“Feizhen, stay alert and retreat.” Shen Yiren parted the venomous green mist oozing out of the hunched-back elder down the centre and then bound toward her target.
Whoa, that’s a lot of force you’re putting into such a thin sword, yet you haven’t snapped it. Nice.
Poison King promptly blocked, yet his feet skid back as though Shen Yiren rammed him with a battering ram when his internal energy was supposed to be more potent.
Do I know that style?
Shen Yiren followed up with a flurry of varying hammer-like attacks before Poison King had the chance to catch his breath.
Oh, she’s not using her internal energy but the benefits of being explosive. Must be her own mental cultivation style that’s helping her move so explosively.
Shen Yiren switched between stylistically using a hammer and sword at will. Meanwhile, her sharp eyes spotted her timing so that she could explode at an opening whenever her opponent moved to attack. Unless one was quick to spot opportunities and possessed the explosiveness required to capitalise on it, the strategy simply wouldn’t work.
“What are you smirking about?” Shen Yiren questioned.
“Have you seen this green mist before? It’s one of the most poisonous snake venoms in the world. It takes but moments to freeze organs. You ignorantly charged forward and breathed it in.”
Shen Yiren swept horizontally and then entered Poison King’s jabbing range to whack him back. He could nurse cuts, but there wasn’t much he could do about damage that went deep inside.
“… You think you can still win after what you’ve done?!” Poison King reached for Shen Yiren with his right hand.
Though Shen Yiren moved her head off the line, a faint pink mist dispersed.
“Hihehehe, that’s a poison that comes from scorpions living in molten. Let’s time how long you last as heat and cold poisons ravage your insides. Your limbs feeling immobile yet?”
Shen Yiren threw a front kick up the centreline, kicking Poison King back and then supplementing it with another whack using the flat side of her sword. As she rubbed her ears, she responded, “Blah, blah, blah, blah, you sure you’re not Babbling King? You here to fight or chat?”
Poison King barely got to his feet due to his broken ribs. There wasn’t much he could do about the blood pouring down his face after absorbing a kick, nonetheless. “Why aren’t you poisoned?!”
Well, how do you expect her to answer that when I’m the one interfering with it?
Since Poison King started releasing poison, I inhaled everything he offered, so all of it flitted straight past Boss. He was right that it should’ve incapacitated Boss because even I could feel the two contradicting temperatures playing inside me.
Poison King’s suspicious gaze came my way, cueing me to look up and whistle.
“You’ve been interfering!”
The fact that Boss didn’t look over her shoulder hinted that she already knew I was tampering with the poison.
Poison King wiped the blood streaming down his face and cackled: “You’ve been hiding yourself the entire time. This old one has been waiting for you to show your skills, but you’ve been showing them all this time, Mount Daluo’s senior disciple. Hehehe, they were right. Poison alone isn’t enough to deal with you.”
“Who is ‘they’?” I didn’t think he was referring to Luo Ming as his tone insinuated that he knew more about my background than my status as Mount Daluo’s senior disciple. It didn’t make sense for Poison King to know more about me than Luo Ming. Although Luo Ming had doubts about me, it was different to the certainty in Poison King’s tone.
“Who knows?” Poison King shrugged and eyed Shen Yiren before flashing a grin at me. “This old one knows what you don’t want people to know.” He subsequently mouthed, “Night Fortress’ master.”
“Feizhen, did he do something to you?” Boss asked in response to my silence - which was actually me recounting things to try and find where I went wrong.
“No, nothing…”
“Hahaha.” Poison King pulled back faster than Shen Yiren could chase. “Keep revelling in your trivial win. You’ll soon regret accosting this old one. Rot in this room. Heh!” Poison King unleashed a barrage of palm strikes at the wall to activate a trap and then prepared to leave, only to wait and wait until Shen Yiren was on his tail. “Why isn’t the door working? Hmm? Isn’t this Eternal Stone?! Why is it down?!”
Shen Yiren folded her arms: “You only noticed now?”
“What’s wrong with you two?! Is this funny to you?! I was going to lower it to trap you, but you’ve trapped me now!”
Wow, this man sure has a knack for passing the buck.
“Nobody can get out now. Nobody is going to come here…”
“Relax.” I never heard that much despair from an elder before. “Instead of worrying about how to get out, you should find a way to survive against Boss.”
Boss heaved breaths onto her fists and polished them.
“Young man… relishing the mortifying situation of another is not a virtue! If I must suffer, so will you!”
Hey, what are you trying to say?!
“Lass, do you know who he is? Besides being Mount Daluo’s senior disciple. He has another identity!”