Tang San's Hidden Weapons Backfired

Tang San felt that something was wrong too.

His symptoms did indeed resemble poisoning.

But he had been extremely careful ever since Dai Mubai warned him at the start.

He had seen no sign of when Qin Yun could have administered poison.

Now, though, there was no time to dwell on it.

Tang San raced through the descriptions of thousands of poisons in the Tang Sect Poison Manual, but none fully matched the symptoms before him.

He hurried to Xiao Wu's side.

He pressed his right hand to her wrist and sent Soul Power into her pulse. His brow furrowed even deeper.

Xiao Wu's heart rate had risen and her blood oxygen had fallen, but no obvious toxin remained in her meridians.

It closely resembled the "Carbon Poison" recorded in Tang Sect texts. Colorless and odorless, it left the meridians unharmed yet could steal a person's breath. It was exceptionally hard to guard against.

But Carbon Poison was usually accompanied by fire!

Controlling Carbon Poison in the air with Soul Power and spreading it across the entire field was beyond the abilities of a conventional poison master.

Xiao Wu's symptoms kept worsening.

She leaned against his shoulder, sweat beading on her forehead. Her voice came out faint and unsteady.

"Xiao San... I can't put any strength into my arms or legs..."

Tang San gritted his teeth and moved in front of her. When he looked up at Qin Yun, his gaze turned cold.

Xiao Wu mattered more to him than anyone. Seeing the color drain from her lips sent anger surging through him.

His left forearm twitched, and the mechanism of the silent sleeve crossbow hidden in his cuff sprang open.

Three short bolts shot out under the force of its springs, each aimed from a vicious angle.

They flew straight for Qin Yun's throat and heart.

But halfway there, the third veered slightly, carving an unpredictable arc toward an opening beneath Qin Yun's right ribs.

The instant the bolts arrived, however, a crystal-clear shield was already standing before Qin Yun.

The Diamond Shield was smooth as a mirror.

The bolts struck it in succession with three crisp clang, clang, clang sounds. Their tips shattered without leaving so much as a scratch.

Through the translucent shield, Qin Yun watched Tang San in silence.

Then he raised his fingers again and snapped twice at empty air.

Boom! Boom!

Two explosions erupted on either side of Tang San at once.

One went off half a step before his toes, the other three inches behind his shoulder. Their shock waves converged, cutting his Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track short.

Tang San's expression shifted. He twisted sharply on one foot and rolled sideways with the blast, landing several yards away. The fabric over his shoulder was scorched black, and red marks streaked his exposed forearm.

He dropped to one knee, his lips pressed into a thin line.

He had clearly sensed the Soul Power fluctuations before those two blasts, yet he still had not escaped their paths completely.

That could only mean Qin Yun had predicted where to place the explosions faster than Tang San could react.

Tang San drew a deep breath. His feet drove against the ground in rapid succession as he pushed Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track to its limit.

His figure darted left, then right.

To evade Qin Yun's Finger-Snap Explosion, he had to keep changing direction.

Tang San had also been poisoned by Carbon Monoxide, but his constitution was clearly stronger than Xiao Wu's, Zhu Zhuqing's, or Ning Rongrong's.

The poison had not fully taken effect yet.

Behind him, Ning Rongrong did her best to give Tang San one last boost.

As he moved at high speed, Tang San hurled volley after volley of Hidden Weapons.

The first volley sent three Bone-Piercing Nails straight at Qin Yun's throat;

The second scattered five Iron Caltrops to block any sideways escape;

The third was a volley of silver needles;

At the edge of the field, Dai Mubai sucked in a sharp breath.

So Tang San had held back during their clash at the hotel. Dai Mubai would have been in danger if he had fought at full strength.

But no matter how Tang San struggled, he could not beat Qin Yun.

In the distance, Zhao Wuji sat up a little straighter. His brows rose, surprised by Tang San's seemingly endless Hidden Weapons.

Faced with a storm of flying metal, Qin Yun merely chuckled.

He turned his left hand over, revealing a palm-sized piece of dark silver metal.

As he poured Soul Power into it, the metal softened, spread, and reshaped itself. In the blink of an eye, it became a perfectly round sphere with a cold, matte surface.

He held the dark sphere before him. Its surface trembled faintly, and an invisible pull suddenly spread outward.

A sharp clatter rang out.

Bone-Piercing Nails, Iron Caltrops, silver needles...

Every iron-bearing Hidden Weapon that came within three feet of Qin Yun veered off course and rushed toward the sphere, sticking so densely to its surface that they formed a layer.

Tang San stopped short and stared at the black sphere holding every one of his weapons.

"Magnet...?" he rasped.

"Magnetite," Qin Yun corrected him.

"A naturally occurring magnetic mineral."

Tang San's face darkened.

He had never seen anyone simply make a magnet in the middle of a fight to neutralize Hidden Weapons.

The man fought in such a strange way. Even now, Tang San had no idea what Qin Yun's Martial Soul was.

Tang San drew a deep breath and slowly straightened.

He knew ordinary Hidden Weapons were useless against this man.

He rubbed his palm along the inside of his belt for a moment, then drew out several golden filaments finer than ox hair.

They were Plate Crystal Gold Dragon Whisker Needles, natural crystal threads extracted from a special plate crystal ore. Exceptionally hard yet extremely flexible, they would coil the instant they entered flesh.

Among Tang Sect Hidden Weapons, they were the very definition of insidious.

"You might not be able to pull these in," Tang San said quietly.

He flicked his wrist, sending three Dragon Whisker Needles flying.

Two collided halfway through their flight and abruptly changed angles, one rising and the other dropping.

One needle shot straight for Qin Yun's brow. Another skimmed silently along the ground toward the back of his knee. The third hid in the shadows of the first two.

Qin Yun's eyes followed the paths of all three Dragon Whisker Needles.

He knew exactly how vicious they were.

Against such flexible, treacherous crystal filaments, magnetic attraction was useless.

Qin Yun spread his fingers slightly. Threads of Soul Power reached from his fingertips into the air and precisely seized the highly inert argon molecules around him.

Argon was heavier than air, flowed evenly, and was unaffected by combustion or static electricity. It was ideal for pushing crystal filaments so light.

Guided by Qin Yun's will, an invisible stream of argon swept in from the side, smoothly steering the Dragon Whisker Needles into a sharp turn.

It was as though he had laid a smooth track for the flying needles through turbulent air.

Driven by the argon, the three golden filaments abruptly changed course and accelerated.

Their once-elusive paths straightened in an instant. They whipped back as three golden streaks, moving even faster than before.

Tang San's pupils contracted. His body instinctively dodged left, but the argon propelled the Dragon Whisker Needles too quickly.

He had taken only half a step with Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track.

The first golden filament grazed his shoulder;

The second swept past his ear;

The first two missed, but he was not so lucky with the third.

It struck the inside of his left arm.

The instant it entered his flesh, it coiled tight, wrenching the surrounding muscle and locking it in place.

A piercing pain bored straight into his bones.