Although Tang Qinghe didn't know whether the black tiger was being sincere or not, it was clearly trying to curry favor when it answered, "Oh, my wounds have almost healed."
"That's good." Tang Qinghe nodded. With a wave of his hand, he summoned the Battle Tiger and took out a pen and paper, quickly writing a new prescription. "Take this medicine according to the prescription. Use it for seven days, and you'll soon stop suffering from those recurring attacks. But this will only treat the symptoms, not the root cause. Your sister's condition has a different cause. If we don't find out what it is, the attacks will return sooner or later. In severe cases, they could even be life-threatening."
When she heard the words "life-threatening," Ke Ming's face twitched. She couldn't help laughing. "Life-threatening? Little brother, you're being way too dramatic. I'm just feeling a little under the weather. Sorry for the trouble, sis."
With that, she took the prescription from him. Those bouts of illness had truly been awful for her.
Tang Qinghe watched her put it away, his thoughts turning to the prescription he'd just written. It could cure snake venom, but Ke Ming's poison came from three sources: the lingering poison left behind by the Battle Tiger's wound, the Emerald Scale Serpent's venom, and the poison inflicted by its third spirit skill. Together, they had formed a highly complex poison.
Even if he managed to cure her poison now, she'd be poisoned again if she used her spirit body.
And by that time, Ke Ming would probably have already left to find him.
He'd have to take a huge risk to sneak away and steal the Immortal Herb.
A moment later, Ke Ming sat down. Tang Qinghe learned from her that she had already received an invitation to enroll at the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy. The three of them were all friends from the Hundred Flowers Academy, and Tang Qinghe and Xue Ziqing were also her sisters. They would all be studying at the same place in ten days.
They could meet up in Heaven Dou City when they had time.
Since it was on the way to the Great Spirit Arena, Tang Qinghe agreed without hesitation.
As for Tang Qinghe's situation, the people of this world had long since grown accustomed to it.
Most of these people were old classmates or friends who'd gathered together for a while. They couldn't avoid meeting new friends, and each of them was looking forward to enrollment.
As for Tang Qinghe, he hadn't been there long before the spirit ring trials began.
The first to take the stage were Ke Ming's four companions. Their spirit power wasn't especially high. Even the strongest was only at rank 24 or 25. The weakest had just broken through to Spirit Body. They were all much older than her, yet she had already surpassed rank 15.
And their abilities were far inferior to hers. Most of them had ordinary spirit bodies, with only a few having spirit bodies that were slightly more powerful.
Before long, Ke Ming took the stage too.
Without a spirit body that could counter the Emerald Scale Serpent, she was at a severe disadvantage against a low-ranked Spirit Body. Her ability was powerful, but as soon as her opponent's spirit body was struck by her poisonous Emerald Scale Serpent, he was defeated.
Finally, it was Tang Qinghe's turn.
His opponent was somewhat beyond everyone's expectations.
On the Spirit Arena, a middle-aged man wearing a swallowtail coat stood at the center. The announcer declared, "Below, we have Tang Qinghe, whose four spirit rings are all over ten thousand years old. He is a rank-18 Spirit Master. His spirit body is the twenty-three-thousand-year Black-Hearted Tiger, possessing a fearsome Battle Tiger. His opponent, with the Black Tortoise as his spirit body, is the twenty-nine-thousand-year-old Stone Turtle, already at rank 21."
A flurry of exclamations broke out below. Most of them were calling out Stone Turtle's name. It was clear that he was quite famous in the Spirit Arena.
A tall figure soon walked onto the arena. He looked no more than fifteen or sixteen, yet his shoulders were broad and his waist thick. His build was exceptionally robust. He tore off his shirt, revealing muscles like sculpted rock. His spirit body's power surged through him, and a deep yellow light radiated from his body, forming a massive dark-yellow dragon shell across his front and back.
His limbs were also shortened by the dragon shell. At the center of the shell's abdominal armor sat a huge black turtle. A faint blue light glimmered in its eyes. Six yellow spirit rings rose from the ground, circling him.
Tang Qinghe sat beside Xue Ziqing, leaving one seat between them. He said quietly, "Stone Turtle? I think I've heard my grandfather mention him. He seems to be one of the Shi brothers from the Black Tortoise Clan. Aren't the Shi brothers supposed to be in danger?"
Xue Ziqing smiled faintly. "Don't worry, sis. Elder Tang is strong. His reputation is well deserved. I dare say no one in the Spirit Arena can beat him..."
Before she could finish, Tang Qinghe, seated between the two of them, had already leaped onto the arena.
A gray-white light suddenly rose from the depths of Stone Turtle's heart and spread over his whole body. In the blink of an eye, he completed his spirit body possession. Six yellow spirit rings floated up behind him.
This was clearly an opponent whose spirit power far exceeded his own. As for their spirit bodies, they were worlds apart.
And Stone Turtle's Black Tortoise Spirit Body, which had nearly every kind of defense, was naturally the best fit for this second spirit ring from a thousand-year-old spirit beast.
Tang Qinghe didn't need to worry about using too much force and killing someone in the Great Spirit Arena. His poison could cause needless trouble.
The second yellow spirit ring on his body lit up, and the thousand-year spirit skill, Tiger King's Wrath, surged into motion. A deep, fiery light suddenly erupted from Tang Qinghe. After completing his spirit body possession, his muscles swelled once more, and he grew to a height of one meter eighty.
Tiger King's Wrath: For a certain period of time, greatly increases Tang Qinghe's reflexes, strength, speed, and attack power by one hundred percent, while increasing spirit power by fifty percent.
Unless he actively stopped the skill, it would last until his spirit power was nearly exhausted.
With Tang Qinghe's abundant spirit power, it would naturally last for quite some time.
Of course, that wasn't what mattered most to him. What he truly cared about was the speed and spirit power boost from Tiger King's Wrath.
With his speed doubled and his spirit power boosted by fifty percent, even though his Heavenly Eyes Technique had only reached the fourth level and his emotions were at the third level, he could still use the instantaneous movement ability.
"The match begins!"
At the announcer's command, Tang Qinghe's figure vanished from the spot, then reappeared in front of Stone Turtle.
His first spirit essence lit up, and the fiery light around Tang Qinghe instantly surged toward his right fist. He punched straight at Stone Turtle, gathering the light into the shape of a massive tiger that roared as it rushed toward him.
"So fast!"
Stone Turtle's expression changed. He barely had time to activate his first spirit skill, forming a layer of earth-yellow defensive barrier around himself. The whole man was blasted out of the Spirit Arena.
He slammed into a stone pillar at the edge of the arena, leaving a deep dent in it.
The yellow defensive barrier shattered as well.
The entire arena fell silent.
As Stone Turtle crashed heavily to the ground, the crowd could hardly believe that a Steel-Armored Tortoise Spirit Master with a twenty-thousand-year spirit body—and the twenty-nine-thousand-year-old spirit master who'd just defeated the third-ranked fighter—had been knocked out by a twenty-three-thousand-year-old Spirit Master.
In other words, he'd lost.
Even Stone Turtle himself was in a daze.
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. He struggled to his feet, staring blankly at Tang Qinghe, who had already stowed away his spirit body. Even now, he couldn't believe he'd lost so easily.
And it had happened while he'd been using the defense he was most proud of.
A Spirit Master who had broken through his Black Tortoise defense with a spirit power gap like that—he'd never encountered anyone like him before.
It was simply unbelievable.
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