The First Daughter of Destiny to Be Snatched Away?

"You..."

Xiao Yi Xian felt all the blood in her body freeze.

Painful memories she had deliberately tried to forget, hiding them behind her smiles, began surging back.

No one knew—at least, not a single person in all of Qingshan Town knew—that she had a past riddled with wounds.

When she was three, she and her mother had moved to a small village that made its living gathering medicinal herbs. She had spent the next ten years in happiness, working toward becoming an excellent Physician and praying she could become an Alchemist.

But all of that had ended abruptly on the night of her fourteenth birthday. Her mother had given her a special poisonous herb she had discovered by chance, telling her to keep it to defend herself if she ever encountered danger.

The instant she touched that poisonous herb, an uncontrollable urge to devour it had risen within her, and she had instinctively taken a bite.

That single bite had made her vision go black as she lost consciousness. When she woke, she found the bodies of her mother and friends.

Worse still, not a single person in the entire village had survived. After examining them with her medical knowledge, she concluded that everyone had died of poisoning.

She did not know why they had been poisoned, but she knew it most likely had something to do with the poisonous herb she had eaten. She had killed them all.

Rumble!

Lightning flashed and thunder roared as torrential rain poured from the sky.

Xiao Yi Xian could not tell whether tears or rainwater were streaming down her face. Numbly, she dug grave after grave with her bare hands and buried her mother and every villager.

For a long time afterward, she had lived like a walking corpse, until one day she encountered a caravan that had been attacked by magical beasts. She treated their injuries and received their thanks.

That was when she had regained her spirit. She wanted to help more people with her medical skills and wash away her "sins."

She had thrown herself into studying medicine, trying to fill the void in her heart.

She had succeeded, yet she had also failed utterly.

She had indeed helped some people with her medical skills and gained their acceptance, but she could not control the urges to eat poison that surfaced from time to time. Whenever she consumed poison, she would give off an unusual aura for a while. People would take her for a "Poison Master," disregard the good she had done, and begin distancing themselves from her.

After wandering for several years, she eventually made her way to Qingshan Town. When she encountered danger, Mr. Yao of the Myriad Medicine Pavilion came to her aid, so she chose to become the pavilion's resident Physician to repay him.

Over the years, she had found a way to hide the fact that she was a "Poison Master." Every so often, she would retreat to a secluded spot in the Magical Beast Mountain Range.

And so, in Qingshan Town, she had become the respected Xiao Yi Xian.

But now, with a single sentence, Chu Zhou had torn through the pitifully thin veil of self-deception she hid behind.

"Don't misunderstand." Noticing the change in Xiao Yi Xian's eyes, Chu Zhou immediately explained, "I have nothing against you, and I'm not trying to gain leverage over you. I simply possess a special constitution myself, which lets me sense that you have one too. That gave me an idea of your situation."

"You have exceptional talent. Staying in Qingshan Town is a waste of it. I'm confident I can help you develop your constitution, and you could become a tremendous help to me."

Chu Zhou had no malicious intention of exposing someone's flaws or painful memories to shake them.

At least, he would never use such underhanded methods on the kindhearted Xiao Yi Xian.

He had only mentioned poison to let her know that his words were not baseless.

"A constitution... a special one." Seeing the sincerity in Chu Zhou's eyes, Xiao Yi Xian could not help suppressing her tangled emotions.

She also knew there was something "wrong" with her body. Otherwise, she would not be unable to control her craving for poison, nor would eating it leave her unharmed and even increase her strength.

"You can... help me?" Xiao Yi Xian asked, her voice trembling slightly with hope.

"If I'm right about your condition, there is indeed a way." Chu Zhou met her gaze openly. "Surely you don't want to discuss this out here in public?"

Xiao Yi Xian clenched her hands. After taking a deep breath, she turned to Yao Wancai. "Mr. Yao, I've worked for the Myriad Medicine Pavilion for three years. That should be enough to repay your help back then. Today, I intend to leave with Mr. Chu."

Yao Wancai was dumbfounded.

Xiao Yi Xian had actually been won over by Chu Zhou with just a few words.

In truth, he knew he could not compete with a young, handsome Alchemist. He simply could not accept it.

But now that Xiao Yi Xian had made her decision, he could only put on a seemingly magnanimous smile. "We've always been partners, and you've always been free to come and go. Whatever you decide, you have my support. There will always be a place for you at the Myriad Medicine Pavilion. If things don't work out for you out there, you're welcome to return anytime."

If Xiao Yi Xian had been unwilling, he could still have tried to fight for her.

But since she wanted to leave, he was not willing to force her to stay at the cost of offending a First-Rank Alchemist.

"Thank you for looking after me these past few years, Mr. Yao." Xiao Yi Xian nodded slightly and asked to go pack her belongings.

Naturally, Yao Wancai had no objections. While they waited, he even had to suppress his emotions and chat with Chu Zhou with a smile.

He had actually wanted to turn around and leave, but Aunt Luo came to Chu Zhou's side and released a trace of her aura. Afraid of causing a misunderstanding, he dared not slight him.

A quarter of an hour later, Xiao Yi Xian left with Chu Zhou, heading to the Mittel Merchant Guild's way station.

"Aunt Luo, Miss Xiao Yi Xian and I go back a ways, and I have something to discuss with her. Sorry for the trouble, but please sit in the courtyard for a while and keep anyone uninvolved from disturbing us." Chu Zhou asked Aunt Luo to serve as a temporary guard in the courtyard, while also making it clear that she should stop following him.

"Yes, Young Master." Aunt Luo sat on a stone stool outside the courtyard.

Chu Zhou led Xiao Yi Xian into the room, invited her to sit at the table, and poured her tea himself.

"Young Master Chu, can you tell me what constitution I have now?"

Holding her teacup, Xiao Yi Xian went straight to the point. Chu Zhou's face was clearly reflected in her beautiful eyes.

"Do you often find yourself unable to resist the urge to eat Poison Pills?" Chu Zhou asked.

"Yes!" Xiao Yi Xian's heart pounded wildly.

"And does eating Poison Pills make you stronger?"

"Yes!"

"Did the first time you consumed Poison Pills affect the people around you?"

"Yes!!"

"Is there a seven-colored line on your lower abdomen?"

"Yes!!!"

Xiao Yi Xian stood straight up and stared at Chu Zhou.

He could even name details that only she knew. She believed him completely now!

"Then that confirms it." Chu Zhou's voice carried a sigh of emotion. "You possess the woeful poison body."

The woeful poison body?

Xiao Yi Xian turned the words over in her mind, a faint, miserable smile appearing on her face.

Yes, I killed my mother and everyone in the village. What was that if not calamity?

Calamity for strangers, for those around her, and for herself!

"The woeful poison body is a special constitution. You don't need conventional cultivation to advance in strength, only to keep eating Poison Pills. But it is extremely addictive. The stronger you become, the harder it is to resist consuming Poison Pills, and you will do all sorts of insane things to obtain them."

"As your cultivation rises, ordinary poisons will offer almost no improvement, and you will crave rare poisons even more. For example, once you reach the Dou Zun level, you will want to consume an Eighth-Rank Poison potent enough to threaten a Dou Zun. But every Eighth-Rank Natural Treasure on the Dou Qi Continent is extremely rare, let alone poisonous ones. They practically don't exist, and the scattered few that do are beyond the reach of someone with the woeful poison body."

"Once the poison body awakens, a seven-colored hidden line appears on the lower abdomen and grows as the poison's power increases. When it reaches the heart, the constitution enters its peak state. At that point, the toxins become difficult to contain, and their eruption causes myriad poisons to devour the body, resulting in death."

"The stronger you are, the more powerful the eruption of the woeful poison body becomes. It can even turn a thousand-mile stretch of land into a poisonous wasteland, devastating every living thing!"

Xiao Yi Xian: !!!