Peng Zhen, who had been cautiously eyeing the students from the Order, felt a presence looking over him, prompting him to look up, where he saw a young, gentle-looking green-haired youth with something in his mouth smiling at him.
"Judge Yang Qing?! What is he doing here?" he wondered as he offered a polite and respectful bow.
He had been practicing the blue-grade art, the Brilliant ray fist technique for a month now and though he was still in the beginner stages in terms of understanding it, he couldn't help but be awed by its profundities.
The cultivation art though was a fist technique primarily, it contained other aspects that were meant to build one's abilities toward reaching the full potential of the art. There was accompanying movement art, healing art, finger art, and palm art that had an equal measure in defensive and offensive properties.
The art also strengthened his body the more he practiced it, making him more sensitive to spiritual qi, and his own qi seemed to have a quality being developed as he continued to practice the art. He could feel it had a purifying effect, though presently it was extremely mild whose effects compared to mortal rank pills with a similar effect.
However, he had only started cultivating the art, the more he practiced it, the more he felt the purifying quality within his qi would grow along with his comprehension and experience with the Brilliant ray fist technique.
Having a purifying attribute within his qi, could be considered one of the greatest harvests Peng Zhen could ever gain from the art. When he considered its value and implications, it was even more vital to him than the core technique. This was because the Green Fog region where their sect was located was a poisonous place.
It was almost guaranteed that you would not take more than six steps before you stumbled on something poisonous. It could be a creature, plant, water, or even the air itself. Anything could poison you within the region.
Within their sect, they had to plant herbs and various plants with purification and detoxifying effects, along with that they also had to set up various cleansing and poison detection arrays all over the sect which were constantly monitored because of being continuously triggered. Those arrays were one of the biggest resource guzzlers for the sect, because of how many spirit stones and treasures with purifying, detoxifying, and alarming abilities, they had to burn through within a short duration.
However, those arrays and measures were vital to the survival of the sect. However even with the measures they put in place, and having survived in the Green Fog swamp for thousands of years, they still have poison epidemics within the sect through various means. A spirit beast the size of a small insect bypasses their protection, conceals itself, and lays eggs within their sect grounds, then when the time is ripe they hatches and attacks the sect en masse, or a strange plant manages to invade their territory in the form of spores and creates a miasma plague once inside.
For a poison-rich region that continuously innovated and churned out different ways of spreading poison, the Green Fog Swamp sect could not completely make their sect airtight against poisoning incidents. About the only place that was completely free of poison and eliminated all risk was the sect master's courtyard where the Tupelo tree grew, but with it out of commission in its hibernated state, no place was completely safe within the territory of the sect.
Peng Zhen having a purifying ability within his qi meant he could use it to create safe spots around the sect using his qi as a conduit, the healing arts would be more potent, and he could now roam in certain regions of the Green fog region with an added level of protection against poisoning.
The Green fog region was one of the richest resource-filled areas in the Southern Continent, however, its poisonous terrain, and the suppressed spiritual sense, and the huge spirit beast population were some of the main reasons most including the inhabitants of the area didn't explore it as much, but now, Peng Zhen felt if he got more familiar with it, he could explore the regions surrounding their sect for resources, and there was also the sentence handed to Chen Yuan. He could help him in creating the botanical list he was charged with.
Peng Zhen couldn't help but sigh with gratitude. The sentence he was given felt more like a blessing than anything else.
"I don't know if the rice from the sect will even come close to repaying the favor he has given me.." wondered Peng Zhen before he cleared his mind of all worries and focused on the matter at hand.
Even if he was given a blue grade art, and had a higher cultivation base than the young students he saw before him, he couldn't afford to lower his guard.
He was still serving a life and death sentence, which he couldn't afford to lose, especially with the recent happenings at the Green Fog Region and his opponents despite only being in the early stages of the foundation establishment realm while he was at the peak stage himself, two minor realms above them, he didn't favor his odds as he would be facing elites, known to fight across realms.
He still remembered what Yang Qing told him when he handed out the sentence. He had to fight as though his life was on the line because it would be, and he would risk it over and over again so that he could live at the end of it. He should not hold back in any form whatsoever, and that was what Peng Zhen intended to do.
As someone who lived in the Green Fog Swamp, a place where death was prevalent every second, he was no stranger to risking one's life for survival.
..
At the arena, a palpable tense atmosphere was created when the prisoners from the Requiem arrived.
"The opponents you will be facing will be the inmates of Requiem. In the few months that you have been here, you should already be familiar with some of the core facilities of the Order, with Requiem being one of them.
The prison where we imprison heinous cultivators who are judged to be too dangerous or irredeemable to be let out.
The cultivators you see before are from there..."
Instructor Pan's introduction drew breaths of cold air from the students whose gazes quickly turned from shock to eagerness. They saw the inmates as nothing more than lambs slated for slaughter.
The bulk of them were all too eager, they couldn't wait for the fight to start so they could show their brilliance and the fruits of their labor for the past four months.
To some, this was the prelude to their illustrious achievements where their names would be sung far and wide and even eclipse their fellow students.
They each threw each other competitive glances as if they were saying 'Who will have the cleanest and fastest wins under their belt.' In their minds, despite their opponents having higher cultivation bases with the least of them having a sixth stage foundation establishment realm cultivation base, their victory was already guaranteed. The only question was how beautiful their wins would be.
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