"Poison Control Scripture?!"
When Jiang Ye pulled his hand from the headless corpse's clothes, a thin booklet rested between his fingertips.
Three crooked characters were scrawled across its cover. The handwriting was sloppy, but there was something eerie about it.
He casually flipped it open and skimmed a few pages in the moonlight. A strange gleam suddenly lit up his aged eyes.
This was a manual on breeding, taming, and controlling venomous insects.
It covered everything, from finding eggs and feeding the insects to establishing a spiritual connection with them and ordering them to attack enemies.
"Good stuff!"
Jiang Ye couldn't help but murmur his praise.
He'd been watching from the shadows and had seen it clearly. The reason Black Old Five had turned the tide in a fight to the death was that spider of his.
If Jiang Ye could raise a venomous insect like that, it would be like having another way to save his life.
Why did these fiends from the Seven Kill Cult always have such good stuff on them?!
"I'll study this Poison Control Scripture carefully once I reach Prefecture City."
Jiang Ye carefully tucked the manual into his clothes, then continued searching the headless corpse.
Soon, he found another stack of banknotes.
He counted them. There were about a hundred thousand taels.
"Looks like this beast didn't rob as much as his brother. He probably spent all his time chasing women."
Jiang Ye shook his head slightly and tucked away the hundred thousand taels.
He now had three hundred thousand taels on him—a hefty sum.
But he knew that next to the Diamond Body Refining Technique and the Poison Control Scripture, this money probably wouldn't last through many rounds of spending.
He searched the corpse once more, confirmed there was nothing left, and slowly rose to his feet.
Whoosh!
Jiang Ye swung his blade again, cutting Black Old Five's headless corpse in half at the waist.
Then he turned to leave.
Just then—
"E-Elder..."
"D-Don't go..."
"Sorry... for the trouble, but please save my life..."
"I... I'm Wen Yueyao, a direct disciple of the Azure Sky Sect's Heavenly Sun Peak..."
"If you'll help me, Elder... Yueyao will repay you handsomely..."
A few feeble, barely audible words drifted over from behind him.
Jiang Ye turned around. The speaker was none other than the young woman who lay paralyzed on the ground, poisoned.
Wen Yueyao had truly run out of options.
At first, she'd been afraid the old man might take advantage of her, but it turned out she'd worried for nothing.
She'd assumed that once Jiang Ye finished searching Black Old Five's corpse, he would come to save her.
But for some reason—perhaps he thought it was too much trouble—he didn't seem to have any intention of doing so.
Wen Yueyao could feel the poison doing more than just paralyzing her body.
It was starting to invade her internal organs. If the old man refused to help, she would soon be nothing but a corpse.
Her modesty, her wariness, her pride as a direct disciple of the Azure Sky Sect—all of it had to be cast aside in the face of death.
So she summoned the last of her strength and called out.
At the young woman's plea, a hint of hesitation passed through Jiang Ye's aged eyes.
There were two reasons he hadn't planned to help her.
First, she'd been poisoned, and he didn't know how to treat poison. If he acted recklessly, he might make things worse instead of saving her.
Second, people's hearts were hard to read. What if the person he saved turned out to be an ungrateful wretch?
"Miss, I don't know how to treat poison. I'm afraid I can't help you."
Jiang Ye shook his head slightly.
"Elder... I have antidote pills in my clothes. Please take them out... and help me swallow one..."
Wen Yueyao's voice trembled with weakness.
Every word she spoke took all the strength she had.
"Oh? You have antidote pills?"
After a moment's thought, Jiang Ye walked slowly over to Wen Yueyao.
The young woman had dared to hunt down fiends from the Seven Kill Cult all by herself. She probably wasn't a bad person.
More importantly, she'd promised to repay him handsomely.
Now that was something worth considering.
In an instant, Jiang Ye made up his mind. He would help her.
He reached out with his withered right hand and fumbled around before pulling out a fragrant embroidered pouch.
Inside were several bottles of pills.
"Ah..."
Wen Yueyao's deathly pale face suddenly flushed bright red.
Her body was supposed to be numb.
And yet...
That aged hand...
"Which bottle contains the antidote?"
Jiang Ye didn't notice the young woman's unusual reaction. He opened the bottles in his hand and let her identify the right one.
"Elder... the green pill is the antidote..." Wen Yueyao said in a weak, trembling voice. "Please... help me... take it..."
Jiang Ye acted quickly. He pried open the young woman's lips and tipped the pill into her mouth.
After swallowing it, Wen Yueyao gradually began to recover.
About the time it took to drink half a cup of tea later, feeling slowly returned to her numb body.
"Thank you for saving my life, Elder. Yueyao..."
Wen Yueyao stood up and started to bow to Jiang Ye.
Compared with Liu Yiyi's cool reserve and Su Yan's gentle warmth, Wen Yueyao had a more brisk air about her, with a hint of the bold spirit of a woman of the martial world.
"No need, no need... It was nothing."
Jiang Ye waved his hands repeatedly, signaling that she didn't need to bow.
But Wen Yueyao insisted on giving him a deep bow. Then she said, "Elder, I wasn't just saying that I'd repay you handsomely. Whatever you ask, just say the word! As long as it's within my power, I'll do everything I can to help!"
At that, a hint of relief showed in Jiang Ye's aged eyes. He said softly:
"Actually, I do have a request..."
"I just don't know whether Miss Wen would be willing."
Wen Yueyao laughed cheerfully. "Elder, go ahead!"
He pondered for a moment, then slowly spoke:
"My greatest wish in this life is to get a look at the Qi Nourishing Method, to see if I might be able to cultivate true qi and condense it into a pill."
With his extraordinary talent for comprehension, reaching the peak of Transformation Strength was only a matter of time.
When that day came, he would need the Qi Nourishing Method to nurture his true qi if he wanted to advance further.
And Wen Yueyao was a direct disciple of the Azure Sky Sect. Surely she had plenty of opportunities to access the Qi Nourishing Method.
If he could get it through her, he'd save himself countless detours.
When she heard that Jiang Ye wanted the Qi Nourishing Method, Wen Yueyao was taken aback. A troubled look crossed her face as she said softly, "Elder, the Qi Nourishing Method is a core secret of our sect. It absolutely cannot be shared without permission..."
As she spoke, Wen Yueyao suddenly seemed to think of something. "But I do have a way to help you obtain the Qi Nourishing Method!"
"What way?!"
Jiang Ye's eyes lit up.
When he'd heard the first half of Wen Yueyao's answer, his heart had sunk halfway. Now that she said there was a way, his spirits immediately lifted.
"Elder, I don't know what your background is..."
Wen Yueyao began, then hesitated.
Jiang Ye understood that she was trying to find out where he came from. His expression unchanged, he said, "I'm on my own. I've lived in Anxi County for decades, but disaster struck, so I fled the city to seek shelter..."
"You're on your own? Then that makes things easy!"
Wen Yueyao breathed a sigh of relief, a smile blooming across her face. "Elder, you can join our Azure Sky Sect. Then you can exchange sect contributions for the Qi Nourishing Method!"
"Me? Join the Azure Sky Sect? Miss, are you joking?"
Jiang Ye shook his head, speechless.
A major sect like that had strict age requirements for its disciples. How could it possibly accept a seventy-year-old man?
"Hehe, Elder, you've misunderstood!"
Wen Yueyao giggled. The laughter tugged at the wound in her shoulder and made her furrow her brows, but the sincerity and cheer in her smile didn't fade at all. "I didn't mean that you should join as a disciple."
"You could come in as a steward instead—for example, to watch over the Medicine Garden."
"Be the old man who watches the Medicine Garden?!" Jiang Ye's spirits lifted.
Wasn't that right up his alley?!
Before you continue