Dispel Summer-Heat Powder

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  "Haha, everyone present can take what I, Li Hong, just said as a joke. However, I'm putting it bluntly, since I dared to say such words out loud, that means I have the determination to win. If any of the top ten gangs don't comply and end up getting destroyed, don't blame me, Li Hong, for not warning you all in advance."

  Li Hong's sharp eyes narrowed, his right hand pulled out a folding fan from his sleeve, "slapped" open with a sound, and his gaze slowly swept across the high-level leaders of the other nine major gangs in the hall.

  The deputy leader, elder, and hall master of the Medicine King Gang, more than a dozen people, all stood up, with gloomy faces, each touching their swords, guarding Li Hong's left and right, ready to start fighting at any time. Looking at their expressions also knew that Li Hong's words were not joking, but a carefully planned action that had been anticipated for a long time.

  The atmosphere in the auction hall finally cooled down from the laughter.

  Huoyun Gang, Caohe Gang, Dongyang Salt Gang, Wutie Gang...... The high-level members of the Zhenbao Gang and Jiupu Gang stood up one by one. Their faces were solemn, each grasping their personal weapons, blocking all exits in the trading hall.

  In this auction hall, the number of people from the nine major gangs far exceeded that of the Medicine King Gang.

  Things have come to this point, and there is no room for maneuvering. Even making concessions is not possible. The only way to solve this problem is to kill!

  When a person is in the world, he must be responsible for every word he says. If one dares to speak loudly and recklessly, and speaks wildly, then one will have to pay the price of blood, so that later generations can remember the lesson. The Medicine King Gang's Li Hong has spoken harsh words, and now they must bear the counterattack from the other nine major gangs.

  Among the top ten helpers attending this auction today, which one is not stained with blood on his knife and has killed countless people to become the leader? Would they be afraid of the threat of a mere Medicine King Gang leader?

  And among these people, there are three who stand out as the core.

  The leader of Huoyun Gang, Tie Yu Yang, has a robust physique and a calm demeanor. He is known for his exceptional strategic thinking, and was already famous in Pingzhou twenty years ago as an extraordinary master. Now over fifty years old, he is in the prime of his life, with profound abilities that are immeasurable, and is widely recognized in Jianghu as the number one extraordinary master.

  The leader of the Wutie Gang, Wei Yuan, was a white-haired and white-bearded old man who was nearly ninety years old but still had a spirited appearance. He could be considered the oldest and most senior master in the current Pingzhou Jianghu, with a reputation second only to Tieyun Yang.

  Dongyang Salt Gang's chief guardian, Xiao Qiu, is about sixty years old, robust and strong, holding a 250-jin heavy black iron treasure staff. He has a silly and foolish appearance, known in the Jianghu as "the ultimate martial arts fool". This person is the younger brother of Dongyang Salt Gang leader Xiao Xia, with exceptional martial arts talent, but unfortunately, he is an idiot, knowing nothing except for martial arts. Despite his usual silly and foolish appearance, he has extraordinary strength, and his treasure staff is unbeatable in Pingzhou. Even Tieyu Yang and Wei Yuan do not want to fight this martial fool, who is one of the top masters in Pingzhou.

  These three people are undoubtedly the strongest in martial arts among the crowd. Once they start killing, they almost play a decisive role. And the attitude of Tie Yu Yang, the leader of Huo Yun Gang, the first gang in Pingzhou, is directly related to how this battle will be fought.

  "Good!"

  Tie Yu Yang walked out of the crowd, his footsteps steady, and a sense of superiority naturally emanated from him. Even the other leaders of the top ten gangs couldn't help but feel a hint of pressure in front of his majestic aura.

  He didn't rush to take action, but instead said in a low voice: "Asking for the position of Jianghu master of Pingzhou is something that I, Tie, only dare to think about in my dreams, and never dare to take seriously. Brother Li dares to openly declare war on all the gangs in Pingzhou, I am deeply impressed. However, since Brother Li dared to make a ruthless statement, he must have something to rely on." He swept his gaze around the hall again, "Today, the core high-level members of our top ten gangs are all here, why not show your trump cards and settle this once and for all tonight?"

  Li Hong sneered, "What's wrong with that? The bottom card will be revealed sooner or later, and it doesn't matter whether it's early or late. I'll say it openly now: my Medicine King Gang dares to challenge the position of the overlord of Pingzhou, and the reason is simple - we used a kind of item that our Medicine King Gang is skilled at making... poison! Don't you feel that you've already been poisoned?"

  A small portion of the high-ranking members of the Hall of Heroes heard this and suddenly changed their facial expressions, hastily checking their physical condition. The Medicine King Gang was actually most skilled in medicine production, but poisonous medicine was also one of the Medicine King Gang's specialties. If the Medicine King Gang used poison to deal with the other nine major gangs, it was absolutely possible.

  Of course, most people in the hall did not panic because of this.

  "Nonsense! The wine and dishes in this tavern, I haven't even touched a drop. Since I entered this Zhujixian County City, I've been on guard against your Medicine King Gang. My Jiupu Gang people eat food brought from Wan'an Prefecture, not a single bite of the county's food has been taken, how could we possibly be poisoned by you? Li Hong, if you want to intimidate someone, at least show some skills, what kind of skill is it to spout nonsense? If this is your Medicine King Gang's trump card, then tonight will be your gang's demise!"

  The leader of the Jiupu Gang, Zheng, stepped out with a scornful expression and laughed wildly, refuting Li Hong's boastful words.

  Poisoning people is very common in the Jianghu of Pingzhou. The Jiupu Gang was extremely careful and did not touch the wine and dishes arranged at Yongfu Building. It's not just the Jiupu Gang, other gangs are also very wary of poisoning tricks at such banquets. So when Li Hong said he used poison to deal with the nine major gangs, it didn't scare many people.

  Li Hong said calmly and confidently, "I naturally expected that you would be on guard against poisoning and wouldn't easily touch the wine and dishes in the county town. So I had long since put the poison in several hundred wells within the county town and in the sources of streams tens of miles outside the county town. You can bring your own food, but you won't carry water from tens of miles away to drink, will you? This poison is called 'Xiao Gong San' and it's divided into two parts. One part is colorless and odorless when dissolved in water, so it can't be detected. The other part has a faint fragrance that's very noticeable, so I simply made it into scented red candles and placed them inside lanterns to burn and diffuse the scent into the air, which you'll inhale into your bodies. You must have all seen that from dusk onwards, at least tens of thousands of specially-made lanterns were hung throughout the entire Bamboo Creek County town, filling every place with a unique fragrance.

  This medicine is specially designed to erode the internal true energy, and can continuously consume the true energy in everyone's body. Only the special medicine made by Medicine King can neutralize this poison. Moreover, this poison has a strange property: if you don't use your true energy, it will actually erode more slowly; the more you use your true energy, the faster it will erode.

  "It's been at least an hour now, which means the poison has taken deep effect. I, Li Hong, advise you all to surrender and I can help you antidote this poison. If not, hehe... whether you live or die is no longer certain."

  This time, the high-level leaders of the nine major gangs finally changed color.

  Grain can indeed be transported from afar by horse-drawn carts, but the water used is enormous in quantity and cannot be transported from afar due to the large number of people accompanying it every day. They are all fetched from nearby streams.

  The high-ranking members of the nine major gangs were shaken in their confidence and no longer had absolute certainty about whether they had been poisoned or not.

  Tie Yu Yang quickly ran through his inner energy, checking his dantian and meridians, and found that there was a faint corrosive force in his dantian and meridians, slowly and stubbornly eroding his internal true energy. Li Hong's words were not false, including himself, everyone present was indeed poisoned by the Xiangong San toxin.

  His face changed slightly, but he quickly realized that this attack of the Xiang Gong San seemed a bit slow and was not enough to threaten him, so he immediately calmed down again.