Toxin fusion (1 / 2)

He carried a sack of Iron Dregs from beneath the eaves into the Side Room. Lately, a worker had been driving over from County Town every other day with several large sacks.

Zhao Er had been puzzled at first. Only later did he learn that Ning Mu, knowing he needed Iron Dregs for his cultivation, had arranged for these Iron Dregs to be collected from the other smithies in County Town and delivered to him.

His sister-in-law Ning Mu had even assigned someone specifically to handle the matter.

So although Zhao Er consumed a considerable amount in his daily cultivation, he could not begin to keep up with the supply. Quite a few sacks had already piled up in the corner beside the Side Room, all filled with the stuff.

He carried a sack into the Side Room. This time, rather than pouring its contents out, Zhao Er plopped straight down on the sack and began circulating his cultivation art.

The Nine-Turn Golden Body Art and the Nine-Turn Golden Armor Art differed by only a single character in their names, but their cultivation methods were entirely different.

Before cultivating the Nine-Turn Golden Armor Art, he had to repeatedly strike his entire body with metal fragments, making metal powder cling to his skin. Many of the fragments would even pierce his flesh.

Only then would he circulate the art, driving the metal powder to temper his body.

The Nine-Turn Golden Body Art, however, required no external body conditioning. He only needed to circulate his blood energy within his body using a special method.

Because the weather was hot and the Side Room was full of poisonous substances, its windows were always nailed shut. It was oppressively stuffy in the scorching summer heat. Zhao Er sat on the sack of Iron Dregs, closed his eyes, and circulated the art.

The art had barely begun when Zhao Er sensed a cool current seeping in through his skin.

"So this is yin qi? Feels pretty nice in summer... Fuck, that hurts!!!"

In that environment, Zhao Er detected the cool current the instant it appeared. As the yin qi entered his body, he had no time to enjoy it before the cool currents seemed to turn into blades of ice, ceaselessly slicing through his flesh.

If cultivating his poison art felt like searing magma, and cultivating the Nine-Turn Golden Armor Art felt like being crushed beneath a millstone, then cultivating the Nine-Turn Golden Body Art felt like being sliced to death with ice blades.

The ice blades formed by the yin qi did not lessen the pain in the slightest. On the contrary, they kept Zhao Er utterly clearheaded, letting him savor every last detail of that agony.

Fortunately, his long period of cultivation had raised his pain threshold considerably. Only thanks to that could he grit his teeth and complete one full circulation of the art.

"Hiss... The cultivation method changed, so why did the pain get worse...?"

He stood with his teeth bared in a grimace, trembling as he swallowed a mixture of the poisons and poisonous herbs beside him. Only then did Zhao Er resume cultivating.

As the poisons entered his stomach and his blood began to boil, they actually eased the icy, knife-like sensation considerably.

As his cultivation continued, Zhao Er gradually found his rhythm. This time, however, his skin no longer turned scarlet as it had before, nor did sweat pour off him like rain.

Instead, as he circulated the art, a gray-black tint began appearing on Zhao Er's skin, while the toxins inside his body underwent a wondrous change.

The toxins Zhao Er had ingested previously fell into several categories: Heavenly Dragon Toxin, several different snake venoms, herbal toxins, mineral toxins, and so on. They were not exactly fighting their own separate battles inside him, but neither had they fused.

Even when he used them, Zhao Er himself did not know which toxin—or combination of toxins—he was releasing along with his Blood-Energy Force.

Now, however, the entering yin qi acted like a medicinal catalyst, stirring all the toxins in Zhao Er's body into activity. The yin qi seemed to be nourishment, drawing the toxins irresistibly into it.

As the toxins continued to merge into it, the yin qi grew stronger, and the toxins grew purer as well. To Zhao Er's surprise, circulating the art became easier, and even the earlier pain diminished considerably.

"Phew..."

Only after completing the circulation did Zhao Er stand up. This time, he felt incredibly light and relaxed after cultivating, without anything close to his former exhaustion.

When he looked down, the sack of Iron Dregs beneath him had already lost its former hardness. By the time Zhao Er finished cultivating, its contents had all turned to powder.

Experience gained: Five Poisons Returning to Origin Body +6, Nine-Turn Golden Body Art +4

"The Five Poisons Returning to Origin Body's cultivation speed has increased a little, and the Nine-Turn Golden Body Art's cultivation speed and final experience gain have actually doubled!"

Zhao Er glanced at his panel and was immediately delighted. He had been fretting over the Nine-Turn Golden Armor Art's cultivation speed, yet now that the arts had fused, the problem had been solved just like that.

The increased cultivation speed of the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Body after incorporating the yin toxin was an even more unexpected delight.

"Let's see what this new toxin can do..."

Thinking of the toxins in his body that had begun fully merging after the addition of the yin toxin, Zhao Er could not resist testing them.

He walked up to the large tree outside. The palm print Zhao Er had left after his previous breakthrough to the Blood Condensation Realm was still clearly visible, but the foul-smelling black toxin on it had disappeared.

Smack!!

Zhao Er struck with his palm again, but this time he did not exert himself as he had before. His palm left no indentation in the bark.

Yet when Zhao Er moved his hand away, a grayish-white palm mark remained beneath it.

Zhao Er examined it. A faint chill emanated from the palm mark, but before long, both the chill and the mark disappeared, as though nothing had happened.

"I'll check again in a couple of days..."

Watching the palm mark disappear, Zhao Er felt a little disappointed. The toxin's potency would take time to reveal itself. Unfortunately, there was no one for him to test it on.

However, there was no need at all to wait another two days.

After just one day, the little girl Zhao Shan began fussing that the big tree by the entrance seemed a little thirsty.

When Zhao Er went out to look, the tree's leaves really were drooping, as though they were about to shrivel under the sun.

By the following morning, leaves had already begun falling. An entire patch of bark had peeled away where Zhao Er's palm had struck. It looked as though the tree would not survive.

"Looks like... this new toxin is shaping up to be a trump card. And this was only used on a plant. If I used it on a person, what would happen when the toxin erupted?"

After some thought, Zhao Er ultimately fetched an axe and chopped the tree down, leaving only the stump to see whether any further changes would occur.

Over the next few days, Zhao Er cultivated even more diligently.

Especially now that cultivating the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Body and the Nine-Turn Golden Body Art was less painful, Zhao Er could devote more energy to practicing his Halberd Art.

But as Zhao Er's cultivation of the Nine-Turn Golden Body Art accelerated, his consumption of Iron Dregs doubled as well. Gradually, it even began outstripping the worker's deliveries. Fortunately, he still had a considerable stockpile from before, enough to sustain his cultivation for the time being.

That evening, Zhao Er sat upright inside the Side Room, circulating his cultivation art.

As he circulated the art, Zhao Er continuously drew wisps of yin qi from underground and the metal substances in the surrounding sacks into his body.