"So this golden snake is the Azure Phosphor Five Poisons?" Qian Chen fished the limp golden snake out of the Dragon Sparrow Ring.
"It is the Green-Scaled Golden-Thread Snake, only one of the Five Poisons — the technique that made my name. After I joined the Twelve Yuan Chen, I plundered countless medicinal materials and wealth... For the sake of this golden snake embryo, I washed a village in the Miao borderlands in blood, and even killed the only woman I ever loved in this life..." At this point in the story, Qi Qiuzi's soul, remarkably, took on a look of pain.
Mind you, even bound by the Soul-Sealing Talisman he had never worn an expression of pain that cut so deep.
Qian Chen already meant to pass himself off under the Mist-Riding Lord's name, so naturally he had to ask his way through every detail of Qi Qiuzi's life — how could he let such an important piece of the story slip by? Moreover, from listening to the stories of merchants and travelers these past few days, he had gradually come to understand that these ways of the world, which he had never lived through, could nonetheless temper his Dao heart. Had Qian Chen himself to go through such things, he most likely would not be willing.
But to listen to the stories, and savor the entanglements of love, hate, and enmity within them — that both delighted him and honed his Dao heart. Why not?
He pulled up a small stool on the spot and settled in to hear the story of Qi Qiuzi's life...
"Love, hate, and enmity, eh!" Qian Chen sighed. "You said the one you revered most in this life was the master who taught you your art. Do you have any senior brothers, junior brothers, or the like?"
"No more. Of the Azure Spirit Five Poisons Cult, I alone am left," Qi Qiuzi said flatly.
"And your teacher?"
"I poisoned him to death!"
Qian Chen shot to his feet, shaking his head. "This life of yours — you have truly reaped what you sowed."
"Recite the Azure Spirit Five Poisons Incarnation Scripture from beginning to end. Describe in detail your habits, your tone, and your mannerisms when you meet the Twelve Yuan Chen, your techniques for wielding poison, and your recent experiences as well, in detail."
Qian Chen lowered the tea stall's curtain and raised a Form-Concealing Talisman to screen everything happening here, then set about studying and imitating Qi Qiuzi's every movement, listening as he described his personal ties and his habits of disguise, all while working through the Azure Spirit Five Poisons Incarnation Scripture. That scripture did indeed hold some ingenious ideas.
Its creator had meant only to extend his craft by analogy and forge a strange divine weapon out of venomous creatures. Yet unwittingly he had already gone beyond the limits of divine weapons, brushing against the rudiments of the Central Lands' Gu sorcery and heterodox soul-incarnation spells. The Azure Phosphor Five Poisons he refined had the qualities of living things and could house a soul — in this world they counted as a marvelous species of divine weapon. Whoever wielded them commanded five incarnations, as good as five peerless masters of unrivaled deadliness matching each other move for move and taking their enemies on together; the creator had even devised a combined-attack formation. Driving all Five Poisons out at once, he had left a resounding legend in this world.
Qian Chen, of course, would not send his soul out of the world-abiding treasure bastion he now dwelt in — if he wanted to impersonate the Mist-Riding Lord, he had methods aplenty. Under Qi Qiuzi's careful refinement these venomous creatures already had the embryo of magical implements about them; even in the Central Lands they would be strange insects that the heterodox paths could only dream of.
After all, rich as the Central Lands were in resources, they could not compare with this world, where the Twelve Yuan Chen had rampaged so far and wide, scraping up countless of its finest spiritual treasures. One side poured an entire world's bounty into nurturing a few dozen top divine-weapon martial artists, and the materials of their divine weapons were flawless beyond compare — not so in the Central Lands, whose low-level cultivators, ten million times more numerous, lived trembling under the oppression of Core Formation grand cultivators and Yuanshen Perfected Ones.
Qian Chen polished the Green-Scaled Golden Snake with care, brought out the four other venomous creatures Qi Qiuzi had kept hidden at the bottom of his stores with their tempering still incomplete, and poured a handful of the spirit pills Miaokong had left down their throats. The Five Poisons Incarnation Qi Qiuzi had painstakingly trained for decades came to completion in an instant, and in less than half a day he had ritual-refined the embryo of a heterodox restriction — the Five Poisons Banner.
In Qian Chen's hands the Five Poisons carried a far more fearsome menace; even wielded by Qi Qiuzi himself, they would have fallen far short.
After all, Qi Qiuzi had never managed to master the Five Poisons Combined-Attack Formation, because his divine sense fell short.
The creator of the Azure Spirit Five Poisons Incarnation Scripture must have been one of those born with mighty divine sense, and so the method he created, which required driving five incarnations at once, carried this barrier in it — and he himself had never thought of a good way to make up the lack... But Qian Chen's divine sense was a million times more extraordinary than that extraordinarily gifted creator's. For Qian Chen, such a threshold simply did not exist.
And so, in only half a day, an enhanced version of the Mist-Riding Lord came fresh out of the oven.
In a green robe and the eerie serpent-shaped bronze mask, Qian Chen said in a hissing tone: "As for Qi Qiuzi, I still find him hard to imitate. Too many people know him — every move he makes, someone is watching. Hisss... Though I could deceive ordinary folk, it would not be without flaws. Caution is needed... hisss... But the Mist-Riding Lord is one of Qi Qiuzi's secret identities."
"He has always taken care to hide every trait of his from his companions. That disguise is like a layer of natural protection."
"Save for the Dragon Head, who may still hold some clue I know nothing of that could give me away, none of the other Yuan Chen could possibly see that the Mist-Riding Lord is me in disguise."
Qian Chen propped open the Heavenly Net Umbrella and gave it a spin, changing back into the young scholar's guise he had worn before: "I will slip into the Four Seas Hall under this identity. Only when meeting the other eleven Yuan Chen in secret will I take up the Mist-Riding Lord's identity. There is just one problem... how am I to slip into the Four Seas Hall? Surely not just any random cat or dog can walk in and attend the birthday feast!"
Qian Chen burned Qi Qiuzi's remaining sundries in a single blaze; only the Five Poisons were hidden away in the Dragon Sparrow Ring.
He stowed the poison drugs in the Qiankun bag, and the medicine pouch and sundries of Qi Qiuzi's Divine Physician identity were tossed in after them, in case some situation arose that called for that identity.
Qian Chen shut up the tea stall, making it look as though the keeper had closed for the day on some errand, and went straight into Linhai City.
The great city of Linhai was bustling beyond measure just then. Those coming and going were all jianghu folk with knives and spears in hand, and the Four Seas Hall, master of this city, entertained them warmly even as it stayed alert, keeping watch and holding order. In the short time since Qian Chen had entered the city he had already witnessed three quarrels and armed brawls among jianghu men... truly utter chaos.
"I've reached the Four Seas Hall... but how am I to get in?" Qian Chen stared at the great gate archway of the Four Seas Hall, head bowed in thought. The Four Seas Hall was indeed no place any random cat or dog could enter: if one were an honored guest, someone would announce them, and the hall's senior leaders would come out to receive them.
"Breath Swallowing the Crimson Clouds — Grandmaster Liang Dou arrives!"
A disciple greeting guests at the Four Seas Hall's entrance called out at the top of his voice...
"Grandmaster Liang, were our hall's sect master to know that on his seventieth birthday Grandmaster Liang had come in person to offer his congratulations, he would be overjoyed. You truly bring splendor to our humble hall..." A middle-aged man with a flushed, crimson face, clearly a leader of the very highest standing in the Four Seas Hall, came out warmly to receive him. This Grandmaster Liang was unimposing to look at; with several attendant disciples trailing him, he took the red-faced leader's hand and walked through the main gate together.
Truly a grand display, and the atmosphere burned with excitement.
Qian Chen huddled in a corner by the Four Seas Hall's gate. Dressed as a frail scholar, he watched the scene as if eaten up with envy.
Chapter 11