Chapter 326 — Using Poison to Slay the Demon Root

Night fell, and darkness came surging in from every quarter; but when it reached the great tree that was the root monster's true body, it found a divine radiance shining out on every side of the tree. This was the root monster's true body, and to evade the dark assaults of the ruins it had gone to great lengths to guard its own life, stealing or seizing god-statues from elsewhere to protect itself.

The range its roots shadowed was vast, but its true body was one tangle of roots: by day it had only to spread those roots in every direction and transform them into women to lure prey to its door, and by night it could draw the roots back in and hide within the circle of the god-statues' radiance to preserve its life. The White Bat Brothers, the dragon qilin, and Xiong Xiyu and her daughter were all near its roots, within the reach of that light, and so the night passed in relative safety.

But every one of them was either poisoned or numbed by the bewildering incense, unable to stir, and could only lie there meekly. That night ghosts wailed and spirits howled outside; huge shadows moved in the darkness, and demonic speech came without cease, as though whispering at their ears. There were god-statues that suddenly came to life and uttered words of incomprehensible meaning.

At other times light flashed out of the darkness, and all at once the dark withdrew to reveal a world of green hills and clear waters, the ruins no doubt overlapping with another world, someone there peering curiously into the darkness of these ruins. Or a dead, rust-iron world, grey and hazy, would abruptly appear around them, utterly devoid of life.

Through a night of strange and dazzling visions the hearts of those beneath the tree hung in their throats.

At last the sun rose and climbed high; the dragon qilin lay on its back on the ground, four legs in the air. Poisoned by Mu Yingxue though it was, it could still speak, and it muttered, "The Sect Master has not fed me today.

. .

" Another day passed, and toward evening Shen Mu came hurrying in from distant parts, travel-worn, refining medicine even as he walked.

He had gathered fine jade and refined an Eight Trigrams Five Elements Furnace, more exquisite and intricate than the sealed furnace of the Imperial Academy.

As a master of artifact refinement, crafting such a pill furnace was no hardship for him. Shen Mu came beneath the tree, still ceaselessly refining pills.

With a sealed furnace the poisonous vapors would not leak, and the methods he used were quite unlike his old ones; ever since his contest with the Little Poison King he had made great strides in the way of poison refining. The poison pills he refined this time were built upon the method of foundational poison pills. Just as swordsmanship has its fourteen foundational sword moves, so in poison refining he had worked out the most foundational one thousand and twenty-four poison pills; combined and recombined in different ways, they would evolve into different poisons.

Differing dosages of each foundational pill, differing proportions in the mixing, and the poison obtained was different again.

Not only that, he refined many foundational tonic spirit pills to amplify the potency of his medicines, capable of raising a poison's power by scores of times at a stroke.

When the foundational poison pills and tonics were done, he took out several seeds and a dozen or so insect eggs, planted the seeds beneath the tree, and urged them on with arts such as the Creation Earth-Origin Art and the Creation Spirit Art, driving the seeds to grow with astonishing speed into stalks of spirit medicine. At the same time he let the eggs hatch, and a great many little insects crawled out.

Shen Mu fed the poison insects on tonic pills, fattening them up, then let them crawl onto the spirit medicines and gnaw at them, swelling their venom further.

The Alchemist, masterly as his pharmacology was, had never deliberately taught him the arts of poison; these were skills he had learned from Fu Yuanqing, the Little Poison King, and he had then fused the way of poison with the way of healing. Shen Mu set the poison insects to slaughtering one another; they devoured each other until a single Insect King remained. Then he compounded various deadly pills from different poison pills and fed those pills to the Insect King.

Before nightfall Mu Yingxue finally returned. The girl rode a white elephant that came swaying along, unhurried, and behind the elephant trailed a host of flowers and grasses, along with birds and beasts.

Shen Mu was dumbfounded: flowers and grasses, birds and beasts, even insects all followed at the girl's heels, inseparable from her. "All things have spirit, and poisons have spirit too. Her art of gathering medicine is far above mine; she can make even poisons follow her of their own accord.

" This was indeed a formidable rival of lofty attainment in the way of poison!

Shen Mu felt the pressure. In their contest two days before, Mu Yingxue and he had each won and each lost, both taking losses; this time, surely, would be the true duel!

Mu Yingxue came beneath the tree, and the flowers and grasses, the poisonous birds and beasts, the venomous insects and fish came beneath the tree as well. Those lying beneath the tree shuddered with dread, their eyes fixed on Shen Mu and Mu Yingxue full of alarm.

These poisonous things were common enough to Shen Mu and Mu Yingxue, but to anyone else they were flood and savage beast, to be fled from at all costs. Mu Yingxue at once set to work, rousing her arts; the poisonous creatures grew of themselves, and when their venom reached fullness each plucked off its own most venomous part and offered it to her.

The girl was utterly earnest, meticulous to the last hair, wholly absorbed in cultivating her poisons.

Her poisons differed somewhat from those of the Central Plains: they struck chiefly at the primordial qi, which is a person's first breath of life. When the primordial qi is insufficient the body is depleted, blood dwindles, spirit dwindles, complexion fades, bones grow weak; and if the primordial qi is emptied out, the person dies.

The same held true for cultivators.

Her poison theory seemed bent on seeking out the very source of life and slaying that source with venom, a most exalted approach.

Shen Mu raised his brows and likewise bent himself wholly to cultivating his poisons.

The two vied with each other in bitter refining through the night; the great tree beside them trembled and shook, swaying back and forth all night long, and still it could not escape. At last the sky grew bright.

Shen Mu finished his poison, and Mu Yingxue straightened up; each held a small jar, and each looked toward the other.

"What medicine has Elder Sister refined?

" Shen Mu asked curiously.

Mu Yingxue did not open her jar. She smiled and said, "Your medicine is vicious indeed, but your tongue is as sweet as honey, and it warms a girl's heart.

As for my medicine, it had no pill formula to begin with; I created it anew against the blood of gods and demons, and it has no name yet.

It has one virtue: it dissolves the blood of gods and demons and destroys the very source of the primordial qi. Once swallowed, within an hour or two the primordial qi is emptied out, spirit and qi scatter, and the victim is dead on the spot!

" Shen Mu's eyes lit up.

"Sister, since your medicine has no name, let me name it for you.

Let us call it the Spirit-Vanishing Three Wonders Powder, how is that? " Mu Yingxue was overjoyed, gave him a delighted glance, and praised him: "Good little brother, who would have thought you had learning in you?

If it were left to me, I could never have thought up such a fine name. And what medicine is yours?

" Shen Mu patted his jar and laughed.