Chapter 325: Poisoning the Root Demon
Translator: Ninetales Editor: DarkGem
The night descended and darkness came surging forth in all directions. But when it came to the huge tree, there were divine lights shining in its surroundings.
This was due to the root demon wishing to avoid the invasion of the darkness and making quite an effort to remain safe. It had snatched god statues from many other places to protect itself.
The area which the roots could cover was vast, but the original body was only a lump of roots. During the day, they would be spread out in all directions, transforming into women to attract preys to its doorstep, but at night, they would all be retracted to hide in the area guarded by the god statues' divine light.
The white bat brothers, the dragon qilin, Xiong Xiyu, and Xiong Qi'er were all near the roots, in the area covered by the light, so they were safe for the night.
However, all of them were either poisoned or paralyzed by Lost Fragrance, so they were unable to move. They could only wait quietly for the morning to come.
Ghostly wails came from the outside while huge shadows moved in the darkness. Devil language rang continuously as if whispered by the ears. Some of the god statues had suddenly revived and were saying words that the people of current times couldn't understand.
Light burst forth in the darkness, and it suddenly retreated, revealing a world with verdant hills and limpid water. The Great Ruins overlapped with the other world, and there were people there examining the darkness in Great Ruins with curiosity.
At another moment, a deadly quiet world which was grey and hazy, without any signs of life, suddenly appeared in the surroundings.
A night of bizarre encounters pushed the hearts of everyone into their mouths.
When the sun finally rose in the sky, the dragon qilin lay on his back with his four legs raised up. He had suffered from Mu Yingxue's poison, but he could still mutter, "Cult Master haven't fed me today…"
Another day passed by, and evening came. Qin Mu rushed back from outside covered in dust. He refined a drug while walking. He had also gathered some fine jade, which he refined into an eight trigrams five phases furnace which was much more complicated and intricate than the sealed furnace in Imperial College.
Since he was a professional in crafting artifacts, crafting such a furnace wasn't difficult for him.
When Qin Mu came to the bottom of the tree, he was still refining pills and medicines.
A sealed furnace would prevent poisonous gas from leaking out.
His methods were different from the past. Ever since he had competed with Little Poison King, he had improved a lot in the path of refining poison.
This time, he used the basic method of refining simple poison pills.
Just like how sword techniques had fourteen basic sword forms, refining poison also had one thousand and twenty-four basic poison pills. By arranging them in different groups, a different kind of poison would be concocted. The dosage of each kind of poison pill was different, and with different ways of matching them, the poison achieved would also be different.
Besides these, he also refined numerous basic supplement spirit pills to boost medicinal energy. They could raise the power of a poison by dozens of times!
After he finished refining the basic poison and supplement pills, he took out a few seeds and over a dozen insect eggs. He planted the seeds under the tree and used Earth Aeon Creation Technique and Spirit Creation Technique to hasten the growth, growing them into spirit herbs.
At the same time, he had the insect eggs hatch, and numerous little insects crawled out.
Qin Mu fed them supplements and made them plump from all the feeding. He then placed them onto the spirit medicines to gnaw on them, making their toxicity increase.
Despite his medicinal knowledge being close to reaching perfection, Apothecary had never purposely imparted poison techniques to Qin Mu. He had learned to fuse the poison path with his medical skill from Little Poison King Fu Yuanqing.
Qin Mu let the venomous insects kill and swallow each other until only one insect king was left. He then concocted different poison pills with all kinds of high poisonous pills to feed to it.
Before the sky turned dark, Mu Yingxue made her way back.
This woman was riding a white elephant, and it walked over at a leisurely pace. Beside the white elephant were numerous flowers and herbs, as well as birds and animals.
Qin Mu was stunned when he saw flowers, herbs, birds, animals, and even insects following the woman. All of them seemed to be inseparable.
'All things have spirits, and poisonous substances also have spirits. The method she used to gather herbs is much superior to mine, to actually make the poisonous herbs follow her by themselves.'
This was indeed a great foe with brilliant attainments in the poison path!
Qin Mu could feel the pressure. Victory or defeat wasn't determined in the competition two days earlier as both of them had suffered losses; however, this time it might be a real competition!
Mu Yingxue came to the bottom of the tree, and the flowers, herbs, birds, animals, and insects followed right after.
The hair of everyone who was lying under the tree stood up on end as they looked at Qin Mu and Mu Yingxue with eyes filled with fear.
Poisonous substances were common to Qin Mu and Mu Yingxue, but to others, they were dangers that they wanted to avoid at any cost.
Mu Yingxue immediately took care of her herbs and executed her own technique. The poisonous substances grew by themselves until their toxicity was perfected. At that moment, they would pluck off their most toxic part, offering it to her.
This girl was very serious and did everything meticulously, grooming her poison with single-minded devotion.
Her poison was slightly different from Middle Earth's poison. It mainly targeted the vital qi, which was the beginning of a person's qi. When there was not enough of it, the body would empty out and the blood would become weak, along with their spirit and appearance. If the vital qi was completely emptied out, the person would die.
It was the same for people who cultivated.
Her poison knowledge chased after the origin of life with the intention to poison it to death. Her plan was brilliant.
Qin Mu raised his eyebrows, then focused on refining his poison with similar single-minded devotion. The two of them competed with each other and refined diligently throughout the night while the huge tree beside them shivered. The trunk swayed for an entire night, but it still couldn't manage to break free.
Light finally broke through the sky, and Qin Mu finished his poison. Mu Yingxue also straightened her back, and in both of their hands was a small jug. The two people looked at each other.
"What poison has big sister refined?" Qin Mu asked curiously.
Mu Yingxue didn't open her jug, but smiled. "Your poison is very toxic, but your mouth is as sweet as honey, warming my heart. My poison has no prescription since it's a new one that I created to target the blood of a god and devil. I haven't named it yet. My poison has the benefit of dissolving the blood of gods and devils, destroying the origin of the vital qi. After consuming it, the vital qi will be depleted in three-quarters of an hour, eliminating the spirit and scattering the vital qi, killing the host!"
Qin Mu's eyes lit up, and he said, "Big sister, since your poison doesn't have a name, let me help you name it! Let's call it Spirit Eliminating Three Wonders Powder, how about it?"
Mu Yingxue was extremely delighted and looked at him happily while praising, "Good little brother, I didn't expect you to be so erudite. If it was me, I wouldn't have thought of such a nice name. What kind of poison did you make?"
Qin Mu patted his jug and smiled. "My poison is also different from usual. My master never taught me any prescriptions for poison and only taught me medicinal knowledge. I learned the skill of refining poison from my senior brother. One benefit of this poison is that it can reverse the yin and yang, messing up the five phases. A great supplement is also a great poison. Once a great supplement is used to nourish a great poison, the corporeal body and primordial spirit will be spoiled. If my poison is consumed, the body will be the first to break, followed by the spirit. My poison has also fused the shaman poison of Rolan's Golden Palace which can disperse the soul, so it breaks three things."
"Why don't we call it Three Break Powder then? Even though the name doesn't sound nice, it suits it well," said Mu Yingxue.
Qin Mu smiled and said, "Big sister's name is interesting as well, let's call it Three Break Powder."
The people lying on the floor didn't know whether to laugh or cry. These two people were clearly foes in a life and death battle to poison each other and defeat the other's poison path. Yet there they were, flattering each other, calling each other big sister and little brother, and looking affectionate.
Besides, hearing them praise their poison, it was as if they were talking about some sacred medicine that could make them gods after consuming it.
"Good sister, will you poison it first or shall I poison it first?" Qin Mu asked.
Mu Yingxue hesitated. Poisoning first and poisoning later had its own problems.
Once the first person poisoned the root demon, even if the poison didn't kill the creature, it could still cause major damage to its vitality, allowing the next person to gain an advantage. However, being the first to poison would give the person the ability to seize a key moment. If the root demon was poisoned to death, that person would win and the other party could only admit defeat.
Mu Yingxue was slightly troubled.
Qin Mu caught her expression and opened his jug with a smile. "How about I go first?"
He opened his jug and a wisp of black smoke floated out. A venomous insect came from within, rays of light coming from its body. The little thing looked like a spider, but it wasn't a spider. It had eight claws, a long body, a stomach of a wasp, and eight eyes that were all tightly shut.
This wasn't a true venomous insect, but a vision transformed from the toxicity. It looked like a world-shaking poison would erupt from it the moment the venomous insect opened its eyes!
Mu Yingxue took a glance and shuddered. She then immediately said, "Let me go first!"
Qin Mu moved back a step, and Mu Yingxue went forward to open her jar. A wisp of green smoke floated out, and the Spirit Eliminating Three Wonders Powder was revealed to be a green seed.
Mu Yingxue executed her magic power, and the green seed flew into the huge tree with a whoosh before vanishing.
The both of them could faintly see the seed sprouting in the tree and growing rapidly.
Mu Yingxue cast her spell to catalyze all the toxicity in Spirit Eliminating Three Wonders Powder, and the ground suddenly trembled. The root demon seemed to have felt immense pain which made its trunk tremble endlessly. The roots that were as thick as dragons snapped and decomposed, causing miserable shrieks to come from the flower buds. The women flailed in all directions as the flowers withered. Numerous buds fell to the ground while the women inside them became charred bits!
In the sky above, the first layer of the tree crown suddenly crumbled with a world-shaking rumble. It crashed down on a mountain nearby, splitting its peak!
"Great poison! Great drug!" Qin Mu sighed in astonishment.
Yet Mu Yingxue frowned slightly. Even though the first layer of the tree crown had crumbled and the tree bark looked like it was withering, there was something that was out of her expectations, and it was the Green Dragon Bead.
The root demon had swallowed the Green Dragon Bead. This might have suppressed its mobility, but it also provided the root demon with incomparable vitality!
The power contained in the blood of a god and a devil also surpassed her expectations. Her Spirit Eliminating Three Wonders Powder might not be able to poison this root demon to death.
Mu Yingxue waited for two hours until the root demon gradually stopped struggling. Roots started to grow once more, and the tree crown also grew out. The withered bark fell off while new ones replaced it.
"I've lost." Mu Yingxue's expression turned dim, and she shook her head.
Qin Mu went forward and smiled. "I also might not be able to win."
His vital qi burst forth, forming a sacrificial altar. He then placed the jug at the center and cast his spell. The insect on the altar became bigger and bigger. With a sudden whoosh, it flew up and clung to the tree before seeping into it.
Qin Mu's hair fluttered as he moved around while casting his spell. His Three Break Poison used shaman poison, so he had to cast the spell to move it.
The root demon did not react for a time. Then, the toxicity erupted, and the huge tree rumbled. Snapping sounds rang out continuously, and countless wooden shards fell from the sky, resulting in a rain of wood.
The ground became akin to a boiling pot as countless roots jumped out of the ground like huge snakes, wriggling in the air.
Boom!
The roots that had flown out from the soil formed a huge black ball while withering and breaking into pieces. The black wood that scattered all over the ground piled up to form a huge mountain!