The trace of youthful clarity in Tang San's eyes was suppressed. The hand holding the knife did not thrust it into the snake's mouth again; instead, it slid along the edge of the venomous fangs. He turned sideways to evade the bite, his left hand rising from his sleeve.
Yu Xiaogang lay beneath a tree, his throat filled with poisoned blood. When he saw that left hand rise, his face turned even worse than it had from the poison. "Tang San, you can't use that!"
Ji Yuan ignored him completely.
The blood bag's body was his tool. If a tool was about to break, then he should use its toughest part to smash through the situation.
A heavy black glimmer sank into Tang San's left palm. The phantom of the Clear Sky Hammer formed in his hand but did not fully emerge. It merely borrowed a surge of heavy, dark force and poured it through his arm into his knuckles.
After missing its bite, the Datura Snake immediately turned back. Blackish-green fluid still clung to its fangs as its slit pupils fixed on Tang San. Its body coiled, ready to pounce again.
Ji Yuan controlled Tang San's feet, planting them firmly in the mud. The true body hidden in the sole's inner layer pressed tightly against the ground as well, dark-red roots gripping the old cloth and borrowing strength to stabilize the body.
Tang San's consciousness slammed about within the depths of his Sea of Consciousness, his voice filled with shock and fury. "Who are you? Let go of my body!"
Ji Yuan did not respond.
He merely placed a deeper seal upon Tang San.
When the Datura Snake lunged, Ji Yuan did not retreat. His left hand smashed straight at its head.
The black hammer phantom appeared for only a brief moment before he forcibly compressed it back into his palm. All its strength gathered on his fist and struck the Datura Snake beneath its jaw.
The crack of bone mixed with the snake's hiss. Its head was knocked upward, venom spraying from its mouth onto the nearby bark. The bark immediately blackened and began to smoke.
Yu Xiaogang could barely hold himself up. His fingers clawed at the mud as he shouted with difficulty, "Good chance—its vital spot!"
Ji Yuan sneered.
You need to teach me?
He controlled Tang San's right hand to discard the now-useless short knife. His five fingers hooked into the gaps between the scales on the snake's belly. Taking advantage of the instant the Datura Snake raised its head, he braced its body with his left knee and drove his right hand in beneath its vital spot.
The scales sliced open Tang San's hand, and poisonous blood seeped into the wound.
Tang San's consciousness roared within his body, "Are you insane? That's deadly poison!"
Ji Yuan still did not respond.
Poison?
To Tang San, this is fatal. To me, it is food.
As his right hand tore open the snake's belly, a rancid stench burst forth. A dark-blue-green snake gallbladder, wrapped in flesh and blood, was revealed. The Soul Power and poison within were so concentrated that even Ji Yuan's true body in the sole tensed.
This is the fattest part.
The Datura Snake writhed in agony, its tail sweeping toward Tang San's waist.
Ji Yuan used Tang San's body to lunge forward, nearly pressing himself atop the snake's belly. His left hand pinned down the snake while his right hand forcibly tore out the gallbladder.
The moment the gallbladder left its body, the Datura Snake's struggles became disordered. Its head slammed into the ground, and a hoarse cry escaped its mouth.
Seeing Tang San's hand covered in snake blood, Yu Xiaogang's vision darkened with panic. "Don't touch the gallbladder! Throw it away! The poison inside is the strongest!"
Ji Yuan controlled Tang San to lower his head and press his wrist against the side of his shoe.
A narrow slit opened in the sole's inner layer.
Dark-red roots drilled out from the old cloth and pressed against the gallbladder's outer membrane. Their tips pierced inside and began to absorb.
The blood essence, toxins, and soul beast essence contained in the gallbladder flowed through the roots and into Ji Yuan's true body.
The sensation was too potent.
Ji Yuan's true body had originally been nothing more than a dry, hardened wooden thorn. Now, the grass fibers within it were scoured by toxic force. Dark-purple patterns crawled upward along the roots. The remaining green leaf veins began to blacken, then were stained with red streaks by the blood essence.
Tang San's consciousness sensed that the gallbladder in his hand was losing its power, and his fury deepened. "What are you doing? That's soul beast essence!"
At last, Ji Yuan gave him a cold, hard response within his mind.
"Yours? Are you worthy?"
Tang San could not hear the words, but he could feel that contempt pressing through the parasitic point into the depths of his consciousness.
He struggled even more desperately, the remaining internal force of the Mysterious Heaven Skill crashing wildly through his meridians.
Impatient, Ji Yuan drew out that bit of internal force and casually fed it into his true body as well.
The Datura Snake was not fully dead yet. Its head slid across the ground, trying to bite Tang San's lower leg.
Ji Yuan did not even look at it. He controlled Tang San's left foot to stomp on its neck, then pressed down with the remaining dark force of the Clear Sky Hammer.
The snake's bones cracked again.
Yu Xiaogang breathed rapidly, his gaze confused, as though he had understood something but could not believe it. "Tang San, just now... what did you use?"
Ji Yuan controlled Tang San to raise his head and glance at Yu Xiaogang.
There was no concern for a teacher in that look, nor any panic from a youth. There was only the greed of one who had just snatched food.
Cold sweat broke out across Yu Xiaogang's back. Just as he was about to ask again, the poison surged upward. He coughed out a mouthful of black blood, and his vision blurred once more.
The gallbladder's essence had been almost completely drained.
Ji Yuan was not greedy enough to suck it dry to the point of leaving nothing behind. He left only a ruined outer membrane and foul-smelling fluid, then moved Tang San's right hand away from the shoe and let the remnants of the gallbladder fall back into the mud.
After finishing all this, he immediately withdrew the roots, and the sole's inner layer sealed shut again.
The Datura Snake's Soul Power began to dissipate. A yellow Soul Ring rose above its corpse.
Ji Yuan swept a glance over the Soul Ring. Having confirmed that the core spoils were already in hand, he loosened his control over the body.
Tang San's consciousness rushed back into his body. His knees went weak, and he nearly fell into the snake blood.
He gasped heavily. His right hand was covered in blood, while his left ached as if it had been crushed beneath an iron block. Yet there was a blank space in his mind.
Yu Xiaogang used the last of his strength to shout at him, "Tang San, quickly, the antidote!"
Tang San came back to himself and hurriedly took a medicine bottle from Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridge. Staggering over to Yu Xiaogang, he said, "Teacher, hang on."
Yu Xiaogang grabbed his wrist, his gaze falling on Tang San's left hand. "Did you use that Martial Soul just now?"
Tang San's movements paused for a moment, and the medicinal powder nearly spilled crookedly.
He remembered the feeling of his body being out of control, remembered that hand digging out the snake gallbladder on its own. A chill rose in his heart, but he could not say it aloud.
If he said it, Yu Xiaogang would only become more suspicious of him.
"I don't remember," Tang San said quietly.
Yu Xiaogang stared at him as bloody foam surged from his throat again. "You don't remember?"
Tang San stuffed the antidote into his mouth. "I only remember the snake lunging at me. I wanted to stab it with the knife, and then everything after that went blank."
Yu Xiaogang swallowed the medicinal powder and panted with difficulty. "At a critical moment of life and death, your second Martial Soul may have been stimulated and briefly protected its master. Don't worry about that for now. The Soul Ring is about to disperse."
Tang San turned to look at the yellow ring of light above the Datura Snake's corpse, and his heart jolted.
A four-hundred-year Datura Snake.
This was exactly the target he and his teacher had been searching for.
But when he lowered his head and saw the ruptured gallbladder on the ground, his brows furrowed again. "Teacher, why is the snake gallbladder ruined like this?"
Yu Xiaogang saw it as well. The gallbladder lay shriveled in the mud, nearly all its essence gone, leaving only foul fluid behind.
His expression darkened. "Perhaps you tore it apart by force just now, and it was contaminated by poisonous blood. Snake gallbladders are fragile to begin with. Don't touch it."
Tang San looked at his own hand, still feeling that something was wrong.
Had he really only unleashed his potential just now?
But that blank stretch of memory was too clean.
Ji Yuan digested the gallbladder essence inside the sole, listening as master and disciple found excuses for him. His dark-red roots pressed happily against the old cloth.
Yu Xiaogang struggled into a sitting position. "Stop spacing out. Sit cross-legged and draw the Soul Ring into your body. I'll watch over you from the side."
Tang San looked at Yu Xiaogang's purpled arm. "Teacher, your poison still hasn't been cured."
Yu Xiaogang gritted his teeth. "I won't die. If you delay any longer, this Soul Ring will be wasted."
Tang San hesitated no longer. He walked to the Datura Snake's corpse and sat down cross-legged.
He raised his right hand. Blue Silver Grass emerged from his palm, drawing the yellow Soul Ring slowly downward.
Deep within the sole, Ji Yuan withdrew all exposed roots. The venomous force from the gallbladder he had just swallowed was still churning inside him, yet a new hunger had already arisen.
The gallbladder was merely an appetizer.
The real feast was here.
The moment the yellow Soul Ring settled around Tang San's body, violent Soul Power surged into his meridians. Just as Tang San gritted his teeth, a dark-red net silently spread open deep within his heart meridian.
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