# Chapter 168: No One Survives the Nine-Death Poison
Ji Xiu's eyes went wide in an instant, filled with utter disbelief.
"A zombie?" Eastern King Valley's secret art sustained his vitality as he murmured, "No… impossible. A zombie couldn't have passed the screening to enter the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm."
His mind went at once to the cloaked cultivator.
That man's voice had been cold and sinister, lacking any human warmth.
Looking back now, it must have been a zombie.
That was why, even after Ji Xiu had pierced his heart with a silver needle, the man had not "died"—because a zombie was already dead. The heart was not its vital point.
But how could a zombie have evaded all those powerful cultivators outside the Full Moon Pool? How could it have passed the screening to enter the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm?
If it could truly do so, then its capabilities should be far beyond what it had displayed.
"Of course it couldn't."
At that moment, Zhao Fangyuan's voice came from behind him.
The pain of his injuries forced him to pause briefly before continuing: "That is why he was only turned into a zombie after entering the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm."
So the cloaked cultivator had been under his control all along. In this competition within the Heavenly Treasury Dragon Palace, Zhao Fangyuan had held two sources of combat power—and had played the part from beginning to end.
When the cloaked cultivator had stood motionless earlier, it was because Zhao Fangyuan had accidentally been caught in the trap and afflicted by kill-urge corrosion. The zombie, losing control, naturally could not move.
The others, fighting against the hidden manipulator's kill-urge corrosion, had saved the zombie in passing.
And after Zhao Fangyuan had nearly died but recovered, the very first thing he did upon regaining consciousness was direct the zombie to continue acting.
Such depth of cunning!
This was precisely how he had won the chance to turn the tables.
He appeared utterly harmless now, but he had never truly lost his ability to fight back.
His affliction from the kill-urge corrosion had been real. His injuries were genuine.
But the zombie he had refined still retained its full combat strength.
The moment he realized he had been struck again, he immediately commanded the zombie to feign death—all for the purpose of this sudden attack.
He had not, of course, done this to save Jiang Wang. He had acted solely because this was the perfect moment to strike.
The angle, the position, the timing—all were flawless.
In a single blow, he had eliminated Ji Xiu of Eastern King Valley—the greatest threat present.
At any other moment, had Ji Xiu maintained even a shred of vigilance, Zhao Fangyuan could not have succeeded so easily.
Zhao Fangyuan's voice now carried an unmistakable note of triumph. "They say 'no one survives the Nine-Death Poison,' but if I kill you, the poison should be cured, yes?"
"Indeed…"
Ji Xiu murmured.
He felt the stiff, cold hand withdrawing slowly from his body.
As a cultivator of Eastern King Valley, he could perceive his life slipping away with agonizing clarity.
It drained away bit by bit, with absolute finality.
Why had he taken up medicine in the first place?
Had it not been because he had witnessed the finality of life's departure, and wished to salvage something?
But what had I ever salvaged? he asked himself.
It seemed as though a small, snow-white hand was waving before him.
"Goodbye! Goodbye! Goodbye!"
The voice spoke.
Ji Xiu tried to lift his eyelids, but in the end could raise them no more.
"What a… pity…"
The zombie withdrew its arm, and Ji Xiu collapsed.
...
With Ji Xiu's death, the Nine-Death Poison lost its sustaining source. The death aura became a rootless poison.
As long as the afflicted could hold on, the Nine-Death Poison could be slowly driven out.
Zhao Fangyuan would certainly not let such an opportunity slip.
He would not compete with the others in the speed of purging the Nine-Death Poison, for the zombie he had risked everything to refine upon entering the Dragon Palace still retained its full combat strength.
To create this zombie, he had expended nearly all his hidden cards, managing to kill and reanimate this person without anyone's notice.
The results proved this choice had been absolutely correct—it had completely reversed his defeat, making him the sole claimant of the divine-power opportunity.
Whatever that opportunity might be, however it might appear—
With all competitors eliminated, it would naturally be his.
And the first person he intended to kill was Lian Que.
Because the injuries he bore had been inflicted by this young man from the Red Yang Lian clan, and moreover, this man was extraordinarily tenacious. The grey on his face had already retreated below his nose.
He would likely be the first to purge the Nine-Death Poison, and therefore the first to die.
The zombie had no consciousness; it was entirely controlled by Zhao Fangyuan's will.
It turned toward Lian Que.
Lian Que immediately cursed aloud. "Zhao Fangyuan, you've secretly learned corpse-refining techniques! Aren't you afraid of the Three Punishments Palace? The crime deserves death—the intent is equally abhorrent!"
The Three Punishments Palace was the sacred ground of the Legalist school, punishing lawlessness across the world.
Acts such as refining living persons into zombies, once discovered, would lead the Three Punishments Palace to pursue the perpetrator to the ends of the earth.
If the matter escalated further, even the Four Seas Commercial Alliance could be implicated.
The moment Lian Que erupted in curses, the crimson on his face could no longer hold. His defenses retreated.
He was forced to fall silent immediately, devoting his full attention to resisting the death aura.
Though the situation was dire beyond measure, he still refused to give up.
Before the zombie closed in—try harder, try just a little harder.
With the last dregs of his strength, unleash one final searing burst.
He closed his mouth, staring at the zombie with unwavering eyes, silently awaiting the final moment.
Zhao Fangyuan smiled faintly, paying no heed, dismissing it as the howling of a defeated dog.
Within the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm, even Qi's laws held no sway—what could the Three Punishments Palace do to anyone here?
He had obtained the corpse-refining technique and naturally kept it carefully hidden, never showing it to others. Even on the rare occasions he used it, he ensured he was far removed.
But here, within the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm, what did it matter using it before everyone's eyes?
Once they left the secret realm, wouldn't they all forget?
No—they would all be dead.
This Lian Que was laughably stupid.
"You're right. Daring to learn corpse-refining arts…"
At that moment, a voice spoke, continuing from where Lian Que had left off: "The crime deserves death—the intent is equally abhorrent!"
That voice…
Jiang Wang flexed his fingers.
His heart twinged faintly.
He had been ready to draw his sword from the moment Ji Xiu approached.
To improve his chances, he had deliberately held back, waiting until the razor's edge between life and death.
That was when Ji Xiu would be most off guard, giving him the greatest opportunity to behead the man with a single stroke.
But he had not expected Zhao Fangyuan's zombie to get there first.
All he could do was continue playing the part of a dying man, biding his time.
Pretending to be on the verge of death for this long was somewhat peculiar, but in such an atmosphere, no one was paying attention.
Ji Xiu and Zhao Fangyuan—it was truly hard to say which was more devious.
One had used a corpse as a medium to release the Nine-Death Poison. The other had directly refined a competitor into a zombie, turning the tables through sheer cunning. Beyond strength and strategy, luck had also played a considerable part.
Both left Jiang Wang with a chill of afterthought, cold sweat running down his spine.
He considered: had it not been that he genuinely cared only for the opportunity and bore no killing intent toward his competitors, he would not have survived the first wave of kill-urge corrosion.
And during the second round of Nine-Death Poison, had the Nether Candle not happened to discover and absorb the death aura in time, he would be in no better shape than Lian Que—a fish upon the chopping board.
And had he not played unconscious, could he have dodged that zombie's sudden attack?
That question, too, hung in the balance.
The most dangerous thing within the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm was not the realm itself—it was these people exploring it.
These people, freed from all worldly constraints, unbound by any inhibition.
Now, watching Zhao Fangyuan carry out his final purge—though the target was not him, increasing the distance he would need to cover to strike—
He had no choice but to act.
He had already prepared himself to strike and was on the verge of doing so.
But that sudden voice nearly frightened him into internal injury.
Who in the hell was that now?