Chapter 945: Chapter 944: The Changing Yan Yuchai (Additional Chapter for ’poonlo’, 5/10)_1
In the hearts of both the Ghost Prison Blade Emperor and the Dwarf Emperor, Shi Xiaole was not the threat, despite his combat power reaching the level of a Human Realm Martial Emperor. Given time, they could easily deal with him.
The real trouble was each other.
Unfortunately, both were old hands at the Martial World, with unfathomable minds, and neither could outwit the other.
"Dao Emperor Questions Heaven Slash!"
Since the pretense had been torn away, the Ghost Prison Blade Emperor couldn’t be bothered to keep up the act. Squatting down, he raised the ghostly blade over his head and viciously slashed forward, creating a massive and ferocious ghost shadow.
The Dwarf Emperor merely chuckled coldly, his hands in gloves rapidly fluttering, merging dozens of strikes into one. A terribly foul Vigorous Air immediately swept through the entire stone hall.
Shi Xiaole maximized his defensive Vigorous Air, yet still could not prevent the toxic elements in the wind from penetrating. He quickly circulated the Illusion Martial Way. However, the poison from the Dwarf Emperor was clearly beyond any ordinary toxins and reached the level of Heavenly Poison, which could afflict even Martial Emperors of the Void Origin Realm.
After only a few breaths, Shi Xiaole felt completely drained, his face and skin crawling with raised purple-black veins, appearing extremely horrifying.
"Pfft!"
Unable to sustain his Vigorous Air, Shi Xiaole was swept by the residual energy of the blade, nearly getting sliced in half. Clearly, both the Ghost Prison Blade Emperor and Dwarf Emperor did not forget to give him ’special attention,’ even amidst their fierce battle.
Pushing aside the coldness in his eyes, Shi Xiaole, fighting off dizziness and weakness, desperately rushed towards the nearest exit.
"So tenacious, but it’s a dead end."
"Annoying!"
As the Ghost Prison Blade Emperor and the Dwarf Emperor clashed, they seemed to understand each other instinctively. One with a palm strike and one with a horizontal blade swung at Shi Xiaole, paying him no mind as if they were just getting rid of an insignificant ant.
In their eyes, Shi Xiaole was not worth mentioning.
Sizzling noises.
Just then, a strange sound arose.
The Dwarf Emperor was the first to widen his eyes. He saw a series of twinkling stars swirling around Shi Xiaole, then rushing towards him. He wanted to dodge but couldn’t escape at all. How could a man be faster than starlight?
"Not good!"
As the starlight entered his body, the Dwarf Emperor was greatly startled, a fierce look flashing in his eyes. He decisively chopped off his own left arm, and amidst the sizzling sounds, the severed arm on the ground burned into a pool of blood.
From beside him came a scream. It was the Ghost Prison Blade Emperor’s leg that had turned to blood, the eerie starlight still bubbling upward, clashing against the Way of the Ghost Blade, from which clouds of blood mist liberally sprayed out from the wounds.
It seemed that the power of the starlight was insufficient, and it was soon suppressed by the Way of the Ghost Blade.
The eyes of the Dwarf Emperor flickered, locking onto the Ghost Prison Blade Emperor’s bloodshot, venomous eyes. The latter sneered, "I may have lost a leg, but I will not let you benefit from it. Try me if you don’t believe it."
"Ghost Brother is joking. The top priority now is to catch that kid,"
Watching the somewhat manic Ghost Prison Blade Emperor, the Dwarf Emperor did not make a move after all. First, he was not confident he could kill his opponent; second, he was a Martial Emperor who had been crippled by Shi Xiaole, and without a thousand cuts and slices, his hatred could not be quelled!
"Surname Le, I will grind you to dust!"
The expression on the Ghost Prison Blade Emperor’s face twisted, and with extreme hatred, his hand holding the blade trembled.
Lacking his left leg, his strength had dropped by more than twenty percent, and he would be crippled for life – a fate worse than death!
...
Outside the exit was not a stairway but a rolling river. Without a second thought, Shi Xiaole jumped in.
Even though he relied on the "Thinking of You Unto Melting" technique from the Thousand Dark Poison Emperor to ambush the Ghost Prison Blade Emperor and Dwarf Emperor, Shi Xiaole was also gravely injured and poisoned by the Dwarf Emperor. As soon as he hit the water, he was almost swept away by the current, nearly losing consciousness and passing out.
Struggling with his last bit of strength, Shi Xiaole bit down hard on his own tongue to keep alert. He knew that if he lost consciousness at this moment, he would never wake up again.
When even his tongue became numb, Shi Xiaole did not hesitate to stir up his spiritual power, harshly shocking his own sea of consciousness with a sensation intense enough to painfully jar anyone awake, just to keep himself conscious.
As long as there was the slightest chance, he would not give up.
In his sea of consciousness, the Taiji Yin-Yang Plate spun rapidly, but because of a layer of putrid black air covering its surface, its speed was slowing down, and its transformation efficiency was decreasing.
This was the Meridian-Heart Poison of the Dwarf Emperor, capable of killing a portion of Human Realm Martial Emperors.
Although the Illusion Martial Way was highly advanced, the realm was ultimately too low to transform it in time, and even there was a risk of it collapsing.
Time passed, uncounted.
In a daze, Shi Xiaole sank to the deepest part of the water, and with the current’s force, he smashed into an indentation in an underwater rock wall. As a few pebbles were swept away, Shi Xiaole himself was poured into the rock wall, then through a hidden passageway, flowing unknowingly to some unknown place.
The Ghost Prison Blade Emperor and Dwarf Emperor searched frantically for Shi Xiaole, from the surface of the river to its depths, but the river was unexpectedly large and limited their spiritual perception.
After three whole days, they came up empty-handed, exhausting themselves in the process. With a few angry roars and some venting by slashing at the river, calm finally returned to the place.
...
"You’re awake."
Just as Shi Xiaole opened his eyes, he heard an extremely melodious voice, cold yet delicate, capable of intoxicating and mesmerizing any ordinary person.
His gaze swept across the scene and his heart trembled; he opened his mouth as if to say something, but then stopped himself.
"Young Master Shi, we meet again."
The woman said with a faint smile.
Shi Xiaole touched his face, and the woman said, "When I found you in the river, your disguised face was mostly ruined, so I took it upon myself to tear it off. Don’t worry, only I know about it."
"Senior Sister Yan, what brings you here?"
The woman before him was none other than Yan Yuchai, the current Sect Master of Qin Building, the largest intelligence organization in the Western Sea Archipelago.
Compared to the past, Yan Yuchai seemed like a completely different person in terms of expression and bearing, except her features were even more delicate, capable of rivaling Xi Xianglei.
At this moment, with the sun shining brightly, Yan Yuchai sat under the dense shade of a tree on a rock, basked in speckles of light, radiating a holy aura.
It was after seeing her that Shi Xiaole had followed her into Mist Rain Town.
Yan Yuchai spoke indifferently, "It’s a long story, we can talk about it when there’s time. How did you get injured so severely, and who hurt you?"
Having nothing to hide, Shi Xiaole simply recounted what had happened earlier.
"Whether it’s the Ghost Prison Blade Emperor or the Dwarf Emperor, both are close to the top ranks of the Human Realm Martial Emperor. To escape from their hands, it seems that another astounding transformation has occurred in you, Young Master Shi."
A flash of wonder appeared in her beautiful eyes, Yan Yuchai gestured with her hand, and neatly stacked No Gang Spiritual Armor flew toward Shi Xiaole, "Before you awoke, I kept this for you. Now that it’s back with its owner, take some time to recuperate."
Having said that, she got up and walked away, leaving behind a figure that prompted endless imagination.
Curious about her change but without dwelling on it too much, Shi Xiaole realized that the priority was to heal his injuries. When he inspected his internal condition, he was surprised to find that over seventy percent of the toxins in his body had been cleansed.
"I gave you a pill, take another, and the toxin can be cleared."
The heavenly voice rang out once more, and Shi Xiaole saw a fragrant white pill floating before his eyes, which he caught in his hand.
Knowing how precious a pill capable of treating heavenly toxin was, Shi Xiaole understood that regardless of the circumstances, he now owed Yan Yuchai two great favors.
After some thought, Shi Xiaole did not take the pill, not out of pretense, but because the remaining thirty percent of the toxin was perfect for practicing the Illusion Martial Way.
Soon after, Shi Xiaole heard some conversation; from the content, it seemed that Yan Yuchai’s father and the family’s experts had returned, and upon knowing about Shi Xiaole’s presence, they showed neither closeness nor deliberate aloofness.
Yan Yuchai did not reveal Shi Xiaole’s true identity to anyone, including her father.
Thanks to the previous pill and practicing the Illusion Martial Way, in just one day, Shi Xiaole’s injuries had largely healed and the remaining thirty percent of the toxin was under control, no longer affecting him.
Moreover, Shi Xiaole was confident that as the toxin was broken down, his resistance would only increase, and the Illusion Martial Way might even break through to a whole new level, a blessing in disguise.
The next day, the Yan family experts set off on the road, and Shi Xiaole agreed to accompany them as Yan Yuchai had requested.
This was a boundless range of mountains, where volcanoes would sometimes appear, and sometimes snow-capped mountains. One moment there might be intense heat, and the next, snow could fall from the sky, the changes unpredictable.
Now and then, rays of treasure light shot up into the sky, followed by explosions. From a distance, they couldn’t see clearly, but from the faint tremors, Shi Xiaole guessed that some Void Origin Realm Martial Emperors were fighting.
During this period, the six people from the Yan family also found some superior weapons, pills, etc., all of which they collected. Once, they even fought with a Human Realm Martial Emperor, who was injured by a Yan family expert within ten moves and had to flee in disgrace.
In Shi Xiaole’s perception, among the six people from the Yan family, two were no less powerful than the Ghost Prison Blade Emperor, and there were two more who had not yet taken action, likely far surpassing the Ghost Prison Blade Emperor!
A mist shrouded Yan Yuchai, but Shi Xiaole could sense that her strength was around the Human Realm Martial Emperor level, comparable to himself.
As for Yan Zhenning, he could only be described as unfathomably deep.
What astonished Shi Xiaole was not only this but also the discovery that the Yan family seemed to be intentionally heading toward a certain direction, even though they appeared to be attracted by the treasure light and changing their route frequently.
Of course, as long as the Yan family meant no harm to him, Shi Xiaole didn’t want to pry too much. After half a month, only twenty percent of the toxin remained in his body, and the Illusion Martial Way was increasingly approaching the mid-stage of fifty percent.
Eighteen days.
Twenty days.
Finally, on the twenty-fifth day of awakening, the Illusion Martial Way completely broke through to the mid-stage of fifty percent, its efficiency in transformation faster.
To Shi Xiaole’s delight, the Illusion Martial Way even developed resistance to the middle-of-the-night heart poison, meaning that facing the Dwarf Emperor again, the threat of his deadly move would be reduced by at least fifty percent.
Another ten days passed and all toxins were cleansed from his body.
The Illusion Martial Way took a significant step toward the late stage of fifty percent.
At this moment, the Wind Sword Way and the Illusion Martial Way, influenced by the progression in the Illusion Martial Way, showed an increasingly distinct interchange, and both advanced at a faster pace. The Wind Sword Way was not far from reaching its pinnacle at ninety percent.
"Patriarch, there’s something wrong!"
On this day, as the group of seven passed by a certain hill, a never-before-seen light burst out from a valley tens of thousands of meters away, with faint sounds of weapons clashing.
Also at this moment, the pure silver Demon Bone within Shi Xiaole abruptly quivered as if urging him to proceed.
