Once everything was in order, with no hesitation Zou Liqin chewed on the jade-resplendent peony root which she later poured on her hands and squeezed it above Zou Yi's open wounds. A white golden liquid would be produced every time she squeezed, and every time the liquid came in contact with Zou Yi's wounds, a sizzling sound would be produced, like the sound of something being burnt.
Even with his body covered in dirt, black markings that were granular kept appearing across different parts of Zou Yi's body as they got sucked toward the areas that had the white gold liquid that Zou Liqin had squeezed from the jade-resplendent white peony root.
Black vapor immediately started getting produced from Zou Yi's body. All people present knew what that signified, Zou Yi had poison in him.
Was it the snapping willow tree or something else? wondered He Shan as he carefully took a few steps back to avoid the vapor.
Zou Yi could have been poisoned by the snapping willow tree, or by any of the million things he crashed into on the way over.
Speaking of the tree....
He Shan quickly made his way to Zou Yi once the black vapor had cleared out and carefully analyzed his torso.
How could he? it's not there...
He Shan had a dumbfounded look the closer he observed Zou Yi's body. Even though he was already a few meters ahead of Zou Yi, he had seen the form attack the snapping willow tree employed when it attacked Zou Yi, and even in the best-case scenario, He Shan had Zou Yi being run through by that elephant-sized arrow, but the hole he expected to see wasn't there.
The closer He Shan observed Zou Yi, the more flabbergasted his look became. All of Zou Yi's injuries seemed to have come from him barrelling through the forest, and there didn't seem to be a trace of the snapping willow tree on him.
How did he do it?... So that's how...
He Shan managed to spot a couple of broken smooth black objects tightly clenched in Zou Yi's hand.
These two siblings are not simple he muttered as he saw the smoothness and familiarity in which Zou Liqin went about to address Zou Yi's injuries.
One of them managed to deflect a full-force blow that was the equivalent of a late-stage qi refinement cultivator through quick thinking and with the use of a pebble, and the other had a fastidious mind when it came to first aid.
He Shan however quickly pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind as he went on to assist Zou Liqin in attending He Shan. He had expected her to be guarded and apprehensive of him when he offered to help, but she was quick to accept his help and even assigned areas to him.
Isn't she a little too trusting? thought He Shan as he went about resetting Zou Yi's bones. He took out a neatly wrapped cloth from his beast skin top and removed a few ingredients which he ground and applied around the areas he had reset the bones.
The two silently and methodically went about restoring Zou Yi's body as Yu Mei worked on steadying her breathing and giving her body time to recover what little strength it could.
....
"Too bad for senior Lanfen's daughter," said Dai Chen with a sigh.
"That it is, her son showed some skill too bad his luck wasn't too good," said Xia Boqin.
"If he chose to work with some of the other participants he may have passed. A loss here may serve him some good. It may help temper his character more," said Kang Huilang.
The three judges including Yang Qing had their attention all centered at the same spot, the north-northeast of the mountain.
There's a kilometer-wide crater filled with charred marks, debris everywhere, deep wide cracks, and trees that had blue flames on them. It evidenced that a terrifying battle had taken place, and currently leaving that place was a young deer gently tip-toeing about as it sniffed and gobbled some of the herbs around the area.
The young doe looked ordinary at first, however, if one looked at its coat one would notice it faintly shimmered with different colors, which gave it an almost ethereal look. That innocent-looking doe was the culprit behind the crater of destruction in the area, and also the elimination of 73 participants, one of which was a legacy.
"I don't think I've seen it in the beast-taming hall, did you get it from somewhere Yang?" asked Xia Boqin.
"No, I didn't. While the spirit beast from the beast taming hall have some skill, they would still need some time to adjust to this environment, for an effective test it's better to go with local inhabitants.
Every creature here is a natural resident of this place including the seven-colored doe. I was just as surprised when I found it here. Other than the special zones, everything else is a naturally occurring element of the place.
Those participants have the worst luck for stumbling into one of the five overlords of this mountain so early into the test," said Yang Qing.
"I hope Senior Lanfen doesn't hold a grudge for this. You all are witnesses that it was purely coincidental," said Yang Qing.
While legacy participants did get eliminated once in a while, it was a rare occurrence and those who did will forever be branded with the stench of failing an entrance examination, no matter the reason.
Yang Qing couldn't help but worry about an official from the external logistic division bearing a grudge against him for her son failing the test. The legacy participant had shown some skill as he had managed to go more than fifty rounds with that seven-colored doe before he was decimated. Before him, the doe had obliterated 50 participants in one go before they had a chance to register what happened. He was the only one of the 73 participants who had managed to push the spirit beast, which was a feat in itself.
The seven-colored doe was a progeny of the seven-colored deer which is a spirit beast that at its peak would have a Dao level of mastery of seven elements i.e. water, wind, earth, wood, fire, metal, and lightning. It was no weaker than the phoenixes, or dragons at its peak, however, the doe before them wasn't at that level.
In terms of cultivation, it was just at the early stages of qi refinement and had not yet unlocked its bloodline. But its base strength gave it enough ability to destroy all within the realm of qi refinement, with a few exceptions being those with the same classification of monster just like it, which the legacy participant sadly wasn't.
While legacies had an advantage when it came to the starting line, it didn't equate to them having the same talent as their relatives. Situations that called for something special, would usually leave them exposed, and that was true for that legacy participant. From what Yang Qing had seen of the participants, he had seen a few that had the capabilities of going toe to toe with that seven-colored doe, and even maybe coming out on top.
The fact that that participant couldn't, was only a reflection of his natural talent. He could only blame his horrible luck for being in a situation that demanded monstrous amounts of it. However, Yang Qing quickly pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind as a smile of relief appeared on his face.
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