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Tang Chen sneered coldly. His voice did not hold even a tiny bit of fear toward the super Titled Douluo, Qian Daoliu. Instead, his voice carried only absolute certainty and a trace of mockery. He smiled and said that even if Qian Daoliu was known to be invincible in the sky, it meant nothing to him. He asked if Qian Daoliu really thought he could save someone from his hands.
As soon as Tang Chen stopped speaking, the vast spirit power around his body condensed tightly. He no longer hid his power. In a single second, his body changed into a bright streak of blue light.
He moved at an extreme speed and shot toward the distant horizon without any delay. Wherever the bright blue light passed, a long trail of frost stayed in the cold air for a very long time.
The surrounding air made a strange, loud booming sound because it was frozen instantly and then broken through by his high speed. His strong and determined momentum showed his clear goal. Even though the Angel Douluo Qian Daoliu tried to stop him, Tang Chen would still attack the Golden Crocodile Douluo and the other enemies. At the very least, he would make them pay a very heavy price before they could escape.
The moment his body disappeared from sight, his cold voice became as thin and sharp as a thread. He used his mental power to send a message directly into the ears of Dugu Bo, Yang Wudi, Niu Gao, and the other people standing in the ruins below. Tang Chen told them that today, he only wanted to see a dead Emperor Xue Ye.
When Dugu Bo heard these words, a bright green light flashed inside his eyes. He quickly turned his head and looked at Yang Wudi who was standing right next to him. Both men were very smart, clear-minded, and quick to make decisions. They understood the deep meaning behind Tang Chen's words right away. Emperor Xue Ye had to die today. More importantly, his death must happen in a way that gave a great advantage to their own side.
At that exact moment, Ning Fengzhi walked over slowly while leaning on Niu Gao for support. His face looked completely pale, his breathing was very unstable, and it was easy to see that he had used up almost all of his spirit power during the fierce battle. Ning Fengzhi looked at the imperial palace that had completely turned into a large pile of broken stones and dirt.
He suddenly remembered something very important and spoke in a very worried voice. He said that His Majesty was still over at the Sleeping Quarters and they must go look for him immediately.
Hearing his worried words, nobody dared to waste any time. The group immediately ran toward the area where they remembered Emperor Xue Ye's Sleeping Quarters used to be. After they arrived at the destroyed area, they used their powerful mental force as high-level Spirit Masters to search through the broken walls. They quickly found the exact location of Emperor Xue Ye beneath the heavy rocks.
Niu Gao suddenly let out a low shout. He quickly bent down and called upon his Armored Giant Rhino Spirit. His strong arms grew much larger and showed great physical strength. He worked together with Yang Wudi and the others to move the heavy broken walls away. Soon, they found the body of Emperor Xue Ye.
Right now, the old emperor was lying next to the frame of a broken wooden bed. His entire body was covered in thick grey dust, and his expensive imperial robes were torn and dirty. His face showed a very strange and unhealthy color that mixed dark green with greyish white. His breathing was so weak that it seemed like it could stop at any second, and his eyes were tightly closed. It was completely obvious that he had been poisoned at the very start of this palace coup. After that, he was caught inside the collapsing building, which left him on the verge of death.
Ning Fengzhi ran forward immediately when he saw the state of the emperor. His fingers shook with fear as he placed them on Emperor Xue Ye's wrist to check his pulse. His face became even paler, and his voice trembled as he spoke. He said that the poison had already gone deep into the emperor's lungs and organs, and his spirit power was disappearing fast, so normal methods would not work anymore.
At this point, Ning Fengzhi raised his head to look at Dugu Bo and Yang Wudi. His eyes showed a small spark of hope. He called out to the Poison Douluo and Clan Chief Yang, saying that they were both great experts at using and removing poison. He asked them to try their best to save him, or at least find a way to temporarily keep His Majesty alive.
Dugu Bo knelt down next to the emperor. He placed his hand on Emperor Xue Ye's pulse, and a faint emerald green spirit power flowed out from his fingertips. After he examined the body carefully, he brought his eyebrows together and shook his head. He said that the poison from Spirit Hall was very strange and evil, and it had already mixed with the emperor's life source. He added that trying to force the poison out right now would only cause instant death.
His words were only half true. The poison inside Emperor Xue Ye was indeed very hard to deal with. However, with Dugu Bo's great skills as a Titled Douluo who specialized in poison, he could use a large amount of his own spirit power to keep the emperor alive for a while longer. But Tang Chen's orders were still fresh in his mind. He knew he could not actually save the emperor's life.
Yang Wudi stepped forward with a serious face and said he wanted to take a look too. In the next second, he grabbed Emperor Xue Ye's other wrist. The spirit power inside his body turned into a very small, thin line of energy that silently entered the emperor's body to check his condition.
A moment later, Yang Wudi slowly pulled his hand back. He looked at Ning Fengzhi and spoke in a deep voice. He told School Master Ning that the poison had already ruined the vital organs and most of the emperor's life was gone, so even a real god would find it hard to save him. However, he stopped talking for a second and looked at Dugu Bo. Their eyes met again in secret understanding.
Ning Fengzhi asked quickly what he meant by that.
Yang Wudi kept his eyebrows close together, and his face looked so serious that it seemed frozen. He explained in a deep voice that his Yang family had an old secret technique called the Evil-Breaking Pulse-Guiding Needle. This technique was made to treat people who had strange poisons and were about to die. But he warned that this method was very violent.
It required using long golden needles to pierce the body's acupuncture points to force the emperor's remaining life force to wake up. This would force the poison to gather in just one spot for a short time. He said it might give His Majesty about three to five hours of conscious life.
But he also said this method was very dangerous because the emperor would feel terrible pain like his bones were being scraped. He added that the chance of success was less than thirty percent, and if it failed, the poison would strike back much harder.
Ning Fengzhi's heart felt very tight, and he asked what would happen if it failed.
Yang Wudi looked straight ahead and spoke without any emotion in his voice. He said that if it failed, the emperor would die from the poison instantly, and his dead body would look much more painful and ugly. To anyone else watching, it would just look like the poison suddenly grew too strong and went out of control.
Ning Fengzhi's face turned completely white, and his body shook. A thirty percent chance to live, terrible pain, and a worse death if it failed made him hesitate. He looked down at the dying Emperor Xue Ye, and then he thought about the broken state of the Heaven Dou Empire. As the leader of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School, he had to think about the future of his own sect.
Without the support of Emperor Xue Ye, it would be very hard for his sect to recover its old power. He closed his eyes for a short moment, and when he opened them, his eyes held only pain and a strong decision. He told Clan Chief Yang to go ahead and try because even if there was only a tiny bit of hope, they had to try, and he would take all the blame if things went wrong.
Yang Wudi looked deeply into Ning Fengzhi's eyes to make sure he understood the true meaning. Then he nodded his head slowly. He told everyone to step back a little bit because he needed complete quiet during the procedure. Ning Fengzhi, Niu Gao, and the others walked back a few steps and watched with very nervous expressions.
Dugu Bo quietly moved his hand and released a very thin layer of green poison mist around the area. The mist was not thick, and it just stayed around Yang Wudi and Emperor Xue Ye. To the others, it looked like he was using his poison to protect the area from dirt and keep the emperor's condition stable. In reality, the mist was a trick to stop the others from feeling the small changes in spirit power.
Yang Wudi took out an old needle pouch from his clothes and opened it up. Inside the pouch were many thin golden needles of different lengths that shone with a cold light. He picked up the longest golden needle with his fingers and put his spirit power into it. The tip of the needle immediately glowed with a sharp cold light. He gave a low shout, kept his hand perfectly steady, and pushed the needle right into a main point on Emperor Xue Ye's chest.
He called it the first needle to guide the poison away. This needle looked like it was helping, but Yang Wudi actually used his sharp spirit power to secretly break a hidden vein that kept the heart alive. Emperor Xue Ye's body shook slightly, and his skin turned a darker shade of green and black.
Then Yang Wudi used the second needle to fix the spirit, putting it right between the emperor's eyebrows. The spirit power on this needle was even more hidden. It made an illusion that the soul was becoming stable, but it actually made the emperor's weak mental force disappear much faster. Yang Wudi moved his hands very fast and hit every point perfectly.
He called out the names of the techniques with each needle he used. Every time a needle went in, the emperor's body reacted exactly like a person experiencing the pain of poison being moved. Only Yang Wudi and Dugu Bo knew the truth. Wherever the needles went, they were destroying the body from the inside and making the poison spread faster.
When it came to the last three needles, Yang Wudi used a secret vein-cutting technique from his Breaking Clan to completely close off the last bits of life inside the emperor's body. This action created a perfect illusion that the poison had suddenly gathered together and exploded. The whole process took only a few minutes to finish.
When Yang Wudi slowly pulled the last golden needle out, Emperor Xue Ye's body suddenly started to shake violently. A strange, rough sound came from his throat, and his eyes flew open. But there was no life in his eyes, only emptiness and terrible pain. Right after that, his face turned a scary purple-black color, and thick, black, smelly blood started to flow out from his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth all at once.
Ning Fengzhi cried out in deep shock.
Yang Wudi's face changed instantly when he saw this, and he shouted loudly that the poison was striking back and he could not stop it. Before he could even finish his sentence, Emperor Xue Ye's raised arm fell heavily to the side. His dark face became completely still, and his breathing stopped. He died in a very miserable way.
Yang Wudi took a step backward and made his face look as pale as yellow paper. He secretly used his own power to hurt his own veins a little bit, and a small line of blood came out from the corner of his mouth. He spoke with deep regret, saying that his skills were too low and he had failed everyone because the poison had reached the heart and killed the emperor.
Right at that moment, the sound of fast footsteps and heavy metal armor came from outside. Prince Xue Xing, the Fourth Prince Xue Beng, and the main general of the army, Marshal Ge Long, arrived with a large group of strong soldiers. They had finally fought their way through the confusion outside to get to this spot.
At a single glance, they saw Emperor Xue Ye lying dead in the ruins in a terrible state. They also saw Ning Fengzhi, Dugu Bo, and the others standing around the body with faces full of sadness and anger. When Xue Beng saw his father dead on the ground, his legs became completely weak, and he almost fell straight down.