Jun Changxiao rushed to Donghao Province at top speed, landing in the barren mountain forest.

This area spanning more than ten li—all trees, flowers, and grass had completely withered, with absolutely no life force remaining. Occasionally when wind blew through, it felt gloomy and sinister.

Jun Changxiao’s brow furrowed tightly.

The system said, “From the situation here, it’s extremely similar to what the Formation Emperor described. Could the Soul Clan have already made a comeback and attached themselves to humans?”

“That’s somewhat troublesome.” Jun Changxiao said gravely.

Having triggered the War of the Emperors, the Soul Clan absolutely couldn’t be taken lightly.

If they couldn’t be found quickly and were allowed to continue developing, it would definitely bring unimaginable consequences.

The system said, “Didn’t host not care?”

“When the nest is overturned, no egg remains intact.”

Jun Changxiao said, “If the Soul Clan grows powerful, stirring up bloody chaos across Xingyun Continent, my Wangu Sect will definitely be affected.”

“That host can think this way is truly a blessing for the continent.” The system said.

Jun Changxiao squatted down, looking at the withered flowers, muttering to himself, “The Formation Emperor said the Soul Clan can absorb martial artists’ spiritual energy for their own use—why would they absorb the insignificant energy from vegetation?”

“Very simple.”

The system said, “Not strong enough.”

Jun Changxiao stood up, looking around, saying, “So we must quickly find the human they’ve parasitized and eliminate the Soul Clan member.”

However.

How to find them was the problem.

Jun Changxiao’s brain raced, “Since they’re not strong enough, they need more energy to grow stronger. As long as we pay close attention to remote areas, we should be able to find clues!”

“Sect Master!”

A voice reached his ear from a Xiyu Hall scout within several hundred li transmitting, “Disciple has discovered another withered area!”

“Swish!”

Jun Changxiao executed his movement technique, arriving at the second scene in just a few minutes—everything around similarly had life force absorbed, even including an emaciated fierce beast.

“This is an adult Spirit Punishment Beast, weighing at least a thousand pounds.” The system said.

Jun Changxiao said, “Able to absorb fierce beast energy—seems this Soul Clan member isn’t as weak as imagined.”

Scouts successively discovered withered scenes, and after investigating each one, the final conclusion was that this person should be heading toward Southeast Shi Province.

Jun Changxiao flew into the Southeast Shi Province he’d never set foot in before, but after searching for an entire day without finding any withered scenes, he wondered, “Didn’t come here?”

After returning to the sect, he ordered Li Luoqiu to quickly establish an intelligence network covering Southeast Shi Province as well.

“Understood.”

Hall Master Li immediately got busy.

Batches of Xiyu Hall members riding speed-type fierce beasts poured into Southeast Shi Province.

Currently speaking, Wangu Sect’s intelligence network had already extended quite extensively, but still needed some time before comprehensive coverage.

Under normal development, Sect Master Jun definitely wouldn’t be anxious.

Now with suspected Soul Clan appearing, this made him wish he could control intelligence for the entire world, achieving a level of one post every five steps, one sentry every ten steps!

Actually, this kind of matter concerning the world, he didn’t need to shoulder it alone—he could also tell the major powers and relevant departments.

“Can’t trust others—better to investigate slowly myself.”

Jun Changxiao rubbed his temples, then the next morning got up early and led disciples in doing cheerful morning exercises on the martial arts field.

No matter how important things were.

Not as important as dancing!

“Sect Master.”

Just as the dance finished, Li Luoqiu hurried into the great hall, nervously saying, “Elder Wei and Elder Jiang are trapped in Nine Poison Palace!”

“What?”

Jun Changxiao shot up.

A fifth-rate evil sect could actually trap two Martial Emperors?

Li Luoqiu said, “According to intelligence Elder Jiang sent, both are poisoned, and detoxification pills are ineffective. Although they have self-preservation ability, they can’t rescue Palace Master Xi and the others…”

“Whoosh—”

Before she finished speaking, Jun Changxiao had already disappeared from the hall.

As expected, as Li Luoqiu had said, if sect members encountered danger, this guy would arrive faster than anyone.

…

Nanhuang Province.

There was a primeval mountain forest containing many poisonous creatures like scorpions, centipedes, spiders, etc., so locals called it the Ten Thousand Poisons Forest.

Eight hundred years ago.

A martial artist proficient in poison techniques entered it and established Nine Poison Palace, becoming famous in the martial world with nine supreme poisons.

This sect didn’t have many disciples—it took several hundred years to advance to fifth-rate, but their unpredictable poison techniques were feared by many major sects.

Moreover.

What martial artists found most troublesome was:

This evil sect also set up poison miasma in the forest—anyone wanting to enter must be prepared against poison.

Jun Changxiao had detoxification pills and didn’t take Nine Poison Palace seriously, so he sent Elder Wei and Jiang Xie over, but… the two entered all right, but were now trapped inside the palace.

“Too careless, too careless!”

When rushing over, Jun Changxiao thought darkly.

The system said, “Detoxification pills can only neutralize a hundred poisons—Xingyun Continent has tens of thousands of poison types, so we still need to refresh the shop more and purchase stronger detoxification pill formulas.”

Truly a qualified salesperson—never forgetting to urge the host to spend at any time.

“Swish!”

Jun Changxiao ignored him and accelerated forward.

An hour later, he arrived from Northwest Yang Province at the Ten Thousand Poisons Forest in Nanhuang Province.

“Hu hu!”

Cold wind blew from inside, carrying a nauseating odor.

At this moment, any martial artist with wilderness survival experience would instantly realize the mountain forest contained poison miasma—entering without neutralizing it meant certain death.

“Step.”

Jun Changxiao walked in, his foot pressing on decayed leaves as centipedes, spiders, and other poisonous creatures quickly scurried out.

However, before they could attack, they suddenly turned to ash.

After walking about two or three li:

“Swish—”

Suddenly, a blue giant python shot out from the bushes, instantly coiling around Jun Changxiao, opening its great maw to swallow his head.

But immediately after, a sense of crisis rose in its heart—it tried to release the human and escape, but it was too late. Its entire body immediately burned to nothing under high temperature.

“Hu hu!”

Flames erupted across Jun Changxiao’s entire body, and only after they subsided did he continue forward, finally stopping before an area of cloud-like fog.

“This is miasma, highly poisonous.” The system said.

“Let me test just how poisonous it is.”

Jun Changxiao walked in, then opened his mouth and took a deep breath—billowing poison fog was completely absorbed into his body.

If any martial artist saw this, their eyeballs would definitely pop out.

Faced with miasma, who wouldn’t think about how to avoid being affected by the poison? This guy actually actively absorbed it—wasn’t he afraid of dropping dead immediately!

After a moment.

Jun Changxiao absorbed large amounts of poison, his complexion alternating between green and red, obviously with poison gathered inside his body.

“Hu—”

Suddenly, various flames erupted from his entire body, transforming once again into a walking fire man—the poison attacking everywhere inside his body was instantly vaporized to ash.

“Poof!”

Jun Changxiao farted, turbid air spraying from below as he shook his head, “With a Sacred Flame Constitution, why fear mere poison?”

“Poof! Poof! Poof!”

This guy walked along farting—the miasma existing around gradually thinned, and ahead gradually appeared a rather large-scale architectural complex. Stone tablets covered with poisonous snakes and spiders bore three blood-red characters: “Nine Poison Palace.”

“Daring to trap my Wangu Sect’s people—this sect has no reason to exist.”

“Poof—”

The system finally couldn’t hold back and roared, “Can you not expel the neutralized poison by farting!”

—