Xiao Yi Xian's opportunity! A clever use for Heavenly Flames

"Y-Young Master!"

Xiao Yi Xian turned to Chu Zhou, her face deathly pale and beads of sweat forming on her forehead.

Chu Zhou's smile vanished instantly. He grabbed Xiao Yi Xian's wrist and channeled his soul power and mystic yellow azure flame into her.

Guided by his soul power, the mystic yellow azure flame reached Xiao Yi Xian's lower abdomen. Its power immediately suppressed the seven-colored hidden line, forcing the poisonous miasma back.

Xiao Yi Xian immediately felt the pressure ease and said, "There's a poisonous herb nearby that my constitution craves. Take me away first, Young Master."

"Understood." Chu Zhou immediately supported Xiao Yi Xian as they retraced their steps.

After they had gone about a hundred feet, Xiao Yi Xian breathed a sigh of relief. "We're far enough away from that poisonous herb now."

"That herb was potent enough to make your woeful poison body slip out of control and nearly trigger a stage-specific eruption." Chu Zhou looked thoughtful.

"It should be a third-rank poison herb, the Scorpion Snake Flower. It only grows in desert regions," Xiao Yi Xian offered her assessment. "According to the Poison Scripture, the woeful poison body is like a special poisonous herb. It craves other poisonous herbs, devouring them as nourishment to grow, but it also fears those that are too powerful and keeps its distance."

"At each stage, it develops an intense craving to devour certain poisonous herbs because they can accelerate its growth."

"If I could get that Scorpion Snake Flower, refining it would raise my strength by at least two stars."

"Oh?" Chu Zhou's eyes lit up, and he smiled. "In that case, we can't pass it up. I'll get it for you."

Xiao Yi Xian froze at his words. "You're stronger than me now, and you can use your Heavenly Flame to suppress an eruption of my woeful poison body. But if you get me the Scorpion Snake Flower, I'll become stronger than you."

As long as she could resist the craving, Xiao Yi Xian hoped her cultivation would always remain below Chu Zhou's. That way, he could serve as her restraint.

As long as Chu Zhou was there, she would never have to fear the day disaster struck.

"That's what you're worried about?" Chu Zhou raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "There's no need. Even if you consume that poisonous herb, the gap between us will only keep widening."

"Really?" Xiao Yi Xian looked doubtful.

She did not mean to question Chu Zhou. It was a fact that he had broken through to Dou Shi before her and had already advanced to two stars.

But after consuming the Scorpion Snake Flower, she would become at least a three-star Dou Shi. How could Chu Zhou keep widening the gap?

"You'll find out in a few days. Do you really think I'd want you to leave me?" Chu Zhou pinched Xiao Yi Xian's cheek. "Tell me where the Scorpion Snake Flower is. I'll get it for you."

"All right." The tips of Xiao Yi Xian's ears reddened slightly. Fighting back her embarrassment, she obediently explained.

"Wait here for me." Chu Zhou nodded in understanding, then headed in the direction Xiao Yi Xian had indicated.

Before long, he reached a Free Market where all sorts of people had set up stalls.

His gaze swept over several stalls, and he soon spotted his target.

A one-armed burly man sat on a broken rock. A simple cloth lay before him, piled with goods, including a poisonous herb streaked purple and red.

Judging by his aura, the one-armed man was probably a Da Dou Shi. Chu Zhou could sense that he was doing his utmost to suppress some sort of backlash.

Getting it shouldn't be difficult.

Chu Zhou walked up to the stall and asked directly, "I want the Scorpion Snake Flower. How much?"

The one-armed man looked up. Seeing Chu Zhou's clothes, a flicker of delight crossed his eyes, and he immediately said, "Sir Alchemist, everything at my stall is only available in exchange for a third-rank Qingling Detoxification Pill."

"I don't have a Qingling Detoxification Pill," Chu Zhou said.

Disappointment flashed in the one-armed man's eyes. He had been poisoned by a third-rank Azure-Tailed Purple Scorpion. Second-rank detoxification pills could only suppress the poison, while ordinary third-rank detoxification pills could not eliminate it completely. Only a Qingling Detoxification Pill would work.

But few Third-Rank Alchemists could refine Qingling Detoxification Pills. He had tried to buy one at the Alchemist Guild and the Mittel Merchant Guild without success, so he had set up a stall to try his luck.

"If you don't have one, move aside. Don't get in my way while I'm shopping."

Before the one-armed man could respond, a young man's rather arrogant voice suddenly came from beside them.

Chu Zhou glanced over and immediately recognized him as a spoiled young master.

After spending so long on the Dou Qi Continent, this was his first encounter with one.

But he simply ignored him, raised his hand toward the one-armed man, and flicked a finger.

The mystic yellow azure flame appeared and entered the one-armed man's body. Just as he instinctively tried to resist, Chu Zhou said, "Let this flame travel through your body once, and it will remove all the poison inside you."

The one-armed man's eyes lit up. He immediately calmed himself and examined his body internally. Sure enough, the toxins clinging to his meridians and bones were disappearing.

The azure-yellow flame did not refine the toxins directly. Instead, it drove them out, gathering them at the stump of his severed arm.

Splat!

Within just a few breaths, an opening split in the stump, and blood tainted with purple poison flowed out. The mystic yellow azure flame flew back into Chu Zhou's hand and vanished.

"This is a second-rank Hemostatic Pill. Your poison has been removed, so there's no problem with me taking this Scorpion Snake Flower, right?" Chu Zhou casually tossed the man a pill, then raised his hand toward the Scorpion Snake Flower on the stall and willed it to move.

An invisible force enveloped the Scorpion Snake Flower, and it flew into Chu Zhou's hand.

This was a trick for manipulating heaven and earth energy that he had learned after beginning to cultivate the Azure Flame Earth-Shaking Seal.

Combined with his soul force, it allowed him to control heaven and earth energy within a certain range to perform small tasks.

"Thank you, sir. Please take the Scorpion Snake Flower." The one-armed man popped the Hemostatic Pill into his mouth and nodded to Chu Zhou.

Chu Zhou casually stored the Scorpion Snake Flower in his Spatial Boundary, turned, and headed back the way he had come.

"Stop right there!" Ignored the entire time, the young man saw Chu Zhou leaving with the Scorpion Snake Flower he had wanted to snatch for himself. His face flushed red. "Do you know who I am?"

Chu Zhou still paid him no mind. With his hands behind his back, he used Explosive Flame Step.

He had improved this movement Dou Technique by incorporating the mystic yellow azure flame. Without making a sound, it could now unleash even greater speed, nearly matching a low-grade Xuan-tier movement Dou Technique.

"Bastard!" Enraged by Chu Zhou's blatant disregard, the young man immediately ordered his attendants, "No one in Salt City gets to ignore me, Mo Yuan. Take some men and find out who he is, now."

"Yes, Young Master." Several attendants immediately accepted the order and withdrew.

Chu Zhou had no interest whatsoever in dealing with someone like that. He quickly left, found Xiao Yi Xian, and took her back to the Mittel Merchant Guild.

"Do you need to make any special preparations before consuming the Scorpion Snake Flower?" Chu Zhou asked.

"I can't do it here," Xiao Yi Xian answered immediately. "Once I consume it, I'll fall unconscious, and poisonous miasma will spread throughout a hundred-foot radius. Even a Da Dou Shi could die from the poison with a single careless mistake."

"All right." Chu Zhou nodded. "Rest tonight. Tomorrow, we'll set out for Desert City and find a suitable place along the way for you to refine the Scorpion Snake Flower."