Chapter 151 - 149: Obliterated
In the Martial Arts Arena, Lu Qingchen’s body was so corroded by Yan Wuqi’s Poison Technique that he couldn’t even muster a tenth of his Inner Strength, forcing him to concede defeat.
Having witnessed Yan Jiuyi being taught a lesson the day before, Yan Wuqi didn’t dare get carried away. He simply clasped his hands in a fist-and-palm salute and walked off the Martial Arts Arena without a word.
But Lu Qingchen was still afflicted by the poison. He glanced in Chen Yuan’s direction but did not approach him for help.
For one, he had never even spoken a single word to Chen Yuan. If he rashly asked for help and Chen Yuan refused, it would be a great loss of face.
For another, he had some dealings with Shangguan Yun. While they weren’t close friends, they were at least acquaintances.
The news that Shangguan Yun had been so thoroughly trounced by Chen Yuan that he was forced to use his Divine Artifact Incarnation before fleeing back to the Shangguan Family in disgrace had already spread throughout the Jianghu along with the new Hidden Dragon Rankings.
If he were to ask Chen Yuan to help expel the poison from his body at a time like this, he would risk completely offending Shangguan Yun.
The Divine Feather Sect had a great deal of trade with the Shangguan Family, so he was unwilling to offend them over such a trivial matter.
At this moment, up in the spectator stands, Chen Guinong frowned slightly as he watched the scene unfold.
"Master, should we go and help Lu Qingchen remove the poison?"
"Are you confident you can neutralize it? Even if I were to handle it personally, it would require countless Spiritual Medicines and numerous tests just to formulate a preliminary Elixir Recipe for an antitoxin, and even then, I couldn’t be certain it would completely purge the poison."
Chen Guinong looked at Zong Siyuan in horror. ’Was this poison truly so malevolent? Even Master isn’t confident he could refine an Antitoxic Pill.’
After all, for most poisons in the world, Zong Siyuan could identify their composition with a single glance and immediately write out the Elixir Recipe for an antitoxin.
Zong Siyuan said gravely, "I sensed the formidability of this Poison Technique yesterday. To be precise, this isn’t a Poison Technique but a ’poison person.’ Their body has been completely saturated with toxins.
"This poison specifically targets True Qi and Qi Blood. Its composition is exceedingly complex, and I cannot discern its origins for the time being.
"As for using external force to detoxify, it’s impossible unless one is like that Chen Jiutian, whose own Cultivation Technique is so powerful that its attributes can suppress and expel the poison.
"Otherwise, even if you are in the Primordial Pill Realm, forcefully expelling this toxin would instead harm the victim’s Meridians. If things go wrong, how would you answer to the Divine Feather Sect?
"Give Lu Qingchen a Healing Elixir. Have him suppress the poison for now and return to the Divine Feather Sect to seek help from one of their Primordial Pill Realm Grandmasters.
"They share the same origin, so they will have a better understanding of his Meridians. The risk of forcefully expelling the poison will be much smaller."
Chen Guinong nodded and hurried to give Lu Qingchen an Elixir, telling him to return to the Divine Feather Sect and find a senior member for help.
And in the next round of drawings, Chen Yuan happened to be matched against none other than Yan Jiuyi.
At this, the entire Martial Arts Arena immediately erupted into a cacophony of discussion.
The Poison Technique of the South Sea Pavilion was astonishing; they had already taken down two prodigies from the Hidden Dragon Rankings in a row.
Chen Yuan’s fearsome reputation was at its peak, and he had also cured the poison in Lu Chuanshan the day before. Among the younger generation present, aside from Chen Yuan, it seemed only Huangfu Yi of the Huangfu Family stood a chance of dealing with these people from the South Sea Pavilion.
"Brother Chen, be careful."
Lu Chuanshan looked at Chen Yuan with a solemn expression.
He knew full well how treacherous that Poison Technique was. Although Chen Yuan could neutralize poison, it was uncertain whether he could so meticulously expel it in the middle of combat.
Chen Yuan nodded and stepped onto the Martial Arts Arena.
Across from him, Yan Jiuyi stared death at Chen Yuan like a venomous snake, his eyes filled with such thick jealousy and hatred that it seemed to surpass even that of Zuo Feiyu from before.
Ever since Chen Yuan had helped Lu Chuanshan detoxify, Yan Jiuyi had taken note of him, and he had also seen his combat record on the Hidden Dragon Rankings.
But after seeing it, boundless jealousy and hatred instantly flooded his heart.
’We both started as Loose Cultivators, so on what grounds could Chen Yuan join the Zhenwu Hall? And how, upon joining, did he immediately gain the favor of major figures like Liu Suifeng and Yun Zhaolan?’
’On what grounds was he, Yan Jiuyi, forced to be like a pathetic wretch, treated like a Poisonous Insect and left to struggle on the verge of death amidst countless venoms?’
’On what grounds could Chen Yuan effortlessly slay Zhu Chengzong and defeat disciples from Major Sects like Shangguan Yun, becoming a famed prodigy in the Jianghu, free to bask in the awe and envy of the masses?’
’And on what grounds, after he, Yan Jiuyi, had merely mocked Lu Chuanshan a bit smugly after defeating him, was he beaten and reprimanded by his adoptive father, stripped of every last shred of dignity?’
’Not only did he have no dignity, he didn’t even have his own name!’
If Chen Yuan had also hailed from one of those Noble Families or Sects, Yan Jiuyi wouldn’t have been so resentful; he would have just assumed that such people only got to where they were because they were propped up by the power of their Sects.
But Chen Yuan had also started as a Loose Cultivator, and in just a year since joining the Zhenwu Hall, he had already achieved such dazzling accomplishments.
’Why couldn’t all of this be his?’
’The life Chen Yuan possessed now was the one he had always dreamed of!’
Seeing Yan Jiuyi staring at him with bloodshot eyes, looking as if he wanted to swallow him whole, Chen Yuan frowned.
’Did I kill your father or something?’
’I wiped out Zhu Chengzong’s entire family, and even he didn’t look at me with this kind of hatred.’
As soon as Chen Guinong announced the start, Yan Jiuyi let out an explosive roar as a searing black-and-red poisonous glow erupted from his body.
This time, he pushed the power of his Poison Technique to its absolute limit, causing the veins all over his body to bulge violently, writhing like black snakes under his skin in a most grotesque display.
Yan Jiuyi’s figure lunged ferociously toward Chen Yuan. A toxic mist billowed in his wake, so thick it refused to disperse. The faces of the spectators paled slightly as they sensed its power.
Even the slightest contact with this level of toxic mist would be enough to be completely overwhelmed. For those with a weaker power foundation, the poison would likely invade their heart-meridians in an instant, turning them into a desiccated corpse.
Chen Yuan formed a Seal Technique with his hands. Within his Dantian and Reincarnation Sea, a single Starfire ignited. In that instant, the Power of Burning erupted, and Chen Yuan was immediately enveloped in a surge of Demon Flames.
Poison is also a Strength Attribute. And as a Strength Attribute, it possesses relative strength and weakness. It can be suppressed; it can be destroyed.
No matter how tyrannical Yan Jiuyi’s poison was, it had not reached a level approaching the Power of Origin. Chen Yuan’s Celestial Fire Secret Manual, however, was a technique capable of cultivating the Fire Origin itself.
The Power of Fire naturally suppressed poisons, and the Celestial Fire Secret Manual was the bane of most of them.
In other words, as long as Chen Yuan cultivated the Celestial Fire Secret Manual to its peak, he could even become immune to all poisons.
By now, Yan Jiuyi had reached Chen Yuan, enveloped in a black-and-red Poison Power so dense it was almost corporeal.
With a downward strike of his palm, it transformed into a gigantic, black-and-red Palm Seal that blasted toward Chen Yuan.
Ten Thousand Poison Hand!
Chen Yuan seemed unfazed. From within the boundless Demon Flames, the deafening sound of Buddhist Chanting abruptly rang out.
As the Six Paths of Vajra Mantra of Master Padmasambhava manifested, golden Buddha Light vibrated through the void, directly shattering the power of the Ten Thousand Poison Hand.
Yan Jiuyi let out a muffled grunt, his Inner Viscera trembling. A mouthful of jet-black blood instantly gushed out, spattering on the ground and emitting a plume of white smoke.
Though heavily wounded in a single exchange, Yan Jiuyi revealed a savage grin.
Although the power of his Ten Thousand Poison Hand had been shattered, it strangely did not dissipate. Instead, it broke apart into great clouds of toxic mist that surged to envelop Chen Yuan.
But in the next moment, Yan Jiuyi’s smile instantly froze on his face.
Boundless Demon Flames surged forward, their tyrannical power directly devouring and incinerating the toxic mist before enveloping Yan Jiuyi himself.
He discovered in terror that his once incomparably tyrannical Poison Technique was rendered completely useless beneath these sky-scorching Demon Flames.
As his Poison Power was burned away and suppressed, his complexion grew increasingly pale.
An ordinary Martial Artist’s power comes from their Inner Strength True Qi and their Qi Blood.
His power, however, came entirely from his body’s Poison Power, which also needed to be replenished after being consumed.
Chen Yuan didn’t even draw his blade. He simply threw a punch, and an immensely powerful Qi and Blood Power erupted.
Yan Jiuyi crossed his arms to block, but without the empowerment of his Poison Technique, how could his frail body possibly withstand Chen Yuan’s heavy, powerful blow?
With a deafening BOOM, his entire body was blasted to pieces by Chen Yuan’s punch, reduced to a heap of mangled flesh on the spot. Black blood instantly splattered across the entire Martial Arts Arena.
Extinguishing the Starfire, Chen Yuan retracted the churning Demon Flames that surrounded him.
Everyone present was stunned into silence.
No one had expected the battle to end this way.
It was just like how they hadn’t expected a no-name to defeat a prodigy on the Hidden Dragon Rankings before.
And now, they hadn’t expected Chen Yuan to be able to completely ignore Yan Jiuyi’s tyrannical Poison Technique and obliterate him with a single punch.
In truth, Yan Jiuyi was just unlucky.
If he hadn’t encountered Chen Yuan, whose Celestial Fire Secret Manual completely countered his Poison Technique, he could have relied on that same technique to entangle even someone like Huangfu Yi.
Besides, even if Chen Yuan didn’t have the Celestial Fire Secret Manual, his Blood Fiend Power was also derived from a Power of Origin. Had Chen Yuan called upon the Blood Fiend Power to protect himself, the Poison Technique still wouldn’t have been able to harm him.
It was just that against this kind of Poison Technique, the Blood Fiend Power was not as much of a hard counter as the Celestial Fire Secret Manual was.
Just then, Zong Siyuan suddenly waved his hand, instructing Chen Guinong to halt the Furnace Opening Assembly.
Everyone present was taken aback. ’What does this mean? Is it because Chen Yuan killed someone?’
The Furnace Opening Assembly was meant for sparring and exchanging pointers. While tempers sometimes flared, deaths were rare.
Normally, if a fight truly escalated to life and death, Medicine King Valley would have intervened to stop it.
But just now, Chen Yuan had been far too fast, obliterating his opponent with a single punch. As a result, the people from Medicine King Valley didn’t even have a chance to intervene.
Chen Yuan watched Zong Siyuan walk onto the Martial Arts Arena, raising an eyebrow slightly.
He had intentionally struck so viciously just now, killing his opponent with a single punch precisely so that no one would be able to intercept.
’It couldn’t be helped. Yan Jiuyi was asking for it.’
’Who told him to look at me with such intense hatred? Naturally, I had to grant his death wish.’
’He wasn’t some brainless villain who enjoyed basking in the hatred of his enemies.’
’Hating him was fine, but it was best to do it in secret.’
’To dare stand before him and hate him so openly was simply courting death.’
But when Zong Siyuan stepped onto the Martial Arts Arena, he didn’t reprimand Chen Yuan for his ruthless methods. Instead, he said to Chen Yuan, "The Furnace Opening Assembly is temporarily suspended. Young Friend Chen, please step down from the stage."
After speaking, Zong Siyuan turned his gaze to the Pavilion Master of the South Sea Pavilion, Yan Yuanming.
"Who exactly are you?"