Sovereign of the Three Realms

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Nonetheless, a strange smile flicked through Shi Qinglu's charming face when she saw Jiang Chen making his way toward Wu You.

Every step Jiang Chen took revealed more sources of poison in the environment. The threats came at him in various different forms.

He smiled slightly. He knew Shi Qinglu must be watching him, waiting for him to take a misstep and collapse from poisoning. A fun idea took root in his mind.

Rays of golden light suddenly flared from his body, obscuring the area around him. He vanished in the blinding glow.

Shi Qinglu had been watching from afar. The sudden flash of light hid everything from view. It didn't last long, but when it faded, Jiang Chen was nowhere to be seen.

Wu You, who'd been hung on the tree, had disappeared as well.

Shi Qinglu's breath hitched and her lips twitched. With a frown, she expanded her consciousness to the fullest and searched for them.

There's something about Jiang Chen that I can't put a finger on. I've set up 36 different poisons in the area, any of which are potent enough to put him down. Not even ninth level empyrean cultivators can walk away once inflicted.

Shi Qinglu was very confident in her mastery of poisons. That was why she'd dared challenge Jiang Chen, even though Jiang Chen had defeated Shi Xuan, who was her senior.

She'd never once doubted that she was more talented than Jiang Chen. She could absolutely defeat him with her poisons.

Even now, after Jiang Chen had disappeared beneath her eyes, her belief never wavered. She huffed and flew toward where Wu You had been in a flash of light.

She no longer bothered with keeping herself hidden. Wu You was gone. The poison formations she'd set up were triggered as a result. If Jiang Chen had rescued Wu You, the poisons in the formation would cripple him. Even if he was powerful enough to withstand it at first, he'd collapse soon.

Shi Qinglu approached the tree with light steps and looked around. But after a while, she began to doubt herself.

She couldn't find any clues. Jiang Chen seemed to have vanished into thin air. She couldn't tell how he'd rescued Wu You.

One thing was for sure: Wu You had been rescued, which would then naturally trigger all of the formations in the area.

This befuddled Shi Qinglu even more. The thirty-six poison formations she'd set up were diverse, every one of them dispersing poison in a different way. Even if Jiang Chen could avoid most, he couldn't have detected all of them.

Any one of them should've been enough to keep Jiang Chen from escaping.

"He couldn't possibly have walked away unscathed." Shi Qinglu didn't think Jiang Chen could've reacted quickly enough to avoid all of the poisons. Even if he had the reflexes for it, he still needed to be remarkably resistant to poison as well.

She paced around the area and declared in a steely voice, "I know you're still around, Jiang Chen. I've sectioned off the area. You can't escape my poison formations even if you soar to the sky or tunnel underground. Do you really think you'll be able to hide from me?"

There was no response even after a long while. It was as if no one was truly left in the area.

However, Shi Qinglu still radiated confidence. She believed Jiang Chen couldn't have gone far.

"Don't blame me for not warning you, Jiang Chen. You might feel fine at the moment, but you've already been inflicted with all sorts of poison. They're on your skin, in your meridians, and some even burrowing deep into your bones. Not even your consciousness has been spared.

"You can hide, but I'm not interested in playing hide-and-seek with you. Remember, the longer you wait, the more likely you might be permanently crippled. It'll be too late for you to show and beg for mercy then. Not even the Great Immortal will be able to save you."

She laid out her points in a deliberate, assured manner.

To her disappointment, Jiang Chen still didn't show up. She'd made the pros and cons very clear. Anyone with a brain would have recognized the truth in her words and surrendered.

After all, killing was forbidden in the competition. Shi Qinglu couldn't really kill him.

Still, Jiang Chen didn't do as she'd suggested. Her frown deepened further.

"Fine, if you want to be crippled so badly, it's your choice!" Agitation started to build.

Things hadn't gone as planned. The sense of losing control upset her. She'd always been the one to toy with her enemies. Younger foe, especially, never escaped her reach.

This time however, things were different.

Lu Mingye emerged from the edge of the woods not too far off in the distance, coming into Shi Qinglu's view.

He silently celebrated the fact that Shi Qinglu hadn't emerged victorious as she'd planned. He still had a chance to get Jiang Chen!

"Haha, Qinglu, it seems your poison formations aren't as invincible as you'd like to think," Lu Mingye remarked with a touch of schadenfreude. "Perhaps I should step in?"

Shi Qinglu's face darkened. "If I were you, Lu Mingye, I'd do the smart thing and get the hell away from here."

Lu Mingye smiled lazily. "Why would I do that?"

"Because I'm pissed," she said coldly. "And when I'm pissed, someone gets hurt. Do you want to feel my ire?"

Lu Mingye burst into laughter. "We're from the same faction, Qinglu. I know all of your tricks and you know all my techniques. Without the poisons, your cultivation is a hair lower than mine. I may not be able to defeat you, but you can't defeat me either." His tone was lazily dismissive. Clearly, he was trying to anger Shi Qinglu.