Unparalleled Double Harmony

Chapter 493: Three Lives Suspended (Part )
Let’s not discuss for now how Shuangxie prepared to open the altar to chase the soul.

Now let’s talk about the Shadowless Poison Master…

He had already evacuated the venue and was now walking on a deserted road.

This road is a small path, but it is not narrow.

There are some trees on both sides of the road, but most of them are small trees, scattered here and there, and have not yet formed a forest.

A broad road like this one, in broad daylight, is not a suitable place to ambush others.

But today, someone did the opposite and chose a place that was not suitable for an ambush and set up a tight net.

call--

The sound of the first hidden weapon breaking through the wind announced the beginning of the ambush.

Although Du Zun is not good at using hidden weapons, it is still easy for him to deal with attacks of this level.

But he just slightly turned his body and stretched out the stick in his hand to sweep it, thus deflecting the attack.

Only after the "hidden weapon" fell to the ground did he see clearly that it was just a slightly sharp stone.

"Amitabha, I wonder which friend you are, and why you want to cause trouble for me?" After blocking this playful sneak attack, Du Zun got into position and started to talk with the man.

At this time, Du Zun had already appeared as a monk holding a stick; with his ordinary monk's robe and tattered stick, it was impossible to tell at a glance which temple he was from.

This... is undoubtedly a very clever disguise.

Even robbers would not touch someone with this kind of image, because he looks like he has no money and might even know some kung fu. It is obvious that the risk of touching him is far greater than the benefit.

But because of this, Du Zun was particularly nervous at the moment... He really didn't know why someone would attack him.

"Master, I am a Buddhist. Could you please stay for a while and recite a passage of scripture to dispel my sins before you leave?"

The sound came from the wind, and every word was clear.

But Du Zun looked around and could not see where the person who was speaking was.

"This is terrible..." Poison Lord thought to himself, "This person has a very high internal strength. I'm afraid he will be difficult to deal with."

"Amitabha, the donor is full of murderous intent, I am afraid I cannot save him." While the Poison Lord was delaying time, he quietly reached his left hand into his arms, ready to use poison to fight the enemy.

"Heh..." Hearing this, the other party chuckled, "Master, you are joking. Although I have killed many people, compared with you, I am afraid I am nothing."

Having said this, Di Buyan's figure appeared from behind the shadows of the trees that were not supposed to hide a person.

With Du Zun's knowledge, he certainly recognized that the man in front of him was the leader of the Cao Gang, but he didn't understand why the other party appeared here and targeted him.

"I don't quite understand what you said, benefactor." Du Zun chose to continue playing dumb and wait and see what happens.

"Then I'll explain it more clearly..." Di Buyan continued, "Not long ago, my informant told me that a man, after noon, followed a group of merchants who were packing up their stalls and sneaked out of the martial arts competition venue. After walking a little further, this man left the main road leading to Cangzhou and turned onto a small road alone. He walked a few miles further. This man, who was originally dressed as a servant, suddenly transformed himself... into a monk."

When Du Zun heard this, his expression changed, because he was certain that the other party's appearance here was no coincidence.

So he gave up his disguise and said in a deep voice: "Boss Di, you are indeed no ordinary person. I admire you."

"Okay, okay. It's my honor to meet the 'Shadowless Poison Lord' who is always elusive today." Boss Di's words were quite polite, but his face showed an expression that he wanted to wipe out the other party.

"I don't know, why did Gang Leader Di stop me here? What advice do you have?" asked Du Zun.

"I don't deserve your advice. I just want you to surrender and follow me back to the meeting place and explain what you have done." Di Buyan replied.

Du Zun's tone became colder and colder: "Excuse me for being blunt, but I have no grudges against the Cao Gang. What I did has nothing to do with you."

"This... I don't need to explain it to you, right?" Di Buyan replied in a neutral tone.

Indeed, he did not need to explain, nor was it convenient to explain.

There was no way Di Buyan could tell the other party: I actually knew a long time ago from my old friend Hu Wenzhi whom I hadn't seen for many years that you, the Shadowless Poison Master, were employed by Wu Mingzi, but in order to play the role of a "hero who turns the tide", I deliberately did not stop your actions in advance, but secretly brought my men to lurk near Cangzhou, set up this trap, and wait for you to do the deed and then arrest you to save the day.

Seeing this, some people may ask, why did Hu Wenzhi still go to find Di Bujuan? Wasn't he deceived by Di Bujuan and Di Dasao that led him to go to Japan?
All we can say is that things have changed.

More than 20 years ago, Di Buyan was still a second-generation martial artist with a bit of a giant baby personality who left home in anger. As his childhood friend, Hu Wenzhi was well aware of his character.

Old Hu knew that Di Bujuan certainly didn't "give" his friend a few months' imprisonment because he was afraid of being cheated by fake wine. It was just because the jar of wine and that person at that time... made Di Bujuan feel very uncomfortable, so he took his anger out on the friend who sent the wine and played a somewhat excessive joke on the latter.

In fact, even if there was no general amnesty later, Di Buyan would have gotten Old Hu out after a while; in those days, for rich people, it was just a piece of cake to get such minor criminals out of prison.

But Hu Wenzhi was also young and hot-tempered back then. When he was released from prison, he thought to himself, "Brother, you still don't remember me after all the amnesty? What's the point of me hanging out with you?" So he ran to Japan.

Di Buyan felt very regretful afterwards. He did not expect that Hu Wenzhi would leave without saying goodbye after being released from prison, and there has been no news from him since then, without even giving him a chance to apologize to his friends.

But at this moment, since Hu Wenzhi has returned and obtained this important information that he cannot handle at all, who else can he turn to?

How could the friendship between him and Sun Huang be compared to the relationship between him and Di Bujuan, who had been friends since childhood?

What's more, Di Buyan is now the leader of the Cao Gang, a first-rate sect, and the leader of four sects and three gangs. His character, the way he deals with people... are definitely different from before. If Hu Wenzhi goes to find him now, even if he doesn't provide any information, he will most likely be treated well by him.

The result was just as Hu Wenzhi had expected. When Di Bujuan saw this childhood friend, he felt like he was meeting a family member. He let him sit as the fourth in command of the Cao Gang at the welcoming dinner.

Hu Wenzhi was also a thoughtful person. He understood that his old friend's promotion of him would cause some dissatisfaction among other high-ranking members of the Cao Gang, so he immediately submitted the important information he had overheard as a token of his allegiance and shut everyone up.

This led to today's ambush.

Wuying Duzun would never have thought that today there would be someone who had mastered the most information from the very beginning, who knew more than Shuangxie, Wumingzi, and himself, and who had already brought a large group of people, ready to intercept him on his way of retreat.

"Okay, since you don't want to say it, let's see if Boss Di has the ability to kill me..." When the Poison Lord said this, he was already ready to use his poison skills.

However, Di Bujuan's next countermeasure was to drown out Du Zun's words.

Puff puff--

Amid the sounds of breaking ground, more than a dozen figures suddenly "exploded" out from the mud on both sides of the road, surrounding the Poison Lord in the center.

At this moment, Du Zun realized belatedly that the sudden flying stone and the appearance of Di Buyan were all meant to stop him in the ambush circle.

Immediately afterwards, Poison Lord saw a series of ropes passing over his head. The shadows of the ropes crisscrossed in the air like sprayed spider silk and quickly formed a "net".

Du Zun immediately felt something was wrong, thinking that this might be the Cao Gang's "flying shuttle rope net formation".

As a sect that makes its living on the water, the Cao Gang has always had many members who are fishermen since its founding. Therefore, the gang is very familiar with various skills such as tying ropes and weaving fishing nets. Over time, they invented this "capturing" formation that combines ropes, nets, and martial arts.

Not to mention that the Poison Lord only has a stick in his hand at the moment. Even if he has a sharp weapon, ordinary weapons cannot break these special ropes in a short time.

Therefore, he had to break out of the encirclement before the net was formed.

However, how could Di Bujuan give him such an opportunity...

In just a moment, Boss Di appeared in the path of the Poison Lord with his superb lightness skills.

The Poison Lord was also in a life-threatening posture at this moment, and he started with an extremely dangerous poison palm to clear the way, but unfortunately... Di Buyan, who was well prepared, was wearing gloves on his hands.

In fact, if you read the previous documents carefully, you will remember that if Boss Di had planned to guard against poisoning or thought he might have to fight with someone later, he would wear gloves in advance. He also wore them at the Seven Heroes Meeting.

Although he can fight with bare hands, wearing this pair of "scale" gloves that are several layers thick inside and outside, waterproof, fireproof and poison-proof, and can hold ordinary sharp blades without being damaged, will undoubtedly increase Di Buyan's martial arts power.

As for the Shadowless Poison Lord... Let's put it this way, in terms of martial arts alone, he is not that powerful, at least not as good as Di Bujuan.

Of course, this is not difficult to guess. For a person who focuses on the skills of disguise and poisoning, it is not necessary for him to be very strong in frontal combat.

In other words, normally speaking, someone like him shouldn't have to fight someone head-on.

But today, Du Zun was accurately caught in a relatively open place where he could not escape the opponent's sight even if he set off a smoke bomb. If he didn't defeat the opponent, he would definitely not be able to escape.

bang——

A second later, the two sides finished their palm strikes, and Di Buyan easily pushed Du Zun back several steps.

Du Zun understood immediately: if the other party did not want to capture him alive, this palm strike might have had more than just a knockback result.

Therefore, seeing that he was about to be caught, he made up his mind and used his ultimate means in this emergency situation - he detonated a specially made poison mist bomb.

Since it is the final resort, it must have some merits.

First of all, this thing cannot be prevented by covering your mouth and nose or holding your breath. If it can be prevented in this way, then anyone can prevent it as long as it is not detonated in a closed environment and the people around cannot leave for a long time.

This type of poison mist bomb can quickly penetrate into human skin and mucous membranes. Although it does not last long, it is enough to paralyze a person for a short while. The specific paralysis time and effect vary depending on the amount of invading toxins and the physical condition of the person, but generally speaking it will not be less than one minute.

Secondly, when the poison mist bomb explodes, the impact range is extremely large and its spread is almost instantaneous. It is almost impossible for people within a radius of several feet to evacuate without being affected.

Seeing this, someone must be asking, what should he do? If he uses this thing to break through, won’t he also be able to win?

The answer is actually very simple: After years of training, the Poison Lord's body has developed a certain resistance to this formula. After being poisoned, others can basically not move, but he can still move barely.

Then after using this method, the worst case scenario is that Di Bujuan retreats quickly and is less poisoned, so he can still survive in the next few minutes. The Poison Lord cannot kill him, so he can only escape on his own.

The best case scenario is that the Poison Lord drags his body with difficulty to kill all the people around him who are unable to move and then retreat.

No matter how you settle this account, it's better than being captured and left to fate.

Sure enough, when the poison fog bomb exploded, even though Di Buyan remained on guard and immediately covered his face and retreated quickly, he still failed to escape from the range of the poison fog in time and completely.

Two seconds later, those members of the Cao Gang who were using the rope nets fell to the ground one after another, while Di Buyan himself knelt on one knee, barely holding on.

Upon seeing this, Poison Lord spat and thought to himself: This Di guy is really good at defense. I will let you go today and settle the score with you someday.

After saying these harsh words in his heart, the Poison Lord, who was also affected by the poisonous fog and didn't move very quickly, turned around and retreated.

Unexpectedly, after he took a few steps, he saw another group of people approaching from the direction he just came from...

This group of people were none other than the Cao Gang reinforcements led by Hu Wenzhi. They followed behind Du Zun, deliberately keeping a distance from him, and arrived a little later as a "backup".

"Hehe... I had expected that you would have powerful means of saving your life, but I still couldn't avoid it completely. It seems that next time I have to customize a set of clothes that can protect my entire body skin including the eyes." Di Buyan then proudly added this sentence behind Du Zun.

Obviously, Boss Di has become more cautious because of many mistakes he made over the years. Today, he knew that he had to deal with a poison master like Wuying Duzun, who is at the "Poison King" level. In addition to the usual anti-poison measures, how could he not keep a few backup plans?
"How ridiculous!" Du Zun was really anxious this time, but on the other hand, he also came up with a clever idea... He immediately used the stick in his hand as a crutch, supported his body, quickened his pace, turned back and walked towards Di Buyan.

When Di Bujuan took a look, the smug look on his face instantly disappeared and he cursed in his heart.

At this moment, Di Buyan was more affected by the poison. Although his body could still move and he could offer some resistance, the other party should not be able to kill him in a short time. But if the Poison Lord rushed towards him with the mentality of dying together, Di Buyan did not dare to say that he could escape unscathed. Furthermore, if the other party succeeded in subduing him and taking him hostage, it would be hard to say what the outcome of today's incident would be.

Thinking of this, Di Buyan no longer cared about his image as an expert. In order not to ruin the good situation, he turned around and started crawling.

Why crawl? Because if he stood up and walked now, he would not only walk slowly, but he would also fall to the ground easily. But if he stood on all fours, he could still move forward at a relatively normal speed.

Just like that, in the afternoon, on this country road, a strange scene appeared:

The dignified leader of the Cao Gang had a pale face, was gasping for air, and was crawling on the ground neither fast nor slow.

The Shadowless Poison Master, who was feared by everyone in the martial arts world, dressed up as a monk, leaned on a broken stick as a crutch, and staggered forward with difficulty, trying to catch up with Boss Di.

Meanwhile, Hu Wenzhi and a group of Cao Gang reinforcements who were not poisoned in the distance ran upwind, avoiding the visible poisonous fog that had not yet dissipated, and hurried to the leader in a hurry...

…………

On the other hand, the competition venue.

Murong Shu had been hesitating outside the medical tent for a long time.

He watched as Sun Yixie brought in a bunch of strange things, and felt that something was amiss. After several psychological struggles, he finally decided to go into the tent in his capacity as the organizer to find out what had happened to Dugu Yong and what Sun and Huang were doing in there.

"Excuse me, everyone." The head of the Murong family was still very polite. He greeted everyone at the door first, then lifted the curtain and stepped in.

As a result, as soon as he came in, he saw Dugu Sheng and Huo Ming facing each other, arm in arm. He didn't know what they were doing the previous second. Anyway, the moment he came in, Dugu Sheng suddenly fell forward on Huo Ming with a painful look on his face.

The next second, Huo Ming subconsciously took a half step back, causing Dugu Sheng to fall to the ground.

Then, Huo Ming looked at Murong Shu who had broken in, somewhat at a loss.

This look made Murong Shu's heart tremble.

After all, he didn't know that Dugu Sheng was poisoned. He thought that Huo Ming had done something to Dugu Sheng, and he happened to witness it.

"Uh... Sect Leader Huo, this is..." Murong Shu instinctively wanted to say something to calm the situation, but halfway through his words, he glanced around and saw an even more bizarre scene deep in the tent...