After swallowing the poison, Gao Buqin redirected the attack back to his opponent. However, he knew using the original poison would be useless since Yan Liling would definitely have an antidote.
Fortunately, he calculated everything when he chose this particular artifact. The pagoda did not only absorb poison; it could also absorb various elements and techniques.
Such an ability was one of its two primary abilities. And the second was to upgrade or optimize whatever it absorbed and redirect it. Gao Buqin refined that artifact for a bastard who took pleasure in using people's techniques or attacks against them; he enjoyed watching their humiliation as they lost to their own techniques.
So, less than a few seconds after absorbing all the poisons from the hydra creature, it spewed back nine black pillars with a terrifying poison.
'A new poison?' thought Yan Liling. There was no panic on her face. On the contrary, her eyes seemed to be shining. She waved her hand, and a white pill appeared. As soon as the poison pillars reached the white, it absorbed them as its color changed from white to green, red, purple, and finally, black.
'A poison of the highest order,' she thought with satisfaction. Wang Wei had her study countless poisons so that they could mutate them after he proved the Dao through the Grand Dao Source. Then, he will use them to temper his body.
And the poison Gao Buqin's pagoda created meets their requirements among Mortal Grade Poisons.
"Thank you for the gift," said Yan Liling with a smile as she placed the pill away.
[Golden Core Pill]
Millions of pills appeared before Yan Liling, heading directly toward Gao Buqin. The latter's senses immediately went on overdrive and went on the defensive.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A chain reaction occurred as all these pills exploded one after the other. One explosion contained the energy equivalent of a Quasi-Emperor. Now, there were millions of them exploding together.
Explosion Pill is one of the first methods Alchemists learned to compensate for their lack of offensive abilities. Most young Alchemists will have countless Explosive Pills on their space ring.
The Golden Core Pill is an improvement on that idea. The Explosion Pill requires many fire or yang-type materials that are forcefully fused; the materials keep a poor balance during the fusion process.
As such, after the pill hits some kind of surface or is agitated with a certain amount of energy, the poor balance of these materials will activate and explode violently.
During the Deception Trial, Li Jun fought a bunch of low-level participants who tried to storm their mansion. And amidst them were a few people from Ji Lanfang's world with a cultivation system from Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, and Colden Core.
One of their tactics was to sacrifice countless Golden Core Cultivator slaves and force them to blow up their cores.
After witnessing that battle, Yan Liling developed the Golden Core Pill that condensed massive amounts of energy before exploding them. And unlike the Explosion Pill, the material for her pill was cheaper as she only needed something that could contain a high amount of Spiritual Qi.
The heat clouds created by the explosions ended, and Gao Buqin's figure appeared. His pagoda was not almost destroyed with numerous cracks. It had reached the limit it could absorb and became useless.
However, Gao Buqin's was intact as he had an Immortal Tier armor around his body.
Yan Liling's eyes squinted as she recognized that armor–it was the one Di Jiaying used to block Yin Gen's suicide attack.
'Could his technique allow him to summon projections of all the artifacts he has created?'
His technique reminded her of the Illusory Pill Scripture that can create Illusory Pills with real effects. This scripture considered the terrible resources all the professions used to reach high levels.
And Gao Buqin was a similar application using Weapon Dao. As a refiner, he should have refined countless artifacts for people who commissioned them. And with his technique, he could summon these weapons for battle and not have to refine them himself, saving countless resources.
After surviving that terrible attack, Gao Buqin decided his approach was too conservative and needed to end this battle as soon as possible–especially since he did not know what kind of hidden trump cards his opponent had.
Fighting people that reach high-level in their professions requires caution because their strength is never based on their body; their true strength can only be reflected in their achievements. And Gao Buqin knew Yan Liling was probably the most talented Alchemist of this generation, so he could not fathom what crazy pill she had refined.
[Life and Death Sword Formation]
3800 swords manifested above the sky; half were black and the rest white; the power of life and death emanated from them as they resonated with each other.
'A Life and Death Formation? Could this be Di Tian's handwork?' thought Yan Liling, who failed to give Gao Buqin enough credit. Di Tian was only responsible for this formation's Life and Death Dao aspect, and Gao Buqin created the rest based on his talent.
Yan Liling calmly observed the swords, and she remained motionless after seeing their powers that reached 6-Leaf.
'Gao Buqin's base power is the lower end of 5-Leaf, but his secret techniques should probably reach 7-Leaf once he uses all his abilities. I need to be weary.'
Yan Liling's eyes suddenly changed as runes appeared in her pupils.
[Eyes of Runes]
This eye technique was one of the masterpieces she created to push her talent and Acquired Source Rune Physique to the limit. With a glance, she can find the flaws and weaknesses in most Professions-based methods or techniques.
So, after a short observation, she saw the flaw in Gao Buqin's formation.
[Formation Breaking Talisman]
Yan Liling waved her hand to create a talisman that directly targeted the flaw of the formation. The swords–who formed a circle around her–dispersed and began to fall off.
However, she underestimated Gao Buqin a little. The latter reacted swiftly and recondensed the formation. Moreover, he also moved the flaws and weaknesses around.
'Interesting,' thought Yan Liling, as this was useless. She condensed more talismans and dispersed the formation a second time.
Gao Buqin became more aggressive as a result. He summoned two more sets of the Life and Death Swords before creating two more arrays for a total of three.
Then, he resonated with the three arrays and increased their attack potency to the peak of 6-Leaf.
'Array Resonance? His talent is indeed high even for formation.'
Array Resonance was a technique talented Array Masters used to boost the strength of one array with multiple of itself. However, the fact Gao Buqin used this technique was not why Yan Liling thought he was talented.
It was the fact the new array contained fewer flaws after the resonance, which is something few people can do.
Regardless, it was useless. Yan Liling's eyes were the bane of all professions. So, unless they reached a talent similar to Tong Ruobing or used some unknown fighting methods that caught her off-guard, it was pointless to battle her.
Yan Liling prepared to use the same method to deal with her opponent. However, the surroundings trembled momentarily; she immediately felt Heaven and Earth had changed.
Her senses proved her correct as Gao Buqin's arrays suddenly dime as their aura was reduced by an observable amount.
'What happened?' asked Yan Liling, worrying about an unknown or unpredicted variable in their plans. However, it did not take long for her to find her answer.
Her husband directly annihilated all the laws of Heaven and Earth in the surroundings, affecting their quadrant. As a result, Gao Buqin's formation, which relied on reasoning with the Life and Death Laws of the battlefield, was also affected.
'This is my chance,' thought Yan Liling, who reacted swiftly and took this opportunity. She used her Divine Sense to temper with the three arrays; the process was easier because of the turbulence they experienced after forcefully being disconnected from the Life and Death Laws of Heaven and Earth.
Yan Liling disrupted the balance of the array before making them collapse in a violent way. Subsequently, she directed the violent energy from their collapse toward their creator.
Gao Buqin became nervous as he realized he was momentarily distracted. He tried to regain control, but it was too late. So, he took defensive measures against the explosion from the arrays.
Unfortunately for him, everything was a distraction; better yet, the arrays were only the first step of Yan Liling's tactic.
While Gao Buqin summoned numerous treasures to defend against the explosion, a small and undetected cauldron manifested behind him.
Immediately, his facial expression changed as he sensed a terrifying devouring power absorbing the Immortal Qi from his armor.
'Damn it,' he yelled in his mind. 'She found the flaw in my artifacts.'
He was correct. Yan Liling immediately detected his armor was only a False Immortal Artifact, and she targeted that weakness. By absorbing the Immortal Qi from the armor, she drastically reduced its endurance to the point it became useless.
Boom!
The three arrays exploded, generating colossal clouds containing the power of death. However, Yan Liling was not happy as she could still detect vitality.
And when Gao Buqin's body appeared, she squinted her eyes:
"This is…"
