Couldn't Tell, Really Couldn't Tell (1 / 2)

When other people seized pills from their enemies, they had to be extremely careful. They either took them to a shop for someone to identify or tested them on small animals. Caution upon caution was essential.

After all, no one wanted the cultivation pills they had bankrupted themselves to buy to be snatched away so easily.

So no one would put a label or instructions on the porcelain bottles. On the contrary, they would dearly love to label a bottle of poison “Qi Condensation Pill” and a bottle of Qi Condensation Pills “Heartbreak Pill.”

Some who frequently walked the line between life and death would even hollow out their pills and stuff poison inside, all so that their enemies would get a bitter taste of trouble even after they died.

But Zhao Er had no need to worry about any of that.

With his upgraded Poison Resistance as a foundation, and now cultivating the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Body, which allowed him to swallow poison directly to cultivate, ordinary poisons were practically tonics to Zhao Er.

As for extraordinary poisons...

Judging by those fellows whose three money pouches combined had not even held a single tael of silver, they could not possibly have gotten their hands on anything like that.

So after entering the Side Room, Zhao Er took out all the pills he had acquired that day and tipped them into a bowl. There were five in total.

"You're the one!"

Zhao Er picked a pill at random from the five and first examined it closely. It was brownish-black.

Then he held it under his nose and sniffed. Its scent was faint, with what seemed to be a hint of flowers.

He scraped a little off with his fingernail and placed it in his mouth, carefully tasting it. The flavor was rather complex: sweet, with bitterness, astringency, and a fishy tang mixed in.

"This should be poison!"

Zhao Er muttered to himself, then popped the pill into his mouth, chewed it a few times, and swallowed it straight down.

The moment the pill reached his stomach, a surge of heat rose within him. Zhao Er hurriedly employed the Guiding Technique from the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Body, preparing to guide its toxins into his blood for absorption.

Yet as the Guiding Technique circulated, it drew out no toxins at all. Instead, the heat in his stomach grew increasingly intense and spread throughout his body.

"No, this isn't poison. It's a cultivation pill used by orthodox martial artists."

Realizing something was wrong, Zhao Er hurriedly abandoned the Guiding Technique and stood up. He began circulating Toad Force, then practiced the Five Poisons Fist against the sandbag.

Bang, bang, bang!!!

The sounds of punches and kicks rang through the Side Room like a raging storm. Zhao Er felt no fatigue whatsoever. Instead, the more he practiced, the more invigorated he felt.

Not only that, but as Zhao Er's punches and kicks struck the sandbag, his hands and feet grew hotter and hotter. It was not the burning pain of injured palms, but a soothing sensation, as though warm currents enveloped them. The harder he struck, the stronger those warm currents became.

Even the pain from being knocked flying earlier and slamming his back into a tree eased thanks to those warm currents.

The pill's effects lasted nearly an hour, and Zhao Er practiced for that entire hour.

In the past, practicing the Five Poisons Art for an hour had left Zhao Er aching all over and utterly exhausted.

But now, after an hour of practice, Zhao Er felt incomparably refreshed. He could even distinctly feel his physique strengthening and the skin on his palms and legs growing tougher.

"So this is what cultivating orthodox techniques with pills feels like? It actually feels this good!"

Only when the pill's effects completely faded did Zhao Er realize, for the first time, that cultivation could feel exhilarating and soothing.

It was as though all his past losses had been made up for in that moment.

Once the effects ended, Zhao Er picked up another pill and followed the same procedure.

"Brownish-black again, and the smell is about the same. The floral scent seems a little stronger. It's bitter, astringent, and fishy too, but sweeter. I get it—that's honey. The floral scent is honey too. This one must be a cultivation pill as well..."

He looked first, then smelled it, then scraped off a little to taste. With anticipation written all over his face, he put it in his mouth, chewed, and swallowed.

Having experienced the pleasure of cultivation once, Zhao Er was now even looking forward to that kind of practice where he could sweat to his heart's content.

However, once the pill entered his stomach, its effects did not come as quickly as before, though a warm current still appeared within his abdomen.

But little by little, Zhao Er realized something was wrong.

His heartbeat quickened, his blood began flowing faster, and as the heat in his abdomen spread, a faint twisting pain developed in his stomach.

"Fuck~ this is poison..."

Zhao Er, who had been waiting for the pill to take effect so he could continue practicing, blanched. He hurriedly sat cross-legged and began using the Guiding Technique.

As he employed the Guiding Technique, his blood absorbed the toxins, and the cramps in his abdomen began to subside. But as his blood raced through his body, pain followed.

Now the blood inside him was like scalding magma. Wherever it passed, a burning sensation spread. Within moments, Zhao Er was drenched in sweat.

At that moment, Zhao Er understood: his blood had sped up after taking the pill to spread the poison faster and make it take effect sooner.

Only a quarter of an hour later did Zhao Er open his eyes, soaked from head to toe. If taking cultivation pills to practice martial arts was an invigorating massage, letting their medicinal power temper his entire body steadily and thoroughly,

then cultivating with poison was like forging iron: first throwing a person into a furnace to burn, then pulling them out with tongs and hammering them directly. The process was swift, with no regard for whether they lived or died.

"Phew~~ again!"

Zhao Er took a deep breath to settle himself, then looked at the pills in the bowl. After going through the same procedure, he put another pill into his mouth, chewed it to pieces, and swallowed.

"Hmm, this one's pretty sweet. Not bitter or astringent, just a little numbing... fuck... poison again."

"Uh... my stomach's so cold, and my body's so numb. I can't move. Not poisonous enough. Add a Flathead Wind Snake Poison Gland..."

"Huh... sweet with a fishy tang. Tastes awful... hmm? This is a cultivation pill."

Bang, bang, bang, bang!!!

"Hmm, this one's sweet and sour, with a little astringency. Seems like fruit sugar... fuck... poison again."

"I've got no strength at all. A little sleepy, too. Still not poisonous enough. Add a viper Poison Gland..."

After eating all five pills in succession, only two had turned out to be cultivation pills. The other three were poisons.

Of the three poisons, only one was deadly. The others were potent but not lethal. To enhance the effects of his cultivation, Zhao Er had even swallowed Poison Glands from poisonous snakes along with them.

Only after he finished absorbing the last poison and snake Poison Gland did Zhao Er breathe a sigh of relief and prepare to end his cultivation.

However, just after he stood up, text appeared before his eyes.

Event completed. Beginning settlement!

Settled event: Cultivation!

Zhao Er had only glanced at it and had yet to examine the gains from this cultivation session when he suddenly sensed another warm current rising from his Dantian.

Zhao Er knew this sensation well. During previous settlements, he had felt the same thing every time his technique's progress finished increasing.

But this time, the improvement was greater, and the warm current from his Dantian surged more fiercely.

As that warmth traveled throughout his body, a faint swelling ache began to appear.

"I'm about to break through!"

Sensing the changes in his body, Zhao Er had no time to examine his settlement gains. He began adjusting his breathing, preparing to condense his qi and blood for the first time.