Chapter 82: Poison Core, Poison Crust

Thud… thud… thud…

The Yellow Turban Warriors, needing no control, spontaneously attacked one of the green-eyed white toads.

He Pingsheng took on the other.

Only then did he have a moment to closely examine the beast before him.

Green-eyed white toad.

Only its eyes were emerald green; its entire body, from head to toe, was white.

And its body was enormous, fully five feet in size.

It looked as large as a young calf, terrifying to behold.

Its gaping maw could swallow a sheep whole.

He Pingsheng had never in his life seen a toad or frog so massive; at first glance, he was even startled.

But as the fight continued, his shock gradually faded.

For he realized that although the green-eyed white toad was huge and intimidating, its cultivation base was roughly equivalent to a human’s Qi Refining peak, twelfth layer.

Yet its actual combat power was limited.

First, because He Pingsheng was immune to all poisons.

And this creature’s primary attack method was poison.

With poison useless, the threat it posed to He Pingsheng vanished.

Second, the green-eyed white toad had low intelligence; beyond attacking and defending, it had no strategies or tricks.

Unlike the Zhuang siblings he’d encountered earlier, who were cunning and treacherous.

“Cut…”

After roughly half a stick of incense’s worth of struggle, He Pingsheng effortlessly drove his supreme flying immortal sword through the white toad’s body.

Plop…

Bright red blood gushed forth.

After suffering a grievous wound, the white toad immediately turned and tried to retreat into the water.

He Pingsheng naturally wouldn’t grant it that chance.

“Cut…”

Puff… puff… puff…

Several consecutive sword flashes descended, and the green-eyed white toad rolled its eyes back, dead.

The other green-eyed white toad, still fighting the Yellow Turban Warriors, was unharmed—but seeing its companion die, it too felt the urge to flee.

Yet He Pingsheng wouldn’t give it an opening; he raised his sword and struck, slaying it in one blow.

The simple battle ended.

No heart-stopping drama, no twists.

A straightforward, one-sided slaughter.

“Retreat!”

He Pingsheng softly commanded, and the Yellow Turban Warriors instantly dissolved, their golden spiritual energy returning to his body.

Looking at the two dead poison toads, He Pingsheng naturally wouldn’t let them go to waste.

He was cultivating the 【Nine Poisons Golden Body】 technique; the toxins within these toads had to be utilized.

Walking to the corpses, he infused a thread of spiritual energy into his small flying sword, which shrank to the size of a dagger, one foot long.

Sss… sss… sss…

With a light slash, he cut open the toad’s skin and flesh.

Splash! Blood and unidentifiable organs spilled across the ground.

He Pingsheng noticed that the toad’s skin wasn’t white—it was green.

Earlier, it had appeared white because a layer of white, waxy substance coated its skin.

He Pingsheng lightly scraped the toad’s skin with his flying sword, and chunks of white toad venom fell to the ground.

Sss… sss… sss…

Where the toad venom landed, the unknown plants growing on the soil instantly withered to yellow, then turned to ash.

“Damn…” He Pingsheng exclaimed in shock: “This stuff is this toxic?”

Toad venom is a poison too!

“Collect it!” He Pingsheng excitedly said: “This is a good find—keep it, use it for body refinement!”

Body refinement requires various poisons—the more, the better.

At present, He Pingsheng had only just entered the 【Qi Refining Section】 of the 【Nine Poisons Golden Body】 technique, reaching the first level.

Still far from enough!

In a few swift motions, he scraped off all the toad venom from both corpses, piling it into one large mass—over ten catties in total.

After securing the 【toad venom】, He Pingsheng continued slicing open the toad corpses.

Due to their low cultivation level, such beasts wouldn’t contain a beast core—but they would definitely contain poison cores.

After a few breaths, He Pingsheng found a white poison core inside the toad.

About the size of a fist, cold to the touch, emitting faint hissing white poison vapor, it looked as pure and white as ice.

“A white poison core—rare indeed!” He Pingsheng didn’t hesitate; he collected both the white poison core and the toad venom.

Two poison cores, over ten catties of toad venom—enough to cultivate for a long time.

This thing was large; far bigger than the poison cores inside the 【Tiger-Striped Golden Bees】—one of these equaled thousands upon thousands of bee cores.

After taking the poison cores and toad venom, He Pingsheng peeled off the skins of both toads.

These were valuable.

Beast hides, once cut and prepared, could directly become talisman paper; selling them at the Jiaoyi Society could fetch plenty of spirit stones.

So they couldn’t be discarded.

Once everything was done, the sky gradually darkened.

The sunset retracted its final ray of light.

He Pingsheng found a clear patch of ground beside the pond and arranged his supreme formation materials in a specific pattern.

Soon, a defensive formation flared into existence.

He had spent every night inside such a formation these past days!

Most creatures in the secret realm were level-one Qi Refining beasts; even if they detected the formation, they couldn’t break it.

No need to worry.

As for second-rank Foundation Establishment beasts?

He’d heard rumors of them before, but they were extremely rare—practically nonexistent.

If such creatures existed, they’d be a nightmare for Qi Refining disciples.

Should one appear, the Daoxuan Alliance would send teams of cultivators to enter and exterminate it.

Upon entering the formation, his first act was to take out his Treasure Basin.

He also placed the 【poison cores】 and 【toad venom】 inside.

These past days, his gains in the secret realm had been substantial.

Excluding the Zhuang siblings he’d slain and the bee honey he’d obtained, He Pingsheng had gathered many level-one spirit herbs.

But these items were gradually becoming dull to him.

Level-one spirit herbs weren’t worth much.

And they could all be bought with spirit stones—without effort.

He suddenly felt drawn to the location marked by the Zhuang family for the 【Zhu Yu Fruit】.

Foundation Establishment Pills were something he’d need sooner or later.

There are three bottlenecks in Qi Refining: breaking from tenth to eleventh layer, eleventh to twelfth, and twelfth to Foundation Establishment.

The Foundation Establishment Pill isn’t strictly necessary.

For some genius disciples, they can cross into Foundation Establishment without it, with no bottleneck.

But for most, at least one bottleneck exists—Foundation Establishment.

The Foundation Establishment Pill is one of the celestial treasures for breaking through.

And to break this bottleneck, only the Foundation Establishment Pill will do.

For He Pingsheng, with his Five Element Spirit Roots, the importance of the Foundation Establishment Pill goes without saying.

Moreover, the Foundation Establishment Pill is a second-rank elixir; both the pill itself and its materials are extremely precious.

If he could obtain the Zhu Yu Fruit, whether to sell it or save it for alchemy, it would be an excellent choice.