Seven-Step Smiling Madness

Lin Qing stepped forward, helped Blacksmith He's wife up from where she sat slumped on the ground, then comforted He Xiaoya, who was weeping so hard her face was a blur of tears.

"Xiao Ya, don't be afraid. It's all right now."

He Xiaoya lifted her tear-blurred face and suddenly grabbed Lin Qing's sleeve, sobbing too hard to speak. "Brother Lin Qing, thank you."

"My father... he was forced into it too..."

"Hm?"

He Xiaoya began to explain in fits and starts.

It turned out Lord Leopard of the White Horse Gang had coveted He Xiaoya's beauty for a long time and wanted to take her as a concubine.

After Blacksmith He had refused him several times, Lord Leopard had held a grudge.

Some time ago, Lord Leopard had secretly coerced Blacksmith He into forging ten iron knives and promised him a hefty sum.

Blacksmith He knew full well that this was a deathly dangerous business and had been unwilling to agree.

But Lord Leopard had threatened the safety of He Xiaoya and her mother. With no other choice, Blacksmith He had been forced to accept.

Who could have guessed that just after the knives were finished, someone would report him?

The authorities had caught him red-handed.

"It had to be Lord Leopard. He was the one who reported him."

Blacksmith He's wife's voice trembled, filled with hatred.

"He couldn't have Xiao Ya, so he wanted to destroy our family. His heart is so cruel."

As Lin Qing listened, his gaze gradually turned cold.

A blaze of anger rose in his chest.

Lord Leopard tyrannized the markets, seizing whatever he wanted by force.

Now he had resorted to such despicable methods. He was utterly devoid of conscience.

He had forced someone into rebellion, then turned around and reported him.

He meant to drive the He Family into the grave.

But anger was anger; Lin Qing still had his wits about him.

Lord Leopard was no weakling. He was at least in the late Tendon Opening stage, perhaps even a stronger martial artist.

He had a gang of desperate cutthroats at his command, and the White Horse Gang stood behind him as his backing.

With Lin Qing's current strength, rushing to confront Lord Leopard would be like an egg smashing against a rock.

He drew a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the murderous intent churning inside him.

Patting He Xiaoya on the shoulder, he said in a low voice, "Xiao Ya, don't cry. What's done is done. Crying won't solve anything."

"You and your mother should settle in here for now. I'll take care of the deposits you owe the neighbors. As for Uncle He, I'll find a way to get news about him."

"Remember, as long as you're alive, there's still hope."

Seeing Lin Qing's steady expression, He Xiaoya seemed to have found someone she could lean on. She nodded hard, but the tears streamed down her face even faster.

Lin Qing sighed, settled the He family mother and daughter in, and watched them shut their courtyard gate. His fist clenched quietly inside his sleeve.

The darkness and injustice of this world—

like heavy shackles, they came crushing down again and again.

Lord Leopard. He'd remember that name.

He couldn't act against him now, but that didn't mean he never would.

Afterward,

Lin Qing found time to visit the government office.

But after he handed over several hundred copper coins,

the jailer on guard actually chased him out.

He even declared that Old He in the jail had offended someone he shouldn't have.

Lin Qing clenched his fist, helpless.

Time flew by, and before long, the depths of winter had arrived.

Most of the leaves had fallen from the locust trees beside Yongning Street, adding to the desolate air.

Yet inside Benevolent World Hall, the scene was entirely different.

Ever since resolving the He family's trouble that day, Lin Qing had come to understand more deeply that in this world, where the weak were meat and the strong wielded the knife,

overt strength was certainly important.

But certain methods hidden in the shadows could often produce unexpected results.

Especially when one's strength wasn't yet enough to crush everything in one's path.

He devoted even more of his time to studying pharmacology in depth.

Having attained an impressive level of pharmacological knowledge, his understanding of medicinal ingredients had nearly reached the level of the Dao.

In his eyes, plants, trees, metals, and stones were no longer merely remedies that saved lives. They were double-edged blades, each containing the power to give life or take it away.

In the back courtyard of Benevolent World Hall, the air was usually thick with the familiar fragrance of medicinal herbs, but every so often, an exceedingly faint, difficult-to-detect, unusual scent drifted through.

Lin Qing shut himself away in a small apothecary he had specially partitioned off. The lamp there often burned late into the night.

Various medicinal ingredients lay before him, each with a different shape and hue. Most were highly poisonous.

He wasn't trying to concoct poisons to harm people. He was doing it to protect himself.

To have a trump card powerful enough to turn the tide at a critical moment.

During this time, he read through the yellowed medical books left behind by his father.

He also bought a large number of books on pharmacology.

Combining them with the pharmacological knowledge granted by the Heavenly Dao Record, he continuously made deductions and ran experiments.

Failure was commonplace.

Sometimes the properties of the ingredients clashed, and the resulting powder had no effect.

Sometimes the poison was too potent to control.

He nearly suffered its effects himself.

But relying on the subtle intuition brought by the Heavenly Dao Record, he adjusted the formula and refined his methods time and again.

At last, on a hazy night,

Lin Qing added the final drop of Ghost Grass juice, purified nine times over, into a lump of colorless, odorless gel using a special technique.

The gel quietly transformed into a small pinch of fine, dustlike white powder, almost impossible to make out with the naked eye.

It lay silently at the bottom of a jade bowl, giving off no scent at all and looking harmless.

Lin Qing caught a scrawny mouse that had wandered into the apothecary and mixed a tiny amount of the powder into its drinking water.

After drinking it, the mouse showed no signs of anything wrong at first. It continued scampering about as lively as ever.

But when it took its seventh step, its movements suddenly stiffened.

Then its whole body convulsed. Before it could make a sound, it collapsed to the ground, utterly lifeless.

It had died peacefully, as if it had fallen asleep in an instant.

Only the faint trace of a strange smile still seemed to linger at the corners of its mouth.

Lin Qing examined it closely and confirmed that it was completely dead.

Its heartbeat and breathing had stopped, and its blood had congealed.

Success!

He let out a long breath, a complex glimmer in his eyes.

He was glad that his creation had succeeded, yet wary of such a sinister substance.

He named the poison "Seven-Step Smiling Madness."

Anyone poisoned by it would die within seven steps, beyond the help of any medicine.

And their peaceful death made the true cause difficult to detect.

At the same moment he successfully created the poison,

deep in his consciousness, the pharmacology experience value on the Heavenly Dao Record suddenly jumped.

[Pharmacology (Mastery Beyond Perfection)]

[Experience: 1/20000]

An immense understanding unlike anything he had ever felt before surged into his heart.

At that moment, all things in heaven and earth seemed capable of becoming either medicine or poison.

When a medicinal herb was placed before him, he no longer needed to handle it much.

He only had to study its shape, color, and texture with focused attention.

He could then precisely determine how many years it had grown, how much potency it had lost during storage, and even the tiniest flow of medicinal energy within it.

It was a state almost like seeing a person's qi.

Several dozen days passed.

The tremendous improvement in his pharmacological knowledge directly benefited the business at Benevolent World Hall.

Now, whenever he went to Yam Market in the western part of the city to buy supplies, he was far more efficient and precise than before.

His gaze swept across the stalls, and the medicinal ingredients seemed to carry labels in his eyes. Their quality and authenticity were impossible to hide.

He could always buy the best-quality, most potent ingredients at the fairest prices.

Once he brought them back to the shop and personally processed and blended them, the various medicinal powders he made were far more effective than similar products on the market.

Whether it was Golden Wound Medicine, which stopped bleeding and promoted healing, Blood Nourishing Powder, which regulated qi and blood, or Plague Avoidance Powder, which cleared heat and toxins, each earned a far-reaching reputation for its outstanding effects.

Before long, Benevolent World Hall's medicinal products had become renowned as the finest on Yongning Street.

It wasn't just the common people of the Outer City who trusted them. Even wealthy families in the Inner City who valued health and wellness, or whose children practiced martial arts, sent their servants to buy supplies.

For a time, Benevolent World Hall was busier than ever.