Xiao Lin quietly watched Xiao Yi Xian put away all the medicinal herbs, even casually tossing her a Storage Ring to make collecting and carrying them easier.
The Storage Ring was lustrous white, warm and smooth in her hand. Its quality was clearly far from low, making Xiao Yi Xian even more uneasy.
"Brother Xiao Lin, this... is too valuable."
"It's fine." Xiao Lin leaned against the stone chamber's doorframe, his eyes gleaming faintly in the darkness.
"I have no use for it."
Xiao Yi Xian bit her lip. After a moment's hesitation, she finally slipped the Storage Ring onto her finger.
She turned, her gaze falling on the three locked Stone Boxes on the Bluestone Platform, and her heartbeat quickened involuntarily.
"These three..."
"Open them and see."
Xiao Lin's tone was indifferent, as though he had no interest in their contents. Instead, his gaze drifted, seemingly casually, toward the skeleton's arm bones.
Xiao Yi Xian nodded and took a deep breath, opening the Stone Boxes one after another.
Before long, three scrolls of different designs lay neatly together.
Xiao Yi Xian's gaze passed over the two Dou Technique scrolls in turn, then fixed on the multicolored scroll, unwilling to move away.
"The Seven-Colored Poison Scripture!"
"A wondrous book devoted to recording how to concoct poisons!" Xiao Yi Xian turned the multicolored scroll over, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
"A Poison Scripture..."
Xiao Lin straightened, his blue robes swaying gently in the darkness.
"It really is well suited to the early cultivation of the woeful poison body."
Boom!
Xiao Yi Xian suddenly froze.
It was as though a thunderbolt had struck, pinning her in place from head to toe.
The smile froze on her face. Her knuckles whitened from the force of her grip, and slight creases appeared in the Seven-Colored Poison Scripture clutched in her hands. Like a scalding hot potato, it seemed to burn her palms furiously.
"B-Brother Xiao Lin, what did you say?"
Her voice trembled, but she forced herself to feign confusion.
"The woeful poison body? What is that?"
Xiao Lin did not answer. He merely stepped slowly forward.
The patterns of his Double Pupils rotated slightly, casting a faint, eerie glow in the dark stone chamber, as though they could pierce every illusion and gaze directly upon the essence beneath.
Under Xiao Lin's gaze, Xiao Yi Xian felt her skin crawl, as though she stood naked before him and he had seen every inch of her.
"I told you earlier."
His voice was low, carrying an unquestionable certainty.
"My eyes can see things others cannot."
He raised his hand, a wisp of heavenly dao energy flowing around his fingertip, and lightly pointed toward Xiao Yi Xian's lower abdomen.
"For instance... here."
Xiao Yi Xian instinctively stepped back, only to feel a warm yet overbearing power seep into her body, fixing her in place.
She lowered her head and saw a slender seven-colored hidden line slowly emerge on her lower abdomen. It extended upward from her dantian like a slumbering venomous dragon, rising and falling faintly with her breathing.
"A seven-colored line." Xiao Lin withdrew his finger, his tone calm.
"The woeful poison body is a rather bizarre special constitution, exceedingly rare."
"It is innately lethally poisonous. Those who touch it die, and its bearer must consume poison to survive. However, the more poison they consume, the more concentrated the toxins within their body become. Once those toxins accumulate to a certain point, they erupt completely. When that happens, all life within a thousand li is destroyed."
"This seven-colored line grows as the concentration of poisonous power within the body increases. When it reaches the heart, the woeful poison body is at its strongest. At the same time, its bearer suffers the agony of ten thousand poisons devouring their body."
Xiao Yi Xian's face turned as white as paper, her delicate body trembling uncontrollably. She stared fixedly at the faint seven-colored line on her lower abdomen, as though she were looking at the course of her own fate.
"You..." Her voice was hoarse, and a barely perceptible trace of despair flashed through her eyes.
"What are you going to do? Are you planning to kill me?"
"Kill you?"
Xiao Lin shook his head, the corners of his mouth lifting into a faint smile.
"If I wanted to kill you, why would I go to all this trouble?"
He turned, looking at Xiao Yi Xian's bloodless face, his voice drifting softly toward her.
"Though the woeful poison body is a calamity of heaven and earth, it is not without a solution."
"From what I know alone, there are several ways to bring it completely under control and avoid the devastation of an uncontrolled outbreak..."
Xiao Yi Xian's pupils abruptly contracted, despair and hope mingling in her eyes. "Really?!"
"You really can control the poison leaking from my body? How?"
When Xiao Yi Xian was three, her mother had taken her to live in a small village that made its living gathering herbs. But her mother and everyone in the village had died from the toxins that leaked out of Xiao Yi Xian's body.
Unwilling to let anyone else die because of her, Xiao Yi Xian had desperately studied medicine, hoping to fill the void in her heart, but it had been futile.
Thus, hearing Xiao Lin's words, she grew intensely excited, as though she had caught hold of a straw that could save her life.
"The first is the Poison Pill Method."
Xiao Lin paced slowly, his figure swaying gently through the dim stone chamber. His voice was low and clear, as though every word weighed a thousand tons.
"You must gather three different heavenly flames, the magic core of a seventh-rank Heavenly Poison Scorpion Dragon Beast, and Bodhi Body Transformation Saliva."
"Using the three heavenly flames as a catalyst, you force every trace of poison in your body into the magic core. Then, using the Bodhi Body Transformation Saliva as a medium, you condense a Poison Pill within your body. When that happens, ten thousand poisons unite as one. Not only will you no longer suffer their backlash, you will be able to control the poisonous Dou Qi within your body at will."
Xiao Yi Xian was dumbstruck.
Three heavenly flames? The magic core of a seventh-rank magical beast?
Even Dou Zong and Dou Zun experts might not be able to gather such legendary treasures!
Let alone the Bodhi Body Transformation Saliva he had mentioned afterward, which she had never even heard of...
"Then... what about the second method?"
Xiao Yi Xian's face fell, but she continued asking.
"The second method..."
Xiao Lin paused, his gaze falling on the skeletal remains in the corner of the stone chamber.
"You must find the netherworld poison flame, ranked twentieth on the Heavenly Flame Ranking."
"This flame is born in the Primordial Netherworld Swamp. Having endured the corrosion of ten thousand poisons, it is itself among the most poisonous things in the world. When the woeful poison body is on the verge of erupting, you pour all the uncontrollable toxins within your body into the heavenly flame, fighting poison with poison and drawing out poison with fire."
"But..."
His tone shifted, his eyes stirring slightly.
"Though the netherworld poison flame can devour toxins, an overload of poison will also drive it berserk. At that point, you must suppress it with another, stronger heavenly flame. Otherwise, the poison flame's backlash will reduce you to ashes."
Xiao Yi Xian's face grew paler still, her delicate body swaying slightly.
Heavenly flames! Heavenly flames again!
Such marvels of heaven and earth were born throughout the continent, taking millions of years to form. Every one possessed the terrifying power to burn mountains and boil seas.
An ordinary Dou Shi would be burned to ashes merely by approaching one, let alone obtaining it. How could a lowly healer like her, a mere four-star Dou Zhe, acquire a heavenly flame?
"These two methods..."
Her voice trembled, and she was on the verge of tears. "For me as I am now, wouldn't they be..."
"They are indeed a little out of reach." Xiao Lin nodded frankly, his tone so calm it bordered on cruelty.
The light in Xiao Yi Xian's eyes abruptly dimmed, as though her last shred of hope had been snuffed out.
She lowered her head to look at the faint seven-colored line on her lower abdomen, her lips pulling into a bitter smile.
"So, in the end, it's still..."
"I haven't finished yet."
Xiao Lin suddenly spoke. His voice remained calm, yet carried an unquestionable force.
He turned, an eerie light flowing through his eyes as he looked directly into hers, which had grown slightly unfocused with despair.
"There is a third method."
"A third?!" Xiao Yi Xian suddenly raised her head, the flames of hope rekindling in her eyes.
"What is it?!"
Xiao Lin pondered briefly, looking at Xiao Yi Xian as the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
"The Heavenly Poison Pearl."
Before you continue