Under one person: I, Zhang Zhiwei, the arrogant Zhang.

Upon hearing that such a magical thing as the Golden Bark Tree existed in the world, Yu Huizhong immediately became interested and promptly looked up information about it.

When she read that being pricked by its branches and leaves would cause excruciating pain exceeding level ten, and that some people even died from the pain after using its leaves to wipe their bottoms without toilet paper, she became completely interested and was determined to refine this thing into Qi poison.

But this thing is thousands of miles away, and she can't get her hands on it. She can't very well go looking for it herself, and even if she really had that idea, the Tang Clan leader wouldn't agree.

Finally, Zhang Zhiwei gave her a suggestion: to ask Wang Ai for help. Golden bark trees come from Australia, and Australia is known as the country sitting on a mine. Tiantong Steel Plant also needs ore, and the two sides have a long history of trade.

Yu Huizhong then went to find Wang Ai. Wang Ai had always wanted to befriend the Tang Clan, and also harbored some apprehension towards this old lady, so she agreed to have someone bring back a few Golden Bark Trees when purchasing ore.

The sea freight process was lengthy, and these precious plants finally arrived a few days ago. Yu Huizhong immediately devoted herself to research, carefully extracting the toxins from the golden bark tree and attempting to gradually integrate them into her own Qi poison.

At this moment, Yu Huizhong, hidden in the shadows, watched with satisfaction as the ninja, whose kidneys she had pierced, struggled in agony.

The ninja let out a scream that was not human, rolling around on the ground. Wiping his buttocks with the leaves of the Golden Bark Tree would be excruciatingly painful. Yu Huizhong directly extracted the toxin and injected it into the ninja's muscles and blood vessels. The pain involved was unimaginable.

"It really is a good product!" Yu Huizhong's eyes gleamed with excitement. "It has such power even before it's fully purified; imagine how potent it would be if it were further concentrated..."

But just then, a silver arc of light appeared beneath her feet, like a crescent moon, rolling and tumbling, as if to tear off her kneecap.

Yu Huizhong reacted extremely quickly, suddenly bending down and firmly grasping the silver light with her right hand, which was covered by black twig armor. It was a kunai with a blade no more than six or seven inches long, and the edge was covered with green marks from being quenched with poison.

At the same time, she also fired a hand spike, which hit the person in the shadows, but the opponent seemed to be proficient in substitution techniques, and the hand spike only shattered a substitute wooden stake.

The next second, a dark figure appeared from the left. Yu Huizhong was already on guard. With a light touch of her toes, her figure rose from the ground like a wisp of smoke.

Just as she took to the air, another ninja from the shadows on her right saw that the time was right and slashed down with his ninja sword, drawing a chilling arc of light!
Suspended in mid-air, seemingly with nowhere to gain leverage, Yu Huizhong remained calm under pressure. With a deft twist of her waist, her feet seemed to step on invisible steps, managing an incredible right-angle change of direction and narrowly avoiding the blade.

At the same time, as she dodged, she flicked her wrist, and a hand dagger flew out of her hand like a black lightning bolt, with a sharp whistling sound, straight for the throat of the ninja who was attacking her!

The ninja's pupils constricted, and he hurriedly swung his sword to block.

"Ding!"

With a crisp sound, the dagger was knocked away, but the ninja was also stunned by the force, his arm went numb and his body froze.

At this moment, the ninja on the left attacked again. Yu Huizhong did not want to be caught in a pincer attack, so she retreated like an arrow, showing the speed advantage of her quick steps to the fullest.

Seeing this, the ninja flung out a black shadow. Yu Huizhong took out her dagger and stabbed at the shadow, but the shadow jumped up violently, as if it had stuck to her leg.

The shadowy figure, exposed to the steel mill's lights, turned out to be a small, jet-black snake, its sharp fangs bared as it lunged at Yu Huizhong.

Yu Huizhong stepped on the air, her body rising an inch into the air, causing the venomous snake to miss its bite. Then, she stepped on the snake's head, crushing it as she used the force to float backward, like a falling leaf, lightly landing in the distance, smiling as she looked at the two ninjas.

The two ninjas were about to continue their pursuit when suddenly they stopped, their faces grim.

They were poisoned. The Qi poison of the Tang Clan is called Poisonous Miasma. It is called that because the poison can dissolve in the air and form miasma.

This is the most authentic way to use it. As for using poisonous miasma as the Golden Light Mantra like Dong Chang did, that's going against the grain.

Just now, although Yu Huizhong did not harm the two people, she injected Qi poison directly into their bodies with her hand needles, but they inhaled some miasma.

The poison in these miasmas wasn't strong enough to kill people, but the poison from the golden bark tree inside caused them immense suffering. Their entire respiratory tract was being burned, as if they were being continuously forced to drink concentrated sulfuric acid.

Pain is like delusion; it can disrupt thinking and affect actions, which can be extremely fatal in battle.

Yu Huizhong watched her prey suffer terribly. Like a cat toying with its prey, she would only make a brief, tentative attack, avoiding a life-or-death struggle. But each time, she would add a layer of poison, increasing their suffering, and then slowly torture them to death.

This is precisely why she specializes in the "Whispering Steps" technique, so she can control the rhythm and unleash her cruelty with ease.

The battle on Yu Huizhong's side was just the tip of the iceberg. More Tang Clan experts and Koga ninjas were engaged in a fierce battle under the cover of night.

The clash of weapons and the screams of the dying shattered the silence and alerted the garrison in the distance. A piercing alarm sounded, and members of the Gelaohui (a secret society) and a large army rushed to the scene.

However, just as the sounds of battle were deafening outside, a frog rolled down the mountainside and landed near the entrance of the steel mill. Taking advantage of the fact that the Tang Clan disciples guarding the gate were entangled in a fight with the enemy, it quietly jumped into the factory area.

Then, a bizarre scene unfolded: the frog's mouth opened, an arm emerged from it, followed by a shoulder, a head... and the entire person crawled out of the frog's belly!
"Damn it, the defenses here are really tight. They even have talismans on the walls and the ground to make earth-遁术 (earth-遁术) ineffective. However, I still got in."

This person is the head of the Koga ninja in charge of this mission, and a very important figure in the Koga ninja clan. His ninjutsu skills have reached an extraordinary level.

After emerging from the frog's belly, he moved swiftly, transforming into a shadow and disappearing into the surrounding darkness, moving stealthily like a ghost.

After walking for a while, he suddenly stopped, because he sensed that there were invisible lines ahead, which were woven into a net of death.

"The defense is truly secretive!"

He leaped up suddenly, his right hand turning as black as iron, and grabbed at the invisible threads, but the sharp threads failed to harm him in the slightest.

He grasped the entire hidden thread in his hand, then pulled hard, tearing a large hole in the spiderweb woven from the hidden thread.

Tearing the spider web will naturally alert the large spider behind it.

But he didn't care. He was one of the three Koga ninjas, and his ninjutsu had reached a state of perfection. He didn't think that a mere Chinese assassin could compare to him.

He had already entered the steel plant; his next task was to reach the furnace and detonate it.

After walking for a while, he was close to the furnace. What puzzled him was that the "spider" had not come out.

"Is it because you lack confidence, can't find an opportunity, and dare not make a move? Do you want to abandon this steel mill just like you abandoned your Northeast? What cowardly Chinese."

As soon as he finished speaking, a bone-chilling cold suddenly enveloped him.

"Clang!"

The sound of the long sword being drawn was like tearing silk. He turned to the side, drew the sword, and slashed to the side. The movement was so fast that it was difficult to see with the naked eye. This was the Japanese sword technique of drawing the sword and slashing, also known as the Iai slash or the swift slash.

But strangely, he didn't manage to cut anything.

"No, no, that's not right, I struck something! What did I strike?!" The ninja noticed that the energy from his sword strike was inexplicably diminished.

His sword energy should have been crescent-shaped, but now, that crescent was riddled with holes, as if it had been eaten by worms, with tiny holes all over it.

"When did this happen? My sword energy has been destroyed, why didn't I notice it at all?"

The ninja was shocked and looked incredulous. He quickly used his abilities, and a black tunic armor suddenly appeared, covering his entire body. It was clearly an extremely powerful defensive artifact.

Then, he unleashed several more slashes, each time unleashing a surge of energy from the blade.

Then, it became like cheese that had been eaten away by worms, full of tiny holes.

But the key point is that when he slashed out, he didn't feel anything. He didn't know what destroyed his sword energy or how it was destroyed.

He felt as if he had entered an invisible net, surrounded by an invisible, insurmountable barrier, and it was densely packed.

This made him feel uneasy: "Is it some kind of weird spider silk technique? These Chinese assassins are really good at setting traps. I don't believe that all my escape routes have been blocked."

His body spun around, unleashing whirlwind-like blade energy that flew out without any blind spots, eventually turning into something resembling worm-eaten cheese.

"The roads are all blocked, and those strange things can't be broken with Qi!"

The ninja's face turned extremely ugly, feeling caught in a dilemma. Most importantly, he was unsure what the consequences would be if he touched those unseen things in the air.

He dared not try, yet he was unable to break the deadlock; he seemed to have become a lamb to the slaughter.

Meanwhile, in the furnace area in front of him, in a dark corner, Tang Jiaren, the head of the Tang Clan nicknamed "Laughing Yama," stood quietly with his arms crossed, smiling as he watched the ninja not far away perform his tricks like a clown.

He disdained to step forward, to speak with the other party, or to use trash talk to mock them; he was quietly appreciating a death.

To admire a coward who refuses to face death even though he is already dead...

"How could this be? What is this thing? Why can't I cut it? My Swift Slash can cut through steel, so why can't I cut these things?"

He raged in a fit of impotence, slashing wildly in all directions, his eyes bloodshot, the invisible things in the air so dense.

Most importantly, he tried to cut it with a physical steel knife, but found it was completely useless.

A steel knife will cut through it, but Qi will be eaten away by it.

"Why can't it be cut? Why can't it be cut?"

He continued swinging his sword with all his might, unwilling to consider that since the invisible forces in the air could penetrate steel and silently bore through the sword's energy, and that these forces were as dense as raindrops...

Could it be that the spot where he's standing right now is...?

Could these "raindrops" have already enveloped him...?

Will these "raindrops" move...?

If he moves, how will he defend himself...?

He could actually think of these things, but he didn't want to.

He refused to accept that his mission had failed, and that he had been defeated by a Chinese assassin without even meeting him...

But in reality, he had already stepped into the dense, rain-like Pill Devouring Array.

The reason he was able to make that cut was because the master felt that letting him die directly might lack some fun, so he specially created a warning to alert him; otherwise, he would have died without even noticing the surrounding Dan Shi.

This Japanese ninja insulted him, and the lord disdained to engage in trash talk to taunt him, but that didn't mean he would remain indifferent.

He chose to be ruthless, to make the man die a quick death.

Not long after, Dan Shi's poison took effect.

The ninja, who was still swinging his sword, suddenly froze, his whole body twisted, and his meridians bulged, flashing with an almost deathly white light, especially the three dantian areas of his head, chest, and lower abdomen.

The moment the Dan Shi attack took effect, it shattered his three dantian and all the meridians in his body, turning him into a complete cripple. But he was not dead yet; he crawled on the dark ground, emitting a horrifying scream.

The old man watched with a smile. Yu Huizhong liked to bully and torment people, but she didn't know that the most torturous method of the Tang Clan was actually Dan Shi.

No one can withstand the pain of a Dan Shi attack.

It was a feeling that every inch of your body, every meridian, and every part of your soul was being crushed bit by bit by an invisible giant hand.

From onset to death, it can take anywhere from one minute to several minutes, and the pain endured during this time is unimaginable.

In the story, when Dan Shi flares up, even Zhang Huaiyi, who has an exceptionally strong ability to endure, can't withstand it and begs Feng Baobao to give him a quick death.

Later, Tang Miaoxing, the head of the Tang Clan, also couldn't bear it. He failed to cultivate the Pill Devouring Technique and was instead attacked by it. In unbearable pain, he kept begging the Tang Clan to give him a quick death.

When he attempted to control Dan Shi, he clearly stated that if he failed, he would let everyone see his fate.

He knew it would be painful, and he was mentally prepared, but when he actually felt it, he still couldn't bear it and cried out for the Tang Clan to give him a quick death.

But the Tang Clan members didn't; they watched him die in agony with tears in their eyes.

At this moment, the lord smiled as he watched the ninja, in extreme pain, bite off his own tongue, shatter his teeth, and break his bones due to excessive twisting of his body, turning him into a deformed twisted rope.

His mouth kept opening and closing, uttering unintelligible words as he begged the giant spider in the shadows to give him a quick death.

But the master did not. He quietly watched a death unfold before leisurely revealing himself, re-weaving the hidden threads, and said indifferently, "Not bad, only one rat slipped in."

Meanwhile, the fighting outside the mountain gradually subsided. (End of Chapter)