Chapter 108

“Huh?”

“Where is that sweet fragrance coming from…?”

With a stifled groan, one person clutched his chest and collapsed.

“Kheok!”

Another person next to him also grabbed his chest with an extremely pained expression.

“When, when! Keu, keuuuk!”

These were people trained to endure pain. Yet the agony was so severe they couldn’t suppress their screams.

The remaining two martial artists were flustered.

The bamboo hat wearer spoke in an irritated tone.

“Give them Hand-Pinch Powder. You two as well. If you leave them like this, blood will leak from their heart and spleen and they’ll die.”

“Yes!”

The two martial artists quickly took out small bottles containing medicine and mixed Hand-Pinch Powder with rainwater. One portion they took themselves, and one portion they gave to their collapsed comrades.

The two poisoned martial artists kept vomiting blood before they could finally take the medicine.

The bamboo hat wearer watched them for a moment, then turned his gaze toward the direction Wei Zong had fled.

Wei Zong had secretly deployed Descending Poison before unleashing Great Roc Spreads Wings. It was truly a sinister move.

Since he had just deployed poison techniques simultaneously with Great Roc Spreads Wings against the limping one, no one thought that when Wei Zong unleashed Great Roc Spreads Wings, he would use poison, or that he would deploy Descending Poison beforehand.

Wei Zong had pretended to unfold Great Roc Spreads Wings, concealing his hand movements with his sleeves, then used internal energy to shoot invisible fine powder.

It was a hidden projectile.

He had mixed fine powder with the hidden projectile and fired it.

The bamboo hat wearer hadn’t seen it precisely either. He had simply drawn up his internal energy and blocked his breathing the moment he smelled it.

After that – that is, after the poison had already been scattered – the martial artists had entered, so two of them ended up poisoned.

If it hadn’t been raining, the poison would have spread much more widely and all four might have been poisoned.

The bamboo hat wearer rolled the poison energy he had slightly inhaled around in his mouth, gathered it in his saliva, and spat it out.

“Ptui.”

A little blood came out mixed with it.

“Not bad.”

Nevertheless, the bamboo hat wearer didn’t pursue Wei Zong and was merely watching his retreating figure.

Still with arms crossed… The rain was falling fiercely, and the fighting was intense.

Because of this, even though Wei Zong had shamelessly fled, he didn’t attract much attention.

Wei Zong ran at maximum speed using lightness skill.

He planned to cross through the inner courtyard of Poison Valley and escape over the mountain behind.

Splash! Splash!

Puddles had already formed everywhere due to the rain, so water splashed every time Wei Zong stepped.

Those last ones – the bamboo hat wearer and the four martial artists.

He felt like he had seen them somewhere before. But the blue thin-skin gloves they were wearing were too unfamiliar.

They were extremely expensive and special-looking gloves. Not the kind of gloves commonly used when handling poison in Yunnan.

‘Outsiders!’

This meant Wei Zong’s speculation that the righteous faction had brought in people from outside was correct.

The problem was who they were.

He couldn’t tell immediately. Perhaps they were people Wei Zong knew well.

In any case, since he had been properly backstabbed, he had no choice but to focus on escaping for now.

“These bastards are completely determined to eliminate our poison sects.”

Otherwise, the situation couldn’t have reached such an extreme point.

Where did it start going wrong?

What had they done wrong to end up in this state?

Wei Zong wiped his eyes with his hand as he ran. Since he had no eyebrows, rainwater kept flowing into his eyes.

He was bursting with rage.

His face being in this state. Poison Valley being destroyed. The Yunnan poison sects he had cultivated over many years being completely wiped out.

“I will never let this go! I’ll find them one by one and pickle them all!”

Wei Zong ground his teeth.

Grind, grind.

Fortunately, no pursuers were visible behind him yet.

There were few people around as well. It seemed everyone had fled when the fighting started.

Except for one servant leisurely carrying an A-frame in front.

‘Is that guy deaf? Why hasn’t he run away yet?’

The servant was wearing a rough straw raincoat made of woven hemp stalks, supporting himself with an A-frame pole, and wearing a bamboo hat woven from dwarf bamboo.

Wei Zong had absolutely no desire to let the pursuers know which direction he was fleeing. He couldn’t leave a witness.

Wei Zong flew like lightning and struck a palm blow at the back of the servant’s head.

Wei Zong had no particular thoughts. He just figured he’d smash the head in one blow and flee.

Wei Zong’s palm strike hit the bamboo hat.

Bang!

Rainwater splashed in a round sphere.

But there was nothing in front. He hadn’t hit anything. Wei Zong’s palm had only struck empty air.

Wei Zong couldn’t believe his eyes.

The person in the straw raincoat, whom he had thought was an ordinary servant, had twisted his body to avoid the palm strike.

Moreover, he hadn’t just avoided it but tried to grab Wei Zong’s forearm. Hook-like curved fingers climbed up Wei Zong’s hand.

“What?”

There are many dangerous blood vessels from the forearm to the elbow. If that part is grabbed, strength drains from the entire body and one is instantly subdued.

Wei Zong quickly bent his arm and spun his wrist in a circle. The person in the straw raincoat also spun his wrist following along, pressing his hand close.

Because of the rainwater, their touching hands slipped smoothly.

Wei Zong suddenly flicked his wrist and struck the person’s hand with the back of his own hand.

Smack!

The backs of their hands collided, but it sounded like hard wood hitting each other. Wei Zong’s face contorted.

‘What is this!’

The opponent’s martial power was considerable. Far from being an ordinary servant, he was a master beyond Wei Zong’s expectations.

Wei Zong flipped his palm and conversely tried to grab the person’s wrist. The person twisted his wrist to the side and pressed Wei Zong’s palm with his hand blade.

Wei Zong tried to curl his fingers to poke the person’s palm center. The person gathered his fingers as if making a fist and grasped tightly. Wei Zong and the person’s fingers became entangled.

Click.

Their hook-like hardened fingers caught each other.

Wei Zong applied force and pulled his fingers. With internal energy infused, it was enough force to pull out an ordinary person’s finger bones.

However, the person’s strength was also extraordinary.

Creak! Creak!

Both their fingers, with tendons protruding, made dull sounds as they caught against each other.

Wei Zong released the force from his hand. Like water draining between fingers, Wei Zong’s hand slipped out of the person’s grasp. The person immediately followed Wei Zong’s hand and flicked his fingers.

Wei Zong also curled his fingers and flicked his index finger together.

Snap!

Their finger joints collided. It hurt as if they would break, but he couldn’t stop.

The person continuously flicked his fingers, and Wei Zong met them in return.

Snap! Smack!

Wei Zong gritted his teeth. Though only their fingers had collided, his entire body resonated with vibrations.

Still, he couldn’t retreat.

Wei Zong and the person continued flicking their fingers.

Snap! Click! Click!

Their finger joints continuously collided in mid-air.

Bang! Pop!

Since their fingers contained internal energy, each collision sent the falling raindrops bouncing away in round waves.

What was even more surprising was that the person was still using only one hand. With his other hand, he was supporting himself with a staff used as an A-frame pole. Yet he was blocking Wei Zong’s two hands.

Snap! Click!

The impact reverberating through his fingers made all his body hair stand on end.

The first to let out a groan was not the person but Wei Zong.

“Kuk!”

A bone-breaking sound came from Wei Zong’s finger joints.

Crack!

Wei Zong’s index finger’s middle joint bent in a direction it shouldn’t bend. Then the middle finger joint that collided next also broke.

There was a clear difference in internal energy.

Wei Zong realized his spine was growing cold.

‘A master superior to me!’

This was an opponent he couldn’t defeat in normal hand-to-hand combat. Moreover, Wei Zong had to worry about pursuers. If he dragged out the time, it would be even more disadvantageous for Wei Zong.

Wei Zong quickly pressed below his cheek with the thumb of his good hand. A small molar broke with a snap. A poison pill that had been embedded under the broken molar rolled out.

Wei Zong dissolved the poison pill in his saliva and rolled it around in his mouth with the broken molar.

Gurgle.

Then he took a long breath and puffed his cheeks like blowing a whistle, then applied force all at once to try to spit out the molar… This was a move Wei Zong had prepared for the most urgent situations, and its power was not to be underestimated. He could pierce thick pig hide with the broken tooth and embed it in flesh. Human skin would be incomparable.

The sharply shot tooth would embed itself in the opponent’s vital point and instantly poison them.

But there was something Wei Zong hadn’t considered.

Because his face had melted, his lips had burned away, so he couldn’t gather air in his mouth.

Whoosh!

Air leaked through the hole in his cheek.

The moment Wei Zong realized his mistake, his hair stood on end.

Before he could even spit out the molar, the person’s palm touched Wei Zong’s face.

The iron-hard hand violently gripped Wei Zong’s face. Wei Zong’s face, with his nose already crushed and flesh melted, was very slippery. But the person’s fingers firmly embedded themselves in Wei Zong’s temples, forehead, and cheekbones.

The person pushed forward like this and slammed Wei Zong’s head into the ground.

Bang!

He struck so hard that Wei Zong flipped backward with his legs lifting up.

The person lifted Wei Zong again while still gripping his face.

Then slammed him down once more.

Bang!

When the person released his hand, Wei Zong could finally scream.

“Kheuk!”

The molar in his mouth had almost gone down his throat.

While Wei Zong couldn’t regain his senses, the person kicked Wei Zong’s side.

Wei Zong rolled over and fell face down. The person followed and grabbed Wei Zong’s left forearm. He gripped the Curved Pool acupoint that was indented beside the elbow.

His arm stiffened and Wei Zong lost strength throughout his body. In just one breath’s time, strength would drain from his entire body and he would be completely subdued.

Wei Zong forced himself to lift his waist and struck his left shoulder with his right hand.

Click, his shoulder dislocated.

Wei Zong had forcibly dislocated his left shoulder to prevent strength from draining from his entire body. At the same time, Wei Zong bit the broken molar with his front teeth. Then he gathered internal energy and concentrated it on his tongue, then strongly flicked the molar.

He had shot the molar by flicking his tongue, not with air.

The target was the knee of the person right in front of him. If the molar embedded itself between the cartilage below the knee, poison would spread instantly.

But absurdly, the molar Wei Zong had painfully spat out bounced off the person’s knee and flew away uselessly.

Click!

“Huh?”

A strange sound.

The person whose knee had been hit by the molar tilted his head.

“Hmm?”

Wei Zong stared at the person’s leg in bewilderment.

Something was strange.

The leg extending under the straw raincoat somehow looked hollow.

Soaked by rain and clinging to the leg… it somehow seemed like only bones remained.