CHAPTER 1339: CASE OF THE BOAR (2)

The two peerless jade physique users were known for their appetites and their abyssal, experimental standards when it came to food. Yang Qing and Feng Xin would eat almost anything as long as it was edible. They loved good food, yes, but they were far from picky. To them, eating was an adventure in itself. You wouldn’t know whether something was good for you until you tried it—that was the motto they lived by.

The instructors, like the calculating vipers they were, must have known that the easiest way to poison them without their knowledge was through food, and there was no better method than using the restaurant they regularly frequented, which was famed for its roasted boar, which they could never afford with their meager student spirit stone rations.

So it came as no surprise that the two of them jumped at the chance to acquire those crimson boars for the very low price of two low-grade spirit stones.

Then there was the issue of the owner selling them those crimson boars despite knowing they were defective. In truth, that alone should have been the clear sign that something was off, because there was no way a restaurant owner within the Order’s grounds would dare procure ingredients that were even remotely substandard. The Order maintained a hands-off approach toward the businesses operating within its grounds, with it handing out only a few requirements: conduct your trade fairly, sell with integrity, and be accommodating in your prices.

Because of that, no restaurant there would risk procuring defective crimson boars, let alone dare to offer such products to students from the Order, no matter how persuasive those students were. The risk was simply too great if anything went wrong. Yet this restaurant owner not only agreed to sell the so-called defective crimson boars, but he also sold eight of them.

Such a perfect number, that was. Perfect for an even split. What were the odds he happened to have eight defective boars?

He and Feng Xin were not sharers, so eight made the division easy, and the quantity was generous enough to please them both. They would have preferred twelve, but if they had to settle, eight wasn’t a bad number either.

The only way that restaurant owner would have dared sell them those boars was if he had been encouraged

to do so.

Yang Qing should have seen it, but how could he, when four finely roasted crimson boars dripping with juice and flavor filled his sights?

Now, as a seasoned judge, looking back, he could see that the signs had been there all along. And all he found himself wondering now were two things. First, when would he ever stumble upon such a sweet deal again? Eight crimson boars for two low-grade spirit stones—poisoned or not—was still a deal he would jump at in a heartbeat, despite the three days of unconsciousness from last time.

And second, what kind of poison had the instructors used that was potent enough to affect both him and Feng Xin?

For a poison to render them unconscious for three days, when others barely had effects that lasted a few minutes on them, was a true testament to its strength. Because of their physiques, he and Feng Xin handled poison better than most, and not only that, among peerless jade physique users, their immunity ranked on the higher end, given how recklessly they lived, eating anything and everything.

Even without the instructors’ interference, Yang Qing and Feng Xin often consumed poisonous ingredients said to have flavors worth dying for.

As such, given the lives they led, their tolerance was far higher than most, and yet they were still knocked out for three days.

When he finally gets over his fear of them, which he figures will probably be when he reaches the peak stage of the domain realm, Yang Qing intends to question the instructors about what they used on those boars, if only so he can have something to brag about.

After he and Feng Xin came to, and with Yang Qing already suspecting the instructors’ involvement, they both (mostly Yang Qing) went around bragging about it on how they had immunity even against corpse poison from a dead true dragon, which they decided would be the source of the poison used by the instructors on those crimson boars.

Shameless as that statement was, intentionally so given that it was Yang Qing’s idea and he could never resist a chance to brag even if it meant embellishing or exaggerating, the irony was that it hadn’t been far from the truth. The boars had indeed been poisoned, just as Yang Qing had suspected, and the poison had indeed come from a dragon. However, it wasn’t from a true dragon, but a flood dragon, and the poison wasn’t corpse poison, but a naturally formed one from a living, breathing flood dragon.

Flood dragons were apex creatures when it came to the potency of their venom. Few ever came close, and part of how they were able to defeat opponents above their realm, aside from the strength of their bodies and natural abilities, was their venom.

Not all flood dragons were venomous, but those that were, possessed the most potent venom when compared to others. Even though only a few drops, tempered down, had been used on Yang Qing and Feng Xin, it was a miraculous testament of them and their physiques that all they suffered from consuming it was passing out for three days. It was even more astounding when one considered that they had only been at the early stage of the foundation establishment realm when they were poisoned, and that the venom drop had come from a flood dragon in the palace realm.

Those few drops were enough to kill all palace realm experts, yet the two survived it, and as mere foundation establishment experts at that.

...

Yang Qing waited for almost half an hour before Bolin finally opened his eyes, having at last stabilized his realm.

Bolin instantly cupped his fists in gratitude for many things as he bowed his head to him. He didn’t need to say a word; the look in his eyes and his gesture were more than enough to tell Yang Qing what it was for.

"Care for a drink?" Yang Qing asked with a smile, shaking a jar of wine in his hands.

Smiling, Bolin joyously nodded. "Of course."

Yang Qing poured for both of them and raised his cup in a toast to Bolin’s success in reaching the peak stage of the core formation realm. Bolin tried to play it cool, but Yang Qing, ever attentive, could tell he was ecstatic about the breakthrough.

"You can start cultivating here. I think its conditions are better suited for you. However, you’ll still need to visit the Beast Tamer Hall from time to time for guidance. You should cultivate here for the most part," Yang Qing said suddenly after they had shared a few drinks.

"Is that okay?" Bolin asked.

"I don’t see why not," said Yang Qing with a leisurely smile. "It’s not like there aren’t others here," he added, glancing at the insects and birds flying about. "And I have the space. Besides, if you stay at the Beast Tamer Hall, given your current state, some alchemist is liable to try and poach you. I can’t have that."

Bolin flinched slightly at the mention of the alchemists. During his first weeks at the Order, he had been kidnapped by a few of them, only to be returned when they saw the message Yang Qing had left on his back when they first met. Since then, he had rarely been able to relax whenever he was at the hall’s grounds.

Not one for many words, he bowed and said, "Thank you."

"No problem," said Yang Qing.

"How potent is your poison?" he suddenly asked, his eyes glimmering with excitement.

"I am not sure," said Bolin as he looked puzzledly at Yang Qing, confused by the excitement he was seeing in him. Chalking it up to more of the things he didn’t understand about human behavior, Bolin shrugged it off as he said, "It should be at least four times more potent than it was previously," he added with a glimmer of pride in his eyes as he gazed at his clenched fist coursing with newfound strength.

He felt confident that if he were to return to the green fog region, with the amount of strength he had, he was more than powerful enough to be counted amongst the false kings. He couldn’t help but sigh when he thought of his friend. "Li Lun, I hope you’re keeping well."

His nostalgic thoughts were abruptly cut short by Yang Qing’s next question.

"Care to try it on me?" Yang Qing said gingerly as he pulled back his sleeves and stretched his hands toward him like he was waiting to receive an acupuncture jab. "And make sure it’s your most potent one," he quickly added.

With widened eyes filled with confusion and disbelief, a startled huh escaped Bolin’s lips. "Boss, I know you are more powerful than me, but—"

Just as Bolin was trying to dissuade him, Yang Qing cut him off."I survived the corpse poison of a dragon. Strong as your poison may be, it’s nowhere near that level. Stop worrying and try it... unless, of course, you think yours surpasses a dragon’s?" he added with a taunting grin, leaving Bolin staring back at him in awkward disbelief.