Chapter 906: Talking Terms with Me?

A terrible stench permeated the entire mountain.

Initially, only one person was making embarrassing noises, much to everyone's disgust. Soon, however, everyone joined in, and a collective wave of anger and despair swept over them. Spirit Masters were such noble professionals... How could they start making such noises in public, without even having taken off their pants?

But they couldn't hold it in! As soon as those strange spiritual medicine seeds germinated, their scent wafted across the entire Fourth Dragon Vein mountain peak. Unprepared, everyone succumbed to its effects.

The spiritual medicine seeds within Xu Xiaoshou's Yuanfu World were of a remarkably high grade. Continuously nourished by life aura and nurtured by the constant evolutionary power of the Yuanfu World, these spiritual medicine varieties had undergone countless mutations. This led to... a complete loss of control. The dignity of everyone on the mountaintop was utterly shattered.

When Xu Gang initiated this battle, most people assumed the worst outcome would simply be expulsion from the Yunlun Mountains and disqualification from the trials. They never anticipated that something far more dreadful existed in this world than losing trial eligibility: utter disgrace.

Luo Yin felt a wave of nausea as he inhaled the pervasive stench. He, too, had been affected. His Sacred Body's formidable immunity allowed him to resist the effects longer than others. However, the spiritual medicine's aroma was insidious, and the Saha Sacred Body's primary function wasn't detoxification. All he could do was endure for a little while longer.

"It can't come out! It absolutely cannot come out! I am a successor of Taixu, I am a successor of Taixu..." Luo Yin's face turned purplish-black as he clenched his gluteal muscles, locked tight like precision gears. He tried to exert physical force to prevent them from engaging.

Yet, everyone on the mountain was already succumbing and making noises. Everyone knew that if word of this got out, it would lead to devastating social ruin. How could they tolerate one of their companions remaining unaffected?

One of Luo Yin's comrades, clutching his buttocks, stumbled over, waving a stained hand. "Brother Luo, it's okay to let go! Share the good, share the bad..."

Luo Yin's face contorted as he saw the hand, and he roared, feigning bravery, "Don't come near me!" He was terrified. Despite his fear, Luo Yin didn't dare move an inch. At a moment like this, one wrong step could cause a full-body catastrophe; the slightest movement might lead to an immediate leak... How could he allow that?

A good comrade was a good comrade after all. Having endured even the fierce battle last night, would he be deterred by a single word from Luo Yin?

"Brother Luo, I apologize, but I'll keep this a secret for you, and you, too, absolutely *must* keep it a secret for everyone!" The comrade walked directly up to Luo Yin. "It's not that I don't trust you; it's just that I, your comrade, see you're struggling too much to hold it in." As he spoke, he extended his hand...

"You dare!" Luo Yin's voice was a strained whisper, barely escaping his clenched teeth, yet he stood absolutely still.

His comrade truly dared! He lowered his hand and gently patted Luo Yin's shoulder. "Don't worry, I didn't hear a thing."

*Pffft!* With that single pat, a peculiar, high-decibel sound erupted from behind Luo Yin. It was clearly the result of something held back to its absolute limit. The comrade's eyes lit up, and he opened his mouth to speak.

"Shut up!" Luo Yin abandoned all resistance, cursing loudly.

What followed was a tidal wave... *Plop!* *Pffft, pffft, pffft!* All at once. The sensation of release arrived, followed by a feeling of clear, unburdened relief. It was like enduring bitter hardship only to find sweetness, yet... they were *out*.

Luo Yin's face drained from purplish-black to ashen white. He looked up at the sky in utter defeat, his composure completely shattered. "I am a successor of Taixu. I possess the Saha Sacred Body. My starting point and destination are clearly different from these people before me, so why must I endure the same process?"

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. Luo Yin landed a heavy punch on the person in front of him. "Get out of here! Don't let me ever see you again!"

*Thud.* The comrade was robust and powerfully built, his defenses clearly not low. Yet, Luo Yin's frustrated punch, thrown with little force, sent him hurtling backward. Then, *boom!* Black blood welled from the man's body, and he exploded into sparkling fragments, instantly teleported out of the Yunlun Mountains.

"Qian Lei?" Luo Yin was bewildered. He was utterly shocked by what he'd just witnessed. He truly hadn't intended to kill the man! He hadn't even used the power of his Saha Sacred Body; how could a simple punch, devoid of spiritual essence, shatter someone?

"Poison?" Luo Yin's pupils constricted as he realized, "This poison can even dismantle a Spirit Master's entire physical defense, rendering them utterly vulnerable?"

Everyone on the mountain had been finding a strange solace in their shared misery, but witnessing the brief incident between Luo Yin and Qian Lei, they all panicked. They had assumed the medicinal fragrance of this poisonous spiritual herb merely induced vomiting and diarrhea. They never imagined these symptoms were only the beginning. Were even more terrifying things yet to unfold?

"Ugh!" Someone suddenly clutched their throat, clearly gasping for air. "Help... help me..." *Pop!* The next second, he disintegrated into sparkling fragments, teleported out of the Yunlun Mountains.

"Suffocated to death?" Luo Yin's face twisted in alarm; this was yet another symptom. Just how many varieties of poisonous spiritual herbs were mixed on this mountain?

"You're bleeding!" Another person pointed at their companion, staring in horror at the blood streaming from their seven orifices. Within moments, that individual progressed from bleeding from the seven orifices to bleeding profusely from their entire body, before finally being expelled from the Yunlun Mountains.

The poisoning symptoms in more and more people began to mutate, and the entire scene descended into chaos.

"My feet are numb!""W-why am I swelling? Am I getting bigger?""Damn, why do you suddenly smell so good? Hiss, hiss, come here, let me take a bite, come here, come here!""Wahahaha, wahahaha...""So itchy, so itchy, someone scratch me! Holy crap, my skin's peeling off!""Help! What is this monstrosity? So hot, so hot, ugh...""Get away from me, you pervert!"

Chaos! Madness! On the mountaintop, everyone seemed to have mutated, tormented by the toxic fumes beyond recognition.

"What kind of poisons are these?!" Luo Yin was frantic. He had never encountered such terrifying toxins. Or perhaps, in ordinary combat, no one could directly administer poison right in front of an opponent. But today... Was this a calamity? Was it his fate, Luo Yin's destiny, to endure this ordeal?

It was one thing for Young Master Xu to be a deviant, but were all his subordinates the same? Attacking the mountain was one thing, but attacking with poison, and even cultivating the poison on the spot... Who could have ever predicted such a tactic?

"I!" Luo Yin suddenly saw stars. He felt his own symptoms were about to manifest, and his immunity alone was no match for them. Luo Yin desperately did not want to end up like the others. However, he had no idea what poison he had ingested, or even how many layers deep it might be, making it incredibly difficult to neutralize with conventional methods.

"You wretched thing!" Luo Yin utterly detested that little girl; indeed, one couldn't judge a book by its cover. He immediately pulled out a pill bottle, dispensed a third-grade antidote pill—the Lihui Golden Pill—and swallowed it whole. As a top-tier King-grade elixir, its effects were superb. Even if it wasn't a targeted antidote, it significantly alleviated Luo Yin's condition for the time being.

The people around him on the mountain were still wailing. Luo Yin was inclined to offer help. But he was only a successor of Taixu, not Taixu himself. His personal wealth and resources were nowhere near as vast; how could he possibly produce hundreds of "Lihui Golden Pills" for everyone?

"Xu Deye!" Luo Yin was consumed by rage, roaring with his head tilted back, "If you're so brave, come out and fight me one-on-one! What kind of person resorts to such underhanded tactics?"

The roar, infused with surging spiritual essence, reverberated across the entirety of the Fourth Dragon Vein. At the foot of the mountain, Young Master Xu, Xu Xiaoji, who was still overseeing the battle, was utterly bewildered by this outburst.

What was happening on the mountain? He wanted to turn and ask Xin Gugu, but he restrained himself. Young Master Xu was supposed to be omniscient; how could he reveal his ignorance because of an enemy's challenge?

If Xu Xiaoji didn't ask, others certainly would. Xin Gugu, looking perplexed, pulled over a panting member of Xu Gang who had just scrambled down the mountain. "What happened?"

The gang member wore an expression of someone who had just escaped a disaster. "Leader Mu employed a poisonous scheme to attack the mountaintop. Our people all retreated early, and I, being afraid of death, ran the fastest!" He was still quite agitated.

Xin Gugu was speechless.

"A poisonous scheme?" The Xu Gang members stationed below were also astonished, and a murmur of unease spread through their ranks. The use of poison, in any era, was disdained by practitioners of the righteous path. Furthermore, everyone present were young talents from various regions, not aged, cunning veterans, and thus they scorned the use of toxins. But since "poisonous scheme" was a tactic employed by Leader Mu... it seemed more comprehensible, didn't it? After all, he wasn't exactly known for adhering to the righteous path.

Seeing the unusual reaction from the crowd, Xu Xiaoji cleared his throat and announced, "Warfare is the Way of Deception. Leader Mu employed a poisonous scheme to assault the mountain precisely to protect all of you. Consider this: if we can capture the Fourth Dragon Vein without shedding a drop of blood, why would we sacrifice our comrades' lives?"

His words were perfectly crafted. Immediately, the mood among all Xu Gang members shifted dramatically, and they became grateful. After all, what truly mattered to everyone was always their ability to participate in the upcoming trials. The lives and deaths of their enemies seemed irrelevant to their own prospects.

Xu Xiaoji noted the improved morale among his people, but his own apprehension deepened. A poisonous scheme... Lord Shou's thought process was far from ordinary. If he were to use such a tactic to attack the mountain, just how severely would the people on the summit have to be tormented to provoke such an enraged challenge?

"Should we go take a look?" Xin Gugu suggested, tilting his head. Xu Xiaoji considered it, then followed his gut feeling: "Let's wait. Going up the mountain now, even you and I might not be safe."

Xin Gugu was speechless. *He had a point!* Xin Gugu already knew that Young Master Xu was, in fact, Xu Xiaoji, and that the true vanguard attacking the mountain, Mu Xiaogong, was Xu Xiaoshou himself. With Xu Xiaoshou on the mountain, what was there to worry about? If he had to worry, he should be concerned about whether he himself would suffer if he went up there!

On the mountaintop, Xu Xiaoshou, in his transformed state as Mu Xiaogong, had long since moved beyond the range of the medicinal fragrance. However, observing the unfolding chaos through his "Perception" ability, even he was astonished.

Within his Yuanfu World, the area designated for poisonous spiritual herbs had long been sectioned off and isolated from the normal space. Thus, Xu Xiaoshou had no idea that the plants he cultivated on the spot from these poisonous spiritual herb seeds would possess such immense destructive power.

"This is a bit too terrifying..." Xu Xiaoshou clicked his tongue in surprise.

He knew his spiritual herbs were of no low grade. Even Greed God was evolving alongside the Yuanfu World's progression, let alone spiritual herbs, which had a simpler growth mechanism. Even if they had initially been tenth or ninth grade, by now, they should have evolved to fifth or sixth grade of the Grandmaster rank, shouldn't they? Moreover, Xu Xiaoshou's spiritual herbs were already of a high grade to begin with. Regardless of their initial level, a patch of poisonous seeds capable of directly incapacitating hundreds of Grandmasters opened up an entirely new world for Xu Xiaoshou.

"So, combat can be this simple?" This was far easier than battling to the death with fire, swords, or even his physical body. Xu Xiaoshou had originally intended to test his wood-element abilities, directly engaging the Saha Sacred Body to see if his current understanding of the Dao realm could contend with Luo Yin. Now, after just the first wave of attack, Luo Yin's condition was utterly compromised. What was the point of fighting anymore?

Before a battle, just scatter some poison seeds—this must be the correct way for a wood-element Spirit Master to operate!

Hearing Luo Yin's hoarse roars from the mountaintop, Xu Xiaoshou felt it was time to approach more closely. He enveloped himself in spiritual essence, sealing himself completely airtight to prevent poisoning. Then, he shot up to the mountaintop.

"What are you howling about?" With hands on hips, Xu Xiaoshou questioned again, "I'm the one who wants to fight you, why are you calling out Young Master Xu? Do you look down on me?" He spoke without blinking, as if completely accustomed to cross-dressing.

"Received Poison Attack, Passive Point, 1.""Received Hallucination, Passive Point, 1.""Received Resentment, Passive Point, 1."

No sooner had he appeared than the pervasive poisonous gas seeped into his body. But before Xu Xiaoshou could even react, the "Spiritual Awakening" of his Vanishing Finger ability cleared the hallucinatory effects, and his King-level "Conversion" transformed the toxic gas into energy.

*Burp.* Xu Xiaoshou couldn't help but let out a satisfied burp. He surveyed the miserable state of the Spirit Masters covering the mountain, then compared it to his own unaffected condition. "I think I might have gone a bit too far..."

Luo Yin watched Mu Xiaogong appear, utterly unaffected by the toxic fumes, and felt his lungs would burst from sheer frustration. But the poisonous spiritual herbs were her creation, and she possessed the antidote; what could he do?

"You, come here!" Luo Yin beckoned, his voice harsh. "Since you want to fight me, I'll give you the chance to settle the score. But if you lose, you must promise me to neutralize the poisons affecting all my brothers!"

Xu Xiaoshou's eyebrow twitched at this. "You've got some nerve!"

"What do you mean?" Luo Yin's eyes narrowed.

"Why should *I* make a bet with you?" Xu Xiaoshou was amused by his audacity. "You're a defeated dog, a prisoner at my feet. How dare you speak to me with such a tone?"

Luo Yin was speechless. He had merely intended to bluff the young girl. But she didn't seem as naive or easily tricked as she appeared.

Xu Xiaoshou grinned, revealing two prominent canines, and twiddled his fingers. "We can discuss terms. I'll speak, and you'll listen. If you can accept, nod. If not, I'll send all of you to your graves!" In a negotiation, perhaps the *real* Mu Zixi might have been tricked by this man. But this was Xu Xiaoshou. He would never easily concede the initiative, especially in a situation already so favorable to him.

Luo Yin gritted his teeth, glancing at the miserable state of his comrades around him. He could only nod. "Speak."

Xu Xiaoshou smiled. "I can help you detoxify. The condition is that none of you can participate in the Fourth Dragon Vein competition from now on. This place belongs to me!"

Luo Yin was about to speak, but Xu Xiaoshou interrupted him. Pointing at the Spirit Masters on the mountain, each exhibiting different forms of madness, he raised an eyebrow. "Listen up: you're all incapacitated. If you delay any longer, you'll all die without me even lifting a finger."

Luo Yin struggled internally but ultimately nodded helplessly. The opponent was right; that initial wave of toxic gas had been too potent and too swift, catching everyone completely off guard. A defeated opponent had no right to dictate terms. Luo Yin had no choice but to accept.

Xu Xiaoshou continued, "Secondly, once you recover, everyone must surrender their points. I warned you about this earlier. Can you accept that?"

Luo Yin felt humiliated but could only accept. He might talk tough, but his mind was perfectly clear. Challenging a thousand Xu Gang members alone was a fool's errand!

"Third..."

"There's *more*?" Luo Yin interrupted angrily.

"Don't want to hear it? You can turn around and leave!"

Luo Yin gritted his teeth. "...Speak!"

Xu Xiaoshou raised a third finger. "Thirdly, I can let everyone else go, but you, Luo Yin, for the next twenty days, must serve as my vanguard general, willing to go through fire and water for me without hesitation!"