"Those puppets feared neither blades nor poison. Ordinary attacks were completely useless. To deal with them, we had to find an antidote for the Corpse Secret Art or identify the key to controlling the puppets."
Elder Li frowned. "But we can't even enter the Netherworld Cult's Mountain Gate. Where are we supposed to find clues about an antidote?"
Lin Taichu rose and walked to the table. He took a small porcelain bottle from a drawer, containing several drops of dark red liquid.
"When I fought Xuanjizi last time, I scratched his skin with a Silver Needle and took some of his blood. There must be traces of the Netherworld Cult's forbidden arts in it. I'll start there. Maybe I can find a way to counter it."
Elder Li's eyes lit up. "Will that work? Xuanjizi is already a puppet. Can his blood still provide clues?"
"We'll treat a dead horse as if it were alive. It's better than waiting helplessly for death." Lin Taichu set the porcelain bottle on the table and took out Silver Needles and several empty bowls. "I'll first analyze the blood's composition and see whether there are any unusual medicinal residues or signs of alteration."
Over the following days, Lin Taichu shut himself in the pharmacy and barely stepped outside. He first dripped the blood onto white paper, repeatedly probing it with a Silver Needle and observing its reactions.
Normal blood would gradually clot when exposed to air, but Xuanjizi's blood remained liquid even after half an hour. Its color had only darkened slightly.
"Interesting." Lin Taichu muttered to himself and switched methods.
Over the next few days, Lin Taichu changed his approach. He no longer fixated on the blood's composition and instead began directly formulating an antidote. Drawing on his previous experience treating gu poison