At a distance of three hundred meters, even for a Qi Condensation cultivator, it was just the time it takes to flash across. Li Yan's heart tightened as he felt a wave of heat rushing toward him. 'Fireball Art.' This heatwave was much stronger than the ones he could produce; it was the fire-element immortal art that Lord Lao Peak was best at.
Li Yan's feet slipped, and he had already darted diagonally for several dozen meters. A washbasin-sized fireball grazed past the spot where Li Yan had just been standing and shot into the distance. Lu Qiutong's eyes narrowed. 'Swordfish Ten-Pace.'
He hadn't expected to be able to take down his opponent with a single Fireball Art. It was just that he had too little information on this newly emerged martial uncle. Of course, only by fighting could he find out the opponent's true strength. Seeing the opponent dodge with a basic immortal art, he already had some guesses in his heart, but his hands did not stop. With a wave of both hands, a shower of fine sand spread out.
Just as Li Yan had dodged a few dozen meters, he suddenly felt the sky darken. Without thinking, he hastily used his movement technique again, only this time his momentum was even more urgent. This was a large-area fire-element attack, the immortal art "Sky-Covering Sand Rain." Every grain of this fine sand possessed a terrifyingly high temperature. A wave of scorching heat enveloped him from above, and he also smelled a faint sweet scent in his nose. He thought to himself, 'Not good, this person's sand has the "Lamp-Piercing Poison" in it.' After inhaling this poison, one would feel dizzy and weak, and if it touched the skin, it would become red and swollen, burrowing into the body through the pores like a moth drawn to a flame. In a short time, the internal organs would feel a burning, stabbing pain as if touched by moth ash, followed by large-scale ulceration, leading to death.
In his forward momentum, Li Yan's figure still faltered for a moment. It was clear that he had inhaled a breath of the "Lamp-Piercing Poison." In this brief delay, the scorching yellow sand had already covered the area above his head. Li Yan's protective spiritual light flashed wildly. He held his breath, and with a raise of one hand, a cloud of water mist rose, scooping upward toward the sky. In an instant, it made contact with the yellow sand. A cloud of steam immediately rose in the air, with a continuous "hissing" sound as water and fire clashed. Li Yan took advantage of this moment of scooping and blocking to slide another hundred meters away.
'Water-Cloud Pouch.' Seeing this, Lu Qiutong was basically certain in his heart. 'It seems this martial uncle should be skilled in water-element cultivation arts. The several immortal arts Li Yan has used consecutively are all water-element. He judged that under a sudden attack, Li Yan would definitely use the immortal art he was most familiar with. He already had a plan in his heart. Although water counters fire, fire also counters water.
His guess was mostly correct. Among Li Yan's five-element spirit roots, the water element was the strongest. And since the opponent was using a fire-element attack, he had naturally used a water-element immortal art to counter it.
But what Lu Qiutong didn't guess was that Li Yan had miscellaneous spirit roots. In his mind, for someone to be accepted as a disciple by a great Golden Core cultivator while still in the Qi Condensation realm, they had to have at least a dual-element Heaven Spirit Root. So, as long as he could force out the opponent's other spirit root, he could roughly guess Li Yan's attack methods. But even if he couldn't force it out, he wasn't too worried. A weak spirit root could generally only be used to cultivate auxiliary-type immortal arts, which were usually weak techniques used for surprise attacks or to assist in offense and defense. He just needed to pay attention to any abnormal fluctuations in the space around him while Li Yan was attacking.
Just as Li Yan used the "Water-Cloud Pouch" to dodge a hundred meters away, Lu Qiutong appeared at the place where they had just fought. He struck out with his palm but only hit empty air. Seeing Li Yan dodging and hiding and not engaging him head-on, Lu Qiutong slapped his waist. Amidst a flash of brilliant light, a string of purple objects appeared in the air. The purple object was a string of what looked like six oval-shaped purple grape-like spirit beads. As soon as they appeared in the air, they scattered. Three in the front formed a triangular shape, transforming into three arcs of purple light that shot toward Li Yan's face and two sides of his chest. The other three suddenly dispersed and circled behind and to the sides of Li Yan, in an encircling formation. Seeing this, Li Yan's figure blurred, and the next moment he appeared a few dozen meters to the side. But his expression was extremely grave, because he still hadn't broken out of the encirclement of the six purple grape spirit beads. And at this moment, the six purple spirit beads were only a dozen or so meters away from him, whistling as they approached.
Seeing that there was no escape, Li Yan's expression was grave. After just two exchanges, the opponent had already released his spirit artifact. In his own Storage Pouch, apart from the small sword issued by the sect, he had no other offensive spirit artifacts. To use it to block now would be too weak. After all, the attack was coming from four directions. At that moment, his figure spun like a top. As he spun, the protective spiritual light around his body shone brightly. At the same time, a screen of rain shot out from outside the protective spiritual light. It was clear he wanted to use the density of the rain screen to block the attacks from all sides. If he couldn't block them, it would at least weaken the power of the opponent's spirit artifact attack. For the rest, he could only rely on his protective spiritual light to resist.
Seeing this, Lu Qiutong smiled slightly. His attack was meant to force Li Yan into a corner where he had no choice but to take it head-on. Since water and fire countered each other, the winner would naturally be the one with higher magical power. He was already at the late stage of the ninth layer of Qi Condensation. To deal with someone at the sixth layer of Qi Condensation, the fastest way was to overwhelm them with power. There was no need to talk about whether it was a fair victory; the purpose of coming to the competition was, of course, to determine a winner.
Although he had many other methods, plus his most skilled use of poison, that would take more effort. Although he had also used the "Lamp-Piercing Poison" at the beginning to make the opponent lose their agility, the opponent had clearly seen through the poison and had only inhaled a breath, which made his figure falter for a moment before he quickly escaped. But this was just a common poison, and also a kind of probing from him at the beginning. Now that he knew the opponent's weakness, he didn't want to use other methods, as that would expose himself prematurely. If he met other opponents later, he would have one less trump card.
Since he could win with the simplest method of realm suppression, why expose other methods? So he forced Li Yan into a direct confrontation.
In the areas below the crystal screens, the cultivators were all watching their respective screens. Not many were watching Li Yan's side; many people were looking for the duels of the experts in their minds.
"Little Junior Brother seems to be in a bit of danger. This person is using a hard-hitting method," Lin Daqiao said, staring at the crystal screen.
"Little Junior Brother's offense and defense haven't lost their measure yet. Perhaps there's still a chance. In the past few days of feeding him moves, I feel that this little junior brother still hasn't gone all out, although he was sometimes beaten very miserably," Wei Chituo said. He was, after all, experienced in combat. He stared at the crystal screen with a grave expression, but he was also worried whether Li Yan could withstand this round of the opponent's forced attack.
Gong Chenying's beautiful eyes just stared at the crystal screen, without speaking, only occasionally frowning, as if thinking about something. Yun Chunqu was watching another battle stage, as if he had no interest in Li Yan at all.
On the other side of this area, "Yo yo yo, Lu Qiutong has good methods. He saw through Junior Brother Li's weakness at a glance and is suppressing him with his realm," Li Changting said with a "tsk tsk," then glanced at Zhao Min again.
Zhao Min's expression was indifferent, without any fluctuation. She just stared at the crystal screen, thinking, 'Is the Fragmented Poison Body going to be defeated just like this? Then where did the legend of being able to fight above one's rank come from?'
In the floating pavilion, Yan Longzi stroked his beard. He was quite appreciative of this disciple from his peak. In a situation where he didn't know the opponent's details, he first adopted a conservative probing attack, then in a very short time determined the opponent's spirit root. The two sides were the mutually countering water and fire elements, so he immediately and decisively formulated the most direct attack method of realm suppression.
'Let's see how Li Yan blocks this,' he thought to himself. The other elders who were looking at this crystal screen also had their eyelids half-lowered.
Seeing the six purple grape spirit beads had already entered the rain screen released by Li Yan, Lu Qiutong was greatly relieved. Although the "Water Curtain Art" was a good defensive measure, it also depended on who it was used against. Attacking the opponent with the condensation level of his own spiritual power, the opponent's rain screen could only be a futile effort. But immediately, he sensed something was wrong in his Divine Sense. He felt that the moment his six spirit beads entered the rain screen, it was as if they had entered viscous water. The feeling of piercing through smoothly and hitting the opponent's protective spiritual light did not appear.
Why was this? He could feel that this was not due to the spiritual energy in the opponent's rain screen blocking it. If the opponent's spiritual power was profound, then his six spirit beads should have been bounced back or wrapped in the rainwater at this moment. But in his Divine Sense, the spiritual energy in the opponent's rain screen was clearly much weaker than his own. Although the six spirit beads were constantly moving forward, the raindrops were constantly able to adhere to the surface of the spirit beads, making them larger and larger in volume, and their movement became more and more sluggish.
"What is this?" Lu Qiutong was greatly alarmed. He increased his spiritual power output, and the six purple grapes immediately accelerated a bit. But they only advanced a few dozen inches before their volume increased significantly again, and they immediately slowed down.
'Poison. It's a poison with strong adhesive properties. And this person has already mastered the ability to fuse poison with techniques.' Poison, he had seen a lot of it, and many different kinds at that. But he had only seen a few that used the adhesive properties of the water element. But now, he couldn't identify it through his Divine Sense. He estimated that it would at least corrode the spirituality of his spirit beads. His heart ached at the thought. Seeing that the attack was ineffective, he had to recall them quickly, lest they be contaminated for too long and lose more of their spirituality. That would not be worth the loss. This string of purple grape-style spirit artifacts was something he had spent forty Low-grade Spirit Stones to buy at a high price. In previous battles, it was a powerful weapon for direct attacks.
So he increased his spiritual power by a few more points and quickly tried to recall the six spirit beads. But strangely, Lu Qiutong only felt the six spirit beads break through the rain screen at an extremely fast speed and shoot toward him, which surprised him. He immediately slowed his spiritual power and tried to attack forward again, but as soon as they entered the rain screen a few inches, they slowed down again, and their volume increased by a few more points. This made him even more unable to figure out the details of this poison in the rain.
Lu Qiutong recalled the six spirit beads again, bringing them to float a dozen or so meters in front of him. He didn't dare to retrieve them immediately. At this moment, the six floating spirit beads should be called spirit balls. Each one was four or five times larger, covered in a layer of dark gray water stains, giving off a lifeless feeling. He didn't dare to touch them directly with his hands, because he was sure he had never seen this kind of poison before. He had been studying medicinal pills for over a decade and was considered a master of making poison, but he had never seen this kind of toxin. He estimated that these spirit beads would probably need to be nurtured for several months to recover.
Opposite him, Li Yan had already retrieved the rain screen, but the protective spiritual light around his body was still flashing continuously, clearly afraid of a sudden attack from Lu Qiutong. Lu Qiutong glanced at Li Yan. Just as he was considering how to store these spirit beads and his next attack, he felt a stuffiness in his chest, and his head felt as heavy as lead. He was alarmed, but his body was already out of control. He fell backward toward the ground. Then, he only had one thought in his mind. 'A master of using poison with the water element. A master who can fuse poison with techniques at a higher level than himself.' This was not just a matter of using poison, but also required a considerable understanding of the rationale behind the water-element immortal arts and the poison used.
This bizarre scene caused an uproar among the cultivators below who were watching this battle. They didn't know what had happened here, because from beginning to end, it was Lu Qiutong who was attacking, and Li Yan had been in a passive defensive state. And in the end, when Lu Qiutong retrieved his six spirit beads, it was clear that something was wrong with them, and then he fell backward.
"Senior Brother, what kind of water-element poison is this? Why have I never seen it?" a disciple of Lord Lao Peak asked a person beside him.
That senior brother also had a puzzled look on his face. "I seem to have seen a similar poison, and the appearance is also somewhat similar, but that is a deadly metal-element poison, generally used by refining it onto swords and blades."
Another Qi Condensation cultivator from Lord Lao Peak chimed in, "Senior Brother Lu didn't even touch those six spirit beads. How did he get poisoned?"
Because it was Lu Qiutong in the duel, there were quite a few people from Lord Lao Peak watching this match.
"Could it be a Divine Sense poison? It is said that any spirit artifact or item afflicted with this poison, as long as it is scanned with Divine Sense, will be contaminated, colorless and odorless..."
"Divine Sense poison, impossible. That kind of poison is said to be controllable only by those who have reached the Nascent Soul realm. And the herbs used to refine it are several extremely rare ancient items. How could this person find them?"
"Who is this person? Why have I never seen him..."
Li Changting looked at the crystal screen with a grave expression, muttering to herself, "Divine Sense poison. Could it be that the Fragmented Poison Body can produce such a peerless deadly poison on its own?"
Zhao Min, however, was still staring at the young man on the crystal screen who was gradually retrieving his protective spiritual light. She thought to herself, 'Whether it's a Divine Sense poison or not, to be able to use it under the watchful eyes of everyone without being discovered is truly worthy of being one of the three great poison bodies.'
"What method did Little Junior Brother use? How come I didn't see it?" On the other side, Lin Daqiao scratched his head and looked at Wei Chituo and the others. Wei Chituo and Gong Chenying exchanged a look, also with some doubt in their eyes. They hadn't seen it either.
On the floating pavilion, "This is not a Divine Sense poison," Yan Longzi said.