Nine Dragons Saint Ancestor
Chapter 199: One hundred and ninety-nine, the final battle begins!

Chapter 199: One hundred and ninety-nine, the final battle begins!

Night fell!

In the courtyard where Yun Xiao was staying, a three-legged, two-eared medicine tripod had appeared. It seemed that as soon as he returned, he had not wasted any time and had started refining elixirs straight away.

As for the events that had occurred in the Mysterious Artifact Hall, Yun Xiao truly did not care at all. As the saying goes, one doesn’t feel itches when there are too many lice, nor worries when there are too many debts. In any case, Yun Xiao had already offended several people in the Jade Pot Sect, and he did not mind adding one more in the form of Bi Luo.

Furthermore, ever since Yun Xiao had dealings with the Jade Pot Sect, he had been like fire and water with the Poison Vein faction, led by Fu Du. He believed that the Poison Vein faction, headed by Fu Du, either was filled with hatred for him or was coveting him in the dark. In any case, none had good intentions toward him.

Therefore, Yun Xiao had to find a backer within the Jade Pot Sect as quickly as possible, and within the sect, the only group that could stand toe-to-toe with the Poison Vein faction led by Fu Du was the Medical Pulse faction. Thus, Yun Xiao had always been trying hard to build a good relationship with Lu Zhan.

Even saving Song Tian and the Ling Wan was a deliberate choice by Yun Xiao. He transmitted those meridian arrays to Lu Zhan, which could never be seen on the Hidden Dragon Continent, through a special method, which made the Great Elder owe him a favor.

In the end, what cultivators on the continent revered was strength, and the Outer Sect competition was the perfect stage for Yun Xiao to demonstrate his Meridian Qi power.

In fact, by defeating Feng Hang, the number one genius on the Mortal List, the day before, Yun Xiao had already proven that his strength was not inferior to any talent in the Outer Sect. He had not even considered going all out in a fight to the death with Shen Xiao in the final round.

However, when Shen Xiao maliciously poisoned Ling Wan, this ignited a fury in Yun Xiao. Moreover, he knew clearly that a poison like the Extreme Cold Yinsu Poison, which belonged to the Spiritual Rank level, was not something that Shen Xiao could refine. It was highly likely that the latter had already colluded with the Poison Vein Masters from the Poison Vein faction.

Given the circumstances, both morally and rationally, Yun Xiao could not possibly show leniency towards Shen Xiao. And after experiencing Shen Xiao’s poisonous tactics in the daytime, he planned to return the favor in kind.

Even within Yun Xiao’s soul, which once belonged to the Long Xiao Battle God from his previous life, there lingered a spirit that refused to admit defeat. He wanted to see whether the deadly poisons refined by himself, a Holy Rank Meridian Refining Master in his previous life, were more powerful, or whether the poisons refined by a mere Middle Level Spiritual Rank Poison Vein Master of the Hidden Dragon Continent were more formidable.

"Meridian Fire, appear!"

With these thoughts flashing in his mind, Yun Xiao no longer hesitated. He placed his right palm on one of the tripod’s mouths, and a blood-red flame burst forth from the palm of his hand. Once stimulated by the medicine tripod, it immediately turned into a furnace full of blood-red flames.

"Black Withered Vine!"

Yun Xiao threw a section of black vine into the flames within the medicine tripod. It was one of the main ingredients he exchanged for with one hundred and fifty points from the Mysterious Artifact Hall.

The Black Withered Vine was inherently toxic, and if some low-strength cultivators mistook it for an ordinary branch and touched it with their skin, in a few breaths, their body would likely corrode into a blackened corpse. This is the origin of the name "Black Withered."

What Yun Xiao was doing at the moment was to remove the impurities from the Black Withered Vine and refine its toxic essence to make its poison even more ferocious.

The poison that Yun Xiao was refining this time was an Advanced Mortal Rank deadly poison. Despite the poison being only at the Advanced Mortal Rank, it was a new type of deadly poison that had never appeared in the Hidden Dragon Continent. Its toxicity was likely not much weaker than the Extreme Cold Yinsu Poison used by Shen Xiao that day.

Moreover, Yun Xiao believed that even a Middle Level Spiritual Rank Meridian Master, if they were to try, might not be able to resolve his Advanced Mortal Rank poison easily, let alone Shen Xiao who was only at the Early Stage of the Meridian Rushing Realm.

"Fierce Corrosive Stone, Li Yuan Water,..."

As time passed, one after another of the main toxic ingredients were thrown by Yun Xiao into the medicine tripod. In the end, they were turned into puffs of medicine powder or pools of medicine liquid essence, which he carefully collected into jade bottles prepared in advance, ready to be condensed.

However, as a Middle Level Mortal Rank Meridian Master, it was not so easy for Yun Xiao to successfully refine an Advanced Mortal Rank poison, and the time required was destined to be lengthy.

Luckily, since the poison Yun Xiao was refining was not a true elixir, it saved him considerable effort and also significantly improved his success rate.

The night passed quickly.

By the time the first rays of dawn from the Eastern Horizon shone into Yun Xiao’s room, there was only a constantly changing black liquid left inside his medicine tripod.

"Collect!"

Seeing this scene and sensing the aura emanating from the medicine tripod, Yun Xiao’s expression became somewhat solemn as he let out a low shout. Then, he slapped the lid of the tripod, and as the lid flipped open, the black medicine liquid had already flown out into the air.

Upon seeing this, Yun Xiao did not dare to be neglectful. His right hand, which was already wrapped in cloth, held a black medicine bottle. Finally, without spilling a single drop, he filled the medicine bottle with the liquid.

It must be understood that this was a poison that could corrode even cultivators of the Meridian Rushing Realm. Naturally, Yun Xiao dared not allow himself to come into contact with it. Seeing that he carefully put the black medicine bottle into his Waist Storage, he finally took a long, relieved breath.

Despite not having slept all night, Yun Xiao appeared spirited and energetic, perhaps this was the joy that came after a successful alchemy, or maybe it was because the act of crafting elixirs, or other tasks that required the use of soul power, helped enhance the soul power.

"Sigh..."

Exhaling deeply, Yun Xiao stood up, stretched lazily, and turned his gaze to a corner of the room, only to find Fire Cloud Rat Chi Yan staying motionless, clearly having entered a special state.

"It seems that the little guy has already started refining the Hundred-year-old Fiery Fire Ginseng!"

With just one look, Yun Xiao noticed a rich Fire Attribute radiating from Chi Yan, and realized this in his heart but chose not to disturb it.

Creak!

Yun Xiao, walking out the door, was greeted with several eager faces. Apart from Tan Yun and a few other team members, Song Tian had also arrived early. It seemed that they were all very much looking forward to today’s final battle.

"Ling Wan, your injuries are not bothering you anymore, right?"

Yun Xiao smiled faintly, turning his head in a direction and asked softly, but by the time the words fell, he had already sensed Ling Wan’s breath, and no answer was needed from the latter.

"Hehe, the feeling of being at the peak of the Meridian Gathering Realm couldn’t be better!"

Ling Wan grinned, inciting lots of envy from others, especially Tan Yun. She was originally the strongest person in the team, but now both Yun Xiao and Ling Wan had surpassed her, and she was still striving to breakthrough to the Meridian Gathering Realm.

However, Tan Yun and the others understood that Yun Xiao and Ling Wan were not ordinary people. Their success could not be replicated; it was an envy out of reach, and they could only silently accept it.

"Since that’s the case, let’s go!"

Yun Xiao gestured grandly, and the group of six set out for the Arena Hall, believing that today’s Arena Hall would be even busier than the previous days, as this was the final battle.

When Yun Xiao and his group entered the Arena Hall, the originally noisy hall suddenly quieted down, with countless gazes cast toward the entrance, all focused on the lean figure of the young man in rough clothes.

Before yesterday, no one would have thought Yun Xiao was a match for Shen Xiao, given the gaping rank difference between them. A talent capable of such cross-rank battles was unheard of.

Yet, just yesterday, on the central platform of the Arena Hall, Yun Xiao had defeated Feng Hang, the top genius of the Outer Sect ranked number one on the Mortal List, advancing to this ultimate showdown.

In the hearts of these Outer Disciples, Feng Hang’s strength was considered stronger than Shen Xiao’s, so at this moment, they had no doubts about Yun Xiao’s strength. Today’s battle was bound to be incredibly exciting.

However, compared to the Outer Disciples who bore no grudges against Yun Xiao, a few from a certain place were casting poisonous looks towards the young man in rough clothes, as he slowly walked into the Arena Hall.

Among them, Zhao Ningshu and Cao Luo were somewhat tolerable, but the Third Prince, Xuan Zhi, had eyes that looked as if they could spew fire out, and with yesterday’s encounter in the Mysterious Artifact Hall, he had been bested by Yun Xiao more times than he could count.

As another involved party in yesterday’s conflict at the Mysterious Artifact Hall, Bi Luo, a genius Inner Disciple from the southeastern corner, also had an unpleasant expression. If possible, he even wished to personally climb onto the platform and chop that Yun Xiao into pieces.

In the northeast corner of the Arena Hall, a man and a woman stood, among whom the black-clad girl’s gaze had not left Yun Xiao since he entered, inadvertently causing her talented junior’s concealed jealousy.

Yun Xiao, having entered the Arena Hall, paid little attention to all of this, nodded towards Song Tian and Ling Wan, and headed straight for the central platform.

Worth mentioning was that the three Great Elders in the northern seats were also focusing on Yun Xiao, selectively ignoring the Outer Sect’s second genius, who should have been more dazzling.

Seemingly aware of where all the gazes in the Arena Hall were directed, Shen Xiao, who was already standing on the central platform, had an unsightly complexion because such widespread attention should have belonged to him.

Even Shen Xiao had an illusion that the nature of those gazes had fundamentally changed; a victory that had seemed all but certain was now shrouded in uncertainty due to some reason.

It seemed that after Yun Xiao’s victory over Feng Hang, facing Shen Xiao now, many Inner and Outer Sect geniuses were even more optimistic about Yun Xiao, as Shen Xiao was ranked lower than Feng Hang on the Mortal List before.

These subtle thoughts filled Shen Xiao with a complex jealousy and resentment as he watched the lean young man slowly stepping onto the platform.

Shen Xiao secretly vowed that he must defeat Yun Xiao openly and uprightly in today’s final showdown to retrieve his own dignity and change the perceptions of those shortsighted fools.