Gong Yuantai believed he could bring greater benefits to the Sixteenth Squad. Even if he couldn't get the captaincy, if he defeated Li Yan, what courage would Li Yan have to remain as captain? Or if someone else were sent, the superiors would have to reconsider.
Although this would certainly offend the higher-ups, for cultivators like them who were about to march onto the battlefield again, facing the bloodthirstiness and cruelty of the demonic cultivators, all this was a small matter. Everything could wait until they survived.
Thus, Gong Yuantai still decided to act.
Many people present were not surprised by Gong Yuantai's actions. Needless to say, the people behind him were supportive.
Among the newly conscripted cultivators, there were also many sharp-minded individuals who had sensed something from Gong Yuantai's words and actions since Li Yan's appearance. "He himself also wants to compete for the position of captain."
As for those watching from the periphery, many of them had also temporarily retreated from the battlefield to rest. They basically shared the same thoughts as Gong Yuantai.
Even in their own teams, they wouldn't allow a newcomer to come in and give orders, even if sent by the higher-ups. They would be just as unwilling.
Facing Gong Yuantai's steady approach, Li Yan simply nodded. As a veteran Foundation Establishment master, Gong Yuantai had his own dignity.
His words clearly highlighted that although Li Yan had some fame back then, he, Gong Yuantai, had no interest in watching a Qi Condensation disciple's duel. Now, although Li Yan could be called his junior brother, he still had to show some real skill.
"I have made a fool of myself. The little I learned in the sect is naturally shallow. Please guide me, Senior Brother Gong!"
The moment Li Yan said this, many people's eyes lit up. Gong Yuantai, however, slowly narrowed his eyes. Despite his rugged appearance, his mind was extremely delicate.
The meaning behind Li Yan's words was that he wanted to experience his poison techniques.
In the Malevolent Spirit Sect, this was often the most common method of competition between cultivators—a Poison Duel. Although this method didn't necessarily involve bloodshed and lacked a certain imposing momentum, it also wouldn't truly poison the opponent to death. However, the performance after being poisoned was determined by the poisoner. Each type of poison could make the opponent wary in the future, even creating boundless fear psychologically.
The poisoned person might get lost in an illusion, singing or dancing in public, even stripping themselves naked without realizing it, making a complete fool of themselves in the eyes of onlookers.
The poisoner could also inflict immense psychological and physical pain on the opponent, even waiting until the moment the opponent was on the brink of death before administering the antidote, letting them truly feel the arrival of death, so that they would never dare to have thoughts of opposing them again.
They could also make the opponent watch in horror and with blood-curdling screams as poisonous insects burst out from their own bellies, revealing their mottled bodies...
All sorts of bizarre and cruel methods of killing; there was nothing a poison cultivator couldn't do, only things you couldn't imagine.
However, in a sect competition, a Poison Duel had to guarantee one premise: the opponent could not be killed. But you could humiliate and torture the opponent to your heart's content.
Although the rules were so, there have been countless cases of accidentally killing a fellow disciple since ancient times. In the end, the sect would still have to decide on the punishment based on the situation.
He didn't expect Li Yan to implicitly propose this type of competition in front of outsiders today.
"Hehehe, Junior Brother Li has great courage. I didn't see any of your poisoning methods just now, Junior Brother. From this, it's clear that your cultivation is much higher than mine."
"But since you've said so, Junior Brother, I will accept. However, we must set a new rule for our Poison Duel today. If the opponent is poisoned and cannot remove the poison within three breaths, they lose. What do you think?"
Seeing Li Yan propose a Poison Duel, Gong Yuantai couldn't help but look at him in a new light. Since Li Yan had proposed it, it was possible for him to use the opportunity to make Li Yan unable to get out of bed for months.
"Everything will be as Senior Brother says!"
After hearing Gong Yuantai's words, Li Yan finally felt a sense of relief in his heart. It seemed the other party was not a pedantic person who only focused on arduous cultivation.
Gong Yuantai had still considered Wei Zhongran's wrath, so he proposed the three-breath detoxification method. This provided some buffer. As long as it wasn't a world-class poison that killed instantly, there would be time for a rescue, and it wouldn't cause any serious injury.
"Then we will set the range of the Poison Duel to a ten-zhang radius. If any poisonous gas escapes the ten-zhang range, whoever is controlling the poison will admit defeat."
Gong Yuantai glanced around and added another rule.
"As Senior Brother wishes!"
Li Yan still replied with a smile.
Hearing the exchange between the two in the field, the disciples of the Malevolent Spirit Sect all smiled. This was a contest between their own disciples. Many of them also felt their hostility towards Li Yan lessen.
In fact, within the entire sect, besides some of the higher-ups, the only ones who knew Li Yan relatively well were the few people close to him.
Li Yan's constitution was special, and the Malevolent Spirit Sect had been hiding some things about him. Of course, there were three types of people who were exceptions.
First, the middle and high-level members of the Malevolent Spirit Sect, especially the elders who first came into contact with Li Yan when he joined.
Second, some core disciples who had heard from their masters or elders that Li Yan's constitution was somewhat special, but still didn't know much about the "Fragmented Poison Body." This was also because the records of the three major poison bodies in the Malevolent Spirit Sect were scarce and classified as a core secret.
Third, the disciples of Little Bamboo Peak. Wei Zhongran had special trust in his own disciples. Coupled with Li Yan's miscellaneous spirit root aptitude, he still wanted Li Wuyi and the others to help Li Yan more, so Li Yan's secret was non-existent to them. Of course, there were also a few special people, such as Wu Shixi and Yu Yiyong who first brought Li Yan back. They had long been placed under a gag order. Unfortunately, Yu Yiyong, with his scholarly spirit, had already died in the battle for resources in the secret realm, so there was one less person in the world who knew about this matter.
So today, when the Malevolent Spirit Sect disciples present heard Li Yan propose a Poison Duel, they really looked at him in a new light. They truly believed that Li Yan was going to rely on his arduous cultivation for the Poison Duel.
Li Yan naturally saw the changes in their expressions, but he didn't feel any psychological burden. The poison he laid out was his own method.
That Gong Yuantai had been in the Foundation Establishment stage for decades. As a disciple of Lord Lao Peak, his knowledge of poison was far beyond what Li Yan, who had only been in the Malevolent Spirit Sect for a few short years, could compare to.
Although Li Yan's cultivation progress was strange, Gong Yuantai was an absolute expert when it came to understanding various herbs, poisonous insects, and venomous creatures.
So, those who understood Gong Yuantai didn't think Li Yan could win. They just thought his courage was commendable.
As the two spoke, the robes on their bodies began to move without any wind. Except for the disciples of the Malevolent Spirit Sect and some cultivators who also came from a poison cultivation background, everyone else had already retreated more than a hundred zhang away. They didn't want to be accidentally affected by the potent poison.
As for the non-Malevolent Spirit Sect poison cultivators, after retreating only ten zhang, they hesitated for a moment and then stopped. This was a great opportunity for them to broaden their horizons, and they didn't want to miss it.
They had only heard about Poison Duels between disciples of the Malevolent Spirit Sect before. This was the first time they had seen one.
Gong Yuantai stood with his hands behind his back, showing no visible movement, but streams of sickly green mist began to emanate from his body. In just a few breaths, it had spread to a range of seven or eight zhang around him.
The sickly green mist in front of him began to roll towards Li Yan.
This type of attack was usually called "Poison Testing." There was no need to hide it; it was a blatant and open attack.
The main purpose was to first sense the opponent's detoxification ability. If the opponent couldn't even handle this kind of poison, then there was no need to use the remaining techniques.
This Poison Testing was not a simple test of the opponent. The poison released was generally ranked in the middle of the poisoner's arsenal of potent toxins.
This way, he could determine the opponent's true strength and decide on his next move in the duel.
This was equivalent to using fifty percent of a poison cultivator's techniques in the "Poison Testing." If the opponent's strength was slightly inferior, they would be hit and fall into the trap in a single encounter.
At the same time as the sickly green mist rolled towards Li Yan, Gong Yuantai had already raised his other hand. A light green pill was in his hand, and he swallowed it in one gulp.
Gong Yuantai was not taking the pill now to prevent the sickly green mist he released from harming him; this poison was no longer harmful to him.
His main purpose was to guard against a simultaneous attack from Li Yan. Therefore, he had taken a detoxification pill that he had refined himself, which had defensive effects against most common potent poisons.
The cultivation of a poison cultivator was extremely tedious and painful. On one hand, they had to study various plants and poisonous insects, and even personally test poisons on themselves. During this period, the number of poison cultivators who died from accidental poisoning was countless.
On the other hand, after making a poison, they also had to prepare an antidote. For some poisons, even the person who refined them might not be able to find a cure.
Furthermore, in their daily cultivation, poison cultivators had to constantly soak in or consume different potent poisons. They tried their best to become "immune to a hundred poisons," constantly strengthening their body's adaptability to potent poisons.
This was to at least make themselves immune to the vast majority of common poisons. Whether in daily cultivation or in battle, it would make them less likely to be poisoned.
But they could only try their best to achieve this expectation. Generally speaking, when they used the most vicious things on themselves, even they had to be extremely careful.
Of course, if Gong Yuantai found that Li Yan was attacking and he couldn't determine what kind of potent poison was being used, he would also try his best to dodge it instead of taking it head-on.
Although he hadn't seen the technique Li Yan used to poison Wang Ning and Wuye with the "Quicksand Art" before, he had sensed the poison in the yellow sand he had collected. The poison that could cause mental confusion was only ordinary in terms of toxicity.
For him, he didn't even need to take an antidote. He could stand in it and take a dozen more breaths without any problem. So what he was wary of was only Li Yan's method of execution.
How could he have known about Li Yan's cunning? Even when he used the Divine Sense Spike to ambush Wuye, he still used the hallucinogenic poison in the "Quicksand Art" to make some "interested parties" perceive that he had used the same hallucinogenic poison to win both times.
Seeing that Gong Yuantai had made his move, many people in the surrounding area had already raised their Spirit Power shields. Only some who recognized the poison Gong Yuantai was using didn't take too many defensive measures, instead watching the center of the field with great interest.
Some of them were quite knowledgeable and knew that this was just the beginning "Poison Testing" in a poison cultivator's duel. The good stuff was yet to come.
Although Gong Yuantai was confident in the Poison Duel proposed by Li Yan, he would absolutely not underestimate his opponent because of it.
But a scene that he found incomprehensible immediately appeared before his eyes. Faced with the oncoming sickly green mist, Li Yan remained standing where he was, with only a faint layer of black gas around him.
This black gas did not form a Spirit Power shield; it was just a simple spiritual power defense.
Then, under the astonished gazes of the crowd, the sickly green mist rushed onto Li Yan. The faint black gas around him seemed to have no defensive ability at all and was swept in by the sickly green mist, instantly enveloping Li Yan's entire body.
A thought flashed through many people's minds, "This kid is so arrogant. That's a very powerful poison attack among Senior Brother Gong's cultivated toxins!"