Chapter 179: A Poisonous Scheme

Boom…

Mu Feng suddenly kicked out, sending a nearby stone table flying.

The heavy stone table, carved entirely from hard marble, weighed at least a thousand pounds. But the moment it touched the water curtain, it began to corrode and vaporize, sizzling loudly.

Under everyone’s gaze, the heavy stone table vanished into the water curtain in the blink of an eye. Aside from a few wisps of smoke, not even a speck of stone dust remained! Every drop of water contained a deadly poison; the water curtain rushing down from above seemed even more terrifying than the restrictions around the Ethereal Temple!

Incredible!

Mu Feng’s expression turned grave. He shifted his foot slightly but gave up the idea of rushing out by force—he had no confidence at all of making it through successfully.

Cough… cough… cough…

The black-clad woman Murong Xue, standing nearby, suddenly coughed several times and secretly gave Mu Feng a meaningful glance.

The antidote?

Could it be that the pill that the black-clad woman Murong Xue had secretly pressed into his hand earlier was the antidote for the deadly poison in the water curtain?

Mu Feng’s eyes lit up as he quickly recalled that fragrant antidote pill. He was just about to take it out and swallow it in one gulp so he could force his way out, but then he glanced at Jing Wushuang, who was still badly injured and not yet recovered, and hesitated.

There was only one antidote pill. If he swallowed it, what about Shuang’er?

Mu Feng’s face darkened with uncertainty.

The water curtain behind him was just too dreadful. Without the antidote, even if he condensed his Blood Armor and wrapped himself with hundreds of Blood Vines, he still had no confidence of getting through safely.

Seeing his expression and how Jing Wushuang clung tightly to him, the black-clad woman Murong Xue, standing to the side, quickly understood the situation. She shook her head helplessly; there was nothing she could do. Clearly, she only had one antidote pill herself.

“It’s useless. This is our Poison Sect’s Myriad Poison Spring. One drop alone is enough to kill ten thousand giant dragons. Without the antidote personally refined by successive sect leaders, even a peak Elite Realm expert would certainly die upon contact with a single drop.”

Sect Leader Murong sat motionless on the altar platform, looking down at Mu Feng’s every move, and coldly continued, “Young Master Mu, have you thought it through? Don’t you scholars say, ‘To die under the peony, even as a ghost, is romantic’? Our Xue’er is absolutely stunning. Even if you died, it would be worth it to marry her. Besides, you would also receive three Yang Soul Pills—isn’t that exactly what you wanted?”

Sect Leader Murong wore a faint smile. Her figure and skin appeared flawless, but her heart was more venomous than a scorpion’s.

Should he grit his teeth and charge out, or… stay and adapt to the situation?

Looking at the unfathomably powerful Sect Leader Murong on the altar, Mu Feng hesitated.

Without the antidote, charging out by force would undoubtedly be almost certain death. But staying behind would also be fraught with danger; if he accidentally got poisoned, he might be completely at her mercy!

Sometimes, a single decision marks a turning point in one’s life, and making that choice can be incredibly difficult!

Mu Feng’s face was dark. Before he could make a decision, Jing Wushuang reached into his robe, took out the envelope, and resolutely stepped forward. “Sect Leader, before we left, Granny solemnly gave me this handwritten letter. There are a few words on it for you.”

“Oh? Feifei’s handwritten letter?”

Sect Leader Murong raised an eyebrow.

Unlike the hesitant Poison Shadow Elder, she had no reservations. With a swipe of her right hand through the air, she snatched the envelope from Jing Wushuang’s hand. Using two slender fingers, she gently pulled out Ghost Mother’s handwritten letter and skimmed through it rapidly. Her expression shifted unpredictably, making everyone uneasy. No one knew what the letter actually said.

“Hahaha! A Mysterious Yin Body—I never thought I’d misjudge this. But, Li Feifei, oh Li Feifei, would you really be so kind as to still remember the sect that raised you?”

Sect Leader Murong laughed heartily, looking over the still-injured, frail-looking Jing Wushuang from head to toe. Suddenly, she made a grabbing motion in the air, pulling Jing Wushuang right in front of her. She began feeling and pinching her here and there. Her move was abrupt and swift as lightning; even Mu Feng, standing behind Jing Wushuang, had no time to react.

Just as he was about to rush forward, he looked at the unfathomably powerful Sect Leader Murong and the defenseless Jing Wushuang in her grasp, and had to suppress the impulse.

“Huh…? That’s strange. It really is a Mysterious Yin Body, but where did this sinister energy inside her come from?”

After feeling Jing Wushuang over for a moment, Sect Leader Murong’s expression suddenly changed. “Hmm, this sinister energy isn’t innate—it invaded her organs only recently. Shuang’er, isn’t it? These past few days, haven’t you felt sudden chills in your body, and it’s been getting worse? Tell me, have you recently visited any extremely dangerous places? Or, have you eaten something highly poisonous?”

“Yes, these past few days, my body has been getting sudden chills from time to time, but…”

Jing Wushuang looked at Sect Leader Murong in surprise. She hadn’t expected her to figure out her condition at a glance. For some reason, her heart suddenly sank, and her limbs turned cold.

After thinking for a moment, she hadn’t been to any extremely dangerous places, nor had she eaten anything highly poisonous. She shook her head, about to deny it outright, when suddenly she remembered something: the dark red pill that Ghost Mother had made her swallow just before they left.

“Heh, this sinister energy is no ordinary matter. At first, it’s just chills, but once it truly erupts, you will undergo Demonic Transformation, growing white hairs several inches long all over your body, and become a terrifying zombie!” Sect Leader Murong gave a cold laugh, then added, “If you don’t want to die, speak up quickly. Let me see what’s really going on, and whether there’s still hope!”

“Yes!”

After a moment’s hesitation, Jing Wushuang gritted her teeth and said, “Recently, I haven’t been to any extremely dangerous places, nor have I eaten anything bad. It’s just… just before we left, Granny… made me swallow a dark red pill. She said it could suppress the toxicity generated from practicing the Manual of Extreme Poison.”

“Li Feifei! It really is her! Demon Transformation Pill—yes, these are the symptoms after taking the Demon Transformation Pill!”

Sect Leader Murong pressed her fingers on Jing Wushuang’s brow, the Baihui point, and the Qimen point, among other spots. Her expression grew colder and colder. “That wretched woman! That incorrigible wretch! I knew it—how could she be so kind as to find a Mysterious Yin Body for the sect to inherit my legacy! So, she really was up to no good, trying to use this chance to drain my pure yang energy! Wretch! After all these centuries, she’s still a wretched woman!”

As a sect leader of her generation, what kind of person was Murong Bi? What schemes and plots had she not seen? What storms had she not weathered?

After hearing Jing Wushuang’s few sentences, she quickly understood the situation. Her expression kept shifting ambiguously.

A Mysterious Yin Body was the best candidate for cultivating the Manual of Extreme Poison—something one could only hope to encounter by chance. The sinister Ghost Mother had not been wrong about that. Upon realizing Jing Wushuang’s Mysterious Yin Body, she had been thrilled and immediately wanted to take Jing Wushuang as her disciple. But by doing so, she would undoubtedly fall right into Ghost Mother’s poisonous trap.

Having taken the Demon Transformation Pill, Jing Wushuang could undergo Demonic Transformation at any moment, turning into a fearsome white-haired zombie. To prevent that, or to completely expel the sinister energy from her body, she would have to expend a great deal of her Innate Vital Energy, losing hundreds or even thousands of years of cultivation. Then, if Ghost Mother were to bring a group of evil cultists back to the sect to seize the position of Poison Sect leader, who would stop her?

Sect Leader Murong’s face was icy. Her eyes occasionally flashed with a chilling glint as she hesitated. After a long while, her nostrils suddenly twitched slightly, and she stared unblinkingly at Mu Feng standing below, a trace of doubt in her eyes, as if she had discovered something.