Chapter 995 - Hongyuan Empire Poison Hall
Translator: StarveCleric Editor: StarveCleric
The island had a diameter of around a hundred kilometers. From afar, Zhang Xuan could see that it was filled with all kinds of towering plants, granting it a lush appearance. Surrounded by a massive formation, the spiritual energy within was particularly concentrated, and from time to time, one could see formidable saint beasts dancing in the air above.
“To be able to conceal an island with a diameter of hundred kilometers, the man who set up the formation must be at least a 7-star formation master!” Zhang Xuan noted in astonishment.
He was currently a 6-star pinnacle formation master, but even so, a formation of such scale was still far beyond his means. Just how powerful must the senior who had built the Poison Hall here be?
“The founder of the Hongyuan Empire Poison Hall wasn’t only a 7-star poison master, he was a 7-star pinnacle formation master as well. Even so, he had still spent an entire fifty years to construct this massive Hidden Formation!” Noticing Zhang Xuan’s shock, Elder Xu explained with a smile.
“Fifty years?” Zhang Xuan’s lips twitched in astonishment.
Not even a single year had passed since his transcension until now. To spend an entire fifty years just to construct a formation… this was something that Zhang Xuan would never do.
“That’s right. This formation taps on the volcano beneath it as its energy source, concealing the entire island amidst the vast sea. If one couldn’t locate the proper entrance, all one would see was just yet another plot of empty sea while flying over it.” Elder Xu said proudly.
“Over the years, many 7-star master teachers and formation masters had flew across this land, but none of them had noticed the Poison Hall here. It is due to this that the Poison Hall was able to retain its complete heritage even after ten thousand years, never having suffered an attack before.”
“Incredible!” Zhang Xuan nodded. Activating his Eye of Insight, he assessed the formation before him.
He had to admit that the design of the formation was indeed exquisite. The Hidden Formation was constructed through making use of the unique geographical advantage of the island, making it perfectly harmonized with its surroundings. Even via his Eye of Insight, he could barely make out the existence of the formation. It would be hard for him to decipher the formation within a short period of time.
If he really wanted to break the formation, it would take him around… ten minutes!
A formation that would take him so long to decipher could already be considered to be extremely powerful.
“Let’s head down!” Noticing the stunned look in Zhang Xuan’s eyes, Elder Xu chuckled as he drove the aerial saint beast down upon the island.
Around ten minutes later, they landed on a massive elevated platform.
“Elder Xu!” A few youngsters rushed up to welcome the returning Elder Xu. However, when they saw that it was a middle-aged man whom they had never seen before instead of Elder Xue who walked out of the wooden hut, they were bewildered for a moment.
“Poison Master Sun here is my savior. Prepare an accommodation for him.” Elder Xu instructed. “I will be seeking an audience with the hall master now!”
“Yes!” Hearing that the other party was Elder Xu’s savior, a gleam of admiration surfaced in the eyes of the youngsters as they nodded hurriedly.
“Poison Master Sun, they will lead you to your accommodation to rest. I need to meet the hall master first to report the happenings earlier at Jingyuan City to him.”
After which, Elder Xu took two steps forward before halting once more. Without turning his head around, he sent a telepathic message to Zhang Xuan, “The members of the Poison Hall could have a rather bad temper. However, they do admire the strong, so there is no need for you to hold back should anyone attempt to provoke you.”
“Got it.” Zhang Xuan nodded.
Considering that one of the elders of the Poison Hall was killed, this matter should indeed be reported to the hall master as soon as possible.
And it went without saying that he had no intentions to be a samaritan should anyone try to step over his head too.
“I will report your matter to the hall master as well and apply a slot in the poison master examination for you.” Elder Xu added before hurriedly heading off.
A moment later, he had already disappeared in the distance.
“Poison Master Sun, this way please!” Seeing that Elder Xu had left, the youngsters stepped forward and gestured to Zhang Xuan.
Without wasting a word, Zhang Xuan followed behind them.
Shortly after leaving the elevated platform, a massive town unfolded before his eyes. Innumerable buildings of differing heights could be seen here and there. However, the architecture was rather ancient, seemingly having thousands of years to them.
A bustling crowd moved to and fro the streets, doing everything that one could think of. In a sense, it was truly no different from a huge city.
Walking amongst the crowd, Zhang Xuan could occasionally see a light mist drifting out from the cracks in the windows and doors of several houses. It had a pleasant smell to it, but it seemed to fill one with lethargy, inducing one to a deep sleep.
There was no doubt about it, the mist definitely contained poison.
That wasn’t the only peculiarity that Zhang Xuan noticed. From time to time, he would see poisonous bugs and snakes with bright, glistening colors glaring at the passers-by with a menacing gaze, seemingly ready to strike at any moment. The faint-hearted would probably be frightened unconscious on the spot upon seeing this sight.
“Don’t worry, these poisonous snakes don’t bite easily…” As if noting the apprehension on Zhang Xuan’s face, one of the young men explained with a smile. At that moment, however, a scream of agony suddenly sounded in front. A middle-aged man was running forward frenziedly, and taking a closer look, there was a poisonous snake hanging off his bottom. Its sharp fangs were sunk deep into the middle-aged man’s flesh, refusing to let go no matter how forcefully the other party struggled.
“Screw this shit, whose snake is this? If no one dares to own up, I will skin this bastard alive today!”
Soon after, another bellow sounded from the crowd, “Try to eat my snake, and I will have you poisoned to death right here right now!”
A figure flitted out from the crowd and began crossing hands with the middle-aged man who was bitten by the snake.
“T-this… It’s just a coincidence. These poisonous snakes and bugs are usually rather friendly…” Meeting with this sight right after saying that the poisonous snakes wouldn’t bite, the young man scratched his head in embarrassment.
He hurriedly tried to reassure the guest who he was escorting, “Even though these bugs might attack one another from time to time, there is no need to worry. We, poison masters, are a harmonious community. We respect one another and promote neighborliness, so rarely will there be any fights breaking out!”
“Un.” Zhang Xuan nodded.
However, before they could take another step forward, an even louder scream sounded.
“Which screwed up bugger poisoned my pillow? You better pray that I don’t find out who you are because you can be heck sure that I will skin you alive when I do!”
Right afterward, a young lady with a round face darted out from one of the doors.
The young lady had a beautiful figure, but her face was swollen as though a watermelon. There were even quite a few parts which had pus flowing out. Her appearance was truly as hideous as a zombie who had climbed out from its grave.
“Which idiot spiked my porridge?”
“To dare to plant a poisonous bug in my shoes, you must be tired of living!”
“Stuffing medicine in my nostrils? You must be asking me to chop off your hands!”
…
Such voices sounded relentlessly in the surroundings. Following which, one by one, victims whose appearances were disfigured in all kinds of ways rushed out from their rooms.
The face of the young man who had just said that the poison masters promoted neighborliness reddened in awkwardness.
“Cough cough. They are just jesting with one another, so you don’t have to worry about that! They are just testing out the poisons that they have just concocted, so you can think of it more like a prank. It’s really harmless actually…”
“Harmless? Then, that is…” With a perplexed look, Zhang Xuan pointed in a certain direction. There, two poison masters who were fighting intensely with one another, seemingly unwilling to rest until one side had fallen dead.
“…” The young man.
After walking through the streets for a moment longer, Zhang Xuan gained an understanding of the prevalent culture in the Poison Hall.
Unlike the Master Teacher Pavilion, the Poison Hall didn’t have many rules. Whenever a poison master succeeded in formulating a new poison, they would usually try it on those around them. Appearances were something that commonly changed within this city. A person could look this way yesterday but assume a vastly different appearance tomorrow. In fact, there had even been cases where one’s gender had changed due to the side effect of some poison…
In other words, your neighbor could very well be an elderly man today, a middle-aged man tomorrow, a ravishing young lady the day after tomorrow, and perhaps even a monstrous behemoth the day after the day after tomorrow…
But of course, if you were to ask the other party’s name, you would find out that ‘they’ were all the same person all along. It was just due to the consumption of bizarre poisons that resulted in the continuous warping of his form.
“It’s fortunate that they are all on this island. If the poison masters were to do the same in Hongyuan City, it will only be a matter of time before they are pummeled to death…” Zhang Xuan shook his head.
It was probably only on this land could they do something as ridiculous as this. Hongyuan City had a Master Teacher Pavilion and Master Teacher Academy to uphold order, and willfully poisoning another in such a manner was against the rules. Should one be caught doing so, even ten lives wouldn’t be sufficient to amend for one’s sin.
How could Elder Xu bring himself to say with a straight face that the poison masters were an amiable bunch when such was the chaos here… To live in fear, not knowing who would poison one or who one would turn into the next day… This sure wasn’t his definition of amiable!
“Alright, Poison Master Sun. This is your accommodation!” After walking a while further and seeing bizarre acts of all kinds, the young man finally came to a halt.
Taking a look at his accommodation, it was decently clean residence. While the building looked a little old, the surroundings were rather tranquil and peaceful.
“Alright!” Knowing that he wouldn’t stay here for too long, there was no need for him to get picky about it.
Just as Zhang Xuan was about to push open the door to enter, a few young men suddenly walked over.
“Li Yuan, this person looks very unfamiliar. I don’t think I have seen him around before.”
“He is a guest whom Elder Xu just brought in from outside.” Li Yuan, the young man who had brought Zhang Xuan over, replied.
“Elder Xu brought him here? Could it be that he intends to take that person as his disciple? To be able to move that obstinate old fogey’s heart, his talent must be spectacular. Let me see how capable he is…” the other young man chuckled.
He snapped his fingers, and a surge of smoke suddenly gushed in Zhang Xuan’s direction.
“Liu Xu, don’t mess around. Poison Master Sun isn’t Elder Xu’s disciple.” Li Yuan explained. However, before he could finish his words, the smoke had already reached Zhang Xuan, giving him no time to stop the latter at all.
Just as he was about to exclaim for the middle-aged man before him to be careful, he suddenly noticed a hint of a smile from the corners of the latter’s cheek. The next moment, his silhouette vanished like a phantom and materialized right before Liu Xu.
Peng!
The crisp sound of bones shattering echoed resoundingly in the air. Before Liu Xu could even cry in agony, he was already sent flying before eventually ending up being hung on the branch of a nearby tree, passed out.
“Ah…” Everyone was dumbstruck.
As fellow poison masters, if an individual were to be attacked by poison, he should retaliate in the same manner. Yet, this fellow actually sent the other party flying with a single punch… How violent!
“You… As a poison master, how can you resolve matters with violence? Just how crass can you get?” A young man behind Liu Xu stepped forward and waved his hands righteously, “I shall challenge you to a poison duel right now. Do you dare to acce…”
But before he could finish his words, a foot was already planted in his face.
Peng!
Just like Liu Xu, before the young man could utter a word, he was sent flying and eventually ended up being hung on a nearby tree branch as well.
“You…” The faces of the remaining young men warped in fury. Their companion had already challenged the other party to a poison duel, but the other party still continued to attack them with brute force.
“Let’s make a move together!” One of the young men exclaimed.
Peng peng peng peng!
…
A few breaths later, the energetic young men from a moment ago were lying unconscious on the tree not too far away.
“This…”
Li Yuan and the others who had escorted Zhang Xuan over were flabbergasted.