Chapter 326: The Most Longing
Mu Yingxue stood there dazed, massive wooden debris raining down from the sky. A huge log hurtled toward her, but she forgot to dodge. Suddenly, Qin Mu lunged over, scooped her up, and fled.
The moment they left, the log crashed down with a thunderous impact, sending a surging wave of air that flung them both tumbling away.
They steadied themselves. Qin Mu set the girl down and looked back. Where Mu Yingxue had been standing, the log had smashed a massive crater into the ground, sending dirt and rocks flying.
Mu Yingxue's shock subsided, and she quickly came to her senses. She hurriedly pulled out several jade bottles from her robes and said rapidly, "I'm covered in poison. When you carried me, you might have been poisoned too..."
"No need."
Qin Mu swiftly concocted a few antidote pills for himself and neutralized the toxicity.
They both looked around, their expressions growing numb. The surrounding valley was piled high with black wood, a chaotic mountain of timber.
Beneath their feet lay the root demon's tendrils, countless twisted tree roots lying motionless.
Qin Mu hurried to check on Dragon Qilin and the others. When that unimaginably massive tree had collapsed and fallen, it hadn't harmed those at its roots or buried them—a stroke of luck.
"You won."
Mu Yingxue's expression darkened, and she said dejectedly, "The number one poison master of the Western Lands still can't compare to a little brother from the Great Ruins. I've disgraced the title of Western Lands' best."
Qin Mu shook his head. "Don't be disheartened. I got lucky this time. My poison included the witch venom from the Loulan Golden Palace, and you had already poisoned the root demon first, weakening its vitality. That's how I managed to kill it."
Mu Yingxue said despondently, "It swallowed the Azure Dragon Pearl and could replenish its energy at any time. I didn't help."
Qin Mu comforted her, "Actually, I'm not particularly skilled in the way of poison. What I'm good at is healing and saving lives. Besides, I'm not some nobody—I have a very big and famous reputation."
Mu Yingxue felt even more crushed. Not skilled, and he still beat her?
"You'd be better off not comforting me."
Mu Yingxue said coldly, "You won. What are you going to do with me?"
Qin Mu was puzzled and shook his head. "Do what with you? We competed in poison, and we eliminated a powerful enemy like the root demon. I'm quite happy. We're both fellow practitioners; exchanging skills is only natural."
Mu Yingxue stared at him with her dark, sparkling eyes. Suddenly, she rose on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his, then stuffed a small cloth pouch into his hand. She spun around and fled, giggling, "I've poisoned you! The poison of longing! If you ever come to the Western Lands, don't forget to find me. Don't come through the front door—climb in through the window!"
Qin Mu stood there dumbfounded, feeling that the girl's lips were moist, soft, and fragrant, leaving his mind blank.
But this wasn't poisoning.
As the young divine physician of the Yan Kingdom, he knew his own body perfectly. The youth analyzed calmly: "This is a symptom of cerebral ischemia. When she kissed me, my heart skipped a beat, causing a momentary lack of blood flow to my brain, hence the blankness."
Mu Yingxue dashed straight toward Dragon Qilin and Xiong Xiyu. Qin Mu's heart jolted, and he quickly gave chase.
The Azure Dragon Pearl had also been ejected from the root demon's body during the collapse, landing in the middle of the group. Xiong Xiyu, the former palace master of the True Heaven Palace, was struggling desperately, arching her body as she crawled toward the pearl.
The two white bats were also crawling toward the Azure Dragon Pearl. The poison Mu Yingxue had inflicted on them was gradually dissipating, allowing them to move.
On the other side, the effects of the lost-fragrance incense on Yu Bochuan and the others were also wearing off. They too were crawling toward the Azure Dragon Pearl, trying to snatch it before anyone else.
Dragon Qilin crawled the fastest. This massive, bloated creature was usually lazy, only moving when his tail was on fire, but now he was utterly determined to get the Azure Dragon Pearl, straining forward and overtaking everyone.
However, his endurance was poor. After crawling a short distance, he was panting heavily, and his speed gradually slowed.
The two groups drew closer and closer to the Azure Dragon Pearl. One Celestial realm expert was the nearest, reaching out his hand to grab it.
Seeing this, Dragon Qilin quickly opened his mouth and extended his tongue, which grew longer and longer, licking toward the pearl. It looked like he was about to wrap his tongue around it.
Mu Yingxue also arrived. Qin Mu was a step behind, raised his hand, and beckoned. His primal energy flew out, wrapping around the Azure Dragon Pearl and pulling it to him.
But Mu Yingxue didn't try to snatch the pearl. Instead, she swept her sleeve, rolling up Yu Bochuan and the others and sending them onto the back of the white elephant.
The black-clad girl stamped her foot, her figure floating up to stand on the tip of the great white elephant's raised trunk. She waved at Qin Mu. "The head of the Yu family was kind to me, so I'm taking them too! The most longing is for a young lad—come to the Western Lands soon!"
Qin Mu was dazed and waved back at her, a strange feeling stirring in his heart.
The small cloth pouch Mu Yingxue had stuffed into his hand wasn't large, like a sachet, but it was black, embroidered with golden thread depicting mandarin ducks swimming neck-and-neck beside lotus flowers.
He opened the sachet. Inside was a small handful of bright red adzuki beans, like tiny, ripe red apples, but much smaller.
"Red beans grow in the southern lands, with spring comes new shoots on their strands."
Xiong Xiyu staggered to her feet, looking at the beans in his hand, and softly recited, "I wish you would pick more of these, for they are the most longing of things. Chief Qin, the poison master is inviting you to a walking marriage."
Qin Mu sniffed the beans and shook his head. "Adzuki beans are poisonous. She's probably trying to poison me! Could there really be a poison of longing? Right, she kissed me with her mouth, and it was a bit wet. There must have been another poison on her lips, one that mixes with the bean's poison to create a compound toxin... Yes, that must be it!"
Xiong Xiyu was stunned. The former palace master of the True Heaven Palace stared wide-eyed at the Celestial Lord of the Heavenly Saint Cult, her heart full of doubt. "Aren't adzuki beans used to express longing and love? How did this Chief Qin twist it into them being poisonous? And suspect Mu Yingxue of poisoning him?"
She could finally confirm that this Chief Qin seemed to have some serious misunderstandings about romantic feelings between men and women—and he was seriously ill!
"It seems someone has filled his head with wrong ideas," Xiong Xiyu thought to herself.
Still, Qin Mu put the poisonous adzuki beans back into the black silk sachet and carefully stored it away, which made Xiong Xiyu feel he wasn't completely hopeless.
Qin Mu held up the Azure Dragon Pearl and examined it. Inside the pearl, the azure dragon's body was the color of emerald, with a translucent, crystalline quality. Its brows and whiskers were also green, like a jade dragon.
The azure dragon soul swam joyfully within the pearl.
This was the soul of a true dragon, not a hybrid like a chicken-dragon, dragon-qilin, or green ox, but a pure-blooded azure dragon. Even through the pearl, Qin Mu could feel its extraordinarily powerful divine energy.
Although the root demon had absorbed some of the Azure Dragon Pearl's power, the pearl seemed able to continuously absorb natural energy from its surroundings to replenish itself—a very peculiar trait.
"What a fine treasure. Could the dragon soul inside be a dragon god?"
Qin Mu activated his Overlord Body Three Dan Art, and his primal energy automatically transformed into azure dragon energy. He tried to channel the power of the Azure Dragon Pearl, but found he couldn't. Surprised, he said, "It probably requires the unique techniques of the True Heaven Palace to harness the pearl's power. My azure dragon energy alone would just be a snack for the dragon soul."
To use the Azure Dragon Pearl's power, one needed to establish communication with the dragon soul within. Only the True Heaven Palace's method of 'all things have spirit, all things have gods' could likely connect with it.
"The sacred grounds of the Western Lands truly have great skill!" he praised inwardly.
The poison on Dragon Qilin had lessened further, and he could stand. He quickly wagged his tail, the long dragon appendage sweeping up dust all around, and called out, "Chief, give me the pearl!"
Qin Mu ignored him and casually tossed the Azure Dragon Pearl to the little girl Xiong Qi'er, smiling. "Here, play with this."
Xiong Qi'er caught the pearl and said sweetly, "Thank you, big brother!"
Dragon Qilin's drool flowed freely as he wagged his tail at Xiong Qi'er. "Sister, let me play with the pearl! Don't worry, I definitely won't eat it—I swear!"
Qin Mu quickly pulled out several jade bottles and placed them under the creature's mouth to catch the dragon saliva, thinking, "I'll collect a few more bottles, sell them back in the capital, and have some money again... Hmm, this time I'll go back to the village first and pick up Ling'er. She's much better at managing money than I am."
He collected over ten bottles. Only when Xiong Qi'er put the Azure Dragon Pearl back into her little pouch did Dragon Qilin's drooling stop.
Qin Mu gave Xiong Qi'er a wink. Though young, she was clever and took out the pearl again. Dragon Qilin's tail wagged furiously, and the drool flowed once more.
Qin Mu collected over twenty bottles of dragon saliva, satisfied. Afraid that too much drool would affect the quality, he signaled Xiong Qi'er to put the pearl away.
The two white bats had also recovered, and Xiong Xiyu had regained her strength. Qin Mu led them eastward.
Xiong Xiyu had been deeply poisoned. If treated immediately after being poisoned, when the toxicity was still light, it would have been simplest. But the entanglement silk poison had penetrated deep into her divine repositories, making it very difficult to purge completely.
For others, this would be called a terminal illness, but Qin Mu felt there was still a cure.
Along the way, he searched for medicinal herbs, refined elixirs, and used no fewer than ten different types of pills, changing the prescription ten times, until he finally cleansed the entanglement silk poison from the four major divine repositories: the Embryo, the Five Elements, the Six Harmonies, and the Seven Stars.
After traveling for over ten days, they never encountered Yu Bochuan and the others again. Presumably, having lost the Azure Dragon Pearl, they knew they couldn't contend with Qin Mu's group and had returned to the Western Lands to summon reinforcements.
Suddenly, the sound of gurgling water reached them. Qin Mu's eyes lit up, and he smiled. "We've reached the source of the Yong River."
They hadn't gone far when they saw a stream emerging from a cliff face, with the cliff dropping thousands of feet below. Xiong Xiyu and the others looked north and south, only to see that the Great Ruins, stretching from west to east, suddenly ended in a massive fault line—a natural chasm spanning an unknown distance from north to south!
This chasm split the Great Ruins in two. The western part of the Great Ruins was thousands of feet higher than the eastern part!
"What kind of force created this fault?" Xiong Xiyu murmured.
"A great earthquake."
Qin Mu's face showed no expression as he said, "An earthquake beyond imagination."
Xiong Xiyu shuddered.
Qin Mu leaped off the cliff, stepping on the air as he descended step by step. Xiong Xiyu quickly followed with her daughter. When they reached the halfway point of the cliff, they saw the stream merging with other falling waters to form a great waterfall. Further down, the waterfall carved out a large pool.
Water poured out from the pool's mouth, forming a river. The river wasn't wide at first—only two or three zhang across—but as it continued, other small streams converged, and the water grew swift and the river widened.
Xiong Xiyu looked back. Behind them, countless waterfalls cascaded down the cliff face of the chasm, their waters converging into a great river.
The Yong River!