C268 A Petty Trick

"The Voodoo Cult!"

Ning Ji lay on the ground, his face ashen and his body convulsing.

To the practitioners from the other two continents, the Voodoo Cult of the Quietus Continent might not ring any bells. The most formidable cultivators often scorned fringe practices such as voodoo.

Both the Ghoul Glyph Sect and the Voodoo Cult were lumped into this category of the unorthodox. The Ghoul Glyph Sect, with its Rune Technique that harmonized with the cosmic laws and melded with the universe, had its merits and garnered some respect.

The Voodoo Cult, however, which relied on cultivating with poisonous insects and toxins, was seen as trivial by the haughty elite, merely a minor art.

Upon reaching the Yang God Realm, a cultivator could forge a new Yang God Body with pure spiritual power and vital energy, rendering them nearly immune to the world's deadliest poisons.

Those at the Unrestrained Stage and Primordial Spirit Stage transcended the vast cosmos, wandering the infinite stars, far beyond the reach of any poison.

Thus, to the exalted practitioners, the Voodoo Cult was hardly worth a mention.

Yet, on the Profound Sky Continent, the mere presence of Voodoo Cult disciples caused terror and unease.

The cult's techniques, when inflicted upon those of lesser realms, were notoriously formidable.

In warfare between nations, the destructive power of Voodoo magic was earth-shattering.

Legend tells of a Voodoo Cult elder who, a century ago, roamed the Divine Might Empire seeking a particular poison. A dispute at an auction led to his severe injury, and he fled the city.

Within a fortnight, every mortal and cultivator within the city walls succumbed to poison in a single night.

The incident sent shockwaves across the land, inciting the Divine Might Empire's wrath and prompting the sects of the Heavenly Source Continent, including the Quietus Continent's Devil Palace and Demon Palace, to unite against the threat.

For mortals are the bedrock of both the Heavenly Source and Quietus Continents.

In a rare moment of accord between the two continents, the Voodoo Cult elder who had dealt a deadly blow found himself with no escape. His soul was swiftly seized and confined within the city that had become a necropolis. There, his spirit was tormented, set ablaze thrice daily, until he perished slowly amidst his own wails.

Countless were the incidents where Voodoo Cult disciples, having meddled in the wars between nations, brought about the deaths of many soldiers.

Such actions ensured that the Voodoo Cult disciples, previously overlooked by the sect powerhouses of the Heavenly Source and Profound Sky Continents, would stir up a storm the moment their identities were revealed on the Profound Sky Continent.

Take, for instance, the moment Yu Yuan spoke of Wai Feng's affiliation with the Voodoo Cult—his face and voice dripped with scorn.

Ning Ji's face contorted in response.

"Pfft!"

Surrounded and under siege, Bai Shenshen expelled a mouthful of tainted blood, her vitality plummeting as she became feeble and listless. The Yellow Court acupoints and the dantian within her seemed to defy her will and Spiritual Spell.

It dawned on her in that fleeting moment that the poison had infiltrated her very core, ravaging her meridians and organs, rendering her body incapable of sustaining its normal functions.

Realizing her time was running out, especially after recognizing Wai Feng's mastery of Voodoo Cult techniques, she frantically retrieved a jade plate from her waist. This plate, glowing with a verdant sheen, signified her allegiance to the Medicine Sect.

Her intention was to etch a final thought into the jade, a message detailing her ambush and demise at the hands of the Tusk Troops, in hopes that her sect would avenge her.

The Penetrating Stage cultivator, his eyes gleaming malevolently beneath his grotesque mask, watched as his hefty black halberd morphed into a monstrous black python, lunging at Bai Shenshen.

"Forget it."

With a sigh of resignation, Bai Shenshen lamented her unfulfilled curiosity about the origins of the Void Spiritual Plants and the Scarlet Red Flower, now facing her end at the unexpected hands of the Tusk Troops.

Then, a shrill screech sliced through the air, causing Ning Ji, Wai Feng, and the entire Tusk Troops to wince and scan their surroundings in bewildered alarm.

Yu Yuan's mouth twitched into a barely noticeable smirk, and he silently chuckled, thinking: It has arrived.

A crescent-shaped green bone, gleaming brilliantly, sliced through the air like a serpentine bolt of green lightning, leaving a deep, several-meter-long trench in its wake.

With unerring precision, the scimitar-like bone cleaved through the halberd of a Tusk Troops soldier. The black python, a manifestation of Qi and spiritual energy, was bisected by the bone, exploding into a cloud of blood mist and dissipating spiritual smoke.

The emerald bone struck the soldier's dark halberd with a resounding "Dang!"

Clad in the heavy armor of the Tusk Troops, the Penetrating Stage cultivator's grip on the halberd shook with violent tremors as a relentless surge of power, like a thundering charge of an army, bore down on him.

Beneath the iron armor, his hand was instantly lacerated, blood and flesh indistinguishable.

Instinctively, his grip loosened, and the halberd clattered to the ground. The force that had previously surged forth didn't fade but instead continued to penetrate stubbornly.

His arm, strained like an overstretched leather thong, snapped abruptly.

He grunted, his bones riddled with fractures, as a sinister corrosive force snaked its way up, threatening to invade his neck and storm his mind.

The Tusk Armor offered no protection.

Without a moment's hesitation, the soldier, possessing the might of the Penetrating Stage, drew a short knife from his waist and, gritting his teeth, sliced through the gap in his shoulder armor.

With a "Crack!" the severed arm and armor tumbled to the ground.

Blood jetted from his shoulder, but he staunchly stemmed the flow with his spiritual energy. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he hissed and suddenly called out, "Wai Feng! We face a formidable foe!"

With a whoosh, the crescent-shaped emerald bone, after colliding with the dark halberd, used the impact to launch skyward.

As the bone soared, it streaked over Bai Shenshen's head, its green hue deepening, its luster intensifying.

In her astonishment, Bai Shenshen felt something drift out of her body.

Then, inexplicably, the sour numbness within her vanished.

Her connection between the lower dantian, the Yellow Court, and the middle dantian, the Profound Gate, was once again clear and unobstructed. Gazing at the emerald bone soaring towards the heavens, she was struck by a wave of déjà vu, convinced she had seen it somewhere before, yet unable to recall where.

"Huh?"

Ning Ji, sprawled in a bloodied heap, gaped at his chest, fixating on the wounds as fine as capillaries. Tiny specks of light, like needles drawn by an unseen magnet, burst forth from the wounds and streaked toward the ascending bone. The deadly poison that had nearly driven him to despair vanished in an instant. The steel needles lodged in his flesh turned out to be mere superficial injuries, causing pain but no significant damage.

Wai Feng's expression turned grave as the whistling of the bone cleaving through the air reached her ears. The moment the squad leader cried out in pain and uttered her name, she sensed trouble brewing. She could mystically detect the toxins within Bai Shenshen and Ning Ji; as the venom in their bodies abandoned its intended victims and converged on the bone, a chill settled in her heart.

"Who is it? Who can neutralize the potent poison of my Voodoo Cult with a mere bone?"

Panic surged within Wai Feng, a deep trepidation and unease taking hold at the thought of the mysterious bone and the unseen person manipulating it. Her confidence, once bolstered by the dagger in her grasp and the venom coursing through her veins, waned. Stripped of this edge, her combat effectiveness plummeted, leaving her with no advantage over Bai Shenshen and Ning Ji.

"The Tusk Troops are indeed formidable; I must say, I'm impressed," Yu Yuan remarked, clapping his hands in admiration. "The decisiveness to sever an arm and prevent the poison from reaching the brain is truly commendable."

His applause came even as his arm ceased bleeding. The wounds inflicted by Wai Feng's triple slash, laced with poison, had been silently neutralized. Wai Feng's mastery was insufficient; her tenure with the Voodoo Cult had been brief, and the toxins she had infused into her blade were effortlessly eradicated by Yu Yuan's Evil Body Refining Skill.

Yu Yuan was unable to utilize the Evil Body Refining Skill to assist Zhan Tianxiang with his detoxification, but he managed to detoxify himself with relative ease.

Once the toxins were cleared, he examined the wound on his arm. With the bleeding halted, a myriad of flesh and blood fibers, magnified a thousandfold, intertwined and twisted like serpentine dragons.

The wound was miraculously healing on its own.

Had Yu Zhu not arrived, Yu Yuan would have had the situation with the Tusk Troops well in hand. Yet, their ferocity, indifference to their own, and the venom they directed at him weighed heavily on his mind.

A single Tusk Trooper, at the Penetrating Stage, had shown such ruthlessness in a critical moment, prompting Yu Yuan to regard the Tusk Troops' commander with newfound respect.

The moment he sensed the poison spreading from his arm to his neck and encroaching upon his mind, he made the decisive choice to amputate his arm without a second thought.

If the entirety of the Tusk Troops shared this level of resolve, they would be an army of unspeakable horror.

Despite numbering only a hundred, the Tusk Troops' ranking among the elite forces of the Qianxuan Empire was well-deserved and not to be underestimated.

"Who's lurking in the shadows?"

Wai Feng steadied her nerves and scanned her surroundings, determined to uncover the one in hiding.

She put aside her pursuit of Yu Yuan for the moment and armed herself with a crossbow, standing guard with heightened vigilance.

"Why have your Tusk Troops traversed the harsh northern lands to reach our Darkmoon City?" Yu Yuan posed the question first, his gaze fixed on Wai Feng. "Are there other Tusk Troop squads besides yours?"

The Tusk Troops were a small force of a hundred, suggesting Wai Feng's group was likely just one of several.

The presence of additional squads near Elfview Town and Darkmoon City posed a significant risk, potentially turning into a grave menace for the entire city.

Considering the strength exhibited by Wai Feng's squad alone, if even half of the Tusk Troops made the journey across the northern lands, they could pose a substantial threat to Darkmoon City.

All the combined powers of Darkmoon City's current families might still fall short against the might of the Tusk Troops.

The city was on the brink of collapse.

He needed to ascertain the strength of the Tusk Troops and their intentions.

"You're not worthy of such knowledge," Wai Feng retorted icily.

She ignored Yu Yuan completely, her focus fixed on her surroundings, her crossbow bolts tracking her gaze.

The hidden adversaries concerned her more.

"Sister Bai, Elder Ning, work together to take down those four Tusk Troops. I'll handle Wai Feng," Yu Yuan commanded. "Try to eliminate all four. I'll extract the information we need from Wai Feng."

"You?" Wai Feng raised an eyebrow.

With a confident smile, Yu Yuan responded, "Yes, me."

He activated the Evil Body Refining Skill, and a bizarre force coalesced around him.

"Your Voodoo Cult's toxins are ineffective against me," Yu Yuan declared calmly. "Three slashes from you would merely scratch the surface. How do you expect to defeat me?"

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