Chapter 72
Qin Ran gave Li Shiyin the Hundred Poisons Pill ahead of time. Actually, only a very small part of the reason was that he was worried about her being poisoned, because in the Cultivation World, there weren't many people who would use poison. More than that, he wanted to ensure that she wouldn't be poisoned when he took her into the poison formation.
How many types of poisons are there?
Classified by poison targets, there is poison targeting the blood, poison targeting the muscles, poison targeting the nerves, and poison targeting the bones. In other words, any physiological structure that a living being has, there is a corresponding poison for it, some of which naturally exist between heaven and earth, while some are... created by humans.
These poisons are originally meant for mortals.
Because cultivators transcend mortals, it's very difficult for them to be poisoned...
However, many low-level cultivators, although they already have super powerful combat ability initially, their bodies are still not very different from mortal bodies in essence, so many extremely toxic poisons targeting mortals also have miraculous effects on low-level cultivators.
When can cultivators completely not be the same concept as mortals?
Golden Core!
It is said that once a Golden Core is swallowed into the stomach, my life is up to me, not up to heaven. The Golden Core path, after the Golden Core Transformation, cultivators have completely become a life form superior to mortals.
Of course, it doesn't mean that high-level cultivators after the Golden Core stage will completely not be poisoned. As there is yin, there must be yang in the mysterious principles between heaven and earth. As there are high-level cultivators, there are also poisons specially targeting high-level cultivators.
For example, poisons targeting spiritual power, aura, divine sense, soul, the Way, and so on.
But in conclusion, whether they are mortals or cultivators, those who use poison are always the minority. Qin Ran, this shameless bastard, has always been an outlier.
Seeing that Protector chasing over, Qin Ran hurriedly took Li Shiyin into the Killing Formation.
The formation was set up by him. He took Li Shiyin along to find their position and came to the exit of the formation to wait, waiting for the Protector to enter the formation, then they would exit the formation.
From the moment he rescued Li Shiyin to urgently escaping and now waiting here, Qin Ran finally had a moment to relax. Although he made a lot of plans, actually implementing them gave a completely different feeling from planning... In the end, he was only suitable for making plans instead of participating in the plans himself...
So Qin Ran found that he was still holding Li Shiyin by the waist. The softness and warmth conveyed by his fingertips caused him to unconsciously swallow.
But he couldn't let go of Li Shiyin either, first because suddenly letting go would be too abrupt and increase the awkwardness; second, he still had to take Li Shiyin to escape...
So he asked, "You aren't poisoned, right?" His voice somewhat hoarse.
"No..." Li Shiyin shook her head.
Li Shiyin's mind was chaotic. She was thinking, but had not yet realized her master was hugging her. She was silent for a while, then suddenly asked Qin Ran, "Master, will Zhao Yaqing and the others kill us?"
"Yes!" There was the smell of blood and sweat and fragrance on Li Shiyin's body. Qin Ran felt somewhat confused smelling it. He looked at the opposite side of the formation and replied, "Snatching someone's Lifebound Sword is already a huge vengeance to begin with. After snatching the sword, killing someone is just a matter of convenience. Lives aren't valuable in the Cultivation World..."
When he said that, the Protector had already taken Zhao Yaqing into the formation. Seeing them, he stopped talking and turned around, taking Li Shiyin out of the formation.
Although Qin Ran was somewhat accomplished with formations, he was still an amateur after all. The formation he set up had many flaws,
Such as the speed of deployment where it could only be set up in advance, such as large formations relying on formation disks, and the foundations being shallow, and so on.
The main reason why the previous Poison Formation could poison the Protector and Zhao Yaqing was because it caught them unprepared. But it was still easily broken through by the Protector, and it was broken through by force. Thus, the current Killing Formation could not trap the Protector for too long.
Not long after Qin Ran escaped, the Protector took Zhao Yaqing out of the formation. She shouted from behind,
"Brat, can you only do these petty tricks?"
Qin Ran's scalp tingled. He panicked a little. This Protector really deserved to be a Golden Core from a major sect. Her strength was much stronger than what he expected.
To add fuel to the fire, suddenly there were loud noises from ahead. Qin Ran hurriedly looked forward and saw a large group of cultivators noisily and chaotically flying over, talking about a treasured sword being forged...
These were also people coming to snatch the sword!
"Stop him, the sword is on him!" Seeing the large group of cultivators, the Protector hurriedly shouted loudly.
"Damn!" Qin Ran swore inwardly and quickly accelerated, rushing into the formation in front.
And this formation...
was the Transforming Formation.
Upon hearing there was a treasured sword on Qin Ran, the group of cultivators were immediately excited and charged into the formation regardless.
The effect of the Transforming Formation was to transform appearances. It wasn't a powerful formation. With so many people charging in, it soon collapsed under the heavy load. The formation exploded, but a group of women and children appeared out of thin air on flat ground...
Everyone had their appearances changed...
Thus, the crowd suddenly exploded.
At a certain moment, a pair of men and women flew out of the crowd, flying far away into the distant sky. Someone shouted loudly, "It's them, the sword is on them!"
The crowd noisily chased after them.
After the crowd left, a youth and an old woman remained behind. That youth breathed a sigh of relief and took the old woman flying in another direction.
These latecomers didn't know of Qin Ran's sinister deceitfulness, but the Protector knew. She kept a thread of caution and didn't rashly chase over either. After the crowd dispersed, leaving behind the youth and old woman, she immediately knew in her heart. She hurriedly chased over.
"Indeed still here!" Qin Ran looked back. The Protector was still chasing behind them.
But the next formation was the Invisibility Formation. Qin Ran and the old woman, Li Shiyin, went inside. After the Protector broke the formation, they completely disappeared without a trace.
The Protector stood on the bare red earth holding Zhao Yaqing in her arms, her face gloomy as she looked around...
Qin Ran and Li Shiyin came to the Teleportation Formation. He looked at Li Shiyin and suddenly asked, "Leave them the antidote?"
Li Shiyin and Qin Ran looked at each other. She hesitated.
"The Protector certainly won't have an issue, but Zhao Yaqing might not necessarily..." Qin Ran said, "After experiencing so much today, do you still want to leave them the antidote?"
Li Shiyin lowered her head, but still said, "I have no enmity or grudge against her. Just leave the antidote!"
At this time, through the relative positions of the previous four formations, the Protector discerned the direction of this last formation and had caught up again. Still far away, she shouted, "Brat, stop right there!"
Qin Ran ignored her. He just looked at Li Shiyin shaking his head and sighed, "Alright."
Then he threw out a porcelain bottle right where they stood.
"Give me your hand..." he said. "Skin contact can prevent us from teleporting to different places."
Li Shiyin gave him her hand.
Qin Ran held Li Shiyin by the waist with one hand and held her hand with the other. He quickly took her into the last formation, the Teleportation Formation.
"Don't go!!"
The Protector sensed spatial turbulence and knew this formation was likely a teleportation formation. She was shocked. Without thinking too much, she raised her palm and stirred up a dragon tornado from flat ground!
Qin Ran took Li Shiyin into the formation and activated it. Their bodies became light and they uncontrollably fell backwards, like stepping full force on a car's gas pedal.
The next moment, the scenery changed and they teleported towards unknown places...
But at this moment, the changing scenery suddenly stopped, forcefully halting them. The duo were squeezed out from the extreme speeds into a sudden stop by space. They fell down from midair.
The extreme velocity to a sudden stop plus spatial compression were too much for Qin Ran and Li Shiyin. Both of them were heavily injured, covered in blood, and crashed to the ground without any strength to move for the time being.
"Did the teleportation fail, Master?" Li Shiyin's hand was still in Qin Ran's palm. Seeing the crimson sky, she asked.
Qin Ran didn't reply. He inspected the surrounding environment. They were still surrounded by the harsh environment with volcanoes nearby, red clouds, dark red earth. There was a volcano behind them and the small town could still be faintly seen ahead... They had just teleported and hadn't even traveled a kilometer of distance.
"It seems to have failed." He replied.
"Will we die, Master?" Li Shiyin arduously turned her head to look at Qin Ran's side profile.
Qin Ran turned his head back. Seeing Li Shiyin's pitiful gaze, his heart ached. He suddenly winked at her and whispered, "No."
"Hm?" Li Shiyin was astonished.
"Still want to run away?" The Protector came close and looked down condescendingly at Qin Ran, saying, "An ant-like character!" She shouted, "Keep running away!"
"Hehe..." Qin Ran forced out a laugh and asked, "How about we call it even?"
"What do you think?" The Daoist protector walked over, stepping on Qin Ran with one foot, and asked, "Where's the antidote?!"
"Hahaha..." Qin Ran suddenly laughed and said, "Do you know? I put the antidote in front of the Teleportation Formation."
"What!!" The Daoist protector was horrified. She squatted down and grabbed Qin Ran's neck with one hand. "Say that again..."
"I said..." Qin Ran was still laughing. "I put the antidote pills in front of the Teleportation Formation, including the detoxification pills for the Yin Evil Poison."
"What?" The Daoist protector felt something was wrong. Where did this Yin Evil Poison come from?
"I said...Yin Evil Poison!" Qin Ran said.
Qin Ran had just finished speaking when the Daoist protector felt her calf go numb. She hurriedly looked down to see a red poisonous snake, the same color as the ground, loosen its bite on her leg and swiftly slither away.
"What was that?" she asked.
"Yin Shadowy snakes!" Qin Ran said. "Born in the land of Yin evil, with neurotoxins and blood clotting toxins in its body...Yin Evil Poison..."
"Do you know Yin Evil Poison?" he continued. "The poison is in one's spirit, will, and consciousness! The cold and evil Qi makes one suffer from frost, drives one crazy, makes one go berserk!"
As Qin Ran spoke, the Daoist protector felt her body grow cold, her consciousness starting to blur, showing signs of losing herself.
"It was you who blew the antidote away yourself, so go find it yourself!" Qin Ran said. "Hurry, the Yin Evil Poison is profound and takes effect very quickly..."
Before he could finish, the Daoist protector released her grip on him and flew away.
"Phew..." Qin Ran breathed a sigh of relief.
"Master..." Li Shiyin asked, "Was that Long Qiqi?"
"Yes!" Qin Ran nodded.