Volume 9 Chapter 43: Ocean of Corpses
Even the most powerful person had weaknesses.
In the eyes of those in the secular world, the holy lady who walked out of Sanskrit Temple back then and later became Tangcang's holy mother, then the empress dowager, didn't have many weaknesses, her nature and temperament also seemingly perfect, but the moment her perception reached the final moments of her life, she instead specially instructed Emperor Feng Xuan that even the most powerful individuals had weaknesses.
Tangcang's imperial uncle Xiao Xiang was a powerful Sacred Expert and he also had two powerful Tangcang armies under him, as well as many powerful Sacred Expert allies. However, she understood Xiao Xiang's weaknesses well, so Xiao Xiang still died under Gu Xinyin's hands.
She, who walked out of Sanskrit Temple, sought out and pursued inner peace in the secular world. That was why she understood better than anyone that greed, anger, foolishness, these emotions, would continuously tangle about one's life.
...
Gongsun Quan was precisely within that long queue by the city's eastern gate, that long line that was bustling with activity.
He was an extremely strong individual, as well as one of Wenren Cangyue's trusted aides. Someone like him, even though his individual strength couldn't compare to a cultivator like Tong Wei, the efficiency of killing in a war and the number of casualties inflicted to the enemy, were above even that of Tong Wei's.
Moreover, what made him so powerful in this world was that he was too mysterious.
Yunqin's royal court, Yunqin Emperor and those nine senators didn't even know what he looked like, what kind of identity he was living under in Noble Cloud Province. Green Luan Academy similarly didn't know.
This type of person was like a death god that might bring about a great plague at any time.
However, unfortunately, he ended up facing Lin Xi. All poisons that could kill cultivators in this world were extremely precious. He used such a shocking amount of poison, enough to wipe out a great army of several thousand. These poisons were built on the endless talents and manpower of this troop, yet they failed, making his heart ache as well. The death of this disciple of his who he had poured meticulous care into teaching all these years, the failure of his plan, all of it left him in grief and anger as well... As such, unknown as to whether it was because he couldn't figure out how the plan only he and his disciple knew about was cracked by his opponent, because he wanted to personally see just who it was that he suffered such a great defeat against, or because of other emotions not even he himself could say clearly, Gongsun Quan was lined up in this long queue outside.
When An Keyi and Lin Xi walked out, his eyes narrowed slightly.
An Keyi and Lin Xi, these two individuals carried a special type of temperament. He immediately determined that these two were precisely his true opponents from last night.
That legendary Green Luan Academy medicine idiot female professor was actually this young?
Moreover, that youngster at her side who seemed to be the leader of this entire troop, who was he?
In that instant, his emotions became a bit strange, he was filled with shock, as well as a bit of jealousy. However, at this time, his body suddenly became a bit rigid, because he saw that An Keyi's hair suddenly began to flutter. Her body began to release dazzling radiance.
...
All of this world's truly formidable poisons could usually be concentrated into a single drop. Then, after being mixed into a large bucket of water, a single drop of this concentration would still be enough to kill several strong and vigorous men.
However, to neutralize that drop of poison, the antidote might still have to be at least the size of a soybean.
If one wished to alleviate and treat the body's decline, it would always be more difficult than destruction.
Cultivators normally wouldn't bring antidotes to cure more than a hundred people.
Right now, An Keyi couldn't find any reason to trust Lin Xi, but she couldn't find any reason for Lin Xi to deceive her right now either. In this type of situation, she found a reason to give herself: She had read many recordings related to Principal Zhang, in the recordings, Principle Zhang also had many unexplainable strange intuitions. For example, Principal Zhang knew where the enemy would appear, knew where they would lay in ambush... together with how she saw Lin Xi act in that fire rescue and the special consideration Vice Principal Xia gave Lin Xi, she vaguely felt like Lin Xi was precisely someone who had the same perception talent as Principal Zhang. The other reason was that Lin Xi was the commander Vice Principal Xia designated, so even if he was her student, she had to listen to his orders.
That was why she temporarily put aside everything else, turning herself into an idiot for a moment, only doing her best to poison everyone in front of her.
The powerful soul force that was always lying dormant within her body surged out from her hands in a steady flow.
Her entire body released light. Because the aura she released in this instant was too great, flooding the surrounding earth, great winds swept about around her. Her entire figure also began to float into the air.
A drop of sparkling and translucent, icy Blue Apricot Flower left her hand, sent high up into the air from the great power rushing out from her hands. This flower that seemed to only be a thin layer of ice, the inside completely sapphire blue, quickly dissolved in the air, forming a strange blue-colored rain cloud.
All of the restless people, including the guards on the city towers were completely stunned as they watched this scene that was completely beyond their imaginations.
Within this group of people, cold sweat poured out of the slightly rigid Gongsun Quan's hands. He thought of a certain possibility, but he didn't dare believe that An Keyi would dare do such a thing.
As An Keyi's great power continued to surge, the radiance around her body turned into a curtain of light. Appearing within the radiance in front of her, was a clearly snow-white brilliant raven.
The blue rain cloud began to disappear, starting to produce rain.
This scene was extremely shocking, extremely strange.
It was as if countless Blue Apricot Flowers descended and then quickly disappeared, turning into transparent energy flames. As if this was just a dream, this entire long line, as well as all of the buildings around it were completely surrounded.
There were quite a few cultivators guarding the caravans within this long queue.
They were shocked at An Keyi's strength, some of them even recognizing that An Keyi was a powerful cultivator who merged with a Frost Crow's soul. As endless blue-colored apricot flowers descended, these cultivators also immediately sensed something was off, all of them using soul force to defend themselves, holding their breaths. However, what left them in horror was that this was completely useless.
These energy flames that were hard to sense with the naked eye possessed powerful adherence and penetration force, actually directly passing through the soul force protecting their bodies, entering their skin.
Everyone felt their bodies turning numb, their entire bodies covered in blue spots.
"Blue Apricot! You actually dare use Blue Apricot!"
Gongsun Quan's entire body also produced blue spots, his strength starting to rapidly decline. He looked at An Keyi and Lin Xi in disbelief, using all of his willpower to hold himself back from shouting this in horror.
Lin Xi's expression also froze.
In that instant, everyone before his eyes fell to the ground.
The entire world before him immediately became quiet.
He was also someone who had seen many great scenes, but the impact left on his mind by this type of scene, of a thousand people falling in the span of a single breath, was still unimaginable.
An Keyi landed on the ground.
The entire world before her turned into a land of death. Everyone outside this area completely entered a state of horror.
In the carriage far behind Lin Xi and An Keyi, Gao Yanan, Bian Linghan, Jiang Xiaoyi and Meng Bai who didn't come out all felt their minds shaken when they saw this scene.
"If Gongsun Quan is among these people, if he rescued himself, then Lin Xi can find him... but what if he chooses not to save himself?" Bian Linghan took a deep breath and said this. Even though she had previously heard An Keyi say that the world's powerful poisons were all extremely precious, knowing that An Keyi might only have a single 'Blue Apricot' on her, being able to make these thousand merchants and travellers fall meant that An Keyi could at least take down an army of a thousand. This type of power was truly unimaginable... even though she was long aware that the lecturers and professors of the academy were extremely strong, she didn't expect An Keyi to be powerful to this degree.
"I don't know." Gao Yanan bit her lips and shook her head. She turned around and gave Bian Linghan a look. "There is no way Teacher An can save so many poisoned people... and I can feel that right from the start, he never had any plans to save these people."
"Could it be that he'll just let all these people die?" Jiang Xiaoyi and Meng Bai's bodies couldn't help but tremble. "If Gongsun Quan isn't included among these people, he will still allow these people to die?"
...
"If you are still among these people, then hurry and save yourself, stop holding on already. It is because I really will watch all of these people die."
Lin Xi was similarly praising An Keyi's power inside. At the same time, he carefully watched everyone who collapsed, inwardly saying this quietly to himself.
Because of An Keyi's terror and because of his calmness, the troops behind him and the soldiers who previously protected him, including the city's guards, didn't come out to question them at all.
Everyone was waiting.
"If I don't rescue myself, I refuse to believe that you will just let all of these people die with me!"
"Me and Great General Wenren can kill these people, but how can your Green Luan Academy dare publicly kill so many people?!"
The teeth of Gongsun Quan who fell to the ground were lightly clattering. He didn't believe An Keyi and Lin Xi dared act as unrestrained as himself. He thought that An Keyi and Lin Xi definitely wanted to force him until he rescued himself, blowing his own cover. That was why he controlled the fear of poison spreading through his body, angrily holding on, persevering.
However, he instead saw that Lin Xi and An Keyi were only quietly standing there, not making any movements.
Blue poisoned blood rushed out from these people's mouths and noses.
Large groups of people began to die.
Many of the soldiers and guards behind Lin Xi began to tremble.
Even An Keyi's face turned snow-white, starting to tremble.
However, Lin Xi was still calm, not moving at all. Gongsun Quan could feel large groups of people around him dying. He could feel that his body was also starting to turn ice-cold, his eyes starting to become blurry.
"You're mad! All of you have truly gone mad!"
In that instant, Gongsun Quan only had this thought in his head. He couldn't endure the fear of poison spreading through his body anymore, knowing that in another four or five breaths of time, he would become an icy-cold corpse. The strand of soul force he had always been controlling within him quickly shattered a pill medicine that he had always been keeping under his tongue.
The antidote that quickly spread clashed with the poison, dragging him back from the precipice of death step by step.
Even after dealing with poison year in and out, he who had far greater resistance to poison than others still couldn't control his body's natural reactions. His entire body continuously trembled, starting to release large mouthfuls of vomit, spewing out waves of blue and yellow dirty blood.
Within this land covered in corpses, he sat up while vomiting intensely.
His eyes already recovered sight. When he saw the densely packed blue corpses all around him, he seemed to be all alone, sitting within an ocean of corpses.
"You all... how could you dare?!"
The powerful emotions even seemed to have weakened his body's pain. While vomiting intensely, he couldn't help but release this malicious spirit-like scream.
"Sir Gongsun Quan, how are you?" Lin Xi looked at this middle-aged meager scholar, looking at his clothing and appearance, calmly nodding his head while asking this.