Han Yunxi’s group had crafted a giant iron cage and lowered it into an underground room so that the bars were touching the walls. It wouldn’t hold an undying fellow like Bai Yanqing for long, but for now it kept him in check. They hadn’t seen what he’d been reduced to by Su Xiaoyu until they took him out.
Currently, they were standing outside the cage, looking at the unconscious man inside. According to Su Xiaoyu, she’d tortured him until he fainted. Although they couldn’t discovered anything specific about his bloodstains, they knew that Bai Yanqing was all but crippled.
Gu Qishao knelt by his side and lifted his chin to check. Like Su Xiaoyu said, he had no teeth left. He glanced at the group and asked, “How long will it take for his teeth to grow back?”
“With his recovery rate, not too long,” Han Yunxi had one hand on her hip and the other over her stomach. More and more, she looked like a mother.
“Princess, we only have one set of the nine toxic teardrops. Let’s be prudent with them and take a sample of his blood first to raise the thorny thistles, all right?” Gu Beiyue asked.
“That’s an idea!” Han Yunxi exclaimed.
Gu Beiyue quickly brought over a small bowl and had Gu Qishao take some blood samples. While Gu Qishao stood gard in the cage, Han Yunxi and Gu Beiyue quickly began their experiments. As for Long Feiye, he had no time to watch the show and went to deal with his own business. After Baili Yuanlong got news that Bai Yanqing was taken care of, he had urged His Highness to hurry back to the army. Truthfully speaking, Long Feiye couldn’t afford to stay away for long. After reading the general’s letter, he silently burned it up without telling Han Yunxi.
After all, Gu Beiyue wasn’t familiar with poisons while Gu Qishao was busy standing guard. Without Han Yunxi here, the doctor would be in a lot of trouble. No matter what, he had to wait until they finished research on Bai Yanqing and the nine toxic teardrops before leaving this place.
A few days later, Han Yunxi and Gu Beiyue did as Gu Qishao suggested and used Bai Yanqing’s blood to raise the Blood Rattan seeds. As it was a carnivorous plant, it could sprout just from absorbing nutrients from flesh and blood. Within one hour, it would grow to incredible lengths. Meanwhile, the seeds made from Gu Qishao’s blood could even sprout in an instant.
For the sake of differentiating between the plants, Han Yunxi called the vines grown from Gu Qishao’s blood Qi Blood Rattan and Bai Yanqing’s blood Bai Blood Rattan. After the Bai Blood Rattan reached maturity, they took its seeds and planted it into dirt and animal corpses. They discovered that these vines too, could sprout instantaneously. The only difference was that Bai Blood Rattans were extremely poisonous!
Now Han Yunxi’s group was even more convinced that their “plant essence extract” theory was right. Taking advantage of Bai Yanqing’s unconscious state, they went to experiment on the man in person by planting Bai Blood Rattan into his flesh. If they also grew into undying vines immune to poisons, then it would prove that Gu Qishao and Bai Yanqing shared similar constitutions. Perhaps the method to dispel Poison Gu humans’ immortality could work on Gu Qishao, too.
Gu Qishao personally planted a seed into Bai Yanqing’s wrist. Han Yunxi, Long Feiye, and Gu Beiyue all stood outside to watch in silence.
What would happen?
Gu Qishao was the most nervous one of all, but he still chuckled carelessly as he inserted the seed. The rest stared at Bai Yanqing’s wrist, but there was still no reaction after some time had passed.
“How can this be?” Han Yunxi was surprised.
The Bai Blood Rattan would sprout in dirt and animal corpses, so it shouldn’t have no reaction to Bai Yanqing himself!
“This…why?” Gu Beiyue was surprised as well.
But Gu Qishao only laughed out loud. He showed the seed still hidden in his palm and crowed, “It’s because I haven’t planted anything yet!”
“Gu Qishao!” Han Yunxi huffed and nearly went to kick him. Gu Beiyue was more mild-tempered and only smiled while shaking his head helplessly.
“Poison lass, don’t be so nervous. At most I’ll just age a little slower and marry your daughter in the future!” Gu Qishao chuckled.
“You’re dreaming!”
“You’re courting death!”
It was obvious that Han Yunxi had said the first line while Long Feiye said the second. Before Gu Qishao could retort, Gu Beiyue shouted, “Qishao, stop fooling around. Hurry and plant it, it’ll be troublesome if Bai Yanqing wakes up.”
A flash of pain flitted through Gu Beiyue’s eyes as he looked at Gu Qishao’s smile. Gu Qishao’s jokes used to hide his true words, but now they were merely lies. How could he ever marry the princess’s daughter? It was still unknown whether he could survive past this trial. For something purported to be “undying,” his time was already running out.
Finally, Gu Qishao planted the Bai Blood Rattan seed into Bai Yanqing’s wrist. As soon as it touched the flesh, it sprouted into a vine that towered into the air. There was little difference between this vine and Gu Qishao’s, aside from the fact that it was poisonous!
Han Yunxi was thrilled. “Qishao, quick!”
Gu Qishao immediately slashed through the vine with his sword, only to discover it was impervious to his blade. Now Gu Qishao was excited as well. “Fire, bring me fire, quick!” he cried.
Long Feiye tossed him a torch and Gu Qishao proceeded to burn the vine. To their delight, it didn’t destroy the plant.
“It’s the same!” Gu Qishao cried in joy.
“Your Highness, you try!” Gu Beiyue urged next.
Gu Qishao got out of the way as Long Feiye unleashed his Lustbite energy and hacked down with his sword, only to see…only to see the vine sliced through.
The results left the group of four extremely moved. Vines suddenly flew out from Gu Qishao’s right sleeve to head for Long Feiye. Understanding his intentions, he faced them with Lustbite energy. As Han Yunxi and Gu Beiyue both watched tensely, Long Feiye’s sword hacked Gu Qishao’s vines to pieces.
Silence greeted the aftermath. Gu Qishao looked at Long Feiye in disbelief, a little dumbfounded. At last he said, “Long Feiye, you’re really capable of killing me!”
Han Yunxi was almost too happy to speak. She tugged at Long Feiye and exclaimed, “Our guesses were right! They’re right! There’s no such thing as an undying body! They simply have greater endurance and recovery rates than normal humans. It’s not impossible for the Lustbite energy to kill Poison Gu humans!”
“Yes! Senior Han Chen was right. There are stronger powers than the Lustbite energy on the Mysterious Continent also capable of killing off Poison Gu humans and Qishao!” Gu Beiyue was excited. “Our theory has to be correct! Bai Yanqing’s undying body follows the same principle as Qishao’s! We’ll definitely find a way to cure Gu Qishao’s body! For sure!”
Han Yunxi grinned. “Gu Qishao, we’ll create the antidote first. If a day comes that Qishao’s body shows abnormalities that we can’t treat, he just has to take the antidote and turn back to a normal human. If nothing goes wrong, you can choose to grow old with us or stay as Lil Thing’s companion. That’s your choice.”
Gu Qishao subconsciously glanced at Gu Beiyue, who looked back. Poison lass had thought of everything for him, but she had no idea that his body was already showing abnormalities. Still, he put on a fit of narcissism and said loudly, “Someone as loyal as me will definitely want to turn old with the rest of you!”
As he spoke, he walked towards Long Feiye and rested a hand on his shoulder. “Long Feiye, how about having your daughter acknowledge me as her godfather one day? That’ll make up for me being unable to marry her. How’s it sound?”
Long Feiye didn’t speak, but suddenly grabbed Gu Qishao’s other hand and snuck his fingers up the sleeve. To Han Yunxi and Gu Beiyue, it only looked like Long Feiye was trying to wrench himself free, but his actions caused Gu Qishao to freeze. That was because Long Feiye had touched the abnormal state of his arm.
Long Feiye soon released Gu Qishao and only regarded him with a cold look. As if threatened, Gu Qishao shut up. As it was common for Long Feiye to silence Gu Qishao with a single look, neither Han Yunxi nor Gu Beiyue thought much of it.
Gu Beiyue said, “Princess, why don’t we take some Poison Gu blood for use late and cure Bai Yanqing’s poison now?”
Han Yunxi had already combined the nine toxic teardrops into a small bottle. She also successfully analyzed each of their poison properties and ingredients to compare with the remaining Perplexing Butterfly Illusion in her hands. After recording down all their types and quantities, she handed the record to Gu Beiyue. The nine toxic teardrops were potent poisons on their own, but together their toxicity weakened. It couldn’t even dissolve simple wood and plants, to say nothing of a human body. Han Yunxi knew they were still capable of dissolving something, but she didn’t know what.
If their theory on the plant essence extract was true, then these teardrops were probably targeting that vey essence in Bai Yanqing’s body. Of course, this was only a guess and they needed to test it. They wanted to see how the nine toxic teadops would affect Bai Yanqing’s Poison Gu body and whether his constitution and blood would change afterwards. Moreover, they had to destroy his immortality, or else it’d be impossible to trap him.
Gu Qishao immediately took some of Bai Yanqing’s blood, then got the bottle of combined toxic teardrops from Han Yunxi. He looked at the crowd, who nodded back at him, then poured the liquid down Bai Yanqing’s throat. Gu Beiyue hastened to take Bai Yanqing’s pulse.
“His pulse is getting weaker!” Gu Beiyue announced.
Han Yunxi couldn’t help it and went to take his pulse as well. Like Gu Beiyue said, Bai Yanqing’s heartrate was growing weaker. His body even seem to grow exhausted and show signs of heading towards death.
“He won’t die, right?” Han Yunxi was worried.
“His body is getting weaker. Check his breathing! “Gu Beiyue was a little anxious.
Gu Qishao placed a finger under Bai Yanqing’s nose and turned alarmed. “His breathing’s very weak. His internal organs couldn’t have rotted away, right?”
“No, it’s normal exhaustion,” Gu Beiyue was certain. The poison teardrops were an antidote capable of removing an undying body’s inherent traits. It couldn’t kill Bai Yanqing!
What’s going on? Bai Yanqing’s not going to die just like this, right?
