Master of Poison

The crowd inside the inn recoiled in terror, and the diners who had edged closer to watch the spectacle hastily backed away. Meng Wei jumped in shock. "He was only splashed with a bit of tea, right? No blood was drawn, and none entered his mouth—how was he poisoned?" Fang Shaobai shook his head. "I couldn't make sense of it either." Qianqian's eyes flickered. Seeing that Wang Yu seemed intrigued by the youth in hemp, she warned him under her breath, "It either seeped through his skin or came from the scent of the spilled tea. But whichever it was, the poison should never have taken effect so quickly." "Yet Flying Eagle Pang Qingyun has indeed collapsed," Wang Yu noted. Qianqian nodded. "Which shows just how masterful this man is with poisons. Very few in the entire world possess such skill, yet who knew such a master of poison had emerged beneath the heavens?" Qianqian hailed from the Demonic Cult, and her master was a martial arts Grandmaster whose ways operated in the shadows. She undoubtedly understood such matters far better than Fang Shaobai, so her assessment was bound to be accurate. Seeing Pang Qingyun collapse, the youth in hemp sat back down. Glancing at Pang Qingyun's terror-stricken face and the Kucha contingent, who wanted to approach but did not dare, he pointed at him. "Drag him away. He will recover on his own in three days." Only then did the men from Kucha step forward, support Pang Qingyun, and beat a wretched retreat. Pang Qingyun's complexion alternated between pale and blue. Though he could not even lift his hand, he forced out, "Thank you... for sparing my life." Pang Qingyun had once been a first-rate expert roaming Hexi. How could he not recognize the terrifying caliber of this youth in hemp? With methods like those, killing him would have cost the young man virtually no effort at all. "Incredible!" Meng Wei bared his teeth in awe. "No wonder he wasn't worried in the slightest. With poison arts like that, where under heaven couldn't he go?" Generally speaking, martial artists were wary of and kept their distance from masters of poison. After all, a single careless ingestion or the tiniest scratch on the skin could prove fatal; against such arts, defense was nearly impossible. Yet even after Pang Qingyun had unleashed a lethal strike against him, the youth in hemp had still shown mercy, proving his nature was kind and untainted by bloodlust. "Still, walking the jianghu, one can't be too softhearted either." Shen Zhijun cast a sidelong glance toward the tables belonging to Wulan Fort and Linfeng Stronghold. "Look at that—they chased him all the way from the Xingxiu Sea to the Western Regions." Seeing Pang Qingyun fall after unleashing only a single sword strike, the table of Linfeng Stronghold men stirred with unrest. The sinister man stared fixatedly at the youth in hemp, full of wariness. Wu Changluo, who was adept in poisons himself, rose leisurely to his feet. "Medicine Master Sun, if you wanted Wutou Powder, you only had to ask, and Wulan Fort would have offered it with both hands. Why sneak around and steal the Golden-Leaf Aconite enshrined by our fort?" Medicine Master Sun said flatly, "Enshrined on Mount Jinhai, a full hundred li away from Wulan Fort?" "Pfft!" A delicate laugh rang out. A young singing girl in the inn had failed to stifle her mirth. Her father jumped in fright and hurriedly covered her mouth. Wu Changluo flicked his finger, and a Mourning Nail shot straight toward the girl's heart. Medicine Master Sun leaped into motion, catching the Mourning Nail firmly in his hand. "What, you can do it, but others aren't allowed to laugh?" Medicine Master Sun turned the Mourning Nail over in his fingers. The tip gleamed with an eerie blue sheen, plainly coated in lethal poison. Wu Changluo fixed his gaze on Medicine Master Sun's hand, then stepped forward at an unhurried pace, speaking as though it were the most natural thing in the world. "That's right, enshrined on Mount Jinhai a hundred li away. Everything within a hundred-li radius is the territory of our Wulan Fort." Medicine Master Sun casually tossed the Mourning Nail back to Wu Changluo. "So overbearing. No wonder you chased me all the way to the Western Regions." Wu Changluo's eyes flashed as he caught the Mourning Nail, coming to a halt a zhang away from Medicine Master Sun. "Return the Golden-Leaf Aconite to me, and we will leave at once." Medicine Master Sun shook his head. "You shouldn't have attacked an innocent person." Wu Changluo frowned. "What do you mean?" Medicine Master Sun looked at Wu Changluo placidly. "In all my life, I have loathed nothing more than those who harm the innocent and plot in the shadows." Seeing Medicine Master Sun looking at him as though he were already a corpse, Wu Changluo's pupils contracted. He instantly looked down at the Mourning Nail in his hand, only to discover two tiny iron burrs had been added to it; they had grazed the skin of his palm, and a golden glint flashed over the tiny wound. "Golden Aconite?" Wu Changluo snapped his head up. Those facing him saw that his eyes had turned almost completely black, and a dusky blue-black hue crept over his entire face. Wu Changluo flicked his wrists, hurling seven Mourning Nails, but the nails flew only halfway before dropping to the floor one after another. Staggering two paces back, Wu Changluo wore an expression of sheer disbelief. "So fast? Impossible!" Several men from Wulan Fort leaped to his side to support him. Wu Changluo rasped, "I was watching your hands the whole time... When did you poison me?" Medicine Master Sun said, "The moment I caught your Mourning Nail and flipped my wrist back down, it was done." Realization dawned on Wu Changluo. Then his entire face darkened to pitch-black, and he collapsed backward, breathing his last. The men beside him were horrified and shaken. "Big Brother had already tempered himself into a venomous body—" Medicine Master Sun finally showed a trace of disdain. "Just some Wutou Powder, that's all. What venomous body? The medicinal potency of Golden Aconite is a hundred times that of ordinary Wutou Powder. Even if he stuffed himself full of Wutou Powder, he couldn't withstand it." The people from Wulan Fort hastily departed with Wu Changluo's body. Shen Zhijun clapped his hands and laughed. "Proper and measured, killing when killing is called for. Not bad." Medicine Master Sun turned toward the last group, from Linfeng Stronghold, looking at the sinister man. "Vice Stronghold Master Lin, I treated your stronghold master's chronic ailments, and he promised I could choose any one item from your stronghold as payment." The sinister man snorted. "The Seven-Star Huang possesses medicinal potency accumulated over several centuries; it is our stronghold's supreme treasure. Naturally, it is an exception." Medicine Master Sun shook his head. There was no point in reasoning any further. "If you want the Seven-Star Huang, claim it with your blade." Yet the sinister man did not dare. Though he believed his martial prowess was not inferior to Pang Qingyun's, he was entirely incapable of warding off Medicine Master Sun's formless, traceless poisons. Wu Changluo had been a famed master of poison in the Xingxiu Sea, yet he had succumbed without even realizing it, losing his life on the spot. Had Wu Changluo not asked and Medicine Master Sun not explained, the vice stronghold master wouldn't even have seen when the poison was applied. "Medicine Master Sun, with abilities as formidable as yours, why not join Linfeng Stronghold?" the sinister man said earnestly. "Once our stronghold master consumes the Seven-Star Huang and the two of you cooperate, you will have no rivals in the Xingxiu Sea. Even the gurus of West Pagoda Temple would have to yield." Medicine Master Sun said indifferently, "I took the Seven-Star Huang precisely to keep your stronghold master from wasting it. His aptitude is dull; he has no hope of breaking through to the Xiantian realm. Tell him to give up on that dream." The sinister man choked on his words, left utterly speechless. Medicine Master Sun finished his last bite of food, picked up his bundle, and headed upstairs. The sinister man gripped the hilt of his saber, but in the end, he did not dare strike. Instead, he turned with his three subordinates and left the inn. Come nightfall, Wang Yu was sleeping alone in his room when he suddenly heard several wretched screams from within the inn, followed by a succession of swift leaps, until everything returned to silence. --- The next morning, the group discovered that the people from Linfeng Stronghold were gone, and so was Medicine Master Sun. "I can understand the Linfeng Stronghold men fleeing into the night, but why did Medicine Master Sun leave as well?" Wang Yu asked. Shen Zhijun answered, "He didn't leave in the night. He left at daybreak." Meng Wei had evidently watched the commotion last night. "That man surnamed Lin lived decades for nothing! He actually tried to mount a night ambush against Medicine Master Sun. If even I could anticipate such a thing, how could that man be caught off guard?" Naturally, the attacker had run headfirst into an iron wall. According to Meng Wei, Vice Stronghold Master Lin had been inside Medicine Master Sun's room for less than three breaths before fleeing with his hands clutching his eyes, shrieking in agony. His subordinates had supported him as they leaped away in panic, fleeing the town into the night. They had likely spent the latter half of the night in the wilderness. "Three men, three poisons. Who knew he had so many tricks up his sleeve?" Li Yunxiu remarked with emotion. She looked at Wang Yu, recalling their journey together toward Longshan Prefecture, where they had also encountered a master of poison; yet that man had relied on only a single kind of poison from start to finish, which could only be called monotonous. Meng Wei chuckled. "Though I don't know whether he carries other poisons, what he used against that man surnamed Lin wasn't poison at all." "What was it?" "Chili powder!" Everyone wore bewildered expressions, but Wang Yu was full of admiration. "Saving where one should—now that's a man who knows how to run a household!" As the others stared blankly, Wang Yu smiled. "After two fights during the day, that Vice Stronghold Master Lin was already a frightened bird at the mere twang of a bowstring. That night ambush was, frankly speaking, just a final desperate attempt out of sheer indignation. "Under those circumstances, if anything felt amiss, he would immediately flee in terror. If it were me, I wouldn't waste poison on him either—though I would have used lime powder instead of chili powder." The corners of Li Yunxiu's mouth curved slightly; she nearly failed to stifle a chuckle. "Makes sense!" Meng Wei gave a thumbs-up. "That's the flaw with poison users: once they run out of poison, they're at everyone's mercy. Unlike us—" Wang Yu chimed in, "We're only at everyone's mercy once our true qi runs out." Meng Wei choked on his breath, nearly coughing. Fang Shaobai and Shen Zhijun burst out laughing. Shen Zhijun said, "And if our swords break, our combat strength drops by thirty percent too." Fang Shaobai thought for a moment. "And without wine, mine drops by thirty percent as well." Meng Wei and Shen Zhijun chorused, "That's just you!" Everyone laughed heartily, then had breakfast and rode their horses out of town. They had hoped to cross paths with Medicine Master Sun again. They had wanted to strike up a conversation yesterday but missed their chance, only for him to leave at the crack of dawn. However, they did not see him again as they traveled north, continuing until they reached the Cheshi royal capital, where they finally found an inn to lodge in. They had evidently arrived early. Wang Yu accompanied the two women touring the Cheshi royal capital for two days, and only on the evening of the third day did they spot a square-faced young man talking with Meng Wei at the entrance. "Brother Zhao, you're finally back! Brother Fang and Brother Shen have already left," Meng Wei waved, then introduced the newcomer to Wang Yu. "This is Brother Xu Qingquan of the Qingyang Sect." Wang Yu asked, "What happened?" Meng Wei explained, "Brother Xu and his group also met a few friends along the way. As it happened, horses purchased in the Western Regions by one of their friends were seized by sand bandits, and several fine steeds were sent to the Western Regions sword hero, Morbas. "That Morbas has resided in Liefeng Fort for generations and dislikes martial artists from the Central Plains. Not only did he refuse their request to return the horses, but he also struck and injured one of them. When they were returning, they ran into Brother Liu. Brother Liu decided to take them on a visit to Liefeng Fort and sent Brother Xu back to deliver word. Brother Fang then took Brother Shen along to lend a hand." Meng Wei turned to Wang Yu. "Brother Zhao, are you coming?" Wang Yu nodded decisively. "I am!"