"Grilled chicken wings~ Grilled chicken wings~~"
"Fragrant and delicious grilled chicken wings~~"
What is Leon doing?
Grilling chicken wings while humming a tune, occasionally sprinkling seasonings on the ingredients and brushing on sesame oil.
In the current atmosphere of the Alchemy Commission, it feels extremely out of place.
But once you consider Leon's fun-loving nature, all the dissonance turns into something perfectly reasonable.
It's exactly the kind of thing he would do.
The camera pans slightly downward, and only then do players notice that there is a person lying at Leon's feet, with his right foot stepping on that person.
Ah Xian suddenly fell ill with a wicked disease.
"Why reward him? It should be me! Husband, step on me hard tonight~~!"
A sudden burst of hurried and chaotic footsteps rang out abruptly.
Zigui, Green Hibiscus, and the others came running in panic. Upon seeing Leon not far away, they instinctively halted.
They looked at what he was doing, then at the person being stepped on beneath his foot.
"Leon, what are you doing?!"
A flash of confusion passed through Zigui's eyes, along with a barely detectable trace of menace.
"The person under your foot is Zigui, right? What did you do to him?"
Leon flipped the skewers of chicken wings in his hand, speaking casually.
"Nothing excessive, just beat him half to death."
Zigui and the others: "???"
Brother, you call beating someone half to death "nothing excessive"?
Leon's next self-absorbed words successfully pushed Zigui and the others to the boiling point of rage.
"Looking at your disheveled appearances, it seems you've suffered a defeat."
"Sigh, so weak."
"If I had made a move, I would've long since slaughtered those Cloud Knights until fewer than one in ten remained, capturing their commanding general alive."
"The Leader has raised you all for so many years, yet you couldn't even serve a single day's purpose."
"You really should reflect on your own issues."
"The Leader has it tough. Have you all been slacking in your cultivation these years, indulging in pleasure one by one?"
Zigui's expression turned quite unsightly, and she instinctively wanted to retort.
In the end, she held back and voiced her question.
"The Leader ordered you to capture Cloud Knight prisoners alive and send them to the laboratory, as well as guard the entrance, yet here you are grilling chicken wings?"
"Leon, there has to be a limit to neglecting your duties!"
"And, answer me, why did you beat Zigui like this?"
However, Leon's light and casual words directly left Zigui dumbfounded.
"Zigui poisoned the laboratory and killed quite a few people, sending countless confidential materials to the outside world."
"If I weren't immune to that poison, I would've fallen for his trick too."
"Why don't you guess what kind of consequences there would've been without me?"
Beneath Leon's foot, Zigui—who currently couldn't speak or even move—was so furious his lungs were about to explode.
This upside-down bastard who won't admit his own deeds, actually pinning all the blame on him.
I may not be human, but you're a real dog!
Even though he couldn't defend himself, in his heart, Zigui cursed all eighteen generations of Leon's ancestors.
Staring at the squinting-eyed Leon, Zigui felt both shock and suspicion.
Shocked that Zigui was actually a traitor or a hunting dog, suspicious whether this matter was truly as Leon said, or if there was some hidden truth.
Noticing the emotional fluctuations from the person under his foot, Leon smiled squintily and kicked him in the face.
"Zigui, do you remember Qingtang from Cloudford..."
Zigui: "!!?"
Leon's expression turned profound, his tone light and airy.
"Actually... I was standing right beside you, watching with my own eyes as you killed him with an elbow strike, heehee~~"
Zigui's brain instantly crashed, and an extremely terrifying guess surfaced in his mind.
At the same time, accompanied by deep fear toward Leon.
So there really was no code... The code was truly a bluff.
It's just that the ones bluffed weren't only Qingtang, but him too...
Where exactly did this Leon come from, to have started laying out plans from that time?
Infiltrating the organization's secret laboratory, poisoning researchers, stealing confidential information...
The only direction Zigui could guess now was when Jing Yuan had invited such a terrifying external aid.
He finally understood why Leon killed everyone else but left him alone.
Leon: "Brother Zigui, rest assured, someone will take care of you for the rest of your life..."
"Not only will you have food and lodging covered, but there will always be someone protecting you. You should feel happy."
"We've known each other as brothers. See how good I am to you."
"Oh, you can speak now, but only one sentence. Hurry up and say thank you, Brother Leon?"
Upon hearing this, Zigui blurted out: "Bastard! How have you been good to me?!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, he froze for a moment, immediately wanting to follow up with questions, but the next second, he found himself turned back into a mute.
Not hearing what he wanted, Leon tsked and shook his head, sighing.
"What a pity..."
"I kindly lied to you, and that's not being good to you?"
"Not only do you not appreciate it, you even curse at me?"
"Why yell so loudly? What an ungrateful thing."
"Do good people deserve to be cursed? What kind of world is this? So infuriating."
"..."
Zigui nearly passed out from anger, his face turning the color of pig liver.
He struggled vigorously for a few seconds, but in the end, his vision went black, and he fainted.
He was literally angered into unconsciousness by Leon.
Turning the tables upside down is one thing.
But why could he still say it so self-righteously, that line about "I kindly lied to you" and not appreciating it?
Listen, just listen?
Is this something a human would say?
Ah Xian laughed until tears flew from the corners of her eyes, nearly unable to catch her breath too.
"He's so bad, I really really really really really like him!!!"
"Aha above, this is just too much fun!"
"Huh? Why did I say Aha?"
[Because you're Elation!]
[Not just Ah Xian, I'm Elation too.]
[Leon is indeed bad, making me fail to hold in my laughter in the office. I'm done for, gonna get reamed by the boss.]
[I can't take it anymore!]
Leon casually kicked Zigui a couple more times, finding no more reaction, then lifted his gaze to Zigui and the others.
Without any warning, he squinted his eyes and revealed a warm smile.
That smile, falling into their eyes, made their entire bodies feel cold.
Leon's real name is Leon?
The name isn't important, but why did he say he kindly lied to Zigui?
Lied about what?
The expressions of the others weren't much better.
This inexplicable dialogue between Leon and Zigui completely confused them all.
Qingtang from Cloudford?
Wasn't that one of the organization's missing personnel...
Of course, that wasn't the point. The point was, how did Leon know about these things, and why did he know so much?
Didn't he join the organization only in Exalting Sanctum?
Zigui looked toward Green Hibiscus.
Green Hibiscus instinctively shook her head left and right, looking behind her.
Confirming that Zigui was indeed looking at her, she quickly shook her head, indicating she was completely bewildered.
"Zhixin, oh Zhixin, you really are something, giving up a bright future to join the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus."
"As the saying goes, those who understand the times are heroes. Going against Xianzhou law, do you think you're an Emanator?"
"It's a shame that General Jing Yuan was initially worried about you and entrusted me to find news of you."
"Originally, you were quite appreciated by Jing Yuan, tsk..."