Chapter 28: Poison Master?

Finally, she could hold on no longer and collapsed heavily to the ground, like a withered leaf shed by the autumn wind, devoid of any strength to struggle further.

Nearby, Yun Yi’s compound eyes glittered with cunning. He landed nimbly beside the woman in green, first fluttering his nearly transparent wings to probe the surrounding aura.

When he confirmed that the woman’s presence had become extremely faint, almost imperceptible, a smug curve tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Dead. I never expected this operation to go so smoothly. It seems that since my cultivation level rose, the potency of my venomous sting has truly increased significantly."

Before he could finish his sentence, a dazzling light erupted from Yun Yi’s body. Immediately after, his form expanded rapidly, transforming from an inconspicuous, mung-bean-sized mosquito into a mosquito-beast with a massive frame and broad, fan-like wings.

This mosquito-beast, roughly the size of a rabbit, not only granted him a qualitative leap in power and speed but, more importantly, allowed him to extract blood from the woman in green more efficiently to nourish himself.

Yun Yi vibrated his enormous wings, creating a gust of wind as he flew slowly toward the woman lying on the ground. In the process, he caught a faint, herbal fragrance, but he paid it no mind.

His proboscis, glinting with a cold light, extended, ready to drain that precious source of life.

However, at this critical moment, the woman, who should have been completely unconscious, suddenly snapped her eyes open. They flashed with a clarity and alertness entirely different from before.

"So, it’s a mosquito. No wonder I didn't sense you earlier." The woman’s voice was calm and clear; she had clearly recognized Yun Yi’s true form.

To her, a tiny mosquito in broad daylight was indeed difficult to detect. She had clearly been aware of his identity all along and had regained her senses just in time for this life-or-death moment.

The moment she opened her eyes, she reacted instantly. A mysterious power seemed to surge within her, and her body, previously weakened by poison, now erupted with startling force. She struck out with a palm, accompanied by a sharp whistle of wind, aiming directly for Yun Yi’s vital points.

Though Yun Yi remained constantly vigilant, he was caught off guard by this sudden counterattack. He hurriedly wrapped his wings tightly around his body, attempting to mitigate the damage.

But the power of her strike far exceeded his expectations. With a thunderous "bang," Yun Yi was sent flying several yards away, crashing heavily to the ground.

"She wasn't dead... she was faking it?" Yun Yi scrambled up from the ground, his wings disheveled, his eyes filled with shock and resentment. He had never imagined that she would feign death to lure him into revealing himself.

Just as Yun Yi realized this, before he could react further, the woman was already closing in. She held a long sword, its tip flickering with a cold, sharp light like autumn water. Her eyes were brimming with resolve and murderous intent; clearly, she held no mercy or pity for the mosquito that had dared to ambush her.

"A mere mosquito, yet you forced me to risk my own safety just to draw you out!" Her voice was as cold as ice, every word squeezed through her teeth, carrying undeniable majesty and fury.

As it turned out, Yun Yi’s successful ambush had been entirely of her own design. She had assumed that with her cultivation and alertness, even if she were struck, it would be a minor injury. She had never anticipated that he would use poison.

Yet, this posed no real trouble for her, as she was an alchemist with profound knowledge of and countermeasures for various toxins. Yun Yi’s meager poison was child's play to her, not worth a second thought.

Even so, being wounded by a mosquito filled her with unprecedented rage and humiliation. In her world, she had always been the one looking down from above; when had she ever suffered such indignity?

Her sword seemed to sense its master's fury, flashing with frigid light. Every swing carried a howling wind, and wherever the tip passed, the air seemed to be sliced in two, its edge pointed directly at Yun Yi.

Faced with her storm-like assault, Yun Yi felt a chill. Though he was a mosquito, his intelligence remained, and he knew that resisting head-on was far from wise. Relying on his agile movements, he dodged and wove, doing his best to avoid a direct clash with the blade. Whenever the light of the sword neared, he would shift at an impossible angle, narrowly escaping disaster.

However, the woman’s offensive grew increasingly fierce, and Yun Yi began to feel overwhelmed. He knew that if he continued to dodge like this, she would eventually find a flaw.

With a thought, demonic energy surged within him, and he instantly manifested an aura shield to wrap himself tightly. This shield emitted a faint, eerie glow, seemingly capable of repelling all attacks in the world.

The woman’s sword danced through the air like a silver dragon. Every strike against the shield was accompanied by the metallic clang of impact and sparks, yet it left only shallow marks on the defensive barrier formed by his demonic energy, failing to breach it in the slightest.

Yun Yi felt a sense of relief and prepared to seize the opportunity to use his small, agile form to escape and regain the initiative.

Yet, at this critical moment, the woman suddenly freed one hand and pulled an exquisite small green bottle from her sleeve, throwing it at his shield without hesitation.

Yun Yi’s heart tightened; he assumed the bottle contained some powerful explosive artifact capable of shattering his defense in one blow. But to his surprise, upon impact, the bottle merely gave a soft "pop" and shattered into fragments, failing to produce any explosion or shockwave.

Yun Yi felt a brief moment of relief, but a sense of alarm immediately followed. He knew she was no ordinary opponent; she would never perform a useless action at such a juncture.

Sure enough, the moment the thought crossed his mind, a faint, chilling "hissing" sound emerged—sharp and grating in the night air, like a venomous snake flicking its tongue.

Yun Yi followed the sound to the point where the bottle shards had touched his shield. There, the supposedly impenetrable barrier was dissolving at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if being consumed by an invisible, potent poison.

"What? Poison!"