Sword drawn from the constellations, poison as its edge.

Chapter 144 Golden Snake and Colorful Scorpion
After Quan Guanqing finished speaking, he turned sideways, held his flute horizontally, and blew hard. With a whoosh, a golden light the length of a chopstick shot out from the end of the flute and shot straight at Qiao Feng's chest.

Qiao Feng reacted quickly and struck out with his palm, but the hidden weapon suddenly changed direction and shot towards Qiao Feng's face.

This sudden change was extremely unexpected. The hidden weapon was already very fast, and it changed direction midway. Who could defend against it?

Before Jiang Mingzhe could even utter the word "be careful," Qiao Feng bent his upper body backward and slapped his palm upward, hitting the hidden weapon squarely. The weapon flew out of the crowd and landed limply on the ground.

Jiang Mingzhe was greatly surprised. He thought that the hidden weapon must have changed direction midway through the flight of the weapon, so how come it seemed to have no weight when it landed?
Then he saw the hidden weapon move, and he was even more surprised. Upon closer inspection, he saw that it was a small snake about four inches long, which looked like it was cast in pure gold. Its whole body was golden and shimmering with light. Its two eyes were also golden, with only a thin line of black vertical pupils. The scales on its eyes stood up as if they were about to grow horns. It swam into the grass.

Jiang Mingzhe was overjoyed. He flashed forward and caught up with the snake, his left hand already taking the sword box from its back.

The box is divided into two compartments, one visible and one hidden. The hidden compartment contains the Seven Swords, while the visible compartment contains a steel sword fan that I had taken out earlier.

He opened the Mingge and used his sword fan to flick at the small snake, but unexpectedly the snake pushed off with its tail, slashed sideways, turned around in mid-air, and spat out a cloud of pale golden poison gas at Jiang Mingzhe.

Jiang Mingzhe held his breath, turned his sword fan to pick up the small snake, quickly shoved it into the sword box, and slammed it shut. Just as he was about to put it back on his back, he suddenly felt dizzy. He quickly activated the Northern Darkness Divine Art, just like when he absorbed the poison gas of the Manggu Toad earlier, he drew that trace of poison gas into his Tanzhong acupoint and quickly transformed it into Northern Darkness True Qi.

He was both surprised and delighted: the poisonous mist spewed by the golden snake was so powerful that it still penetrated his body even though he had held his breath, which showed how potent it was.

What's rare is that its toxicity is completely different from that of the Flying Centipede King and the Manggu Toad. It is as sharp as gold and has extremely strong penetrating power. Having experienced it firsthand, he can use the Northern Darkness True Qi to transform it into this kind of toxicity, which is equivalent to having another means.

Moreover, in terms of his perception, even if this little golden snake was slightly inferior to the Manggu Toad, the difference was limited, and it could basically be regarded as a poisonous creature of the king level.

He had wanted to raise the Manggu Toad but failed, but he captured this little golden snake alive, which was like getting a charging station for his internal energy that could automatically recover!
Just as he was about to laugh out loud, he heard A'Zhu, A'Bi, and Feng Bo'e exclaim in unison. Jiang Mingzhe felt a chill in his heart and turned his head to look. He saw Qiao Feng sitting cross-legged, his left hand as black as if it had been smeared with ink.

Bao Butong cursed, "Shameless beggar! Even when your own people are fighting, you still resort to poison to launch a sneak attack!"

Elder Xi and Elder Song stood there dumbfounded, while Elder Wu brandished his broadsword and slashed at Elder Chen, cursing, "You bastard, did you even deceive us? You never said you were going to use poison to harm him!"

Elder Chen shouted as he dodged in a disheveled manner, "Quickly tie him up! Tie him up and I'll give him the antidote!"

Quan Guanqing turned his head and shouted, "Bring the Dragon-Trapping Lock!"

Jiang Mingzhe then realized that the Beggars' Sect had prepared more than one poisonous creature. Although Qiao Feng had avoided the little golden snake, he had still been injured by other unknown poisonous creatures.

A pang of guilt shot through my heart: My butterfly effect has made things worse than before; Qiao Feng never suffered such a loss in the original story!
He immediately shouted, "Get out of the way!"

With a leap, he took a step in mid-air and instantly landed beside Qiao Feng. He swung his sword left and right, sending two six-bag disciples tumbling and flying.

He then squatted down and lifted Xiao Feng's left hand, and saw a lump the size of an egg on the back of the hand, with a wound vaguely visible in the middle of the lump.

He quickly brought his mouth close and sucked hard, only to feel a foul-smelling liquid enter his mouth.

Quan Guanqing angrily said, "It's you again, meddling in my affairs!"

He swung the iron flute and struck Jiang Mingzhe on the back of the head.

Jiang Mingzhe blocked the sword with his fan, spitting out a mouthful of black blood. He lowered his head to inhale again, and Quan Guanqing's iron flute thrust straight at him, but he blocked it with his fan.

The two exchanged blows, one attacking and the other defending, for five or six moves. Quan Guanqing shouted sternly, "Are you just going to stand there and watch?"

Elders Xi and Song exchanged a glance. The short, stout Elder Song smiled bitterly and said, "The gang leader has already been poisoned. Even if he is cured, his combat strength will be difficult to recover in a short time. Why bother binding him?"

Before Quan Guanqing could speak further, Jiang Mingzhe suddenly stood up and spat out a mouthful of poisonous blood, hitting Quan Guanqing squarely in the mouth. Quan Guanqing was inhaling and making a sound when caught off guard, and swallowed half of it. He was instantly terrified and, while retreating hastily, cried out, "Elder Chen, quickly give me the antidote!"

Jiang Mingzhe kicked him, sending him flying backward, and sneered, "Here you go, your second uncle!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt his trouser leg tighten. Looking down, he saw that Qiao Feng had grabbed his trousers and was looking up at him in a low voice, saying, "Good brother, thank you for saving me, but he can't die now. Let Elder Chen give him the antidote."

Jiang Mingzhe thought to himself, "Do you even realize that you're such an outdated, saintly protagonist?"

Turning away in annoyance, Elder Wu and Elder Chen had already stopped fighting. Elder Chen took out a small bottle from his pocket and handed it to Elder Wu, saying, "First, suck out the venom, then apply it externally."

Elder Wu quickly squatted down and saw that black blood was gushing out of the wound on Qiao Feng's hand, which then turned purple and quickly red. Elder Wu said happily, "It's alright, it's alright, the poisonous blood has come out."

He quickly applied the antidote to Qiao Feng, who whispered, "Thank you!"

Elder Wu said with a bitter face, "I don't know if you believe me or not, but I, surnamed Wu, truly know nothing about this matter."

Elder Song, standing to the side, said, "Neither Elder Xi nor I knew the answer."

Elder Chen said with a stern face, "A true man dares to take responsibility for his actions. This is a plan that Chief Quan and I agreed upon. We were worried that we might not be able to subdue him, so we went to great lengths to obtain the Golden Snake and the Five Elements Colorful Scorpion, just in case."

Jiang Mingzhe shouted, "The Five Elements Colorful Scorpion? Where is it?"

Qiao Feng, remembering his identity as a member of the Xingxiu Sect, guessed that he was interested in this poisonous creature and whispered, "It was a small scorpion, colorful and terrifying in appearance. Elder Chen hid it in a sack, and I have already turned it into mincemeat. Brother, if you like it, I will find one for you later."

Jiang Mingzhe said with a wry smile, "I was just asking, Brother Qiao, you don't need to worry about it. But I'm wondering if this antidote is to absorb the poisonous blood and then apply it externally. Your Chief Quan has swallowed a mouthful of poisonous blood, who will absorb it for him?"

He has now thoroughly studied Ding Chunqiu's book on poison refining and knows that scorpion venom takes effect upon contact with blood. If one drinks it directly, as long as there are no wounds in the mouth or stomach, there is a high probability that nothing will happen. However, Quan Guanqing ate Xiao Feng's blood containing scorpion venom, so the effect was different.

His words startled everyone, who looked at Quan Guanqing, only to see him fall to the ground, his limbs stiff and his face rigid, clearly indicating that the poison had taken effect.

At this moment, the Beggars' Sect's Transmission of Skills, Enforcement Elders, and a group of branch leaders arrived with a large number of people. These people were all seasoned veterans, and with a glance, they roughly understood the situation.

One of the middle-aged beggars, with a thin face and a cold expression, sneered: "This man spreads rumors, incites internal strife, and plots to harm the gang leader. He deserves to be stabbed eighteen times and die. If he dies from poisoning, that would be too good for him!"

After saying that, he looked at the four elders, Xi, Song, Chen, and Wu: "However, none of you have been poisoned. You will not escape even one of these eighteen cuts!"

Elder Wu said indignantly, "Who's trying to escape? We forced Qiao Feng to abdicate for the sake of our sect's great cause; we had no choice. Today's defeat is nothing to complain about. Even if it's 1,800 cuts, I, Wu, will accept it with my head held high."

After saying that, he threw the ghost-head knife to the ground.

Elder Xi and Elder Song exchanged a glance, sighed, and also dropped their weapons.

Elder Chen's face was grim. He muttered, "Everyone knows Qiao Feng's martial arts are superb, but I never expected that even the five of us combined couldn't defeat him. Qiao Feng, we five rebelled against you, yet you refrained from using your most powerful killing moves. Your magnanimity is truly admirable. If it weren't for... if it weren't for... alas, there's no need to say more now. We'd only face death."

He then looked at the middle-aged beggar and another nine-bag elder: "Elder Bai, Elder Lü, you should have heard of that secret as well. But since you chose to believe Qiao Feng, I only hope that you didn't misjudge him in the afterlife. That way, our deaths will not have been in vain."

After saying this, he closed his eyes and remained silent.

Qiao Feng, however, was filled with doubts. He slowly got up and said, "No, I cannot execute you without a clear explanation. What exactly made you turn against me? I must make it clear today."

Before he could finish speaking, he heard the rapid sound of horses' hooves. Jiang Mingzhe thought to himself: They're here!
(End of this chapter)