Removing the Poison

With a hum of trembling wings, a woman and a cicada arrived at the cave.

Inside, Lin Sui sat cross-legged on the ground. He had thrown a large chunk of spirit crystal straight into his storage bag, attracting the Spirit-Corroding Insects. He easily caught the colony's king at their center, erased the remnants of the red-robed Daoist's soul imprint, and overlaid it with his own spiritual sense.

The insect king was a black-and-white beetle twice the size of the others, with ink-black markings on its body. Controlling it meant controlling the entire swarm.

Having subdued the swarm effortlessly, he immediately refined the golden elemental root and spirit bamboo root into the No Falsehood Sword. The cracks inside the blade, invisible to the naked eye, finally closed completely.

But the sword spirit still had not fully awakened. It sent out only a faint but intense thought: Origin crystal...

"..."

Lin Sui ignored it and put the sword away. Sensing that Su Fuxi had been waiting outside the cave for a month, he hurried out.

"Master, sorry for the wait."

Seeing her sitting at ease on the golden cicada's back, he even felt that the enormous insect beast, with its terrifying face, had become docile and cute.

"Mm."

When she saw Lin Sui come out, Su Fuxi quickly put away the ball of silver light floating before her. It was the Thousand Silk Gu, which had shrunk a size after being burned by the fireball that day.

She had subdued it over the past few days. The red-robed Daoist had treasured it so much that he kept it in his dantian, but she was unwilling to keep a living thing inside her body and simply tossed it into her storage bag.

Su Fuxi then sent a strand of spiritual power into Lin Sui and found that his cultivation had stabilized at the early stage. He must have broken through only recently. Lin Sui was already used to this and failed to notice a trace of concealed spiritual power passing through the crown of his head.

In that instant, a hidden, unusual mark flashed faintly at the crown of his head.

"How is your cultivation of the God-Slaying Finger coming along?" Su Fuxi asked casually, her brows drawing together slightly. The Cauldron Mark was still very faint. It would take at least a hundred thousand slaughter cyclones for it to mature, and the deeper the mark, the easier it would be to seize his body.

Lin Sui waved a hand, releasing the Soul of Slaughter puppet hidden in the mark on his left hand. "Just one puppet so far..." After all, he was not one to delight in killing, and he had encountered remarkably few cultivators while traveling alone through the secret realm this time.

The puppet materialized from black mist, a dark phantom that looked somewhat like Lin Sui. It floated behind him, giving off waves of chilling cold. In the blink of an eye, it completely withdrew its aura, turned into a wisp of mist, and merged into the shadow at his feet, vanishing from sight.

She nodded in understanding.

"I was careless and afflicted with cold poison. Do you have a way to help me remove it?"

At a thought from Su Fuxi, she leaped off the golden cicada and landed before him like a feather.

After a pause, she raised her fair wrist and held it out before him, gesturing for him to examine it.

Her wrist looked as though it had been formed from jade and snow. Lin Sui could not help staring at it, and his heart skipped a beat at the thought that he had held it in his hand before.

He could almost still feel that smooth, cool... sensation lingering in his palm. He froze for a full two breaths before hurriedly saying, "I-I'll do my best to try, Master!"

He then reached out with his callused hand and took hold of her wrist.

Her hand felt icy cold.

Lin Sui released his spiritual power, sending it along her wrist and into the meridians inside her body for the first time. Although his spiritual power met no resistance, he immediately sensed an intense cold aura!

That's right! Lin Sui's gaze sharpened slightly. No wonder her body had always seemed strange before, cold one moment and hot the next. He had assumed it was caused by the gu poison, but she had already been afflicted with cold poison.

Putting aside his stray thoughts, he looked at the white gauze over Su Fuxi's eyes. "I can remove the cold poison for you, Master, but... it might take a little longer."

Su Fuxi withdrew her wrist. "How long?"

"At least half a month, three months at most," Lin Sui said seriously. He would not deceive her about something like this.

Su Fuxi glanced at him. "Fine, three months it is!"

"Do we need to prepare anything?"

"No. I already have a third-tier fire-attribute inner core that can ease the pain and strain of removing the poison, Master."

"Ah!"

Su Fuxi had thought she would not need a fire-attribute inner core to remove the poison at all, but the first session hurt so badly that she could not help letting out a short cry.

To remove the poison, Lin Sui needed to send his spiritual power into her body and use his Ice Art to draw the cold aura inside her out and disperse it through her limbs. He would then use his spiritual power as a wedge to block the cold aura from flowing back into her internal organs and dantian, dividing and dispelling it.

The process was very slow and required great care. Otherwise, the Ice Art would worsen her cold poison and damage her meridians.

At that moment, in the spacious, brightly lit cave dwelling, Lin Sui sat cross-legged opposite her, holding a hand seal as he drew the cold aura down from her right shoulder and along her arm from a distance.

He then held his large hand palm to palm with hers and circulated his Ice Spirit Root, transferring wisps of cold aura from her body into his own, where his rapidly spinning Golden Core refined and absorbed them.

It hurts! It hurts...

It felt as though countless needles of cold were being forcibly drawn out of her flesh, a piercing agony like ten thousand arrows passing through her body. Su Fuxi's face turned pale, and she clenched her teeth and held her breath, making no further sound.

She stifled every groan of pain. A dignified Golden Core cultivator who could not bear even this much pain would lose far too much face!

She could not let this brat notice anything amiss, either.

"Master, hold on a little longer." Seeing how she was bearing the pain, Lin Sui's heart ached for her. If he forcibly drew the cold poison from her body to shorten the treatment, the pain would be several times worse than it was now.

So he went more slowly. At least that would not harm her meridians; it was the way he had thought of to lessen her pain as much as possible.

When he finished transferring the cold aura from her right shoulder, Su Fuxi let out a deep breath. Cold sweat covered her forehead, and after her chest rose and fell for a few moments, she gritted her teeth and spoke, her breath misting with cold. "C-continue."

Lin Sui looked at her icy expression and waited for the pain to ease a little before raising his hands to form another seal. It was only after the time it took an incense stick to burn that he drew out the cold aura from her left shoulder. Needlelike strands of cold poured into his palm, where his spirit root transformed and absorbed them.

It hurts!

So tired... As Su Fuxi's taut nerves relaxed, she suddenly lost her balance and toppled straight to one side. Lin Sui swiftly caught her in his arms. "Master!"

"This is your first time undergoing the treatment. Rest for now, and tomorrow..." As he spoke, he placed the fire-attribute inner core in her hand to ward off the cold. Su Fuxi's fingers trembled slightly as she gripped it, and she interrupted him in a soft but resolute voice. "Continue."

They were already halfway through today's treatment, and she had no intention of giving up halfway. She had finally managed to get used to the pain.

She could not circulate her spiritual power during the treatment; she had to let the cold poison erupt. If they stopped now, she feared it would become even harder to bear later.

"Master..." Lin Sui was still hesitating when Su Fuxi raised her head from his chest and pushed him away firmly and decisively.

His arm loosened from around her waist. She lay down on the cushion without another word and closed her eyes, refusing to look at him. "Continue. The sooner we finish today's treatment, the sooner I can rest."

Her words were quite similar to what she had said when they dealt with the Crimson Immortal. Understanding what she meant-that a short pain was better than a long one-Lin Sui raised his hands and formed a seal.

But inwardly, Su Fuxi was complaining bitterly. Removing poison, removing poison, removing poison-poison again! Am I cursed to be hounded by this damned poison for the rest of my life?

Cursing the heavens while enduring the pain in her leg, she felt the cold aura travel through her flesh like countless fine needles, passing through her thigh, knee, and calf to her bare, delicate foot... Her rounded, pink-and-white toes curled slightly in embarrassment as Lin Sui held her foot in his large hand and swiftly drew the cold aura into himself.

"...!"

Su Fuxi had lost all desire to live. It hurt, it tingled, and it was mortifying. At times, she even wondered what that rebellious disciple Lin Sui was doing!

Don't think I didn't notice you deliberately brush the sole of my foot with your fingertip! She could barely keep from cursing. It really tickled, all right?!

Rebellious disciple, rebellious disciple, rebellious disciple!

Damn it, once this cold poison is gone, I'll throw him onto Black Rock Mountain and toss him into that cold spring to soak for half a year or more!

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