Even Duan Weiran shook his head slightly. The gap in realm between Li Yan and his opponent was simply too large. He lamented Li Yan's ignorance of his own limits. Young people couldn't stand the slightest loss; they only cared about winning verbal spars. What was the use of that? It only showed a lack of experience. A lesson like this was paid for with one's life.
The only one here who could stop the cultivator surnamed Sun was him, but Duan Weiran had no intention of intervening.
He had seen too many things like this. He had no desire to help the weak against the strong. Of course, there was possibly one other person who could intervene, and that was the middle-aged scholar.
'This person is no good. Why waste time talking to the opponent? If he planned to fight, he should have attacked first, unleashing his strongest abilities. That might have had a chance of catching the enemy by surprise. All he knows is how to talk tough and look good. What's the damn use of that? In the next moment, he won't even have a chance to escape. The Young Master misjudged this time. This person might have some incredible skills, but his combat experience is abysmal.'
Bu Luo's eyes also filled with contempt. He couldn't understand why his young master had said this person was formidable. He had initially thought this person was hiding his strength like himself, but under the enemy's spirit power cage, it was obvious his realm and cultivation were no match for a casually cast immortal art.
Although Li Yan hadn't completed a full step, that half-step still caused the cultivator surnamed Sun's claw, originally aimed at his neck, to miss. The other hand, grabbing for his head, due to the shift in their positions, ended up clawing Li Yan's shoulder. As the saying goes, a miss is as good as a mile. The cultivator surnamed Sun had failed to twist off Li Yan's head in one go.
But what did this matter to the cultivator surnamed Sun? In fact, he had already captured Li Yan. He let out a strange, guttural laugh, "Hoh hoh hoh," and his five fingers gripping Li Yan tightened. His other hand shot up again. On his arms, two vile-faced ghost eagles emerged. They tilted their heads back and let out a long screech. Their demonic faces were ugly and ferocious, their eyes flashing with an excited, bloodthirsty light.
Just as the two vile-faced ghost eagles emerged from the cultivator surnamed Sun's arms, another shriek, even more powerful, tore through the sky, instantly overpowering the screech of the ghost eagles. Its might was even greater, but its tone was filled with terror.
To everyone who heard it, the sound felt wrong. Then, the cultivator surnamed Sun's hovering figure shot backward with the shriek.
It all happened too suddenly. From the cultivator surnamed Sun's attack to his abrupt, explosive retreat, not even a single breath of time had passed. Those with lower cultivation just saw a blur before their eyes, and the situation had already changed.
When cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage and above fought, life and death were often decided in a flash. What's more, Li Yan and the cultivator surnamed Sun had been extremely close to begin with, and their attacks were swift and unpredictable.
While the crowd was still stunned and confused, the cage that had trapped Li Yan instantly shattered. Then, Li Yan, his face expressionless, turned his head. He looked coldly at the retreating cultivator surnamed Sun, his face as calm as still water, showing no hint of joy or anger.
On the other side, the cultivator surnamed Sun, after shooting back several hundred feet, also came to a halt. At this moment, he was cupping his right hand with his left, his face twisting and contorting in excruciating pain.
His right hand was now gone. To be precise, the five fingers of his right hand had vanished. What was chillingly bizarre was that from the five severed stumps, a silvery liquid was still melting and dripping out.
In less than half a breath, the cultivator surnamed Sun's hand, which still had small stubs of fingers, had melted down to the knuckles. More and more silvery liquid dripped down, causing his palm to shrink at an alarming rate.
Seeing this, the cultivator surnamed Sun could no longer care about the pain. His left hand slapped his storage pouch, and a dozen or so bottles and jars flew out. He recklessly used his spirit power to pop the lids, then grabbed a jade bottle and poured its contents all over his ruined hand.
Far away, Li Yan did not give chase. He just watched all this coldly, his figure standing in the air, as steady as a mountain.
"A poison cultivator!" These two words surfaced in everyone's mind at the same time.
In that short period, the cultivator surnamed Sun had emptied all dozen or so bottles and jars, but his palm had already disappeared. Because there was more flesh and bone from the fingers to the arm, the silvery liquid increased. In the short time it took him to apply the medicine, his right hand was already gone up to the wrist, leaving only his forearm. Yet all the antidotes he carried had been utterly useless.
It should be known that his antidotes were not common goods; they were all extremely precious. While they might not be able to cure a hundred poisons, they could easily neutralize any poison used by an ordinary Foundation Establishment poison cultivator.
A dead silence fell over the area. Only the sound of the palace gate, still slowly emerging from the lake, broke the tranquility. No one spoke, but the gazes directed at Li Yan grew heavy.
The cultivator surnamed Sun was in so much pain that sweat poured down like rain, his black robe already soaked as if it had been pulled from water. His teeth chattered, but he did not cry out in pain again. Seeing that all the healing medicines he had taken out had no effect whatsoever, his face was a mixture of shock and anger, followed by a surge of inexplicable fear. His expression changed several times, as if he was making some kind of decision.
Suddenly, the motionless Li Yan, his face still blank, took a step towards the cultivator surnamed Sun. His icy voice echoed across the sky, "My poison, you cannot cure it. Not even if a Golden Core cultivator came!"
When Li Yan said this, although the other cultivators present felt he was boasting and likely just trying to scare his opponent, they were all men of extraordinary perception. They had all encountered poison cultivators to some degree, but they had never seen a poison so vicious and cruel. So, while they felt Li Yan was bragging, they also acknowledged the potency of this poison.
In truth, Li Yan didn't say it, but even if a Nascent Soul cultivator came, they might not be able to do anything about his poison. But he wouldn't dare make such a bold claim casually.
Just as Li Yan took a step, the cultivator surnamed Sun also made his decision. He jerked his head up, glaring viciously at Li Yan. A brilliant light erupted from under his feet, and his body once again shot back into the distance. At the same time, his left hand swiped across his own right forearm. A small section of his arm, with the ghastly white cross-section of bone, fell from the sky, trailing silver specks as it dropped towards the lake.
"A poison cultivator! You're actually a poison cultivator! You just wait! This isn't over! We will meet again!" an unwilling voice echoed from the sky. The man was indeed ruthless and decisive. The moment he saw he couldn't cure the poison, he directly severed his own arm below the elbow and fled.
Li Yan stopped in his tracks, showing no reaction to the words echoing in the air. Instead, he turned his head and swept a faint glance over the remaining eleven people standing above the lake's center before casting his gaze back to the lake surface.
The exchange had been too fast, and the result was beyond everyone's expectations. When the cultivator surnamed Sun fled, many still hadn't reacted. In their minds, many couldn't believe it. "It's over just like that? That was a Pseudo-Core cultivator! Defeated so utterly and cleanly in a single exchange?"
Only now did their gazes towards Li Yan become complicated. "Poison cultivator," one of the most dreaded types of cultivators. They might not have the strongest combat power or the most resounding reputation, but they often killed without a trace. It could even be said they did it with the casual grace of a stroll in a courtyard. A powerful poison cultivator could even annihilate an army of a million with a wave of their hand.
Everyone here knew how to use poison, but no one knew how Li Yan had done it. Li Yan showed none of the tell-tale signs of a poison user, at least not in the way a Foundation Establishment poison cultivator would. He had an air of casual mastery. And the sheer tyranny of the poison at the end left them cold with fear. To melt the flesh of a Pseudo-Core cultivator was as simple as the blazing sun melting a pile of snow.
The body of a Pseudo-Core cultivator, while not indestructible, was incredibly tough compared to a mortal's. You could stand there and let a mortal hack at you with a saber or axe and not suffer a single scratch. Even if an initial-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator attacked with all their might using spells, without a spirit treasure or artifact, it would have no effect on a Pseudo-Core cultivator. Their bodies were as hard as refined iron. Yet under Li Yan's virulent poison, it had melted as easily as a pile of snow.
"Young friend, what a fine technique. You really made this old man misjudge. However, you must be careful. That man is the eldest disciple of the 'Ghost Eagle Manor' master, his name is Sun Jiuhe. In our circles, he is also called 'Ghost Eagle Black Lotus'. He did not use his strongest killing move this time, but that doesn't mean his strength is only so-so."
Li Yan paid no mind to the strange looks cast his way, especially from the book-boy with the bamboo basket, who looked at him with an expression of disbelief, sizing him up from head to toe over and over. Li Yan felt the man's unbridled gaze, and a frown creased his brow. He was about to speak—though he didn't want to offend the terrifying scholar in the green robe, he also didn't want to be scrutinized like this.
Just then, an aged voice sounded in his ear. Someone was using a voice transmission.
Li Yan followed the sound with his gaze. On the other side, Duan Weiran, though not looking at him and still staring down at the lake, was the one who had sent the transmission.
"'Ghost Eagle Black Lotus'?" Li Yan pondered this in his mind and also sent a voice transmission back.
"Thank you for the reminder, Fellow Daoist Duan. What I have are just some parlor tricks, only for self-defense. My victory just now was a fluke. Sun Jiuhe's strongest magical treasure or immortal art, is it perhaps related to that Black Lotus you mentioned?"
Duan Weiran still did not look at Li Yan, but his aged voice once again resounded in Li Yan's mind. "Parlor tricks? Hehehe, young friend, you are too modest. In my hundred-plus years, I have seen not a hundred, but at least several dozen poison cultivators. But your method of administering poison and the tyranny of its toxicity are things I have never seen. Could this be what poison cultivators call the state of 'The poison's shadow turns ethereal; it is released without a trace'? As for you calling it a fluke, there was indeed some luck involved. If your opponent had known you were a poison cultivator, winning might not have been so simple. Sun Jiuhe's famous magical treasure is a black lotus, refined for him by his master, Liu Chongfeng, the lord of 'Ghost Eagle Manor'. That magical treasure contains a peak second-tier Vile-Faced Ghost Eagle as its artifact spirit. And that is a wind-attribute demonic beast. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
At first, listening to Duan Weiran's words, Li Yan's face remained impassive, but in his heart, he was dismissive. 'The poison's shadow turns ethereal; it is released without a trace.' For other poison cultivators, that was a state very difficult to achieve, perhaps impossible in a lifetime.
But Li Yan himself had truly achieved a state where his body and poison were one. Moreover, various virulent poisons had completely fused into his essence blood and bones. Therefore, his method of administering poison certainly didn't require hand seals or spells, nor did he need clever and fast techniques to conceal the process. With just a turn of his thoughts, he could release any of the poisons from his Fragmented Poison Body.
But when he heard the second half of Duan Weiran's words, Li Yan was still shocked.