After "sparing no effort" in praising Apothecary's idea, Xiao Yan began discussing with her how to cultivate the Woeful Poison Body.
Master and disciple had already started treating Xiao Yi Xian as "one of their own." After all, Xiao Yi Xian had agreed back then.
"Girl, I actually wanted to say this at the time, but you were chatting so enthusiastically with that little girl that I couldn't bring myself to interrupt-" Apothecary said with a mischievous grin.
"With a Woeful Poison Body, becoming an Alchemist won't be easy."
"..."
Xiao Yan fell silent.
Back then, Apothecary had only told her that Xiao Yi Xian had a special constitution, and that she should get on good terms with her-better yet, lure her away. She would be a super-powered enforcer in the future.
Then Xiao Yan had seen that, despite not even being a Dou Zhe, Xiao Yi Xian could make some healing medicines. Not only did she have a basic understanding of medicinal properties and pharmacology, but her talent was decent too. So Xiao Yan had immediately dangled a rosy promise before her: come learn Alchemy with your big sister.
As it turned out, Xiao Yi Xian had a Woeful Poison Body. There was no need even to guess at her Dou Qi's attribute-it was definitely [poison].
Although poison-attribute Dou Qi could still produce Dou Qi flames and process medicinal herbs, well...
"Teacher, why can't poison Dou Qi be used to refine pills?"
Apothecary: "???"
Seriously? She was an Eighth Grade Peak Alchemist, the foremost pill refiner on the continent as long as those few Ninth Grade old fossils stayed out of sight, and a teenage girl was "challenging" her?
It would have been one thing if Xiao Yan had been humbly asking for guidance, but her expression clearly said, "Girl, aren't you thinking a little too small?"
It was like some wet-behind-the-ears brat walking up to Lü Bu and saying, "Buddy, you don't know how to use a halberd either, huh?"
Apothecary's "blood pressure" shot straight up.
Good grief. If it had been anyone else, the only reason they wouldn't have beaten the shit out of Xiao Yan was that she'd already emptied her bowels!
Of course, that might also have been because a certain Yan had already gained some cultivation, subsisting on the northwest wind every day and treating the absorption of worldly energy as her meals.
Still, this was her own disciple, so Apothecary decided to give Xiao Yan a chance to speak.
If she can't convince me, she can't blame me for punishing her for "disrespecting her master." Heh heh heh...
"Ahem... What ideas do you have? Let's hear them." Apothecary cleared her throat and looked at Xiao Yan.
She refused to believe Xiao Yan could spin flowers out of her words when it came to poisons and pills.
"Teacher, I wonder if you've ever heard this saying: discussing toxicity without considering dosage is sheer quackery."
"...Speak plainly."
"Hmm... Let me put it this way. Poison actually has plenty of uses. Poison Pills are themselves a branch of the pill-refining arts. They can harm people, but they can also save them. The world has a lot of misconceptions about this..."
"How can poison save people?" Apothecary couldn't help asking.
"Ah, now you've asked the right person."
Beast flame rose from Xiao Yan's hand. She refined some medicinal herbs and casually tossed them into the medicinal bath's "tub," then began explaining to Apothecary how to fight poison with poison... Ahem, "the applications of poison in medicine."
After all, Xiao Yan was now an Alchemist herself and had some understanding of the Dou Qi Continent's "medical" system.
Combined with some "experience" from her previous life, she really could offer Apothecary a few fresh ideas.
"Teacher, I'll use relatively common snake venom as an example. Some snakebites cause numbness, and sometimes people don't even notice they've been bitten."
Apothecary nodded, motioning for Xiao Yan to continue.
"At the right dosage, that kind of snake venom is actually the best painkiller."
Apothecary froze.
Although she had never heard the term "dosage" before, the Dou Qi Continent was actually very similar to a certain civilization on Blue Star.
With the notion of "amount" in the word, she could understand what it meant.
Using snake venom... as a painkiller?
No one had ever thought that way before, just as no one had ever considered that "amputation" could treat brand poison.
After all, in the eyes of the Dou Qi Continent's "natives," poison was poison. Ordinary people couldn't get away from it fast enough. Who would study its uses?
Even Apothecary had never considered "using poison." The things she used in pill refining were medicinal herbs, magic cores, and the like.
Perhaps some poison masters had researched this subject, but on the Dou Qi Continent, being a poison master was a profession that "couldn't be brought out into polite company."
Ordinary people either avoided poison masters like the plague or killed every one they encountered.
In such an environment, naturally, no one cared what uses for poison a poison master had "discovered." Even if they saw them, they would treat them as "crooked, heretical practices."
A normal person's first reaction would be: those people were fine only because they soaked in poison all day long. An ordinary person like you should try taking a little poison and see what happened!
But after being "educated" by Xiao Yan several times already, Apothecary had begun considering the feasibility of a "snake-venom painkiller" almost as a conditioned reflex...
"Some snakes make a person's blood clot into a lump when they bite." Xiao Yan hadn't noticed Apothecary's "odd behavior" and continued:
"Study it a little, combine a suitable dosage with some other medicinal herbs, remove the toxicity, and retain only the bleeding-stopping effect. That would make a pretty good hemostatic medicine, perhaps even more effective than one refined from medicinal herbs;"
"And there's also..."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait..." Apothecary interrupted Xiao Yan outright. "Girl, give me a moment to process this..."
Xiao Yan obediently shut her mouth. In truth, that was about all she had wanted to say anyway. She had basically finished.
As for fighting cancer, lowering blood pressure, dissolving blood clots, and all that, Apothecary wouldn't understand even if she explained, so she might as well leave it unsaid. Besides, she had only heard about those things and didn't actually understand them herself...
At that moment, Apothecary had already experienced an "epiphany"-
Countless new approaches and ideas "erupted" in Apothecary's mind.
As someone who stood at the very "ceiling" of Alchemy, all Apothecary lacked was a "spark."
Once someone helped Apothecary "open the door to a new world," even her casual ideas reached heights ordinary Alchemists could never attain in a lifetime.
Xiao Yan estimated that Apothecary would need quite a while to "process things," so she closed her eyes, released a thread of soul power to envelop the entire room, and began cultivating.
Meanwhile, the embryonic form of a "Poison Pill Path" swiftly appeared in Apothecary's mind, and she integrated, improved, and corrected it...
All it needed was "verification," and this new "Alchemy system" could be perfected. The value it would bring was simply immeasurable!
And someone with a Woeful Poison Body could definitely control toxins with precision while remaining "immune to a hundred poisons." She was simply the ideal candidate to verify and practice this path!
Having formed a preliminary concept and plan, and gained some ideas about how to cultivate Xiao Yi Xian, Apothecary quickly "freed herself" from her "epiphany."
Then she frowned at Xiao Yan, who was cultivating while soaking in her medicinal bath.
...Something's wrong. Where exactly does a teenage girl get so many bizarre... Ahem, "unusual" ideas? And why do they all actually make sense?
Could she have been possessed? I remember this girl's soul and body being in perfect harmony, so she shouldn't have been possessed... Is it really just because she's full of crafty ideas?
Apothecary watched Xiao Yan with an inscrutable gaze. After hesitating for a moment, she pointed a finger at her from a distance.
Xiao Yan, who was soaking in her medicinal bath with a sliver of attention set aside to "monitor" the outside world, had no ability to resist. Her head drooped, and she fell asleep.
Then Apothecary plunged straight into Xiao Yan's body, leaving behind one remark:
"Still not sure. Let's take another look..."
Before you continue