Chapter 270: Chapter 270: Enlightenment Seed
After hitting Shi Xiaole’s acupuncture points, Ma Jun’s mouth twitched in disdain: "Who do you think you are? No one I targeted has ever escaped me."
In between talk, he stretched out his hand to search Shi Xiaole’s body, only to find nothing.
Ma Jun narrowed his eyes dangerously: "Kid, where is your stuff?"
Comparing Shi Xiaole’s age and ability, Ma Jun did not believe that Shi Xiaole did not carry amazing opportunities. He could even have something suitable for him.
"I would not keep my things on me. Once we get out of the ruins, I can take you there."
Shi Xiaole said, secretly feeling fortunate that he had already transferred everything to his system space.
"No hurry, what’s meant to be mine, you can’t hide it."
With an evil laugh, Ma Jun slapped his hand again and again, releasing a nauseating poisonous energy from his palm which rushed into Shi Xiaole’s body. It felt like countless ants were gnawing at his heart, like a knife aborting his muscles and bones. It was both itchy and painful. It could drive an ordinary person insane.
Even with Shi Xiaole’s willpower, he barely managed to hold himself together.
However, he suddenly discovered something wonderful.
The gigantic poisonous energy was wreaking havoc inside his body, but his body was absorbing it slowly like a sponge. The only reason others could not detect it was because the process was too slow.
"Could it be..."
Shi Xiaole thought of the Emerald-eyed Golden Toad’s inner alchemy.
The Emerald-eyed Golden Toad reached maturity by continuously absorbing poisons and toxins. The real difference between a ten-year-old toad and a hundred-year-old toad was the amount of poisonous power.
So could it be said that Ma Jun’s poisonous energy stimulated him somehow, activating some characteristic the Golden Toad’s inner alchemy offered him, helping him absorb the poisonous power?
In a short while, Shi Xiaole was dizzy and deeply poisoned. But only he knew that the damage the poison did to his body was only superficial. Deep inside him, it not only was not harmful, it even slowly grew stronger!
"Not bad, kid, your will is impressive. I like you more and more."
After being hit by his own Ten Deadly Poison Palms, Shi Xiaole was still so restrained. Even Ma Jun was a bit impressed. However , he feared that Shi Xiaole would end up like others, dying before fully experiencing the wonder of various poisons.
"From now on, be my lovely poison tester, hahaha."
Ma Jun turned around and left.
He did not waste Shi Xiaole’s internal power, because ordinary people had no way to resist his poisonous power.
Anyway, he had already sealed Shi Xiaole’s internal power using special means. Unless a Spiritual-Passage Realm master who was proficient in Poisonous Skill arrived, no one could break the seal.
What’s more, even if a Spiritual-Passage Realm master proficient in poison techniques visited, it would also be useless. Because the seal technique carried strong poisonous power. Unless something unforeseen happened, Shi Xiaole could live for at most half a year.
In the next few days, Shi Xiaole helplessly witnessed many martial arts masters from the Martial World dying under Ma Jun’s torture. Some turned black all over, some rotted all over, and some even developed blisters all over, as if they had been thrown into boiling water...
In short, none of the Martial World people caught were in good condition.
But to be honest, Shi Xiaole was the ’worst’ of them all.
Because he was very stubborn, he never showed any signs of discomfort, which led to Ma Jun taking extra care of him, sending poisonous energy into his body every day and trying all kinds of different experiments.
This was exactly what Shi Xiaole wanted.
Only in this way could he avoid being discovered by the other party regarding the secret of his body.
After five days, the poison power in Shi Xiaole’s body did not decrease. His skin turned deep purple, but the seal in his Dantian, which was made of poison, was already more than half absorbed. In a few more days, he should be able to recover his internal power.
What made him more surprised was that he found himself growing increasingly resistant to toxicity. He used to feel dizzy and nauseous, but now he was just pretending to be on the surface.
Ma Jun was boisterous and dominant. He brought everyone around the Heavenly Treasure Ruins to have fun every day, searching for treasures while capturing test subjects.
Only in the last few days, when martial arts masters began to gather, did he rein himself in.
...
There was a waterfall north of the Heavenly Treasure Ruins. At the intersection of the waterfall and the water surface, a silhouette suddenly appeared, such that the splashing water seemed to freeze a little.
"The news in the secret record of Queen City is indeed true. The Sword Marquis of Heavenly Treasure was infatuated with the first generation master. He built such a place and hid the second volume of the Frost Technique here, in memory of their first meeting."
Ye Liushuang opened her eyes, and a surging chill erupted from her body. Her power was more than twice as strong as before she came in.
Boom!
Just then, an amazing thing happened.
As soon as Ye Liushuang’s aura spread, the entire sky of the Heavenly Treasure Ruins darkened. An endless array system formed a rolling cloud sea, boiling violently.
"What’s happening?"
Countless people in the Martial World looked up, only to see people suddenly shouting and pointing to a giant cliff in the north.
The originally smooth cliff was covered by the falling clouds. After the clouds dispersed, a row of buildings leaning against the cliff appeared mid-air, looking very grand and magnificent.
"There, that’s the real center of the Heavenly Treasure Ruins. Someone must have triggered a trap. Hahaha, it was right to come here."
"I wonder why there were no valuable treasures. Turns out they all hid there."
Near and far, countless people from the Martial World went crazy, immediately rushing towards the cliff, wishing they were birds.
"Damn, they were hiding this move too!"
A few men with grim expressions furrowed their brows.
Earlier, their Sky Evil Sect had searched extensively and took about 70% of the good things. They just didn’t expect that another layer of the array system had not been activated. In their defense, they had already discovered the ultimate technique of the Heavenly Treasure Sword Marquis and thought that place was the core of the ruins.
"Should we inform the suzerain?"
One of the men with an amputee sneered, it was Qiu An, the Sky Evil Sect’s evil follower who almost killed Shi Xiaole.
"Alright, the second and the sixth, you go back to the sect immediately and report the situation. The rest of us will go and investigate. We wouldn’t want the suzerain to ask us questions just for us to be ignorant."
The leader commanded. Immediately, two people left. The rest rushed towards the building leaning against the mountain.
They were only sent by the Sky Evil Sect to monitor the situation. They obviously did not have enough rank and did not know about the scheme set up by Lord Evil. Of course, even Lord Evil did not expect that the Heavenly Treasure Ruins also had another secret mechanism.
On the stone steps leading to the building leaning against the mountain, martial arts masters were slaughtering each other ruthlessly, their eyes red with bloodlust. From the first step onwards, you could see severed limbs everywhere. Blood painted the ground red and flowed down the stairs.
"Ten Deadly Poison Palms, get out of my way!"
Ma Jun’s palm opened and closed, resulting in clouds of black poisonous energy, forcing the people in front to retreat.
Everyone knew how difficult it was to deal with martial artists who wield the Poisonous Skill. Unless absolutely necessary, many masters far stronger than Ma Jun would avoid provoking him, to save themselves the trouble of dealing with his poison.
Even so, Ma Jun, enveloped in his poison power, managed to lead a dozen poison testers into the first floor of the mountain-side building without any difficulties.
Throughout this process, Shi Xiaole remained silent and patient.
The first floor was a massive open space. Numerous parallel passageways stretched out from the semi-circular wall, each one pitch-black and seemingly endless, leading to unknown destinations.
"Go in."
Ma Jun casually grabbed one of the poison testers standing beside him and threw him into one of the passageways. After a brief wait confirmed there was no danger, he led the others forward.
The passageway was wide enough to accommodate three people side by side. Ma Jun positioned himself in the middle, ensuring he had human shields at both his front and back, no matter where danger might come from.
Much to Shi Xiaole’s chagrin, due to his superior performance in the poison test, Ma Jun assigned him to be a side companion, making escape even harder.
After a few days of absorption, less than ten percent of the poison seal in his body remained. It wouldn’t be much longer before he could break it completely.
Indeed, there were many traps in the passageway such as sharp arrows, ground spikes, rolling boulders, and even clouds of poison. Every now and then, they would come across a fork in the path, connecting to various directions, bewitching and confusing everyone.
With each new path, Ma Jun would send a person ahead to set off any potential traps. If anyone died, he would promptly have another take their place.
After about a two-hour period, only three out of the dozen poison testers were left alive.
"My lord, there’s a room up ahead."
One of the poison testers pointed out a room on the side and respectfully informed Ma Jun.
"You, go check it out."
Ma Jun motioned with his chin.
The man turned pale, throwing a stone at the stone door. When there was no response, he forced a smile and reassured, "My lord, it should be safe."
"I said, go."
Ma Jun’s voice turned cold. In his eyes, these poison testers were merely disposable tools. If they died, it was no big deal – he could always get more.
Knowing he had no choice, the man reluctantly walked towards the stone door. It was surprisingly thin, and he was easily able to push it open with sheer strength.
Suddenly!
A bright flame burst out, incinerating the man instantly. A Wind Thunder Bomb had been hidden inside the stone door.
Relieved that it wasn’t him, Ma Jun pointed at another person, ordering, "You, go in."
The man he pointed at was sweating, trembling with fear, but under Ma Jun’s intimidating glare, he had no choice but to obey.
He was cautious, throwing his weapon inside the room first. Seeing no signs of danger, he then entered the room only to step on a specific stone plate, instantly turning his body into a honeycomb full of metal needles.
In the end, only Ma Jun and Shi Xiaole remained.
Without Ma Jun having to tell him, Shi Xiaole stepped forward.
"This little boy, quite interesting."
Ma Jun stroked his chin, revealing a mischievous smile full of deep intention.
With each step, Shi Xiaole’s walk was very slow. What was normally a ten-step distance took him fifty steps to cover. A second more and he could break the seal.
"Little boy, if you continue to dawdle, believe it or not, I will slap you into oblivion," Ma Jun threatened coldly from behind.
Stopping his feet outside the room, Shi Xiaole silently counted to three. Just as Ma Jun couldn’t bear to not take action, the poison seal within Shi Xiaole’s body suddenly shattered, and his pure internal power once again filled his body.
"How dare you defy my orders! Get in there!"
From behind, a foul-smelling gust of strong wind approached him. Ma Jun made his move.
With one hand on the hilt of his sword, Shi Xiaole infused all his power into the blade, and without turning his head, he swung it viciously toward Ma Jun.
Eclipse Eight Forms, eighth form, Fire Scale Eclipse.
"What?!"
The terrifying Qingyang Sword Qi exploded, casting Ma Jun’s surprised face into sharp relief.
How was this possible? When did his opponent recover his power?
Ma Jun was undoubtedly more powerful than Shi Xiaole. However, this move was a casual one from him, and as a result, he was hit by several bursts of Sword Qi, causing his blood to flow.
The poisonous palm power whistled by, annihilating the Sword Qi, but Shi Xiaole wasn’t there anymore. Ma Jun’s face turned red with rage and he roared, "You damn brat, wait for me!"
If he caught Shi Xiaole again, he would use every means necessary to force out his secret to unsealing his power, and then kill him!
A shadow rushed through the passageways, making occasional turns at the crossroads until it came to a stop at one particular moment.
"This aura?"
Shi Xiaole looked at a hidden door on the side. The aura emanating from it drew him to explore further.
His Brahma-I Unity internal power slowly flowed out, and while standing three zhang away, he gently pushed the stone door. Shi Xiaole’s spirit was taut to its limit.
The process was surprisingly smooth.
"Makes sense. Not every place has a trap."
He took some weapons out of his system space and threw them into the stone room. Once he confirmed that it was safe, Shi Xiaole carefully stepped into the room.
In the corner of the stone room was an unimpressive futon, and the aura he felt before was emanating from it.
"An Enlightenment Seed."
Images began to flash through his mind. Shi Xiaole recalled something he had read in a book and was taken aback.
There was a type of seed in the world which could release flux waves that resonated with certain parts of the human brain, causing people to fall more easily into fanciful states of mind.
This was the Enlightenment Seed.
Of course, this was just Shi Xiaole’s personal interpretation. In the eyes of most martial artists, it was a magical existence that could enhance one’s level of understanding.
The futon contained an Enlightenment Seed.
