Facing this bizarre and venomous Azure Heaven and Yellow Springs mist, Tantai Yunzhi unexpectedly made no immediate move to dodge or defend.
Her azure eyes remained fixed upon the creeping toxic mist, records from the ancient medical canons Gongsun Rou had gifted her flipping through her mind like pages in a book.
‘A sweet, fishy scent tinged with rotting earth, a deep faintness beneath the emerald hue, eroding metal and decaying stone... Indeed, the primary ingredient must be Emerald Phosphor Demon Flower supplemented by Heart-Corrupting Grass, reconciled and catalyzed with Profound Nether True Water...’ She arrived at a conclusion in an instant.
The very moment the toxic mist was about to envelop her, Tantai Yunzhi moved! Far from retreating, she took a step forward. With a deft turn of her fair hand, several medicinal pills of differing colors had appeared between her slender fingers.
Pinpointing several key nodes of spiritual energy flow within the toxic mist, she gave a light flick of her wrist, launching the pills with precision!
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—
Dissolving into the toxic mist, the medicinal powder triggered no violent explosion, emitting only a rapid succession of faint hisses.
Yet the ferocious emerald mist began thinning and destabilizing at a pace visible to the naked eye. The corrosive spiritual energy within seemed scrambled by an invisible hand, its lethality drastically reduced!
“What? Senior Sister Zhao’s Azure Heaven and Yellow Springs was dissolved?!” The spectators below the stage were dumbfounded.
“That’s an exotic poison long lost to time!”
‘I never recorded an antidote for Azure Heaven and Yellow Springs, yet Little Yunzhi deduced the poison’s ingredients on her own using only those few pharmacology books.’ Concealed in the shadows, Gongsun Rou could hardly contain the smile spreading across her face.
To deduce the ingredients and rapidly unravel such a virulent concoction merely by broadening her general knowledge of medicinal herbs—this went far beyond mere genius. Her innate comprehension and tactical adaptability were truly monstrous.
Across from her, Zhao Qian’s pupils contracted violently, her face painted with sheer disbelief. “Impossible! How could you...?”
Tantai Yunzhi raised her clear eyes, her voice calm yet brimming with indisputable confidence. “Azure Heaven and Yellow Springs—daunting though the name sounds, at its core, it merely leverages the mutual generation of wood and water to unleash the potency of several specific poisonous plants.”
“Knowing its root cause, how hard could it be to counter?”
“How hard could it be to counter?!”
Hearing those words, Zhao Qian felt like coughing blood from pure rage.
Below the stage, Su Yi could barely stifle his laughter.
It was just like knowing a tank was made of steel and various alloys, only for someone to suddenly forge one from scratch right in front of you with their bare hands, casually finishing with:
“At its core, it’s merely assorted metals. What’s so hard about building one?”
‘As expected of the female lead, top-tier humblebragging.’ Su Yi covered his mouth, hiding a grin that stretched as wide as Venom’s behind his hand.
After all, in the eyes of everyone else, he was supposed to be rooting for Zhao Qian in this match.
Meanwhile, Tantai Yunzhi’s footsteps never halted. Darting like a butterfly weaving through blossoms, she navigated the gaps within the residual, severely depleted mist, entirely unscathed!
Her hands moved in rapid succession, scattering more medicinal powders to either neutralize the toxicity or disrupt its spiritual structure, completely dissolving the dread-inspiring Azure Heaven and Yellow Springs into nothingness!
This was the direct fruit of her painstaking studies over this past month!
Through those obscure, arcane tomes and those myriad bizarre toxicological properties, her understanding of medicinal herbs and the healing arts had reached an entirely new plane.
Perhaps her cultivation still fell slightly short of Zhao Qian’s, but in pharmacology and medicine, her insight and depth had already surpassed her peers by leaps and bounds.
And this was merely the result of a single month!
Watching her ultimate technique dismantled so nonchalantly, Zhao Qian was filled with shock and fury, an unspeakable dread bubbling up from the bottom of her heart.
That same helpless feeling of losing to Tantai Yunzhi back then had returned.
Amid her compounding shock and anger, a surge of vicious rage shot straight to the crown of her head.
‘This isn’t a medical competition! Even if my Dao foundation has to be rebuilt, how could I possibly lose to someone who hasn’t even reached Foundation Establishment?!’
She refused to believe that this girl, whose cultivation had previously been suppressed beneath her own, could undergo a complete metamorphosis in such a short span of time!
If poison didn’t work, she would simply overpower her with sheer cultivation!
“Don’t get cocky! Azure Vine Bind!”
Letting out a sharp cry, she pushed her pure wood-attribute spiritual energy to its absolute peak.
Countless thick, resilient green vines burst through the stone slabs, coiling toward Tantai Yunzhi from every direction like spirit serpents. Wood governed growth, and its nature was entanglement.
Tantai Yunzhi’s eyes were clear. Facing this overwhelming onslaught of vines, she advanced instead of retreating.
The advantages of the Innate Five Elements Dao Physique began to show—her perception and manipulation of worldly spiritual energy far exceeded ordinary cultivators.
She did not attempt to forcefully sever every vine in a head-on clash; that offered no meaningful advantage, as Zhao Qian was still at Qi Condensation Perfection.
An earthy yellow spiritual glow flashed at her fingertips as she lightly tapped the ground beneath her feet.
“Earth Vein Surge!”
A burst of dense earth-element spiritual energy flooded into the martial stage, causing the ground to tremor faintly. Normally, earth-element energy would only nourish the vines, but her control over spiritual energy was terrifyingly precise: while fortifying the vines, she simultaneously made the ground beneath them far denser. The vines were restrained by the very earth holding them, kept in check with pinpoint accuracy.
The explosive growth of the vines ground to an abrupt halt, slowing to a crawl.
Her earth-element energy had not directly assaulted the vines; rather, it reinforced the earth itself, indirectly undermining the foundation of the wood-element spell.
Seizing this opening, Tantai Yunzhi moved like the wind, darting through the thinning gaps between the vines while weaving hand seals, water-blue and emerald-green glows alternating over her hands.
“Water Nourishes, Wood Flourishes!”
With three elements engaged, she used her own pure water and earth spiritual energies to nurture and sprout a small patch of spirit wood under her direct control!
Rather than attacking, this spirit wood rapidly wove together before her into a resilient shield of woven vine and wood.
Water generates wood; utilizing mutual generation, she conjured a defensive barrier in the blink of an eye!
Seeing this, Zhao Qian ground her teeth in frustration. Her opponent actually dared to use her own specialty—wood-element magic—for defense? She immediately shifted techniques, water-attribute spiritual energy surging within her.
“Frost Spear!”
Moisture in the air instantly crystallized into several chilling, deep-blue ice spears, tearing through the air with bone-piercing sharpness straight toward Tantai Yunzhi! She sought to shatter the toughness of wood with the piercing bite of ice.
Yet Tantai Yunzhi seemed to have anticipated this all along.
Behind the vine shield, a spark of blazing fire-element light was already dancing in her palm.
The instant the profound ice spears were about to strike the vine shield, the shield suddenly dispersed of its own accord, revealing Tantai Yunzhi waiting behind it—along with the blazing flames abruptly swelling in her palm!
Surging tongues of flame erupted outward. Fire conquered metal, but fire could also incinerate wood and melt ice! Confronted by the searing flames, the profound ice spears swiftly melted and vaporized, while the previously nurtured spirit vines caught fire alongside them, reduced to ash!
Shielding herself with water-generated wood to lure the enemy in, then consuming everything in fire! Tantai Yunzhi executed the mutual generation and overcoming of the Five Elements to perfection. Not only did she neutralize the attack, but she also bolstered her own position through mutual generation and countered her foe with mutual overcoming. Truly brilliant!
“Brilliant!” Seasoned veterans below the stage could not resist cheering.
If Divine Might Manor’s Qi Condensation disciples all possessed such combat intellect, it would be far better than mindlessly hurling spells around.
Frustrated at every turn, Zhao Qian’s face contorted with growing rage. Her exertion of spiritual energy further stimulated the medicinal power of the Demon-Cleansing Soul-Nourishing Pill, causing faint cries of agony to echo from her sea of consciousness.
Looking at Tantai Yunzhi, whose breath remained steady and gaze calm, an unprecedented wave of dread and humiliation welled within Zhao Qian.
“Why can’t you just step down obediently?!” A flash of ruthlessness and conflict flickered in Zhao Qian’s eyes. Gritting her teeth, she flicked her wrist, and a brocade kerchief-shaped magical artifact shimmering with brilliant light appeared in her hand.
The moment the kerchief appeared, it gave off substantial spiritual fluctuations; it was clearly no ordinary item.
“Thousand Silk Entanglement!” Channeling her spiritual energy into the kerchief, countless colored silk threads glittering with spiritual light shot forth like celestial maidens scattering blossoms, blanketing more than half the stage. Not only were these threads tough, but they also possessed sticky, binding properties, snaking toward Tantai Yunzhi from every tricky angle!
“Huh? Senior Sister Zhao is actually using a magical artifact?”
“Didn't she say before taking the pill that external aids are unfair in a competition? How come she's the first to resort to outside force?”
“Tsk, guess her backbone depends on who she's facing. Up against a tough customer like Junior Sister Tantai, her body is honest enough.”
Murmurs broke out across the audience below, many disciples looking at Zhao Qian with undisguised contempt.
After all, her righteous talk of “fairness” when refusing the pill was still ringing in their ears, yet here she was, the first to deploy an artifact clearly exceeding the scope of her own cultivation realm. It was impossible not to look down on her.
Concealed in the dark, Gongsun Rou’s beautiful eyes widened at the sight. She nearly shouted out, “Little Yunzhi, hurry and use Mas—”
Before she could finish, a large hand clamped down swiftly yet gently over her mouth.
Su Jing’s exasperated voice sounded beside her ear via spiritual transmission: “Rou’er! Watch your words! What did you promise me? Now is not the time to reveal that you took Yunzhi as your disciple!”
Gongsun Rou stomped her feet in annoyance. Still, the hexagrams indeed showed that taking Tantai Yunzhi as her disciple could not be exposed prematurely.
Helpless, she could only suppress her urge to intervene and stare nervously at the martial stage.
Rate on N.U.
