"That was the Snake Shadow Secret Hand!"
"He actually mastered it!"
Seeing this, Wei Wen and the others began to worry for Fang Qianyuan.
This technique ranked among the most powerful of secret arts. Many people had been caught unawares and brought down by it.
Fang Qianyuan hastily changed his attack, trying to evade the lunging snake shadow, but he was no match for a spirit snake's hunting speed. In an instant, it coiled around his wrist.
A cold sensation spread through him. The supple Spirit Essence felt like a real snake's body, clamping tightly around him. Then a sharp pain shot through the back of his hand as venomous fangs pierced it.
In that brief exchange, Fang Qianyuan had already been wounded!
As the spirit snake bit him, a searing pain rapidly spread from the wound.
It was snake venom!
Spirit Tamers who communed with snakes generally used poison, and Wu Longjie was naturally no exception.
He had even devoted himself to cultivating a poison technique that could transform Spirit Essence into toxins and inject them into an enemy's wounds.
The poison formed from this Spirit Essence could not only disrupt an enemy's circulation of Spirit Essence but also destroy the body's vitality. It was an insidious technique.
Some Spirit Tamers even mixed in real poisons prepared beforehand, with different toxins producing all manner of effects.
Fang Qianyuan immediately felt a numbing sensation rapidly wipe away the pain that had burned like fire.
"Junior Brother Fang, I'm using the Myriad Snake Poison Canon, a secret inheritance of the Spirit Snake Palace, along with venom from a Fourth Transformation Corrupted Spider. Your wound is starting to go numb, isn't it? But the poison is still working. Given enough time, it'll rot away completely..." Wu Longjie gave a sinister chuckle.
"That fucking sneaky bastard!" Below the platform, Ding Long and Wei Wu both cursed angrily.
"This doesn't look good. He was wounded right at the start," Wei Wen said with a frown.
"Be careful, Junior Brother Fang!" Ning Yuerong called out anxiously.
How would Fang Qianyuan deal with this disadvantage?
The same question arose in the minds of everyone watching.
No matter how they looked at it, the situation was deeply unfavorable for him. In his previous battles, he had been able to use Shadow Step repeatedly, keeping on the move until his opponent exposed an opening, then immediately delivering a decisive blow.
But Wu Longjie clearly knew something about him. He had opened with a poison technique to restrict Fang Qianyuan first.
"Poison interferes with the circulation of Spirit Essence. That's common knowledge. Junior Brother Fang may be in trouble."
"Yes. He either has to unleash his strength and try to win as quickly as possible, or wait for the poison to spread throughout his body until he can't fight anymore."
"But using techniques requires circulating Spirit Essence, and intense fighting inevitably stirs up his blood and vital energy. All of that will make the poison act faster."
"He can't fight, and he can't refuse to fight. He's caught between a rock and a hard place."
"He's never faced a situation like this before, has he? Heh. If he hesitates, he's finished."
Fang Qianyuan had indeed never faced such a situation. None of his previous opponents in the arena had used poison techniques, and their strength had fallen considerably short of his. They could never have put him in such a predicament.
Yet Fang Qianyuan's response took everyone by surprise. He seized the spirit snake manifestation with one hand and punched with the other.
"Heh, heh..." Wu Longjie sneered and sidestepped.
Fang Qianyuan followed through with a forceful yank, tearing the snake's body apart. It immediately turned into a summoned creature and continued snapping at him.
But this manifestation was only a shaped creature comparable to the First Transformation. Fang Qianyuan soon slammed it hard against the arena floor, where it vanished in a wisp of green smoke.
Wu Longjie continued fighting on the move. He had great confidence in his poison technique and the toxins he had used. As far as he was concerned, he was certain to win as long as he dragged things out. There was nothing to worry about.
He failed to notice that Fang Qianyuan's gaze was as calm as still water. The slight surprise that had appeared when he was wounded and poisoned had long since vanished.
Fang Qianyuan had suddenly discovered that a strange tingling sensation inside his body was quickly suppressing the poison. It seemed the medicinal power of the Mysterious Treasure Pill had begun working again!
Having already witnessed the pill's wonders, Fang Qianyuan was not surprised at all. Without betraying anything, he enjoyed the benefits it brought.
Before long, Fang Qianyuan felt the numbness around his wound disappear entirely, replaced by the itching tingle of rapidly healing flesh.
Out of the corner of his eye, he even saw a wisp of smoke-like Spirit Essence rising from it as the wound began to scab over.
Once he felt that the poison had vanished completely and no longer had any adverse effect on him, Fang Qianyuan's heart settled. His punches and kicks grew ever fiercer.
"How is he still holding on?"
At first, Wu Longjie had been rather smug, waiting for Fang Qianyuan to collapse when he could no longer endure. But after waiting so long that he himself was beginning to look somewhat bedraggled, while his opponent only grew more vigorous, he gradually realized something was wrong.
"What? He can still keep going?"
"Didn't Senior Brother Wu poison him just now?"
The disciples watching were puzzled too, but none could explain it. In the end, they could only attribute it to an unusual constitution that could withstand the poison's ravages.
Just then, Wu Longjie was gradually forced to the edge of the platform. Fang Qianyuan suddenly swept his arms, and Gang Edges formed from green Spirit Essence flew from his hands.
"Gale... barrage!"
This move was Raging Wind Slash, yet it was not Raging Wind Slash.
The original Raging Wind Slash worked by condensing Gang Edges, converting them into Force Energy, and launching them to slash the enemy.
It fired five at once, one from each finger.
While this ensured its power, if the enemy evaded it, all five would miss.
Fang Qianyuan had always devoted himself to uncovering his own potential, making full use of his physical gifts and various advantages to develop unique combat arts and methods of fighting. He had considered this problem before.
His solution was to rely on his powerful physique, muscles, and bones to forcibly endure the adverse effects of firing Raging Wind Slash repeatedly, unleashing one slash after another!
In this way, the simple Raging Wind Slash spell became an ultimate move that unleashed a frenzied barrage of blade energy.
Its power, attack range, and number of strikes would all increase dramatically.
An ordinary person already consumed a great deal of Spirit Essence to cast a single Raging Wind Slash, so naturally, they could not improve it in this direction. But Fang Qianyuan's physique differed from that of ordinary people, as did his thinking, and he had actually managed to work it out.
The Raging Wind Talisman he had previously paid to have applied could increase the speed of casting this spell, and it helped here as well.
The fruits of his cultivation over these past days were now fully on display.
When Wu Longjie first saw a Gang Edge flying toward him, he hastily dodged and successfully avoided it.
But soon, a second, a third, and still more Gang Edges came flying in rapid succession, and he could no longer evade them.
Wu Longjie's clothes tore apart in strips. Blood sprayed as wounds like knife cuts appeared across his body.
Thup, thup, thup, thup, thup, thup, thup!
A full seven Gang Edges poured out in a furious barrage, enveloping the space for roughly ten feet around Wu Longjie in the flick of a finger.
These Gang Edges even seemed capable of splitting upon collision, turning into little strands of Force Energy several inches long that scattered continuously.
In an instant, slash marks appeared on his body, beside him, across the arena floor, and even beyond the platform.
Everyone who witnessed this was utterly shocked.
In the stands, even the experienced, knowledgeable elders rose to their feet in astonishment, exchanging looks of shock and uncertainty.
"This... this is..."
"A self-created ultimate move?"