Chapter 596: Poison Master Steps Forward, Peacock Retreats

Swish!

Kongque Laoliu's sword light struck the forehead of the Poison Flood Dragon, paused for a brief moment, and then with unstoppable fluidity, sliced the Poison Flood Dragon—which had been condensed from Dusha Hutie—cleanly in two.

The sword light swept out from the tail of the Poison Flood Dragon, then unexpectedly flickered, caught up to Zhou You's back, and landed on him.

The footwork of the Seven Step Poison Sand Palm was exquisite, yet it could not evade the pursuit of Kongque Laoliu's swordsmanship.

Zhou You was struck by the sword mark and let out a muffled groan, a vast expanse of pitch-black mist rising from his body.

Most of this mist shattered, accompanied by the tumbling of intact, pitch-black feathers, which offset the power of the longsword like a dense forest.

Lu Zhigang took a few steps back, his two fingers snapping onto the sword blade like lightning to push it outward, the web between his thumb and index finger quickly splitting open.

The next moment, Kongque Laoliu withdrew his longsword, having probed the truth: "You practice Poison Martial Arts, but you have not yet laid hands on the legacy techniques of Baiqin Laoren."

Of course, the time to lay hands on them had not yet come.

Lu Zhigang nodded, "Could it be that you want to go back?"

"No need, you keep them. As for the path of Baiqin Laoren, I only use it for reference; a real man relies on himself to carve out his own path."

Kongque Laoliu licked his lips and said, "I came to find you, not for the legacy, nor to avenge those six pieces of trash."

Then why, you absolute madman?

"I just wanted to find an interesting opponent to kill for fun."

Kongque Laoliu pointed at Fu Manlun and the others, "Uniform mediocrity, incompetence, and weakness—these people are too boring."

"A word of advice: leave early. This is the Ten Thousand Poisons Secret Workshop, the territory of Du Taiyue. If you make too much of a scene, there is no guarantee he won't show himself."

"And what if he comes out? My sword can sever all things; is it the only thing that cannot sever a Strong Martial Omen?"

Kongque Laoliu's eyes were full of smiles as he turned and swung his sword again; this time, the momentum was more than ten times more violent than before.

Fu Manlun and the other inner disciples felt their eyelids twitch; this was the same terrifying momentum from when he had slaughtered Ha Rugou and Wu Kui earlier.

Thousands of human lives could bear witness: once Kongque Laoliu made a serious move, there was no martial artist he could not kill.

Fu Manlun and the others even harbored a treasonous thought: if he were to strike at Du Taiyue, he might actually make the old poison master suffer.

Lu Zhigang was a dead man.

His Dusha Hutie and snake-scale armor were all methods they were accustomed to using.

Wu Kui and Ha Rugou had verified with their lives that these defensive measures were completely useless under Kongque's longsword.

And there was the Seven Fragrance Peacock Gall... Kongque Laoliu was in this battlefield where the invisible, transparent air was filled with poison-web traps secretly generated by various Poison Martial Arts, and poison-sting beetles were buried in the soil.

Even a moment of carelessness while breathing could result in a mass of virulent poison pouring into one's mouth and nose, taking one's life in a snap of the fingers.

The Seven Fragrance Gall hanging behind Kongque Laoliu's head was constantly wriggling and pulsing, emitting a strange, colorful fragrance that neutralized the pervasive virulent poison.

Poison arts were ineffective, defenses were mere window dressing, and one could not outrun the speed of the sword light—how was one supposed to fight this? "Heh!"

Lu Zhigang laughed, and the Chuangmian flew out from his sleeve, winding and coiling around his arm.

"Chuangmian, how has it grown to this scale in such a short time?"

Seeing this poisonous snake, Fu Manlun recognized it as a descendant of the Nine Insects, Chuangmian, and was shocked beyond belief.

The next moment, Zhou You brought his palms together and struck out; the Dusha Hutie palm force merged with Chuangmian, which was none other than one of Du Taiyue's most prized ultimate moves: Poison Pet Palm Force.

As one of the Nine Insects, once Chuangmian was integrated into the combat power, it was equivalent to Zhou You also mastering one of the nine styles of the Poison Palm.

"Stepping Heaven Flood Subduing Palm!"

The palm force leaked a trace of power unique to a Strong Martial Omen, causing Kongque Laoliu to suddenly realize, "So it was you just now."

While a Strong Martial Omen was indeed powerful, it could not compare to the ability to mobilize the power of a Strong Martial Omen while still at the Martial Artist realm. Lu Zhigang's palm technique achieved exactly this; the Poison Flood Dragon he struck out, catalyzed by the palm force, surged from a dozen meters to over a hundred meters in length.

Kongque Laoliu's sword light was actually held back by the massive Poison Flood Dragon, losing its previous agility and playfulness, becoming sluggish.

"Interesting, oh, so interesting! Lu Zhigang, I can't bear to let you die!"

Kongque Laoliu laughed heartily, pushing his longsword forward with force, the sword light surging inch by inch.

His Shalin Jianfa had long since touched the threshold of a Strong Martial Omen in terms of lethality, and having found no equal among the ranks of Martial Artists, he had finally encountered a well-matched Lu Zhigang; naturally, he had to go all out and show his full prowess.

High above the firmament, the Poison Mosquito wound and swam, stirring the winds and clouds; its trajectory outlined a palm as huge as a mountain.

Opposing this palm was a thousand-meter-long sword light; the two made contact under the gaze of the masses.

The sword light was submerged, and the giant palm slowly squeezed into a ball.

The entire area suddenly became deathly quiet, but the next moment, a manic, tearing sound swept across the land, and the black water and sludge were shattered into particles that filled the sky, dyeing the space a grayish-black.

Heart-palpitating sounds of rupturing, squeezing, and friction rolled back and forth, sometimes near and sometimes far.

Among the lackeys behind Fu Manlun, people were constantly being hit by the flying fragments of sword light, either killed or wounded.

A moment later, the dust settled!

Kongque Laoliu was alive, his left cheek bright red, as if he had just been slapped.

Lu Zhigang was also alive; blood dripped from the gaps in his clenched fist, clearly indicating a wound in his palm.

Was it actually a situation where both sides were injured? "Lu Zhigang, kill him quickly! If you let him go, the Master will not spare you!"

Fu Manlun urged anxiously; he wished they would both perish together. Kongque Laoliu was one thing, but Lu Zhigang, a latecomer, had actually mastered the Master's most prized technique.

As the head of the inner disciples of the Ten Thousand Poisons Secret Workshop, he would never allow anyone to be more impressive than himself.

"Idiot!"

The response Lu Zhigang gave was simple—two characters, one word—and everyone heard it clearly.

Fu Manlun's face turned black on the spot.

"Lao Chainu is here, it's the Master!"

Suddenly, Lao Chainu descended from the sky, his arms folded, and beneath his armpits, membranes of flesh could be seen trembling and bulging.

After landing, he poked a finger through the air, *ding-dang*, striking Kongque's longsword, and Kongque retreated two steps.

The crowd was in an uproar; ever since Kongque Laoliu had broken in and committed countless slaughters, this was the first time he had been forced to retreat.

What exactly was the realm of Lao Chainu's strength to be so terrifying? For a moment, many inner disciples felt hope; Lao Zhinü was here, and Kongque Laoliu would not be able to escape—he must be made to pay the blood debt for killing so many Poison Martial Artists! "Today was very pleasant, but I am already tired. No more fighting, no more fighting."

Kongque Laoliu took a heavy talisman from his sleeve, muttered a few words, and shouted, "Go!"

The next moment, he vanished from under everyone's noses, and a streak of light on the distant horizon flickered a few times before extinguishing.

Lao Zhinü coughed and said, "Fu Manlun, collect the corpses of all the martial masters. From head to toe, do not miss a single scrap of flesh. We must determine how they infiltrated the interior of the Wanli Zhaohai. So that's it; Du Taiyue sent Lao Chainu to step forward because he sensed a crisis."

If a few martial masters could appear swaggeringly inside the Myriad Poison Secret Workshop, what if they were replaced by powerful martial artists?

It is just a pity that they are destined to return empty-handed.

Of the group sent by the Thousand Faces Hall, the only one with a return ticket is Kongque Laoliu; the others are all suicide soldiers.

(End of this chapter)