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**
Great Plains of the Black Region, high in the sky.
The black storm blotted out the heavens, covering the sun, like the end of the world itself. In the darkness, the shattered void was rapidly mending. The aftershocks gradually subsided. Wei Yang's group of five gathered together once more.
Wuuu wuuu wuuu~
The fierce wind swept through the area again, surging into this domain.
Ahead of them, Qi Zun Zhe stood in mid-air, a pair of eyes faintly glimmering with a reddish light, locking firmly onto Wei Yang's group.
The strange black mist swirling around him had thinned considerably, revealing his true appearance. It was the image of an old man whose exact age could not be discerned.
His long, grayish-white hair hung loosely, swaying with the wind.
His figure appeared extremely thin and bony; the wide black robe draped over his body was whipped tightly against him by the wind, revealing almost no flesh at all — thin, frail, like a length of bamboo.
The hands exposed from the wide sleeves were nothing but skin and bone, resembling eagle claws, the skin so pale it was utterly devoid of blood color.
His face, though lacking prominent wrinkles, looked withered. The cheeks were sunken, the eye sockets deep and narrow, giving him a vulture-like aura.
At this moment, his body trembled slightly, as if he were trying his utmost to suppress something.
His gaze slowly moved, finally fixing on Xian'er. His lips parted, and his voice came out hoarse:
"Little girl… you actually dared to poison this Venerable One (Zun Zhe)?"
Qi Zun Zhe's feelings at this moment were extremely complicated — about the same as having swallowed a dead fly.
He was a Dou Zun, a Dou Zun!
To poison someone of the Dou Zun level… the potency of that toxin could be imagined. Such poison was rare even in the entire world — even in the Central Plains, only a handful existed. And yet, he had encountered it today… in this barren Northwestern Region.
Damn it!
Xian'er remained silent.
"You… what is your relationship with that person from Ice River Valley?"
Qi Zun Zhe's eyes narrowed slightly as he asked again.
Hearing this, a faint ripple finally crossed Xian'er's usually calm and indifferent face. Wei Yang had once told her, after reaching the Central Plains, to be cautious of the Valley Master of Ice River Valley.
Because that person… possessed the Postnatal Woeful Poison Body.
"Hmph."
Seeing Xian'er still silent, Qi Zun Zhe snorted coldly, saying: "Do you think a mere deadly poison is enough to— mm? Puh~"
However, before he could even finish speaking, he suddenly opened his mouth and spat out a puff of ghostly green flame.
Chi chi chi~
When the flame landed in the void, even space itself hissed and sizzled under its corrosion.
"What is this?!"
Qi Zun Zhe's pupils contracted sharply.
Then—
Fwoosh~
A raging ghostly green fire suddenly ignited within his body, as though a barrel of oil had been lit inside him. In an instant, his entire form turned into a man of living fire.
"Ahhh~ What is this?!"
Qi Zun Zhe roared in agony, struggling frantically.
Boom!
The surrounding void boiled once more, shattering apart.
"Th-this… this is Poison Flame?! Little girl, what exactly did you do to this Venerable One?!"
His voice rose in a sharp cry as he desperately mobilized his Dou Qi to suppress the poisonous fire burning within him.
With every word he spoke, wisps of ghostly green flame spewed from his mouth, landing in the void with sizzling corrosion.
"This is Ghostly Poison Flame — you should have heard of it."
Xian'er finally spoke.
She slowly opened her snow-white palms, and two clusters of ghostly green flame suddenly surged up from them, swaying like ghostly will-o'-wisps in her hands.
She said softly: "I sent two sub-flames into your body — one lodged at your heart, the other in your Sea of Consciousness."
Chi chi chi~
Above the two flames in her palms, the very space was visibly corroded and twisted by their burning, showing just how terrifying their toxicity was.
At the same time, as Xian'er continuously infused her poisonous Dou Qi into the two flames, their blaze grew even more lively.
And as if a chain reaction had been triggered, Qi Zun Zhe — whose poisonous flame within his body had only just barely been suppressed — suddenly felt it blaze to life again, roaring fiercely and completely engulfing his entire form.
Even more bizarre was that the very tips of this ghostly green flame were tinged with a grayish-white hue.
"Ghostly Poison Flame? The twentieth-ranked Ghostly Poison Flame among the Heavenly Flames?! Ahhh~" Qi Zun Zhe roared, "No… no, that's impossible!"
He naturally had heard of the Ghostly Poison Flame before. According to legend, it was a flame found deep within the ancient Ghostly Poison Marsh.
After being nurtured and tainted by the marsh's all-encompassing poisonous mists for tens of thousands of years, the flame absorbed endless streams of toxic vapor before finally gaining a rudimentary consciousness in a hundred years, and taking full form after a thousand.
When fully matured, its hue turned green, drifting through the mists like a wandering ghost fire. But because the flame itself was born and fed by poisonous mists, it carried an extremely deadly poison.
Even the slightest contact with a spark would result in severe poisoning, making it nearly impossible to swallow or fuse with. For this reason, few ever sought it out, and thus, very few knew of its existence.
And now you're telling me you actually control the Ghostly Poison Flame?!
Moreover… its color is clearly off.
This terrifying flame, ghostly green streaked with threads of grayish-white, seemed even more poisonous than the Ghostly Poison Flame of legend!
Otherwise, how could he, a dignified Dou Zun, be burned so wretchedly by a poisonous flame whose apparent power didn't even seem all that strong — to the point where he could barely even resist?
From his perception, the true power of this poisonous flame seemed to be only at the peak Dou Huang level.
A peak Dou Huang-level poisonous flame shouldn't pose such a great threat to a Dou Zun. Even factoring in Xian'er's peak Dou Zong-level Dou Qi support, there was still no reason for it to be this overpowering.
And he wasn't even trying to swallow or fuse with the poisonous flame — yet he couldn't even suppress or expel it?
This flame burned inside his body like maggots gnawing at his bones, impossible to shake off. For the first time, true fear rose in Qi Zun Zhe's heart. He felt he might really be finished.
"Heh… perhaps this is the true way the Ghostly Poison Flame is meant to be used," Wei Yang chuckled softly, his expression tinged with a hint of emotion.
When the Ghostly Poison Flame was paired with the Woeful Poison Body, its effect was far more than a simple one plus one equals two.
The two could be said to be the perfect match — the one and only.
To say the Ghostly Poison Flame was born for the Woeful Poison Body would not be an exaggeration at all.
Moreover, because the world's understanding of it was so limited, its toxicity and terror had likely been underestimated.
To judge the Ghostly Poison Flame's poison by the standards of other Heavenly Flames was a fundamental mistake. Wei Yang glanced toward Du Jiao, who stood off to the side like a towering iron pillar.
Take him for example.
Back then, Du Jiao had been ignorant and reckless, attempting to swallow a mere peak Dou Wang-level Ghostly Poison Flame — and ultimately became its host instead.
At that time, Du Jiao had been a high-level Dou Zong, and a poison-attributed magic beast at that!
Yet even he couldn't withstand the poison of just a peak Dou Wang-level Ghostly Poison Flame.
In the end, the poisons eroded his consciousness, shattering his mind, and he became nothing more than a puppet — the Ghostly Poison Flame taking over as the master, parasitically controlling him.
That alone spoke volumes.
Thus, the Ghostly Poison Flame — especially when combined with the Woeful Poison Body — should not be ranked merely twentieth. Even placing it within the top ten wouldn't be too much.
Xian'er's expression remained indifferent as she controlled the Ghostly Poison Flame, letting it continuously corrode and torment Qi Zun Zhe.
She had rarely used the Ghostly Poison Flame, even in alchemy, but that never meant it wasn't powerful. Especially after being nurtured by the essence of her Woeful Poison Body and undergoing mutation upon gaining the fire-poison attribute, its toxicity had become truly terrifying.
In its new form, the Ghostly Poison Flame was far stronger than in its original state when compared within the same tier. From its beginnings at the peak Dou Wang level, fusion had raised it to Dou Huang-level strength.
Now, after her cultivation, it had reached peak Dou Huang.
While its growth rate had not been as fast as that of the Death Life Flame (formerly the Black Sun Burning Heaven Flame), compared to most Heavenly Flames, it was still rather quick.
At present, with Xian'er's peak Dou Zong-level poisonous Dou Qi driving it — and with two sub-flames planted in advance — poisoning a low-level Dou Zun might be a slight exaggeration to call "effortless," but it certainly was not difficult.
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