I, the military god of the Tang Dynasty, have risen since I destroyed the Turks

Chapter 779 Poisonous Blood Siege
"Big brother?"

Torei, sitting below the stage, stared wide-eyed, not understanding why the Golden Wheel Monk would suddenly withdraw when he had the upper hand. His sworn brother was always ruthless and would never stop before his enemy was dead.

But then, Torre's pupils suddenly contracted—because Li Kan on the other side also retreated rapidly, creating a distance of ten zhang between himself and the Golden Wheel Monk!

"Oh no!" a poison master from the Western Regions suddenly screamed from the audience, "The Dharma King has been poisoned!"

Everyone was shocked to realize that the once majestic Golden Wheel Monk's skin was now visibly swollen and red, like a shrimp scalded by boiling water. His withered fingers had swollen to the thickness of a radish, with dark purple pus seeping from under his fingernails.

"Hahaha!" The Golden Wheel Monk suddenly let out a sinister laugh like an owl, but his voice was hoarse like a leaky bellows. "Your Tang Emperor is indeed cunning enough to send you to participate in the martial arts competition."

With each word he uttered, a trickle of black blood oozed from the corner of his mouth. "You actually used poison to ambush me?" Beneath his swollen eyelids, his eyes shone with a terrifying light. "I should have guessed that someone so young couldn't possibly be a descendant of a martial arts family."

Li Kan's expression was cold and stern as he slowly raised his right hand—inside the layer of his black iron wrist guard, a thin needle emitting a blue light was slowly retracting.

"Despicable!" Torre roared, trying to rush onto the arena, but was held back by three Mongol generals.

"Your Highness, you mustn't!" a centurion cried urgently. "That poison is contagious!"

Sure enough, the bluestone slab beneath the Golden Wheel Monk's feet was hissing and emitting white smoke, corroded with honeycomb-like holes by the dripping poisonous blood. The onlookers retreated like a tide, afraid of being affected.

Li Kan coldly stared at the Golden Wheel Monk: "Three years ago, when you used 'Corrosive Heart Powder' to poison three hundred people in seven villages in Hexi, did you ever imagine this day would come?"

The Golden Wheel Monk's swollen lips twisted in agony: "So... you've come for revenge." He suddenly launched an attack, hurling his golden wheel with a foul stench, "Then we'll all die together!"

This throw lacked its usual finesse, but was made exceptionally fierce by the venom it contained. The poisonous blood flung out as the golden wheel spun drew dozens of purplish-black trails in the air!

Li Kan swiftly tore off his cloak, using it to block out all the poisonous blood. The fabric instantly corroded into wisps of black smoke, but he seized the opportunity to leap into the air, his long sword hanging like an inverted Milky Way, aimed straight at the Dharma King's skull!

"clang!"

The Golden Wheel Monk actually took the blow head-on with his swollen hands! The sound of flesh tearing was sickening, but his hands were not severed. Instead, more black blood seeped out and spread along the blade toward Li Kan's wrist!

"Corpse Poison Technique!" a knowledgeable elder in the audience exclaimed in horror. "He's turned himself into a poison man!"

"Shut down all the wells!"

Li Kan's voice boomed through the chaotic street, but it was too late. The black blood from the Golden Wheel Monk's self-destruction flowed rapidly through the cracks in the bluestone slabs, raising acrid white smoke wherever it passed. Several children who couldn't get out of the way stepped into the blood, their boots instantly corroded and pierced through, and they fell to the ground screaming.

"Step aside!"

A squad of Xuanjia Guards from the Tian Ce Prefecture rushed over, the leading captain wielding a specially made iron shovel, prying up the stone slab stained with poisonous blood. But the underground channels had already been contaminated, and the black blood was spreading throughout the city's water system at an alarming rate.

Beneath the old locust tree in the south of the city, a century-old well suddenly began to bubble strangely. Old Zhang, who was drawing water, had just lifted his bucket when he saw the well water turn purplish-black. He took two steps back in alarm, only to see a bubble rise to the surface with a "glug," then burst open with a "pop," splashing water droplets onto his beard—

"ah!!"

Amidst screams, the old man's face melted like wax, revealing his stark white bones.

Inside the prefect's mansion, Guo Jing slammed his fist on the table: "In half an hour, more than three hundred people have been poisoned!"

On the map, red dots representing the spread of the poison have covered most of the western part of the city. Even more terrifying, those poisoned are beginning to exhibit bizarre changes—their skin turns bluish-purple, their nails grow longer, their eyes become bloodshot, and they bite anyone they see. "This isn't ordinary corpse poison," Huang Rong said, her face pale after examining the wounded. "Those poisoned retain some of their consciousness, but they cannot control their bloodlust."

Suddenly, a banging sound came from outside the window. More than a dozen people, their bodies covered in festering sores, were storming the gates of the government office. They were biting the guards while crying out incoherently, "Help me!"

Li Kan drew his sword with a "whoosh": "A quarantine zone must be established."

Before the words were finished, an arrow suddenly pierced the window and embedded itself in a pillar, vibrating and humming. The strip of cloth tied to the arrow's fletching was stained with blood, and when unfolded, it revealed eight grotesque characters:
On the city wall, Torre, his right arm in a blood-stained sling, watched with a sinister smile as the messenger fired the second arrow.

"Senior Brother's 'Seven-Step Soul-Severing Powder' is truly wondrous," he said to Ouyang Feng, who was wearing a bronze mask beside him. "Now, the entire Xiangyang is our hostage."

Ouyang Feng lightly tapped the ground with his serpent staff: "What a pity for such a fine pawn as the Dharma King. However..." A chilling laugh came from beneath his mask, "Trading his life for a city is worth it."

The third arrow flew into the city with a whistle, this time carrying a small porcelain bottle. Li Kan caught it and shook it gently, the sound of liquid sloshing inside filling the air.

"Is it the antidote?" Guo Jing asked urgently.

Huang Rong dipped a small amount of the silver hairpin into the incense to test it, and suddenly her expression changed drastically: "No! This is a poison attractant! They're going to spread poison-attracting incense throughout the city!"

As if to confirm her words, dozens of green plumes of smoke suddenly rose outside the city, drifting towards Xiangyang on the wind. Anyone poisoned by the smoke immediately became even more violent, their strength increasing several times over!
Li Kan ripped off his blood-stained cloak, revealing the concealed black iron armor beneath: "Tian Ce Mansion, heed my command! Activate the 'Purification' contingency plan!"

Twelve Xuanjia guards immediately brought over three sealed iron boxes. After unlocking them, hundreds of thin glass tubes, each filled with a deep blue liquid, were neatly arranged inside the dry ice that emitted a chilling aura.

"This is."

"An antidote extracted from the snow toad of Tianshan," Li Kan inserted a test tube into the hidden groove of his wrist guard, "but it can only suppress the toxicity for two hours."

He suddenly knelt on one knee: "Great Hero Guo, please lead your fellow martial artists to defend the four gates to the death. The Tian Ce Mansion will assemble an antidote team to strike directly at the source of the poison!"

Just as Guo Jing was about to speak, a deafening sound of war drums suddenly came from outside the city—the Mongols had launched their general offensive!
On the smoke-filled streets, Li Kan led twenty elite soldiers in a cone-shaped charge. Each Xuanjia Guard had three-foot-long steel claws extending from their wrist guards, specifically designed to sever the limbs of the attacking poisoners without getting their blood on them.

"Turn left! Avoid the main road!" Li Kan suddenly shouted.

As soon as the group turned into the alley, their previous location collapsed with a "boom," revealing a swampy ditch beneath, corroded by poisonous blood. Several poisoned individuals who couldn't dodge in time fell into it and instantly turned into skeletons.

"Watch out for the eaves!"

Three mutated creatures covered in malignant tumors suddenly leaped down from above, moving so fast they left afterimages. The foremost Xuanjia Guard had no time to parry and was bitten on the shoulder armor—

"Sizzle!"

The specially made black armor was actually pierced by the venomous fangs! The warrior acted decisively, twisting the mutant's neck with his other hand, but he himself staggered and knelt down: "General, run!"

Seeing his subordinate's face quickly turn ashen, Li Kan gritted his teeth and swung his sword, severing his right arm: "Hold on! We're taking you home!"

When the team finally reached the western water gate of the city, the sight before them sent chills down everyone's spines—

(End of this chapter)