Gu Shi folded his muscular arms and threw his head back to release a booming laugh that made the bulging veins on his bald scalp throb visibly.
"Hahahaha! Su Liyue, you really are sothing else!"
His voice sounded like gravel.
"You sensed my Thousand Poisons Green Miasma the instant it erupted yet your first instinct was to scream a warning at that fool instead of shielding yourself."
His laughter bood even more.
"Foolish! Utterly foolish! Hahahaha!"
It was the worst laugh you could possibly hear.
Li Qingmu’s blue eyes suddenly flared bright crimson for a single second.
Killing intent pulsed off him in waves as the air around his body seed to shimr with heat. His teeth clenched so hard that faint wisps of steam hissed out between them as though his blood itself had reached boiling point.
Before he could open his mouth, Su Liyue weakly raised one pale hand toward him.
"It’s fine, Qingmu."
She rasped, still leaning against the rock.
"I’ll handle this one."
She coughed again then straightened as much as her poisoned body allowed.
Her gaze locked onto Gu Shi’s grinning face.
"Poison masters..."
She pushed her voice out the loudest she could.
"You’re the worst kind of spiritual plant practitioners in existence. Instead of studying the myriad venoms of heaven and earth so you can heal the sick and save the dying, you twist them into tools for slaughter. You delight in crippling the innocent, watching them rot while they beg. You don’t deserve to even touch a single spiritual herb!"
She clenched both fists until her knuckles popped.
"You. Don’t. Deserve. To. Study. Plants!"
Gu Shi’s grin twisted into sothing uglier.
"Arrogant little bitch!"
He snarled like a tiger.
"Getting a bit too full of yourself."
He didn’t even unfold his arms.
His divine sense alone can handle her.
"I will teach you a lesson!"
A colossal cloud of green miasma spiraled upward and condensed into the shape of a thirty-zhang-long python whose dripping fangs glead like jade daggers as it reared back and dove straight toward Su Liyue.
The poison fangs descended for her.
RUUUUUMBLE!
Su Liyue’s palms flashed with green light.
Flora Weaponization Arts!
Twin enormous lotus blossoms materialized in the air before her with petals ford of pure condensed spiritual plant essence. Each flower head split open to reveal a glowing stan barrel.
BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—!
Concentrated beams of purifying erald energy lanced out in rapid succession.
They struck the miasma python head-on.
The toxic serpent didn’t explode.
It simply... unraveled.
The green miasma disintegrated into countless glittering motes that transford midair into a gentle, shining erald rain.
The droplets fell across a wide radius.
Gu Shi’s face darkened instantly.
"Hmph. You got lucky."
He raised his hand to summon another wave of poison cloud only for the miasma to form for a second... then collapse into nothing. He tried again. And again. Each ti the energy gathered only to dissipate like smoke in wind.
"What... is going on!?" he roared.
Su Liyue finally let a small, tired chuckle escape her bloodstained lips.
"My flower cannons don’t rely destroy your useless attack—they disperse and refine it. While the beams shredded your python’s structure, I secretly channeled three key antidote essences into the miasma stream. When the cloud turned to rain... it beca the antidote instead. Right now, a sixty-ter radius around us is saturated with the counteragent to your Thousand Poisons Green Miasma. My own body is already purging the toxin."
She tilted her head as her amber eyes glead.
"You’re standing in your own cure, Gu Shi."
He sneered.
"Then I’ll simply leave the area—"
The instant his powerful legs propelled him sixty ters backward in one explosive leap.
Rumble—!
Thick, thorn-covered vines erupted from the sand beneath his feet like angry pythons. They wrapped him in an instant and bound him so tightly that only his furious red face remained visible.
Su Liyue’s grin turned downright impish.
"Can’t believe you actually fell for it. The antidote is already soaked into your skin and ridians. Doesn’t matter how far you run—you’re finished. But I figured I’d have so fun anyway... so I baited you right into the Vine Prison Array I set while preaching about the ’innocent victims’ crap."
She leaned forward slightly.
"Did you really think I gave a damn about your moral qualifications as a poison master? Hah! I beca a spiritual plant master for one reason only—it pays absurd amounts of spirit stones!"
She cackled like a little goblin.
Li Qingmu and Song Ruyi stared at her in silence.
They were stunned.
"...She’s shaless..."
"Completely shaless."
Li Qingmu agreed under his breath.
A slender vine snaked forward, deftly plucked Gu Shi’s storage pouch from his belt and delivered it straight into Su Liyue’s waiting palm.
Gu Shi’s face twisted purple with rage.
"Swindler Su!!"
Su Liyue threw her head back and laughed harder.
══════
On the central observation dais.
Ye Zirou’s expression soured with open disgust though she fought to keep her tone even.
"Su Liyue is naturally talented. This outco... was within expectations."
Gu Bingyue took a slow, graceful sip of tea.
"Besides..."
Her bottom, rosy lip pressed against the teacup.
"Gu Shi isn’t particularly impressive to begin with."
Song Yan kept her gentle smile in place.
"Make all the excuses you want. My candidates worth more than you think."
Gu Linyuan’s face twitched.
He shot her an irritated side-eye.
"We’ll see about that."
Ye Zirou nodded coolly.
"Besides, they’re outnumbered ten to three. There’s no hope either way."
Gu Linyuan gave a curt nod.
"Gu Lao may only be Core Formation, but his combat sense and poison arts rival many Nascent Souls. He has far more to offer than you think."
His gaze slid toward Song Yan again.
Song Yan’s smile froze. She said nothing but her fingers tightened around her sleeve.
══════
Far below, hidden on the dune crest.
Gu Lao’s face had already turned ashen.
He barked an order.
"Three of you—ambush Li Qingmu now!"
No answer.
He whipped around.
Only five clan cousins remained.
The three he’d sent were gone.
"Where are they?!" he snarled.
His surviving clansn looked around in confusion.
A light, almost friendly pat landed on Gu Lao’s back.
Gu Lao’s heart nearly exploded out of his chest.
Li Qingmu stood directly behind him with a warm smile when he was supposed to be over a hundred ters away with the two won.
"How did you—?!"
Li Qingmu’s smile stayed gentle.
"My friends asked to pass this along."
Three rcilessly severed heads thumped wetly onto the sand at their feet.
"RUN!!"
Every remaining Gu clan mber’s danger sense cried like horror monsters.
They scattered like startled crows.
Too late.
A colossal, pitch-black palm descended from the sky.
It was larger than the dune itself.
Tyrant King Subjugation Palm!
BOOM——!!!
The hand pressed down.
An apocalyptic shockwave flattened the dunes for li in every direction. When the dust settled, eight proud Gu clan chosen had been reduced to a thin red paste.
Song Ruyi’s mouth fell open.
"How... how does he have that much power!?"
Su Liyue folded her arms and huffed proudly.
"Hmph. That’s just how strong Qingmu is."
Song Ruyi blinked.
"Qingmu...? As in... Li Qingmu?"
"Mhm."
Song Ruyi froze.
She stared at Li Qingmu’s broad back as her voice dropped to a stunned whisper.
"So this... is the man Auntie fell in love with."
══════
Back on the dais.
Gu Linyuan and Ye Zirou were both deathly pale.
"How is this possible?"
Ye Zirou breathed.
"He just... erased eight chosen of the Gu Immortal Family... like that."
"I’ve never seen a palm art of that caliber before."
Even Gu Linyuan painfully had to admit.
Song Yan tried to maintain her proud smile but inside her heart was churning.
『How is he this strong...? I just hope he survives whatever desperate asures they throw at him next.』
Gu Bingyue quietly sipped her tea beautifully.
『Quite an interesting young man.』
The big sister bit her lower lip and pressed her perfect white thighs together.
══════
Li Qingmu lifted a brow and lazily glanced toward a distant dune.
"Hm? You actually escaped that?"
Gu Lao stood panting as black blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. He crushed a bottle between his teeth to let a viscous purple liquid flow down his throat.
Soul-Devouring Restoration Venom!
It ate away at the spiritual damage left by the palm attack until his wounds were gone.
Li Qingmu sighed.
"Look. I’ll let you go if you swear not to be a nuisance again. That Gu Shi idiot poisoned my woman, though... so he definitely has to die."
A hundred ters away, Gu Shi’s head snapped up.
"Huh—?"
Before the syllable finished leaving his mouth Li Qingmu raised two fingers.
Five blood-red tyrant swords materialized in the air then shot forward like shooting blood stars.
Puchi—puchi—puchi—!
Gu Shi’s head was torn apart in five neat pieces before he could even blink.
Song Ruyi let out a short shriek, eyes wide.
『rciless...』
Li Qingmu turned back to Gu Lao with a peaceful smile.
"Isn’t that a fair trade?"
Gu Lao’s face contorted with fury.
"You bast—"
Gu Linyuan’s urgent voice thundered directly into his sea of consciousness.
"Do NOT retaliate. Leave. NOW."
"But—!"
"Do what I say!"
Gu Lao’s shoulders slumped.
With one last glare, he turned and fled into the dunes.
Li Qingmu swished his sleeve lightly.
"Good boy."
══════
High on the observation dais.
Gu Linyuan stared into the mirror array.
This was an insult to his image.
Even his handso face had darkened furiously.
『In just a few more minutes... the Devouring Deity will awaken. And when that happens, every living thing in the examination grounds better be dead.』
His fist tightened until the knuckles cracked white.
The real danger was only beginning.
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