362 The Dilemma Between Emotions and Morals

Li Mao closed his eyes, but the pain he had imagined did not come. When he opened his eyes and saw the scene in front of him clearly, his face was pale.

Countless poisonous insects climbed up the Valley of Medicine Masters disciples, and the sound of the insects eating was even more obvious in the silent night.

There were colorful poisonous spiders and fist-sized centipedes. One could even see their sharp mandibles clearly. Li Mao felt nauseated, and so did the spectators.

Not to mention the people who were surrounded by poisonous creatures and enduring the pain of thousands of arrows piercing through their hearts.

The disciples rolled on the ground in pain. Their faces were twisted, and their veins were popping. Their eyes were about to fall out, and they kept reaching out to Li Mao.

“Senior Brother Li, save us! It hurts!”

“Senior Brother Li, please kill me! Quickly kill me!”

These cries for help and wails interweaved and drifted in Li Mao’s ears. His body was almost on the verge of collapse, and he gritted his teeth and squeezed out a sentence.

“Zhou Sheng, you’re so vicious.”

It was simply harming their loved ones to threaten them.

Zhou Sheng had a good grasp of the weakness of human nature.

If he had taken Li Mao’s life, Li Mao wouldn’t have even blinked. However, if Li Mao had to watch his fellow disciples die from torture, it would be a hundred times more painful than death. He didn’t believe that Li Mao wouldn’t bow his head in defeat.

Zhou Sheng admired the expressions on these people’s faces. The wailing sounds became the most beautiful music in his ears.

“These are all your senior and junior brothers who grew up with you, right? I heard that one of them has a particularly good relationship with you.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. You really have a heart of stone. You’re actually willing to watch them suffer such torture for an outsider.”

“Senior Brother Li, why aren’t you saving us?!”

The disciples’ mournful cries caused Li Mao’s face to turn as pale as a sheet. His body couldn’t help but tremble. He was clearly not injured, but it was as if thousands of poisonous insects were crawling on his body. His conscience was being condemned like never before.

Zhou Sheng made an unknown sound.

The poisonous insects were everywhere, including the eyes, nose, mouth…

Li Mao saw with his own eyes that a toad had squeezed into the disciple’s mouth. The disciple’s face immediately turned ashen, and he could no longer speak.

The bubbles on the toad burst, and the liquid inside splashed onto the disciple’s face. The highly corrosive liquid brought up a cloud of green smoke. The disciple’s face, which was splashed with the poisonous liquid, instantly became uneven and looked like a disgusting toad.

Even a man like Li Mao couldn’t help but vomit.

The disciple was also silent. His eyes were wide open as he looked in Li Mao’s direction. He was a little confused, unwilling, and resentful as if he didn’t understand why Li Mao didn’t help him.

“Senior Brother Li, why would you rather protect an outsider than save us?!”

“Why?!”

The poisoned disciple roared in anger. He looked at Li Mao with his red eyes. He was like a vengeful spirit that had just climbed out of hell. Li Mao’s heart was deeply hurt.

The questions made him even more ashamed to face them. The disciples outside didn’t know about Ye Xuan, so they didn’t understand the reason. In their eyes, Li Mao was just standing by and not caring about their lives.

There were already a few disciples who couldn’t bear the torture and fell to the ground. Looking at those disciples who died with their eyes wide open, Li Mao’s knees went soft and he half-knelt on the ground. His eyes were red as he looked at Zhou Sheng fiercely.

“If you have any dissatisfaction, come at me! Why do you have to attack them?”

Zhou Sheng laughed very proudly and said, “It’s very simple if you want to save them. As long as you help me do something, it won’t be difficult…”

After hearing his words, Li Mao suddenly fell silent. He returned to the Valley of Medicine Masters before the sun rose.

“I’ll only give you three days. If you can’t finish in three days, you’ll have to collect their bodies!”

Zhou Sheng’s cold words echoed in Li Mao’s ears. He was so dejected that he accidentally knocked down the other disciples.

“Senior Brother Li, what’s wrong with you? Are you feeling unwell? Why do you look so pale?”

Faced with the concerned looks of the others, Li Mao revealed a meaningful smile and shook his head. He replied, “Maybe I didn’t sleep well last night.”

Looking at his back as he walked away, the other disciples couldn’t help but scratch their heads. One of them commented, “Why do I feel like Senior Brother Li is acting weird?”

“Knock, knock, knock…”

Someone knocked on Ye Xuan’s door early in the morning. When Ye Xuan saw it was Li Mao, he couldn’t help but feel a little strange. Ye Xuan asked, “What’s the matter?”

Li Mao looked at those calm black eyes, and as if they were ignited by a spark, he quickly looked away.

“No, nothing. I heard that the valley master is treating you, so I wanted to see how you’re recovering. The valley has been quite busy recently, so I haven’t had time to visit you.”

Ye Xuan didn’t know if it was an illusion, but he felt that Li Mao was a little strange as if he was secretly looking at him, and when Ye Xuan looked over, Li Mao would look away.

“It’s not a big problem. It’s just some old injuries. I’m just troubling the valley master to take care of it.”

Li Mao said a few more words. At this moment, he could not sit still.

Out of friendship, he naturally leaned toward the disciples of the Valley of Medicine Masters. After all, they had grown up together, so how could he watch them suffer inhuman torture?

But from a moral point of view, he couldn’t betray Ye Xuan. Li Mao was so tormented that he didn’t even hear Ye Xuan when he shouted several times.

Ye Xuan felt that Li Mao was a little uneasy. He came to Ye Xuan saying that he was concerned about Ye Xuan’s physical condition, but it was obvious that he had something else to say.

“You seem to have something on your mind?”

Li Mao’s expression suddenly changed. He looked deeply at Ye Xuan as if he had made some kind of decision.