What a Scoundrel-He Was Poisoned

Bang, bang, bang...

In front of the Divine Weapon Hall.

Old Man Ji was fighting with everything he had.

His fists and feet hammered like hammers, each punch carrying tremendous force. But the Double-Headed Flame Lion's defense was like a thick layer of city walls. Though the blows could move it, they could hardly inflict any real damage.

Fortunately, Old Man Ji's own defenses were nothing to scoff at. After his blood and qi erupted, a faint golden glow spilled from his body. His arms and fists were enveloped in golden light, as if he had forged himself into a golden body.

This was the hallmark of the fourth layer of the Golden Body Art, the Golden Skin Realm.

So whenever the Double-Headed Flame Lion struck Old Man Ji with its claws, a series of grating metallic scrapes rang out, yet it could do him no real harm.

They were evenly matched, two worthy opponents locked in a stalemate. For a while, neither could get the upper hand.

Seeing this, Tang Shan and Meng Gang stepped forward together. They borrowed swords from two Qin Family elders and said, "Master, we'll help you!"

As they spoke, the two joined the fight, swinging their weapons and putting all their strength into each slash.

Sssh! Sssh!

A flash of light rippled over the Two-Headed Lion's body. Two tufts of fur fell away, yet not a single mark appeared on its skin.

Meng Gang's eyes widened. "The swords can't even get through its defenses?"

The Two-Headed Lion flew into a rage. Its leftmost head immediately turned toward them, then roared and opened its jaws. A bright red glow quickly gathered inside its mouth.

Tang Shan's expression changed. He hurriedly grabbed Meng Gang and pulled him back. "Danger! Move!"

The words had barely left his mouth when, with a boom, a blazing fireball shot from the lion's mouth at tremendous speed, the air around it scorching hot.

The fireball missed and slammed into the stone wall behind them. The wall shook, and a crater the size of a tabletop was blasted into it. Flames churned inside, and scorch marks covered the surface. Its power was no joke.

"Damn, this thing can breathe fire!"

Meng Gang was startled.

Tang Shan was startled too.

Taking advantage of the opening, Old Man Ji leapt back, then said to them, "You're no match for this beast. Don't get close!"

Shen Zhou stepped forward just then, swinging the Taixuan Sword in his hand. "All right, let me handle it. Let's see if it can withstand one of my strikes."

This time, Old Man Ji didn't stop him.

After taking a beating from everyone, the Two-Headed Lion was getting angry and agitated. Its two massive heads fixed on the little fellow holding a sword in front of it, seeming to sense a hint of danger. It roared again and again, but in the end, its beastly instincts overpowered everything else. It scraped its claws across the ground, then both heads opened their gaping jaws toward Shen Zhou.

Roar!

"If your breath stinks that much, don't open your mouth. You'll fumigate everyone around you."

Shen Zhou furrowed his brows. Then he gripped the Taixuan Sword tightly. The danger of the Two-Headed Lion charging at him sent the power of his Entries soaring in an instant.

"Slash!"

The next moment, Shen Zhou let out a shout and raised his sword. Surging sword light instantly gathered along the blade, then crashed down!

A massive lion's head shot into the air, then rolled to the ground with a series of hollow thuds. The enormous body of the Two-Headed Lion was hurled away by the tremendous force, landing only after crashing into the mountainside.

The rogue cultivators who had been treating their injuries were stunned by the sight.

No matter what they had tried, none of them had been able to hurt the beast. Now, one of its heads had been cut off with a single strike?

Was this young man's strength terrifying or what?

Then someone recognized Shen Zhou and Qin Mingyue.

"Look, that woman is Qin Mingyue. They must be from the Qin Family."

"Could that boy with the sword be Shen Zhou, the Qin Family's new head—the Heaven's Chosen who can enter the Heavenly Firmament with a sword?"

"So it's him. No wonder."

The group murmured among themselves.

The two Qin Family elders glanced at them, then paid them no more attention.

Looking again at the fallen Two-Headed Lion, after its left head had been cut off, blood poured from the severed neck, quickly staining a patch of ground red.

The Two-Headed Lion lay motionless on the ground, as if it were dead.

Shen Zhou lowered his sword and tilted his head. "That's it? It stopped moving?"

It didn't seem nearly as hard to kill as the Qin Family elders had said!

Old Man Ji was stunned too. He and the beast had fought so hard, yet now it had been cut down with a single strike. The comparison was a little humiliating.

Old Man Ji stubbornly retorted, "Hmph. You're only relying on the Divine Weapon. Without your sword, you're nothing."

Shen Zhou didn't hold back. "Old man, you're just jealous that I'm better at fighting than you."

Seeing this, Tang Shan shook his head helplessly, then tried to smooth things over. "Master, Junior Brother, stop arguing. We should figure out what to do with the beast's body first."

Shen Zhou was just about to say that the Taixuan Sword could take it away for now, and they could dissect and deal with it after they got out. Just then, four of the rogue cultivators approached together. The man leading them cupped his hands toward Shen Zhou with a beaming smile. "Many thanks, many thanks to the Young Head of Qin Family and all of you for helping us deal with this beast. I'm Huang Ming, and my three brothers and I are deeply grateful.

"But now that the beast is dead, there's no need to trouble you with the rest. Leave the corpse to us brothers to deal with.

"What are you three standing around for? Hurry up and chop up that beast, then pack it up and take it with us."

Huang Ming had directed the last sentence at the three men behind him. Strangely, he spoke with effortless fluency, as if every word were perfectly justified.

Old Man Ji and Meng Gang were stunned.

What the hell? Had this guy come out of nowhere to steal the spoils?

How dare they?

Qin Mingyue and the two Qin Family elders weren't particularly surprised.

They had dealt with rogue cultivators plenty of times before.

Usually, rogue cultivators kept their distance when they saw people from the great families. But the moment they caught sight of profit and benefits, they became bold enough to do anything.

Now that a monster beast corpse comparable to a precious medicinal treasure was right in front of them, it was only natural for greed to cloud their judgment.

Still, Shen Zhou clearly hadn't expected anyone to be so shameless. He raised his hand and slashed a streak of Sword Qi across the ground, stopping the three men who were about to approach the Two-Headed Lion's corpse. Then he fixed his eyes on Huang Ming and said bluntly, "Anyone who dares cross this line dies!"

Huang Ming's expression darkened. "Head of the Shen Family, what do you mean by that? Are you, a great family's head, really going to use your power to bully us and steal our things?"

With a single sentence, the other man twisted the facts and accused Shen Zhou of using his strength to bully the weak.

Meng Gang couldn't stand it and stepped forward to argue. "You're the ones who came out to grab the spoils. How did we steal your things?"

Huang Ming spoke righteously. "Friend, you're blatantly lying through your teeth. We exhausted every possible means to badly wound this beast and lure it here. Just as we were about to take it down, you barged in and killed it without a word. Then you tried to claim it for yourselves. How is that not stealing?"

Meng Gang was so furious his lungs nearly burst. "When did you wound it? You were being chased around like dogs! If we hadn't stepped in, you'd already be in that beast's belly. And now you have the nerve to say it belongs to you? Have you no shame?"

Huang Ming sneered. "That's nonsense. It was all part of our strategy. If you hadn't stuck your noses in, we'd have taken this beast down already."

His three companions took the opportunity to chime in, one after another. "Exactly! This beast belongs to us."

"Does your great family really want to bully us? Aren't you afraid we'll expose this and ruin the Qin Family's reputation?"

The four of them bickered and shouted, displaying shamelessness and sheer stubbornness to the fullest.

Even Old Man Ji couldn't take it anymore. His eyebrows twitched incessantly, and he looked ready to beat them to death.

Even the Xu Family members observing from the shadows gave the rogue cultivators a thumbs-up in admiration.

One Xu Family elder said, "These nobodies usually go unnoticed. Who knew they could be so repulsive when they wanted to be? The Qin Family's people are in for a headache now."

Just as Huang Ming was congratulating himself, pleased with how he had them cornered, Shen Zhou suddenly raised the Taixuan Sword and swept it across with a flash of sword light.

Huang Ming froze on the spot.

A line of blood gradually appeared between his brows. At first, it was tiny and fine, almost impossible to see. But as blood seeped out, the line grew clearer and clearer. Finally, with a puff, blood spurted three meters into the air, and Huang Ming collapsed to the ground with a thud.

He died with his eyes wide open!

In an instant, the whole place fell silent.

No one had expected Shen Zhou to suddenly attack.

Huang Ming's companions pointed at Shen Zhou, both shocked and furious. "Y-You... how could you kill someone?"

Shen Zhou's expression remained blank. "I didn't kill anyone. Your companion was poisoned by the Two-Headed Lion, so he lost his mind and started making baseless accusations. If we let him carry on, the poison will spread until he turns into a red-eyed monster who's completely lost his reason. I was helping him find release."

Hearing this, Old Man Ji, Tang Shan, and the others stared at Shen Zhou as if to say, You can come up with an excuse like that?

Huang Ming's companions weren't fools either. One of them immediately roared, "You're talking nonsense! What poison? You clearly—"

Before he could finish, Shen Zhou swung his sword again, and the man immediately fell to the ground.

Shen Zhou explained in the same expressionless tone, "He was poisoned too!"

The two rogue cultivators who remained: "..."

By now, how could they fail to understand? This was a blatant threat!

At last, Shen Zhou looked at the two remaining rogue cultivators. Their knees shook in fright, and they hurriedly said, "N-No, no... Head of the Shen Family, we were mistaken. That beast wasn't lured here by us. We have nothing to do with it. We'll leave right now..."

After speaking, the two turned and ran, as if they feared Shen Zhou would swing his sword again at the slightest disagreement.

Once all the rogue cultivators had fled in fright, Meng Gang gave Shen Zhou a thumbs-up and praised him. "That's how it's done!"

Old Man Ji, Tang Shan, the two Qin Family elders, and Qin Mingyue all nodded in unison.

For dealing with these toads squatting on your feet, the sort of pests who did nothing but disgust you, Shen Zhou's method was just right. It felt great!

Shen Zhou didn't take any of it seriously. It was just business as usual.

After this little interlude ended, Shen Zhou turned to deal with the Two-Headed Lion's corpse. But just then, a strange "bird call" rang out from the sky.

Shen Zhou was still wondering whether this Secret Realm had flying monster beasts when the Two-Headed Lion, which had been lying on the ground "dead" for a while, suddenly played dead no longer and sprang back to life. It roared at Shen Zhou and the others, then turned and fled rapidly down the mountain path it had come from.

"That beast was pretending to be dead!"

"After it! It's a great medicinal treasure. We can't let it get away!"

Everything had happened too quickly. Old Man Ji was still thinking about breaking through his martial arts bottleneck with the lion's flesh and blood, so he chased after it without a second thought.

Seeing this, Shen Zhou and the others hurried after him, afraid something might happen to Old Man Ji on his own.

After they left, Xu Baxia and his group slowly emerged from around the corner.

Xu Baxia held a palm-sized Bone Flute. No one knew what kind of beast bone it had been made from, but it was lustrous and smooth, small and exquisitely crafted. When blown, it let out a series of sounds like bird calls.

Watching Shen Zhou and the others leave, Xu You couldn't help sighing. "I never expected the Two-Headed Lion, which could challenge a Heavenly Firmament expert, to fail to withstand even one of his strikes. The Qin Family Divine Weapon really is heaven-defying!"

Xu Baxia said nothing, but fighting spirit flickered in his eyes once more.

Seeing this, Elder Xu You hurriedly changed the subject. "Young Master Baxia, now that the Two-Headed Lion has lured Shen Zhou and the others to the Fire Spring Sect's Rear Mountain Forbidden Ground, I think we should use the Fire Spring Sect's Beast-Taming Demon Flute to summon more monster beasts, just to be safe. That way, once they enter the Forbidden Ground Grand Array, we can have the beasts block their way out.

"Then Shen Zhou and his people will have nowhere left to go, whether forward or back. They'll have no choice but to die!"

Xu Baxia remained silent for a moment after hearing this, but in the end, he slowly said, "All right."