"Red scorpion wood belongs to fire among the five elements. It has a fierce nature and is mildly poisonous. Centipede grass belongs to wood, and it is likewise fierce and mildly poisonous. When combined, their poisons do not counteract each other. Instead, because wood feeds fire, their toxicity compounds."
"Taken in large doses, they cause severe heartburn, dizziness, ringing in the ears, and other symptoms."
"Taken in small doses, they cause internal heat to surge upward, resulting in nosebleeds."
"That covers what the elder taught us."
"Now, based on what we know, we need to determine why the ten of us cannot stop bleeding from our noses."
Senior Master Brother looked at the iron pot before him, which had yet to be scrubbed clean.
He continued, "The ingredients I used just now were porcupine meat, spirit melon, scallions, ginger, garlic, star anise, and yunlu root."
Senior Master Brother listed every ingredient he had used in the meal.
The other Junior Brothers analyzed them one by one.
"Porcupine meat is perfectly ordinary meat with a warming nature. Under normal circumstances, it cannot react with either of these poisons, so the meat shouldn't be the problem... wait. Senior Brother, are you sure this porcupine didn't have swine fever, or that the meat hadn't expired, or that it hadn't eaten anything unclean?" one of them asked.
Senior Master Brother replied, "No. I ate some of this meat yesterday, with red scorpion wood and centipede grass added as well, so the meat isn't the problem."
"All right."
"Spirit melon also has a warming nature, and it goes with practically anything. It's even less likely to cause a problem. Uh..."
Just as another man reached this point and was about to ask something, Senior Master Brother immediately said, "These are all ingredients I use regularly.