The strands of silk blotted out the sky. It encompassed half of the firmament, wrapping the golden bell firmly within. A bewitching smile appeared upon Shi Qinglu’s face.
“You’re within my Rainbow Silk Formation now, Jiang Chen. It doesn’t matter what you can do. You’re already on my chopping block. I can do whatever I like to you!” She giggled, her eyes glittering with natural charm.
Jiang Chen braced himself. This Poison Consort wasn’t just adept at poisons. She was also quite proficient at beguiling others.
That isn’t going to work on me though!
He snickered internally. Shi Qinglu was gravely underestimating his composure.
The girl’s slender body trembled. Her clothes fluttered in the wind like a butterfly’s wings. The prettiest things in nature also tended to be the deadliest.
In this moment, Shi Qinglu perfectly embodied this saying.
Jiang Chen’s eyes were clear as crystal as he examined Shi Qinglu pensively. He wanted to see what she had up her proverbial sleeves.
Shi Qinglu giggled once more. Suddenly, smoke of every color imaginable rose around the Rainbow Silk Formation, filling the air with their noisome vapors.
Jiang Chen gave them a cursory probe. He instantly recognized the varicolored smoke as toxic miasma – some of the most famous types in the world, in fact. Mixing them together formed even more new complex and deadly poisons.
The miasma would not necessarily kill instantly, but they would invade a cultivator’s body through their every pore. Sometimes, they could even invade a consciousness.
When the victim noticed the poisoning, it would already be too late.
The flourishes of Shi Qinglu’s garments produced a number of afterimages. At a glance, it looked like there were seven or eight of her dancing in the wind.
The clothing that covered her body, on the other hand, seemed to drift away into the ether as time passed.
In no time at all, much of her skin was laid bare. Her snowy, elongated thighs were as inviting and smooth as white jade. Beneath her immaculate neck, ample assets were put on flattering display.
Shi Qinglu’s eyes were filled with a seductive hunger, one that would cause any man’s heart to race. The airborne fumes enveloped her in a mysterious atmosphere, calling to her audience’s very soul.
Jiang Chen shut his eyes for a moment, then reopened them with a smile.
“Miss Shi, you are indeed a charming flower from the Flora Sacred Land. However… how many have picked the thorny rose before me, I wonder?”
What?!
Shi Qinglu’s expression frosted over. How many…?
The interjection was contrary to everything she’d built up here. His words were an utterly unpleasant scribble upon a great work of art.
“How dare you!” She gritted her pristine teeth, her eyes filled with fire.
“I must admit, Miss Shi, that your Rainbow Silk Formation is rather intriguing. This smoke of yours, on the other hand… I really don’t see a world in which it can do anything to me. Your performance has fallen on blind eyes and deaf ears, I’m afraid.”
This follow-up was more devastating than any attack. Shi Qinglu froze in complete incredulity.
When her Rainbow Silk Formation restricted an opponent’s movements, even a ninth level empyrean cultivator would fall to the toxins in her miasma. Jiang Chen definitely wasn’t that strong!
As soon as there was the slightest gap in her opponent’s mental defenses, the poisonous vapors would consume him like a storm of ravenous curses. Any sap unlucky enough to be beset by them would lose his sense of self and become entirely helpless, at which point she could do with him as she wished.
Usually, she didn’t go to such lengths to produce the alluring facade.
She’d been concerned that Jiang Chen would still be able to endure the miasma. She’d only added the extraneous performance because of this, intending to ensnare him without his noticing it.
His mockery was the last thing she’d expected.
Shi Qinglu had always enjoyed a superior position when it came to her interactions with others. Some worshiped her as a goddess; others feared her like deadly nightshade.
Regardless, she was always, always the one coming out ahead, the one with the initiative.
And yet, she felt wholly impotent before this young man. He was like an unscalable mountain that she couldn’t traverse.
Was he really unbeatable?
Shi Qinglu became somewhat depressed. What had just transpired was an enormous letdown. She had thought the Rainbow Silk Formation foolproof in bringing her victory, but Jiang Chen would have none of it.
What was up with him, anyway?
She found him completely inexplicable. Having seen more than her fair share of geniuses, she was acutely aware that they all had their flaws and weaknesses. But this Jiang Chen seemed to have no weak points whatsoever. Her exertions had yielded no fruit.
His heart was as impenetrable as a boulder. The same was true for his body, apparently.
What was she supposed to do?
Shi Qinglu still wasn’t going to give up yet.
“Maybe you have a constitution that grants you poison immunity, Jiang Chen. I suppose my poisons won’t work on you. Still, I can take you on without them just fine! I hope your martial cultivation is as good as your poison resistance!”
A flicker of her body restored her multicolored clothes. She stormed up to him in the next instant in a burst of cold light.
Jiang Chen chuckled. “Your poisons are useless, but your cultivation is even moreso.”
He was a master of melee combat. A flick of his fingers produced a blast of golden light. The manifestation of his Heavenly Chalice Sword Formation emitted countless sword auras that ripped her strands of rainbow silk apart like ferocious tigers. Their colorful fragments drifted about in the air like a swarm of butterflies.
“What?!” Shi Qinglu couldn’t believe her eyes.
Her Rainbow Silk Formation, her pride and joy, had been destroyed with a single move!
She didn’t have time to react to the sudden descent of the golden bell overhead. An auric blaze drained her strength, rendering her unable to move.
