Chapter 42: 42 - The inner disciples selection (04) Silence overtook the outer disciples’ arena as the female elder knelt beside the poisoned disciple, picked him up in her arms and carried him towards the sect’s medicine pavilion. Elder Tian looked at Tianming with disapproval, but did nothing. The sect was quite liberal, any kind of cultivation that didn’t directly follow the unorthodox paths was allowed. Poison was right on the border between orthodox and unorthodox, but it hardly chose sides. After all, medicine was just a poison in a dosage low enough not to kill. How could they ban it? What really intrigued the elder was the origin of that power. Tianming had a sword spirit root, had he awakened a new spirit root like Feiyan? No, that was impossible, two miracles couldn’t happen like that in such a short period of time. ’He must have consumed some kind of poisonous essence...’ Elder Tian concluded as he shook his head. Tianming noticed the elder’s stare, but just ignored it, his remaining eye focusing on Qingyi. His gaze was cold and murderous. He had seen Qingyi fight and knew well that if that was all his power, it wouldn’t take more than a single blow to eliminate him. ’I can’t wait to see that bitch’s face as that damned pretty face melts under my poison!’ He exclaimed mentally as he glanced at Feiyan, imagining her begging for him. Qingyi remained cold as his eyes met those of Tianming. He could already imagine what was going through the young man’s mind and couldn’t help but laugh internally. ’Poison, huh? You picked one of the worst things you could use to fight me,’ Qingyi thought. His body of the primordial dragon basically made him immune to any kind of toxic substance, and even if he was affected, it wouldn’t take long for the strands of draconic Qi in his Dantian to purify the problem. But there was still one thing that worried him: Tianming’s cultivation. He simply couldn’t sense it, it was as if Tianming’s cultivation was far superior to his own, to a level that Qingyi had difficulty even sensing his aura. ’That’s going to be dangerous...’ "He seems to have quite a lot of hatred for you." Bao Zhang asked, noticing Qingyi’s gaze. "Yes, I stole Feiyan from him." Qingyi laughed lightly, feeling the bronzed beauty tremble in his arms as Bao Zhang’s eyes widened. Long, awkward moments passed without a word being spoken. "That’s not a joke, is it?" Bao Zhang asked, his eyes alternating between Feiyan and Qingyi without stopping. Qingyi was a beautiful man. In fact, if the sect had a ranking of the most attractive men, he would appear in first place; if he claimed to be second, no one would dare declare themselves first. But even so, he was far from having the status of a young master of the Xu family. The Xu family itself was a duke-level family of the Golden Sun Kingdom, an entity that was only a single step behind the Ascending Dragon Sect. If their patriarch reached the Burning Blood Realm, he probably wouldn’t fall behind the three great sects of the outer region of the Blue Moon Continent. How on earth could Feiyan choose someone like Qingyi over young master Xu? Qingyi ignored Bao Zhang’s question and they just focused on the battles that followed, making the man sigh heavily and also mind his own business. Lei Feng and Jun Hao, however, didn’t miss that conversation; their gazes towards Qingyi getting even brighter. Their junior brother really was a great man! They would never have imagined stealing the wife of a young man as rich and powerful as Xu Tianming! "Are you worried?" Qingyi whispered in Feiyan’s ear. The beauty hadn’t said a word since the moment she saw Tianming, her eyes filtering him with coldness. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶 Feiyan listened to Qingyi’s words, her eyes remaining distant for a moment until she plucked up the courage to speak. "I want you to surrender to him before the battle begins..." She finally spoke, turning her face towards Qingyi’s. "Don’t you have confidence in your husband?" Qingyi kept a gentle smile on his face, but still felt a twinge of pain in his heart after seeing the distress on her face. The only time he had seen her like this was when he took her as his wife. Since then, she had always remained the smiling, seductive Feiyan who wasn’t shaken by anything. "His cultivation... is already at the fourth stage, and has a powerful base. Even I can barely sense it... please... you don’t have to fight it," she finally said, her eyes watering. Qingyi paused for a moment, closed his eyes, felt his heart burn, but didn’t lower his head. "You have too little confidence in me, dear.... He would have to be at least at the seventh stage of the Foundation Realm to frighten me." Qingyi spoke, hugging her comfortingly. Her face sank into his chest, staining his white robes as he lovingly stroked her hair. Despite his confidence, Qingyi’s eyes were cold. Fourth stage Foundation Realm... how the hell had that bastard advanced so far in such a short space of time? Qingyi thought about it, remembering the strange poisonous aura that surrounded his Tianming’s sword. ’System, can that be a threat to me?’ he asked. [No, the body of the primordial dragon has total resistance to all kinds of poison and toxic substances. Only a handful of poisons can affect it, but it’s unlikely to see any of them outside of Heavenly Heaven]. ’I see...’ Qingyi looked at the horizon. He didn’t have long to think, soon it was his turn to fight again. "Long Qingyi and Chen Xiaohu, step forward," Elder Tian spoke, and the two young men climbed into the arena. Chen Xiaohu was a very famous flame cultivator in the sect. With an eighth-level flame spirit root, he was one of the favorites to become an inner disciple. Being at the third stage of the Foundation Realm, he was a good target for Qingyi to test his new power on.