Although Gu Chengxue was caught off guard by the sudden attack, she quickly adjusted her posture midair as she was sent flying and landed steadily on her feet.
Still… was it that newcomer?
Yet she couldn’t sense any other presence at all.
The person who crawled out from that patch of grass shocked her greatly.
Ling Huan!?
It was actually Ling Huan, the one she’d poisoned!
Why?
She couldn’t understand.
Even a Foundation Establishment cultivator was helpless against this poison—how could a little child in the Qi Refining stage…
Could it be the poison lost its effect?
Impossible!
This absurd notion flashed across her mind for a brief moment, only to be immediately dismissed by Gu Chengxue.
How could this poison lose effectiveness?
On the contrary, it became even more lethal with age.
Besides, Ling Huan was clearly being corroded by the toxin now.
The poison coiled around his body like vines, gnawing away at his flesh as it went.
The exposed skin on the back of his left hand was already festering and peeling.
In just this short time, black toxin spots began to spread across his entire body, with putrid, foul-smelling blood oozing from his festering flesh, staining his robes with uneven splotches of red.
He was standing, but his body swayed unsteadily.
No matter how one looked at it, he seemed poisoned.
The pain brought by the toxin was continuously eating away at his body, yet Ling Huan made not a sound—not a whimper, not a scream—nor did he beg for mercy.
His eyes burned like torches, blazing with a fire that seemed to have incinerated even the sensation of pain itself.
Gu Chengxue was dumbfounded.
She couldn’t believe this boy was really just a second-level Qi Refining Young Master.
How old was he?
Only ten years old!
And yet he possessed such terrifying strength of will? Even—
Gu Chengxue couldn’t help but feel a little admiration.
But what she cared about even more was: why was he still able to stand?
This wasn’t a poison that could be suppressed by mere willpower.
It must be some extraordinary protective artifact on him.
She needed to end this quickly!
No sooner had the thought formed, Gu Chengxue unleashed all her poison needles at once.
She felt a pang of regret—even these poison needles were extremely expensive.
The combined savings from two of her wages over three years were just enough for one set.
And there were only six needles in a set.
One fight, and several years of effort gone.
But if she delayed any longer, who knew—Ling Huan’s Nascent Soul stage master might arrive at any moment.
If Ling Huan’s master arrived and she hadn’t managed to kill Ling Huan, then she herself would be killed effortlessly with a mere wave of the Nascent Soul’s hand.
But if she managed to kill Ling Huan, then things would be different.
She would go from being a petty thug who tried to hurt a Nascent Soul’s disciple, to a brazen scoundrel who sought to cut off a Nascent Soul’s bloodline.
And she had a Nascent Soul backing her too, so this would not be a simple skirmish, but a direct severing of another’s inheritance.
In the cultivation world, this was tantamount to cutting off someone’s incense line—dooming them to have no descendants!
If she failed to kill Ling Huan—
She’d just be an unlucky nobody, and her death wouldn’t matter.
But if she did kill Ling Huan, it would be a deep-seated blood feud.
If her own background was discovered, those people would surely stop at nothing to wipe out everyone behind her!
A rogue Nascent Soul cultivator—anyone who could cultivate to that level was no simple character.
They could definitely bring immense trouble to those old fogies backing her.
Whether she lived or died didn’t matter—she’d already seen through life and death.
But just as she was fantasizing about how much trouble she could cause those old fogies in the future, something even more jaw-dropping happened.
Ling Huan didn’t even dodge—he just took it head-on?
He really did have a protective artifact!
Gu Chengxue had wanted to mock Ling Huan for being too weak to dodge, but upon closer look, she realized that wasn’t the case.
She gradually noticed the purple poison spots were slowly fading.
No—it was as if Ling Huan’s body was devouring the poison.
His skin, which should have been festering, was miraculously restored to smoothness, with no trace of injury.
Even the toxin was rapidly dissipating, replaced by a more vigorous and imposing aura from Ling Huan, rather than any sign of weakness.
What was going on?
The poison had been absorbed?
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
Ling Huan’s aura abruptly surged, his second level of Qi Refining instantly leaping to the third, and then the fourth—within a heartbeat, he became a fourth-level Qi Refining cultivator!
In a place with such thin spiritual energy, how was this possible?
What kind of artifact could transform poison into spiritual energy, enabling a second-level Qi Refining child to instantly reach the fourth level?
While Gu Chengxue was frozen in shock, Ling Huan’s body erupted with a terrifying momentum.
Recalling how Ninth Brother used spiritual energy, he gathered all his aura beneath his feet and burst forth with incredible speed.
In a flash, the ten-meter gap between Gu Chengxue and Ling Huan was closed.
His thin frame unleashed unprecedented power, and he aimed a punch straight at Gu Chengxue’s head.
Snapping out of her astonishment, Gu Chengxue raised both arms in front of her to block.
But at that moment, Ling Huan suddenly withdrew his force, pulling back his fist as if an invisible hand yanked him backward.
Then, he kicked straight at Gu Chengxue’s jaw.
The sudden switch in attack left Gu Chengxue utterly stunned—she didn’t even have time to react before Ling Huan’s foot struck her squarely under the chin.
A beautiful feint.
Gu Chengxue praised him in her heart—admiring Ling Huan’s courage, his outstanding combat instinct, and how he could execute so many moves in an instant.
But at the same time, she mocked his foolishness.
She didn’t know how he’d neutralized her poison, nor why his strength had suddenly surged, but none of this was enough for him to win.
He was just at Body Refining level four, while she was already at Qi Refining level eight.
While realm wasn’t everything in the Qi Refining stage, it decided the outcome ninety percent of the time.
No matter how angry Ling Huan was, or how much he wanted to kill her, his best choice now would be to run away and wait for his master, not to be blinded by rage and try to play the hero alone.
But Gu Chengxue had plenty of combat experience.
Although her body didn’t react in time, her spiritual energy quickly condensed at her jaw.
A muffled thud rang out.
But that was all—a single dull thud.
The defensive barrier formed by Gu Chengxue’s spiritual power didn’t show the slightest crack.
The gap in strength was just too great.
Even though Ling Huan’s power had surged, he was still just at level four—not enough to turn the tide.
As beautiful as his feint was, it couldn’t break through Gu Chengxue’s defense.
Hmph.
Gu Chengxue swiftly grabbed Ling Huan’s wrist and ankle, intent on slamming him into the ground.
But suddenly, she felt a sharp prickling pain—subtle yet piercing.
Before she could react, the pain spread like wildfire up her entire arm, and the flow of spiritual energy in her body was instantly blocked, waves of pain surging through her meridians.
Only now did she realize, at some point, several poison needles—meant for Ling Huan—had ended up stuck in her own body.
So Ling Huan had withdrawn his punch not just for the feint, but to conceal his true intent—to use her own poison needles against her!
He hadn’t lost himself to anger at all.
He’d intended to exploit her overconfidence and let her reap what she’d sown.
Ling Huan twisted his body, yanking himself free from Gu Chengxue’s grasp.
As soon as he landed, he dove directly at Gu Chengxue, knocking her to the ground, pinning her beneath him, and began raining punches down on her face.
No unnecessary words, no questioning—just a fist after fist, “greeting” her.
Inside Gu Chengxue’s head, crack after crack sounded; her whole body was sent flying backward, crashing heavily to the ground.
Soon after, Ling Huan stopped punching.
He stood up.
Was it because he couldn’t bear to ruin her pretty face?
Her mask had already shattered, revealing her beautiful features in full.
Even smeared with blood from her nose, her looks could still enchant countless men, perhaps even evoke their pity.
No matter how old Ling Huan was, this face of hers—she could seduce anyone!
How many men had fallen for that face before?
Ling Huan had clearly realized she wasn’t Lin Chuan, yet he hadn’t asked a single question.
Had he become a soft-hearted Young Master?
If you’re that naive, it’ll be the death of you…
Ah!!!!!!!!!!!
A piercing, agonized scream tore from Gu Chengxue’s throat.
With her mask broken, she couldn’t even disguise her voice; her girlish wail shrieked with misery.
It turned out Ling Huan hadn’t stood up out of pity, but rather—he was using his foot to pry up her fingers and then stomping them one by one.
“I, I…” Gu Chengxue squeezed out a hoarse voice, blood-soaked face forced into a fawning smile.
“I, I could be your concubine, you—you saw my face, right? I—” She used the last of her strength to speak to Ling Huan.
But the only response was Ling Huan’s foot.
The sole of his shoe ground against her face—a bone snapped with a sudden crack.
Ling Huan’s shoe mashed Gu Chengxue’s face, white teeth scattering everywhere, mixing with bloody foam in the mud nearby.
“All right, not so pretty anymore. Now you’re just an ugly beast.”
Ling Huan’s voice was calm.
That single sentence was like an arrow through the heart!
It pierced Gu Chengxue’s heart—not with pain or fear, but with an accelerating, wild excitement.
Her breathing grew ragged, and the shattered bridge of her nose kept blowing out bubbles of blood.
“Don’t—don’t kill me…” Gu Chengxue asked hopefully.
“Kill you? Are we friends? Or are we close enough—Close enough that you’d deserve such an easy death?”
Ling Huan’s voice was eerily calm, terrifyingly so.
His answer made death sound like a gentle embrace, a soft kiss.
The moment she heard Ling Huan’s words, Gu Chengxue felt a sudden surge of emotion—exhilaration, excitement, a rush of incomparable delight.
How twisted!
He’s only ten!
How could a ten-year-old say something like that?
Gu Chengxue began to tremble—not in fear, but in excitement, in joy.
Hehehehe… Perhaps, she’d found an even better candidate.
Of course, that was only if she survived.
Ling Huan, limitless potential!
He could absolutely be her savior!
He could definitely become her boss!
He could absolutely plunge this whole world into chaos!
But of course, only if she survived.