Tianjin, starting with unorthodox methods to achieve immortality

Chapter 255 The Ultimate Winner

"I remember now."

Master Baidu's voice trembled.

He experienced this scene ten years ago.

The old toad was stunned. "You old poisoner, what did you say?"

Master Baidu ignored her, his gaze fixed on the dark red eyeball above his head.

"That time, I killed everyone."

"Old Wei, Iron Lady, and the Bearded Taoist —"

"In the end, I survived and obtained the 'Poison Classic'."

"But----"

Master Baidu took a deep breath, and his voice suddenly rose.

"Why did this memory disappear? After leaving the secret realm, I only remember finding the Poison Scripture; I have absolutely no recollection of how I left the palace!"

"I thought the restrictions on the ruins made me forget the details..."

His gaze was like a knife, piercing straight into the dark eyeball on the dome.

"It's you!"

"You altered my memories!"

Granny Toad's expression changed drastically. She subconsciously took a half step back, and her eyes showed a new layer of fear as she looked at Master Baidu.

Lu Laosan placed his hand on the coffin lid, his gaze sharpening.

The three江湖汉 (jianghu men, martial arts practitioners) and the four 尸车学前 (corpse-driving apprentices) were terrified and turned pale.

Ten years ago, Master Baidu killed everyone and escaped alive. Now, under the same rules, what will he do?

"Old poisoner, are you going to attack us?" Granny Toad covered her back with her left hand, her fingers twitching slightly.

Master Baidu turned around, his gaze sweeping across everyone's faces, and his lips twitched slightly.

"Do you know that I poisoned you all before you entered this secret realm?"

The moment these words were spoken, everyone's expression changed drastically.

Lu Laosan pressed his dantian and closed his eyes, while Chan Po suddenly pinched her wrist to take her pulse.

A few breaths later, her face turned extremely pale.

"I've tested my daily diet with silver needles and taken antidote pills, how could this be..."

"Silver needles? Poison-avoiding pills?" Master Baidu sneered. "The poison I use is called Wuxiang San, which is colorless and odorless. Silver needles cannot detect it, and poison-avoiding pills cannot counteract it."

"It will lie dormant inside you, waiting for me to activate it..."

""

He raised his right hand, and a dark green light appeared in his palm.

"This is the poison technique I refined from that 'Poison Classic' back then, the Myriad Corruption True Essence."

The toad's pupils suddenly contracted.

She had known Master Baidu for decades, but had never seen him truly display this skill.

In every battle, he would only use poison pills and powders to deal with the enemy, and she thought that was all he had to offer.

It turns out this person had been hiding all along.

"So what?"

Lu Laosan clapped his hands, and the coffin lid exploded open. A jet-black iron corpse covered in scales shot out and blocked his way.

At the same time, he pulled the dark green poison-avoiding jade from his waist, a thin halo of light enveloping his entire body. "Although my poison-avoiding jade cannot block all your poison techniques, it can last for several dozen breaths without any problem."

The old woman quickly tore off the medicine pouch from her neck, poured out several wax pills, crushed them, and smeared the powder all over her body. She then took out the poison-repelling bronze mirror from her bosom, and the runes on the mirror surface shone brightly.

"You old poisoner, you think we weren't on guard?" she gritted her teeth. "Dealing with someone like you, this old woman has never dared to sleep soundly!"

Seeing their alarmed expressions, Master Baidu suddenly sighed.

"You are right to be on guard."

"Unfortunately, you don't know that I have already broken through to the Qi Condensation Realm."

With a flick of his right hand, the dark green true energy suddenly transformed into a ray as thin as a hair, so fast that it could not be detected by the naked eye.

Before the three thugs could react, the ray had already pierced through their foreheads.

A green light shot out from the back of his head, bringing with it three fine plumes of blood mist.

The expressions on the three people's faces froze in terror, their bodies stiffened for a moment, and their skin quickly turned grayish-green.

The four apprentice corpse-driving students were so frightened that they turned and ran away.

Without even glancing at them, Master Baidu flicked his right hand, sending out four beams of light that precisely pierced the back of the heads of the four men.

They had only run five or six steps when they collapsed to the ground one after another, their bodies twitching a few times before falling silent.

Seven cannon fodder were wiped out in no more than three breaths.

Granny Toad and Old Man Lu's expressions changed simultaneously. "How is this possible?"

Condensing Evil Realm?

That's no longer the level of the mortals, but the realm where one has truly stepped into the threshold of immortality!

The fact that the two of them were able to cultivate to the middle stage of Qi Refining is already considered extremely lucky, like their ancestors' graves were emitting auspicious smoke.

Furthermore, with his Gu worms and corpse techniques, he earned a formidable reputation in the unorthodox world.

As for the Condensing Fiend Realm, no such expert has been heard of in the entire Left Path since the Red Moon descended a hundred years ago.

"Aren't you afraid of mutation?" Lu Laosan exclaimed. "After the Red Moon, the higher one's cultivation level, the easier it is to be corrupted."

"Of course not through normal channels."

Master Baidu glanced down at the dark green true energy in his palm, where an abnormal red glow could be faintly seen.

"You don't know, there is actually another cultivation world where they have found a way to cultivate under the red moon."

His voice lowered, and regret deepened in his eyes. "Unfortunately, I found out too late."

"Let's do it!"

Granny Chan and Lu Laosan exchanged a glance.

Decades of friendship, a single glance is enough.

With a sudden flick of her left hand, Toad Granny released a cloud of fine, dust-like Gu powder from her sleeve, which quickly enveloped Master Baidu.

At the same time, the bone flute at her waist suddenly shrieked, and the swarm of Gu worms lurking on the crossbeams of the main hall poured down like a waterfall.

Red-backed centipede, golden-winged tussock moth, blood-headed fly —

They were densely packed together, numbering well over a thousand.

At the same time, Lu Laosan suddenly sprang up, and the black-scaled iron corpse blocking his way suddenly sprang up, with three-inch-long black bone spurs growing from its ten fingers, and pounced on Bai Du Shangren from the side.

A pincer attack, perfectly coordinated.

Any expert in the Qi Refining stage would have been killed by this attack.

Unfortunately, they were facing a Qi Condensation Realm expert.

Master Baidu didn't even move; he simply raised his right hand and gently clenched his five fingers.

"puff."

Both Toad Granny and Lu Laosan coughed up a mouthful of black blood.

In that instant, the formless powder lurking within their bodies erupted violently.

Grandma Toad felt as if her internal organs were being gripped tightly by a werewolf, and every inch of her meridians was in excruciating pain.

Her prized swarm of Gu worms went out of control, flying and crashing wildly in the air, some even tearing at each other.

Lu Laosan's iron corpse suddenly froze halfway through its charge, then trembled all over and turned around, stabbing Lu Laosan's right shoulder with a claw.

"what!"

He screamed in agony as the iron corpse lifted him up, splattering blood everywhere.

The poison-avoiding jade can block external poisons, but it cannot block the formless powder that has been lurking in the body for a long time.

"I've already said it, you're guarding the wrong place."

Master Baidu stood with his hands behind his back, his expression somewhat distorted.

Within the dark green energy in his palm, an abnormal red glow was rapidly spreading, climbing up his forearm along his meridians.

Fine cracks began to appear on the skin of my arm, and a dark red light shone through the cracks.

The old woman knelt on the ground, blood seeping from her seven orifices, yet she stared intently at the arm of the Master of a Hundred Poisons.

She has witnessed aberrations.

A hundred years ago, after the Red Moon descended, she witnessed her master's body sprout countless eyeballs the moment he broke through to the middle level of Qi Refining. Then, his entire body was crushed as if by an invisible giant hand, turning into a bloody, mangled mess.

She would never forget that feeling.

At this moment, the same aura was emanating from Master Baidu.

"Old poisoner...you're also mutating..."

Master Baidu looked down at his arm; the cracks had spread to his elbow, and the dark red light seemed to be moving like living things under his skin.

He wasn't alarmed; instead, he smiled.

"distortion?"

"You call this aberration?"

He raised his already inhuman arm, his five fingers spread open, the skin at his fingertips peeling away to reveal new, scaly tissue underneath.

"No, they call it... evolution."

Lu Laosan was suspended in mid-air by the Iron Corpse. The excruciating pain almost made him faint, but when he saw the appearance of Bai Du Shangren, a bitter smile appeared on his lips.

"evolution?"

He spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, and his laughter grew louder and more shrill.

"Hahahaha... You old poisoner, you call this evolution?"

"Look at your own hands! Are you even human?!"

Master Baidu twisted his head, his neck making a series of cracking sounds, and his spine seemed to be twisting in some way.

"people?"

"After the Red Moon, are there still pure-hearted people in this world?"

He clenched his fist suddenly, and the cracks on his arm widened abruptly. Dark red light burst forth, transforming into fine tentacles that danced wildly in the air.

"You raise venomous insects and control corpses in the deep mountains and forests, do you even think you're human?"

"You raise Gu worms, letting your bodies crawl with them, and you still think you're human?"

"You corpse drivers, in the end, don't you also turn yourselves into monsters that are neither human nor corpse?"

With each word he spoke, his body would twitch strangely, his spine would crack and pop, and his entire body would seem to grow taller.

The old woman opened her eyes, and in her cloudy eyes, she saw the increasingly inhuman figure of the Venerable Master Baidu.

"You think you've found another cultivation world, that they've found a way to avoid the Red Moon's pollution?"

"Ha ha ha ha....

'

Granny Toad also laughed, her laughter even more shrill than Lu Laosan's.

You've been scammed!

"There is absolutely no way to avoid the pollution! The pollution from the Red Moon is irreversible!"

"The stronger you are, the deeper the pollution! Once you break through to the Condensing Fiend Realm, you are destined to become..."

'

Her words stopped abruptly.

It wasn't that he was interrupted by Master Baidu, but rather that his own body underwent a strange change.

Her abdomen suddenly swelled up, as if something was wriggling inside. Her skin was stretched until it became transparent, and countless tiny insect shadows could be seen frantically moving around.

Those worms are turning on their host.

"what!"

The old woman let out a shrill scream and curled up into a ball.

The skin on his abdomen was finally torn open, and countless worms poured out from the opening, carrying blood and fragments of internal organs, spreading out on the ground as a writhing carpet.

Seeing this scene, Lu Laosan's bitter laughter became even more shrill.

"See that, you old poisoner?"

"This is our fate... and your fate too!"

He turned his head and, with his last bit of strength, looked at Master Baidu.

"You think you're better than us, you think you've found the right path, but you're just like us, a sacrifice to the Red Moon!"

"You'll die from this mutation sooner or later!"

"Sooner or later...it will become...that kind of thing."

Before he could finish speaking, the Iron Corpse's other claw pierced his body, penetrating him completely.

Lu Laosan's eyes widened, the blood at the corner of his mouth had turned black, and his final smile froze on his face.

Master Baidu stood there, watching Granny Chan and Lu Laosan die one after another, his face expressionless.

The deformity on his arm had spread to his shoulder, and a dark red light began to climb up his neck.

"The offerings for the Red Moon..."

'

"No, I am not a sacrifice..."

'

"I am... the chosen one..."

'

He suddenly tilted his head back, his spine cracking, and he grew a foot taller, his clothes ripped open, revealing a torso covered in dark red, scale-like patterns.

"As long as we fully accept the pollution, we can break free from the shackles of the Red Moon."

"Beyond the Qi Condensation stage is Foundation Establishment, and after Foundation Establishment comes Core Formation!"

"I want to become an immortal! I want to live forever!"

Before he finished speaking, the air behind Master Baidu suddenly turned cold.

Countless vengeful spirits surged out from the shadows deep within the hall, converging into a gray-white torrent that swept towards him.

Master Baidu suddenly turned around, his pupils shrinking sharply.

A tall, thin figure slowly emerged from behind the pillar.

He wore a gray-white Taoist robe, had a sallow complexion, and exuded a sickly, sinister aura.

The newcomer was none other than the Ghost Banner Taoist.

"The people from that cultivation world said..."

"Didn't you already leave?"

"Shall we go first?"

Ghost Banner Taoist sneered, his gaze sweeping over the corpses of Toad Granny and Lu Laosan on the ground. "If I hadn't said I was leaving first, I would be lying with them now."

He inserted the two ghost banners into the ground, bit his tongue, and spat a mouthful of blood onto the banners.

The runes on the banner suddenly exploded, and countless evil spirits poured out of the banner, covering the entire hall.

These are not ordinary ghosts.

Each one had been refined for several years by the Ghost Banner Taoist using forbidden unorthodox techniques, its resentment boundless, capable of devouring souls and taking lives.

As soon as it appeared, it bit into the four limbs of Master Baidu, burrowed into his seven orifices, and devoured his soul.

"You think you're invincible just because you've broken through to the Qi Condensation Realm?"

A trickle of black blood seeped from the corner of Ghost Banner Taoist's mouth. At the same time, he took out a three-inch-long black bone nail from his bosom and held it between his right middle and index fingers.

The bone nail was entirely black, its surface covered with fine runes, and it faintly emitted a putrid odor.

This is one of the most insidious forbidden artifacts in the unorthodox tradition. To forge a Soul-Destroying Nail, one needs to use the ribs of a person who died a violent death, bury them in a mass grave for forty-nine days, water them daily with the blood of the caster, and finally use a wisp of one's own soul as a guide to seal the resentment into the bone.

Ghost Banner Taoist refined three of them, taking a full ten years to complete.

"go!"

The Soul-Destroying Nail transformed into a black streak of light, so fast that it was impossible for the naked eye to catch it, and its shrill whistling sound, tearing through the air, echoed throughout the hall.

Master Baidu tried to dodge, but the surrounding vengeful spirits held his limbs firmly in place.

Currently in a distorted state, his soul is severely polluted, and his strength is less than three-tenths of his usual level.

The bone nail was precisely driven into his brow, penetrating directly into his skull, leaving only a tiny black dot.

No blood splattered, because the wound was sealed by putrid black mist the moment the Soul-Destroying Nail entered the body.

His body crashed to the ground, and wisps of black smoke rose from the spot where the Soul-Destroying Nail had been driven in. The twisted body finally fell into complete silence.

The main hall was filled with a strong stench of decay, and a grayish-white aura of resentment lingered between the stone pillars like a thin mist.

Ghost Banner Taoist stood there, staring at the corpse of Hundred Poisons Master, and suddenly laughed.

"Haha... My chance has finally come..."

'

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