Chapter 149 — Deadly Poison
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 7 of 9
The poisoned elder cried out in alarm. Without a moment's thought, another elder beside him bellowed, seized the broken leg of some chair that lay fallen nearby, and brought it down on the other's right hand. Such was his profound cultivation that the chair leg, like a blade's edge, cut through all before it, and he hewed the poisoned elder's right arm clean off. At once the elder flung the chair leg away, as if afraid that holding it a moment longer would bring his own hand to the same fate.
The chair leg flew through the air, and everyone scrambled to dodge.
By now Duan Rushan's face was covered in black qi. All could clearly see that on his two hands, now utterly black, the skin split open with a "pop," and what flowed out was already black blood.
In the space of moments, that hair-raising sound—"pop, pop, pop"—rang out without cease. Duan Rushan, his body afflicted by the two most venomous poisons under heaven, burst apart at the flesh, black blood splattering in all directions; he collapsed to the ground, struggled a moment, and then moved no more.
Fan Xiong stared blankly at this junior brother who had been so wildly arrogant a moment before and was now dead. Suddenly he turned his head and bellowed, "Qin Wujiu, you treacherous beast, get out here!"
Everyone came to their senses at once. "Corpse-Rotting Moss" was fierce and malignant in its toxicity, one of the most vicious substances under heaven; even within the Ten-Thousand Venoms Sect, only the Venom God himself had ever been able to use it. Fan Xiong, Cheng Wuya, and Duan Rushan—all three, limited by their cultivation, could not employ it.
And the Seven-tailed Centipede was an even rarer and more deadly creature, always kept close upon the Venom God's person. That two such deadly poisons should appear at once, and within this little box of the Ten-Thousand Venoms Divine Seal—there was no need to ask; it must be that Qin Wujiu had deceived them all and secretly administered the poison.
For a time, everyone in the mourning hall felt himself in danger, and all cast furtive glances around them, fearful that Qin Wujiu's figure might suddenly rise up at their side. Duan Rushan's manner of death had been too horrifying; none were unmoved by it, none unafraid.
At this moment no one in the mourning hall dared even breathe. Only by Duan Rushan's corpse did those drops of black blood fall slowly; when they struck the ground they gave a faint hiss and burned tiny holes clean through it. In an instant the ground around the corpse was covered in little holes—proof enough of how fierce the poison was.
"Heh heh, what's this? My two senior brothers, and all you elders and retainers—it's been only a few days since we last met, and I'm touched that you should all miss me so!" A calm, even voice suddenly came in from outside the mourning hall. The crowd was startled and looked out, and there was Qin Wujiu, changed out of his hemp mourning garb and into his everyday clothes, a smile on his face, walking slowly in. And the sharp-eyed among them had already seen that on his shoulder perched a tiny monstrous insect—the Seven-tailed Centipede itself.
Fan Xiong said venomously, "You're the one who poisoned them?"
Qin Wujiu now seemed to regard everyone present as nothing at all. He strode forward with great swagger, came to the side of Duan Rushan's corpse, and before all their eyes reached out and picked up that exceedingly poisonous Ten-Thousand Venoms Divine Seal.
Fan Xiong and Cheng Wuya's eyes narrowed. Cheng Wuya said with a cold smile, "Well, well! Little junior brother, the three of us have indeed underestimated you far too much."