Chapter 1813: Let Me Give You a Hand!

"Being able to hold out this long is already incredibly impressive!"

Among the observing cultivators in the distance, a Poison Vein Master stared in shock. He asked himself: with his own Heavenly Rank Advanced Poison Meridian Skill, if he were to endure that kind of Half-step Holy Rank deadly poison, he probably couldn’t even last three breaths.

But what about that coarse-clothed youth Yun Xiao? Setting aside how long he’d been poisoned, even after Xue Qi activated the poison and made it erupt in his body, a full ten breaths had already passed.

During this period, the coarse-clothed youth’s face did grow darker and darker, yet he remained standing, never once collapsing, and didn’t kneel and beg for mercy like Xue Qi had said. It was truly admirable.

In reality, everything Yun Xiao was showing at this moment was completely an act. Don’t forget he himself was also a Half-step Holy Rank Meridian Refining Master. Even if he were still only at Heavenly Rank Advanced, Xue Qi’s mere poison still wouldn’t be able to do anything to him.

This entire setup was Yun Xiao wanting to toy with Xue Qi, to let this woman fall from the clouds where she stood so high and mighty straight into the abyss in one stroke. She was the person he hated most in this life, bar none.

To be honest, Yun Xiao normally wouldn’t hate a person to this degree. Aside from Xue Qi, there were only Emperor Canglong and Lu Qinwan from his previous life. These three were all enemies who had an enormous impact on his entire life.

Back then at Demons Mountain he’d let Xue Qi escape. This time Yun Xiao absolutely could not afford to fail again, especially when the other side was riding high on her pride—only by smashing her from that moment of triumph down into the dirt would he feel truly satisfied.

"Hm? Something’s off!"

Just as Yun Xiao’s thoughts were turning, another dozen breaths passed, and only at this moment did Xue Qi finally notice that something was out of the ordinary.

The youth before her only had a face growing darker and darker, yet the aura on his body hadn’t changed in the slightest. Even that seemingly heavy injury from vomiting blood just now, with time passing, was becoming something she could barely sense anymore.

"You finally realized?"

Seeing the slight change on Xue Qi’s face, Yun Xiao knew this woman ultimately wasn’t a complete fool. He had been standing for so long without collapsing, and hadn’t shown the slightest expression of pain. That clearly didn’t match what Xue Qi had in mind at all.

"You’re not poisoned? No! Impossible. I can clearly sense that deadly poison in your body, so why?"

The smile curling at the corner of Yun Xiao’s mouth naturally did not escape Xue Qi’s notice, making her involuntarily take a step back. She first thought of one possibility, but immediately denied it herself.

Yet the more she denied it, the more Xue Qi was puzzled beyond belief. If the other party hadn’t been poisoned and the darkened face and heavy injuries just now were all an act, that might not have confused her so much.

But for the deadly poison she herself had unleashed, Xue Qi could sense it with extreme clarity—it was right inside Yun Xiao’s body, and under her control it had already erupted, currently rampaging through every inch of Yun Xiao’s flesh and blood.

Yet this rampaging poisonous energy had not the slightest effect on this youth, as if it were just ordinary Meridian Qi and couldn’t inflict the least bit of damage on the human body.

This simply overturned the Poison Vein concepts Xue Qi had always held. How could she possibly know that the youth before her was almost already immune to all poisons?

On top of that, with the Dragon Tree Spirit Little Dragon in his Waist Storage, there were already very few poisons in this world that could elicit any reaction from Yun Xiao.

Unless it was those higher High Rank Holy Rank Poison Vein Master Old Monsters, whose poisons were empowered by their Meridian Qi—only then would Yun Xiao find it hard to withstand. As for a mere Half-step Holy Rank Poison Vein Master with only Hua Xuan Realm Early Stage Meridian Qi, Yun Xiao could deal with her without the slightest effort.

It was just that Xue Qi had no idea about these hidden details. She only knew that the Half-step Holy Rank poison she had painstakingly developed after long research had actually failed on a Heavenly Realm Peak brat. That was simply too bizarre.

"How exactly did you do it?"

Xue Qi changed her handprint several more times, yet still could not make Yun Xiao show the slightest change, and finally had to give up. But the extreme confusion in her heart made her unable to hold back from asking.

"It’s simple, really. That so-called Half-step Holy Rank poison of yours just isn’t worth mentioning, that’s all."

There was no way Yun Xiao would explain the real reason to this woman. Seeing the mocking smile appear on his poison-darkened face, and hearing what he said, made Xue Qi really want to slap herself.

Of all people to ask, she actually asked Yun Xiao, who hated her to the bone. If this bastard actually told the truth, that would be the real miracle.

This was simply a stupid thing Xue Qi did in her panic. Once she realized it, she finally stopped paying attention to Yun Xiao’s mockery, and the thick Hua Xuan Realm Early Stage Meridian Qi once again surged from her body.

Since poison could no longer pose any threat to Yun Xiao, then that bastard’s earlier heavy injury and blood vomiting couldn’t possibly have been fake, which meant that Meridian Qi Canglong’s Attack Power was still somewhat reliable.

Unfortunately, what Xue Qi didn’t know was that the poison-darkened face Yun Xiao was showing was indeed an act, and that earlier heavy injury and blood vomiting had also been intentional, with the goal of making her first recall the Meridian Qi Canglong.

From the previous battle, Yun Xiao knew this woman couldn’t bear to waste even the slightest bit of her own Meridian Qi. Even some Meridian Qi that was about to dissipate, she would think of all kinds of ways to draw back into her body and make full use of it.

It was precisely because of this that, relying on the Thunder Winged Giant Dragon’s explosion and the obscure wisp of aura he had driven into the Meridian Qi Canglong, Yun Xiao was forcibly pulled back into his body by Xue Qi. From that moment on, the outcome was already decided.

This looked a bit like the method Yun Xiao had used outside Yingrong Lake when dealing with the Second Elder of the Emperor Palace, Yue Qizhai, except that this time he used it even more covertly, and added his own lifelike acting on top.

"Say, Xue Qi, haven’t you felt that there’s something a bit off inside your own body?"

Seeing that Xue Qi had once again summoned out her Meridian Qi, Yun Xiao finally felt he had played enough. As soon as these words came out, the other’s expression changed slightly. At once she circulated her Meridian Qi, inspecting every part within her body.

"Nothing at all?"

When her Meridian Qi made a full circuit inside and she still failed to find anything, a cold smile could not help but surface on Xue Qi’s face. She secretly thought that this fellow really had just been bluffing.

"Still haven’t sensed it? Then let me give you a hand!"

Yun Xiao had no intention of dragging this out. Seeing Xue Qi’s expression, he couldn’t help but let out a light chuckle, then extended his right hand and gently clenched it. The motion was light, yet it made the Empress Disciple of Emperor Canglong opposite him turn deathly pale in an instant.

Boom!

A strand of mutant aura surged up from within Xue Qi’s body, and immediately everyone clearly saw a flicker of green air flash abruptly across the snow‑white cheek of this Emperor Canglong Palace prodigy.

"This is... she’s poisoned too?"

A Poison Vein Master not far off was full of shock, and also a sense of extreme incredulity. The murmur from his mouth laid bare the doubt in his heart, because he simply didn’t know when that youth had poisoned Xue Qi.

"Brother, that word ’too’ doesn’t seem quite right. Judging from Yun Xiao’s appearance, I’m afraid he was just putting on a show just now!"

Another Meridian Refining Master was clearly thinking further. Hearing the teasing in his voice, many people felt the same way inwardly, thinking that the truth was likely exactly so.

For some reason, seeing Yun Xiao reverse the situation in the field at this moment, all of the onlookers secretly let out a breath of relief. Perhaps it was because they all knew that if Xue Qi were allowed to kill Yun Xiao first, their own prospects would likely be grim as well.

Who told them to have accidentally overheard the secret of this Emperor Canglong Palace prodigy? In this world, is there any shortage of cases of killing to silence witnesses? These people had undoubtedly all become targets for Xue Qi to slaughter and silence.

These strange thoughts of the bystanders were something Xue Qi naturally had no time to care about at this moment. She only knew that the kind of virulent poison erupting within her body was coming on with extreme ferocity; a single misstep, and it might well mean the end of the road, body and Dao both destroyed.

"Damn it, what poison is this supposed to be?"

Yet in the next instant, Xue Qi discovered that those Poison Meridian Skills of hers, the formidable methods passed down from her teacher, actually had not the slightest effect on this virulent toxin inside her.

This fright of Xue Qi’s was no small matter. She knew that through her own carelessness she had once again fallen into Yun Xiao’s hands, and this time, compared to that incident on Demons Mountain of Tenglong Continent, it was undoubtedly even more suffocating.

After all, back then on Demons Mountain, Xue Qi had only been one small realm higher than Yun Xiao. She had even had that advantage forcibly erased once Yun Xiao activated his Ancestor Vein Power.

But now, here in the Murong Tomb of the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud, Xue Qi was a genuine Hua Xuan Realm powerhouse, whereas Yun Xiao, even after activating his Ancestor Vein Power, had only reached Heavenly Realm Peak.

Between the two yawned the chasm of a Great Rank, and moreover the gulf from Heavenly Rank Third Realm to Holy Vein Three Realms, which in the minds of ordinary Cultivators was simply an unbridgeable heavenly moat.

If Yun Xiao had relied on overwhelmingly powerful Meridian Techniques, or some other kind of head‑on method, to defeat Xue Qi, she might not have been quite so depressed.

But all of this happened precisely because she had been careless—or rather, because that brat’s acting had been too good—so that she was tricked, allowing the virulent poison to be driven into her body. This was simply a victory that did not count as honorable.

At this moment, Xue Qi also belatedly remembered when exactly she had been poisoned. It must have been when that Thunder Winged Giant Dragon only lasted a few breaths before exploding, that the brat before her had already begun his performance.

"What a despicable bastard!"

After working through these connections, Xue Qi couldn’t help but curse out loud. Yet such curses only drew a cold smile from Yun Xiao. Toward this woman who had betrayed her mother and defected from her clan, he could not possibly harbor the slightest shred of mercy.

Ever since Xue Qi had escaped on Demons Mountain back then, and he learned she had joined Emperor Canglong Palace, Yun Xiao had once thought that avenging himself would be something impossible to accomplish in the short term.

He had not expected the opportunity to come so quickly. It had been less than a year since he entered the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud, and even when his cultivation had only been in Heavenly Realm Late Stage, this opportunity had delivered itself right to his door. This was truly an unexpected delight.