Chapter 33: Life on the Left, Death on the Right

"It... it's also poison?"

Bone Blade's eyes widened, revealing despair. He wanted to say something, but the next instant his head became dizzy, and he fell unconscious.

The mist also shrouded them at this time, swallowing Xu Qing and Bone Blade's figures within.

Two hours later, at the edge of this forbidden zone jungle, at a crossroads, Bone Blade felt a pain in his body and woke up, opening his eyes.

The instant he opened his eyes, he looked at the surroundings blankly, but soon he jumped up nervously.

After confirming that there was no danger where he was and not seeing Xu Qing's figure, he breathed a sigh of relief and also discovered for the first time that the swelling on his face had dissipated, and his whole body was not much different from before he was poisoned.

"I didn't die?"

Bone Blade's heart accelerated its beating. The sense of surviving a disaster was extremely strong. At the same time, he also noticed a piece of bamboo beside him, with a line of characters carved on it.

"Insurance expired."

Looking at these four characters, complex feelings rose in Bone Blade's heart, and he felt even more ashamed of his little tricks from before. After half a moment, he sighed softly and bowed deeply toward the depths of the jungle.

"Thank you."

Muttering, he turned and looked at the two directions ahead. The one on the right was the only way to return to the camp, and the one on the left was the path away from the camp, entering Songtao City.

He stood there, not feeling anyone in the surroundings, so he remained silent for a long time.

"The Camp Master comes from the Jin Gang Sect, and the Jin Gang Sect's sphere of influence covers all nearby cities. Even if I flee into Songtao City, I'm afraid it will be difficult to avoid the Camp Master's anger, especially since his people are all dead."

Bone Blade struggled in his heart. He knew there was a method that could give him a chance to survive, and that was to go to the camp to inform, telling them that the kid had killed the Camp Master's subordinates, thereby throwing everything onto the kid. Relying on this matter, he should be able to survive.

It was just that doing so violated his conscience; the kid had saved him after all. But after contemplation for a moment, the struggle in his heart turned into decisiveness.

"In this chaotic world, surviving is the priority; I can't care about others!" Thinking of this, he suppressed the guilt in his heart, his body swayed, and he sped toward the direction of the camp.

But just as his body stepped into the direction of the camp, a cold glint whistled from behind him at an astonishing speed, piercing his head in an instant.

With a bang, Bone Blade's whole body shook, blood splattered, his eyes widened, and he fell to the ground, twitching a few times. The world in his eyes was covered by an approaching figure, slowly turning pitch black, until it turned into eternity.

He died.

Xu Qing stood before Bone Blade's corpse and silently pulled out the iron skewer.

Regarding human nature, Xu Qing understood it very deeply, so he didn't leave but gave Bone Blade a choice.

The left side was life.

The right side was death.

Bone Blade chose the right side.

Xu Qing was expressionless. He took out corpse-destroying powder and sprinkled it. As Bone Blade's corpse melted, Xu Qing turned around calmly, swayed, and sped toward the depths.

As for the Camp Master's matter, he was too lazy to participate.

At this moment, while speeding in this jungle, although mist existed, it didn't have a particularly large impact on him, so at dusk, Xu Qing had already shuttled through the mist and arrived at the pharmacy in the canyon.

Almost the moment he entered, a faint wolf howl echoed. Xu Qing didn't pay attention.

He first observed cautiously, confirming that the traces of the little arrangements he had left before leaving last time hadn't been touched, and only then did he push open the door of the pharmacy and step inside.

The pharmacy was not large, with no bed for resting, only small compartments built with wood all around, and in every compartment were different herbs and poison glands.

Some of these herbs and poison glands had already been processed, while others remained intact. The quantity was not small, densely packed, numbering in the hundreds.

Xu Qing's gaze swept over, and bursts of satisfaction rose in his heart.

These were what he had collected in this forbidden zone since following Master Bai to learn, most of which came from the outer perimeter of the forbidden zone, and a small portion taken from the depths.

Inside, poisonous herbs were the majority, and medicinal herbs were few.

Xu Qing first checked, then sat on the ground, a look of contemplation appearing in his eyes.

The Bai Dan formula Master Bai gave him, although hidden in daily lessons, Xu Qing had the habit of taking notes, and his memory was also quite good, so it had long been organized by him. It was just that... he didn't have all the herbs for refining the Bai Dan.

"So there's no way to refine it completely according to the elixir formula, but it should be possible to replace or formulate it with other herbs according to the medicinal properties of the herbs."

Xu Qing muttered. He didn't know if this method would be useful, but he thought that even if it failed, it could increase his experience in formulation and refining.

Thinking of this, Xu Qing waved his right hand, and instantly seven or eight types of herbs flew out from different small compartments and landed before him.

After checking carefully, Xu Qing thought about it, left the pharmacy, and went to the backyard. There, besides various colorful flowers, there was also a small piece of mud field that had been opened up, where many herbs were planted.

These were plants that had time restrictions and couldn't leave the soil for too long, which had been relocated here by Xu Qing. Over time, it had become a small herb field.

At this moment, as Xu Qing approached this small herb field, the wolf howl drifted over more clearly from not far away.

Xu Qing's expression was as usual; he didn't pay attention, plucked three types of herbs in the herb field, and turned to leave.

After returning to the pharmacy, he took out a stone basin and, according to the knowledge he had learned, began to formulate.

Whether it was picking leaves, taking juice, or flicking pollen, he did it very carefully. After striving to be accurate to the slightest degree, amidst continuous formulation, the medicinal liquid in the stone basin slowly turned pitch black in color.

"Missing five types of herbs..."

Xu Qing looked at the small compartments all around, and after thinking it over, took out some more, attempting to formulate a satisfactory effect with the help of the Yin-Yang polar method.

But clearly, this kind of thing was very difficult, so until a night passed and it was bright outside, he had barely managed to match the required herbs.

Looking at the pitch-black viscous liquid in the stone basin, Xu Qing's brows furrowed.

This was not quite the same as the Bai Dan in his imagination, but having reached this point, giving up was clearly impossible.

Thus, Xu Qing gritted his teeth, took out a large handful of Seven-Leaf Grass, and formulated it in according to the ratio.

The next instant, the medicinal liquid in the stone basin actually boiled directly, and the color showed signs of change, but this change only lasted for three breaths before stopping.

Looking at it, the medicinal liquid in the stone basin was no longer pitch black but had become brown.

Xu Qing hesitated, touched the purple crystal on his chest, and considered that his resistance to toxins was very strong, so he felt somewhat relieved. He raised his hand and carefully probed into the stone basin, grabbed a bit of medicinal mud, kneaded it into the shape of a pill, and smelled it before his nose.

A fishy, foul odor drifted out, making Xu Qing somewhat afraid to eat it.

"Can it be eaten..." Xu Qing's expression was somewhat struggling. After contemplation, he took the elixir and walked out, heading to the herb field.

Just as he approached, the wolf howl drifted out again. Xu Qing's pace didn't stop; he passed through the herb field and headed straight for where the wolf howl came from.

Soon, in a patch of weeds behind the herb field, a large cage built with iron vine wood appeared before Xu Qing.

Inside the cage, there was a thin black-scaled wolf, lying there weakly.

Upon seeing Xu Qing, it stood up immediately, baring its teeth and emitting a low growl, but the terror in its eyes already explained its fear of Xu Qing.

This black-scaled wolf was encountered by Xu Qing when he was picking herbs deep in the jungle once. At that time, the other party wanted to ambush him, but after being caught by him, he didn't kill it and locked it here to become a test-medicine beast.

Noticing the black elixir in Xu Qing's hand, this black-scaled wolf trembled immediately and retreated repeatedly.

But it was still too late. Xu Qing's left hand reached into the cage, grabbed the black-scaled wolf by the neck, and amidst its woo-woo struggle, forcibly dragged it before him.

Xu Qing was expressionless, his cold gaze fixed on this trembling black-scaled wolf. His right hand took out the refined elixir and placed it beside its mouth.

The black-scaled wolf trembled even more, finally yielding under the threat of death, opening its mouth to eat it obediently.

Half a moment later, this black-scaled wolf emitted black smoke from its whole body and began to vomit. Its head even bulged with a large bump. Soon, with a bang, the bump shattered, and its body went limp, lying there panting.

Xu Qing's brows furrowed. He threw a few pieces of meat in, turned around, and returned to the pharmacy, sitting there lost in thought.

"How could there be no effect... The final onset of the medicinal effect has some problems. This isn't resolving the foreign matter; this is causing the foreign matter to explode."

After a moment, Xu Qing felt it should be due to the lack of an initiator. He needed a medicinal initiator to purify the effect of these medicinal liquids.

"As for the initiator, snake venom can be used for formulation."

Xu Qing waved his hand, and three different poison glands flew over. After he squeezed out the venom, instantly the medicinal liquid in the stone basin emitted a sizzling sound, rising with a wisp of green smoke.

This smoke contained highly toxic substances. Xu Qing, seeing this, immediately raised his right hand and waved, stirring up wind to disperse the toxic mist out of the room, and placed the medicine basin aside to let it ferment.

During the waiting process, Xu Qing sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and exhaled, practicing the Haishan Technique.

Until the sky grew dark, Xu Qing opened his eyes, checked the medicinal liquid that had become increasingly viscous after fermentation, took some out to knead, and went to the black-scaled wolf again.

Half a moment later, amidst a series of loud bangs echoing, Xu Qing walked back dejectedly, sitting there to continue thinking, and he even took out the finished Bai Dan, melted it, and studied it bit by bit.

Just like this, time passed, and soon six days went by.

In these six days, Xu Qing seemed to have forgotten everything outside, immersed in the research and development of the Bai Dan.

The herbs in the small compartments in the pharmacy had already been used by him for the most part, the herb field was also almost empty, and the Bai Dan medicinal liquid he had refined had also been improved by him more than ten times.

As for that black-scaled wolf...

After the last test of medicine, the foreign matter in its body instantly reached its limit, even drawing in the foreign matter within the surrounding spiritual energy, instantly turning into blood mist and collapsing.

If it weren't for the fact that Xu Qing's shadow could absorb foreign matter, I'm afraid that the gathering of foreign matter that time could have invaded his whole body.

This scene made Xu Qing somewhat discouraged.

But he knew that the Bai Dan wasn't so easy to refine, especially since he was formulating it without all the herbs, which made it even harder.

However, despite this, his experience in formulation had still increased. At the same time, among these ten-plus improvements, the last one, although it couldn't be called a success, also possessed some effects.

It was just that this effect was completely opposite to the Bai Dan.

The Bai Dan resolved foreign matter, while the elixir Xu Qing improved the last time was to rapidly attract foreign matter.

At this moment, he lowered his head to look at the stone basin before him.

On the surface of the basin was a layer of green membrane, which was formed by the melting of Seven-Leaf Grass, and beneath this membrane was pitch-black medicinal liquid.

The reason for using the membrane was that once the membrane disappeared, this medicinal liquid wouldn't even need to be swallowed; it would spontaneously attract the gathering of dense foreign matter.

Half of the reason for that black-scaled wolf's death was this point.

Xu Qing sighed, rubbed his brows, and felt the fluctuation of his cultivation base in his body. Only then did the sense of frustration dissipate somewhat.

Although the elixir wasn't going smoothly, his cultivation base had grown very rapidly under his practice during this period, and now it had reached the perfection of the fifth layer of the Haishan Technique.

"Tonight, I should be able to break through to the sixth layer."

Xu Qing took a deep breath, put the elixir matter aside, a look of anticipation appearing in his eyes, and charged at his cultivation base with all his might.

Living in a chaotic world, every bit of increase in his own strength meant the possibility of surviving would increase by a bit.

That night, when the bright moon hung high, a loud roar drifted out from Xu Qing's body.

The sound this time was much louder than before. Xu Qing, who had originally thought there was no filth in his body, had his body emit a large amount of impurities once again at this instant.

While a sense of unprecedented transparency permeated Xu Qing's whole body, a roar drifted out faintly from behind him.

The Xiao shadow, which had only materialized when throwing a punch before, now also materialized behind him. Its body was larger, its ferocious intent was stronger, and it was no longer single-legged but had two legs.

Especially... the head of this materialized Xiao shadow actually seemed to have a horn!!

This was not a Xiao; this was a rudimentary Kui!

The instant it appeared, the silent roar from the rudimentary Kui spread in all directions, causing the calls of many exotic beasts in this dark jungle to stop abruptly at this moment.

Xu Qing's eyes opened slowly, and the purple light instantly illuminated the entire pharmacy, as if a purple lightning had flashed past.

And amidst this purple light permeating and the roar of the rudimentary Kui behind him, Xu Qing, sitting there expressionless, actually gave people a sense of oppression never felt before.

Half a moment later, following the disappearance of the purple light in his eyes and the concealment of the Kui shadow behind him, Xu Qing muttered in a low voice.

"Haishan Technique, sixth layer!" ===== CHAPTER 34 =====