Abnormality

Although Yan Chihuo felt that the name Poison Dissolving Art was somewhat of a misnomer, he had no objections. Along the journey, his progress with the Poison Dissolving Art was rapid. By the fifth day, he casually struck a large bluestone with his palm; the stone immediately turned black, and after a light breeze blew past, it crumbled into sand, scattering into the air.

Seeing this, Ping Qi was also startled and said, "The progress you've made with this Poison Dissolving Art truly exceeds my expectations. I fear that even low-grade Talisman Artifacts would struggle to withstand it."

Upon hearing this, Yan Chihuo took the wooden sword that had belonged to Gao Kun into his hand and channeled the Poison Dissolving Art. A faint black mist rose from his hand, and before long, it spread across the entire wooden sword. The sword turned pitch-black, and within moments, it crumbled into ash.

Ping Qi frowned and said, "The reason this Poison Dissolving Art has such power is likely because the toxicity of the Demon Immortal Fruit is too violent. Therefore, this is not a good thing for you. You need a large amount of potent poison to suppress the toxicity within your body, but if you ingest too much, I fear for your life. If you ingest too little, it will be difficult to suppress the Demon Immortal Fruit's poison. How to detoxify is indeed a problem. I will be honest with you: although the Cloud Soaring Sect is a cultivation sect, the chances of them being able to resolve the poison within you are extremely slim."

A trace of worry appeared on Yan Chihuo's face, but he immediately said with indifference, "My life was salvaged anyway; living one more day is a day's profit."

Ping Qi said, "For someone so young, you are surprisingly open-minded. However, I have thought of a method. While it cannot completely detoxify you, it can at least delay the onset of the poison."

Yan Chihuo asked, "What is this method?"

Ping Qi replied, "This method is easy to say but truly difficult to do: you must raise your cultivation level as quickly as possible. If your cultivation is always one step ahead, it will be easier to suppress the toxins."

Yan Chihuo was speechless upon hearing this. How could cultivation be raised so quickly? With Ping Qi's long years of cultivation, he had only reached the Qi Gathering Stage; how could he possibly stay a step ahead? Still, faster cultivation was always beneficial for suppressing the poison, and if he could live a few more days, he might find a way to cure it.

The reason he was so open-minded had to do with his past experiences. He had served as an assassin since he was six, and every time he attempted to kill a target, he risked being killed himself. Consequently, he had become indifferent to matters of life and death.

The two traveled for over ten days, sometimes finding an inn to rest, other times finding a dilapidated temple or even a cave in the wilderness. Having walked the jianghu for many years, Yan Chihuo was unbothered by this, but Ping Qi, as a cultivator, was surprisingly composed as well.

One day, Ping Qi and Yan Chihuo were resting at an inn. After finishing dinner and returning to his room, Yan Chihuo prepared to meditate. Over the past ten days, Ping Qi's guidance on the Spirit Jade Vajra Art had been a Vast difference from his previous solitary groping. Although Ping Qi said the spiritual energy here was too thin and the cultivation speed too slow, he was still unwilling to give up.

But at that moment, all sorts of sounds reached his ears, such as the falling leaves outside the window and the chirping of insects in the courtyard. Suddenly, he heard a sound he had never heard before.

The sound came from inside the room. He followed the noise to a corner, bent down, and lifted a brick, discovering several ants; the sound was coming from them. Yan Chihuo was shocked—he could actually hear the chirping of ants! While it was said that when martial arts reached their peak, one's hearing and vision would become so sharp that the sound of falling flowers or leaves within a hundred paces could not escape one's ears, that was merely a legend. At the very least, Yan Chihuo knew that with Ping Fei's internal energy, he had not reached this level.

Although he was also practicing Daoist magic, which sharpened the senses, his cultivation had not improved recently, so how could his hearing have reached such a level? He was confused and couldn't even focus on his cultivation. He stood up and looked out the window, only to find that the trees and walls outside were extremely clear, no different from what he saw during the day.

His eyesight had never been this good, so he looked toward a room in the southeast. The lights in that room were already out, so he naturally couldn't see anything. Yan Chihuo thought to himself, If only I could see inside. Subconsciously, he channeled his magic power and felt a faint heat rise within his body, surging toward his eyes. A flash of red light crossed his vision, and suddenly, the room became perfectly clear to him; even the walls could not block his sight.

He saw a fat man in the room pressing down on a woman; the woman had a fiery figure and a beautiful face. Seeing this, he was startled, and the heat dissipated instantly, rendering the scene in the room invisible once more.

He channeled his magic power again and looked toward the room. The scene appeared before his eyes once more, but after about half a stick of incense, even though he still had plenty of magic power, the heat faded, and he could no longer see clearly.

The chirping of insects was clearly audible. This bizarre occurrence was something he had never heard of. He wanted to ask Ping Qi, but for some reason, he felt it was better not to tell others all his secrets. Ping Fei had been good to him, yet after he had served him for ten years, he was discarded for the sake of testing the so-called Demon Immortal Fruit, showing how cold-blooded these people were by nature. Although Ping Qi treated him well, they had spent too little time together, and he remained somewhat wary.

As for the current Abnormality, it only brought him benefits, so there was no harm in not telling Ping Qi. Thinking of this, he returned to his meditation.

Early the next morning, he and Ping Qi left the inn. By evening, they arrived at a desolate place and stopped. Ping Qi said, "Our Cloud Soaring Sect is right here, so these horses are no longer needed."

Yan Chihuo looked at the empty surroundings and felt secretly puzzled. He had been to this place before and had never seen any cultivation sect.

Ping Qi said, "This area is already the territory of our Cloud Soaring Sect. If you were not a cultivator, you would never find it. Although you have practiced Daoist magic before, you know nothing of the cultivation world, so naturally, you are unaware of this."

Yan Chihuo was even more surprised. He saw Ping Qi cast a ray of rosy light, and a transparent ripple appeared in the air. He pulled Yan Chihuo and shouted, "Go!" The two leaped into the ripple.

After entering the ripple, Yan Chihuo saw the scenery change. A river, so wide it seemed boundless, flowed from east to west, surrounding a mountain peak that soared into the clouds. It was the first time Yan Chihuo had seen such a sight, and even with his composure, he was stunned into speechlessness.

Ping Qi performed a hand seal, and a moment later, the waves in the middle of the river churned, and a Giant soft-shelled turtle appeared. The back of this Giant soft-shelled turtle was incredibly smooth, yet it was the size of a house.