Chapter 325 — Heroes Admire Heroes

The woman in black was none other than Mu Yingxue, poison master of the True Heaven Palace of the Western Lands. She was young, and the body beneath her black robes brimmed with the vigor of youth; set against that black, her skin seemed all the fairer, white as driven snow — a fairness that suited her name well, for skin so white could mirror the snow. She raised a hand and caught the jade bottle, and only then did Shen Mu notice the black silk gloves she wore, gossamer thin, yet enough to keep her skin from being exposed to the air.

Such gloves were surely no ordinary things. Those who made a habit of refining and wielding poisons had to be exceedingly careful, lest they touch the poison themselves; Shen Mu would wager that her black silk gloves were not silk at all, but so tightly woven that not even air could pass through.

Her chest did not rise and fall; she breathed through the pores of her skin instead, so as not to take in poison. Clearly her strength lay not in cultivation or in primal weapons, but in her poisons. Cultivation realm had never been the measure of an alchemist's power; even one of low realm might poison a god to death.

Mu Yingxue glanced at the jade bottle, but rather than sniff the Bewildering Incense within it directly, she pushed up her sleeve and let her skin do the smelling, absorbing the faintest trace of it — and at once half her arm went numb and dead to all feeling.

"Good medicine!

" Her eyes lit up.

She stoppered the bottle and tossed it back to Shen Mu. "It may not bring down a Heaven-Man realm expert," she said in praise, "but it can certainly limit their movements. A remarkable numbing drug.

" Shen Mu turned his palm over and sent out his primal energy to hold the jade bottle aloft, never letting it touch his hand, and from his Taotie Pouch he drew a three-legged toad with jade-green eyes.

The toad opened its mouth, croaked, and swallowed the jade bottle whole; then it closed its mouth, and after a moment spat the bottle back out. Shen Mu set the toad down, and the three-legged creature went hopping toward Mu Yingxue.

Xiong Xiyu and the others stared, dumbfounded. They knew only that Shen Mu had gathered herbs in that basin; they had no idea when he had caught a jade-eyed toad and tucked it into his Taotie Pouch.

"Sister Mu's poisons are hardly ordinary either," Shen Mu said.

"Yet your poisons are but a minor art.

They are not fit for the halls of the great, and cannot be called unmatched under heaven. " Mu Yingxue's eyes shone bright as snow.

Watching the jade-eyed toad hop toward her, she flicked her fingers lightly, and a thread of primal energy became a flying insect that darted to and fro.

The three-legged toad lashed out its tongue and swallowed the insect; it croaked twice, then swelled as though being inflated, and in the blink of an eye it was as big as an ox.

Shen Mu took out a spirit elixir and drew his finger lightly across its middle; the elixir split in two, and with a buzzing sound a mosquito flew out — the elixir had been hollow at its core. The mosquito beat its wings and flew to the toad's back, settling there, and before long the toad grew smaller and smaller while the mosquito grew larger and larger, its belly like a great waterskin — only what filled it was blood, and not red blood but a glossy green. Once it had drunk its fill, the three-legged toad returned to its usual size and went hopping about, lashing its tongue at the mosquito that now hung in the air, more than ten feet long — but it was too small to swallow it. Mu Yingxue was astonished.

"Raising insects in spirit elixirs? Interesting.

" She pushed up her sleeve, baring her fair, tender skin, and the great mosquito came at once to settle on her arm and bite. The instant it pierced her skin, the mosquito shrank rapidly as though all the water had been wrung from it, and its color changed as well, turning red; trailing fire, it flew back toward Shen Mu. Shen Mu's pupils contracted.

From his Taotie Pouch he took several spirit elixirs, of varying sizes and colors. Swiftly he cut them into pieces large and small, took a portion of each by weight, and sent a ball of flame leaping from his palm; in an instant the medicinal powers of the different elixirs merged and were catalyzed, transforming into a different elixir altogether.

Shen Mu opened his mouth and swallowed the pill, roused its power, and pulled back the cloth on his arm.

The mosquito, now red and wreathed in flame, flew in and settled on his arm to bite and drink. Shen Mu's face suddenly turned crimson; the flesh and bone of his face warped and shifted, becoming a red visage with jutting fangs, brows slanting upward, a pair of upturned eyes — like a vengeful ghost. Having drunk his blood, the mosquito returned to its original color and wobbled back into the air, flying toward Mu Yingxue.

Mu Yingxue sneered.

"You didn't poison it? " Shen Mu's nose suddenly grew a good deal longer, its nostrils flaring upward, hideous beyond words.

He laughed aloud.

"If I hadn't poisoned it, why would the mosquito smell you out and fly straight at you? " Mu Yingxue frowned slightly, fixing her eyes on the approaching mosquito, trying to tell what poison Shen Mu had used. After a moment the woman drew several medicinal ingredients from her sleeve, deftly compounded an antidote, and smeared it on her arm, letting the mosquito bite.

The mosquito bit her once, and Mu Yingxue's hair suddenly grew wild; in the blink of an eye it spread in every direction like the quills of a porcupine.

Pfft.

A soft sound came, and Mu Yingxue felt an itch at her backside; a thick, sturdy tail grew out from behind her, bursting through her trousers and dragging on the ground. Mu Yingxue's face went somewhat green.

The mosquito, having drunk her blood, found the poison within it altered, and promptly lost interest in her; buzzing, it rose and flew toward Shen Mu.

Shen Mu's expression shifted. He hurriedly took several dozen kinds of spirit elixirs from his Taotie Pouch, cutting and compounding them, and by the time the mosquito arrived he had his mixture ready.

This time, when he swallowed the elixir, the fiery flush left his face at once and his features returned to normal. The mosquito bit him once and flew off again, and from within Shen Mu's body came a great thudding like thunder; then lightning flashed and thunder rolled in the sky, and bolt after bolt came crashing down on him, in the blink of an eye scorching him black.

Mu Yingxue, too, was refining an antidote; she finished a small bottle of liquid, tipped back her head and drank it, and at once the wild, splayed black hair fell away, not a strand left, and the tail behind her dropped off as well.

The girl hitched up her trousers, her face livid, and bared her arm for the mosquito to bite. Mu Yingxue gave a stifled grunt and fell on her back, and from beneath her came a crackling sound as eight legs sprouted from head to foot, until she was like a great hairy spider.

"Your poison is vicious! " Mu Yingxue was choking with fury.

"Then try one of mine! " she cried shrilly.

The mosquito flew at Shen Mu again.

His face changed drastically; he hastily compounded an antidote, first purging the yin poison in his own body, and said sternly, "As if I fear you! " The two of them dueling with poisons made for a novel spectacle indeed; Xiong Xiyu, Xiong Qi'er and the rest watched with mouths agape. Their first exchange had been the poison laid on the jade bottle; then Shen Mu had used the three-legged toad to neutralize the poison while altering its nature.

Influenced by the virulent poison, the three-legged toad took Mu Yingxue for something delicious and, steeped in that poison, went bounding toward her. Mu Yingxue turned her primal energy into a flying insect, and within that insect she carried another deadly poison; the toad ate the insect, and the poison within it changed once more.