Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Medicine is Ready

In the secret chamber of the Ghost Doctor Sect, Lei Yan’s right hand swept fiercely across the table, scattering the clutter onto the floor. Then, as if by magic, several palm-sized porcelain bottles appeared atop the previously empty surface. Inside these bottles was no longer medicine, but the precious multicolored dust milk he had barely survived to obtain! Thinking of it still pained him; to bring back some of the multicolored dust milk, he had gritted his teeth and thrown away all the pills he could concoct, including those meant to heal his own body.

“Multicolored dust milk!” Lei Yan gazed excitedly at the bottles before him. He could always refine more medicine, but this dust milk was a product of nature—impossible to create artificially! That place, though hidden, might one day be discovered by others. Both sentiment and reason compelled him to take some back. Yet, that wasn’t the main reason; what mattered most was that his body had gradually adapted to the toxins, meaning he needed a new drug to stimulate his meridians. The appearance of the green sphere had given him an option: alternating heat and cold would be the ideal remedy.

With a gentle tremor of his right hand, a green sphere appeared in his palm. Lei Yan tightened his grip, sensing the immense energy contained within. Carefully, he raised a bottle filled with purple-black dust milk; a drop of viscous liquid slowly trickled from the tilted mouth.

With a crisp sound, a ring of green ripples radiated from the sphere, spreading outward in wave after wave. The sphere then slowly rose from Lei Yan’s hand. As the ripples swept over him, he shuddered involuntarily—this cold was several times stronger than what he’d felt outside the fissure! That shudder caused more liquid to spill from the bottle onto the sphere. As soon as the liquid touched it, the sphere seemed to ignite; with a roar, blue flames burst forth, soaring high. As the flames burned, the ripples vanished abruptly.

Lei Yan, his body stiff, retreated a few steps. He dared not approach the blue flames. They were strange—despite their intensity, he felt no warmth, only a chilling cold, so unnatural that he decided to observe longer.

The fire burned for about half an hour. With a crack, the floating green sphere split in two and dropped to the ground; the blue flames disappeared instantly.

Even Lei Yan, mature and composed, was stunned. It was a long moment before he recovered and hurried forward, only to feel an urge to spit blood—his green sphere was now dull and lifeless, like a plastic ball, devoid of any energy.

As he lamented the loss, a golden light flashed before his eyes. Instinctively, Lei Yan looked at the glowing spot on the floor. “That’s… the ‘Zhen’ character from the sphere!” he exclaimed in surprise. The character was carved onto a tiny scale, which shone like a golden leaf.

Lei Yan’s mood was poor; not only had he lost the sphere, but he’d wasted a bottle of dust milk. He cared little for the scale that had suddenly appeared. With a wave of his right hand, he swept the scale and the shattered sphere into his demon artifact. However, as soon as the scale entered the artifact, his arm was seized by a bone-scraping pain, and his right arm began to tremble uncontrollably.

“What’s happening? Could it be the scale?” As he thought, the scale reappeared in his hand, and the pain and trembling in his arm ceased immediately.

Lei Yan frowned; the scale had changed shape, no longer oval but now an irregular gold fragment, as if torn from a larger piece. A thought struck him: “Could it be that these characters are the true key to the spheres?”

Four spheres were summoned by Lei Yan. As soon as they appeared, they floated beside the golden fragment, trembling incessantly. Seeing this, Lei Yan realized the pain and tremor in his arm had been caused by resonance between the golden fragment and the spheres.

“How strange! The spheres were always peaceful together, but now with the appearance of this character, everything is different. Could it be that the resonance comes not from the spheres, but from the characters within? But how to break open these four spheres…” After a while, Lei Yan seemed to have an idea and muttered, “Let’s try!”

He took a porcelain bottle from the stone table and dripped its contents onto the floating spheres. The first sphere, marked ‘Qian,’ showed no reaction; the second, ‘Kan,’ likewise. It wasn’t until the third, ‘Dui,’ that, when a drop of dust milk landed, the sphere emitted ripples just like the green sphere had. Lei Yan didn’t notice any effect from the ripples, so he poured all the remaining dust milk onto it.

With a boom, the ‘Dui’ sphere burst into silvery flames, and a golden ‘Dui’ character dropped as the sphere split in two.

Lei Yan rejoiced—his method was correct. He proceeded to burn the remaining spheres in the same way. If he’d known that these spheres could have helped several cultivators reach the Nascent Soul stage directly, he would not have been so pleased.

He pieced the characters together and found that only when arranged according to the Eight Trigrams did the jagged edges fit. “What is this, really?” Lei Yan puzzled over the incomplete golden fragments. There was no way to tell their purpose from the surface; if anything, they formed a broken Eight Trigrams diagram, nothing special. In frustration, he put them away, knowing that without the remaining characters, the diagram was useless.

With a heavy heart, he packed away the dwindling dust milk and took out the mutated Yin-Yang Grass from the demon artifact. A strange smile curled at his lips as he looked at the grass. For his plan, he could not afford to lose the match four days later!

He brought a jar filled with herbs from the corner to the table. As the blue flames danced in the furnace, a faint scent wafted from the jar. After simmering all night on low heat, only a small bowl of medicinal soup remained, clear with a slight reddish hue after straining. Lei Yan pondered quietly—this bowl should protect him from poisoning during pill refining.

Without resting all night, Lei Yan drank the reddish soup. Immediately, his legs weakened, and a pale flush appeared on his sallow face. He smiled helplessly, knowing this was a side effect of the medicine, but forced himself to begin the final refinement of the poison.

While Lei Yan was preparing a poison to counter Qing Ling, not far from the Ghost Doctor Sect, in the Poison King Valley, Qing Ling was soaking in poison wine, gritting her teeth. She no longer needed such treatments, but to defeat Lei Yan, she had increased the toxicity tenfold.

“Ling’er, why go to such lengths? Even if he has inherited all your uncle’s skills, he cannot harm you in the slightest!” an old man standing by the vat said.

“He killed my Jade Toad. I’ll make him pay in this duel! Master, can the toxicity be increased further? My body is almost adapted to these toxins!” Qing Ling retorted, biting her lip.

“There’s no poison in the world that could bring you down now! The toxicity can’t be increased further—even if it is, your body won’t feel it!” the old man replied helplessly. He knew the vat’s poison well—just one drop could kill a thousand people. Even he would need an antidote immediately if exposed, yet Qing Ling had been soaking in it for hours every day since Lei Yan killed her Jade-Eyed Toad.

As the evening glow filled the sky, Qing Ling finally emerged from the vat. Immersion in poison had to be paired with cultivation techniques; without them, the toxins would take her life.

While both were preparing desperately for the duel, a disturbance occurred in Qingzhou: the Liao family vanished overnight. The mysterious disappearance didn’t change much; Qingzhou was shared by several families, who weren’t sure of the cause, only that it was likely related to Zhang Fa’s death at Hongyuan Escort Agency.

******

After two days of busy work, Lei Yan poured the cooled medicinal liquid drop by drop into a bowl—carefully, so none spilled. Finished, he poured the pressed juices into a new jar and added the bowl’s liquid, stirring gently. The previously thin liquid thickened as he mixed. Lei Yan poured the viscous solution into a paper box, sealed it, and waited for it to solidify.

Watching the box harden, Lei Yan knew the time was right. He placed the block and box on a grinder, working slowly to avoid raising dust. He controlled his breathing to minimize inhalation, but despite his efforts, he couldn’t avoid it entirely. His pale complexion grew rosy as he inhaled trace amounts of powder.

Sweat dripped from his forehead as he sighed inwardly, “Even after taking the antidote, the potency still affects me so strongly!”

He carefully swept the powdered medicine into porcelain bottles, then rushed to the basin, washing his face repeatedly with cold water. Once his face returned to its bloodless pallor, he could no longer hold on and fainted on the floor—not poisoned, but exhausted by three sleepless days and the corrosive effects of the medicine.

Lei Yan slept in the secret chamber for a whole day. Upon waking, he stretched slightly and, looking at the chaos around him, smiled. “Today, you will witness what the most deadly poison in the world truly is.”