To Chu Yun

To Chu Yun

Looking at Xiao Yan, who had nearly exhausted all his Dou Qi, Yao Lao stroked his beard and then said, "Don't slack off. Cultivating now will be even more effective."

Xiao Yan, who had already felt as if his bones were about to be pulled out with it, leaving him a lump of mud without the strength to ever get back up, could not help rolling his eyes.

But no matter how much he complained, he still propped himself up, sat cross-legged, and began to cultivate.

And the facts were indeed just as Yao Lao had said. When he cultivated after the Dou Qi in his body had been completely depleted, and the vigorous Dou Qi circulating within his Dou Qi vortex transformed into his body once more, Xiao Yan could clearly sense that it was different from before.

So much so that he very quickly touched the threshold of a breakthrough.

Yao Lao and Yao Wan could not help exchanging a glance. He was moving rather quickly.

On the road to the Chu Yun Empire, they traveled and stopped like this. In just a few short months, Xiao Yan's cultivation shot from One-Star Dou Zhe to Four-Star Dou Zhe.

After all, once one condensed a Dou Qi vortex and became a true Dou Zhe, the speed of absorbing Dou Qi became far faster. Judging by the environment and pressure given to Xiao Yan, his breakthrough speed could be considered unexpected, yet also reasonable.

"Mm, this period of bitter training wasn't wasted."

Yao Wan was quite satisfied with Xiao Yan's efforts during this time.

However, if he wanted to subdue a Heavenly Flame, there would probably still be some difficulty.

The preparations had already been made in full, so should she...

A dangerous thought appeared in Yao Wan's mind.

"All right, we should go."

Yao Wan urged him.

"Okay."

Xiao Yan hurriedly followed Yao Wan's footsteps.

The territory of the Chu Yun Empire was not inferior to that of the Gama Empire. From a certain perspective, it was even much vaster than Gama. However, compared with the Gama Empire, this empire undoubtedly appeared far more chaotic.

Poison Master, a profession almost universally spat upon in the Gama Empire, had developed with extraordinary prosperity in the Chu Yun Empire. In a single city, people wearing Poison Master robes could be seen almost everywhere. In the Chu Yun Empire, there was a sight rarely seen in the Gama Empire, and that was the sale of poisons.

In every city of this empire, there were shops specifically used to sell various poisons. As long as something was related to poison, it could be bought in these places. The more toxic something was, the more expensive its price became.

In scale, they had even already surpassed medicine shops.

In the Chu Yun Empire, there was a kind of Dou Qi that was countless times more common than Dou Qi of other attributes. The people of the Chu Yun Empire called it Poison Dou Qi.

Compared with ordinary Dou Qi, Poison Dou Qi did indeed have some advantages in destructive power. However, poison was poison, after all. This thing did not distinguish between enemy and self. As cultivation intensified, the body would also become increasingly weakened under the corrosion of the toxin. Unless one could advance to the level of a Dou Wang expert, ordinary people who cultivated the poison attribute would have lifespans far shorter than normal people.

Moreover, with layer upon layer of toxins mixed into their bodies, it would always cause deviations in some people's temperaments, and this was also what made the Chu Yun Empire rather chaotic.

Compared with the Gama Empire, sparring and fighting were undoubtedly far more frequent here. Moreover, perhaps because the poisonous gas within their bodies could attack their hearts at any moment, the people of the Chu Yun Empire cultivated even more frantically. Everyone knew that if they did not reach the Dou Wang class, then the Poison Dou Qi they cultivated would sooner or later devour their lives.

With this pressure of death, the Chu Yun Empire's cultivation atmosphere was indeed rather frenzied. Precisely because of this, if one truly spoke of it, the experts hidden among the common folk of the Chu Yun Empire might be considerably more numerous than those of the Gama Empire. These experts generally rarely joined any major faction. Instead, they fought on their own, desperately working hard to cultivate in the hope that they could thoroughly break free from the erosion of the poison within their bodies.

As for why this empire was different from other empires, and why Poison Masters, who were more or less suppressed in every empire, possessed the most suitable soil for them here, according to Yao Wan's guess, it was probably related to the geography of the Chu Yun Empire.

"Wan Guniang—where exactly is the Netherworld Poison Flame?"

"It seems to be within the ruins of the Ancient Netherworld Poison Swamp in the southern part of the Chu Yun Empire. Although with the passage of time, that poisonous swamp is no longer as excessively dangerous as it was in ancient times, when not a blade of grass grew for ten thousand li around, with such a huge Poisonous Pool here, the people of the Chu Yun Empire would unconsciously want to use the terrain to cultivate."

Yao Wan explained.

"So that's how it is... Come to think of it, Wan Guniang, how did you know this?"

"Of course I happened to come across it while looking through ancient texts."

"The Netherworld Poison Swamp is the place most likely to produce the Netherworld Poison Flame, and all these years, no news has spread of the Netherworld Poison Flame appearing and being obtained by anyone."

"However, we'd best be careful. If the Netherworld Poison Flame has appeared, those local factions of the Chu Yun Empire will definitely come to fight for it. This isn't our home ground, after all, and if we fight others, we'll definitely be at a disadvantage."

"So once we get the Poison Flame, we leave. We absolutely must not get caught up in battle. Understood?"

Yao Wan subconsciously furrowed her brows slightly and gave a warning.

"Mm, I understand."

Xiao Yan understood. This trip would probably not be too safe.

"Right, how are the food preparations?"

Yao Wan suddenly remembered. Although she no longer needed to eat, Xiao Yan, who was only a Dou Zhe now, could not do that.

"There's still a month's worth of dry rations in the Storage Ring. That should be enough, right?"

Xiao Yan asked.

"I suppose it should be enough."

"Then fine. Take one last breath. I'll refine some pills for resisting poison. The poisonous swamp is full of poisons everywhere, so we have to guard against them."

Yao Wan swept a glance around. In this deserted wilderness, she figured there would not be any blind fools barging over.

"Mm?"

As if he had sensed something, Yao Lao's mind stirred, and his illusory form actually appeared from within the Storage Ring.

"Teacher? Why did you come out?"

"Curiosity."

Yao Lao told the truth. After all, that Girl came from the same clan as him. It was just that he was nothing more than an abandoned son of the clan, while this Girl was an absolutely worthy proud daughter of heaven.

Yet in the end, he still could not let it go...

Whether it was simply watching a junior refine medicine, or wanting to confirm that he was not inferior to the people of the Yao Clan, no matter what feeling it was, it unconsciously urged him to appear.

"This Girl is very talented. In the future, if your luck is good enough for you to see her refine medicine, you must observe carefully. It will be of great benefit to your own medicine refining later."

Yao Lao said.

"Mm, I understand."

Along with Yao Lao and Xiao Yan's conversation, Yao Wan then took out a large bronze square cauldron from her Storage Ring, one even taller than a person.