Zhen Jin looked around, seeing that everyone's emotions had stabilized, and the light of hope flickered in their eyes as he relaxed slightly.
Next, he ordered Huang Zao to direct the crowd to begin rebuilding the camp, simultaneously establishing a cordon and laying defensive traps.
Inside the tent, Zhen Jin, Cang Xu, Zi Di, and Lan Zao gathered once again.
Cang Xu spoke first, confessing his mistake in shame: "This is all my fault! I did not anticipate that the goats' flesh carried poison, and my reason was blinded by the immediate gains. When I found the flock to be too large, I should have realized something was amiss and guarded against the potential risks that might exist!"
Zhen Jin shook his head slightly, consoling him: "This island is perilous and bizarre, and we all want to acquire more food. This is not your fault alone, Master Cang Xu. As the leader, I am even more to blame. However, dwelling on these mistakes now is of no value. Let us think carefully about how we can resolve this difficult problem."
Cang Xu sighed and stated his perspective: "Everyone is now afflicted with the cold poison, and this cold poison is quite peculiar. On the surface, as long as we leave this place by a certain distance, the cold poison will flare up. But in truth, I believe this is due to the temperature."
"Being close to the snowy peak here, the temperature is lower, and the cold poison does not flare up. After we turn away from the snowy peak, the farther we walk, the higher the temperature rises. Once a certain threshold is reached, the cold poison within our bodies is triggered."
"There is the most direct evidence for this view, and that is the wool leather garments! When we took off our wool leather garments, our body temperatures dropped rapidly, and the symptoms of the cold poison were alleviated significantly as a result."
"The above is everything I know about the cold poison."
After Cang Xu finished speaking, his gaze turned toward Zi Di.
Not only he, but Zhen Jin and Lan Zao also looked at Zi Di.
In fact, everyone knew that since the problem involved venom, Zi Di, as an apothecary, had the most right to speak.
Ever since Zi Di recovered her mobility, she had begun testing potions using mutton, her own blood, and so forth.
At this moment, holding a glass test tube in her hand, she was carefully pouring a kind of granule into it.
The test tube originally held a liquid resembling fresh blood, but after the granules melted into it, it suddenly began to bubble profusely, just like boiling water.
Finally, with a soft pop, the entire test tube shattered directly.
The bright red liquid inside spilled onto the carpet inside the tent.
Zi Di paid no attention to this liquid; she leaned down, widening her brilliant purple eyes, and carefully used her fingers to pick out the small granules from the carpet.
After a dozen breaths, she had collected quite a few granules, gathering them in the palm of her hand.
She examined these small granules closely.
Immediately, she keenly discovered that various cracks had appeared on these small granules, and these cracks were not transparent, simple fractures, but carried a grayish-cyan hue.
Seeing this, Zi Di's eyes brightened: "Everyone, I think I have found the true cause."
"Oh? What kind of cold poison is it?" Zhen Jin asked.
Zi Di, however, shook her head slightly: "In fact, the goat meat does not have any cold poison. Before consuming the mutton, for safety's sake, I had already tested it using multiple methods. The result was without error; the mutton is indeed non-toxic."
The others were puzzled: "Then what is wrong with us? Could it be something else that poisoned us?"
Zi Di shook her head once more: "It is this very goat meat that caused the problem."
The confusion on the faces of Zhen Jin and Lan Zao deepened.
Yet a flash of insight struck Cang Xu's mind, and he blurted out: "Could it be a magic imbalance?"
"That's right, it is precisely this reason." Zi Di sighed, then explained in detail.
"Being close to the snowy peak here, the concentration of the frost element in the surrounding environment is very high."
"The goat flocks live and breed here, and the frost element in the air permeates their bodies. If these goats were natural creations, they would be able to coordinate the magic within their bodies and accumulate orderly magic. When this stable magic accumulates more and more, it will undergo a qualitative change and condense to form magic crystals."
"However, just as we guessed before, these goat flocks are artificial creations. Although their flesh and blood structure is stable, they do not possess the inherent function of magic coordination. They have always been protected by a magic-restricted environment."
"The frost element within the goats cannot be perfectly and naturally digested and absorbed; although it can be transformed into magic, this magic is extremely chaotic and mutually contradictory. Not only is it unable to form magic crystals, but it also possesses a characteristic: when the temperature is low, it is relatively stable, lying dormant quietly within the body. When the temperature rises to a certain degree, it erupts fiercely, forming symptoms resembling cold poison."
"I previously thought I had contracted the cold poison, so I took an antidote primarily made of fire element materials. As a result, the fire-attribute magic in the potion further stimulated the ice-attribute magic instead. Under the clash of the two, it caused me to pass out on the spot."
Zi Di paused, and continued: "Precisely because of this, after we took off our wool leather garments, our body temperatures dropped rapidly, causing the ice-attribute magic to tend back toward stability and introspection, which is why our condition improved rapidly."
"So that's how it is." Hearing this analysis, everyone could not help but suddenly understand.
In fact, this kind of situation is very common in the cultivation of transcendent beings.
For example, when mages meditate, errors occur; the ice element fails to successfully transform into mana, and after eroding the entire body, it results in a cold poison affliction or even the whole body being frozen.
Battle Qi practitioners, such as martial artists, knights, swordsmen, and so forth, who eat magical beast meat or take potions yet cannot digest the massive magic within themselves, will also suffer a backlash.
This phenomenon is even more common in nature, not just in cultivating individuals.
Murlocs living in the sea for long periods will experience dry skin, cracking, and listless spirits if they enter the desert during the day. This is because the desert during the day is filled with fire elements, light elements, and so on. Submerged in such an environment, the murlocs inevitably absorb the light and fire elements. Although these elements are not actively absorbed, mana forms on the surface layer of their skin. This mana conflicts with the water-element mana constructed within the murlocs' bodies, causing symptoms of dry, cracked skin and listlessness.
In the north, a lush parasol tree suddenly encounters a blizzard. After the blizzard, all the leaves of the parasol tree fall off, leaving only bare branches, and frostbite occurs in many places. This is the sudden surge of the frost element causing magic erosion.
Correspondingly, there are also many methods in nature to counter magic erosion.
For instance, the green pines in the snow can maintain the stability of their own wood-element magic in an environment abundant in frost elements.
Or take rhinoceroses on the great plains, for example: to resist the blazing sun, they often wallow in mud, constructing a mud armor to withstand the scorching sun while also preventing mosquito bites. This constructs a layer of earth-element magic to replace their own skin, waging a war of attrition and defending against magic erosion from the outside world.
"Wait, following Lord Zi Di's explanation, aren't all these muttons good things? On the surface, they appear to be ordinary beast meat, but they actually contain magic, which counts as magical beast meat. Magical beast meat is a very expensive cultivation resource!" As a grassroots Bronze-level elite, Lan Zao was very sensitive to cultivation resources and quickly called out in a low voice.
Indeed, during the process of Battle Qi cultivation, the demand for the flesh and blood of magical beasts is quite large.
For example, those who cultivate fire Battle Qi usually need to eat fire-attribute magical beast meat.
On the one hand, magical beast meat is rich in nutrients, and long-term consumption will enhance the practitioner's own foundation of life.
On the other hand, magical beast meat contains fire-attribute magic. After a Battle Qi practitioner eats the magical beast meat, the magic in the food also permeates the practitioner's body. If left unmanaged, these foreign energies will pose a hazard. However, when the practitioner circulates the fire-style Battle Qi Formula, they can rapidly absorb and transform this magic, not only eliminating the hidden danger, but more importantly, allowing their own Battle Qi to grow.
Hearing Lan Zao's words, Cang Xu nodded slightly in agreement: "According to what you said, this possibility does indeed exist."
"The difference between magical beast meat and ordinary meat lies in whether or not it contains magic."
"It's just that compared to normal magical beast meat, the magic contained in this mutton is rather special. When the temperature is very low, the magic is quite restrained, lurking deep within the body and remaining relatively stable. When the temperature rises to a certain degree, the magic will display its chaotic essence, and the erupting magic will pose a threat to the life of the consumer."
"If a certain ice-style Battle Qi Formula is quite excellent, capable of withstanding and transforming away this ice-style magic, then to those people, these goat meats are valuable magical beast meat."
"It's just that... those people probably aren't many." Zhen Jin wore a thoughtful expression.
A Battle Qi Formula is a method that uses Battle Qi as a form to construct the coordination, balance, and circulation of the magic within one's own body.
There are many Battle Qi Formulas, and their quality varies unevenly.
An excellent Battle Qi Formula requires not only a creator of transcendent talent, but also generations of people to refine it. The number of top-tier, excellent Battle Qi Formulas that occupy the peak of the tower and are publicly recognized is extremely small, countable on the fingers of two hands. For example, the Saint Brilliance Battle Qi practiced by the Saint Brilliance Great Emperor, the Arctic Blizzard Battle Qi of the Ice Howl Duke, and the Blazing Flame Battle Qi of the Curved Sun Sword Saint.
The more excellent a Battle Qi Formula is, the more efficiently it can absorb and transform the magic in magical beast meat.
Under normal circumstances, the magic in magical beast meat is relatively balanced and stable, and after processing, the rate at which it dissipates is not fast. This magic is easily perceived, absorbed, and transformed.
Yet goat meat is clearly not a normal case.
The goats themselves are not natural products. The abundance of magic contained within their bodies far exceeds their life tier. The structure within the goat flock is also very chaotic; the vast majority are ordinary beasts, with only a few being Bronze-level lives.
Delving deeper, once the magic in the goat meat erupts, it can render Bronze-level beings like Lan Zao and Huang Zao unable to move. Yet when they are dormant and restrained, neither Zhen Jin, Lan Zao, nor Zi Di and the others can sense them.
These two characteristics of the magic structure each raise the requirements for ice-style Battle Qi by a huge margin.
Before you continue