"What happened?"
"Old Yong!"
Cries of astonishment rang out. The immortal that had fallen was another old specimen, Immortal Mountain Spring Yong Kaishan. Like the previous one, this one was also old as fart and among the weakest present. Nobody expected much from him but they didn't expect him to just keel over before the fight had even started.
Su Tan flashed over and examined Old Yong. He was still alive but his spiritual energy was a mess.
"This is demonic poison!"
Amidst the gasps, she leaned down and smelled the black blood that had been thrown up.
"I know this. This is the handiwork of a shuimu!" She confirmed.
"A shuimu?"
"One of the strongest water demons?"
Su Tan stood back up and glanced around. The surrounding shadow cloud domain hadn't moved yet and the enemy was still waiting patiently. Her expression became grave.
"The Immortal Association has been hunting this shuimu for a long time. It has caused a lot of trouble already. I didn't expect it to bring an ally and go all out today." She said.
Su Tan left many words unsaid but Chen Wentian already knew the truth. Qin Shui'er had already caused many losses to the association in the Eastern Sanmu Metropolis. The simple fact was that this demon was too slippery and nobody could do anything, not even Spirit Kings. Her ability to sneak around and assassinate people was akin to his shadow fox.
At this point, Peng Yuefeng stepped forward and spoke, "Forget it. We can't do anything about a water demon if it doesn't want to come out. We should just break out of the domain quickly!"
Su Tan clenched her sword and nodded, "But we can't leave behind Old Luo and Old Yong to be demon food. Hurry, someone take them both and we will set off immediately!"
But as soon as she finished talking, there was another strangled cry as another person fell. This time, it belonged to Immortal Flying Dagger Zhang Mei. She wasn't considered too old or too weak but even she could not resist the demon poison that had festered inside her body for many days.
"What is going on!"
"What?"
"Sister Zhang!"
One was a coincidence, two was a conspiracy. Now, three immortals out of the gathered twenty-five had fallen. Their strength had sharply fallen and nobody could remain calm. If any more were lost, their chances of escaping a domain set by a Spirit King Realm demon would decrease to null.
Then, as if their worst fears had come to life, another immortal fell down in a pool of black blood, followed by yet another. One by one and two by two, these proud immortal lords of the Eastern Sanmu Subcontinent succumbed to the fearsome demon poison.
When it finally came to an end, only eight immortals remained standing. The rest were a sorry sight, without a trace of the arrogance of mighty lords of the subcontinent. Some were unconscious. Many were moaning and writhing in pain. A few were sitting cross-legged in meditation, not willing to give up.
Chen Wentian had also joined the miserable immortals on the floor. Although he was totally fine, he pretended to be poisoned and spouted mouthfuls of fake black blood in the form of soy sauce with every labored breath. He obviously wasn't going to stick his head out in this situation. The tallest grains of wheat would be reaped first so he would wait and understand the whole situation. Only then would he make his move.
The eight immortals still in fighting shape included Su Tan, Peng Yuefeng, the immortals of the Four Greats, the guest from the Martial Brilliance Continent, Yang Maoda, as well as Qiu Chuyi from the Beast God Sanctum. Outside of the four swordsmen, the other four could be considered the strongest Spirit Lords present so that wasn't much of a surprise.
Peng Yuefeng wiped away the blood from his mouth and looked around, "Shit! How did everyone get poisoned?"
He had also been affected but his innate strength was substantial. He was able to temporarily suppress the demonic powers of the poison with his sword energy. But this didn't mean he was fine and he was just putting up a front.
Su Tan furrowed her brow, "This is really serious. It must have been the food or drink. I always bring my own things to eat so I didn't realize. I should have caught it sooner!"
"Lord Su shouldn't blame herself," Qiu Chuyi said evenly, "It was my fault instead. I noticed something was funny with the food but ignored it. I had built up a lot of resistance against demon and beast poisons over years from fighting in the Eastern Wilderness so I didn't care about it. I didn't think this shiumu's skill would be so potent."
The three of them turned to the four sword brothers with questions. These four were considered useless in their eyes so they all wondered how they were still standing. Under their glares, none of them dared to speak up. They all looked towards the strange Yang Clan ancestor for help.
Immortal Yellow River Yang Maoda coughed and said, "My apologies. My situation is similar to Brother Qiu. This bit of demon poison wasn't worth my attention. I didn't think too much of it and asked my hosts to source the food and drinks from a different place. They followed my instructions and also followed suit for themselves."
What he was half true and half false but nobody had the energy to dig into it. They were still in a perilous situation. Once they had a grasp of each other's condition, they had to think of a way to fight back.
Su Tan sighed heavily and hefted her golden sword, "Even though there are eight of us, I think we still have a chance. We will have to leave the others behind but if we give it our all and put our lives on the line, I think we can still break out."
Yang Maoda nodded in agreement and was about to say something but Qiu Chuyi cut in excitedly.
"Wait, let me try something. I think can bring everybody away without any losses. Cover me!"
Without additional explanation, he summoned his spiritual energy and began to transform. His robes ripped into shreds as his upper torso enlarged and became furry. His arms lengthened and grew huge white claws that were as long as swords. Even his face was covered in fur and looked akin to a beast. True to his name, this was his beast transformation art that turned into a half-man, half-badger.
He tested his sharp claws against each other and then attacked the floor. The stone tiles were turned to pebbles without much effort and he quickly disappeared into the ground. With dirt flying out behind him, he rapidly dug downward to create an escape route.
The others watched with rising spirits. Even though the shadowy cloud domain around them could restrict all movement above ground, it could do nothing below. It seemed like they could all get out of here alive.
But they had celebrated too soon because a few moments after Qiu Chuyi had disappeared, the ground rumbled as if there was an earthquake. A great fountain of liquified dirt and rocks exploded out of the hole that had just been dug. His ragged body was blown out as well and landed in a sorry heap near the poisoned immortals.
"Not good!"
"Qiu Chuyi!"
Su Tan dashed to his side and so did the rest.
"What happened? Qiu Chuyi? What happened?" She asked in a panic while trying to stabilize his spiritual energy.
Qiu Chuyi's face was ashen and covered in blood. His beast transformation was already gone and his body was shredded with deep wounds. He tried to gasp for air but blood filled his mouth.
"Mines… underground…" He finally managed to say weakly, "Thunderfire… mines…"
With that, his head lolled to one side in a dead faint.
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