A way to overcome it

At that moment, Xiao Yi Xian had no idea that, as she prepared to wash, a boy had already hidden himself in a nearby tree, ready to feast his eyes.

Using the foliage as cover, Xiao Yan concealed himself perfectly. He also remembered to divert a little soul force to block Yao Lao out again. How could a dignified Dou Zun expert shamelessly peep at a little girl bathing? Thus, out of consideration for Yao Lao's reputation, Xiao Yan locked him in the Little Black Room once more.

Soon, Xiao Yan spotted the seven-colored threads on Xiao Yi Xian's lower abdomen. They were precisely the distinguishing marks of the woeful poison body recorded in the Seven-Colored Poison Scripture. Having confirmed this, Xiao Yan prepared to leave. He had little interest in the young girl's undeveloped figure, anyway. It was not as though he had a thing for little girls...

But just as he was about to rise, a piercing cry suddenly rang out overhead. A small blue eagle swooped down from the sky. Xiao Yan instinctively tried to dodge, but that slight movement snapped the branch beneath his feet, sending him tumbling into the stream below.

"Damn it! You wretched eagle! I'll slaughter you and make you into soup!" Xiao Yan emerged from the stream with an angry curse. He was just about to fly up and seize the blue eagle when he suddenly felt a stare boring into his back. He turned around awkwardly, only to find Xiao Yi Xian covering her chest with both arms, glaring at him in shame and fury...

"Uh... would you believe me if I said I was practicing a Dou Technique and fell by accident?" Xiao Yan asked with a dry laugh.

Smack!

A few minutes later, Xiao Yan sat silently on a nearby slab of bluestone, a bright red handprint adorning his face. Watching the blue eagle flapping its wings overhead, he could not help sighing inwardly. Even a man can fumble, and even a horse can stumble. With my current strength, I still managed to botch peeping at a little girl bathing. What rotten luck...

"Why do you keep staring at my Xiao Lan? Holding a grudge?" Xiao Yi Xian had dressed by then. With a beckoning gesture, she called the blue eagle down from the sky. The bird settled beside her and gently rubbed against her arm.

"Where did this fellow come from? Why haven't I seen it before?" Xiao Yan asked in puzzlement. When he had fought the Heavenly Poison Woman in the Chu Yun Empire in his previous life, she had been accompanied by a giant blue eagle. Could this be the same one?

"I met it a few months ago. It was injured, so I bandaged its wounds and looked after it for a while. I never expected it to keep following me afterward," Xiao Yi Xian said with a smile, stroking the blue eagle's feathers.

Generally speaking, magical beasts like this were extremely savage creatures. She had never imagined that an act of kindness would earn her its friendship and loyalty.

"Only you would bother doing something so pointless. If it were me, I'd have caught it and made it into soup ages ago," Xiao Yan teased, looking at the blue eagle.

At Xiao Yan's words, the blue eagle, which had been perfectly docile beneath Xiao Yi Xian's hand, immediately began flapping its wings. Before it could do anything, however, a wisp of black flame rose from Xiao Yan's palm. The eagle's blustering arrogance vanished at once, and it shrank behind Xiao Yi Xian, no longer daring to show its head.

"Honestly, why are you picking a fight with a child?" Xiao Yi Xian said helplessly as she soothed the blue eagle. The bird was not yet three years old and was still in its infancy, so calling it a child was hardly an exaggeration. But hearing her words, Xiao Yan smiled and asked, "Have you forgotten that I'm a child too?"

"Uh..." Xiao Yi Xian froze. Perhaps because Xiao Yan behaved so maturely, she had never really regarded him as a child. Only now did she suddenly realize that he was still a boy who had not even turned ten.

Naturally, Xiao Yan would not hold a grudge against a magical beast that had not even reached the first rank. After leaving the stream, he settled his mind and released the secret technique blocking Yao Lao. Before Yao Lao could speak, he asked, "Teacher, is there any way to overcome the woeful poison body?"

"Why are you asking about that?" Yao Lao asked, slightly taken aback.

"Didn't I find a Poison Scripture in that cave earlier? It contains records about the woeful poison body. According to the characteristics described there, Xiao Yi Xian has it," Xiao Yan said slowly. "Although hers hasn't awakened yet, it's still extremely dangerous, so I wanted to ask whether you knew any way to overcome it."

Although Xiao Yan had been a Peak Dou Sheng expert in his previous life, every craft had its own specialty. His knowledge in this field might truly fall short of Yao Lao's, despite the latter only being a Dou Zun. After all, Yao Lao was publicly recognized as the foremost Alchemist in the Central Plains. Moreover, Xiao Yan had never researched the woeful poison body in his previous life, so naturally he had no idea how to deal with it.

"To think this little girl actually has the woeful poison body..." Yao Lao sighed. He had once fought a previous bearer of that physique and naturally knew how terrifying it was. After pondering for a moment, he said, "I have no way to overcome the woeful poison body. This physique is inherently incurable. However, there is a way to bring it under control."

"Control the poison body?"

"Yes. It's called the Poison Pill Method. Simply put, you condense the toxins accumulated in the body into a Poison Pill, allowing you to control the woeful poison body. I'll transmit the details to you." As soon as he finished speaking, Yao Lao sent the specifics of the Poison Pill Method into Xiao Yan's mind.

After reviewing the information Yao Lao had transmitted, even Xiao Yan's expression grew grave. No wonder none of the bearers of the woeful poison body throughout the ages had met a good end. This so-called Poison Pill Method was actually this difficult.

The Poison Pill Method itself was not difficult. The difficulty lay in the three ingredients required to carry it out. The first was three heavenly flames, the second was the magic core of a seventh-rank Heavenly Poison Scorpion Dragon Beast, and the third was bodhi body-transforming saliva.

The first two were manageable. Though difficult to obtain, Xiao Yan was not without ways to gather them. The real sticking point was the third. It supposedly had some connection to the Bodhi Ancient Tree, but that tree only appeared once every thousand years. In Xiao Yan's memory, its next appearance would not come for another twenty or thirty years...

However, if the Poison Pill were successfully condensed, the power of the woeful poison body would also advance by leaps and bounds. Its bearer might even reach the Dou Sheng level. A Dou Sheng with the woeful poison body would possess truly terrifying power.

Thus, Xiao Yan did not want to abandon this method, for only through it could he bring the Heavenly Poison Woman's power to its fullest potential. No matter how powerful she was, a Heavenly Poison Woman who might lose control at any moment held no appeal for him. But if she could control her power at will, that was another matter entirely. Xiao Yan's goal was to create a bearer of the woeful poison body whom he could command as he pleased.