness. I have countless ways to kill you. Just wait for death!” She turned and walked away, and the others followed suit.

By this time, the Monkey and his companions had summoned two elders, but they did not intervene. They clearly felt the matter should end there, as no actual combat had occurred, and it was best to simply smooth things over.

Chu Feng was enraged, glaring at Jin Lin and her group. He considered it a profound humiliation that, in those final moments, over a dozen Half-Saints had jointly used soul-light to suppress him and prevent him from moving. He let out a furious roar that shook the Golden Body encampment, causing many to feel their vitality surge and almost faint. Chu Feng was about to pursue and kill Jin Lin, his gaze radiating an intimidating and terrifying intensity. The Monkey, Peng Wanli, and Xiao Yao quickly held him back, preventing him from chasing after them. They advised him that a gentleman’s revenge is a dish best served cold.

“In fact,” they consoled him, “we don’t even need to wait until tomorrow! Haven’t we already agreed to take them down before sunset?” They reassured him, promising to join forces for a sneak attack later.

“This is an outrage! To be threatened like this!” Chu Feng fumed.

“It’s not humiliating at all!” they countered. “You alone stood against the combined mental might of twelve Half-Saints! That alone is enough to shake them. Didn’t you notice how uneasy they were when they left, worried about what you might become? You are already incredibly strong! What’s more,” they added, “they are among the strongest Half-Saints, rarely matched by other evolvers of the same rank!”

With the Monkey and Peng Wanli forcibly dragging him along, Chu Feng was taken away to the Monkey’s tent-dwelling for a secret conference. Meanwhile, a buzz of discussion filled the Golden Body encampment. The day’s events had been too astounding; the Golden Body and Half-Saints had nearly come to blows, and Cao De had proven far too formidable. Of course, the term "Scam Monkey" also became a frequently discussed topic. If the Monkey knew, he would undoubtedly be furious. Regardless, from that day forward, he indeed bore a moniker that infuriated him and which he despised.

“Alright, then,” Chu Feng declared, pacing back and forth in the Monkey’s tent-dwelling, gripping his spiked club. “When the sun sets today, I don’t care about the others; Jin Lin is mine to deal with!”

The Monkey said, “Don’t be angry. I have a bad feeling that after my fake injury stunt today, I might never shake off this stigma.” He huffed in exasperation, feeling that he might well become infamous alongside Cao De.

They deliberated at length, deciding that their ambush would target three individuals and take place at sunset today! As for how to lure those three Half-Saints into appearing together, Chu Feng didn’t need to plan it; the Monkey and his companions had already drafted various contingency plans a while ago, just waiting to execute them.

During the discussion, Chi Lingkong seemed a bit reluctant. He felt as though he had boarded a pirate ship, and being associated with these individuals made him feel rather embarrassed. The plans and steps they were discussing were far from honorable.

Mi Qing also spoke up, saying, “I also find this a bit embarrassing. This time, we should defeat them honorably. Otherwise, it will be utterly disgraceful. How could you possibly be proud to appear on that list then?” Her brother’s plan even included underhanded tactics like streaking, knowing that with women among their ambush targets, they would likely be so mortified that they wouldn’t dare to look directly for a moment. Furthermore, there were other dirty tricks, all of them rather devious.

“A fair fight, none of these!” Chu Feng declared, waving his hand dismissively. “One should be magnanimous!”

The Monkey murmured, “Didn’t you provide half of these dirty tricks yourself?”

“Nonsense! Don’t ruin my reputation in front of our sister!” Chu Feng vehemently denied.

They quickly sprang into action. The Monkey assigned someone to make arrangements, as he had an informant within the Half-Saint encampment. “Alright,” he reported, “Jin Lin will leave the Half-Saint encampment before sunset to find Kun Long in another camp. We’ll ambush them on the way!” In addition, two other formidable experts, also on their target list, would be accompanying Jin Lin to the other camp for various reasons.

The red sun sank in the west, and the evening glow painted half the sky crimson. From the distant horizon, three figures emerged from the Half-Saint encampment, heading in their direction. In the crimson glow of the setting sun, their forms were bathed in a rich, dark red light, faintly shimmering with gold, and their shadows stretched long across the ground.

They were in a stone forest, where Chu Feng and the others had been hiding for a long time, just waiting to spring their ambush.

It was indeed Jin Lin, wearing a long gown that shimmered with starlight, looking utterly stunning. Each strand of her golden hair glittered, and in the setting sun, her fair, delicate face was exceptionally beautiful.

“They’re here! Nobody snatch them from me!” Chu Feng muttered secretly.

Moments later, the three passed by their location.

Boom!

Chu Feng burst forth, launching the first attack. Gripping his spiked club, he leaped from behind a massive boulder and swung with all his might towards Jin Lin’s head. He was so incredibly fast, moving like a bolt of lightning, that even Jin Lin couldn’t dodge him. The attack was utterly sudden! Sparks flew, and a deafening crash echoed. The entire stone forest shook as a terrifying wave of energy spread outwards, causing the surrounding hills and massive boulders to explode into dust under the force of the ripple.

Chu Feng’s arm went numb; the spiked club actually sparked as if it had struck metal. Was Jin Lin’s head really that hard?! At that moment, Jin Lin was dizzy, her head throbbing painfully, and tears almost sprang to her eyes. The blow had landed on a pair of gleaming Qilin horns hidden within her golden hair, causing her such intense pain that she wanted to cry. The sheer force of the impact left her completely stunned.

Chu Feng, still unaware that he had struck her Qilin horns, angrily exclaimed, “That’s harder than a block of wood! Is your head made of metal?!”

When Jin Lin finally saw who it was, she erupted in a furious rage. Tears were welling up, her ears were ringing, and golden stars danced before her eyes, yet she realized it was this damned scoundrel who had ambushed her, and then had the audacity to say such a thing!

“Kill!”

The two immediately clashed, entering into a direct, decisive battle. However, Jin Lin had been caught by surprise and was still somewhat dizzy, making her reactions slightly sluggish. Chu Feng executed a Dragon-Flood Leg, flying horizontally through the air, his legs scissoring open like a massive pair of shears to ensnare Jin Lin! One leg aimed at Jin Lin’s face, while the other struck her lower calf. The impact was intense, but Jin Lin resisted fiercely. Chu Feng couldn't knock her down, but he seized the opportunity to wrap himself around her, his two legs locking her in place.