Translator: TYZ Editor: Book_Hoarder
The empress was surrounded by the eight pavilion masters. No matter who attacked her, she would counter-attack with a punch. Her punches weren't showy at all. She was solely using her strength to counter the eight pavilion masters' techniques. This had always been her style. No matter who her opponent was, she would kill them with a single punch.
If she was at her peak strength, she would not fear these people at all even if they joined forces. However, after pulverizing Hua Sanliu, she had fallen into an absolutely disadvantageous position. Every now and then, another wound would be added to her body. Her red dress was already covered in bloodstains. Blood dripped from her hands and from a half-inch-deep wound on her waist. The wound on her waist was caused by Shi Qingjiao. She always launched a deadly attack at the most suitable timing right after everyone had attacked.
If it was another person, she would have cut his or her waist open.
There was also a wound on the empress's shoulder. It was so deep that her shoulder bone could be seen. It was inflicted by Jiang Hailiu.
The empress's face turned colder and paler as time passed. The redness of her lips became more and more prominent, resembling the color of a bloody fire. Her gaze had become ice-cold.
Everyone was amazed by Qi Zixiao's willpower. From the start of the battle until now, her determined gaze had never changed. They could not see any sign of weakness or fear from her.
Despite their amazement at her willpower, they still wanted to stop her from escaping this place. Even if Hua Sanliu had died, they would not let anyone undermine the Nine Pavilions.
They did not even need to consider the benefits they would receive from Great Xia's imperial family for killing Qi Zixiao. Just Qi Zixiao's head alone was more than priceless.
"She can't take it any longer," everyone thought to themselves. Even though the epic battle between Qi Zixiao and Hua Sanliu did not last long, it had exhausted her immensely. And now that she had lost so much blood, she was on the brink of collapsing.
Everyone here was faster and more ruthless. They could even engage in a battle of attrition with Qi Zixiao and kept her here.
Suddenly, the disciples of the Nine Pavilions surrounding the battle began to feel headaches and nauseous. Following which, several of them collapsed to the ground. Hundreds of people dropped to the ground one by one. This scene shocked everyone in the Nine Pavilions. There were many people shouting names and checking on those who had collapsed. The bodies of those who had collapsed began to twitch while white foam poured out from their mouths.
"We are poisoned!" Everyone's facial expression changed drastically.
Where does the poison come from? Qi Zixiao? Who? Other than Qi Zixiao, who can it be?
One by one, the disciples of the Nine Pavilions collapsed to the ground without knowing what was going on.
Everyone began to scatter in all directions. Even though they did not know how Qi Zixiao had poisoned them, they still pulled away from each other subconsciously.
However, it was too late to do so at this point of time.
So how deadly were ten kilograms of sarin gas? If one kilogram of sarin gas was enough to kill one million people, then ten kilograms of sarin gas was enough to turn this place into a dead zone. Furthermore, this place was so small. If an ordinary individual was exposed to such a high concentration of sarin gas, he or she would die in less than two minutes.
From the moment the empress detonated the sarin gas cans with a kick until now, seven minutes had passed. Excluding the time for the sarin gas to take effect, everyone in Nine Pavilions were exposed to high concentrations of sarin gas for five minutes.
Even though the disciples of Nine Pavilions were stronger than ordinary individuals, they still died within five minutes. This was also because they had absorbed a huge amount of sarin gas. It was simply too late for them to escape now.
With fear on their faces, the disciples of the Nine Pavilions began to run outwards. However, not long after they started running, they dropped to the ground with their bodies twitching.
The eight pavilion masters' facial expressions changed drastically. They did not expect Qi Zixiao to poison them, and they did not know how she did it.
"Qi Zixiao, you drank the antidote just now?" Jiang Hailiu suddenly recalled the scene just now and understood what was going on. The thing that Qi Zixiao drank just now wasn't an energy-recovering medicine, but rather, a preemptive antidote.
The eight pavilion masters stopped what they were doing and subconsciously looked at the countless fragments of the black backpack that Qi Zixiao shattered with her kick on the ground.
The black backpack was where Qi Zixiao took out two bottles of an unknown liquid and drank them.
Where else could they get the antidote from now?
"That's why I said you're courting death." The empress looked at the eight pavilion masters with an ice-cold gaze. She was panting heavily with blood seeping out from the corner of her mouth. For the past seven minutes, she had arduously been holding them off.
"Hand over the antidote!" Jiang Hailiu held on to his last glimpse of hope and roared. He knew it was highly unlikely that Qi Zixiao would hand over the antidote. At this point in time, his body was trembling furiously, appearing as though someone had poured a bucket of cold water over him.
The rest of the pavilion masters' faces turned deathly pale.
For the time being, they were still alright. After all, they were more powerful than the ordinary disciples, and hence, they were able to hold off the poison for a slightly longer amount of time.
"Antidote? I have drunk it all," the empress plainly replied. This simple line caused the eight pavilion masters to shiver in terror.
"The antidote you want is with me, I will destroy it before I die as well." An ashen look appeared on Zhu Lang's face.
"It's okay, I can go in and look for it myself. There is definitely some antidote left," the empress said. "There shouldn't be too many antidotes that require such a box to hold."
That's right, the antidote for Torment was kept in a very exquisite box. The empress reckoned that Zhu Lang wouldn't find such a box to hold it if it was easily contained.
There was something else that she did not say for the fear of alarming them. Even if they destroyed the antidote, as long as there was a bit of remnant of it, she could identify its smell and find it. She reckoned that different antidotes were made up of different ingredients and they would, therefore, have different smells.
"You will die with me!" Third Pavilion Master Zhong Feng roared and charged towards the empress. The empress merely took a step to her side and avoided him. By now, she no longer needed to put in so much effort into warding them off anymore. All of the ordinary disciples were lying on the ground. Some of their bodies were still twitching, but they would die soon.
Spirit Wheel experts might be more powerful than ordinary practitioners, but that did not mean they were impervious to all poisons.
Thousands of people were lying on the ground in disarray, looking extremely ghastly. Those who ran away did not dare to stop running. No one knew the exact area of effect that the poison had.
The look on Zhu Lang's face was indescribable. He crushed the wooden box in his hand and fled the scene.
Holding on to his last tinge of hope, he decided to flee the area. He might find a way to cure himself and survive outside.
Upon seeing Zhu Lang run away, the rest of the pavilion masters took action as well. One of them fled the scene while the remaining four charged towards Qi Zixiao. Since they were going to die anyway, they felt that they should inflict more injuries on her.
After running less than five meters, Zhu Lang found it harder and harder to control his body. Following which, he collapsed to the ground.
Since he was the weakest among the eight pavilion masters, he was the first to die.
The sound of Zhu Lang collapsing to the ground hit everyone like a heavy hammer. A terrified look appeared on all of their faces.
The next one to fall was Zhang Zijiang. She dropped to the ground while jumping over to the next rooftop.
Calmly, the empress dodged the attacks from the four pavilion masters. Then, she watched on as they collapsed to the ground one by one.
"You will not leave Great Xia!" Jiang Hailiu's eyes were filled with malice. After finishing his sentence, he dropped to the ground in front of the empress.
The empress stood there with an indifferent look upon her face. Other than several men that had escaped, everyone in the Nine Pavilions was dead.
The empress knew she had no time to waste. She knew a thing or two about sarin gas from Ren Baqian on Earth. Given such a high concentration of sarin gas in the air, she was in danger even though she had taken the preemptive antidote.
In terms of body constitution, an aboriginal was much better than a Spirit Wheel practitioner from Great Xia. In this aspect, even Hua Sanliu paled in comparison to her. Moreover, she had consumed the antidote and, therefore, would be alright for the time being. However, if she lingered here any longer, things might go awry for her.
She ran up to Zhu Lang's body and took the remnant of the crushed antidote from his hand. Then, she searched through the nine pagodas for the antidote. After a while, she left Nine Pavilions with a few wooden boxes.
The inheritances kept in the Nine Pavilions were considered top-notch in Great Xia. however, she wasn't interested in them, so she couldn't be bothered to loot the place.
Behind her, the Nine Pavilions was like a ghost town with countless dead bodies sprawled all over the place.
Other than the few ordinary disciples that had fled, everyone else in the Nine Pavilions was dead.
No one had expected the Nine Pavilions, which stood tall and upright in Great Xia for hundreds of years, to be annihilated just because of a poison named Torment wandering in the outside world.