Chapter 28: Left Alive, Right Dead

"Poison... also poison?" Bone Saber's eyes widened in despair. He tried to speak, but the next moment, dizziness overwhelmed him, and he collapsed into unconsciousness.

At that moment, the mist enveloped them, swallowing both Xu Qing and Bone Saber.

Two hours later, at a crossroads on the edge of the forbidden jungle, Bone Saber awoke with a jolt of pain.

The moment he opened his eyes, he looked around in confusion, but quickly tensed up and leaped to his feet.

Only after confirming there was no danger and seeing no sign of Xu Qing did he sigh in relief. He immediately noticed his face had deflated, and his body was largely unchanged from before he was poisoned.

"I'm not dead?"

Bone Saber's heart raced, a profound sense of having narrowly escaped death washing over him. He also noticed a cluster of bamboo nearby, with a line of characters carved into it.

"Insurance expired."

Gazing at these four characters, a complex mix of emotions welled up in Bone Saber, coupled with shame over his earlier trickery. After a long moment, he sighed softly and bowed deeply towards the depths of the jungle.

"Thank you."

Murmuring, he turned to face the two paths ahead. The one on the right was the necessary route back to the camp, while the left led away from the camp, towards Songtao City.

He stood there, sensing no one else around, and remained silent for a long time.

"The Camp Master is from the Vajra Sect, whose influence covers all nearby cities. Even if I escape to Songtao City, I likely can't avoid the Camp Master's wrath, especially since all his men are dead."

Bone Saber struggled internally. He knew there was a way to survive: go to the camp and expose how the child killed the Camp Master's subordinates. By shifting all blame onto the child, he should be able to live.

However, doing so would go against his conscience, as the child had, after all, saved him. Yet, after a moment of contemplation, his internal struggle solidified into determination.

"In these chaotic times, surviving myself is the priority; I can't worry about others!" With this thought, he suppressed his guilt, swayed, and sprinted rapidly towards the camp.

But the moment his body stepped onto the path to the camp, a cold gleam whistled from behind him with astonishing speed, piercing his skull in an instant.

With a thud, Bone Saber's entire body convulsed, blood splattered, and his eyes widened. He fell to the ground, twitching a few times. In his vision, the world was obscured by an approaching figure, slowly turning black until it became eternal.

He breathed his last.

Xu Qing stood before Bone Saber's corpse and silently withdrew the iron skewer.

Xu Qing had a deep understanding of human nature, so he hadn't left; instead, he had given Bone Saber a choice.

The left path was life. The right path was death.

Bone Saber chose the right path.

Xu Qing, expressionless, took out the body-dissolving powder and sprinkled it. As Bone Saber's corpse melted away, Xu Qing calmly turned and sprinted towards the deeper parts of the jungle.

As for the Camp Master's affairs, he had no interest in getting involved.

As he sped through the jungle, the mist, while present, didn't significantly hinder him. By dusk, Xu Qing had navigated through the fog and reached the pharmacy in the valley.

Almost simultaneously with his arrival, a faint wolf howl echoed. Xu Qing paid it no mind.

He first cautiously observed the surroundings, ensuring that the small setup he had left before his last departure remained untouched. Only then did he push open the pharmacy door and step inside.

The pharmacy was small, lacking a bed for rest. Instead, its walls were lined with small wooden compartments, each containing different herbs and poison glands.

Some of these herbs and poison glands had been processed, while others remained intact. There were many of them, numbering in the hundreds.

Xu Qing's gaze swept over them, a wave of satisfaction rising in his heart.

These were what he had collected in the forbidden zone since he began studying with Master Bai. The majority came from the outer perimeter, with a small portion from deeper within.

Poisonous herbs were predominant, while medicinal herbs were scarce.

Xu Qing first conducted an inspection, then sat on the ground, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Although the formula for the White Pellet that Master Bai had given him was hidden within the daily lessons, Xu Qing had a habit of taking notes and possessed an excellent memory. Therefore, he had long since compiled it, but... he did not have all the necessary herbs for refining the White Pellet.

"So I can't refine it exactly according to the formula, but I should be able to substitute or combine other herbs based on their medicinal properties."

Xu Qing murmured, unsure if this method would work, but he figured that even if it failed, it would still increase his experience in compounding and refining.

With this thought, Xu Qing waved his right hand, and seven or eight types of herbs immediately flew out from different compartments, landing before him.

After careful examination, Xu Qing pondered for a moment, then left the pharmacy for the backyard. Besides various colorful flowers, there was a small patch of tilled earth where numerous herbs were planted.

These were plants with limited lifespans once removed from the soil, which Xu Qing had relocated here. Over time, this had naturally become a small herb garden.

As Xu Qing approached this small herb garden, the wolf howls from nearby grew clearer.

Xu Qing's expression remained calm; he ignored the sounds, pulled three herbs from the garden, and turned to leave.

Back in the pharmacy, he took out a stone basin and began to prepare the mixture according to his acquired knowledge.

Whether plucking leaves, extracting juice, or flicking pollen, he performed each step meticulously, striving for absolute precision. As he continuously mixed, the liquid in the stone basin slowly turned pitch black.

"Five herbs are missing..."

Xu Qing glanced at the surrounding compartments, then, after careful consideration, took out a few more herbs. He attempted to achieve the desired effect using the Yin-Yang Polar method.

This was clearly a difficult task, so it wasn't until dawn the next morning that he managed to grudgingly assemble the necessary herb combination.

Xu Qing frowned slightly as he looked at the dark, viscous liquid in the stone basin.

This was quite different from the White Pellet he had envisioned, but having come this far, abandoning it was clearly not an option.

So Xu Qing gritted his teeth, took out a handful of seven-leaf grass, and mixed it in according to the proportions.

The next moment, the liquid in the stone basin immediately boiled, showing signs of changing color, but this change lasted only three breaths before stopping.

When he looked, the liquid in the stone basin was no longer black, but brown.

Xu Qing hesitated, touching the purple crystal on his chest. Considering his strong immunity to poisons, he felt somewhat reassured. He carefully reached into the stone basin, took a small amount of the muddy paste, kneaded it into a pill shape, and brought it to his nose to sniff.

A foul, fishy odor emanated from it, making Xu Qing somewhat reluctant to ingest it.

"Can I eat this...?" Xu Qing's expression showed some struggle. After a moment of thought, he took the pill and walked out to the herb garden.

As soon as he approached, the wolf howls sounded again. Xu Qing continued without stopping, passing through the herb garden directly towards the source of the howls.

Soon, among the weeds behind the herb garden, a large cage constructed of iron vines and wood appeared before Xu Qing.

Inside the cage, a gaunt black-scaled wolf lay weakly.

Upon seeing Xu Qing, it immediately stood up, baring its teeth and letting out a low growl. However, the terror in its eyes already betrayed its fear of Xu Qing.

Xu Qing had encountered this black-scaled wolf once while collecting herbs deep in the jungle. The wolf had tried to ambush him, but after he captured it, he didn't kill it; instead, he caged it here to serve as a test subject for his concoctions.

Noticing the black pill in Xu Qing's hand, the black-scaled wolf immediately trembled and retreated repeatedly.

But it was too late. Xu Qing reached his left hand into the cage, grabbed the black-scaled wolf by the neck, and forcibly dragged it closer amidst its whimpering struggles.

Xu Qing, expressionless, gazed coldly at the trembling black-scaled wolf. With his right hand, he took out the refined pill and placed it near its mouth.

The black-scaled wolf shivered even more violently, eventually submitting under the threat of death. It opened its mouth and obediently swallowed the pill.

A moment later, black smoke emanated from the black-scaled wolf's entire body, and it began to vomit. A large lump swelled on its head, which quickly burst with a pop. Its body went limp, and it lay there, panting.

Xu Qing frowned. He tossed a few pieces of meat into the cage, then returned to the pharmacy, sitting there in deep contemplation.

"How could it have no effect... The final activation of the medicine is problematic. It's not dissolving the aberrant substance; it's causing it to explode."

A moment later, Xu Qing concluded that an 'agent' was missing. He needed a medicinal agent to purify the effects of these liquids.

"For the agent, snake venom can be used."

With a wave of Xu Qing's hand, three different poison glands flew towards him. After he squeezed out their venom, the liquid in the stone basin immediately hissed, emitting a puff of green smoke.

This smoke contained potent toxins. Seeing this, Xu Qing immediately raised his right hand and waved, creating a gust of wind that dispersed the poisonous mist out of the room. He then set the basin aside to let it ferment.

While waiting, Xu Qing sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and practiced breathing techniques, cultivating the Sea Mountain Art.

As dusk approached, Xu Qing opened his eyes. He checked the increasingly viscous fermented liquid, took some out to rub, and then went to the black-scaled wolf.

A moment later, amidst a series of thudding noises, Xu Qing returned, looking dejected. He sat down to continue his thoughts, even taking out a finished White Pellet, melting it, and studying it little by little.

And so, time passed swiftly; six days went by.

During these six days, Xu Qing seemed to forget everything outside, fully immersed in his research and development of the White Pellet.

More than half of the herbs in the pharmacy's compartments had been used, and the herb garden was almost empty. He had refined and improved the White Pellet liquid more than ten times.

As for the black-scaled wolf...

After the last test, the aberrant substance within its body instantly reached its limit, even attracting the aberrant substance from the surrounding spiritual energy, causing it to collapse into a blood mist in an instant.

If not for Xu Qing's shadow being able to absorb aberrant substance, that accumulation of aberrant substance could have likely engulfed his entire body.

This scene somewhat disheartened Xu Qing.

However, he knew that the White Pellet was not easy to refine, and it was even harder to concoct without all the necessary herbs.

Nevertheless, his experience in compounding had increased. Moreover, among these more than ten improvements, the last one, though not a complete success, did possess some effect.

However, this effect was completely opposite to that of the White Pellet.

The White Pellet dissolved aberrant substance, whereas the pill Xu Qing last improved rapidly attracted it.

He now looked down at the stone basin in front of him.

The surface of the basin held a layer of green membrane, formed from melted seven-leaf grass, beneath which was an extremely dark liquid.

The membrane was used because once it disappeared, the liquid would spontaneously attract dense aberrant substance without even needing to be ingested.

Half of the black-scaled wolf's demise was due to this very point.

Xu Qing sighed, rubbed his temples, and felt the cultivation fluctuations within his body, which somewhat alleviated his sense of frustration.

Although his progress with the pills was not smooth, his cultivation had advanced rapidly during this period of practice. He had now reached the perfection of the fifth level of the Sea Mountain Art.

"Tonight, I should be able to break through to the sixth level."

Xu Qing took a deep breath, set aside the matter of the pills, and with anticipation in his eyes, he poured all his effort into advancing his cultivation.

In these chaotic times, every increment of his own strength increased his chances of survival.

That night, as the bright moon hung high, a thunderous roar erupted from within Xu Qing's body.

This sound was much louder than before. Xu Qing, who had initially thought his body was free of impurities, once again expelled a large amount of dross at this moment.

As an unprecedented sense of clarity permeated Xu Qing's entire body, a faint roar emanated from behind him.

The demon shadow, which previously only manifested when he punched, now also appeared behind him, larger and radiating a fiercer aura. It even had two legs instead of just one.

What was more... the head of this manifested demon shadow seemed to faintly have a horn!

This was not a demon; it was a nascent fiend!

The moment it appeared, a silent roar from the nascent fiend echoed in all directions, causing the cries of many strange beasts in the dark jungle to abruptly cease.

Xu Qing slowly opened his eyes, and a purple light instantly illuminated the entire pharmacy, like a flash of purple lightning.

Amidst the spreading purple light and the roar of the nascent fiend behind him, Xu Qing, sitting there expressionless, exuded an unprecedented sense of pressure.

After a while, as the purple light in his eyes faded and the fiend's shadow behind him disappeared, Xu Qing murmured.

"Sea Mountain Art, sixth level!"