Chapter 549: Critical juncture, he’s going to jump off a cliff
At the underground palace of Poison Sect’s forbidden grounds, Gu Qishao had already gotten the Earth of Ten-Thousand Poisons. However, a huge tongue of flame shot towards him from the tunnel when he was about to escape, forcing him back onto the cliff edge. It was obviously arson committed by human hands to cut off his escape route! That was because the fires in this secret tunnel had long burnt out after it caught the Chu siblings and Duanmu Baiye. It was impossible for the flames to rekindle without human help. Even if they did, they flames would burn towards the exit at the other end, not the opening leading to the cliffside.
That was because the Earth of Ten-Thousand Poisons by the cliff feared fire! Even if the temperatures were slightly too high, the poison in the earth would weaken. In serious circumstances, its toxicity might disappeared completely. If that happened, combining it with Perplexing Butterfly Illusion would be useless.
Someone had set this fire and timed it just after he entered the forbidden grounds. It was obvious the culprit was guarding this place and had long expected his arrival. By using fire to attack him instead of themselves, their motives were twofold: to kill him and destroy the Earth of Ten-Thousand Poisons. Gu Qishao thus made a prompt decision to summon a messenger hawk and deliver a message to Long Feiye and Han Yunxi for help.
Meanwhile, he kept a close observation on the Earth of Ten-Thousand Poisons’ toxicity while guarding himself from the fire. He had long prepared a backup plan. If Long Feiye couldn’t come to his aid in time, he’d simply take the Earth of Ten-Thousand Poisons and jump off the cliff. Although he had no idea what was waiting for him at the bottom, it was better than seeing the dirt destroyed before his very eyes.
As expected, the same day he sent his message for help, the fires in the tunnel significantly weakened. As the flames died down, the temperatures in the tunnel and surrounding mountain also decreased. Long Feiye and Han Yunxi might not be able to come as quickly, but the man had diverted his crack troops hidden in Medicine City to rush to Gu Qishao’s aid. They had come into contact with the firesetters in the tunnels and staged a massacre. Between the sound of explosions, Gu Qishao could pick out the sounds of fighting and swords. He thought things would be over quickly, but the fighting actually lasted for ten entire days.
Long Feiye must have sent a good number of men to help him, all of them top-level experts. But just who were these firesetters? The Chu Clan? Is the Chu Clan really that powerful? Amidst the stench of smoke, Gu Qishao could smell traces of fresh blood in the air as well. Heaven knows what tragic scene laid beyond those flames! The flames that had died down began to grow in strength, burning so fiercely that the very rocks grew hot. Both the soil and the stones around him were scorching.
“Damn it!” Gu Qishao’s beautiful face was scrunched in worry. He tightened his grip on the harvested Earth of Ten-Thousand Poisons as he looked at the roaring flames. His expression was both cold and distant. Because of that, he looked much more serious than usual. His seductive, bewitching, and playful air had all but disappeared, to be replaced by a frightening aura!
Earth of Ten-Thousand Poisons was something Poison lass wanted—she’d left him to get it for her too. No matter what, he would protect it until the end! Now he held the container of earth in his mouth as he stood on the cliff’s edge. If possible, he’d run through the flames and escape that way, but the heat was sure to weaken the poison of the dirt. He decided to wait one more day. If the fires still didn’t die down and the temperatures kept rising, he could only jump cliff to escape.
Gu Qishao had no idea that Long Feiye and Han Yunxi were already there! Throughout their trip, they’d received no end of urgent messages updating them to the status. A fifteen-day trip by normal travel shrank down to ten days under their rush. Tang Li and Chu Xifeng had long been left in the dust.
When they arrived, they saw a crowd of black-masked man killing each other through the smoke. Han Yunxi could recognize them at a glance as Poison Humans. No wonder Long Feiye’s guards at Medical City were no match for them. But with her poisons and his martial arts, they quickly disposed of the men.
Long Feiye inspected the corpse of one Poison Human in surprise. “Jun Yixie’s men?”
Han Yunxi couldn’t be bothered with such details. She quickly told people to fetch water to fight the fire. With all the Poison Humans dead, no one was feeding the flames anymore. Everything in the underground chamber was either dirt or stone, so the fire would naturally die down over time. But the smoke it left in its wake was still toxic. How many people died from smoke inhalation instead of flames in these situations?
She was extremely worried for Gu Qishao. By contrast, Long Feiye wasn’t concerned at all. He tied a fresh gauze mask over Han Yunxi’s mouth before continuing to inspect the dead bodies. He wasn’t sure why these men had decided to set a fire of all things. They’d even prepared ample stores of kindling so they could burn the place for days. Gu Qishao hadn’t written any details in his message, either. Did the flames have some connection with destroying the Earth of Ten-Thousand Poisons? He could faintly sense something off about the whole thing.
“Han Yunxi…” Long Feiye began, but a sudden flaming arrow shot out from a hidden opening.
There were still traps!
Long Feiye pulled Han Yunxi into his arms to shield her from the flames, allowing one arrow to graze past his arm and burn him. Han Yunxi didn’t even have time to react before Long Feiye had dodged multiple flaming arrows and pressed them against a wall. He suffocated the flames on his arm the same way.
“The Chu Clan!” Both of them chorused at the same time. Whether they had cultivated their own Poison Humans or borrowed them off Jun Yixie, it was still a shocking thing. Still, there was no time for that now. A rain of flaming arrows had come to attack them from all sides, their numbers growing by the minute. Because their attackers were lying in ambush, they made for a clear target and were at full disadvantage.
Long Feiye was only able to keep protecting Han Yunxi under these circumstances thanks to the support of his crack troops. If he had come here alone, he could fight freely despite his burn to kill all of those archers. But with Han Yunxi here, he wasn’t about to take any risks. Heaven knows how many archers were concealed in the shadows, or whether Chu Tianyin was amongst them? He had to be on guard against such a possibility.
“Long Feiye, you should take the offensive and kill all those archers,” Han Yunxi said simply. Although she didn’t understand martial arts, she knew that a confined area like the underground palace forced them to be on the defensive. Unless they broke through the archers, they’d only be wasting their energy batting off their constant attacks. Even if they risked serious injury, this was the only way to go.
Despite this, Long Feiye only pressed her head back against her chest and ordered coldly, “Hide yourself well!”
Han Yunxi was about to struggle when Long Feiye took out his whip and cut a path open for them. Then he jumped into another secret passage. Han Yunxi was first stunned, then delighted. How could she have forgotten that there were four secret passages here? If she remembered rightly, the second passage should have poison butterflies. The Chu siblings and Duanmu Baiye had suffered here, but she had Lil Thing to help so they’d be perfectly safe.
Although the flaming arrows were still coming their way, it was much easier to avoid them in the tunnel. All they had to do was keep running forward. The tunnel was very deep, so unless the archers ran in after them, it was unlikely they’d run into any more arrows. Once again, Han Yunxi looked up and smiled. “Your Highness, if those really were men from the Chu Clan, they won’t dare follow us in here!”
Flaming arrows were still whistling past them as she spoke. Once again, Long Feiye pressed Han Yunxi’s head back against his chest, unhappy. “Be more careful!”
He didn’t let her go until they were well within the tunnel and out of reach from any arrows. “Stay here quietly,” he said before moving to leave. Those archers might have thought he was escaping, but when had he even ran away from a foe? He simply didn’t want to get Han Yunxi involved when he went to slaughter them all.
In the chaos, Han Yunxi managed to grab Long Feiye’s hand. She was about to speak when he shot back, “Wait here for your lordship to pick you up!” Then he left in a rush, leaving Han Yunxi at a loss between crying and laughing. She didn’t say a word.
Soon enough, Long Feiye returned. Behind him followed a massive swarm of black poison butterflies. Seeing the odd expression on his face, Han Yunxi couldn’t help but snicker. “I wanted to remind you back then, but who told you to be in such a rush?”
Long Feiye didn’t reply, so Han Yunxi simply took the sleeping Lil Thing out of her medical pouch and tossed it at the poison butterflies. Before Lil Thing had hit the ground, the butterflies were already scattering in fear. They vanished in an instant. Even asleep, Lil Thing was the best trailblazer in the poison grounds!
With the butterflies gone, Long Feiye made to leave again, but stopped to turn and call out, “Han Yunxi.”
In truth, Han Yunxi was anxious as well. The sooner Long Feiye could get rid of those archers, the sooner they could put out the flames and rescue Gu Qishao. She replied back earnestly, “I’ll be good and wait for you to pick me up! You be careful!”
But Long Feiye only replied, “Your lordship wants to kill until I’m satisfied, so you’ll probably need to wait a bit longer.”
Then he turned tail and vanished into the darkness. He hadn’t been there when the Chu Clan archers surrounded Han Yunxi and tried to kill her in Tianning’s capital city. If he didn’t slaughter to his heart’s content today, how would he ever work off his grievances? Many times, he kept quiet about his thoughts, so she never had any idea. Even now, Han Yunxi only felt doubtful. She quickly dismissed those thoughts, however, and went to pick up Lil Thing as she sat and waited.
But it wasn’t long before she sensed a highly toxic poison approaching in her direction!
What’s going on?
Han Yunxi had barely gotten to her feet when a masked old woman in black robes appeared before her. The hypertoxic poison her detox system had sensed came from the very body of this woman! Of course, the detox system wouldn’t go off for every ordinary poison a person might carry on them, but once the toxin exceeded certain thresholds to become a potential threat, it would give its owner a reminder.
Just who was this old woman? Was she from the Chu Clan as well? It seemed like she didn’t fear the poison butterflies, either. Han Yunxi slipped Lil Thing into her sleeve as she asked guardedly, “Who are you?”
“I’ve been asked by someone to take your life,” the old woman intoned gravely.
Han Yunxi immediately activated her Pear Blossom Teardrop Rain bracelet, launching multiple poison needles at the woman. Unfortunately, she dodged them all and dispelled the poison powders left in their wake.
Crap, she’s a seasoned expert in the poison arts!
Han Yunxi turned tail and fled.
But was she fleeing deeper into the tunnel, or heading back out?
