When Dugu Bo opened the Jade Box, Bai Jin sat across from him, still holding a cup of cold tea.
The journey back from the old Medicine Cavern had taken five days. The stabbing pain in his skull had only eased on the fourth day, and the meridians in his right hand had reconnected securely, yet Bai Jin still refused to use that hand to pass Dugu Bo the case. The old poison master noticed clearly. He picked up the medicine-sealing paper with tweezers and first sniffed the medicinal vapors drawn out of the outer layer.
"You hauled that huge mass of Ghost God Guide up from down there, and you still knew to keep a sample?"
"I thought you'd start by praising me for not crushing the pill."
"If you'd crushed it, would you dare sit here today?"
Bai Jin took a sip of cold tea, too weary to argue. Dugu Bo moved the Spirit Beast Pill onto a clean tray and touched its surface with an exceedingly fine thread of soul power. Scarlet-gold heat traveled back along the silver needle, instantly burning its tip red. Rather than forcibly suppressing it, he tried three different testing reagents, examined the color of the medicinal vapors from each, then asked Yue Guan to pass him the prepared chilled case.
Yue Guan stood on the other side, his fingers never touching the Spirit Beast Pill. He understood the essence of medicinal herbs and had already verified the layer of life energy concealed inside the pill by the Ghost God Guide. There was no Soul Ring to prove its age, but what it had truly preserved was the Ancient Spirit Beast's primal power, condensed within the pill.
"The outer medicine didn't penetrate all the way through," Dugu Bo said. "You stripped away all