CHAPTER 1338: CASE OF THE BOAR (1)

When he reached the green flame tree, Yang Qing glanced backward and, with a casual wave, one of the futons from the terrace was pulled over by some formless power and settled gently behind his legs as he sat down. His attention then returned to what had brought him there and created that soft pop sound.

The cocoon that had been covering Bolin’s body was separating from him like an amniotic sac as it dissolved into his body, filling him with all the energy and spiritual qi it had gathered, though a good portion of it came from Yang Qing when he cast the spell.

His outer appearance in terms of size hadn’t changed much, but the rainbow complexion that colored his skin had grown more prominent, especially the green portion, which had looked more brackish than green when Bolin had been brought back by Feng Xin.

Yang Qing nodded in satisfaction as he sensed the energy swirling within Bolin. He had finally achieved perfect equilibrium in his abilities. The reason rainbow mist toads were so sought after wasn’t just because of the potency of their venom or the fact that they had different strains of it, but because those spirit beasts represented the perfect blend between poison and medicine.

It wasn’t often said that medicine could become poison at a certain threshold, and poison could serve as medicine if used in the right way and proportion. The rainbow mist toad was the living embodiment of that truth. It was one of the most highly venomous spirit beasts, yet it also contained the cure to countless poisons. While it didn’t possess a universal cure for every venom, it could neutralize toxins and venoms whose fatality scale ranged between 5 and 6.5.

By studying their bodies, one could easily uncover countless ways to develop antivenoms—either by examining the toxins they produced or the antivenoms that formed within them. And there was no better specimen for such a study than a rainbow mist toad that had achieved perfect balance between the two, which was what Bolin had now become.

When he first arrived, he had been more toxin than cure, which ironically meant the potency of his venoms had to be reduced, or he would have perished by his own poison. But now, with the balance he had attained, Yang Qing had no doubt that a single cocktail of venom from one of Bolin’s stripes was enough to kill a peak-stage core formation expert in five minutes or less. If he chose to use the rainbow mist cocktail, which involved combining the venom strains from all his stripes, then such an expert would die within ten seconds. Though, of course, that didn’t apply to every peak-stage core formation expert.

Cultivators like Yang Qing (those with a peerless jade physique) possessed natural immunity to countless venoms. It was often said that a peerless jade physique user was immune to over ten thousand poisons. Whether that number was true or not remained unconfirmed, but one fact was certain: peerless jade physique users were among the hardest individuals to poison. This was even more so for Yang Qing, whose yin-yang jade nature bones physique granted him an even greater immunity, along with a potent restraining effect against poisons.

He was a poison cultivator’s worst nightmare. He couldn’t help but chuckle as a memory from his institute days surfaced. The Institute, being the hellish chamber that it was, and the instructors being its viceroys, naturally never missed a chance to test the immunity of those with a peerless jade physique. They used poison on them with great relish, feeding them potions, pills, and sometimes even poisoned dishes. Some tests were done with the students’ knowledge, while others were carried out in secret, as the instructors wanted to see if the immunity differed under passive and active states.

They never admitted to it, and Yang Qing had been far too terrified of them to ask (and still was). Even without their confession, he was a thousand percent certain they had done something to the crimson boars that he and Feng Xin had bought for dirt-cheap prices from one of the restaurants that had been throwing them away out of fear they were unfit for consumption.

Unfit for consumption by others translated to a grand feast for the two peerless jade physique users. Yang Qing and Feng Xin had been beside themselves with joy when the restaurant owner said that, and when he sold them eight crimson boars for a measly two low-grade spirit stones—payment they insisted on giving, as the owner neither wanted to sell nor accept any spirit stones for them.

Unfortunately for him, he was dealing with two highly motivated gluttons who would have done anything to get their hands on those crimson boars.

Yang Qing and Feng Xin managed to get the deal over the line. At the time, they didn’t believe those crimson boars would cause them any problems despite the owner’s repeated warnings. After all, they were two peerless jade physique users who had survived countless poisoning attempts from the instructors. In the span of a week, they were usually poisoned about twenty times, and the most severe reaction either of them had ever experienced was a bloated stomach here and there, mild thirst, or increased hunger (though they were never quite sure if that last one was from the poison or just their appetite).

Given what they had endured, they weren’t too concerned about eight crimson boars deemed unfit for consumption. In their eyes, those were eight perfectly primed boars, and they weren’t about to waste them. They showed so much confidence, only to later find themselves unconscious for three days after eating them.

At the time, his naive self hadn’t thought much of it. He simply assumed those boars might have undergone some mutation or contained potent energy that caused them to pass out. The idea that those boars had been deliberately poisoned never once crossed his mind. It was only after he had become familiar with the instructors’ methods that the obvious signs he had once ignored became clear to him.