The curtain of night descended on the busy day.
After the temperature cooled down, the village was filled with a strangely fresh and clean smell. It caused Tang Doudou to have the urge to take a walk at the place where they fished in the afternoon, but Jun Xin had warned her that it was best to stay inside tonight.
Tang Doudou could only return to the room with Qing Yu. Qing Yu urged her to go to bed early, but as she had already slept for so long, she didn’t feel drowsy at all.
Hence, she decided to pass that medicinal book to Qing Yu and have her read it to her.
Qing Yu flipped through a few pages before looking at her strangely. “Lady Doudou, this is a medicinal book, isn’t it?”
Tang Doudou rubbed her head. “Yeah, it’s a medicinal book.”
Qing Yu then asked, “Is Lady planning to study medicine?”
“Of course not.” Studying medicine wasn’t something someone could do just because they wanted to, natural aptitude was also very important. With how poor her comprehension strength was, she probably would never be able to learn anything other than how to cook well in this lifetime.
However, it was still good to learn a bit of this common knowledge just in case it came in handy one day.
When Qing Yu heard this, she thought that Tang Doudou was just doing this to pass the time, so she flipped to the first page and started reading. “Hysteria is exhibited with six symptoms: qi and yin deficiency, phlegm and qi stagnation, heaviness on chest, attack of chills, phlegm and static blood blocking orifices…”
Tang Doudou’s eyes narrowed as she listened to Qing Yu’s soft reading. This medicinal book was quite meaningful ah!
It was introducing these hard-to-treat conditions from the very start, so it was no wonder that it would also contain information about the Hoarfrost Poison.
After listening to several more cases, she discovered the problem. This book was a medicinal book, but it didn’t record the methods to diagnose and treat those diseases. In addition, all of the cases recorded were incurable diseases and poisons.
She thought about it a little, and then had Qing Yu go directly to the page about the Hoarfrost Poison. “Qing Yu, read this for me. Don’t skip even a single word.”
Qing Yu saw that she seemed pretty serious and glanced over the page. She then recalled what her master had said: If Lady Doudou brought up the Hoarfrost Poison, she should just pretend that she didn’t understand.
However, this thing was right in front of her, and she had already read a few pages of it. How was she supposed to pretend that she didn’t understand it?
“What’s wrong? Are you not feeling well?” When Tang Doudou noticed that Qing Yu was completely still, she waved her hand in front of her a few times. “Qing Yu?”
Only then did Qing Yu snap out of her daze and quickly reply, “I seemed to have overeaten.”
“Overeaten?” Tang Doudou looked at her flat stomach with skepticism. She didn’t see Qing Yu eat much earlier though?
Those words had just popped out of Qing Yu’s mouth before she had a chance to think about it, but now, her eyes whirled and she immediately came up with a plan. “My stomach seems upset. Lady Doudou, please wait for a while, I need to go…”
Before she even finished speaking, Tang Doudou waved her hand worriedly and said, “You should hurry and go!”
Qing Yu then ran out as if she had been granted amnesty. From the looks of it, she had been repressing it for a while.
Tang Doudou picked up the book Qing Yu left on the side. Aiy, she had better spend some time learning how to read. Otherwise she’d be helpless if no one was by her side.
The days of being a rice weevil were very carefree and happy, but joy and misfortune always came hand in hand. As of now, the Seven Great Saint Tribes were still eyeing her, so how could she allow herself to just enjoy Baili Yu’s protection without worry?
In addition, she had to keep the vows she made to Feng Wu!
For better or for worse, she was a martial arts Alliance Head. What kind of Alliance Head would she be if she couldn’t even read?
After making her decision, she immediately felt invigorated and waited for Qing Yu to come back and teach her to read. Previously, Xiao Dao had taught her to read while they were leaving Mist City. Although he hadn’t taught her much, she still remembered the simple words, so she flipped open the book and started identifying what she knew.
When Qing Yu returned with Baili Yu’s instructions, Tang Doudou didn’t ask her to read the book anymore and instead, asked her to teach her how to read.
Hence, Qing Yu pretended to have diarrhea once again and ran to ask Baili Yu what to do again.
By the time she came back, she found that Tang Doudou was already with Tian Weishi. They were chatting while Tian Weishi taught her how to read, and they seemed quite engrossed in the activity.
Heavens ah!
Qing Yu could only use diarrhea as an excuse once again. Tang Doudou walked up and pulled her to a stop out of concern. “It’s best if we have a doctor look at you. You might have eaten something bad.”
Qing Yu smiled bitterly. How could she have eaten anything bad?
However, due to Tang Doudou’s firm urging, Qing Yu obediently went to find the doctor that was traveling with them.
Tian Weishi only looked up after she left. He wanted to say something, but hesitated.
“What is it, Grandpa?” Tang Doudou asked.
Tian Weishi stroked his beard. “This Hoarfrost Poison… Is one of your friends poisoned with it?”
When Tang Doudou heard that, she knew that something was up. She had felt that something was strange back when Baili Yu said the Hoarfrost Poison was recorded in this book, but she couldn’t tell what exactly was the strange part.
“Yes yes! It’s a very important friend of mine. What is it?” She stared at Tian Weishi eagerly. “What does this say about it?”
Tian Weishi replied, “It said that the Hoarfrost Poison is a very rare slow-acting poison. A person can only be poisoned with it if they are soaked in it from the time they are born.”
“Soaked in it? What do you mean?” As expected, it wasn’t as simple as Baili Yu had put it! Tang Doudou pressed Tian Weishi impatiently to tell her more.
“It’s only mentioned briefly, but this old man’s guess is that the child is soaked in very concentrated toxic liquid so that the poison would slowly seep into the child’s entire body. But, to use this method on a newborn infant is way too cruel!” Tian Weishi’s tone was a little gloomy. Perhaps he had recalled his own children who had died so tragically.
Baili Yu. From the time he was little, he had been soaked in a poison bath and then that poison eventually became the Hoarfrost Poison.
Where were his parents at that time? Why would they let someone do something like that to him?
How was he, as a little child, able to endure being soaked in poison?
It was truly too horrible to imagine. Tang Doudou repressed the sadness in her heart. She felt like every time she found out a little more about Baili Yu, her heart would ache a lot. The reason he was so strong was because the things he experienced growing up were completely different from what normal people experienced, to the point that it was a little extreme.
“And then?” When Tang Doudou saw that Tian Weishi was also starting to daze out, she prompted him to continue reading.
“The infant that has been soaked in the poison will be in a half-dead state for seven days. After seven days, the infant can be woken with a special antidote and all the blood in the child’s body will turn black. Following that, by feeding the child a type of poison every day, the Hoarfrost Poison will form in the child’s body after three years.”
“That’s way too inhumane!” Tang Doudou felt a chill just listening to the description of the process. It was seriously way too terrifying! How was this a way of poisoning someone? It was clearly a way to use a person to make a poison!
In the past, when she was randomly browsing through forum posts, she read one that introduced the witchcraft of the Miao Tribe. A particular article that stuck vividly in her mind was the one about making a poison human.
The way it was done was also by selecting a very small child to use as a container for the poison. The child would be fed all sorts of witch poison and insect poison so that when the child grew up, he would be like a walking poison-producing machine – every drop of his blood, every chunk of his flesh would carry extremely toxic poison.
Was the characteristic of the Hoarfrost Poison like that of a poison human?
“It truly is cruel to use an infant to cultivate poison. How much children must have been sacrificed in the attempt to produce one success?” Although Shi Weishi was already old and gray-haired, his eyes were still bright with strength and spirit. It had been twenty years since he had paid any attention to the Jianghu, but he hadn’t expected for someone to have actually used such evil methods.
These people were using such inhumane and cruel methods, so much like the people that had killed his family back then!
When his thoughts reached this point, he subconsciously tightened his grip on the book. That hatred sealed away in his heart was about to surge out again.
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