After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 333: Chapter 332: Poisonous Dragon Saliva

”My woman... I thought she was completely devoted to me, that she was the best woman in the world. I gave her everything she wanted,” Dong Rui said coldly. ”Then I started feeling like something was off. I’d ask, but she wouldn’t say anything. Turns out, one day, while I was dead drunk, she forced the most vicious poison from the apothecary down my throat!”

He stroked his chin and sneered. ”Women... heheh, women!”

Hee Lingchuan placed a hand on the wine jug. ”You can’t skip the details. Your story doesn’t make sense. Why would she poison you for no good reason?”

”She found a lover on the side—the son of another Tribal Chieftain. A pretty boy with delicate skin, just like you.” Dong Rui chuckled. ”I sent my Ghost Apes to tear her lover to pieces, bit by bit, and eat him. She cried for two days, but said nothing after that. I thought she’d come to her senses.”

Hee Lingchuan touched his own cheek. ’Me, a pretty boy? After being exposed to the wind and sun all day?’

Then again, just looking at Dong Rui’s features, the word ”handsome” was nowhere in the vicinity. He probably thought any man with even features was a pretty boy.

”What happened then? Did you kill her?”

”No.” Dong Rui glumly took another two swigs of wine. ”She ran out crying and jumped off a cliff. Tell me, wasn’t she crazy?”

Hee Lingchuan patted his shoulder. ”She and you... you weren’t family.”

They were never meant to be under the same roof.

Just then, a massive black shadow suddenly blocked their view.

Second Madam Zhu had emerged.

”Got wine?”

So she’d come over after catching the scent.

Hee Lingchuan took another jug out of his Storage Ring. ”You want some?”

Second Madam Zhu didn’t need him to break the clay seal. She plunged her mouthparts right in and started sucking. With her ability to drain a grown man dry in a single go, finishing a jug of wine only took her a few breaths’ time.

”Got any more?”

”Have another.”

In the blink of an eye, she had finished four jugs of Hee Lingchuan’s fine wine. When she asked for more, Hee Lingchuan just spread his hands.

”That’s it, that’s all I have.”

Both men were a bit surprised that the Giant Spider enjoyed wine. But wine sweeps away worries. After drinking, Second Madam Zhu was clearly much more agreeable, even letting out a drunken hiccup. ”Good wine. Potent stuff. Better than what the merchants bring.”

”Merchants?” Hee Lingchuan was slightly surprised. ”There are merchants here?”

”You thought this place was cut off from the world?” Second Madam Zhu chuckled. ”You human merchants come once a month to buy Spider Silk.”

Right. The silk of the Earth Cave Spider was unusually tough, and Second Madam Zhu’s handiwork was comparable to the most dexterous human weavers. The Cloud Brocade she wove was as light as a floating feather yet tougher than iron.

Those two simple sentences made Hee Lingchuan’s eyes light up.

Over the past few days, Second Madam Zhu had summoned him for questioning, but it was all just idle chatter—things like the changes in the Yuan Kingdom over the years, the Hee Family’s affairs, and the relationship between him and Dong Rui.

She seemed particularly interested in the Beiga Kingdom, but unfortunately, Hee Lingchuan didn’t know much about it.

Hee Lingchuan had also tried to pry some information out of her, but Second Madam Zhu was, after all, a worldly Great Demon, and she was tight-lipped.

Though it looked like they were having a pleasant chat, it was really just talk, with no real feelings involved.

It wouldn’t stop Second Madam Zhu from eating him in one bite whenever she got tired of him.

When would the merchants next enter the swamp? Hee Lingchuan didn’t ask, nor did he let Dong Rui ask. He just nonchalantly changed the subject.

”What’s so bad about the Beiga Kingdom? You didn’t want to stay there.”

The Northern Demon Kingdom was renowned, having stood for nearly six hundred years without falling, making it almost the longest-lived empire in the world. Demons everywhere yearned to go there, so why did Second Madam Zhu leave after visiting?

Hee Lingchuan remembered that the Crocodile God had also fled from the Beiga Kingdom. And then there was Hong Chenglu, who chose to retreat to Xiazhou with his wife to live in poverty.

Why was that?

”You’d know if you’d been there. It’s all glamorous on the outside, but a complete mess on the inside!” Second Madam Zhu sneered. ”Some Demon Kingdom! They have to be all meek and respectful to humans! In the Ancient Times, Demon Immortals reigned supreme in their own territories. Common people were like ants—you could eat them or use them as you pleased. Who had all these restrictive rules back then!”

Hee Lingchuan and Dong Rui glanced at each other. ’To Second Madam Zhu, aren’t we also consumables to be ’eaten or used as you please’?’

As an old relic, Second Madam Zhu naturally missed the glory days of the Ancient Great Demons.

But times had changed. Her ideals were no longer compatible with the current Demon Kingdom. If she had forced herself to stay in the Beiga Kingdom, she probably would have caused trouble.

But then Second Madam Zhu added, ”Those in high positions are nice to humans, but they’re treacherous to fellow demons! I wasn’t in the Beiga Kingdom for two months before something important was stolen from me!” She couldn’t stop sneering as she spoke.

Both men asked what was stolen, but Second Madam Zhu refused to say more.

A flicker of understanding crossed Hee Lingchuan’s mind.

’Could it be her Demon Immortal Relics? The largest and most ancient of the six.’

He tried a different question. ”Did you ever get it back?”

”The other party flatly denied it,” said Second Madam Zhu. ”Their family is powerful and influential in the Beiga Kingdom, with countless subordinates and the protection of Primordial Power. They thought a country bumpkin demon like me couldn’t do anything to them!”

Hee Lingchuan thought to himself, ’If you really could do something, would you be hiding in this remote Demon Nest Swamp?’

According to Second Madam Zhu, she had left her Cultivation in the Relic Shells. In other words, the Demon Immortal Relics contained the greatest depth of her Daoist Practice.

If that was the case, it wasn’t surprising that the thief took her treasure and refused to return it.

”I couldn’t stand it, so I injured and killed a few of their family’s younger generation!” Second Madam Zhu tapped the ground. ”The Beiga Kingdom sent troops to capture me, so I came here.”

Hee Lingchuan let out a long ”Ohhh.” ”So you want a way to counter Primordial Power so you can go back to Beiga and take back your treasure?”

Second Madam Zhu said grimly, ”The only thing they rely on is the protection of the Beiga Kingdom’s Primordial Power. As long as I can get rid of that nuisance, I have my ways of dealing with them.”

Hee Lingchuan noted she used the three words ”have my ways,” not that it would be a cinch. Clearly, even without the protection of Primordial Power, her opponent was no pushover.

’Powerful and influential, was it?’

Besides, an Ancient Great Demon like Second Madam Zhu, who had lived for two or three thousand years, had more schemes than she had eyes. It was hard to tell how much of what she said was true and how much was false.

Second Madam Zhu then asked Dong Rui, ”My Potion, how is it coming along?”

”I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?”

Second Madam Zhu didn’t hesitate. ”The good news.”

Hee Lingchuan was at the side, frantically shooting glances at Dong Rui. He ignored them, but Second Madam Zhu noticed and sneered, ”Is your eye twitching?”

She had twelve eyes. The idea that Hee Lingchuan’s expression could escape her notice was a joke!

Dong Rui took a swig of wine. ”I’ve tested it on over thirty Spider Demons, and one was a success. The success rate is astonishingly high. Clearly, Second Madam Zhu, your offspring have inherited a superior bloodline, purer than that of ordinary Demons.”

All the Spider Demons here were considered Second Madam Zhu’s direct descendants, whose bloodline was pure enough to look down on the mixed and impure lineage of common Demons.

That was why the rate at which her descendants became Demons was also surprisingly high.

”You tested it over thirty times and only succeeded once?” ’And he calls that high?’ Second Madam Zhu didn’t even bother to mock him. ”So, when can I use it?”

”That’s the bad news.” Dong Rui sighed. ”The Potion I can make with the materials at hand probably won’t be able to meet your requirements.”

Hee Lingchuan pressed his temples.

”So you’re saying it can’t be done?” Second Madam Zhu had been crouching with her legs tucked in and her belly to the ground, but now she rose up like a small mountain sprouting from the earth.

The two men looked up at her. The Spider Demon’s mouthparts looked especially ferocious in the moonlight.

The only reason Dong Rui dared to bring this up now was because he had already planned what to say next. ”I only said the materials are insufficient, not that I can’t make it! My drifting to the Demon Nest Swamp was an accident. How could I possibly find all the necessary ingredients in a desolate place like this?”

Dong Rui looked at Second Madam Zhu, neither servile nor overbearing. ”You once possessed the body of a Demon Immortal, a body tempered a thousand times. Trying to induce a mutation with a Potion is like trying to poison this rock.” He kicked a large boulder in front of him. ”It’s not impossible, but you need a much stronger medicine to break down your body’s stability!”

”Which one?”

”Poisonous Dragon Saliva.”

Second Madam Zhu instantly thrust her head in front of Dong Rui, her mouthparts hissing. ”You actually want to use Poisonous Dragon Saliva on me?!”

Seeing her enraged, Hee Lingchuan quickly stepped in to defuse the situation. ”Dragon saliva... does that stuff even exist anymore?”

There are no more dragons in the world, so where would dragon saliva come from?

”Doesn’t exist?” Dong Rui tilted his head back, almost looking down his nose at him. ”Look at my face. This is the effect of Poisonous Dragon Saliva diluted a thousand times! And it was just one drop! One drop!”

Stare at that for too long and you’d definitely have nightmares. Hee Lingchuan quickly turned his head away.

Dong Rui turned back to Second Madam Zhu. ”To tell you the truth, even if we get the Poisonous Dragon Saliva, even if the Potion is perfectly concocted, and even if it works when you take it, the pain you’ll experience will be on the level of Purgatory! For one treasure, are you really willing to pay such a price?”

Second Madam Zhu’s twelve eyes stared at him, as if judging whether he was telling the truth.

Not to be outdone, Dong Rui tilted his head back and met her gaze.

’This guy,’ Hee Lingchuan thought with admiration, ’when he gets tough, he’s really tough.’

After a long moment, Second Madam Zhu spoke in a sinister tone. ”Did you deliberately bring up this ingredient because you know the Poisonous Dragon Saliva is hidden in the Beiga Capital?”

She had left the Beiga Kingdom because she couldn’t counter Primordial Power, yet the most crucial ingredient that could help her do just that was hidden in the Beiga Kingdom.

If she had the ability to go straight into Beiga to seize the Poisonous Dragon Saliva, why not just take back her Demon Immortal Relics while she was at it?

And if she could get her Relic Shell back, why would she need to swallow Poisonous Dragon Saliva?

It was a true paradox.

Seeing the aura around her grow increasingly violent, Hee Lingchuan quickly mediated, ”You don’t have to go yourself. Can’t you just find someone to steal the Poisonous Dragon Saliva or your treasure for you? It can’t be that the Poisonous Dragon Saliva and your... your treasure are both in the same family’s collection, can it?”

”And who would I send?” Second Madam Zhu snorted. ”You two?”

”If you can’t find anyone else, we can do it.” Hee Lingchuan puffed out his chest. ”No problem.”

Dong Rui immediately added, ”I have a personally granted pardon from National Preceptor Frost Leaf of the Beiga Kingdom, allowing me to travel there without trouble.”

Second Madam Zhu roared with laughter, shaking the leaves from the trees above. ”You think you can get me to release you with such a petty little trick?”

She turned and began to climb up the side of the Celestial Pit. ”Just stay here and behave. If you can’t produce the Potion in thirty days, I’ll swallow you both alive!”

”Hey!” Hee Lingchuan protested. ”He’s the one who can’t make the Potion, why swallow me?”