Chapter 270 — A Duel of Healing Hands

" The Imperial Preceptor shook his head. "Within the borders of Jingping there are indeed several dozen Sect Master-level experts, but it would be hard to make every one of them serve my purpose. Two divine physicians, one of you uses poison and one uses medicine; perhaps you may complement each other. " Shen Mu glanced at Little Poison King, and Little Poison King glanced back.

"My master, the Jade-Faced Poison King, was supreme in both medicine and poison. He could use medicine to strengthen poison, and poison to strengthen medicine. " Little Poison King said: "By how many times can you strengthen my poison?

" Shen Mu said coldly: "That depends on how fierce Senior Brother's poison is.

I can use medicine to greatly replenish His Majesty's vital essence and raise His Majesty's life force, so that His Majesty's life force and vital essence heal the repository's wounds on their own. Just how fierce is your poison, then, that it can raise the vital essence and life force in my medicine thirty or fifty times over?

" "As fierce as you like!

" Little Poison King said coldly: "I fear your tonic cannot withstand my virulent poison! To refine away the remnants of god arts for the Imperial Preceptor, I must raise the toxicity of the power-dissolving spirit silk thirty or fifty times before it can dissolve the god's remnants. With poison that strong, even a god could be poisoned to death, could be dissolved into a skeleton. Do you have that skill?

" Shen Mu gritted his teeth.

"We can try. " One by one the poisonous insects crawled out of Emperor Yanfeng's body and back into the lumps on Little Poison King's face and hands. "You cannot refine such a medicine, and I will poison you to death. " He laughed with a chuckle.

Shen Mu's expression was calm.

"If you use the wrong poison, I will beg the Emperor to spare your life and take you back to the Wilderness Ruins.

" Little Poison King's face changed sharply.

He gave a cold snort, picked up a brush, and wrote down a string of poison names.

Shen Mu wrote out a pill formula as well.

"Your Majesty, have someone fetch the medicines!

" The two threw down their brushes and sat in silence.

Emperor Yanfeng and the Imperial Preceptor looked at each other. These two had frightful tempers; by no sign did they look like men intending to heal anyone, but rather like men after their lives.

Emperor Yanfeng coughed and summoned several imperial physicians waiting outside the hall.

"Fetch the medicines at once.

" The imperial physicians hurried off with the formulas.

"Your medicine is fierce indeed," Little Poison King said with a savage grin. Shen Mu ignored him. After a long while the imperial physicians finally brought all the poisons and tonics they required. Shen Mu set to work at once, refining the medicinal powers and driving the Mystic Body Three Elixir Art; at one moment he took the form of the Flaming Delusion Star Lord with an ox's head and human body, at another the Great White Star Lord with a tiger's head and human body, then the Chrono Star Lord, the Year Star Lord, the Suppressing Star Lord, his form shifting, his vital essence shifting, cultivating out all the various medicinal powers. Little Poison King, for his part, used poisons to raise his insects: he fed the insects virulent things, then used the insects to refine poison pills, then fed the poison pills back to the insects, repeating again and again, until at last he raised a great spider, dark and heavy with red eyes, whose poisonous aura condensed around it and did not disperse.

On Shen Mu's side, he took out several seeds and, of all things, planted flowers right there in the hall, setting the seeds upon refined spirit pills and using the Creation Earth Origin Art to let the plants draw on the pills' medicinal power; before long the plants grew, bloomed, and bore fruit. He then gathered the spirit fruits and roots he needed and refined them again, repeating again and again, until at last he had refined the mountain of piled herbs into seven spirit pills and one red pellet. Shen Mu put the pills away and looked at Little Poison King.

Little Poison King refined the great spider to death, refining it into a strand of nearly invisible spirit silk and a small bottle of poison. The two exchanged a glance; Shen Mu tossed the red pellet to Little Poison King, and Little Poison King tossed the poison to Shen Mu. Shen Mu squeezed out a smile and said softly: "Your Majesty, time to take your medicine.

" Emperor Yanfeng's heart pounded as he looked at Shen Mu's seven spirit pills and the bottle of poison. "My dear minister, this toxicity.

.

.

" "The toxicity is great.

" Shen Mu shot Little Poison King a glance.

"Should Your Majesty pass away, this subject will avenge Your Majesty! " The Imperial Preceptor also looked at the spider silk before him with some hesitation.

Little Poison King said: "Rest assured, Imperial Preceptor.

It will heal, it will surely heal.

" Shen Mu's form turned into a shadow and bored into Emperor Yanfeng's repositories. He placed the seven spirit pills into the Emperor's seven repositories, dropped a few drops of poison on each pill, then withdrew.

Little Poison King drove the spirit silk into the Imperial Preceptor's body, gave it a tug with his hand, and drew a strand of spider silk out from the Imperial Preceptor's mouth. He planted the silk in the red pellet, then stuffed the pellet into the Imperial Preceptor's mouth.

From within Emperor Yanfeng's body came a world-shaking boom; suddenly hair grew madly all over him, and his bones too grew madly. In a blink his legs had shot out a great length, his trousers no longer able to cover them; his head swelled, his face sprouted a beard that hissed outward like weeds, and the hair on his head spread in every direction.

Leg hair, chest hair, down, every hair thick beyond measure, tearing his dragon robe to shreds. Before long Emperor Yanfeng had grown into a giant over ten zhang tall, lying on the ground unable to move, half the hall filled with hair, the Emperor drowned in a dense thicket. "Your poison is a bit fierce, Senior Brother. " Shen Mu's eye twitched.

On the other side, transparent spider silk suddenly surged from all over the Imperial Preceptor's body, issuing from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, and even from the pores of his skin, binding him up tight as a great rice dumpling.

Little Poison King's face was grave. "Your medicine is a little too nourishing.

" The two looked at each other, each picked up a brush to write another formula, then threw down the brushes and waited for the Emperor to send someone for the medicines, only then remembering the Emperor was buried under hair.

The two could only cough, summon the imperial physicians outside the hall, and hand over the two formulas. The imperial physicians waiting outside were terrified, seeing the thick hairs spreading out from the hall, already covering the steps. Not long after, the physicians returned with the medicines; Shen Mu set to refining again, and Little Poison King hastily raised more insects.

Shen Mu drew two butcher's knives and hacked his way through countless hairs, searching with great hardship until he found the Emperor and administered the medicine.

On the other side, the lumps on Little Poison King's face burst open, and poisonous insects, each carrying the refined medicine, bored into a silkworm cocoon and delivered it into the Imperial Preceptor's body. "Bad!

" The two each made their examinations, their faces both ashen.

"The sovereign and his ministers seem somewhat out of balance. .

.

" On the Emperor's side, though the hair stopped growing, poison began to surge out; on the Imperial Preceptor's side, hair began to grow. The two hastily picked up their brushes and wrote yet another formula.