Chapter 14: Mixed Poison
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
"I came here to pluck herbs. There was so much blood and even a corpse! I was so scared..."
The young man continued to rattle on, appearing a little silly.
Han Shou was a martial artist and therefore could tell that there was no poison in the medicine prepared. He took a few sips and felt warmth in his stomach, but gazed at the young man with a sinister look.
Although the young man saved his life, in order to keep his secret safe, Han Shou decided to kill him after recovering.
He appeared thankful, "The few of us brothers encountered such a disaster, and I am so thankful to have been rescued by you young man, you mentioned a corpse... Could it be my elder brother... is he dead?"
Han Shou face was filled with sorrow and started to tear up, as though he had real emotions. Fang Yuan felt rather impressed at his acting.
"Hmm... There was no choice, I have already buried your elder brother. When you have recovered, I shall bring you to where I buried him for you collect his bones..." Fang Yuan comforted.
"I couldn't be more thankful, my benefactor! Even if both of us brothers reincarnate as animals in our next lives, we will also repay your kind favour!"
Han Shou remained unaware and continued acting.
"Keke… No need, no need!"
Fang Yuan scratched his head and smiled.
Han Shou was no different from a vegetable. Every time he moved he would require Fang Yuan's assistance, and therefore could not plot anything against Fang Yuan now.
After observing the surroundings, Han Shou realised that there was nothing else around the place and felt relieved. He noticed Fang Yuan reading a manual and out of curiosity, asked, "What are you reading, my brother?"
"This is a treasure passed down from my father!"
Fang Yuan passed the book forward, "It's just that I don't recognise some of these words…"
He looked at Han Shou, with embarrassment in his face, "Can you explain it to me?"
"Mmm... tendons, bones, claws and joints, the tendons are the most important. In the same way as how an eagle uses its claws, quick and deadly… Isn't this the Eagle Claw Technique?"
Han Shou read a few more lines, but inside he felt that this was a total waste of time.
Seeing how excited Fang Yuan was, he smirked and said, "This is a secret manual, I don't think it's a good idea for me to read on!"
"Since I cannot understand it, how about you teach me!"
Fang Yuan forced a look of excitement.
'Mmm, you chose this path of no return, don't blame me!'
Han Shou thought to himself, but felt that he had to repay the favour, "Since you saved my life, reading a few words shouldn't matter right?"
"This is great, so how do I interpret these few words?"
Fang Yuan acted as though he was interested.
"Mmm, this is Guan Yuan, it represents an acupoint on the body!"
"What about this?"
"Gu Hai!"
"Qi Yuan!"
...
Han Shou explained casually, but in his mind, he was mocking him.
If Fang Yuan followed the instructions of Han Shou, he would lose his self-control while practising this set of martial arts.
'This person... He is really evil!'
Fang Yuan thought back, 'On the contrary, Minister Lin's manuals were the ones with no problem.'
His theory was simple. He was literate since he was able to attain his [Medicine]. If the manuals Minister Lin provided had problems, based on Han Shou's experience he would be able to tell.
But now, Han Shou was intentionally twisting the meaning within the manual, in the process showing that the manuals had no problem.
"How do I read this word, Brother Han?"
Fang Yuan played along.
"Oh this, Nian Ming Men, a vital point on the body!" Han Shou replied casually.
"Wait, how did you know that my surname is Han?"
"Not only that, you interpreted the same thing differently from before!"
Fang Yuan took a step back and smiled.
Han Shou face reddened and knew that under such circumstances if he spoke and explained himself without much thought, he would expose himself.
At the moment, his expression changes, "You tricked me?"
"Han Shou, you scum, you are no better!"
Fang Yuan took a few more steps back and shouted.
"Go and die, you sneaky kid!"
Han Shou recovered quickly and equipped himself with a copper button. If anyone approached him, he could use his final breath and kill Fang Yuan. Never would he have thought that Fang Yuan was so sneaky and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
"Wait, it is all my fault. If would continue healing me, I would be willing to pass down my divine martial arts to you!"
Now that Han Shou was weaker than Fang Yuan, even if he doesn't burn down the place, Han Shou would die of hunger if Fang Yuan simply did not serve him food, therefore he had to back down.
"It's alright. You tried to trick me even with these basic martial arts! How would I dare to learn your 'divine martial arts'?"
Fang Yuan sounded sarcastic, "Brother Han, with your amazing abilities, you should just walk into your grave."
Han Shou was far more scheming and skilful than Fang Yuan.
Therefore, Fang Yuan was afraid that Han Shou would recovered quickly even though his condition seemed bad. It was best to kill Han Shou straight away.
He would rather practise the basic martial arts than try to learn from Han Shou and risk getting harmed.
"You are good!"
Han Shou rolled his eyes, plotting a scheme in the meantime.
Fang Yuan's voice was heard from afar, "Mister Han, you don't have to think of anything already, because your life is now in my hands!"
"In your hands?!"
Han Shou snickered, "The medicinal soup had no problems, how would I..."
He stopped halfway.
He recalled that he was all under Fan Yuan's control while he was unconscious. This meant that Fang Yuan could do anything he wanted to him, right?
"You're right. I placed some Qiluo Xiang in your bandage. This Qiluo Xiang can cleanse the wound and stop the bleeding. But if it comes in contact with Canhe Zi from the medicinal soup I gave you, you would experience some stiffness in your muscles, and in some parts, even rotting..."
"Mixed poison?!"
Han Shou looked solemn, took a deep breath, and indeed, felt stiffness in his limbs. He forced a smile.
No matter how clever he was, he was still a normal person. How would he know the potential of a martial artist who had already broken through the 5 Golden Gates?
Just a petty mixed poison would do no harm to his body and disappear after a few hours, considering his Inner Power.
The most important thing to do now was to find a way to deal with Fang Yuan, or at least, buy some time for himself.
"Oh? You seem to have a lot of confidence in yourself!"
Fang Yuan's voiced travelled in, and sounded surprised, "It seems that top martial artists have such confidence to deal with this type of poison?"
Han Shou suddenly felt helpless.
Fang Yuan did not sound fearful of scared.
On the other hand for himself, he was temporarily keeping the poison under control. But now, the feeling of stiffness came back, and there were obvious signs of rotting on his skin.
"I had forgotten to mention... My own concoction of poison, with some added ingredients, has an amplified effect!"
Hearing screams from the room, Fang Yuan remained calm, and took a look at his stats:
"Name: Fang Yuan
Essence: 1
Spirit: 1
Magic: 1.4
Age: 18
Cultivation: None
Techniques: None
Skills: [Medicine (Level 1)], [Botany (Level 3)]"
"[Medicine (Level 1)] - Can heal simple wounds, including mild wounds, and with the aid of medicinal plants can achieve even better results."
"Apart from healing, on the other hand, I would be more skilled in making poison! However, the most crucial ingredient is still the poison of the Pearl Tail Snake right?"
After a short while, the house was dead silent, apart from the sound of meat rotting.
Fang Yuan covered his nose, entered and witnessed a rotten corpse with holes and maggots around, and a pool of bodily fluid on the ground.
"How's the effect?"
Such a shocking effect even stunned Fang Yuan, " At least it solved the problem of dealing with the corpse..."
He picked up his clothing and prepared to burn them all to remove all traces.
Han Shou had an impressive origin, which meant trouble would come. Fang Yuan wanted to clean the mess up and cut all ties with Han Shou.
"But…...What treasure are they fighting over?"
He saw Han Shou's boots and smiled.
He kept it so well hidden that if not for him looking at his boots the moment he became conscious, Fang Yuan would not have know where to look for it.
He immediately went up to the pair of boots, took out a dagger and cut it up into 8 pieces.
In the sole of the right boot, a piece of black leather appeared.
"This is the treasure which caused the brothers to fight each other with their lives?"
Fang Yuan looked at the lines on the black leather and guessed, "A treasure map? It seems torn... Creepy..."
This leather was hidden very well and was only discovered after cutting the boots up, which explained how valuable this object was to Han Shou.
But it was just a torn map, what use could it have?
Fang Yuan did not understand but still decided to keep it anyway. He burned Han Shou's belongings and washed up the place.
From then, Han Shou had disappeared from the face of the planet.
"I had forgotten to ask him which Sect he belonged to, but I believe there is only one Sect nearby, the Spirit Returning Sect?"
After burning his corpse, Fang Yuan let his mind run wild. "It was such a pity that I wasn't able to obtain the divine martial arts manual, but seeing how things went, I guess it was still worth it."