Chapter 687 - 402: A Desperate Struggle

To make matters worse, among their pursuers was a Judge who was clearly an expert tracker. He clung to them like a maggot on a bone, impossible to shake off.

’Turn the tables and kill this Judge?’

They could barely even run anymore. Zou Feng’s reserves of External Pills were completely depleted. A counterattack was nothing more than a pipe dream.

Their only hope now was to quickly escape back into the Celestial Dao Cauldron’s signal range or for the reinforcements sent to quell the chaos to arrive.

PFFT—

Su Qingyu suddenly spat out a mouthful of dark blood, then stumbled and collapsed to the ground.

After a full night of frantic running and several vicious battles, Zou Feng no longer had the strength to carry her.

So, Su Qingyu had been dragging herself along on a broken leg just to make it this far.

This coughing of blood was a clear sign that her previous, severe injuries were flaring up again.

"Palace Master?"

Zou Feng hurried forward and transferred a stream of poison into Su Qingyu, which finally brought some color back to her face.

Seeing this, Jiang Wanzhao had no choice but to stop as well.

In truth, among the group, Jiang Wanzhao was in considerably better condition.

This was to be expected. No matter how battered she was, a True Disciple of the Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect was not to be underestimated.

Having reached the Golden Core Realm with the physique of a Martial Artist and specializing in Body Refining Techniques, her unparalleled resilience only became more apparent in desperate situations like this.

Of course, it was precisely because Jiang Wanzhao was in better condition that she was still carrying the barely breathing Yu Qing.

Bringing Yu Qing back to the Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect alive would earn them greater merit.

After interrogating her for information about the Tribulation Cultivator Camp, she would either be used as a top-grade consumable or locked in the Demon Suppression Tower, becoming a training tool for the Immortal Sect Disciples.

Watching Zou Feng help Su Qingyu without a moment’s hesitation, Jiang Wanzhao couldn’t help but be filled with a complex mix of emotions.

’If they just left Su Qingyu behind, they could be moving even faster...’

But Jiang Wanzhao couldn’t bring herself to criticize Zou Feng for not being ruthless and decisive enough at this critical juncture, for lacking the heart of a tyrant.

After all, Zou Feng had once risked his own life to save her from the siege of two Golden Core Realm Tribulation Cultivators.

’In fact, isn’t this the very quality I admire in him? The reason I trust him completely and have poured all my efforts into promoting him?’

She fully expected that if Zou Feng also became a True Inheritor, she would finally have a Fellow Daoist in the Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect whom she could trust to watch her back without reservation.

At this thought, Jiang Wanzhao sighed softly, then tossed Yu Qing in front of Zou Feng.

"Eat her!" Jiang Wanzhao said, her face devoid of expression.

Zou Feng, who was still tending to Su Qingyu’s injuries, froze at her words.

In fact, during their escape, he had managed to snatch a few moments to extract Yu Qing’s poison.

However, Yu Qing’s poison possessed an exceptionally high degree of Spiritual Wisdom. Although he had managed to extract some, the quantity was insufficient. Furthermore, with their pursuers constantly launching ranged attacks, he had no time to focus on its Refinement.

To put it bluntly, despite capturing Yu Qing alive, Zou Feng had yet to reap any substantial benefits.

"What are you spacing out for? Eat her, recover your strength, and I’ll buy you time!" Jiang Wanzhao barked, her brow furrowed.

’Clearly, she’s given up on the idea of bringing Yu Qing back to the Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect alive.’

The merit they could claim for a dead Yu Qing would be greatly diminished.

Especially if Zou Feng completely refined her, absorbing all of her most valuable Exotic Poison...

"That’s not—I have no interest in eating her. The only thing useful to me is the Exotic Poison in her body..." Zou Feng felt Jiang Wanzhao’s perception of him was a little too barbaric.

"Eat her, absorb her, I don’t care. Just hurry up! I’m not sure how long I can last!"

"Senior Sister Jiang, why be so pessimistic? Her injuries aren’t that severe. She’ll be ready to keep moving soon..."

"Enough!" Jiang Wanzhao cut him off with a wave of her hand. "Haven’t you realized? That Judge behind us isn’t failing to catch up. He’s deliberately herding us along, just waiting for us to be completely exhausted!"

"But he’s the only one who has pursued us this far. It won’t be a problem for me to hold him off for a while, but after that... it’ll be up to you."

Without waiting for Zou Feng to reply, she turned and shot toward the Judge’s location.

She forced down the blood rising in her throat, clasped her palms together, and summoned her Dharma Aspect, the Thousand-Handed Asura, before unleashing a furious barrage in the Judge’s direction.

Zou Feng averted his gaze and slammed a hand down on Yu Qing’s Skull.

He knew very well that Jiang Wanzhao’s assessment was correct. They weren’t going to be able to shake that Judge off anytime soon.

He had to recover his strength as quickly as possible. Only by killing or forcing the Judge to retreat would they have a chance of survival.

Otherwise, if the Judge continued to dog their steps and slow their escape, heaven only knew if even more powerful Tribulation Cultivators might catch up.

Zou Feng pushed all other thoughts aside and began to absorb Yu Qing’s poison with all his might.

"Nngh-aah—"

As her poison was being frantically drained, the severely injured and unconscious Yu Qing actually let out a strange cry and regained consciousness.

But waking up was useless. She was too grievously wounded to have any strength to resist.

Realizing Zou Feng was absorbing her poison, Yu Qing actually managed to force a cold sneer. "You... you’re... courting death!"

"Someone like you... thinks they can refine me?"

"Foolish... GHHAAAA—"

Zou Feng increased the suction, immediately silencing her. All she could do was let out strange cries as the whites of her eyes showed.

He had to admit, the Exotic Poison in Yu Qing’s body was absurdly powerful.

Its Spiritual Wisdom was so high that it dodged and resisted his absorption at every turn.

But now, with Jiang Wanzhao holding back their powerful foe, Zou Feng didn’t have to divide his attention.

By exerting his full power, he finally prevented the "mischievous" Exotic Poison from escaping, sucking out more than half of it directly.

Once it left Yu Qing’s body, the Exotic Poison erupted in a blinding white light, instantly dyeing the surroundings a stark, snowy white.

Even Zou Feng’s and Su Qingyu’s hair turned completely white.

Fortunately, Zou Feng absorbed the poison into his own body just in time. If it had been allowed to spread for even a moment longer, parts of Su Qingyu that weren’t supposed to turn white would have become luminously so.

Although Zou Feng had previously absorbed Golden Core-level wolf poison and Dragon Poison, the moment Yu Qing’s poison entered his body, he could feel it was distinctly more powerful. The potential destruction it could wreak was almost incalculable.

For a moment, Zou Feng felt as if he were about to explode on the spot.

Fortunately, after he entered a state of Cultivation, his ’big brother’ stepped up just in time, allowing Zou Feng to get ahold of himself.

In his urgency, Zou Feng didn’t have time to slowly sense which of the unfamiliar names on the List of Gods belonged to the Judge fighting Jiang Wanzhao.

After being hunted for so long, so many new Tribulation Cultivators had appeared on the List of Gods that just glancing at the dense sea of names was enough to give him a headache.

Furthermore, given his terrible condition, he couldn’t distinguish between them nearly as quickly as he normally could.

So, on instinct, he placed the name of True Monarch Tianyan, Nangong Chu, at the top of the list.

Judging by the brightness of Nangong Chu’s name, that guy was clearly still having a rough time.

He most likely still hadn’t managed to completely shake off "Big Flower Sedan" and "Elder General," and was in a miserable state from the chase.

In a way, they had Nangong Chu to thank for drawing the attention of the fiercest Tribulation Cultivators. If "Big Flower Sedan" or "Elder General" had been chasing them instead, the consequences would have been unthinkable.

With Nangong Chu taking the brunt of the poison’s side effects, Zou Feng could focus wholeheartedly on its Refinement.

Just as with the wolf poison and Dragon Poison he’d obtained before, he wasn’t trying to refine it all at once. He just needed to refine a portion of it to recover his strength.

Thanks to the time Jiang Wanzhao was buying him, the Refinement process was going much more smoothly than it had while they were on the run.

Zou Feng used his Mixed Poison as a catalyst, fighting poison with poison to suppress the clam poison that was trying to escape his body.

In truth, the only area where Zou Feng fell short was his Realm. In terms of the sheer toxicity within his body and his control over his own poisons, he was already on par with a Golden Core Realm Poison Cultivator.

Therefore, no matter how troublesome the clam poison proved to be, as time passed, it inevitably succumbed to Zou Feng’s Refinement.

After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the clam poison let out a mournful cry from within Zou Feng’s body before being completely devoured by his own Poison Technique.

Next was to deeply analyze the "Dao" contained within the clam poison.

The Poison Dao was a Dao like any other, and the poison of a Golden Core Realm demon could even be considered a "Great Dao."

By now, Zou Feng’s method of refining Exotic Poison had long since evolved beyond simple fusion and absorption.

Instead, he would analyze the "Dao" contained within a poison and then, in the most compatible way, integrate it into his own "Poison Dao."