Library of Heaven’s Path

”He drank it all, just like that?”

”Cheers? Does he think that that is wine?”

”To drink lethal poison so nonchalantly… he sure is cool!”

”Indeed. He might be a freshman, but with this, he has my complete respect!”

…

Seeing Zhang Xuan gulping down the poison without any hesitation, a huge commotion broke out among the crowd.

Previously, when he had first uncorked the lid, everyone could feel the overwhelming aura of the lethal poison contained inside.

Putting aside physicians, even poison masters would not dare to swallow such a poison!

Yet, the young man before them had gulped it down casually as if he was drinking wine, even smacking his lips when he was done. Just his courage in itself was truly admirable! Even the seniors who had their reservations about him couldn’t help but feel a surge of respect for him.

There was probably not a second person in the Master Teacher Academy who would willingly drink lethal poison as readily as him!

”You…” Not expecting the other party to drink his poison so quickly, leaving him no time to react at all, You Xu’s mouth twitched uncontrollably.

What do you mean by cheers, and that it’s my turn?

The hell! With such a huge gourd, there is at least four to five jin 1 of urine inside! On top of that, the astringent odor… How am I to drink this?

”I have already drunk your lethal poison, but you still aren’t going to drink mine? Fine by me as well. You are the one who set the rules, and you have failed to follow them. Since that’s the case, I will report it to the Physician Guild this instant to have your physician license revoked!” Zhang Xuan waved his hands.

”You…” You Xu’s complexion turned extremely awful, and he felt as if he was going to explode at any moment.

He had heard of how troublesome this fellow was, but he had never thought much of it. To think that it would actually be true!

To leave the Tower of Physicians in such a state and force him into accepting his duel… and now, the other party was even making him drink saint beast urine!

Refuse, and he would lose the duel, subjecting him to the whims of the other party.

Drink, and the reputation he had built up painstakingly over the course of his life would go down the drain.

There was no way out for him.

Neither option was one he could accept.

He had thought that he was ingenious to have thought of proposing a Duel of Poison Curing, but who knew that it would turn out to be the stinkiest decision he had ever made!

Forget it! Even though the Spirit Solution of Vigor is urine, it’s still a type of medicinal ingredient…

But ultimately, could one’s life possibly be more important than one’s reputation?

”Fine, I’ll drink it then!”

Gritting his teeth in determination, You Xu pinched his nose and took the gourd. Tilting his head upwards, he gulped it down.

The predecessors of the Physician Guild had also needed to consume all kinds of saint beast urines back then in order to formulate prescriptions to treat specific illnesses. Thinking about it from that perspective, drinking the Spirit Solution of Vigor didn’t seem to be much of a deal anymore.

Gudong, gudong!

The odor from the Spirit Solution of Vigor was so overpowering that You Xu’s lips began twitching wildly, and tears streamed down his cheeks.

Elder Mo’s gourd was extremely large, storing around four to five jin of the Spirit Solution. Despite the speed at which You Xu was gulping it down, it still took him three minutes before he was able to ingest all of it.

The urine of saint beasts was far harsher to the nose than a human’s. Putting aside whether there was any poison in the Spirit Solution of Vigor in the first place, just the smell itself already left You Xu extremely nauseated, and he felt as if he would vomit at any moment.

”I’m done!”

After exhaling a mouthful of foul-smelling breath, You Xu glared at Zhang Xuan savagely with a reddened face.

Just as You Xu was going to see if his poison had started to act on Zhang Xuan yet, he suddenly saw the latter gazing at him in admiration, even giving a thumbs up toward him.

”You drank it all? Impressive! When I said feel free, I meant that you don’t have to finish drinking the entire gourd. Actually, my poison only requires you to drink a mouthful. I truly didn’t expect Vice School Head You to have such a unique taste, gulping down an entire gourd of it… I am truly in awe of you!”

The purpose of the Spirit Solution of Vigor was just to conceal the unique presence of his Heaven’s Path zhenqi. You Xu just had to drink a single mouthful for the Heaven’s Path zhenqi infused in it to seep into his body.

Who could have known that the other party would be so drastic, finishing such a large gourd to the last drop? He sure was impressive!

”You…”

You Xu’s body swayed weakly, and a mouthful of orange-yellowish liquid spewed from his mouth. A repugnant odor could be smelled from his breath.

A mouthful is sufficient? Screw you!

You are toying with me, aren’t you?

”I will remember this! Let’s see if you can laugh until the very end! If you can’t neutralize the poison within the next hour, you will have lost the duel!”

Knowing that it was impossible for him to win a verbal fight against Zhang Xuan, You Xu gritted his teeth and harrumphed coldly.

”Neutralize the poison within the next hour? There’s no need to be that troublesome. I have already neutralized the poison…” Zhang Xuan looked at You Xu with a wry smile on his face.

The latter’s poison was indeed formidable. If it had been in the past, even with Zhang Xuan’s Heaven’s Path zhenqi, it would still have taken quite a bit of effort for him to neutralize it.

However, the previous transfusion of soul essence with Wei Ruyan had resulted in a change of his constitution, granting his body with properties reminiscent of the Innate Poison Body.

To the current Zhang Xuan, drinking You Xu’s poison was not much different from drinking any beverage. Its lethality was completely ineffective on him.

On the contrary, the spirit from the medicinal herbs used to concoct the poison further reinforced his cultivation and his soul. His soul had grown yet again from its size of ten meters. Even though he would have to draw out his soul in order to ascertain how much the growth was, it was a fact that his soul energy had grown significantly more condensed.

In other words, not only was the poison not harmful to him, it even boosted his cultivation.

”You have already neutralized the poison?” You Xu staggered, and he nearly fell from the stage.

Are you for real?

That poison was his greatest trump card! With it, he could even kill opponents who possessed a higher cultivation than him… Yet, the fellow hadn’t attempted to consume an antidote or done anything at all, how in the world did he manage to neutralize his poison?

”That’s right. If I’m not mistaken, the core ingredients of your poison are ’Green-leafed Heart Nexus Plant’ and ’Soulless Flower’, and you added another 49 medicinal ingredients to complement them. Should an ordinary Saint consume just a single drop, their heart and mind would be corroded, resulting in a swift death.

”Not only so, this poison has the effect of numbing one’s nerves as well. When diluted heavily, it can be used to make others obey one’s commands. This property of it is extremely potent as well, working on Saint realm experts too.”

At which, Zhang Xuan chuckled lightly. ”The poison you concocted is indeed formidable. However, it is nothing before me! It just happens that I do know how to make an antidote to it. Three qian of Green Bamboo Shoot, two liang of Silverwear Grass, four qian of White Angelica Wood… Grind all 23 medicinal ingredients into powder, and that would be the antidote to your poison. There isn’t even a need to concoct anything at all.”

”Y-you…”

Every word that Zhang Xuan spoke made You Xu widen his eyes a little more. By the time he was done saying everything, the latter’s eyes were already bulging as if he had seen a ghost.

Given that You Xu had the poison in his hands, it was natural that he would have the antidote as well. Regardless of whether it was the poison or the antidote, the other party’s analysis was spot-on!

In other words, the reason Zhang Xuan was still fine despite drinking his poison was because he had neutralized it instantaneously…

Was that still the feat of a human?

Just how could one possibly do that?

Why did it feel as if he wasn’t consuming poison but just having a meal instead?

”Am I right?” Zhang Xuan glanced at You Xu with a provocative smile.

When he received the jade bottle, he had used the Library of Heaven’s Path to analyze its content. As a result, he knew the various ingredients of the poison, and from that, he was able to formulate an antidote to it.

Saint realm poison? A piece of cake!

”You… Fine, you might be right! However, this isn’t your victory yet… I can neutralize your poison, too! Open!”

Gritting his teeth, You Xu’s zhenqi began surging furiously.

Hong long!

In the next instant, all of his acupoints abruptly opened, and a fiery aura immediately gushed into the surroundings. In an instant, it felt as if he was a searing cauldron.

”This is… the ’Grand Circulation Cauldron Poison Expelling Art’?” Zhong Dingchun exclaimed with narrowed eyes.

Hearing the lengthy name of the technique that the other party had stated, School Head Zhao, School Head Mo, and the others turned to him with questioning gazes.

”This is a technique created by 6-star pinnacle Physician Qian Buyou five thousand years ago. This technique allows one to expel the poison within one’s body without consuming an antidote.

”Despite the profound variations of poison in the world, poison is, in essence, a foreign substance that isn’t compatible with the human body, invading one’s meridians and acupoints. The Grand Circulation Cauldron Poison Expelling Art was designed based on this fundamental interpretation of poison; by using one’s body as a cauldron and one’s zhenqi as a power source, it expels all poisonous substances from one’s acupoints in a gaseous form!

”However, due to the technique’s inability to clearly differentiate between poison and other essential parts of the body, the usage of this technique inflicts permanent damage on the foundation of one’s body. Nevertheless, it has never failed in dealing with poison before. As long as it isn’t the kind of poison that results in instantaneous death, this technique will be able to resolve it. However, this technique went missing a few thousand years ago… How did You Xu learn it?” Zhong Dingchun explained with a deep frown.

The Grand Circulation Cauldron Poison Expelling Art was an incredibly effective skill in dealing with poison, but at the same time, it was an extremely difficult skill to master. Furthermore, it was said to have disappeared from the world several thousand years ago.

It was bizarre that You Xu knew of the technique when he, the head of the Physician School, didn’t know of it.

On top of that, the poison which the other party had just taken out was also something he had never heard of before.

His doubts only served to deepen after Zhang Xuan described the prescription.

The core ingredients of the poison, Green-leafed Heart Nexus Plant and Soulless Flower, were medicinal herbs that had gone extinct several centuries ago. It was impossible to find them anywhere now… If that was the case, how did that fellow concoct the poison?

On top of that, even though poison masters and physicians shared many similarities in their fields of specialty, the core capabilities they possessed were still different from one another. It would be difficult for a physician to concoct a lethal poison capable of killing a Saint realm expert unless there was a poison master working with him!

But… poison masters had always been the nemeses of physicians. Could that fellow have some secret connection with them?

I will have to question him thoroughly on this matter after this matter is over… Zhong Dingchun thought with a grim expression.

While Zhong Dingchun was contemplating the issue, School Head Mo, School Head Zhao, and the others came to a realization upon hearing his words.

”No wonder he challenged Zhang shi to a Duel of Poison Curing! He has such an ace up his sleeves!”

Despite the various reasons that You Xu had come up with to convince Zhang Xuan to accept the duel, it was still bizarre that a physician would choose to compete not on patient treating but poison curing. It turned out that he did have the absolute confidence in achieving victory over Zhang Xuan on this aspect.

A technique that could resolve any poison easily… It was natural that he would choose the format of the duel to be poison curing, especially after hearing about the formidable feats Zhang Xuan had performed in the Physician School!

Hong long!

While they were chatting, a yellowish gas gushed out of Vice School Head You’s body, reminiscent of steam fleeing from the various apertures of a cauldron.

”Pungent!”

”This foul smell is really intolerable!”

”Hurry up and seal your six senses, or else you will be stunk to death…”

”Sealing the six senses don’t work at all! That pungent gas seeps right into our acupoints…”

…

As more and more yellowish gas was expelled from Vice School Head You’s body, the crowd beneath frowned in displeasure.

The smell of the Spirit Solution of Vigor alone was already overwhelming to any human. Yet, the Grand Circulation Cauldron Poison Expelling Art further refined it before releasing it into the air, worsening the odor many times over.

Even Saint realm experts like Zhao Bingxu, Wei Ranxue, and the others couldn’t stand it, and they hurriedly created a barrier of zhenqi to ward off the odor.

Otherwise, they might really just faint from the sheer acridity of the stench!

Hu!

After some time, You Xu’s body finally stopped expelling yellowish gas. His entire face was ghastly pale from frailty, and it looked like he had been choked by the stench as well.

However, the excited gleam in his eyes couldn’t be concealed. Flinging his sleeves, he declared proudly, ”I have neutralized your poison too!”

While he did take longer than Zhang Xuan to neutralize the poison, arguably, he did consume the poison later, and the quantity he consumed was much more as well. As long as he were to grasp onto these points firmly, he should be able to force the duel into a draw.

”You have neutralized my poison?”

Seeing You Xu’s confident face, Zhang Xuan shook his head and gazed at You Xu in sympathy. ”Do you even know what poison you are inflicted with?”

You Xu harrumphed coldly. ”No matter what kind of poison you used, my Grand Circulation Cauldron Poison Expelling Art is able to resolve it easily…”

However, before he could finish his words, he suddenly felt an intense pain assaulting his chest.

Pfffft!

A mouthful of blood spurted from his mouth, and his body began shaking uncontrollably. At the same time, his face swiftly turned black.

You Xu widened his eyes as his body stiffened in shock.

”I haven’t neutralized your poison yet?”