Chapter 209: Core Uprising

This plan is undoubtedly like pulling a tooth from a tiger's mouth, extremely perilous.

But for now, there seems to be no better option.

Lin Xue stared at Zhang Jun, nodding solemnly: "Be careful with everything! I still have the medicine powder."

"Don't worry!" Zhang Jun grinned, his smile full of great confidence, "I'm not the same as before; let's see what those two guys can do to me!"

Before his words finished, Zhang Jun's body flickered, already like a wisp of green smoke, vanishing into the vent.

The next moment, on the altar.

"Who goes there!" the tall man bellowed, his voice like thunder, snapping his head toward a moving shadow.

"It's your Grandfather Zhang coming!"

Zhang Jun stepped out of the shadow openly, a teasing smile on his face, pure yang true qi bursting from his whole body, his overbearing aura actually distorting the surrounding air slightly.

"You little bastard! Heaven has a road you don't take, Hell has no door you barge in! Dare to come back to die!" The Poison Mist Person let out a piercing shriek; his murky‑green poison mist, as if finding an outlet, surged from his body instantly, turning into several poison snakes that bared fangs and claws, lunging at Zhang Jun.

The tall man also let out an earth‑shaking roar, his body exploding upward, his fan‑like big hand clenching into a fist as he threw a punch, the fist wind fierce and domineering, aimed straight at Zhang Jun's face.

"Hmph! A defeated underling, daring to bark before this grand master?"

Zhang Jun gave a cold snort, not retreating but advancing, his speed unbelievable, actually fighting the tall man and the Poison Mist Person single‑handedly against two!

Fist winds surged, poison mist roiled!

Zhang Jun's cultivation now is incomparable to before; his Pure Yang Ultimate Skill flows freely, each move expansive and mighty, utterly formidable, not only not falling behind but even faintly suppressing the two opponents!

The tall man and the Poison Mist Person grew more shocked and frustrated the longer they fought.

This kid, after just a few days apart, how has his strength shot up like a monkey on a rocket?

Damn, this is too absurd!

Above the altar the battle shook heaven and earth, energy waves sweeping in all directions.

Lin Xue had slipped into the dark dungeon like the most agile cat, silent and unseen.

Her movements were extremely gentle, carefully avoiding scattered stones and icy puddles on the floor as she approached a withered medicine slave.

That medicine slave's eyes were dull, showing no reaction to her approach.

Lin Xue took out a specially made detox pill from her bosom; it melted upon entering the mouth. She then quickly produced several silver needles as fine as cow hair, aimed at the acupoints, and inserted them into several vital points on the medicine slave's head, using the Medicine Sect's secret method to carefully stimulate his nearly extinguished consciousness.

"Wake up! Come to!" she lowered her voice, calling softly.

After a few breaths, the medicine slave's formerly empty, dead gaze seemed to tremble ever so slightly.

It works!

Lin Xue felt delighted, and at once followed the method, trying one by one to awaken those tortured, inhuman wretches.

Unfortunately, most medicine slaves have lost vitality too severely; no matter how she tries to save them, there is no response at all.

Fortunately, however, three or four medicine slaves, under her treatment, gradually regained a faint spark in their eyes. Though still terribly weak, at least they are no longer the completely unconscious walking corpses they were before.

Just then, a curled‑up figure in the corner of the dungeon caught Lin Xue's attention.

This medicine slave had none of those disgusting tubes inserted; he was merely bound by heavy iron chains on his limbs. He seemed… to still retain a trace of extreme faint lucidity!

Lin Xue felt a stir in her heart and walked over lightly.

The medicine slave seemed to sense her approach, slowly lifting his head. His turbid eyes struggled to turn, gazing at Lin Xue.

When he saw Lin Xue's unique needle‑saving technique, his eyes, which had been like dead ash, suddenly burst with intense hatred, and a trace… a fleeting, faint hope?

"Med… Medicine Sect…" he uttered a few indistinct syllables from his throat, like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together.

He actually recognized the Medicine Sect's needle technique!

Lin Xue's heart jolted—could this person have some connection with the Medicine Sect?

"Senior?" Lin Xue suppressed her surprise and probed, asking.

The medicine slave's cracked lips twitched a few times, as if trying to say something, but being too weak, he could not utter a single clear sound.

He mustered all his strength, painfully lifting the hand clamped tight by iron chains, already worn to bloody mush, trembling as he pointed toward the dungeon's depths and then toward the altar above, his throat emitting a few hurried "huh‑huh" sounds.

Lin Xue followed the direction of his finger.

On the stone wall at the dungeon's deepest point, it seemed some extremely faint lines had been carved with a sharp tool. Though the lines were incomplete, their direction and manner of drawing bore a faint resemblance to the flowing runes on the altar!

Formation pattern node!

A flash of insight lit Lin Xue's mind, and she instantly understood!

"Senior, are you saying that place… is the formation's eye?"

The medicine slave, using his last ounce of strength, painfully nodded, his eyes revealing an undisguisable urgency.

Lin Xue hesitated no longer, quickly stepping up to that stone wall and focusing intently to discern the incomplete lines upon it.

These formation lines are indeed tightly linked, in countless ways, to the altar's energy supply!

If we can destroy a few critical nodes, it will surely affect the stabilizer's operation!

She drew a deep breath, took out the medicine powder and special medicinal liquid she carried, and, following the ancient method recorded in the Medical Canon, began to carefully destroy those formation nodes using the principle of mutual pharmacological inhibition.

Her fingertip tapped, corroded, or neutralized, her movements precise and swift.

At the instant Lin Xue successfully destroyed the third formation node—

"Buzz—!" On the altar, the core of what had merely been a flickering black‑red light "Heart of the Earth Vein Stabilizer" suddenly emitted a piercing screech, the entire crystal violently trembling!

The black‑red halo on its surface flashed erratically, like a candle in the wind, about to go out at any moment!

"Oh no! Something's happened below!" the tall man and the Poison Mist Person, locked in fierce combat with Zhang Jun, turned pale and exclaimed in unison.

They could clearly feel that the energy fluctuations emanating from the stabilizer's core had become extremely unstable!

And Zhang Jun, at this moment, sensed a will more sinister than Old Ghost Ying's and several times stronger, slowly awakening from deep within the violently trembling stabilizer core!

"Buzz—!"

A piercing screech suddenly rang from the altar; the core that had merely been a flickering black‑red light "Heart of the Earth Vein Stabilizer" now shook violently!

Its black‑red halo flickered erratically, light and dark alternating, as if some terrifying presence within were beginning to awaken.