Chapter 539: Men, make a vow
With Pill Fiend’s explanation, Lady Lianxin didn’t bother adding in her own words. Now was the time to take a hard stance behind her ace in the sleeve.
“Han Yunxi, this was what your father gave your mother as a betrothal gift. Something this important should be worth a single Mu Clan. This lady will be looking forward to the results of tomorrow’s trial!” Lady Lianxin said before leaving without a glance.
She was confident that Long Feiye wouldn’t give the item up even if Han Yunxi didn’t want it. Any man with ambitions to rule the world would be loathe to give up anything related to the Perplexing Butterfly Illusion. Han Yunxi and Long Feiye met eyes, surprised that they’d run into something related to the poison here. It was such a shock that Han Yunxi didn’t even have time to react regarding her origins.
The Perplexing Butterfly Illusion was in their hands; furthermore, they’d successfully cultivated Beauty’s Blood. If they added Ten-Thousand Year Old Blood Jade to the mix, would they solve the secret of the poison? Thinking up to here, Han Yunxi grew excited. After all, something that even the detox system couldn’t unravel had been sitting in her hands for ages. She couldn’t bear the thought!
“Strange…” Gu Qishao mumbled to himself.
Both Han Yunxi and Long Feiye looked over with the same thought: just how much does he know regarding the Perplexing Butterfly Illusion?
“What’s strange?” Han Yunxi asked.
Gu Qishao pulled off his mask and said seriously, “Your mother left with something so important, but your father never went looking for her? Was it because he couldn’t find her, or because he was already dead?” As he spoke, he muttered to himself again, “There hasn’t been a peep from the Poison Sect over the past few years. Have they all died out?” Judging from Lady Lianxin’s words, she hadn’t heard any more about its mysterious sect head either.
Han Yunxi suddenly recalled the odd circumstances of her mother’s death. Was it purely an accident, or related to that Poison Sect Head? If it was related, why had the leader chosen to leave her alive without ever coming back to find her? The thought caused the scales to tip in her head in favor of Lady Tianxin’s death being a mere tragedy resulting from dystocia.
Long Feiye had been keep tabs on the Poison Sect the entire time because of the Perplexing Butterfly Illusion. After he found out the truth from Mute Granny, he had sent even more men to search for news regarding the sect’s remnants, but came up empty. There wasn’t even any information about the survivors from a decade ago. Moreover, his own mufei had stolen the Perplexing Butterfly Illusion from that very sect without incurring any form of retaliation. Long Feiye considered all possible points before coming to a similar conclusion as Han Yunxi. “Perhaps they’ll never come looking ever again.”
“Hmph, that’s perfect, then. Even if they do, we’re not afraid of them!” Gu Qishao harumphed. Han Yunxi only felt dejected upon hearing ‘we’re,’ while Long Feiye shot Gu Qishao a doubtful look, scorning the man.
“The Ten-Thousand Year Blood Jade doesn’t count for much. Perplexing Butterfly Illusion is where the real goods are at. Who knows who has it now?” Gu Qishao muttered to himself.
Han Yunxi and Long Feiye both exchanged looks before she said, “Old Fiend, can the Ten-Thousand Year Blood Jade break through Perplexing Butterfly Illusion?”
Gu Qishao didn’t answer, but looked at Long Feiye instead. “You’ve long thought of taking Perplexing Butterfly Illusion for yourself, haven’t you?”
“Obviously!” Long Feiye shot back.
“So, you want to know the answer too?” Gu Qishao asked with amusement.
“If you keep stating the obvious, you can get out!” Long Feiye had never been a patient man, especially when faced with Gu Qishao.
Gu Qishao had always been a patient man, especially when faced with Long Feiye. Instead of leaving, he moved to sit on the table. “Long Feiye, as long as you agree to help this old man destroy the medical academy, I’ll tell you everything I know!”
This was the second time that Gu Qishao had brought up his terms. Long Feiye asked with disdain, “For revenge?” He could tell that Gu Qishao still harbored ambitions to swallow up Medical City.
“It has nothing to do with you!” Gu Qishao snapped.
“Old Fiend, just what did the medical academy do to you back then?” Han Yunxi was curious.
Every time his sore spot was struck, Gu Qishao grew blunt and rude, but Han Yunxi was the sole exception. He could even smile as he replied, “That has nothing to do with you. Be good, don’t ask me again in the future.”
Long Feiye reached out to pull Han Yunxi behind him, his voice cold. “Your lordship can agree to your terms, but I’m afraid you won’t be willing to wait!” Conquering Medical City wouldn’t be an easy task. In Long Feiye’s mind, Medical City was the final and most difficult step of his plans. He could faintly guess that the secret of Perplexing Butterfly Illusion was somehow related to Medical City, which was why he wasn’t rushing Han Yunxi to solve its mysteries.
“Hehe, as long as you do the deed, this old man can wait as long as needed!” Gu Qishao boasted.
Although Long Feiye disliked him, he still admired Gu Qishao’s attitude. “Fine, your lordship agrees to your terms!” But when Gu Qishao extended a hand, Long Feiye didn’t take it. “What are you doing?”
“We’ll seal the promise with a handshake. I, Gu Qishao, will do my best to help you break through the secret of the Perplexing Butterfly Illusion. You, Long Feiye, will do your best to help me accomplish my revenge! If either of us violates the agreement…”
Gu Qishao trailed off to glance at Han Yunxi, who couldn’t help but shiver. What frightening eyes he has. What is he thinking?
“If either of us violates the agreement, then what?” Long Feiye asked.
Gu Qishao leaned in close to speak. “Then we’ll make Han Yunxi into our enemy and never stay by her side again!”
Long Feiye’s heart jolted at the words. He remained silent, so Gu Qishao coldly demanded, “What, you don’t dare?”
Instead of answering, Long Feiye backed away and slapped Gu Qishao’s hand thrice. “It’s settled!”
“What’s settled?” Han Yunxi asked hastily.
Gu Qishao changed the subject with a chuckle. “Poison lass, you already have the Perplexing Butterfly Illusion in your hands, don’t you?”
When he had commented on the whereabouts of the poison, neither of the duo had reacted. Both of them were more interested in the Ten-Thousand Year Blood Jade instead. How couldn’t he guess the implications?
Han Yunxi didn’t dare to acknowledge his statement, but Long Feiye openly admitted it. “Yes! Moreover, we’ve already finished cultivating Beauty’s Blood.” With the agreement in place, Gu Qishao would have found out about this sooner or later. It was useless to hide the facts.
“Beauty’s Blood!” Gu Qishao was shocked. “Long Feiye, you know quite a bit!”
“You still haven’t answered my question,” Long Feiye reminded him.
“Heheh, you need nine different ingredients to break through Perplexing Butterfly Illusion: the Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth of Ten-Thousand Poisons as well as human, corpse, and beast blood. In addition…”
“In addition, what?” Han Yunxi asked anxiously.
A flicker of grief flitted past Gu Qishao’s eyes before he grinned. “The ninth ingredient…even I don’t know what it is. But it’s hard enough finding the first eight, so let’s take our time to search.”
Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth of Ten-Thousand Poisons…
Han Yunxi was very surprised. All of these things were poisons, but she’d never heard of them before. Nor did the detox system contain any records in its massive archives. No wonder she had so much trouble figuring out Perplexing Butterfly Illusion.
“What are these things?” asked Long Feiye with furrowed brows. Even a specialist like Han Yunxi was lost, much less he himself.
“The first five are called the Five Elements Poisons and found in nature. They exist within the elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Of all creation on Earth, only these five can cause a reaction within the Perplexing Butterfly Illusion.”
At Gu Qishao’s words, Han Yunxi gave a start before pulling out a bottle filled with poison pond water from her medical pouch. As she as she opened the lid, Gu Qishao caught a whiff of a potent toxin within.
“This is…” he asked doubtfully. He could only tell it was toxic, but not what kind of poison laid within.
“Perplexing Butterfly Illusion, Beauty’s Blood, and…the poison pond water from Medicine Forest!” Han Yunxi proclaimed.
Last time at the black markets, she had tried mixing a bit of Perplexing Butterfly Illusion and Beauty’s Blood with the water. It seemed to have significantly reduced the Perplexing Butterfly Illusion’s corrosive effects.
“Does that count as a reaction?” she asked.
Gu Qishao was thrilled. “It does! Looks like the poison pond water is the Water of Ten-Thousand Poisons! Poison lass, where did you get this stuff? Didn’t that pond dry up completely?”
Long Feiye wanted to know the answer as well. He had seen the water disappear with his own eyes.
“I…I found a chance to take some secretly by chance back then.” Han Yunxi’s gaze was evasive. “Luckily I did manage to grab a bit, or else we’d never be able to find this water again.”
Lying to these two men was the hardest thing in the world for her. But she didn’t know that both of them trusted her the most of all in turn. Meanwhile, because the confrontation at the poison pond had exploded into a chaotic fight, Long Feiye had no idea whether Han Yunxi found time to take any water. In any case, he had no reason to suspect her words.
“The Earth of Ten-Thousand Poisons is located in the poison fields of the Poison Sect’s forbidden grounds. Supposedly the plants growing there exhibit very similar characteristics to Perplexing Butterfly Illusion. That stuff’s easy to fine,” Gu Qishao continued.
Han Yunxi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Last time she and Long Feiye had worked hard to walk through the entire grounds before bringing back some poison orchids for research, but never thought to bring back the soil as well…
“It truly isn’t hard to find…” she murmured.
Long Feiye asked, “Gu Qishao, where did you hear of such things?”
Gu Qishao only arched his eyebrows. “No comment.” Long Feiye hadn’t even told him how he’d gotten his hands on Perplexing Butterfly Illusion, so why was he asking so many questions? Of course, he wasn’t interested in the answer, either. Besides Han Yunxi, his only interests were the medical academy.
Han Yunxi was wholly absorbed in the nine ingredients now. “Human blood should be Beauty’s Blood,” she muttered to herself. “So the corpse blood must come from the Ten-Thousand Year Old Blood Jade.”
The blood jade had been harvested from the mouth of a ten-thousand year old corpse buried in the Valley of Kings, formed from the mixture of blood qi solidifying in a rock of jade.
Gu Qishao nodded. “And the beast blood would be the poison blood stored in the teeth of your Lil Thing. It’ll take some time before you can harvest its poison.”
Right now, Lil Thing was probably napping in Gu Beiyue’s lap. He had yet to recover from the last time Han Yunxi took his all-curative blood. Although Han Yunxi had given him his fill of nourishing food, his special blood required time as well as poison plants to recover its vitality.
“If these three are all poisons from human, corpse, and beast sources, the ninth one…should be a type of poison as well, right? Human, corpse, beast…” Han Yunxi gave Gu Qishao a doubtful look. “What other weird things exist?”
Gu Qishao coughed lightly. “How should this old man know? Take your time to investigate!”
Long Feiye’s eyes flickered with a complex expression. When he saw that Han Yunxi was going to keep asking, he quickly changed the topic. “Let’s get the Ten-Thousand Year Blood Jade into our hands first.”
Lady Lianxin had tossed them a massive counter before leaving without a glance. How were they supposed to deal with such a tempting offer?17