"You"

In the midst of retracting his swords, Zhang Xuan happened to chance upon this sight, and he froze on the spot.

"I must say that I'm really thankful for your generous gift, but you need not put on an act anymore. I know your motive. You speak of helping me exact vengeance, but in the end, aren't you just trying to make me submit to you? I can tell you this loud and clear right nowdream on!"

Driving its Qilin Flames to break down the contents of the pill, the Inferno Qilin looked at Zhang Xuan and sneered coldly, "We, of the Qilin Tribe, and proud and noble beasts. How can we possibly submit to a mere human?"

Hidden under those impassioned and rousing words was the ugly intention of the human to enslave it.

Given how it refused to submit to even the head of the Zhang Clan, how could it possibly willingly submit to a mere Grand Dominion realm brat?

You must be kidding me!

The only reason why it chit-chatted with the other party for so long was because it was bored with its confined isolation, and it wanted to chat with someone a bit. Who could have thought that the young man would actually bring him some unexpected gains?

The Inferno Qilin had been paying close attention to the Netherworld Azure Dragon Beast. While the latter's cultivation had indeed reached Saint 8-dan pinnacle, it was limited by the potential of its bloodline. Achieving a breakthrough for it would be a feat nearly as difficult as scaling the heavens.

Yet, just by consuming the golden pill, it managed to push through its bottleneck and rise to the next realm... From this, it was certain that the pills in the jade bottle did harness mystical effects. Even if they weren't as effective on it, it would still benefit greatly from consuming them.

At the very least, pushing for a breakthrough of a small cultivation stage shouldn't pose too much trouble!

"My pills!" Paying no heed to the Inferno Qilin's taunting, a look of absolute horror appeared on Zhang Xuan's face.

"I have already swallowed them, what are you going to do about it? Make me spit them out?" the Inferno Qilin taunted coldly.

You deserved it for placing a treasure like that before me unguarded.

It's not as if I'm bounded by the code of honor or those rubbish principles that you master teachers follow. Survival of the fittest; since I was able to snatch it, it goes without saying that it's mine!

"No, that's not what I mean" Zhang Xuan exclaimed in a fluster as he shook his head hurriedly.

"Like I give a damn as to what you mean! Since I have presented me with such fine medicine, I'll let you off the hook this time around. Scram out of this cage right now, or else, don't blame me for getting nasty on you!"

The Inferno Qilin swung its thick tail menacingly before returning back to the area where it had laid down on earlier.

"I" The Inferno Qilin's words did little to cool down the agitated state Zhang Xuan was in. He continued exclaiming anxiously, "I'm not concerned about you taking my pills but... I only have a single one of that breakthrough pill, and I have already fed it to the Netherworld Azure Dragon Beast!"

"A single one?" Those words immediately left the Inferno Qilin halting in its footsteps. It turned his head around and asked doubtfully, "If you only have a single one of those breakthrough pills, what are the other pills you have stored in that jade bottle of yours then?"

"Those... are all poison!" Zhang Xuan exclaimed.

"Poison?" The Inferno Qilin was visibly startled for a moment before it clicked its tongue in disdain. "Don't think that you can get me to spit out those pills just because you said that they are poison. Let me tell you this, I have already assimilated those pills into my body!"

Even if the young man felt indignant at having his pills eaten by it, surely it didn't have to come up with such a ludicrous lie!

It had made sure to scan the pill carefully with its Spiritual Perception prior to consuming it, and it was certain that those seven golden pills were identical to the one the young man had offered it previously. If they were really poison, his tamed beast should have been dead by now!

And besides, who in the world would place a pill intended for achieving breakthroughs into a bottle filled with poisonous pills? What if one were to consume the poison by accident?

At least put some effort into crafting out your lie! I can't feel your sincerity at all!

Hearing those words, the young man's face immediately turned white, and he lowered his gaze despondently as he muttered, "You have already assimilated the pills? Oh no, this is a disaster"

"Enough of your act. Get out of here right now, and I'll spare" Fed up with the young man's theatrics, the Inferno Qilin harrumphed coldly and turned its body around.

But halfway through its motion, it suddenly froze up entirely, and an intense pain abruptly exploded through its innards.

Kacha! Kacha!

It was a kind of sensation that felt as if someone was tugging desperately at the two ends of its heart in opposite directions, attempting to rip it apart.

At the same time, the Inferno Qilin felt a flowing current of power seeping into the thinnest meridians in his body and gnawing at his nerves viciously, causing an unending wave of pain to assault his senses.

Facing such a situation, the Inferno Qilin panicked.

Qilin Flames were capable of turning anything to cinders. As such, most poisons would be reduced to ashes before they could do any harm to its body, so why would its body suddenly be tormented by great pain all of a sudden?

Tzzzzzzzz!

While it was still deep in thought, the pain assaulting him from the inside swiftly intensified, sweeping through every nook and cranny of his body like an unstoppable flood.

Padah!

The Inferno Qilin collapsed weakly to the ground, devoid of even the strength to get back to its feet.

"It's definitely the golden pills that I have just eaten. Damn it!" the Inferno Qilin cursed with his clattering teeth.

It was very certain that the cause of the pain was the golden pills that it had just eaten. When it was assimilating the pills earlier, several surges of energy burst forth from them and converged together before diving into the narrowest meridians in its body to lie in wait.

"Y-you poisoned me!" the Inferno Qilin glared at the young man before it in fury.

Everything was as clear as day to it now.

The young man had intentionally placed the jade bottle on the ground in order to prompt it to steal it from him.

By doing this, not only would he not be infringing on his dignity as a master teacher, he would be able to corner it too. More importantly, it wouldn't have anyone to blame because it was due to its own foolishness that it leaped ahead of itself and snatched the pills...

Indeed, there was nothing more frightening than a shameless master teacher!

"You should have just asked me instead of leaping forward to snatch it! Why are you so reckless? Those pills are poisonous, you know!" Zhang Xuan exclaimed with a hint of helplessness in his voice.

"You" Trembling with fury, the Inferno Qilin found itself at a loss for words.

What else could it say? All the young man did was to place the jade bottle beside it. In the first place, the young man had offered the golden pill to him at one point in time, and it refused it. After which, it was also the one who snatched away the jade bottle and downed its content...

From the perspective of the outsiders, the young man hadn't done anything morally questionable at all from the start to the end!

Directing a vicious glare at Zhang Xuan, the Inferno Qilin growled, "Give me the antidote!"

Since the young man had such a poison in his possession, it didn't make sense for him to not have the antidote.

"To be perfectly honest with you, I don't have any antidote for that poison. However, I do know of a method to alleviate the effects of the poison... As long as you submit to me, I can help you!" Zhang Xuan said with a look of difficulty.

"You want me to submit to you? Dream on!"

After despicably luring it into eating the poison, that fellow still wanted it to submit to him?

The Inferno Qilin nearly exploded on the spot. Malicious killing intent burst forth from it as it roared ferociously, "Even if I were to die today, I shall bring you down together with me!"

Boom!

The Inferno Qilin leaped into the air, and it swiped its hoof down on Zhang Xuan.

In an instant, flames surged to every corner of the cage, and an overwhelming burst of energy which was powerful enough to even rip pitch-black rifts in space tore through the air, descending down upon the young man.

Padah!

But before the attack could reach, the Inferno Qilin suddenly plummeted from the sky, crashing heavily onto the ground. Its body convulsed ceaselessly from the excruciating pain coursing through its innards, and white foam was leaking out from the corner of its mouth.

The poison was simply too potent that it had exceeded its tolerance limit.

Zhang Xuan walked up to the Inferno Qilin and gazed down on the latter impassively. He shook his head and persuaded, "Submit to me. You'll only die at this rate."

"You want someone who possesses the Ancient Qilin Bloodline like me to submit to a filthy and despicable human like you? Dream on!" the Inferno Qilin roared with gritted teeth.

The lineage of the Qilin Tribe could be traced back to the ancient times, and the Qilin Tribe had been a dominant power even in the era where powerful beasts roamed the surface of the Master Teacher Continent. While the purity of its bloodline was lacking as compared to its ancestors, there was no way its pride would allow it to submit to a mere human!

It would rather die than to submit to them!

Otherwise, the Zhang Clan wouldn't have been completely helpless despite having captured it for three whole years.

"I guess there's no choice then" Zhang Xuan shook his head. He was just about to further goad the Inferno Qilin on with his words when an oppressive pressure suddenly weighed down heavily on him from above. In an instant, even his breathing had become laborious.

Raising his head, he saw dark, ominous clouds swiftly filling the previously clear sky. Lightning crackled angrily from within, as if heralding the arrival of a catastrophe.

"Is this the Saint 9-dan Macrocosm Ascendancy Ordeal?" Zhang Xuan narrowed his eyes in astonishment