CHAPTER 1340: TAKING A PAGE FROM THE MASTERS (1)

Bolin looked at Yang Qing a few times with a befuddled expression before letting out a sigh of defeat. It was plainly obvious from his master’s excited face that there was nothing he could do or say to dissuade him from his request. He’d never thought he’d see someone so eager to get poisoned, but ever since he set foot in the Order, all his long-established ideas of what was common sense were continuously being overwritten with every second he was here.

Ever since he arrived, there had not been one normal thing he had come across. Maybe that was why he wasn’t spending too many brain cells trying to convince Yang Qing against his plea. Brain cells simply didn’t work here, and neither did common sense.

Might as well throw everything to the wind and not think too deeply about it, was now his new life’s creed, because if he analyzed everything here... Bolin couldn’t help but smile wryly as he looked up above him. He didn’t see it, but he could feel it. Right above him was a being that would send not only their zone but probably the entire Green Fog Region into an uproar.

That caiman would probably wet himself even more if he were here,

thought Bolin, chuckling inwardly at the image while at the same time sighing at the surrealness of it all. His heart was still pounding madly from being in such close proximity to that being, but the fact that he could hold a conversation with Yang Qing, or even just remain conscious, was proof that his worldview was quickly changing, and his tactic of not thinking too much into things was bearing fruit where his sanity and acclimatization to his new surroundings were concerned.

"Very well," Bolin lightly said as he brought his palms together. The rainbow colors on his back instantly melted away like they were nothing more than paint being washed off by water, leaving behind a brackish green coat on his skin. He looked no different from an ordinary toad that had inhabited a swamp long enough for its muck to layer into his skin.

But anyone who made that assumption would do so at their own peril.

"Here it comes," Bolin solemnly warned. Yang Qing, the recipient of said warning, was grinning excitedly as he waved for Bolin to hurry things along. Thankfully, Bolin had entered a state he now called mind down, which was exactly as it sounded: common sense does not apply here, abandon it. Thinking does not apply here; abandon it. Abnormal is the normal.

A state of inner peace and emptiness washed over him, which strangely pushed his abilities to an even greater peak. Back in the Green Fog Region, his way of doing things had been to charge his lethal poison with murderous intent to make it more potent. The more riled up he was, the stronger his poison became, especially when he was afraid and desperate to preserve his life—a situation he often found himself in within that region.

But now, to his dismay, he discovered that his poison was even more potent in this strange, calm state he had induced with mind down. Yes, his breakthrough might have played a part, but Bolin could subtly tell that this state also contributed to it. He might not have executed it while agitated, yet he knew intuitively that its potency would have been lower.

Bearing the thought that this might be the most lethal poison he had ever produced in his life, instead of fearing the repercussions, Bolin lost himself in the exhilaration of it. He was a spirit beast skilled in poisoning, and poisoning was what he was good at, and what he had done his entire life in the Green Fog Region. Was it necessary? Most definitely, because if he hadn’t, he would have become another spirit beast’s meal and cultivation plan. Did he enjoy it? The answer was also, most definitely, he did.

It was only now, as he released the toxins in his body and the euphoria of it flooded him like a dam breaking, that he realized how much he had missed it.

The question of what if I successfully poisoned him remained, but the emotion behind it had shifted. Where before he had been worried, now he was excited to find out. What if he poisoned Yang Qing?

Seems like he’s really gotten into it, thought Yang Qing as he saw the savage, unrestrained grin on Bolin’s face while he released the complete concoction of his poison from his skin, his nose, and his mouth.

From the name rainbow mist toad, one who had never encountered such a creature might assume that rainbow mist toads produced a rainbow-colored mist from their bodies. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The most dangerous, or even the most feared, poisons were not dreaded solely because of their effects. Yes, their effects played a major part in that classification, but other factors were also considered, such as their level of detection. The truly feared poisons were those that could not be detected easily, especially by the senses, and the even more fearsome ones were those that could deceive even poison detection techniques.

Traceless and undetectable were among the marks of a fearsome poison, and for a creature touted to possess a cocktail of extremely virulent toxins, part of that reputation came from the effects themselves, while the other part came from its ability to evade the senses. It didn’t just fool the nose, eyes, or tongue—it even deceived a cultivator’s spiritual senses. One of its strains was built exactly for that purpose, as it ’infected’ spiritual perception to conceal the rainbow mist toad’s presence and the toxins it produced.

It worked similarly to the obfuscation abilities of the water jade turtles, though it was still far from Senior Bu Zhou’s level. Bolin had a long way to go before he could even be remotely compared to that. At his current stage, he could fool the senses of those in the core formation level and below, and if he encountered a quasi palace realm expert with an average or below-average foundation, his poisonous cloaking toxin could deceive them, too. However, he would be hard-pressed to fool someone like Mao Yunru, who, though still in the core formation realm, could catch traces of him thanks to the powerful soul and abilities granted by her natural physique.

Even Yang Qing and Feng Xin would have been able to nullify that toxin’s obfuscating abilities back when they were still in the core formation realm, to say nothing of now, when Yang Qing was a whole realm higher than Bolin. To anyone at the core formation realm without the skills to see through his abilities, Bolin would appear to be simply sitting there with no outward change. But what Yang Qing saw was an aurora curtain of microscopic lights in different colors floating around Bolin like a calm sea flowing forward toward him, aiming to submerge him entirely in its embrace.

Yang Qing looked around, his gaze shining brilliantly with interest as he felt like he was seated in a vast cosmos surrounded by clusters of millions of multicolored stars.

"Now to see what they taste like," he said eagerly as he gently swirled his finger, as though stirring the air around him. With that motion, a swirling whirlpool formed, drawing in that entire cosmos and funneling it down toward his mouth.