18: Chapter 18 Three days after the duel, the opponent first ruined himself through training.

"What a loyal dog. The moment his master is locked away, he can't wait to come out and bite people."

Shen Xiao's gaze passed over Wang Mang's face, which was practically written with "I am a brute," and landed on the shadow of an ancient pine tree at the edge of the square in the distance.

There, a familiar figure flashed by.

Lin Yun. He hadn't gone to the Cliff of Reflection yet, and was still hiding in the shadows, pulling the strings.

This scene made Shen Xiao almost laugh out loud.

Lin Yun was truly desperate; even his moves were so crude.

Sending an Outer Sect Disciple to intercept an Inner Sect Disciple was already a low-class move.

And to make such a big fuss about it, fearing that others wouldn't know there was bad blood between them.

"What? Are you mute?" Seeing Shen Xiao didn't speak, Wang Mang assumed he was afraid, and his arrogance grew even more rampant. "I'll ask one more time: are you handing over the item or not!"

The number of Disciples gathering to watch the show increased, and the pointing and whispering sounded like buzzing flies.

"It's Senior Brother Shen Xiao. Didn't he just prove his innocence at the Discipline Hall? Why is he being blocked again?"

"The one blocking him is Wang Mang, a well-known hothead of the Outer Sect. Relying on his Foundation Establishment Late Stage, he looks down on everyone."

"I heard Senior Brother Shen is suffering from the mystic ice evil poison and doesn't have long to live. For Wang Mang to come and snatch things at a time like this, he's really not a decent person."

"Shh... keep your voice down. Behind Wang Mang is Senior Brother Lin Yun..."

These words reached Shen Xiao's ears, every single one of them. Very good, the foundation of public opinion was already laid.

He didn't refute Wang Mang, and didn't even spare him an angry look.

He suddenly pressed his chest hard, and the face that was already pale as paper lost another layer of color.

His throat convulsed, and he forcibly mobilized the already chaotic Spiritual Qi in his body, reversing it through his Meridians.

"Puff—"

A mouthful of blood mixed with black ice shards was precisely spat onto the white stone ground three feet in front of him.

That black blood landed on the ground, making a "hissing" corrosive sound, emitting wisps of cold smoke, as if it could even crack the stone.

This mouthful of blood was more effective than any defense.

The murmurs of all the watching Disciples came to an abrupt halt, replaced by the sound of gasping.

They had seen with their own eyes how tyrannical the legendary "mystic ice evil poison" was.

This injury definitely couldn't be faked!

Shen Xiao's body swayed violently, as if a gust of wind could blow him over.

He tremblingly raised his hand, not pointing at Wang Mang, but at the group of Outer Sect Disciples behind him. His voice was weak, yet like a needle, it clearly pierced into everyone's ears:

"You... you people... why are you trying to force me to my death?"

His gaze swept over the lackeys who subconsciously retreated, and finally landed on Wang Mang, who was stunned by this sudden turn of events.

"Could it be... could it be that after I die, you want to frame Senior Brother Lin Yun for the 'mystic ice evil poison' in my body?!" He shouted hoarsely, as if using his last ounce of strength, "My grievances with Senior Brother Lin were already settled at the Discipline Hall! You... you want to spark conflict within the Inner Sect and frame him for injustice?!"

With this heavy accusation dropped, the atmosphere in the entire square changed instantly.

The gaze of the watching Disciples shifted from the gossip of "the weak being robbed by a bully" to the thriller of "a carefully orchestrated Sect conspiracy."

Everyone's eyes became complex, and the looks they gave Wang Mang contained a few more degrees of scrutiny and suspicion.

Sparking conflict within the Inner Sect? Framing the Child of Destiny? Who could bear such a crime?

The lackeys behind Wang Mang turned pale with fright, subconsciously stepping back a few more times, desperately distancing themselves from Wang Mang.

They had only followed their boss out to hold the line and get some benefits, not to get involved in such a deadly conspiracy!

"You... you're talking nonsense!" Wang Mang was completely bewildered.

His mind only had the words "snatch the item," how could he have thought of so many twists and turns behind it?

He felt like a brute bull that had crashed into a spider web, uncomfortable all over, yet not knowing how to break free.

His face flushed red, and his brute strength made the veins on his neck bulge. In his desperation, he pulled a pitch-black iron token from his bosom and threw it heavily at Shen Xiao's feet.

"Clang!" The token hit the ground with a crisp sound.

"Nonsense! I, Wang Mang, act openly; I take responsibility for my own actions! You say I'm taking advantage of someone's precarious position, fine! Then do you dare to step onto the Life and Death Arena! Use your strength to prove that you're not acting!"

Wang Mang's giant axe pointed at Shen Xiao, his roar echoing over the square.

He was convinced that Shen Xiao's injuries were severe and that he was just a paper tiger who wouldn't dare accept this duel order engraved with the words "Life and Death, No Grudges."

As long as Shen Xiao flinched, then all those conspiracy theories would collapse on their own!

However, to everyone's surprise.

Looking at the token on the ground, not only was there no fear in Shen Xiao's eyes, but a strange glint flashed by.

Like a drowning man grabbing a straw, he actually bent down and grabbed the cold iron token.

"Fine..." He gripped the token tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force, and raised his head weakly, looking straight at Wang Mang, "I accept."

Wang Mang was stunned, and the surrounding Disciples were also shocked.

He actually accepted? In his current half-dead state?

"However," Shen Xiao gasped for air, proposing his condition, "The evil poison in my body is attacking my heart. To go on stage now is no different from seeking death. I need three days! Give me three days to barely suppress the poison and regulate my breath. Otherwise, if I die on stage, you, Wang Mang, will truly be confirmed to have taken advantage of a precarious position and plotted to harm a fellow Disciple!"

He stared fixedly at Wang Mang, saying word by word: "Three days later, at the Sect Martial Arts Arena, a fight to the death!"

These words were reasonable and full of the tragic determination of someone forced into a dead end.

Wang Mang was rendered speechless by his words.

If he didn't agree, it would be equivalent to admitting that he wanted to take advantage of someone's precarious position, and his bold words when he threw out the Life and Death Token would become a huge joke.

"Fine! Three days it is!" Wang Mang gritted his teeth, squeezing the words through his teeth, "I want to see what tricks you can pull in three days!"

Having said that, he glared fiercely at Shen Xiao, shouldered his giant axe, and amidst the complex gazes of the onlookers, took his lackeys—who wished they could bury their heads in the ground—and left in a huff.

Under the ancient pine at the edge of the square, Lin Yun's face was so gloomy it could drip water.

His purpose in sending Wang Mang was to cut the Gordian knot, humiliate Shen Xiao in public, force him to hand over the treasure, and make him lose face.

As a result, Wang Mang messed up the play, turning a simple robbery into a high-profile public deathmatch three days later!

This way, he couldn't interfere at all.

If Wang Mang won, he fought it himself, and the treasure would naturally belong to him; if he wanted a share, he would have no justification. If Wang Mang lost... then his, Lin Yun's, face would be completely thrown on the ground and trampled upon!

Idiot! An idiot who ruins more than he accomplishes!

Lin Yun turned around indignantly and flicked his sleeves, leaving.

When he returned to his own Immortal Cave, which had been smashed into a mess, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

On the stone table inside the Immortal Cave, at some point, a tattered, yellowed animal skin scroll had appeared.

It was exactly the "Secret Manual" that Shen Xiao had discarded, which he had sent his confidant to "find" in that remote corner of the Scripture Pavilion according to the vague location he provided!

A hot flame instantly ignited in Lin Yun's eyes.

Shen Xiao, that idiot!

Blind!

He must have exhausted his energy in the Scripture Pavilion and only found the hiding place of this scroll, but failed to comprehend its mysteries, or perhaps because he was poisoned, he couldn't Cultivate it at all, so he had to give it up!

This is the true Opportunity! It is what Heaven has destined to compensate me with!

Intense greed and confidence overwhelmed everything.

Lin Yun grabbed the forged scrap page, treating it like a treasure.

He had to go into seclusion immediately!

Three days!

He would use three days to successfully Cultivate this peerless divine skill!

By then, he would let Shen Xiao, and the entire Qingming Sect, see who is truly destined by heaven!

"Clang."

Shen Xiao returned to his simple Immortal Cave, closed the stone door behind him, and immediately activated the most basic defensive Formation at the entrance.

A faint light flashed, completely isolating the inside from the outside.

Safe.

He let out a long sigh of relief, his body, which had been swaying a second ago, immediately stood straight. The weak expression of "I'm about to die" on his face instantly vanished without a trace, replaced by a cold sneer of a successful plan.

He carefully took out the real animal skin scroll emitting an ancient aura from his bosom—Counter-flow Step.

"System." He murmured in his heart.

[Host, what are your orders?]

"Consume 10 destiny value to temporarily boost Comprehension Ability for movement techniques, duration three days."

[Instruction confirmed. Consuming 10 destiny value, limit boost for movement technique Comprehension Ability has been activated, duration: 72 hours.]

The moment the instruction was issued, a flow of indescribable clarity washed over his brain.

Looking at the animal skin scroll in his hand again, the world in his eyes seemed to have been put on slow motion.

The Spiritual Qi operation routes on the scroll, which were originally obscure and difficult to understand like ghost drawings, now became as simple and clear as a child's connect-the-dots drawing.

Those twisted, complex, and counter-intuitive footwork charts automatically decomposed into clear basic movements in his eyes. The rotation angle of every joint, the way every inch of muscle exerted force, was all clear in his heart.

He could even "see" the residual Spiritual Qi trajectories on the scroll, demonstrating the true meaning of the Cultivation Technique to him in a slow and elegant manner.

Shen Xiao took a deep breath and immediately began to Cultivate in the small Immortal Cave.

He took a step, and his figure left a blurred afterimage in place.

The second step, his figure had already appeared at the other end of the room, as if ignoring the distance of space.

The world in his eyes had completely changed.

The air was no longer empty, but filled with flowing "momentum."

Every step he took, the soles of his feet felt as if they were stepping on an invisible stream, his body moving along the flow of that momentum, elusive, like an antelope hanging its horns, leaving no trace.

Fast! Too fast!

The Counter-flow Step that ordinary Disciples would need months or even years to enter the door, was already mastered by him in just a few breaths.

His figure turned into afterimages invisible to the naked eye within the small room, sometimes in the east, sometimes in the west, and at one moment, there were even three "Shen Xiao" in the room at the same time!

Every step taken, the space under his feet felt a faint distortion, as if even the hard stone floor had become soft water under his footwork.

This speed of progress had completely exceeded the scope of common sense.

Three days passed in a flash.

The first ray of morning sunlight pierced through the clouds and spilled onto the magnificent Martial Arts Arena of the Qingming Sect.

Inside the Martial Arts Arena, it was already noisy and packed.

Outer Sect Disciples, Inner Sect Disciples, and even a few deacons who heard the news, surrounded the huge Martial Arts Arena tightly.

A deathmatch between a fierce Foundation Establishment Late Stage Outer Sect warrior and an Inner Sect Disciple suffering from a strange poison was full of gimmicks.

Everyone wanted to know if Shen Xiao, who created the "victim miracle," could survive this time.

"Dong—"

A distant bell rang throughout the Sect, signaling that the time for the duel had arrived.

The crowd was in a commotion, and Wang Mang, carrying his iconic giant axe, walked onto the Martial Arts Arena amidst the cheers.

His breath was steady, his eyes fierce; obviously, he had rested and consolidated his energy over the past three days, and his state had reached its Peak.

However, his opponent was late to appear.

"What's going on? Where is Shen Xiao?"

"Don't tell me he's scared and has become a coward?"

"It's possible; after all, that's the Life and Death Arena, who dares to joke around."

Just as the discussion grew louder, the stone door of Shen Xiao's Immortal Cave slowly opened.

He walked out, still in his green robes, his breath still maintained in the weak state of the Foundation Establishment Stage, his face even paler than three days ago.

But the only difference was that his eyes were as deep as an ancient well, making people completely unable to fathom him.

He looked up at the direction of the Martial Arts Arena and moved to set off.

Just at this moment—

"Boom!!!"

A deafening loud noise, accompanied by a violent and chaotic Spiritual Qi fluctuation, suddenly came from a certain direction in the Inner Sect Disciple area!

The explosion was so intense that it even made the whole mountain tremble!

A Sect deacon who was patrolling nearby changed his expression, immediately turned into a stream of light, and rushed towards the source of the explosion.

The crowd waiting at the Martial Arts Arena was also startled by this sudden change and stood up, craning their necks to look in the direction of the explosion.

But after a moment, the deacon returned to the Martial Arts Arena with an expression like he had seen a ghost, his voice changed due to extreme shock:

"Something happened! Senior Brother Lin Yun's Immortal Cave... exploded!"

The crowd was instantly in an uproar!

"Senior Brother Lin... he suffered Qi Deviation!!"

The deacon's voice was still trembling, "When I arrived, the gate of the Immortal Cave was blown open, Senior Brother Lin was sitting paralyzed on the ground, blood hanging from the corners of his mouth, his whole body's Spiritual Qi was running wild and reversing, his Meridians were broken! Beside him, there was still a pile... a pile of ashes burned from Cultivation Technique scraps!"

The news was like a huge rock thrown into a calm lake, instantly setting off a monstrous wave throughout the Martial Arts Arena.

All the Disciples waiting to watch the battle fell into incredible shock and confusion.

Three days of waiting for a duel, the opponent hasn't even come on stage, yet he ruined his own master first?