Painting of the Nine Immortals

Translator: _Tat_ Editor: Rundi

The Forest of a Thousand Poison was one of the restricted areas inside the Realm of Alchemy.

Perhaps it follows the rules that if you feed something badly, it results in bad growth - everywhere around this place was filled with poisonous trees.

The ancient trees here were now as tall as the sky and its leaves were full and blooming. Within the radius of three miles, black fog surrounded it and it looked eerie and horrifying.

"So this is the Forest of a Thousand Poison."

Sensing the countless amount of poisonous air, Ling Xian's expression turned serious. He didn't dare to be the slightest reckless.

During the gathering from the Hidden Territory, he had seen the Forest of a Thousand Poison from afar. He still remembers the way.

"No matter what, since I agreed Hong Yan Xin, I have to attempt it." Ling Xian's brows were tightly knitted together. He wasn't certain, but was still somewhat confident.

After all, the Flame of Purity was known to chase away the poisonous and could not be affected by poison. Naturally, he had confidence in himself.

"Come on, even though the Forest of a Thousand Poison is scary, my Flame of Purity is not something to mess with."

The corner of his lips curled up as Ling Xian crazily manipulated his Flame of Purity. Immediately, silver flame poured out of him and formed into a sea of fire. It had enough energy to boil the sea!

Without a doubt, this would be the first time he had dialed up the Flame of Purity to its extreme. After all, he was up against the Forest of a Thousand Poison. If he didn't give in his all, he would collapse here and now.

"Burn it up!"

Yelling, Ling Xian formed a hand seal and some terrifying flame rolled out of his hands, increasing the temperature of this forest. On top of this, the flame was overpowering the poisons and easily swallowed the toxic fog around the forest.

However, he didn't dare to be reckless. He merely diminished the toxins on the outside, the poison inside the forest would be a different level.

"To burn the entire Forest of a Thousand Poison all at once is a little difficult to me right now. After all, if I cover a larger area, the average power above each will decrease." Ling Xian quietly whispered. He knew that he could not go against the entire forest, so he changed his strategy.

He rolled his sleeves and the Flame of Purity immediately shrunk in size until it was only wrapping around him. Then, in a flash, he walked into the terrifying Forest of a Thousand Poison.

The moment he stepped into the forest, three clouds of black air emerged. They formulated into a purple fog and headed towards him.

"Dissipate!"

Ling Xian coldly smirked as his entire body was tightly embraced by the silver flame. Similar to the legendary God of Fire, he was invadable. The silver flame had the miraculous power to cleanse and purify. The moment poison touched it, it got swallowed up.

After all, the Flame of Purity was nicknamed to be untouchable. If it didn't at least do this, then why would Ling Xian dare to step into this Forest of a Thousand Poison that even the grandmasters were scared of.

If what happened at the Nothing is for Sale store happened here, where poison entered his body, then manipulation of the Flame would be very difficult. However, what was happening was that the Flame of Purity was attacking Ling Xian externally. Naturally this was not enough to pose a threat.

"How lucky. Though the poisons here are horrible, they do not enter the body right away. Therefore, the possibility of me reaching to the deep end of the forest is even higher."

Ling Xian revealed a faint grin. He picked up his step and began to walk towards the deep end of the forest.

Along the way, countless poisons turned into poisonous fog. Several of the different types combined and mixed into a combination of poison, and some individual poison were rushing towards him. Without a doubt however, all of these poisons were scary enough to make people tremble.

Even an original leveled monster would be killed in an instant.

However, these poison, before the Flame of Purity, were nothing. Even though the poisonous fog was seemingly endless, the moment they touched the silver flame, they were swallowed clean.

What could they do? The Flame of Purity was far too overpowering and fed on poison to grow stronger. Or else it wouldn't be named the nemesis of all poisons.

"It is no wonder that everyone from the mortal dreams of acquiring the Flame of Purity. The ability to stop all poison sure is unreasonably powerful." Ling Xian complimented. He manipulated his Flame of Purity quickly and arrived before the poisonous fog to get rid of them.

Then, in a flash, his silhouette moved and he dashed in an extreme speed towards the center of the forest.

Even though during his journey, countless different poison were headed towards him, before they could touch him, they were eaten up by the silver Flame of Purity.

This scene was unbelievable.

You know, this was the Flame of Purity that brought fear to all Yuezhou citizens' face. Even powerhouses like Fu Di and Zhe Xian wouldn't dare to step in here. Yet there was Ling Xian, walking into the restricted area like he was taking a stroll in his backyard. How unbelievable was this?

It could be described as heaven defying!

Luckily there was nobody else here. Or else they would be stunned by what was happening here now.

Just like that, Ling Xian was acting like the God of Fire descending into the world of mortal. Silver flame danced around him as he destroyed poisonous fog while walking into the forest. After a while, he finally arrived at the deep end of the forest.

"Hong Yan Xin never clarified what the item she wanted was. She only said it's inside a box inside the forest."

Ling Xian frowned. As he continued calling out to his Flame of Purity, he glanced around using his spiritual energy, hoping to find the box he was looking for.

Finally, on top of an ancient tree in the southeast direction, he saw a black box.

"Found it!" Ling Xian's eyes brightened. In a flash, he arrived at the giant tree.

Just as he landed on top of a branch of the tree, a swirl of pink fog suddenly emerged. Even behind the shield of the Flame of Purity, he could feel the poison seeping through.

Instantly, Ling Xian's expression changed. He crazily turned up his Flame of Purity in an attempt to destroy this reddish fog.

However, it wasn't clear to him what kind of poison this was. It somehow was at a stalemate against the Flame of Purity and could not be fended off by the poison.

This made Ling Xian frown. He didn't think this fog would be this creepy. It was obvious mere poison, yet it could fight against its nemesis at a stalemate.

"Whatever this strange fog is, I have to get the box first." Ling Xian made his decision. As he continued to dial up the Flame of Purity to defend against the countless poisons around him, he reached for the black box.

"Retreat!"

Right after his hand grabbed onto the box, Ling Xian drifted away and retracted hundreds meters away. Then, his Winged Blitz made its appearance and carried him to escape.

Since the target had been acquired, he had no plans to stay here a second longer than he had to. Especially against that red and pink fog, he was worried despite his Flame of Purity.

Therefore, Ling Xian distanced himself. Using merely minutes, he left the Forest of a Thousand Poison.

One has to admit that he was heaven defying.

This was the incomparably terrifying Forest of a Thousand Poison. Even someone like Fu Di did not dare to step a foot in here. Yet here he was, walking around like it was his backyard. How dominating was it for him to arrive whenever he wanted and to leave whenever he wanted?

Luckily nobody here knew of this terrifying event. Or else they all would be cursing at Ling Xian!

"Okay, let me investigate what it is inside this box. Then I will rush back to participate in the competition." Ling Xian grinned and manipulated his Qi to open up the black box.

In the next second, an endless amount of bloody light emitted. Along with the eerie atmosphere, it sent a chill down everyone's spine.

"This feeling… it's a curse!" Ling Xian's face drastically changed. He crazily turned the Golden Dan inside him and carefully defended.

However, other than the bloody light, nothing scary happened. The bloody light stayed for a little while and quickly retraced.

This made him sigh in relief. He shifted his gaze to inside the box and saw a sheep skin scroll that was fading into the shade of yellow. It seemed like this scroll was of age.

"What does this sheep skin scroll have written on it?"

Ling Xian frowned and picked up the sheep skin. He saw that on it were carved countless and unclear strange symbols. It was obvious that it was not in a language used nowadays.

"What a strange item. They are characters from the previous era."

Locking his brows tightly, Ling Xian was too lazy to investigate the characters on it that he did not recognize. After all, this item didn't belong to him. Even if it was a treasure, he wouldn't take it for himself.

After all, he had made a deal with Hong Yan Xin. Why would he betray his words?

Therefore, he placed the sheep skin scroll back into its box and placed it inside his storage pouch.

"Okay, I have dealt with my task inside the Forest of a Thousand Poison. Next, I will go to the competition and look for the Flower of Three Lives on Opposite Shores."

Ling Xian revealed a faint smile. He flattered his Winged Blitz and headed towards the direction of the Mountain of a Thousand Medicine.

As he hurried his way towards the Mountain of a Thousand Medicine, two hours of the initial test had passed.

Within these two hours, countless genius alchemists had given it their all and crazily attempted to name the spiritual medicines found on the Mountain. Though it only took 100,000 points to pass the test, it wasn't that easy to get there.

On top of that, the person who ranked first would get a heavy reward plus huge honors. Try to imagine, if one could beat all geniuses and became the first in the competition, even if one didn't end up winning the entire competition, wouldn't it still be an honor?

This was why countless genius alchemists were trying their absolute best to enhance their scores.

From the giant mirror hanging above the sky, one could see that the first place right now was the descendant of the Hong Clan, Hong Zhuang Luo. She had 240,000 points.

The second in place was Shang Guan Wu Yao. His score was 200,000 points, 40,000 points behind Hong Zhuang Luo.

The third was Cao Yu. His score was 180,000 points, 20,000 points behind Shang Guan Wu Yao.

All top 10 contenders had at least around 120,000 points. It was obvious that these people had extraordinary capabilities. At the very least, they deserved the title of being a genius.

The top three especially… to be able to recognize around 200,000 spiritual medicines at their age was enough to prove how much they knew.

Amongst these people, even the worst score was 30,000 points. There was one exception.

That was Ling Xian.

His score was 0, last in place!

Without a doubt, this was a blinding number. A number that was hard to believe.

To be able to enter the Realm of Alchemy, it was already decided that these people were extraordinary. How could he not be able to earn even one point? This made everyone feel ridiculous and those on the external world were all in disbelief.

Then, whether it was the Heaven's Favorites inside the Realm of Alchemy, or the cultivators watching for fun on the outside, everyone was now making fun of Ling Xian. Some people were now even suspecting that he never earned the two purple lines and that he was only here because of his family connections.

What else would they think? The score behind his name was 0. This was far too attention grabbing and far too laughable.

Everyone was now making fun of him.