See Who Outlasts Whom!

Branch Master Shi Boyu returned to the sub-branch altar and sat in the main hall without uttering a word. Something had happened to Zhong Desong, and it left Shi Boyu deeply irritable. The Second Branch had lost yet another leader, making it difficult for him to hold his head high before the Hall Master. Yet it was merely irritation; Shi Boyu didn't feel truly incensed. On his roster, these leaders were all marked for elimination sooner or later. Red Stick Xiang Guicheng openly crossed him on the surface; that man deserved death the most. Wind Patrol Du Hongxi was hardly any better than Xiang Guicheng, and he was already dead. Sage Zhong Desong maintained a placid front, never consulting Shi Boyu when recommending talent, clearly holding no regard for the branch master either. Shi Boyu didn't even trust his counselor, Sun Xiao'an. Every time he watched Sun gurgling on his water pipe, Shi Boyu could never fathom what was going on in the man's head. All of them had been dosed with Shi Boyu's slow-acting poison. Those who obeyed could live a few more years, while those who defied him would soon be sent on their way. Yet Zhong Desong's sudden misfortune baffled Shi Boyu. The Xianle Dance Hall had been bombed. The Hall Master of the Jiangxiang Gang's Medicine King Hall believed it was neither Yu Nan's doing nor Qin Tianjiu's. Someone else was behind it—someone whose methods and cunning were far beyond anything Yu Nan or Qin Tianjiu could match. Following the Hall Master's orders, Shi Boyu had promptly suppressed the incident and launched a quiet investigation for clues about the culprit. According to the Hall Master's reasoning, the killer would soon let their guard down and give themselves away. Instead of slipping up, the culprit had directly pulled a knife. Now, before the killer had shown any sign of exposure, Zhong Desong had run into trouble first. No living person, no corpse. Was this done by the same culprit? Why would this person take the initiative to strike at Zhong Desong? Were they bloody out of their mind? Where could they go now? Were they still in Ligou? How could they be found? Amidst his brooding, Shi Boyu suddenly felt a wave of stifling heat. He ordered a lackey—his personal attendant—to open the window. A lackey walked over to the window, his hand outstretched, yet he couldn't touch the frame. He didn't dare speak and could only shove against the invisible wall with all his might. Shi Boyu glanced toward the window with irritation. A squad leader scolded, "Just telling you to open a window takes this damn long? What the hell can you actually do—" Before he could finish, the squad leader suddenly noticed a puddle of water forming under his feet. "What kind of water is this...?" A lackey sniffed the aroma and cried out in alarm, "It's tea! It's Old Zhong's magical artifact!" Shi Boyu had never seen Old Zhong's magical artifact; he had only heard Sun Xiao'an mention it. The artifact was formidable. Zhong Desong had once used it to kill a tier-three cultivator and critically wound a tier-four. Head-on confrontation was clearly out of the question. Shi Boyu hastily shouted, "Quick, get outside and take cover!" Hearing this, his subordinates didn't budge. Shi Boyu raged, "Are you all bloody deaf?!" He moved to leave the hall, only to be blocked at the doorway by an invisible wall. In his shock, he heard a lackey behind him say, "Branch Master, we're trapped by Old Zhong's artifact. We can't get out. This thing of his..." Halfway through, the lackey wailed and jumped onto a table; the scalding tea had burned his feet. A dozen subordinates wailed in succession, some leaping onto couches, others scrambling onto tables. Shi Boyu was a bit slow on his feet. Two subordinates pulled him onto a table, but blisters had already erupted across the soles of his feet. Li Banfeng crouched on the roof beam, finding the scene rather peculiar. According to Shopkeeper Feng, Shi Boyu had started out as a Red Stick before taking over as branch master in Yaowanggou. A Red Stick handled the fighting, so why was Shi Boyu so clumsy? Was his cultivation too low? Shi Boyu's cultivation wasn't low at all; he was a tier-three cultivator. However, he did not belong to pathways known for agility and physical combat like Martial Cultivator, Journey Cultivator, or Body Cultivator. He was a tier-three Poison Cultivator. Shi Boyu stood on the table and yelled, "Does anyone know how to break this artifact?" A squad leader shouted, "Find the person using the teapot and snatch it away! Don't let them keep rubbing it, or there's no way to break it!" Sun Xiao'an had explained the countermeasure to Shi Boyu before, but in his panic, Shi Boyu hadn't recalled it. Now, hearing the squad leader, Shi Boyu remembered. But where was the teapot? It had to be in the enemy's hands. And where was the enemy? Shi Boyu had no idea! "Zhu-zi, listen for any sounds!" Shi Boyu had a personal guard named Kou Zhu, a tier-one Scrying Cultivator. Kou Zhu listened intently for a long while, but heard nothing. Li Banfeng was a tier-two Dwelling Cultivator. Relying on the Dwelling Cultivator's talent for going unnoticed, he evaded Kou Zhu's Clairaudience. The water rose higher and higher. The feet of the disciples standing on the couch were already scalded raw. One disciple fell into the tea amidst agonized screams. After thrashing twice, the flesh sloughed off his bones, and his voice died away in an instant. The water was about to spill over the edge of the table. The squad leader had initially protected Branch Master Shi Boyu, but seeing that Shi Boyu couldn't come up with an escape plan, he had to look out for himself. First, a red, spotted carapace formed on the squad leader's back. Beneath the shell, two black wings sprouted. Buzz! Transforming into a ladybug, the squad leader lifted his feet off the ground and took flight. He could protect himself; he wouldn't die. Unless Li Banfeng let the water rise continuously until it submerged the entire ceiling. Bear in mind that the person using the teapot was also trapped within this enclosed space. If the water kept rising, Li Banfeng would scald himself to death as well. The squad leader looked down, watching Zhu-zi, who had already been scalded to death, and the branch master, who was about to be scalded to death. If the branch master died, he would certainly face repercussions. Yet no matter what repercussions awaited him, anything was better than being scalded to death here. If worst came to worst, he would just run for it. Living another day was another day gained. "Ahhh—" Kou Zhu shrieked in agony as he died in the boiling water. The squad leader sighed, and then suddenly felt his wings growing heavier and heavier. He couldn't fly anymore. Why couldn't he fly? The squad leader focused his gaze on the branch master. Branch Master Shi Boyu was releasing poison. To find the teapot, one had to find the person holding it. If he couldn't find the person holding the teapot, he would just poison that person to death. Shi Boyu's tactic was crystal clear. However, releasing his poison would kill everyone in the room. Did that matter? To Shi Boyu, it hardly mattered at all. The lives of others had never been important in his eyes. Clatter~ A faint sound came from the roof. Shi Boyu looked up and saw a woman with flamboyant makeup, dressed in men's clothing, crouching upon the roof beam. Yu Nan? Was it really her? It wasn't Yu Nan; it was Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng, who had been crouching on the roof beam all along, could barely hold on and nearly plunged down. He was poisoned. The technique of a tier-three Poison Cultivator had nearly caused Li Banfeng to lose consciousness. Using his Journey Cultivator talents, he struggled to remain perched on the beam, continually rubbing the teapot. Li Banfeng's plan was straightforward: at this point, it was a test of who could outlast the other. The teapot was still spewing water. The water level in the room kept rising. Scalding tea had already submerged the table and seeped into Shi Boyu's shoes. Enduring the excruciating pain, Shi Boyu ordered the squad leader to kill the woman on the beam. The squad leader's face turned greenish-blue. He cast a glance at Li Banfeng, but his wings abruptly stopped beating, and he plunged headfirst into the tea. A Dwelling Cultivator had resistance to toxins, and even Li Banfeng, with tier-two Dwelling Cultivator cultivation, was struggling to withstand it. The squad leader was merely a tier-one Body Cultivator; how could he possibly hold up? Seeing the squad leader fall beside his feet, Shi Boyu fished him out of the boiling water with one hand, laid him on the table, and stepped on him, buying himself a little more time. Li Banfeng pulled the bloodstained scissors from his waist and hurled them at Shi Boyu. This was a spiritual weapon; as long as the aim wasn't too wild, it would snip off Shi Boyu's head. Shi Boyu fished another corpse from the water and held it before him. The scissors snipped off the corpse's head and plunged into the hot tea along with it. Such was the difference between a spiritual weapon and a magical artifact. Snapping off a head fulfilled its task; as for whose head it was, the scissors didn't care. Shi Boyu spewed a mouthful of poisonous mist toward Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng leaped and dodged across the beams, but quickly realized dodging was futile. The artifact was still active, and under the invisible wall, the space was only so large. The toxic mist swiftly spread everywhere. The sensation of being poisoned on Bitter Mist Mountain returned: dizziness, exhaustion, blurred vision, deteriorated coordination... Li Banfeng didn't dare move recklessly anymore; he could fall from the beam at any moment. How had he endured it back on Bitter Mist Mountain? He hadn't endured it. When that condition appeared back then, Li Banfeng hadn't been able to hold out and had slipped straight into the Portable Abode. Not only him—aside from Xiaopang, many people couldn't endure it. Xiaopang... Right, Xiaopang's blood! There was Xiaopang's blood inside the pendulum! Li Banfeng unscrewed the pendulum and drank the blood straight down. The dizziness subsided noticeably. Li Banfeng vigorously rubbed the teapot. The water level kept rising, submerging the squad leader's body. Shi Boyu dragged another corpse over, stacked it under his feet, and continued unleashing poison at Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng drank more blood, but this time the effect wasn't as pronounced. Xiaopang was a tier-one Food Cultivator. His blood could strengthen physical constitution, but it couldn't dispel poison. There was a vast gap between tier one and tier three; the speed of physical reinforcement was far outmatched by the rate of toxic corruption. Shi Boyu continued dredging up nearby corpses and stacking them under his feet. The pile grew higher and higher, wobbling slightly. Watching Shi Boyu sway unsteadily, Li Banfeng looked for a chance to close in and kick him into the water. A stream of green fluid seeped from Shi Boyu, flowing down past his feet and spreading across the corpses. It was as though a layer of glue had formed over the bodies, binding them tightly together. What kind of technique was this? Glue Cultivator? Li Banfeng was astounded. This wasn't Glue Cultivator; the poisonous liquid Shi Boyu released was corroding the corpses, causing their flesh and bone to fuse together. A veteran of a hundred battles, Shi Boyu had still managed to devise a countermeasure under such dire circumstances. The toxic liquid was far more formidable than the poisonous mist. If Li Banfeng dared to draw close, coming into contact with even a drop would mean instant death. Seeing Li Banfeng drain the blood from the pendulum, Shi Boyu also dragged up the last corpse he could reach. Li Banfeng's face turned greenish-blue; he couldn't hold out much longer. Shi Boyu smiled. He had won. Judging by the speed at which the water rose, Shi Boyu was confident that before the water covered this last corpse, that glamorous woman would definitely fall from the beam. Once this person died, the artifact would naturally cease functioning. "If you don't want to scald yourself to death, put the teapot away. Once you fall, it'll be too late for regrets," Shi Boyu said with a smile, looking at Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng didn't put the teapot away. He threw it into the water. Shi Boyu froze, not understanding what Li Banfeng was doing. His gaze fixated on the teapot, wishing he could fish it out right that second. Taking advantage of the moment, Li Banfeng took out his key and returned to the Portable Abode. The teapot was too far away; Shi Boyu couldn't reach it. He looked up and found Li Banfeng gone. Where did she go? How did she vanish? Shi Boyu looked down at his feet. The water was still rising. Hadn't the teapot fallen into the water? Indeed it had, but it would take five or six minutes before the teapot stopped spewing water—that was the property of this artifact. Shi Boyu screamed in despair, "Someone, help! Is anyone there? Quick! Bring the teapot to me, hurry!" He was a pillar of the Jiangxiang Gang, rising to tier three in his early thirties to become a branch master, with boundless prospects ahead. He enjoyed the Hall Master's deep trust, convinced he was destined for great accomplishments in Yaowanggou. The boiling tea submerged the corpses and washed over the tops of his feet. Unable to bear the agonizing pain, Shi Boyu leaped up. With that leap, the fused pile of corpses beneath his feet collapsed. Shi Boyu plunged into the scalding tea. Pain—unimaginable pain. It was as if Shi Boyu had fallen into a vat of molten iron. Relying on his tier-three constitution, he swam desperately toward the table. The moment his hands touched it, all the skin and flesh peeled clean off. As long as he captured that person on the beam, he would surely make a name for himself. If he could capture the outsider from the Outer States whom the Gang Leader sought, he would surely become a hall master. I am meant to be a hall master... How could I end like this...? Shi Boyu lost consciousness in the boiling water. Inside the Portable Abode, Li Banfeng vomited relentlessly.