Chapter 995: Hongyuan Poison Hall

The island was over a hundred kilometers in diameter. From afar, it looked lush green, covered with all kinds of tall vegetation. Under the shroud of a formation, the spiritual energy was dense, and from time to time, powerful sacred beasts could be seen flying in the sky.

“An island over a hundred kilometers, completely hidden. The person who set up this formation must be no weaker than a Seven-Star!”

His eyes full of shock, Zhang Xuan couldn’t help but say.

He was now a peak Six-Star formation master, yet even he found it extremely difficult to set up such a massive formation. Just how powerful was the senior who built the Poison Hall here?

“The founding master of Hongyuan Poison Hall was not only a Seven-Star poison master but also a Seven-Star peak grandmaster of formations. Even so, it took him a full fifty years to set up this hidden formation!”

Seeing his shock, Elder Xu laughed.

“Fifty years?” Zhang Xuan’s mouth twitched.

From the time he had crossed over until now, it had been less than a year at most. Spending fifty years just for a formation—he wouldn’t do it even if he were beaten to death.

“Indeed. This formation uses an underground volcano as its power source, hiding the entire island within the vast ocean surface. If you don’t know the entrance, even flying overhead, you’d only see a stretch of ocean.”

Elder Xu was full of pride: “Back then, many Seven-Star masters, even formation masters, passed by this place without discovering it! Because of this, the Poison Hall has maintained its legacy for ten thousand years without ever being attacked.”

“Impressive!” Zhang Xuan nodded. The patterns in his eyes writhed as he looked toward the great formation before him.

He had to admit that the other party had designed it well. Leveraging the island’s unique advantages and the surrounding seawater environment, they had perfectly integrated the concealment formation. Even with his Eye of Insight, he could only see a rough outline; in a short time, he couldn’t analyze a way to break it.

If he really wanted to break it, it might take him… at least ten minutes of study!

A formation that could make him study for so long was already extremely formidable.

“Let’s go down!”

Seeing the shock on his face, Elder Xu smiled, guiding the flying sacred beast to slowly descend toward the island before them.

After more than ten minutes, they landed on a huge platform.

“Elder Xu!” Several youths came up to greet him. Seeing that the person emerging from the room was not Elder Xue but a middle-aged man they had never seen before, they were all puzzled.

“This Master Sun is my savior. Arrange a place for him to stay first.”

Elder Xu turned and instructed: “I need to go see the Hall Master now!”

“Yes!”

Hearing that he was Elder Xu’s savior, the youths looked at Zhang Xuan again with reverence and nodded in unison.

“Master Sun, go with them to find a place to stay first. I’ll go see the Hall Master and give a detailed account of the matters in Jingyuan City.”

Taking two steps forward, Elder Xu paused and transmitted a message to Zhang Xuan: “The people in the Poison Hall might have bad tempers, but everyone respects the strong. If someone causes trouble at your lodging, don’t hold back.”

“Mm.” Zhang Xuan nodded.

An elder had been killed—it was indeed necessary to report to the Hall Master.

As for someone causing trouble, he had no intention of being a pushover.

“I will report your situation to the Hall Master and help you apply for a poison master assessment slot!”

Having said that, Elder Xu hurried away and soon disappeared from sight.

“Master Sun, this way, please!”

Seeing him leave, the youths came over.

Without saying much, Zhang Xuan followed them and strode forward.

Not far from the platform was a huge town, with various buildings standing tall. They looked somewhat ancient, preserving the style of thousands of years ago.

The streets were bustling with people doing all sorts of things, like a huge city.

Walking among them, one could occasionally see faint mist drifting from rooms by the roadside. The smell was pleasant, but inhaling it would make one’s head dizzy and drowsy.

Without looking, he knew it must contain deadly poison.

Not only that, but poisonous insects and snakes crawled along the roadside from time to time, brightly colored and menacing, staring at passersby as if ready to attack at any moment. If it weren’t for being a poison master, seeing these for the first time might scare someone unconscious.

“Don’t worry, these poisonous insects won’t bite easily…”

Seeing his concern, a youth smiled and explained, but before he could finish, a scream was heard ahead. A middle-aged man ran forward hopping, with a venomous snake hanging from his butt, its sharp teeth embedded in the flesh, refusing to let go.

“I’ll fuck your grandmother! Whose snake is this? If you don’t speak up, I’ll take it home today, skin it, and stew it!”

“Dare to eat my snake? Believe me, I’ll poison you to death right now…”

Then another roar sounded, and a figure rushed out, starting a fight with the man bitten by the snake.

“This, this… these poisonous insects are usually quite friendly…”

Having just said they don’t bite, this happened. The youth was a bit embarrassed and quickly explained: “Don’t worry, although the poisonous insects are unreliable, we poison masters generally respect each other, live in harmony, and don’t easily attack…”

“Mm.” Zhang Xuan nodded. Before he could continue forward, even louder roars came from the street.

“Son of a bitch! Who put poison on my pillow? You’d better not let me find out, or I’ll kill him!”

As the words ended, a woman with a puffy face burst out of a room.

Her figure looked decent, but her face was swollen to the size of a watermelon, with pus oozing from many places, as hideous as a zombie just crawled out of a grave.

“Who put poison in my soup?”

“Dare to put poisonous insects in my shoes? Tired of living?”

“Dare to stuff medicine up my nose? Believe me, I’ll chop off your claws!”

…

Voices rose one after another, and soon people, all poisoned into bizarre shapes, rushed out of their rooms.

Having just said they lived in harmony, such a commotion broke out. The youth’s face showed some embarrassment.

“Cough, cough, they’re just joking, mostly testing their newly concocted medicines. Nothing serious, nothing serious…”

“Nothing serious? Then what about them…”

Zhang Xuan pointed forward in confusion, and everyone saw two poison masters fighting fiercely, as if they wanted to tear each other apart and eat them.

“…” The youth.

Walking along the street for a while, Zhang Xuan understood.

Poison masters didn’t have as many rules as the Master Teacher Hall. Whenever they concocted a new poison, they would basically test it on the people around them. Sometimes you’d see a person one day looking one way, and the next day they’d look completely different, or even have their gender changed by the poison.

Because of this, living here, you might find your neighbor today an old man, tomorrow a middle-aged man, the day after a delicate young lady, and a few days later a monster covered in bumps…

Of course, if you asked their name, it was very likely the same person—just changed shape due to different medicines taken.

“Good thing they’re all poison masters. If they did this in Hongyuan City, they’d probably be beaten to death in no time…”

Zhang Xuan shook his head, helpless.

Only here could they do this. In Hongyuan City, with the Master Teacher Hall and the Master Teacher Academy, such unauthorized poisoning was against the rules. If discovered, ten lives wouldn’t be enough to save them.

Such chaos, and Elder Xu still brazenly said they were all friendly… Being poisoned beyond recognition every day, not knowing who would poison you when you woke up tomorrow, living in constant fear… this was called friendly?

“Alright, Master Sun, you can stay here for now!”

After walking a while and seeing countless strange creatures, the youth stopped.

Zhang Xuan looked and saw a clean courtyard. Although the buildings looked a bit old, the surroundings were much quieter than before, very peaceful.

“Good!”

Anyway, he wouldn’t be staying here long, so he had no complaints about the lodging.

Just as he was about to push open the door and enter the courtyard, he saw a few youths approaching.

“Li Yuan, this one looks unfamiliar. Haven’t seen him before?”

“He was brought here by Elder Xu from outside.”

The youth who had escorted Zhang Xuan, Li Yuan, said.

“Brought by Elder Xu? Could he be taking him as a disciple? For that old stick-in-the-mud to be moved, his talent must be good. Come, let me see if he has what it takes…”

The youth smiled lightly, flicked his finger, and a stream of smoke shot straight toward Zhang Xuan.

“Liu Xu, don’t be reckless. This Master Sun is not Elder Xu’s disciple…”

Li Yuan explained, but before he could finish, the smoke had already reached Zhang Xuan, and it was too late to stop it.

He was about to warn him to be careful when he saw the unremarkable middle-aged man smile lightly and appear before Liu Xu like a phantom.

Bang!

A sound of bones breaking rang out. Liu Xu didn’t even have time to scream before he flew backward and landed squarely on a tree branch not far away, unconscious.

“Ah…”

Everyone was stunned.

Everyone was a poison master. Normally, if someone attacked with poison, you should retaliate in kind. But this guy, without a word, punched the man flying… That was too violent!

“You… As a poison master, solving things with such brute force is a disgrace to refinement!”

A youth behind Liu Xu stepped forward, waved his hand grandly, and looked over with righteous indignation: “I challenge you to a poison duel. Do you dare to accept…”

Before he could finish, he saw a foot heading straight for his face.

Bang!

Like Liu Xu, he didn’t even have time to scream before flying backward and landing on a tree branch not far away.

“You…”

The remaining youths all changed color. They had clearly challenged him to a poison duel, yet this guy still didn’t play by the rules.

“Attack together…” one of them shouted.

Bang, bang, bang, bang!

A few breaths later, all the youths who had come aggressively were hanging from the tree.

“This…”

Li Yuan and the others who had escorted Zhang Xuan were dumbfounded.