Chapter 45
Li Qingran had always admired his alchemical talent.
No, it should be that he thought Li Qingran had always admired his alchemical talent.
So much so that, he didn’t know when it started, but when he asked Li Qingran to test pills or help manage the spirit fields, his tone shifted from pleading to a haughty demand. He felt it was only natural; he often gave Li Qingran useless pills, even though they probably had no value to her.
But he thought, that was enough...
But was it really enough?
“Senior Brother, what’s wrong with you?”
Xiao Yifeng snapped back to reality, feeling a small, icy hand in his own, soft and delicate. He looked into the pitiful eyes of his junior sister, Mu Baishuang. The girl was terrified, having just heard Yun Zimo’s scream, and was now crying, her face pale as a ghost.
Yet, despite her fear, she was still forcing herself to show concern for him.
Was he still afraid? What was there to be afraid of!
Xiao Yifeng didn’t notice the faint red mist swirling deep in Mu Baishuang’s eyes.
Suddenly, the Qingxuan Daoist, who had been meditating with his eyes closed beside Wu Duantian, opened his eyes and glanced at Xiao Yifeng, a hint of confusion crossing his brow.
That aura just now...
No, it couldn’t be!
How could a disciple from Chixiao Peak have a problem? They had all been rigorously selected; perhaps their temperament had gone a bit awry.
Still, the Qingxuan Daoist kept a watchful eye, secretly noting that fleeting aura in his mind.
“Li Qingran, why are you looking at me? What have I done to wrong you? Don’t forget how many pills I’ve given you!” Encouraged by his junior sister, Xiao Yifeng regained his composure, stepped down the stairs, and stood tall, confronting Li Qingran.
“Well, I should thank you for the pills you sent me: the Bigu Dan, the Quzhong Dan, the Tongbian Dan…” Li Qingran counted on her fingers, causing the surrounding disciples of Qingyun Sect to burst into laughter, while Xiao Yifeng’s face turned as red as a monkey’s bottom.
She paused, her eyes cold as frost, and continued, “Oh, and let’s not forget that fake Dahuandan you gave me, disguised as a normal one. The fire poison burned in my body for ninety-three days, keeping me awake at night and unable to eat during the day. At my worst, I could barely walk! You really are a great second disciple of Chixiao Peak, my dear second senior brother!”
Xiao Yifeng’s expression changed. He had known all along that Li Qingran would bring this up.
After the grand competition, when Mu Baishuang was injured, Li Qingran had been struck by Lu Changtian and had coughed up blood. He was the only one who had gone to the cave to visit Li Qingran. He had pretended to give her a Dahuandan for healing, but in reality, that pill was just a disguised waste pill.
He had watched as Li Qingran gratefully consumed it, only for the fire poison to erupt within her in less than fifteen minutes.
At the time, he had said he wanted her to truly experience the pain his junior sister had felt.
But did Li Qingran have any evidence?
Would she swear on the Dao? Was she out of her mind?!
Did she not fear that her luck would run dry, her fate would be diminished, and she would end up a short-lived ghost?
Besides...
“Junior Sister, I’m just a seventh-grade alchemist. Although I have some talent, I can’t guarantee that all the poison in my pills can be completely eliminated. How can you prove that I intentionally harmed you?”
Xiao Yifeng crossed his arms, chin raised, speaking with an air of authority: “You often come to me to test pills, and your body is very sensitive to them. You’re practically on par with me as an alchemist. Can’t you tell if a pill has fire poison or not? I think you’re just a white-eyed wolf, going mad and treating all our kindness as nonsense!”
Li Qingran looked at the arrogant Xiao Yifeng, suddenly clutching her mouth as her stomach churned. Even when she was expelled from Qingyun Sect, even when she was waiting to die in a broken hut, she had never imagined that her once-admired second senior brother would turn into such a loathsome little man.
However, she truly had no direct evidence.
That one sentence Xiao Yifeng had said was known only to the two of them.
Just as Li Qingran felt a bit at a loss, a cold snort suddenly echoed from the void behind her:
【Interesting!】
【Xiao Yifeng, let me ask you, as an alchemist, can you always tell if there’s fire poison in a pill?】
Xiao Yifeng was taken aback. Identifying fire poison in pills was a fundamental skill for any alchemist. If he couldn’t even do that, what was the point of being an alchemist?
So he nodded immediately, “That’s right!”
【In that case, let’s see how well you can argue!】
As the voice faded, ten brocade boxes flew out from the void behind Li Qingran.
Inside were all basic ordinary Dahuandan.
These were the most fundamental pills, their formulas thoroughly researched, and the lower the grade, the simpler they were.
Xiao Yifeng looked at these pills in confusion, feeling they were all normal ordinary Dahuandan, with nothing particularly unusual about them, and they even seemed to have come from the same batch.
So what was this senior trying to achieve?
...
...
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Chapter 46: Chosen
【Here are ten ordinary Dahuandan, nine of which contain fire poison. You have one incense stick’s worth of time. If you can pick out the one without fire poison, I’ll consider you passed!】
Xiao Yifeng raised his eyes to scan all the pills. Some low-quality waste pills would reveal their fire poison on the surface, forming black spots. At this moment, just by looking, he didn’t notice any abnormalities in the pills.
He regained his composure; this was a trap set by the senior behind Li Qingran.
These pills must have been carefully disguised, something the average person wouldn’t be able to detect.
But was he an average person?
A cold smile crept onto Xiao Yifeng’s lips.
He was born with a Yimu spiritual root, one of the best for alchemists, naturally sensitive to spiritual herbs. For some simpler pills, he could identify the materials used just by their scent. This ability could also be used to detect poison.
Compared to his sense of smell, his sense of taste was even sharper.
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that he could detect poisons that even the transformation stage cultivators present couldn’t.
“Senior, if I can identify the fire poison, what then?” He didn’t immediately agree but looked calmly at the void behind Li Qingran. Today, he would stand up for Yun Zimo, for Zhang Hanxiao, and for his junior sister, reclaiming some dignity for Chixiao Peak!
【If you pass, I won’t hold Li Qingran’s matter against you!】
Xiao Yifeng wanted to ask what the relationship was between this senior and Li Qingran, and why they wouldn’t hold it against her.
But reason held him back.
He bowed respectfully, a hint of sharpness in his demeanor: “Senior, if I can identify the fire poison, then I ask you to personally heal my third and fourth junior brothers and plead with Master Wu to lift the punishment on my third junior brother. How about that?”
Wu Duantian’s expression changed slightly, thinking that Xiao Yifeng was really bold, negotiating with an unknown powerful old monster? The Qingxuan Daoist stroked his beard in satisfaction; he didn’t believe Xiao Yifeng would poison Li Qingran, and Xiao Yifeng’s current performance was very much to his liking.
This was the disciple he had trained!
Chen Huai’an glanced at his phone, deep in thought, his gaze landing on the probability of Xiao Yifeng identifying the normal pills.
— Zero percent.
That was the assessment given by the game.
He felt a bit speechless, yet also wanted to laugh.
Wasn’t Xiao Yifeng looking for trouble? Did he have any sense?
Since that was the case, he might as well let him have his way, so he pressed the communication talisman: “Sure, no problem. I’ll give you three chances. If you can’t find the normal pill in all three tries, you’ll eat all ten pills!”
In the Qingyun Sect square, everyone was eagerly waiting for the response from the mysterious cultivator in the void.
On the surface, Xiao Yifeng appeared brave, but inside, he was a bundle of nerves.
He could only hope that this mysterious cultivator wouldn’t hold his disrespectful words against him.
After all, those words had indeed been quite disrespectful.
【Alright!】 The voice slowly echoed from the void:
【You have three chances. If you fail, you will eat all these pills!】
Hearing this, Xiao Yifeng let out a sigh of relief, a confident smile appearing on his face: “Senior, I keep my word!”
He stepped forward, approaching the brocade boxes with confidence.
First, he sniffed each of the ten Dahuandan several times, the casualness on his face gradually replaced by seriousness.
From the information provided by his sense of smell, these ordinary Dahuandan were completely identical.
This uniformity was reflected in the cooking time, structure, material proportions, and the age of the materials, giving the impression that these ten Dahuandan were exact replicas of one another.
But was that right?
What level of alchemy could achieve such a feat?
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