Huchen Huiqing let out a soft laugh and, after giving Huchen Qiukong and Huchen Gu a meaningful look, also flew towards the viewing platform. This left behind an increasingly pale-faced and furious Huchen Wanli, and a Huchen Jianghai who was still grinning foolishly.
In Huchen Wanli's memory, the boy he once bullied at will, whom he had forced to kneel on the ground, was no longer the person he could manipulate as he pleased.
'In the next round, I refuse to believe it will only test pharmacology. When the time comes, your pitiful cultivation will be nothing but a pathetic display of incompetence,' Huchen Wanli muttered under his breath at the retreating backs of Huchen Wuding and Huiqing. He then turned his head to look at Huchen Jianghai.
Huchen Jianghai's body trembled, and a bitter expression crossed his face. "Big Brother, the last round was truly a fluke. My cultivation progress is slow, so in my boredom, I just memorized more of the basic pharmacology. Just as you said, the next round couldn't possibly be a test of pharmacology again. It will definitely be related to cultivation level. With our Qi Condensation cultivation, who here could possibly be your opponent? The final winner will surely be you. The ranking in this first round is completely meaningless."
Huchen Jianghai's stuttering explanation was met with a suspicious glare from Huchen Wanli, who then stopped paying him any mind.
Upon returning to the viewing platform, Huchen Wuding flashed Li Yan a grin before immediately sitting down cross-legged to recover. The first round, though it involved no combat, had nearly drained his Divine Sense dry.
Huchen Huiqing had emerged a bit earlier, so her condition was considerably better. Seeing Huchen Wuding return and not speak to the hunchbacked old man, but instead nod and smile at Li Yan, she felt a pang of curiosity. 'Could this person be a friend who has cultivated alongside Third Brother since childhood? Otherwise, why would Third Brother treat him this way? But his looks are so ordinary, not even half as handsome as Third Brother. Still, to have the courage to accompany Third Brother on the dangerous journey back to the family, his bravery is commendable.' Thinking this, she too smiled radiantly at Li Yan. Her smile was like a hundred flowers blooming, exquisitely charming. Her emerald green dress further accentuated her red lips, white teeth, and snow-like skin.
Seeing this, Li Yan merely nodded with a smile. He was starting to get a headache. With the end of Huchen Wuding's first trial, this area had become the center of attention. Numerous gazes were cast in their direction, and by association, he too was being repeatedly sized up. Resigned, Li Yan decided to follow Zhuo Lingfeng's example, closed his eyes, and began to meditate.
Huchen Huiqing's beautiful eyes once again fell on the meditating Huchen Wuding. Her mind was full of questions, but there was no time to ask them now. Even at this moment, she still couldn't comprehend how her third brother had managed to condense over five hundred herbs. She too needed to hurry and recover.
Two hours passed quickly. Especially after the Huchen Ancestor spoke and then closed his eyes, the other family ancestors only exchanged a few quiet words about the recent trial before falling silent as well.
It was rare for Nascent Soul cultivators to gather. Usually, when they did, it was to attend an auction or trade fair together, or to discuss their cultivation insights. But here, today, there wouldn't be much discussion.
As time flew by and afternoon approached, the Huchen Ancestor's faint voice pronounced, "Let's begin." Huchen Tingchun once again levitated above the plaza.
"The second round is the decisive match. The ten contestants will attack their opponents with all their abilities. In this round, the use of any Spirit Artifacts or Magical Treasures is forbidden. Violators will be immediately disqualified. The last person left standing in the battle will be the successor of the next generation of the Huchen family."
As soon as Huchen Tingchun said this, the first to show a change in expression were Xie Xiaoxiao and Ye Luoyan, who were seated in the main seats. Among the ten contestants, several faces also turned grim.
This method of competition seemed to give an almost guaranteed victory to whoever had the highest cultivation. In reality, that was not the case. The Huchen family were poison cultivators, and their greatest strength was the ability to defeat the strong as the weak. When the difference in realms was not too vast, the outcome was hard to predict. A Qi Condensation cultivator was capable of poisoning a Foundation Establishment cultivator to death, but it all depended on the right time and place.
This was also precisely why, despite the Huchen Ancestor being in seclusion and the Xie family having a Nascent Soul cultivator, they had never launched a full-scale attack on the Huchen family. The main reason was, of course, their fear of the Huchen Ancestor recklessly emerging from seclusion, risking self-inflicted damage to his cultivation. Another reason was that the Huchen family's poison cultivators would inflict a fatal blow to the Xie family's mid- and low-level cultivators. In that scenario, the Huchen Ancestor would only need to hold off the Xie Family Ancestor, and the fate of the Xie family cultivators facing a group of poison cultivators would be almost predictable.
After the previous round of competition, among the final ten winners, besides Huchen Wanli who was at early-stage Foundation Establishment , there were two other branch disciples who were also at early-stage Foundation Establishment. If the use of Spirit Artifacts and Magical Treasures were allowed, their combat effectiveness could increase by thirty to fifty percent, allowing them to overpower their opponents with sheer force. However, without the aid of artifacts and treasures, when facing other poison experts, they would have to be more concerned with the deadly poison traps set by their opponents. Their advantage would be almost non-existent.
"Ancestor, isn't this method a bit inappropriate? A competition should be a test of an individual's overall strength. This way, it seems to favor the weaker ones. Victory or defeat should be fair," Xie Xiaoxiao said, biting her silver tooth as she elegantly rose and bowed to the Huchen Ancestor. This time, the Xie Family Ancestor did not stop her. It was clear that Huchen Wanli had a great chance of winning this round, but they had not expected this old Huchen fellow to use such a rule for the competition.
Ye Luoyan, who had been hesitating, felt relieved when someone else took the lead. She too was very dissatisfied with this rule but, given the Ye family's weaker position, did not dare to be the one to speak out.
Xie Xiaoxiao's sudden question quieted the entire plaza for a moment, and all eyes turned to the Huchen Ancestor.
The Huchen Ancestor's face was as calm as an ancient well, as if he had anticipated this. He shook his head gently, and his long black hair, draped over his shoulders, swayed. A solemn expression appeared on his youthful face.
"This method is the fairest. The Huchen family is choosing a successor. This is to ensure that when they cultivate to the sixth layer, they can truly unleash the power of the Ghostly Poison Scroll. All of this requires the most solid foundation. If victory is achieved through reliance on Spirit Artifacts , Spirit Treasures , or even Magical Treasures , then it all depends on each person's Immortal Fortune. If whoever obtains a top-grade magical treasure wins, or if whoever has stronger resources behind them wins...
"Certainly, Immortal Fortune and luck are part of one's strength. But I cannot place the future of the Huchen family on a disciple who is temporarily lucky. Things like Immortal Fortune and luck are too ephemeral. Can the magical treasures they have now support them until they reach Golden Core or Nascent Soul? At that time, in a battle between peers, without magical treasures, the reputation of the Huchen family's poison cultivators would be a joke. True strength is what my Huchen family needs.
"This round is the key to truly testing the comprehensive strength of the first five layers of the Ghostly Poison Scroll. If you truly have the strength, then use your Foundation Establishment to crush the Qi Condensation. Enough, say no more." After speaking these few sentences, the Huchen Ancestor seemed to intentionally or unintentionally sweep his gaze over Xie Xiaoxiao, then fell silent.
When the Huchen Ancestor's gaze fell upon her, Xie Xiaoxiao felt as if all her secrets were laid bare. An inexplicable pressure made her terrified, and for a moment, her entire body was frozen, as if plunged into an ice cellar. The feeling of impending death washed over her.
"Enough. This is a matter for the Huchen family. You are but a woman. What right do you have to speak out of turn? Sit down." At that moment, the Xie Family Ancestor beside her, as if reprimanding her, lightly patted her on the back. A warm current immediately flowed through Xie Xiaoxiao's body. Her figure trembled violently, and she regained her freedom. Then, biting her silver teeth with fear in her eyes, she dared not say another word and sat down directly.
All of this happened in an extremely short time. To the crowd, it was just a simple exchange on the viewing platform, after which the Huchen family's main matriarch sat back down without another word.
Huchen Wandong watched all of this and thought to himself, 'All these years the ancestor was in seclusion, you really thought you had the fate of the Huchen family in your hands. How could you, a mere woman, question a Nascent Soul cultivator? Among the last ten contestants, the other two Foundation Establishment disciples from the branch families... one of them was secretly supported by you as a backup plan, wasn't he? Hmph!'
In the Huchen family, the Huchen Ancestor was the sky. After everything was settled, the competition officially began.
The battlefield was set in the family's rear mountain. The rolling hills there stretched for over a hundred li. To speed up the competition while still allowing the ten contestants to fully display their skills, an area of twenty li was marked out. Even within this twenty-li range, when the ten people were scattered, finding each other would still take some time. This gave everyone ample time to prepare.
Li Yan and the others did not leave the plaza. This time, the Huchen Ancestor personally waved his hand and displayed his divine ability, creating a huge light screen in the air above the plaza. The situation of the ten contestants in the rear mountain was directly revealed on it.
In the rear mountain, after the ten people were distributed across the twenty-li area, each person exhibited a different state. Some began searching for other targets as soon as they entered the mountain; some observed the terrain and began to set up defensive formations on the spot; and some, as if they had agreed beforehand, quickly sought out another person and began to team up.
Huchen Wuding was one of the defenders. After entering, he did not rush to hide or find a target. Instead, after observing his surroundings, he found a small hill and began to form various hand seals from the foot of the hill, setting up a formation.
Amidst the gasps of amazement from the surroundings, Li Yan also learned the name of the formation Huchen Wuding was setting up. It was called the "Rakshasa Thousand Poison Net." This formation did not require formation flags or compasses; it only needed to borrow the power of the surrounding plants and rocks to be deployed. This method looked extremely simple, as many cultivators could use the plants and mountains to set up a hallucinatory formation, or even a formation with some offensive capabilities. However, such formations were usually only effective against mortals and not very useful against cultivators.
The "Rakshasa Thousand Poison Net," however, was different. While borrowing the power of plants, it could turn some poisonous plants into deadly weapons. Even non-poisonous plants, through hand seals and incantations, could be neutralized and combined to create poisonous mists and miasmas. It could even use Spirit Power to alter certain substances in the rocks, turning them into poison as well, ultimately forming an invisible net of poison. All of this required extremely exquisite cultivation of the Ghostly Poison Scroll and a detailed, ingrained understanding of thousands of plants and rocks to be able to combine the available elements into the desired poison.
When Huchen Wuding displayed the "Rakshasa Thousand Poison Net," the crowd in the plaza was filled with awe and admiration. Currently, apart from a few Golden Core elders in the family who could set it up with their profound cultivation and over a century of understanding of the Ghostly Poison Scroll, no disciple had ever been heard of being able to use this art.
Hearing the crowd's explanation, Li Yan finally understood the extent of Huchen Wuding's cultivation in the way of poison. In terms of this fundamental understanding of plants alone, Li Yan admitted that he was far, far behind.
On the viewing platform, Xie Xiaoxiao, Ye Luoyan, and even the ever-composed Chi Dongli all suspected that the "Rakshasa Thousand Poison Net" Huchen Wuding was setting up was merely for show, just to intimidate others. Although they were not from the Huchen family, they knew of some of the famous techniques in the Ghostly Poison Scroll. The "Rakshasa Thousand Poison Net" was a technique that even the Patriarch, Huchen Wandong, needed to put in considerable effort to set up. It was nothing like how Huchen Wuding was doing it, simply starting to form hand seals and cast spells after a cursory observation.
The Patriarch, Huchen Wandong, had his brows tightly knitted. He too found it hard to believe that Huchen Wuding could set up this formation at the Qi Condensation stage.
Only the Huchen Ancestor understood in his heart that what Huchen Wuding was setting up was the true "Rakshasa Thousand Poison Net." He sighed inwardly, 'The family disciples are becoming more and more eager for quick success, having long forgotten what pure cultivation of the Ghostly Poison Scroll is. For the sake of advancing their realms, they only rely on other cultivation methods to break through, turning the Ghostly Poison Scroll into an auxiliary method. They've mistaken the branch for the root. Such a simple principle, even Huchen Wandong, as the family head, can't see it.'
It wasn't so much that Huchen Wandong couldn't see it, but rather that his thinking represented the thinking of all the cultivators in the Huchen family. They were unwilling to even consider that someone would still walk the path of pure Ghostly Poison Scroll cultivation. The painful experiences of many Huchen family predecessors had long made them abandon the thought of this cultivation method. Those disciples who insisted on the pure cultivation method often exhausted their lifespan before even reaching the fifth layer of the Ghostly Poison Scroll , ultimately failing to achieve Foundation Establishment after nearly a century of struggle.
In the rear mountain, after a brief period of tranquility, the great battle erupted.