Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 424 – I Have Dispelled the Poison

Hidden behind this literary story and its bittersweet name was a fatal life-wresting attribute. This was because once the fallen lost leaf touched someone, it would begin its parasitic journey once more, regarding the host as its main body and plundering all of its strength until they finally died.

And the way the fallen lost leaf parasitically attached to someone was like an extremely virulent and violently spreading poison amongst the world of cultivators. Or, it could in a sense be called a poison bug.

Grandmaster Jiang’s face revealed a heavy color. “I never thought that the first level would actually have a fallen lost leaf. It seems this will be a little difficult.” Although he said this, his demeanor was still calm; clearly he didn’t fear it. But at this time his eyes fell on Qin Yu’s body. Though he didn’t reveal anything, there was still a bit of disdain floating in the air.

‘Grandmaster Yao’ stuffily coughed and hesitated for a moment. He then reached out a hand and touched the dark light. As his palm touched against the fallen lost leaf, the thing released a low cry and trembled before transforming into a drop of liquid that fused into his flesh and blood.

Grandmaster Jiang’s lips curved up in a smile.

Five minutes later, Grandmaster Jiang smoothly dispelled the poison. The fallen lost leaf that fused into his body was forced out.

This method was truly inconceivable in its skill. Those within Heavenwait Temple cried out in alarm and numerous eyes widened in awe.

This time, Grandmaster Yao was in an even worse state. It took him a full 11 minutes to resolve the fallen lost leaf, and as he did so, the fallen lost leaf was also destroyed.

This speed and skill was on a completely different level from Grandmaster Jiang!

“Grandmaster Yao, even if you care about your face, you should admit defeat now. Otherwise if you continue to go onwards, you will be even more embarrassed.” One of Jiang Taishou’s disciples called out. Though he seemed to be saying this in consideration of Grandmaster Yao, to do so at this place and time was truly vicious.

As expected, Grandmaster Yao shouted out in rage, “How insolent! A mere junior dares to taunt me!?”

Grandmaster Jiang shook his head and said, “Yun Hai, don’t be so rude to Grandmaster Yao. The alchemy skills of a grandmaster are unfathomably deep; he simply hasn’t displayed his true skills yet. It’s hard to say how this gambling fight will turn out.” He glanced over, “Grandmaster Yao, although the poisons of the first level are good, it’s difficult for them to be a threat to the likes of us. How about we change to a more dangerous poison? Otherwise I fear it will be hard to decide victory and defeat between us in a short period of time. Perhaps we can ask Elder Zhou to open the second level of the sealed pagoda for us?”

Grandmaster Yao remained silent for a moment before saying, “I have no opinion.”

Many of the cultivators in Heavenwait Temple cursed inwardly, calling this surname Yao an idiotic fool. He had fallen into the trap of others and didn’t even know about it!

He was done for!

Grandmaster Jiang smiled happily. “Wonderful!” He turned and said, “Elder Zhou, please open the second level.”

Elder Zhou sighed inwardly and nodded. “Very well. Two grandmasters, please wait a moment.” After several breaths of time he flicked his sleeves and the seal of the sealed pagoda’s second level was undone. Two dark lights of an even richer color flew out.

“Keylink poison!”

“This is truly the sect’s sealed pagoda of poison. Just the second level has such a terrifying poison!”

“If it were your or me, I fear that just being stained a little bit by that poison would result in us howling to our deaths!”

Seven minutes later, Grandmaster Jiang opened his eyes. “This old man has dispelled the poison.” However Grandmaster Jiang used 13 minutes and even a pill he refined himself to forcefully dispel the poison within the time limit.

An alchemist’s occupation was to refine pills. Thus, pills they refined themselves could be used in a gambling fight and weren’t considered foreign objects.

“What a great method, Grandmaster Yao!” Jiang Taishou said with approval. “Elder Zhou, please continue.”

The fourth poison – heart corroding grass.

This was a type of poison that was extremely damaging to the body. Its attributes were violent and overbearing. If one couldn’t control it well, it would rapidly corrode a person’s body into a mess of slimy goo.

Grandmaster Jiang took ten minutes to dispel the poison. action

This time, Grandmaster Yao only used eight minutes to dispel the poison. Everyone was slightly surprised, but they immediately chalked it up to luck. This surname Yao must have come into contact with heart corroding grass before to be able to dispel it in such a short period of time.

This simply didn’t count.

The fifth poison – dark night netherworld.

This was a poison produced by demonic path alchemists. By combining several types of dangerous poisons together, they each promoted and restrained the others, finally evolving into this form. Processing this poison was extremely troublesome.

Grandmaster Jiang took 12 minutes.

Grandmaster Yao…15 minutes!

That was right, he barely managed to dispel the poison and even had to take several pills in a row. If it weren’t for these pills being inspected and proving that they were refined by Grandmaster Yao, then he would have been judged as having been defeated.

Grandmaster Jiang frowned. He lightly said, “It looks like the second level isn’t enough to decide victory and defeat between us. Grandmaster Yao, how about we open up the third level of the sealed pagoda?”

After a long moment of silence, Grandmaster Yao reluctantly nodded.

This unsealing process was much slower than before. Grandmaster Yao sat in meditation as if he was grabbing hold of this time to recover his losses. Compared to the calm and indifferent Grandmaster Jiang that was holding his hands behind his back, these two images formed a stark contrast.

The Black Demon Sect cultivators all coldly sneered. Even at such an overwhelming disadvantage he still wanted to persist until the end. He didn’t know what death or danger meant!

With a loud hum, the third level of the sealed pagoda was undone. Elder Zhou had a serious complexion. He lifted his hand and a barrier of light shrouded the sealed pagoda. After completing this, his expression relaxed a little and he said, “Grandmasters, the poisons within the sealed pagoda’s third level have extremely terrifying abilities. If you don’t have full confidence in yourself, I advise you to admit defeat in order to avoid great losses or even potential death.”

The majority of these words seemed directed at Grandmaster Yao. But because it seemed he wanted to ‘save face no matter the cost’, there was no reply from him.

Elder Zhou didn’t say much else. “Let the gambling fight continue!”

The sixth challenge – seven-colored rainbow.

This poison spread through air. It was colorless and tasteless and even common magic power shields and barriers couldn’t completely block it. The reason it had such a name was because after a person was poisoned, seven different colors would gradually appear on their body. Every day there was a different color and not only would they feel no pain, they would instead feel fully invigorated. But once the seventh day passed and the seven colors gathered together, the poison would instantly react, killing the person.

Grandmaster Jiang was much more careful than before. He first took out several pills and let the Internal Affairs Division inspect them. Then, he brought forth the seven-colored rainbow and swallowed it into his body.

11 minutes later, with the aid of his pills, Grandmaster Jiang opened his eyes and let out a long breath. His complexion was slightly pale and his eyes a bit weary. It was clear that dispelling this poison hadn’t been easy.

However, Grandmaster Jiang still felt several points of pride in his heart. It had to be known that this was the seven-colored rainbow! Using only a single pill he had managed to dispel this poison in 11 minutes. This was a fierce result!

He swept his eyes over, looking at the completely still Grandmaster Yao. Jiang Taishou curved his lips up in a smile. The gambling fight should end here.

After being contaminated with the seven-colored rainbow, even if this surname Yao didn’t hesitate to pay the price and ask the powerhouses of the sect to help him dispel the poison, most of his life would be wasted anyways. After some more arrangements, even if he didn’t die, this surname Yao would be thoroughly ruined for his remaining years.

But at this time, with a deep breath, Grandmaster Yao said, “I have dispelled the poison!”

Unexpectedly, he had only used a single pill.

Grandmaster Jiang’s eyes widened as his complexion shook a bit.

A cultivator from the Internal Affairs Division walked forward and hurriedly examined him. Grandmaster Yao had indeed dispelled the seven-colored rainbow poison from his body. There were no traces of it left. This result not only shocked Grandmaster Jiang, but everyone else in the temple too.

“This…could he be familiar with this poison again?”

“I heard that Grandmaster Yao has always had the habit of torturing prisoners for fun, and loves to use living subjects for experiments. It isn’t a surprise if he’s conducted experiments with the seven-colored rainbow poison before.”

“Tsk tsk! What luck! If it weren’t for this, the gambling fight could have ended here and we could happily have gone and collected our spirit stones from the betting ring!”

“It will just be another moment. I don’t believe he can be lucky all the time! In the end, the only thing a person can depend on is their own strength, like Grandmaster Jiang here!”

There were cries from all over the temple. Grandmaster Yao coldly snorted but didn’t say anything, as if he were tacitly approving of everyone’s opinions.

Grandmaster Jiang’s heart relaxed a little. Since it was only a coincidence, that just meant he had to put in a bit more work. He waved his hand, “Elder Zhou, please continue.”

His face was a bit stiffer than before, not as relaxed as he had been. No matter what was said, this surname Yao lasting this long had surpassed his expectations.

The seventh poison – blue sky highest heavens.

When a meteor crashed down from beyond the heavens and landed in the earth, the strange materials within blended together with the strength of the heavens and earth, producing this strange poison. The word ‘strange’ expressed how rare this poison was. There was no conventional method to dispel it.

Grandmaster Jiang swallowed three pills. Then, with a dignified expression, he swallowed the blue sky highest heavens poison. Just as the poison entered his body his complexion changed. He quickly ate up four poison-curing pills and only then was a bit of redness restored to his rapidly paling complexion.

Even so, Grandmaster Jiang used up a full ten pills and consumed a total of 13 minutes before he managed to dispel this poison!

This time, his victory was inevitably secure!

The blue sky highest heavens poison was incomparably rare. Even if this surname Yao loved to use poisons to torture criminals, he absolutely wouldn’t use this poison!

Humph!

Although he had suffered some hardships, the blue sky highest heavens was much trickier than the seven-colored rainbow. Once it entered the body and one didn’t completely eliminate it, it would form poison deposits. From that point on, it would no longer be possible to thoroughly dispel it.

Although one wouldn’t die in a short period of time, this poison would follow them for the rest of their life and they would constantly withstand the pain and suffering from the poison attacking them. Living like this was one of the greatest agonies one could experience…only when their lifespan came to an end and the poison completely erupted would they then be able to obtain freedom.

Thinking of this, Grandmaster Jiang’s eyes turned cold. This surname Yao had brought all of this upon himself. If he had admitted defeat sooner, he wouldn’t have ended up in such a situation.

Jiang Taishou never thought that things would come this far. As he thought about his painstaking arrangements and how he had even had his disciple shame Grandmaster Yao midway through in front of everyone in hopes of forcing him to admit defeat, he suddenly felt that these fake and hypocritical methods were too disgusting.

The 15th minute came. As the last several breaths of time arrived, Grandmaster Jiang’s disciples all revealed smiles.

Within the temple, all the cultivators who had placed bets also had joyful looks.

But at this time, a sound that caused them all to curse inwardly suddenly rose up. “Cough cough…I have dispelled the poison!”

The Internal Affairs Division cultivator responsible for keeping track of time looked at the hourglass and saw that the final few grains of sand had yet to fall. He sighed and thought that this person was truly lucky. “It is within the time.”

The poison inspection continued as usual. As a green light lit up, sighs resounded throughout the temple. Many resentful eyes gathered on Grandmaster Yao.

He had managed to dispel the poison on the edge of the deadline twice…how come he couldn’t just fall over, how come he decided to press on? It was better to admit defeat than to die like this. If you are uncomfortable, we are also suffering with you. The ups and downs you bring us are just too hard to bear!

Jiang Taishou frowned and his eyes turned dark and gloomy. He glared at Grandmaster Jiang and suddenly said, “Grandmaster Yao has truly hidden his depths well. I admire you!”

Between his icy cold words was a deep sense of wariness. This caused all of the resentful cultivators in the temple to be surprised. This was just another stroke of luck; how come Grandmaster Jiang placed him in such high regards?

Suddenly, a Black Demon Sect cultivator said, “Grandmaster Yao, it seems…didn’t eat any pills!”

Everyone was stunned for a moment. The process of Grandmaster Jiang dispelling the poison had been so thrilling and amazing that they had fully focused on him. They hadn’t paid attention to this at all.

If Grandmaster Yao hadn’t drawn support from pills and had still managed to dispel the blue sky highest heavens poison, did this mean that Grandmaster Yao’s poison dispelling skills were much better than Grandmaster Jiang’s…? Then, was everything before this merely an act? No wonder Grandmaster Jiang had such a serious expression!

The cultivators in the temple were frightened. They were just now all imagining leaving and going to get their spirit stone profits from the betting ring, but how did things suddenly reverse in such a short period of time…their betting stakes were no longer safe!

Grandmaster Yao coldly sneered. “Grandmaster Jiang, to force me to use my true skills, you aren’t too bad.” Then he changed his tone. “If you admit defeat now, you still have enough time. Otherwise, if you were to encounter an even more dangerous poison, it might be too late to regret!”

Jiang Taishou’s heart sank.

At this time, from the observing platform, Elder Xu lightly coughed. “In the past, Grandmaster Yao received some blue sky highest heavens poison. Not many in the sect know of this, and even I only learnt it because the Chief Elder mentioned it one time. Thinking about it, this was probably why Grandmaster Yao was able to dispel this poison so easily. His luck is extremely good.”

He faintly smiled. “Grandmaster Yao, you shouldn’t mind me mentioning this matter, right? After all, a gambling fight should consider some degree of fairness.”

Grandmaster Yao coldly snorted and clenched his teeth. But, he didn’t dare to express anger at Elder Xu. In his aggrieved mood, even his breathing quickened.

Jiang Taishou’s expression relaxed. “So that’s how it is. I even thought that Grandmaster Yao might be some peerless great expert. So, it was all just an empty act and you were trying to play it along with your tiny bit of luck. I wonder, just how long can Grandmaster Yao’s good luck last?”

Beneath the black robes, Qin Yu sneered in disdain. It seemed that Elder Xu really knew about how Grandmaster Yao had received some blue sky highest heavens poison before. This was indeed a coincidence. When Qin Yu was refining Grandmaster Yao’s soul, he fully received these memories of unbearable pain in the past. At this time, he had gambled on this to make Elder Xu open his mouth and dispel Jiang Taishou’s doubts.

If it weren’t for this, then if he could even dispel the blue sky highest heavens poison, even that old fart Jiang might begin to grow suspicious of him. If he did, how could he continue the play?

But with things having come this far, they were almost at an end.

Qin Yu’s eyes flashed with a cold light. He said, “The poisons from the third level are only this mediocre. Since we still can’t decide victory or defeat, I propose releasing the fourth level of the sealed pagoda!”

With these words, the entire temple fell silent.

Watching the battle from the upper platform, Elder Xu also revealed a shocked look.

It had to be known that the poisons in the sealed pagoda grew stronger with every level, but every three levels was a completely different step.

The poisons within the fourth level of the sealed pagoda were on a completely new level. Their power was terrifying. Even a Blue Sea realm cultivator wouldn’t dare to easily touch them.

To open the fourth level, was this surname Yao insane?

Grandmaster Jiang was shocked. A bit of awareness grew in his heart. Could this surname Yao be trying to drag them both down to death?

Or, could he be forcing him to give up and use a tie as the result?

After all, the poisons of the fourth level were far too horrifying. Only a few people in the entire Black Demon Sect had come into contact with poisons of this level.

He sneered inwardly. This surname Yao had truly thought of a good plan! Unfortunately, he had miscalculated the hidden cards in his hand. Even if he had to suffer serious losses today, he would get rid of him once and for all!

“Good, I agree. I ask Elder Zhou to open the fourth level of the sealed pagoda!” Grandmaster Jiang shouted out. The entire temple fell deathly silent.