"Wonderful! Wonderful! I'm a Gold Core expert now—let's see who can stand in my way, wahahaha!" The despair and dejection of before were swept away in an instant, and Xue Jianming turned cocky and full of swagger. Even the way he looked at Dr. Glasses and Brother Dafeng was no longer as reverent as it had been; instead, a certain condescension began to creep in.

After all, in terms of sheer strength, those two did not even have the most rudimentary Foundation Establishment cultivation, while he was now a lofty early-stage Gold Core expert. There was simply no comparison between them—strength determined who had the right to speak. Add to that his lifelong arrogance and conceit, and now that his old self had resurfaced, his condescension came naturally.

Bing Wushuang's manner was much as before—expressionless, watching coldly from the sidelines.

Seeing Xue Jianming's arrogant, supercilious air, Dr. Glasses suddenly laughed and shook his head again and again. "Don't celebrate too early. There's no such thing as a free lunch. Why don't you take a good look at your dantian first?"

"My dantian?" Xue Jianming was startled and hastily examined it. He found nothing unusual at first, but on his second check he suddenly discovered a strange wisp of qi wandering aimlessly within his dantian, there and yet not there. The qi was extremely faint; without a careful probe it could not be detected at all. It answered to no control and could not be eradicated. Xue Jianming cried out in alarm, "What the hell is this qi?"

"Poison qi. I'll be straight with you—every improved pill our Center produces carries a dose of poison qi. Ordinarily it just lurks in your dantian and does no harm. But over time it will stir to life, and once it worms its way out of your dantian, it's the end of you." Dr. Glasses chuckled.

"What?" Xue Jianming's face changed drastically. He hurriedly asked, "Then aren't we as good as dead?"

"Don't be so tense. The improved pills from our Center are rare goods you couldn't buy outside even with money—how could we let them go to waste? As long as you do your work well, I will naturally give you the antidote at regular intervals to keep that poison qi in check. If you disobey, well, then you can just fend for yourselves." Dr. Glasses regarded the two of them with utter fearlessness.

The Center was no charity, still less a fool. They too believed in controlling people's hearts, but they never left themselves without a fallback, for the human heart is the most inscrutable and ungovernable thing in all the world. By comparison, control through drugs was far safer and more reliable.

Of course, this method of control was cruder than the drug-brainwashing used by Jing Taiyang and his lot. But its advantage lay in not damaging the brain, leaving no obvious side effects, leaving no traces, and preserving far more of a person's potential.

That was why this method could not be used casually on ordinary people. It was reserved for those who harbored hatred for the Primordial Alliance—give them the pill, then use it to threaten and control them, balancing kindness with severity. Only thus could everything be guaranteed, as with Bing Wushuang and Xue Jianming before him now.

It was like a bucket of cold water poured over his head. Xue Jianming had just been nursing thoughts of kicking down the ladder once he had crossed the river; now he was struck dumb, and for a long while he could not string together a single complete sentence.

"Meticulous in execution, boundless in means—it seems I chose rightly." Bing Wushuang, for his part, was not the least bit concerned. In fact, from the very moment he had taken the pill, he had been prepared for this. If the Center had possessed no means of control at all, he would instead have doubted whether the organization had any future.

For a man discarded by the higher-ups of the Snow Sword Sect, joining the Center carried no psychological burden whatsoever. Even if Dr. Glasses told him to move against the Primordial Alliance this very moment, he would do so without the slightest hesitation. As for control by drugs—that could not be helped; there was plenty of time ahead.

"Of course, being able to join the Center is fortune earned over several lifetimes. I needn't say more. In time you will come to know it for yourselves. Work hard." Dr. Glasses said smugly.

"So what do we do now? Shall we go make trouble for the Cangwu Sect of North Island directly—that Wei Zhao, that Lin Dongfang, and Leng Leng too. Best to kill them all!" Xue Jianming no longer dared harbor other notions and hastily corrected his attitude.

"Lin Dongfang..." At that name, killing intent could not help but fill Bing Wushuang's eyes as well. Back when he was only at the early Gold Core stage, he had been no match, and the old man had publicly beaten him down like a dead dog. Now that his strength had surged to late-stage Gold Core, of course he wanted to settle the score with his own hands.

Seeing the murderous air about the two of them, Dr. Glasses only gave a cold snort. "I spent such a great price to cultivate you—surely you don't think it was so you could settle personal grudges?"

"But..." Xue Jianming was startled. Ever since learning of the poison qi in his dantian, he had thoroughly corrected his attitude, knowing himself to be nothing more than a pawn before the other man, and dared not show the slightest arrogance. Now, seeing the sudden anger and change of expression, he panicked at once: "Sir... oh no, my lord..."

"Call him Superior," Brother Dafeng said, glancing at him from the side.

"Yes, yes. Superior, both of you—if you won't let us take revenge, then what would you have us do?" Xue Jianming asked cautiously. The man he used to be could never have stooped so low, but having been crippled twice in a row, his temperament was utterly changed from before; that old high-and-mighty spirit was gone for good.

"Our pressing task right now is to recruit more people. Building up our strength is the first priority. If you go off seeking revenge like this, you'll only alert the enemy and ruin the grand plan! I warn you—without my permission, the two of you must never display your true strength before outsiders, or it will rouse suspicion." Dr. Glasses said in a low voice.

"Are we to keep pretending to be cripples, then?" Xue Jianming asked.

"That won't be necessary. You need only announce that you obtained grade-five Great Return Pills through special channels from the Primordial Little Jianghu. At most people will gossip for a while; they won't grow too suspicious." Dr. Glasses said.

"That's no problem. If anyone asks, I can just pin it on my old man—he is the deputy sect master of the Snow Sword Sect, after all. With a bit of luck, obtaining two grade-five Great Return Pills wouldn't be strange at all." Xue Jianming nodded.

"How do we recruit more people?" Bing Wushuang suddenly asked.

"Good question. I need you to search among the various Primordial sects for disciples who harbor hatred and can be put to use. You yourselves are the best examples—I don't think I need to explain further, do I?" Dr. Glasses patted Bing Wushuang on the shoulder. (To be continued.)