Chapter 324: People of Talent Appreciate One Another
Translator: Ninetales Editor: DarkGem
That woman in black was none other than Poisoner Mu Yingxue of True Heaven Palace. She wasn't old and her body emanated the vigor of youth from under her black clothes. Her skin was fair, contrasting well with the black clothes, and its whiter than snow tenderness suited her name well.
She caught the jade bottle and only then did Qin Mu noticed the black silk gloves that were very thin yet could protect her skin from coming into contact with the air.
That pair of gloves couldn't be any ordinary object. People who were used to making poison needed to be very careful to keep themselves from coming into contact with toxic substances. Qin Mu was certain that those black silk gloves didn't have the quality of silk, but instead were air-tight.
The woman's chest was not moving up and down as she was relying on the pores of her skin to breathe in and out so that she wouldn't be poisoned.
It was obvious that her abilities didn't rely on her cultivation or spirit weapons, but her poison.
The cultivation realm was never the standard to measure Apothecary's abilities. Even though his cultivation realm was very low, he could even kill a god with his poison!
Mu Yingxue took a look at the jade bottle, but she didn't smell the Lost Fragrance within it. Instead, she revealed her arm and let her skin take a whiff. She absorbed a tiny amount and instantly felt half of her arm go numb, losing its sense of touch.
"What a wonderful drug!"
Her eyes lit up, and she stuffed the jade bottle before throwing it back to Qin Mu while praising him. "Even though it can't paralyze strong practitioners on Celestial Being Realm, it can restrict their mobility. A remarkable anesthetic."
Qin Mu flipped his palm and vital qi surged out, catching the jade bottle. He didn't let it come into contact with his hand but instead took out a three-legged jade-eyed toad from his taotie sack.
That toad opened its mouth and swallowed the jade bottle, closed its mouth, then spat the jade bottle out. After that, Qin Mu placed it down, and the creature hopped toward Mu Yingxue.
Xiong Xiuyu and the rest were staring blankly. They knew that Qin Mu had gathered herbs in the basin, but they didn't know when he'd caught a jade-eyed toad to put it in his taotie sack.
"Big Sister Mu's poison is also extraordinary," Qin Mu praised. "However, your poison is only minor and unqualified to take place in the higher circles, much less to be called unrivaled in the world."
Mu Yingxue's eyes were snow bright as she watched the jade-eyed toad hopping over. She gave a gentle flick with her finger, and a strand of vital qi thread transformed into a flying insect that flew here and there. The three-legged toad swung its tongue out and caught that flying insect before croaking two times. Then, it swelled up like a balloon and became as huge as a cow.
Qin Mu took out a spirit pill and gently sliced it through the center. Once it split open, buzzing sounds could be heard coming from within. The pill was actually empty, with only a mosquito inside.
That mosquito vibrated its wings to fly onto the back of the toad and lie down there. Not long later, the toad became smaller and smaller while that mosquito became larger and larger. The stomach of the mosquito was like a huge water bag, but inside it was blood, which was not fresh red but instead lush green.
By the time the mosquito had its fill, the three-legged toad had returned to normal and was hopping around once again. It swung its tongue at the huge mosquito, but since it was too small, it couldn't swallow it.
Mu Yingxue was astonished. "Raising insects in spirit pills? Interesting."
She bared her arms and revealed her delicate white skin. The mosquito immediately went forward to sting her arm, but just as it pierced her skin, that mosquito shrunk as if it was dehydrated and its color also changed. It turned red as it turned and flew back toward Qin Mu while blazing with flames.
Qin Mu's pupils contracted, and he took out some spirit pills from his taotie sack. These pills were of different sizes and their colors were also all different.
Qin Mu rapidly sliced them into cubes and took some of each according to ratios known to him alone. With a ball of flame coming out from his palm, he fused different medicinal energies, transforming them into another kind of pill.
He opened his mouth to swallow this pill and hastened the medicinal energy while rolling up his sleeves.
After sucking his blood, the mosquito returned back to its original color. It then flew leisurely back to Mu Yingxue.
She sneered at him. "You didn't poison it?"
Qin Mu's nose suddenly grew by a huge chunk, and his nostrils flared upwards, making him incomparably hideous. With a chuckle, he said, "If I didn't poison it, how would it have flown toward you? By following your scent?"
Mu Yingxue frowned slightly and stared at the mosquito that was flying over, trying to distinguish what poison Qin Mu had applied.
After a moment, she took out a few kinds of herbs from her sleeves and dispensed them nimbly. She then spread them on her arm and let the mosquito sting her.
Once it did so, Mu Yingxue's hair began to grow frantically. In an instant, it went in all directions, making her look like a porcupine.
Poof.
A soft pop sounded out, and Mu Yingxue felt that her buttocks were itchy. A bushy tail that reached the ground had grown out and burst open her pants.
Mu Yingxue's complexion turned slightly dark. The mosquito had absorbed her blood, and the toxicity in its body had changed, making it lose interest in her. With a buzz, it flew back toward Qin Mu.
His expression changed slightly, and he took out dozens of spirits pills from his taotie sack, slicing and mixing them up. When the mosquito flew over, he had already finished making a new spirit pill.
Once he consumed it, his face returned back to normal.
The mosquito stung him and flew up by itself again. Meanwhile, rumbles came from Qin Mu's body that sounded like thunder. Bolts of lightning then came from the sky and struck him, charing him in the blink of an eye.
Mu Yingxue had been refining poisonous herbs during that time and had refined a small bottle of a drug. She raised her head and drank it all, making her fine black hair that had spread out in all directions to fall off, not a strand left. The tail at her buttocks also fell off.
The woman lifted her pants up with a black face, then stretched out her arm to let the mosquito sting it.
The next moment, she grunted and collapsed on the floor face first. Crackling sounds came from underneath her as she grew eight legs all over her body, which resulted in her looking like a hairy spider.
"Your poison is very intense!" Mu Yingxue screeched in anger. "Try my poison now!"
The mosquito flew back toward Qin Mu, and his expression changed drastically. He immediately prescribed new medicine for himself to undo the cold poison while retorting sternly, "Do you think I'm scared of you?"
The two of them pitting poison against each other was a new sight, making Xiong Xiyu, Xiong Qi'er, and the rest watch with flabbergasted expressions. When the two had first clashed, the poison had been on the jade bottle, so Qin Mu had used the three-legged toad to detox it while changing the toxicity at the same time.
The three-legged frog was affected by the toxin and thought that Mu Yingxue was a delicious food, thus it hopped towards her with highly toxic poison in its belly.
Mu Yingxue then used her vital qi to transform into an insect who had another kind of toxic inside it. When the toad ate that insect, the toxicity in its body had transformed again. Qin Mu then released the unusual mosquito he had captured in the basin of West Heaven Palace, borrowing its primitive toxicity to absorb the blood of the toad. This caused an unusual change, making it sting Mu Yingxue and poison her.
After Mu Yingxue detoxed the poison, she planted poison in the flying mosquito to make it sting Qin Mu, testing his abilities.
The two of them exchanged blows and exhausted all their means. With every move, they had to undo the poison of the other side, ensure that the unusual mosquito wasn't poisoned to death, and also attempt their best to poison the opponent. This required extremely high attainments in making poison and detoxification. If they were careless and didn't poison the other side, they might get poisoned by their own creation.
Qin Mu looked at the mosquito flying over and frowned. He raised his hand and said, "Wait a minute. Your poison refining ability is similar to mine, so since that we want to determine who's the winner, why should we poison ourselves?"
Mu Yingxue was also slightly unable to take it. When she heard that, she immediately looked at Xiong Xiyu and the rest with a smile. "In that case, you shall poison Yu Bochuan and I will detox his poison, then I will poison Nai Kui and you will detox it. Don't worry, Yu Bochuan is now the little young master of True Heaven Palace so his position currently isn't any lower than that of Nai Kui."
The expression of Xiong Xiyu and the rest changed drastically, and even Yu Bochuan who was lying motionlessly on the floor cried out silently in dismay.
The two who pitted poison against each other dazzled his eyes. Even the famous cold poison from Poisoner Mu Yingxue was used, but she still couldn't do anything to Qin Mu. This showed that his attainments in knowledge regarding poison were no lower than those of Mu Yingxue.
'To use poison on me… If the poisoner can't undo it, won't I end up dying?' He wanted to escape, but the anesthetic was not yet undone and his soul was still paralyzed.
Qin Mu laughed. "Poisoning oneself is not considered an ability. You and I don't have weak attainments in the poison path, so we should seek a stronger target, only poisoning the strongest existence to death can be considered an ability."
Mu Yingxue revealed a curious expression, itching to start. "Nai Kui is one of the strongest existences in True Heaven Palace and her cultivation was shaved off by my Coiling Silk, so is my poison path still not strong enough?"
Qin Mu patted the huge tree beside him and smiled. "That is not considered anything. If we are to compete with poison, let us choose this great demon to fight! It is a root demon that had absorbed blood from a god and a devil, and so possessing both the bloodline of a god and devil. With this power, it is extremely extraordinary. If you want to poison it, you will have to make the toxicity suppress the blood of a god and devil, to have the means to poison gods and devils!"
Mu Yingxue's eyes instantly lit up. She examined the huge tree that had transformed from the root demon, and her heart began to stir. "Practitioners of poison view poisoning gods and devils as their ultimate goal, so to poison a strong practitioner of Divine Bridge Realm is indeed not considered an ability. Alright, I will agree with you! You and I, whoever can poison this root demon will be the winner!"
A strong practitioner on Celestial Being Realm showed a look of despair and struggled to move forward. "Poisoner, there are important matters at hand…"
Mu Yingxue gave him a glance and sneered, "I'm not interested in the fight over authority within True Heaven Palace. In my eyes, poison is the important manner. I and this little brother appreciate each other so we naturally have to fight to our hearts' content. This is so we won't let down what we had learned our entire lives!"
Suddenly, everyone collapsed onto the floor, and even the dragon qilin, Xiong Xiyu, and the two white bats crumbled to the ground. The three strong practitioners on Celestial Being Realm also fainted from the drug.
Mu Yingxue looked at Qin Mu and said firmly, "It's rare for Yingxue to meet such a Dao friend, so we must play to our hearts' content today. I didn't bring enough spirit herbs so I need to go gather herbs in Great Ruins. Two days later, you and I shall meet under this huge tree and execute all our methods!"
Qin Mu sighed. "Alright!" After he said that, he placed a jade bottle that was half open. For the next two days, Lost Fragrance would leak out continuously so no one would be able to come close to this place.
The two of them made their moves and headed to other places to find spirit herbs, abandoning the dragon qilin, Xiong Xiyu, and the rest.
After they left, the huge tree began to struggle in an attempt to move, wanting to pull its roots out to take this chance to escape, but what could it do when it was fixed in place by the Green Dragon Bead. It was unable to pull away even an inch.