Yan Zhen instantly grasped the gravity of the situation. With the Black-Robed Beast Tamer’s Mystic Ancestor cultivation, the poison he had used was surely beyond what even a Mystic Lord powerhouse could endure. He needed to neutralize it for her as quickly as possible, or the consequences didn’t bear thinking about.
“What are we going to do?” Dean Yu Qing stared at her best friend’s pallid face, her heart burning with anxiety. “Yan Zhen, check that man’s storage ring right away. There might be an antidote inside.”
Yan Zhen had been thinking the same thing. With one arm cradling his mentor aunt’s warm and supple body, he pulled out the high-grade storage ring he had stripped from the Black-Robed Beast Tamer’s corpse with his other hand. Then he ignited it with the Evil Spirit Dragon Breath Flame.
An ordinary mystic cultivator’s storage ring was imprinted with mystic power and couldn’t be opened without the matching input. A Pill Refiner’s ring, on the other hand, bore a divine soul imprint that required the corresponding spiritual power to access. That was why Yan Zhen used the Evil Spirit Dragon Breath Flame to destroy the divine soul imprint within.
Even for a Divine Soul powerhouse at the True Realm Zhen realm, it took the Evil Spirit Dragon Breath Flame quite a while to burn away the imprint.
The moment the imprint vanished, Yan Zhen sent his spiritual power into the ring and began searching rapidly.
A low-grade storage ring offered one cubic zhang of space, a mid-grade one ten cubic zhang, and a high-grade like this one a full hundred cubic zhang—enough room for a vast array of items.
As a Mystic Ancestor powerhouse and beast tamer to boot, the Black-Robed Beast Tamer’s collection was impressively diverse, crammed with all sorts of exotic treasures, including mystic beast eggs. It was enough to make Yan Zhen’s head spin.
Fortunately, Pill Refiners were meticulous sorts, and everything was neatly sorted by category. Yan Zhen quickly located the Poison Section.
Just like the Pills Section, the Poison Section was filled with bottles and jars of all sizes, large boxes and small ones alike. There were no labels, so it was impossible to tell at a glance which held poisons and which antidotes.
“No good—we don’t have time to rummage through them one by one. If there’s no antidote here, we’ll just be wasting precious time.”
Yan Zhen laid out the situation, and Dean Yu Qing made the call without hesitation.
“In that case, we’ll have to call on Her Supremacy. As a seventh-tier Pill Refiner, she’s bound to have a way.”
“Can Little Aunt summon the Yu Shizun?”
“Her Supremacy gave each of us sisters a Descent Talisman. Crush it, and she’ll come—or at least send an avatar.”
Dean Yu Qing sounded a touch regretful as she spoke. If only she’d called on the Yu Shizun right away, Bailan never would have been poisoned.
Shui Bailan’s heart stirred at the words. In her weakened state, she murmured, “Yu Qing, that’s your life-saving talisman…”
“It’s just as good for saving your life. Worst case, I can ask Her Supremacy for another one.”
Without further ado, Dean Yu Qing crushed the Life-Saving Talisman the Yu Shizun had bestowed upon her.
The wind around them stilled for a moment, and then a dark rift tore open in the space ahead. A voice as refreshingly clear as a mountain spring emanated from within.
“What calls for Us?”
Dean Yu Qing hurriedly explained. “We were just ambushed by an evil cultivator from the Demon Domain. During the fight, Bailan was hit with a deadly poison. She’s in critical condition—please, Your Supremacy, save her!”
No sooner had she finished than the Yu Shizun stepped out from the spatial rift. Veiled and clad in flowing aqua robes, she caught sight of the enormous dragon looming nearby and froze, her beautiful eyes reflecting its massive form.
“A dragon?”
Seeing this, Yan Zhen immediately dispersed the Gilded White Dragon. Long Ying, who had been staring it down, immediately huffed. “He got away! If I see you again, you thieving dragon, you’re done for! Hmph!”
“…”
With the giant dragon gone, the Yu Shizun surmised it had been Yan Zhen’s doing. Surprise flickered in her heart, but she turned her gaze to Shui Bailan in his arms. Shui Bailan gasped for breath and tried to bow in greeting, but the Yu Shizun stopped her.
“Don’t move. Let Us take a look.”
She knelt down, extending a slender jade finger to Shui Bailan’s wrist and feeling her pulse.
Mystic power flowed inward, coursing through Shui Bailan’s meridians in a full circuit. Yu Shizun withdrew her finger and delivered her diagnosis, her expression growing grave.
“It’s a gu poison.”
“What?” Dean Yu Qing jumped in alarm. Gu poisons might not be the deadliest, but they were notoriously tricky. “What kind?”
“Heart-Devouring Gu.” Yu Shizun’s voice was calm as she retracted her hand. “The gu worm enters through a wound. Within an hour, it devours the heart of the victim. Not even a Mystic Ancestor who has endured the baptism of heaven and earth’s power can survive it. Only a Mystic Venerable who has comprehended spatial power can force the worm out.”
Dean Yu Qing’s face twisted in shock.
“Heart-Devouring Gu—that’s—”
Shui Bailan went rigid as well. Her brother Shui Dongliu had died from Heart-Devouring Gu long ago, cultivated by the Heavenly Gu Elder himself!
Was she destined to meet the same fate?
Hearing this jogged Yan Zhen’s memory. In the script, during the Demon Extermination Operation, his mentor aunt—fighting alongside him against the evil cultivators—had accidentally been infected with Heart-Devouring Gu. She’d nearly died, but fortunately, he’d followed his beautiful master’s advice and treated her just in time.
If the script held true here, treating it was complicated and risky.
So that plotline had carried over?
Dean Yu Qing frowned deeply. “Your Supremacy, is there a way to save Bailan?”
Yu Shizun replied, “Heart-Devouring Gu comes in male and female pairs. The female is the poison; the male serves as the antidote. To save her, we need the male gu. The pair can’t be separated for long, so this man should have it on him.”
Dean Yu Qing’s eyes lit up. She turned to Yan Zhen, who had already emptied out every bottle, jar, box, and vial from the Poison Section of the storage ring.
“It must be in here somewhere.”
Yu Shizun glanced over, and a palm-sized square box floated up on its own, landing in her hand.
She lifted the lid to reveal a bug the size of a red bean, exuding a faint bloody aura.
She closed the box again, and her gaze shifted. A plump little jade bottle floated into her grasp next.
She uncorked it, took a cautious sniff, confirmed its contents, and resealed it.
“The antidotes are all here, but the treatment isn’t straightforward. First, someone of the opposite sex must swallow the male gu and feed it with their own vital blood. Then they cut a wound and join the victim in a medicinal bath together. Only then can the female gu be lured out of her body.”
Yan Zhen spoke up at once. “Leave it to me. I’ll be the catalyst.”
Dean Yu Qing frowned, though. “But won’t that just transfer both gu to you? What if something goes wrong?”
Yan Zhen put on his most confident face. “I’ll be fine. With my Three Extreme Flames guarding me, the gu worm won’t touch me.”
Yu Shizun dashed his hopes without mercy. “Two gu in one body is fatal for anyone below Mystic Venerable, even with Extreme Flames for protection. The risk is enormous. Are you truly willing?”
Truth be told, Yan Zhen felt a twinge of fear.
In the script, he’d been a Mystic Ancestor by then, with Six Paths Extreme Flames inside him—the Heart-Devouring Gu might as well have been livestock in his presence, and treating his aunt was a breeze. But now he was only at the Mystic General stage, with just three Extreme Flames. He wasn’t sure he could hold out.
Still, he had his Trump Card (Tier 4) in reserve. If push came to shove, he could turn the tables on death itself. So while he was scared, it wasn’t overwhelming.
“No time to find someone else. Even a Mystic Venerable from the Holy Land wouldn’t take the risk. I’ll do it!”
