thenovelthief Chapter 452 - 284: I, the Poison Venerable
Chapter 452 - 284: I, the Poison Venerable
After a long silence, Du Ling, afraid Wang Rui would fly into a rage out of shame, quickly tried to comfort him. "Brother Wang, it’s alright. Lasting three breaths is actually pretty good..."
Her words offered no comfort at all and nearly sent Wang Rui into a rampage.
Seething with anger, Wang Rui stood up, grabbed Du Ling’s hand, and said, "Junior Sister Du, come inside with me!"
He clearly intended to prove to Du Ling, in a more thorough manner, that he didn’t have *that* kind of problem!
However, no matter what he tried next, that three-breath limit remained an insurmountable barrier.
"Brother Wang, could it be... something went wrong with your Cultivation of Daoist Arts?" Du Ling asked, well-intentioned.
When cultivating a Skill, there was always the risk of something going wrong, resulting in physical injury or even Falling into Demon.
This risk was much greater than that faced by Martial Artists cultivating their Cultivation Skills.
Sometimes, a mere sudden mental blow or a disturbed state of mind during Cultivation could cause one’s Dao heart to shatter.
It wasn’t even rare for it to cause one’s head to literally explode.
But while Du Ling was showing concern, the unconcealed pity in her eyes only made Wang Rui more irritated and furious!
"Get out!!"
The next moment, Wang Rui lost all composure and drove her out.
Being yelled at like that, Du Ling felt a surge of anger herself. With a cold snort, she flicked her sleeves and left.
As she stepped out the door, Du Ling couldn’t resist a final cold taunt. "Heh, blaming others when you’re the one who can’t perform!"
After all, she had been a top performer during her time as an Outer Disciple; of course Du Ling had a bit of a temper.
"You..."
"Bitch, you’re courting death!!"
That taunt was the final straw, completely detonating Wang Rui’s rage.
Shame, anger, and frustration instantly morphed into a towering wave of malicious energy that completely submerged Wang Rui’s reason.
He went completely berserk, flushing the rules of the Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect down the toilet.
He thrust out a fist, smashing it viciously toward Du Ling’s face.
In truth, Wang Rui should have used a Skill, but he was so out of his mind that he felt only by plastering his fist across Du Ling’s face could he vent his fury.
This state was the side effect transferred to him, now escalating from tormenting his body to tormenting his spirit.
Seeing Wang Rui suddenly fly into a frenzy, Du Ling’s expression changed drastically. She retreated rapidly, shouting, "Wang Rui, what do you think you’re doing!?"
She simply couldn’t understand how Wang Rui could get so enraged over such a trivial matter that he would completely disregard the sect rules.
Attacking a fellow disciple within the Immortal Sect—a vicious attack, no less—was an offense no one could protect him from. Not even the True Inheritor backing the Purple Cloud Association could save him!
However, at this moment, Du Ling couldn’t rely on the sect rules to punish Wang Rui later. She had to defend herself and survive right now.
Seeing that Wang Rui was still attacking frantically, Du Ling pointed a finger.
A fist-sized fireball instantly coalesced at her fingertip.
The fireball looked inconspicuous, but it was condensed from the "Seven Calamities Tribulation Fire" that Du Ling cultivated. Its power was not to be underestimated.
And the now "berserk" Wang Rui, facing this fireball, didn’t dodge. He recklessly charged right into it.
It was as if he didn’t care one bit about the Seven Calamities Tribulation Fire; all he wanted was to land a punch on Du Ling’s face.
BOOM—
The Seven Calamities Tribulation Fire exploded on impact, and then... it was over.
The previously menacing and utterly frenzied Wang Rui was blown to the ground, convulsing and bleeding from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
It was clear he wouldn’t live much longer.
This, once again, left Du Ling completely bewildered.
’What is going on? Wang Rui, a confidant of the Purple Cloud Association’s vice president, used his position to get his hands on vast cultivation resources. Among Inner Sect Disciples, his strength should be in the absolute top tier.’
’And yet... I killed him with a single move!?’
In truth, since Wang Rui had attacked first, her killing him was an act of self-defense. Once the sect investigated, Du Ling wouldn’t face any trouble.
She just couldn’t understand why the furiously attacking Wang Rui was so pathetically weak.
’Or... am I just that strong!?’
Little did Du Ling know, her attack was merely the finishing blow. The one truly responsible for all of Wang Rui’s problems was Zou Feng, who was currently condensing a special Three-in-One Spirit Body.
In reality, Wang Rui could have avoided instant death.
If he hadn’t been so unable to accept his embarrassing condition, he wouldn’t have flown into a shame-filled rage, which in turn allowed the vicious side effects to exploit the opening and destroy his sanity in an instant.
In short, if not for that, the moment Wang Rui sensed something was wrong, he could have taken a high-grade Elixir or sought help from an Inner Sect Elder he knew. He would not have died so suddenly.
One could only say that a bizarre twist of fate had sealed Wang Rui’s doom.
A moment later, Wang Rui violently spat out two mouthfuls of dark blood, and the light quickly faded from his eyes.
「Meanwhile, in the depths of the Trench of Evil Qi.」
As the saying goes: a sacrifice for the heavens brings boundless power!
The ecstatic joy that suddenly filled Zou Feng’s eyes proved that Wang Rui’s sacrifice had not been in vain.
The Three-in-One was a success!
The Returning Ruins Melting Furnace Body, the Soldier Cauldron Body, and the Karma Poison Body, using the dense Evil Qi as "furnace fire," had finally fused together perfectly.
The Spirit Body Zou Feng had successfully forged was a unique Poison Body, one unrecorded in any of the Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect’s archives.
This Poison Body combined the traits of all three Spirit Bodies. A name that reflected them all would have been far too long and unwieldy.
So, Zou Feng simply named it the "Only Me Poison Venerable Body."
For now, even Zou Feng himself had yet to fully grasp just how many wondrous aspects the Only Me Poison Venerable Body possessed.
But the most immediate and obvious benefit was that his Body Refining Skill, the Tribulation-Indestructible Body, had ridden the momentum to achieve a qualitative breakthrough!
"Tribulation-Indestructible Body (Extraordinary to Saint), Progress: 28%"
Not only had it reached the Realm of Transcendence and Sanctity, its progress had shot up by a huge margin.
One could only imagine how incredible the "Only Me Poison Venerable Body" truly was.
A Body Refining Skill that had reached the Extraordinary to Saint stage was now fully comparable to a Daoist Art.
Now, with the blessing of the Tribulation-Indestructible Body, if a dozen or so ordinary Spirit Body Realm Cultivators were to attack Zou Feng at once, they would barely be able to scratch him.
Even an average Spiritual Energy Realm expert would find it incredibly difficult to even make Zou Feng bleed.
The boons from the successful formation of his Spirit Body and the enhancement of his Body Refining Skill didn’t end there.
The foundation of Zou Feng’s Spirit Body—the "furnace fire," so to speak—was the incredibly dense Evil Qi of this place.
Therefore, after absorbing a sufficient amount of Evil Qi, the "Only Me Poison Venerable Body" had caused the "Dragon of Evil Qi," which had only appeared vaguely in Zou Feng’s earlier hallucinations, to manifest upon his body.
Ordinarily, one couldn’t see anything, but as soon as Zou Feng circulated his Evil Qi, the tattoo of a "black dragon" would swiftly emerge on his right arm.
Strictly speaking, this black dragon-like tattoo was actually quite crude, a far cry from words like "exquisite" or "lifelike."
In fact, it could easily be mistaken for a patch of scorched-black scar tissue on his arm.
But in reality...
Looking at the "Evil Dragon" tattoo on his right arm, Zou Feng felt an impulse and raised his hand.
In the next moment, wreathed in flame-like Evil Qi, the "Evil Dragon" came alive, twisting as it gradually floated up from Zou Feng’s right arm.
Simultaneously, a series of roars that struck directly at his Sea of Consciousness rolled out like thunder.
The aura of slaughter and the frenzied intent emanating from the "Evil Dragon" were in no way inferior to the dense Evil Qi that constantly billowed from the fissure below.
In other words, if Zou Feng were to unleash this Evil Dragon’s full power, the might of its Evil Qi, at least for a short time, would be no less than shoving an enemy into the very mouth of the fissure.
Zou Feng never expected that after simply seeing the dragon of Evil Qi by the fissure and thinking of the Dragon of the Darkness Flame...
’...I would actually succeed in mastering something similar?’
’And to be able to comprehend my own unique form of Evil Qi, doesn’t that mean...’
"Evil Qi Guiding Art (Great Success), Progress: 2%"
After checking the panel, Zou Feng finally realized what had happened.
The benefits from the Only Me Poison Venerable Body were just absurdly good. It had even boosted his Evil Qi Guiding Art, pushing it into the Great Success Realm!