Chapter 18: Mules Are More Useful Than People

At these words, Meng Shan froze for a moment.

He immediately turned toward the Blood Alliance disciples in the valley, torches in hand, drenched in blood.

Then he saw a man not far off begin to cough lightly.

The man even complained a few times, blaming the cold night air in these deep mountains and how rushed they’d been when arriving, not bringing enough extra clothes and so on…

Soon after, others nearby began coughing sporadically too; at first, no one paid attention, thinking it was just a common cold.

But when someone suddenly spat blood, his skin erupted in unbearable itching, then gradually turned to open sores and pus, only then did they realize the severity of the problem.

“Worse! Poisonous miasma has been released in this valley—retreat at once!”

The black-robed middle-aged man barked sharply, immediately holding his breath and channeling his Qi to form a palm seal, aiming to disperse the valley’s poison.

But clearly, it was already too late—the surrounding Alliance disciples were deeply poisoned; even if they heard his command and tried to flee, they could no longer move.

Uncontrollable itching and the agonizing pain of decaying flesh had long made them forget about escape.

Each one clawed frantically at their own bodies, scraping off layers of skin from face and limbs, even digging out raw, crimson muscle tissue, yet showing no awareness of it.

In an instant, the entire valley echoed with piercing screams and wails, everyone rolling on the ground, drenched in blood, as if it were a hellish realm on earth.

Seeing this, the black-robed middle-aged man’s face twisted in unbearable anguish; he exchanged a glance with two other elders, then immediately retreated from the valley.

At this moment, the masked woman rose from the green stone.

She surveyed the valley’s current state, her eyes revealing unhidden delight.

“You think escaping the valley helps? Within a three-li radius, I’ve scattered ‘Falling Goose Poison Powder’—odorless, colorless, lethal even to geese flying overhead. Do you really believe you can escape?”

She raised her hand and seized the blackish-green mist swirling around the four of them; thread by thread, like rivers flowing into the sea, it surged toward her palm.

Within moments, she absorbed it all into her Qi, drawing it fully into her body.

The three men beside the woman remained silent, as if afraid to speak, and dared not even glance at the horrific sight of the Blood Alliance disciples.

Afraid that a single misstep in speech might anger the masked woman and cause her to silently strike them down, leaving them with the same fate as these Blood Alliance disciples.

“You stay here. Those three are poisoned—they won’t get far. I’ll deal with them first!”

The masked woman cast a meaningful glance at the three, then immediately pursued the direction the black-robed middle-aged man had fled, her eyes brimming with lethal intent:

“If I kill these three martial masters, my ‘Blood Aspect Poison Claw Art’ will advance further.”

…

Meanwhile, outside the valley, Yu Changlu, hiding behind a rock, had inevitably been poisoned by the Falling Goose Poison Powder.

He and Cang Yin Yue had both been secretly observing the valley’s situation, hoping to find an opportunity to beg the Blood Alliance for help.

But before long, he witnessed firsthand the horrific sight of the Blood Alliance disciples being poisoned.

He was just stunned and secretly relieved he hadn’t rushed out to beg for aid—when he suddenly realized he too had been poisoned, following in their footsteps.

At this moment, Yu Changlu had clawed his own face into a gruesome mess; the bone-deep itching and pain made him writhe uncontrollably on the ground.

“Save… save me!”

Suddenly, when he saw Li Muxian beside him, seemingly unaffected, he seized him like a lifeline and desperately reached out for help.

“Sorry, I’m really not good with poisons.”

Li Muxian spread his hands, indicating helplessness.

Beside him, Cang Yin Yue pulled a porcelain vial from her robes, poured out a detoxifying pill, and swallowed it.

She studied Li Muxian carefully, then did not waste the pill on him—she simply tucked the vial back into her robes.

As for Yu Changlu, she never even glanced at him; she had no intention of saving him.

Then Cang Yin Yue sat cross-legged, channeling her internal Qi to expel the poison with the pill’s potency.

“Why aren’t you poisoned?”

Cang Yin Yue asked suddenly, her gaze straight ahead.

“In my self-created Wu Gong, there’s one called Indestructible Golden Body. I don’t understand poison, but mastering it makes me immune to all toxins.”

Li Muxian explained casually, crouched down, his eyes fixed on two suddenly collapsed, foaming-at-the-mouth mules.

Hearing this, Cang Yin Yue merely glanced at him, then asked no further questions.

At this moment, Li Muxian stared at the poisoned mules for a moment, then shook his head:

“These mules can’t die—we still have a long way to go. I don’t plan to walk all the way to Shangyang City on foot.”

Then he reached out and lightly patted the mule’s back.

Instantly, the mule, previously foaming and trembling, shuddered violently, then sprang to its feet as lively and healthy as if nothing had happened.

Then Li Muxian repeated the same motion and revived Cang Yin Yue’s mule as well.

Yu Changlu, writhing in agony beside them, caught sight of this and nearly dropped his eyes in shock.

Just moments ago, he’d begged Li Muxian for help, and the man had claimed incompetence, saying he couldn’t help.

He’d believed it, accepted his fate.

Yet now he saw that the worthless mule, nearly dead from poison, was instantly revived by Li Muxian with two simple pats.

The difference in treatment between him and the mule was like heaven and earth!

A cargo mule was worth next to nothing—so was his life worth less than a mule’s?

“Save… save me…”

Yu Changlu, enduring his agony, painfully crawled toward Li Muxian.

In his mind, if Li Muxian could revive a mule, saving him should be effortless.

Meanwhile, Cang Yin Yue’s phoenix eyes widened in disbelief, fixed on Li Muxian with stunned intensity.

She had seen what just happened.

She didn’t know how he’d done it, but she knew that to revive a mule so quickly without a detoxifying pill, one would need overwhelming Qi to purge the poison from its body.

Yet she had detected no Qi fluctuation from Li Muxian at all.

“How did he do it?”

Cang Yin Yue couldn’t figure it out; she didn’t believe his claim about self-created Wu Gong.

She sensed he held a great secret—one surely tied to his fortune.

At this moment, seeing Li Muxian approach Yu Changlu, she suppressed her doubts and said:

“Don’t save him. He’s committed countless atrocities within the Blood Alliance—he deserves to die.”

(End of Chapter)