Chapter 95: Take the Stage—First, Two Slaps!

In just a few breaths, the poison inside Duanmu Wan was completely stripped away, all of it absorbed by Xia Jiuxuan.

“This poison is brewed from corpse venom and is designed to attack the soul. Once infected, there is almost no saving the victim.

“That Xia Jiuxuan actually took the corpse poison into himself. He is simply courting death.”

On the battle platform, the middle-aged man in purple explained to Elder Lu.

“Xia Jiuxuan may be a bit arrogant, but he is not entirely useless. Do you have a way to treat him?” Elder Lu asked, looking at the man in purple.

“This... Elder Lu, forgive my incompetence. I am helpless.”

The middle-aged man in purple was a master of arcane arts, but when it came to soul-corroding corpse poison, he had no rapid cure.

Besides, even if he could treat it, he would never heal Xia Jiuxuan.

“So be it. If he cannot be saved, there is no need to force it,” Elder Lu said with a faint sigh of regret.

Below the platform, once the poison in Duanmu Wan’s body vanished, she quickly recovered.

She looked at Xia Jiuxuan with deep emotion. “Senior Brother Xia, can... can you really withstand that poison?”

Xia Jiuxuan said indifferently, “Nonsense. If I couldn’t withstand it, why would I bother saving you?”

“...”

Duanmu Wan’s feelings of gratitude instantly diminished by more than half.

In truth, with Duanmu Wan’s soul strength, that poison would not have been enough to kill her.

“Still, thank you, Senior Brother Xia.”

After thinking it over, she decided that even if he had helped with ulterior motives, it was still a kindness.

“No need.” Xia Jiuxuan waved a hand. “I just want you to recover your fighting strength as quickly as possible, so I won’t have to go up there later.”

Duanmu Wan rolled her eyes. “I knew you weren’t being nice. You just want me to be your brute, huh?”

“Knowing is enough.” A trace of amusement curved Xia Jiuxuan’s lips.

Not long after, the outcome of the matches on the platform had been decided.

Among the teams that issued the challenges, only two had succeeded.

“Good.”

Elder Lu nodded in satisfaction.

These ten teams were unquestionably the thirty strongest people in this mortal martial region.

Whether in talent, constitution, or combat strength, they were all top-tier!

“Elder Lu, about what you promised me earlier...”

Mo Yongjian’s thoughts, meanwhile, were entirely fixed on Duanmu Wan.

He not only wanted to conquer this peerless beauty through strength, but also hoped to develop something further with her in other respects.

In his view, a peerless beauty could only belong to the strong!

Elder Lu did not answer him, but instead looked toward Xia Jiuxuan.

“Xia Jiuxuan, your constitution is ordinary, but you still possess some ability. In the spirit of not overlooking promising talent, this elder will give you one chance. If you defeat Mo Yongjian, I will grant you the opportunity to become an envoy.”

At this, Mo Yongjian immediately grew anxious.

“Elder Lu, how could that brat possibly be worthy of fighting me! My target is Duanmu Wan!”

“Shut up.”

Elder Lu snapped, “Do you really think Xia Jiuxuan is much weaker than you? If you want to fight Duanmu Wan, then defeat Xia Jiuxuan first.”

Unlike the others, Elder Lu could clearly see how formidable Xia Jiuxuan was.

A dual cultivator of spear and sword.

At the second level of Spirit-Sealing, he had actually withstood a direct clash against a sixth-level Beyond-Mortal expert and only fallen slightly behind.

How could such terrifying combat strength be as simple as it looked on the surface?

This boy might well be a genuine prodigy!

For that reason, the elders had already discussed it.

Once the top ten were decided, Xia Jiuxuan would be tested again. If he performed in a truly astonishing manner, then regardless of his constitution, he would be accepted as an envoy by special dispensation.

“Yes, Elder.”

No matter how arrogant Mo Yongjian was, he did not dare to challenge an elder from an illustrious sect in the same manner as Xia Jiuxuan. He could only bow and accept.

“Xia Jiuxuan, get up here and fight!”

Mo Yongjian thought to himself that Xia Jiuxuan could not possibly withstand even a single move from him; he would finish him off quickly.

“Elder Lu, that boy has already been struck by soul-corroding corpse poison. He is beyond saving. Why test him further?” the man in purple asked softly from the side.

Elder Lu’s gaze remained fixed deeply on Xia Jiuxuan as he said coolly, “Does he look like someone who has been poisoned to you?”

At that, the man in purple released his spiritual power to investigate.

“What is going on? Where is the poison in that boy’s body?” Only then did the man in purple realize that the poison inside Xia Jiuxuan had already vanished without a trace.

Strange.

Unfathomable.

“I’m afraid his soul is extraordinarily powerful,” Elder Lu surmised, before leaping into the air to discuss it with the other seventeen elders.

This Xia Jiuxuan seemed to exceed their understanding.

And that was a little frightening.

“Xia Jiuxuan, what are you dawdling for? If you still refuse to accept the challenge, then I will not be polite!” Mo Yongjian assumed Xia Jiuxuan was afraid and simply did not dare to fight him.

“Go on, Xia Jiuxuan, what are you afraid of?”

“Exactly. He was so arrogant earlier, and now he’s cowering the moment he meets someone strong? He bullies the weak and fears the strong.”

“Come on now, the boy finally has some self-awareness. There is no way he can beat Mo Yongjian.”

“Hiding your head like a turtle is better than getting beaten. I support Xia Jiuxuan, haha!”

Seeing that Xia Jiuxuan had not stepped onto the platform, the crowd began to jeer.

They were not fools; they did not truly look down on Xia Jiuxuan.

Their purpose was simply to provoke him into the fight and see which of these two arrogant men was truly stronger.

“Senior Brother Xia, he’s so arrogant. Go beat him up!” Duanmu Wan urged as well.

Xia Jiuxuan’s gaze sharpened. “Watch closely. I’ll show you how I turn him into scrap metal.”

As soon as he said that, Duanmu Wan was instantly delighted.

He was finally going to make a move.

She looked extremely eager.

“Go, go, go! Senior Brother Xia, do your best and crush him!”

Xia Jiuxuan turned around and walked slowly, step by step, onto the battle platform, where he faced Mo Yongjian head-on.

With both hands behind his back, Mo Yongjian looked down on everything. “I’ll give you two choices: admit defeat on your own and roll off like a dog, or I’ll break your bones and still make you roll off like a dog.”

Crack!

Xia Jiuxuan’s figure flashed, and he suddenly slapped Mo Yongjian across the face.

He sent Mo Yongjian staggering back several yards.

“Who are you acting so arrogant for? I ignored you while you barked for so long, and now you think you’re someone important?”

Xia Jiuxuan crossed his arms and spat contemptuously.

“You!”

Mo Yongjian was about to explode with rage.

How could this little bastard refuse to follow the script?

I hadn’t even finished speaking, and he already launched a sneak attack?!

“Not服气?”

Xia Jiuxuan’s lips curled as he turned into a streak of afterimage.

Clang, clang, clang...

A frenzy of fists smashed into Mo Yongjian’s face, producing crisp ringing sounds like someone striking a bell.

Boom!

Mo Yongjian was sent flying backward and crashed heavily to the ground.

The fury in his heart had already erupted like a vast ocean.

That little bastard had pulled another ambush!

But how could his speed be so fast?

So fast that even he had failed to react!

Mo Yongjian was at the first level of Beyond-Mortal. Under normal circumstances, even if someone of the same level ambushed him, he would not have been unable to react at all.

It could only be said that Xia Jiuxuan’s speed had surpassed his understanding.

“Despicable scum, I’m going to kill you!”

Mo Yongjian sprang back up into the air. The surface of his body turned bronze-colored, and he looked as though he had been forged from metal.

This was body-forging into a weapon.

He had forcibly tempered his own body into a weapon comparable to a spiritual artifact.

Ring!

His arm suddenly transformed into a sword.

“What the hell kind of move is that?”

“？？？”

“How did his body turn into a weapon?”

Seeing this, everyone was stunned.

Xia Jiuxuan stood steadily on the platform. To his left hovered the phantom image of a dragon-scale spear, and to his right floated the image of a sword blazing with bloodfire.