Chapter 269: The Divine Physicians Duel
"Junior brother seems quite wary of me!"
The Little Poison King smiled. "Although you and I are fellow disciples, we've never met before. We should be close, shouldn't we?"
Qin Mu lowered his arms. He had heard of this Little Poison King before, mentioned by the Empress Dowager. It was because of this man that Grandpa Medicine had cut off his own face and retreated into the Great Ruins.
The Little Poison King was Medicine King's most accomplished disciple, but he had betrayed his master, exposing the fact that Jade-Faced Gentleman was actually the Poison King.
Jade-Faced Gentleman and the Poison King were two different figures in the martial world. One was a dashing, peerlessly handsome man—tall, heroic, and gentle as a spring breeze, leaving a trail of admirers wherever he went without ever seeking them out. Everyone adored him, even men found it hard to hate him.
The Poison King, however, had a green face and fangs, was ruthless and cruel, with a fearsome reputation. He had poisoned countless experts, destroyed a famous righteous sect, and killed everyone there—not even sparing the chickens and dogs.
Even the Dao Sect and the Great Thunderclap Monastery had lost many accomplished Daoists and eminent monks to his poisons.
The Poison King's cultivation wasn't high, but his skills were supreme. Both his poisons and his venomous insects had reached the pinnacle of mastery. The righteous and demonic paths had besieged him many times, even dispatching several sect masters, but they couldn't capture him. Instead, they suffered casualties from poisoning.
The Poison King wore a mask with a green face and fangs. No one knew his true identity until his disciple, the Little Poison King, exposed him. Only then did the world learn that the Poison King was the legendary Jade-Faced Gentleman.
The consequences of his identity being revealed were complex. Some wanted to kill him, while women fought over him. Even powerful women like the Empress Dowager joined the competition, forcing Medicine King to cut off his own face, abandon all emotions, hide in the Great Ruins, and never dare to set foot outside for the rest of his life.
But the Little Poison King's life wasn't easy either. The Empress Dowager and other women vented their anger on him, hunting him everywhere. He was nearly forced into the Great Ruins himself before being taken in by the Imperial Preceptor.
Qin Mu had only heard about Medicine King's experiences and didn't know the full truth, but he knew that the Little Poison King had inherited Medicine King's poison arts and was already approaching his master's level.
Emperor Yanfeng laughed. "Sect Master, I invited both you and the Little Poison King because you are both disciples of Jade-Faced Poison King. One of you specializes in poison, the other in healing. Working together, you might be able to cure me and the Imperial Preceptor."
Qin Mu smiled. "As you command. I'd also like to see my senior brother's skills."
The Little Poison King examined the Emperor's injuries, checking the results of Qin Mu's treatment over the past few days. His facial lumps looked even more terrifying as he grinned. "Your skills are quite good. You unraveled the Thousand Mechanisms Poison in one night."
Qin Mu, meanwhile, was examining the Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor. After returning to the capital, the Little Poison King had been treating the Preceptor's wounds. He said calmly, "You're not bad either. The Thousand Mechanisms Poison was used quite cleverly."
Suddenly, the lumps on the Little Poison King's wrists burst open with a series of pops, and tiny transparent spiders crawled out. These spiders shot out silk threads that stuck to Emperor Yanfeng's brow, then crawled along the threads into his brow and into his Fetal Spirit Divine Treasury.
"I didn't intend to poison her to death. With my skills, poisoning a sect master to death isn't troublesome."
The Little Poison King said leisurely, "No matter what sect's master, poisoning them to death isn't troublesome for me."
Qin Mu didn't even raise an eyebrow. Twin heavens appeared in his eyes as he used his Azure Sky Divine Eye to examine the Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor. "Even if you poison her body to death, I can keep her soul and revive her after detoxifying her. Besides, a sect master isn't someone you can just poison to death. As a sect master, they have a thousand ways to kill you without even facing you. Especially the Demon Sect—they have a thousand methods to make you die inexplicably yet naturally. When you end up dead in a ditch one day, senior brother, you'll understand."
"Is that so?" The Little Poison King's face twisted into a grin uglier than a cry.
"Yes, indeed." Qin Mu smiled like a blooming flower.
The two locked eyes. Emperor Yanfeng and the Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor both felt a chill of fear. These two meeting, their words clashing, the killing intent growing stronger!
Ling Yuxiu blinked, her gaze shifting between them. Sensing the situation was getting out of control, she laughed. "Little Poison King, Sect Master Qin, healing the injuries is the priority."
The Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor coughed, and Emperor Yanfeng also coughed. "Yuxiu, you may withdraw."
Ling Yuxiu acknowledged and left the hall.
The lumps on the Little Poison King's face burst open, and fish-like insects flew out, burrowing into Emperor Yanfeng's other divine treasuries to check their injuries. "You're not bad. You've removed the hidden ailments from His Majesty's divine treasuries. His physical and soul injuries are completely healed. Unfortunately, your medical skills are limited—you can't cure the divine treasuries themselves."
Qin Mu examined the remnants of divine powers from the gods inside the Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor's body. He saw that the Little Poison King was using poison-transformed Power-Dissolving Spirit Silk to wrap around those remnants, trying to wear them away. These poison silks had the effect of dissolving power, neutralizing others' techniques and even their Yuan Qi cultivation, but they had little effect against the remnants of divine powers.
"Your poison arts have reached the pinnacle, achieving both form and spirit. The Power-Dissolving Spirit Silk is used quite cleverly. But it can go a step further." Qin Mu smiled faintly.
Their gazes met again.
Emperor Yanfeng and the Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor's scalps tingled. If these two started a contest, they'd likely use poisons and medicines on their bodies!
The Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor said, "Both of you are divine physicians from the same school. Do you have a solution?"
The Little Poison King quickly said, "I have some confidence regarding His Majesty's injuries. His Majesty's divine treasuries are shattered. I can take a living person's divine treasury and transplant it into His Majesty."
Emperor Yanfeng frowned. "How confident are you?"
"This..."
The Little Poison King hesitated, glancing at Qin Mu. "I specialize in poison. It's hard to say how confident I am."
Qin Mu said, "The Imperial Preceptor's injuries can't be solved with just Power-Dissolving Spirit Silk. The main problem is that the remnants of divine powers are too strong. I think we should find several dozen sect master-level experts to jointly suppress these remnants, allowing the Imperial Preceptor to mobilize her own cultivation and refine them."
The Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor shook her head. "There are several dozen sect master-level experts within Yan Kang's borders, but it's hard to get all of them to work for me. Both divine physicians, one using poison and the other medicine, might complement each other."
Qin Mu looked at the Little Poison King, who was also looking at him.
"My master, Jade-Faced Poison King, was a master of both medicine and poison. He could use medicine to enhance poison, and poison to enhance medicine."
The Little Poison King said, "How many times can you amplify my poison?"
Qin Mu said coldly, "That depends on how potent your poison is. I can use medicine to greatly supplement His Majesty's Yuan Qi, boosting his vitality, allowing his life force and Yuan Qi to heal his divine treasury wounds on their own. How potent is your poison? Can it amplify the Yuan Qi and vitality in my medicine by thirty to fifty times?"
"As potent as you want!"
The Little Poison King said coldly, "I'm afraid your tonic can't withstand my deadly poison! To refine the remnants of divine powers for the Imperial Preceptor, I need to increase the toxicity of my Power-Dissolving Spirit Silk by thirty to fifty times to dissolve the gods' divine power remnants. At that level of toxicity, even gods can be poisoned and reduced to skeletons. Do you have that ability?"
Qin Mu gritted his teeth. "Worth a try!"
The venomous insects crawled out of Emperor Yanfeng's body and burrowed back into the lumps on the Little Poison King's face and hands.
"If you can't refine such medicine, I'll poison you to death," he said with a sinister laugh.
Qin Mu's expression remained calm. "If you use the wrong poison, I'll plead with the Emperor to spare your life and take you back to the Great Ruins."
The Little Poison King's face darkened. He snorted coldly, picked up a brush, and wrote down a list of poisons.
Qin Mu also wrote a prescription.
"Your Majesty, have someone fetch these ingredients!" They both threw down their brushes and sat in silence.
Emperor Yanfeng and the Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor exchanged glances. These two had terrible tempers. It didn't seem like they intended to treat their injuries at all—more like they wanted to kill them!
Emperor Yanfeng coughed and called for the imperial physicians waiting outside. "Quickly, fetch these ingredients."
The physicians took the prescriptions and left.
"Your medicine is quite strong," the Little Poison King sneered.
Qin Mu ignored him. After a long while, the physicians finally brought all the required poisons and tonics. Qin Mu immediately began refining the medicinal power. He activated the Overlord Body Three Dan Art, transforming into the Bull-Headed Man-Bodied Spark Star Lord, then the Tiger-Headed Man-Bodied White Star Lord, followed by the Water Star Lord, Wood Star Lord, and Earth Star Lord. His form and Yuan Qi shifted as he refined various medicinal powers.
Meanwhile, the Little Poison King used poisons to raise insects, feeding them deadly toxins, then used the insects to refine poison pills, and fed the pills back to the insects. After repeating this process three times, he finally raised a large black spider with red eyes. Its toxic aura condensed without dispersing.
Qin Mu took out several seeds and began planting flowers inside the hall. He placed the seeds on the refined spirit pills, using the Creation Earth Yuan Art to let the plants absorb the pills' medicinal power. Soon, the plants grew, bloomed, and bore fruit.
He harvested the needed spirit fruits or roots, refined them again, and repeated the process three times. Finally, he refined the mountain of ingredients into seven spirit pills and one red pill.
Qin Mu put away the pills and looked at the Little Poison King.
The Little Poison King had refined the large spider to death, turning it into a strand of nearly invisible spirit silk and a small bottle of venom.
They locked eyes again. Qin Mu tossed the red pill to the Little Poison King, who threw the bottle of venom to Qin Mu.
Qin Mu forced a smile onto his face and said gently, "Your Majesty, time to take your medicine."
Emperor Yanfeng's heart pounded as he looked at Qin Mu's seven spirit pills and bottle of venom. "My dear minister, the toxicity..."
"Very strong."
Qin Mu glanced at the Little Poison King. "If His Majesty passes away, I will avenge him!"
The Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor also hesitated as she looked at the red pill and spider silk before her. The Little Poison King said, "Imperial Preceptor, rest assured. It's safe, it's safe."
Qin Mu turned into a shadow and entered Emperor Yanfeng's divine treasuries. He placed the seven spirit pills into the Emperor's seven divine treasuries, dripped a few drops of venom onto each pill, and then withdrew.
The Little Poison King inserted the spirit silk into the Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor's body, pulled it, and drew a strand of spider silk out of her mouth. He planted the silk into the red pill and stuffed it into her mouth.
A thunderous roar erupted from Emperor Yanfeng's body. Suddenly, his hair and nails grew wildly. His bones also elongated. In an instant, his legs grew a huge length, his trousers couldn't cover them. His head swelled, his beard shot out like weeds, and his hair spread in all directions.
His leg hair, chest hair, and body hair all grew thick and coarse, tearing his dragon robe apart.
Soon, Emperor Yanfeng had grown into a giant over ten zhang tall, lying on the ground unable to move. Half the hall was filled with hair, burying the Emperor in a dense forest.
"Your poison is a bit strong, senior brother," Qin Mu said, his eye twitching.
On the other side, transparent spider silk suddenly surged from the Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor's eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, even from her pores. It wrapped her up like a giant cocoon, binding her tightly.
The Little Poison King's expression grew grave. "Your medicine is a bit too nourishing."
They looked at each other, each picked up a brush to write another prescription, then threw down the brushes, waiting for the Emperor to call for more ingredients. Then they remembered—the Emperor was buried in hair.
They had to cough and call for the imperial physicians outside to take the two new prescriptions.
The physicians waiting outside were terrified. Thick strands of hair were spreading out of the hall, already covering the steps.
Soon, the physicians returned with the ingredients. Qin Mu immediately began refining again, while the Little Poison King hurriedly raised more insects.
Qin Mu grabbed two butcher knives and hacked through countless strands of hair. After immense effort, he finally found the Emperor and administered the medicine. On the other side, the lumps on the Little Poison King's face burst open, and venomous insects carrying the refined medicine burrowed into the cocoon and entered the Imperial Preceptor's body.
"Damn it!"
Both observed the results, their faces turning ashen. "It seems the balance of ingredients is off..."
The Emperor's hair had stopped growing, but toxins were now seeping out. Meanwhile, the Imperial Preceptor had started growing hair.
They scrambled to pick up their brushes and write new prescriptions.