Zhao Ming's body had completely melted away, leaving a puddle of human-shaped black water in the middle of the arena.
The puddle didn't seep into the cracks like ordinary liquid. Instead, it writhed and boiled strangely, belching fist-sized bubbles.
"Gloop... gloop..."
Every time a bubble burst, a foul stench thick enough to make one sick wafted into the air.
It smelled like a thousand-year-old corpse mixed with sulfur. The stench burrowed into their noses and shot straight to their heads.
The bluestone slabs around the arena began to hiss when the black mist touched them. Their surfaces quickly pitted and corroded, sending up black smoke.
"Get back! What is that thing? It's poisonous!"
Someone shouted. The disciples who had stopped to watch erupted into chaos again, scrambling toward the exits of the Martial Practice Field.
But it was too late.
Several Inner Courtyard disciples standing closest to the puddle had only breathed in a few more lungfuls of the foul air when their bodies suddenly stiffened.
The whites of their eyes turned black at a visible speed. Beneath their skin, black veins writhed like living vipers, crawling from their necks up to their faces.
"Roar!"
A bestial growl came from one of their throats. His joints twisted at unnatural angles. He yanked the saber from his waist and swung it at the fellow disciples fleeing beside him!
"Splurt!"
Blood sprayed into the air.
The disciple who had been struck stared in disbelief at the wound in his chest. Then the black mist wrapped around him too. His eyes rolled back, and he became a living corpse that knew only how to kill.
One became two, two became four.
The infection spread like a plague. In just a few breaths, the Martial Practice Field had become a living hell.
Screams, clashing weapons, and beastlike roars tangled together in a cacophony.
The Martial Practice Field, once a symbol of glory and order, now held nothing but the most primal bloodshed and chaos.
"Big Brother!"
Yunmei clutched Li Pingsheng's clothes, her body trembling uncontrollably.
Lu Qingshan shielded her behind him.
On the high platform.
Pei Guang shot to his feet, rousing his qi and blood as he prepared to leap down and suppress the chaos.
"Pei Guang, form the formation!"
The Azure Cloud Martial Hall's Hall Master, Gu Zhenyue, had seemed as if none of this concerned him.
He rose from his seat and strode forward.
The next moment, his towering figure appeared in the middle of the Martial Practice Field like a ghost, standing before the puddle of black water still belching foul air.
"Boom!"
Qi and blood as thick and heavy as the earth burst from Gu Zhenyue's body.
His shirt billowed despite the still air, revealing bronze-colored muscles. He looked like a wrathful Vajra striding out of an ancient temple.
Without any flashy technique, Gu Zhenyue simply raised his fan-like hand, spread his fingers, and slammed his palm hard against the ground!
"Suppress!"
The single word rang out like a bell.
From the spot where his palm struck, visible golden patterns spread in every direction, centered on him. In an instant, they covered the entire Martial Practice Field.
The corroded bluestone slabs stopped decaying beneath the golden light.
The boiling black water seemed to be pinned beneath an invisible mountain. Its churning slowed for a moment.
"Listen carefully! All disciples who haven't been contaminated, retreat to the east wall! Form the Three Talents Blood-Qi Formation! Move!"
At Pei Guang's command, he shouted with his qi.
The panicked disciples, who had been milling about like headless flies, finally had someone to rally around.
The surviving disciples instinctively retreated to the corner by the east wall. Under the instructors' direction, they stood with their backs against it.
They linked their qi and blood together, forming a simple but sturdy defensive ring. They struggled to hold back their fellow disciples, who had gone mad and were now charging at them.
The entire Martial Practice Field was divided into three sections.
In the center, the Hall Master, Gu Zhenyue, stood alone, suppressing the source of the foul air.
At the east wall, the surviving disciples had formed a defensive formation to protect themselves.
And between them, dozens of "Living Demon-Men," contaminated by the foul air, attacked every living thing in sight.
Just as the standoff settled in, a piercing pain suddenly shot through Li Pingsheng's chest!
It was the Well-Guarding Bronze Talisman Old Qi had given him!
The talisman was so hot it nearly scalded him through several layers of clothing, as though it were cooking his skin and flesh.
Li Pingsheng yanked it out.
A stream of information surged from the talisman into his mind.
At the center of the map was the Azure Cloud Martial Hall beneath his feet.
Three smaller lights extended from this main point in three directions across the Outer City, echoing one another from afar.
One of them was clearly marked with the three small characters "Wealthy District"!
At that moment, the light representing the Wealthy District had dimmed almost completely, flickering faintly.
Once it went out, it would mean that the formation node there had been completely breached by the foul air!
Then his unarmed grandfather, Second Uncle, and countless Outer City commoners would all be exposed to contamination from the foul air, more terrifying than demonic beasts!
Thinking of what had just happened to Yunmei, and then imagining the horrors his family might face, a murderous intent clamped around Li Pingsheng's heart.
His eyes nearly bulged from their sockets!
Just then, the Hall Master, Gu Zhenyue, who was suppressing the chaos in the middle of the field, spoke into Li Pingsheng's ear.
"Heh. Since that old man gave you the talisman, that makes you the Well-Guardian!"
At these words, not only Li Pingsheng but also Pei Guang and the others, who were directing the disciples in forming their formation nearby, shuddered and stared over in disbelief.
The Well-Guardian?
The one from the legends who protected the safety of Qingyun County's earth veins, an existence on the same level as the Hall Master?
It was actually Li Pingsheng, a new disciple?
Gu Zhenyue paid no heed to everyone's shock.
"Zhao Ming's demonization triggered the leakage of foul air from the Dragon Locking Well. I must guard the main formation eye, and Pei Guang and the others must protect the disciples. None of us can leave."
"The second formation eye in the Outer City is on the verge of falling too. Only you, with the Well-Guarding Bronze Talisman, can draw on the formation's power and repair the breach."
"Go to the Back Mountain Stele Forest. It's the nearest passage to the second formation eye."
Li Pingsheng had no choice now.
His family was right behind that formation eye, which was on the verge of being breached!
He couldn't afford to hesitate.
He shoved Yunmei, still trembling in his arms, into Lu Qingshan's arms.
Lu Qingshan was taken aback by the sudden move.
"Brother Qingshan, I'm really going to have to trouble you this time. Please keep her safe."
"If she loses even one hair, I'll hold you responsible!"
Before he had even finished speaking, he stopped looking at Lu Qingshan and Yunmei.
"Big Brother! You have to come back safe!"
"And, Big Brother! I'll be waiting for you to come back!"
"I still need you to teach me how to practice my punches!"
Yunmei cried out, reaching for him, trying to grab hold.
But Li Pingsheng didn't look back.
Under the disbelieving, awestruck gazes of every disciple present,
the good-for-nothing who had just used thunderous force to kill a demonized monster in the arena, the "Well-Guardian" personally acknowledged by the Hall Master,
dragged along an arm still marked purple-black and went against the flow of people beneath the corner wall.
Alone, he charged resolutely toward the Back Mountain Stele Forest.
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