The Breaker and the Poisoner

Seven went out, one returned.

The Red-Clothed Man looked at Tie Ruonan before him, severely poisoned and heavily wounded, in disbelief: "You all... are... are dead? All seven of you Night Walkers were killed by one person?!"

"He used poison," Tie Ruonan said, unable to support herself and sitting down. "We were caught off guard and all fell for his trap."

She paused, then continued, "Thinking back now, he must have used poison to hunt Night Walkers before."

"What kind of poison? Is it that powerful?" The Red-Clothed Man took a deep breath, suppressing the shock in his heart, and asked.

Tie Ruonan weakly raised her hand, gesturing for the Red-Clothed Man to see for himself, and said, "How would I know what poison it is? You check it for me. You must save me."

She was just a crude body cultivator.

The Red-Clothed Man came to his senses, took Tie Ruonan's hand, and began to check her pulse.

"Then how did you manage to survive?" he asked while checking her pulse.

"His actual combat strength isn't that high..." Tie Ruonan gasped for breath, "He thought we were all dead from the poison. But he didn't know I could seal my heart meridians, trapping the poison inside. I took the chance when he wasn't paying attention and killed him with one slash."

The Red-Clothed Man nodded, looked at Tie Ruonan, and asked again, "With such heavy casualties in this mission, how will you explain it to the Dragon Whale Island Lord?"

Tie Ruonan remained silent.

After checking her pulse and understanding the condition of Tie Ruonan's body, the Red-Clothed Man frowned and said, "No wonder even you fell for it. This poison is indeed formidable. It's a compound toxin that can both seal blood and weaken cultivation. Very tricky."

"Tricky? Do you have a way to detoxify it?" Although weakened, Tie Ruonan's eyes were still fierce. She stared at the Red-Clothed Man and asked, "It's constantly eroding my cultivation. I can't seal it for too long. I feel my strength draining every moment."

"Of course I have a way to detoxify it..." The Red-Clothed Man found it strange and asked Tie Ruonan in return, "Have you forgotten that I'm an alchemist?"

Tie Ruonan's heartbeat suddenly quickened, as if excited by the hope of survival. Her fierce demeanor softened, and she let out a sigh of relief, smiling, "I forgot."

She repeated twice, "It's good that you're an alchemist, it's good that you're an alchemist."

The Red-Clothed Man looked at Tie Ruonan with suspicion, assuming that she was confused due to her near-death experience and the poison affecting her not-so-intelligent mind. So he didn't dwell on it further.

"Although this poison is ingenious, there's a way to neutralize it," he said. "Don't speak anymore. First, take two healing pills to stop your external wounds, then meditate to heal yourself. Leave the poison to me."

"Hurry," Tie Ruonan urged, "I can't control the poison anymore."

"I'm aware," the Red-Clothed Man stood up and quickly walked towards the cave's depths, to that rock wall.

Tie Ruonan sat cross-legged weakly behind him, her eyes following his movements. She watched him walk to the rock wall, then turn towards the huge pit, and as he walked, his entire person disappeared above the pit.

"Just as I expected, the huge pit is indeed only part of the formation!" Tie Ruonan raised an eyebrow and closed her eyes.

The huge pit had consumed the corpses, and it must have obtained something that could affect the seal. But this cave was spacious and vast, with everything visible at a glance, and there was no place to store the pit's products in sight.

So it was clear that the huge pit was only part of that formation. The more important part of the formation was hidden.

The Red-Clothed Man's actions now confirmed his guess.

This Tie Ruonan was, of course, not the real Tie Ruonan, but Qin Ran who had transformed into her appearance.

The real Tie Ruonan had already been completely destroyed, her soul scattered and her body turned to ashes, vanishing into the vast, boundless sea.

The poison in his body was certainly not the poison from the Death Notice Pill, but a poison he had simulated using his extensive knowledge of alchemy and his water-form body that could transform in countless ways.

The Night Walkers had already been dealt with by Qin Ran, so he only needed to take care of the people guarding the formation in the cave, and then whatever was in the huge pit - whatever it produced that could affect the seal - would be his.

"But there's no need to rush. I can stay here for a long time under the pretext of recovery," Qin Ran calculated in his mind. "The Divine Essence Mountain incident is about to pass, and the cultivators have all left. With fewer cultivators remaining on Divine Essence Mountain, it's becoming safer. I have plenty of time."

"So what needs to be done next?" He began to organize his thoughts. "Kill those guarding the formation, break the formation above the huge pit or find a way to enter the hidden space. How to kill them? There's only one Death Notice Pill left."

"And... why is that Red-Clothed Man an alchemist? And not a formation master? Is there something else going on?"

"What's in that hidden formation space? Are there more people?"

While organizing his thoughts, he let his primordial spirit emerge from between his eyebrows, raising his eyes to look at the seal on the rock wall, and began to decipher the basic formation patterns.

The Dragon Whale Island Lord had been working on this for so many years but hadn't obtained the legacy of the Divine Essence Old Demon from Divine Essence Mountain. So he couldn't have too high hopes for the current arrangement. There was a high probability that he would have to do it himself.

Therefore, deciphering the basic formation patterns was also something he had to do.

He had already deciphered one basic formation pattern before, like finding the end of a tangled ball of yarn. The subsequent deciphering work became much simpler.

These past few days, he had been hunting Night Walkers at night, and during the day, he hadn't been idle either, busy deciphering the basic formation patterns.

So by now, he had actually mastered eleven completely different basic formation patterns.

"I wonder how many basic formation patterns this seal actually uses..." he thought while deciphering. "But this is a seal from 70,000 years ago, and there must have been fewer basic formation patterns then than there are now."

In 70,000 years of formation development, many new basic formation patterns must have emerged.

Time passed slowly, and a night quickly went by. Qin Ran had deciphered two more new basic formation patterns.

By now, he could understand the part of the seal he had been deciphering recently.

With thirteen basic formation patterns, he could actually use these thirteen to arrange, combine, and set up formations.

At noon, the Red-Clothed Man finally emerged from the hidden space, bringing a pill - the antidote for Qin Ran.

Qin Ran took it and looked at it, a mysterious smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

With his current level of alchemy, he could determine most of a pill's properties just from its color, smell, and the distribution of spiritual energy within it.

And this pill...

It was very interesting.

"What's wrong? Captain Tie, is there a problem with the pill?" The Red-Clothed Man frowned and asked.

Qin Ran quickly shook his head and smiled weakly, "I'm just a mere body cultivator, how could I tell the quality of a pill?"

With that, he tossed the pill into his mouth.

Seeing Qin Ran take the pill, the Red-Clothed Man's expression softened, and he smiled, saying, "This is an antidote pill I specially concocted for you, Captain Tie, using many precious spiritual herbs. It's even considered a low-grade pill!"

"I see!" Qin Ran smiled at the Red-Clothed Man, cupping his hands in gratitude, "Thank you, sir! I've just taken the pill and already feel much better."

"Good that you understand." The Red-Clothed Man glanced at him and turned to walk back to the hidden space. "This is today's dose. I'm going to concoct tomorrow's now. The poison you've been afflicted with is truly potent; it might take about ten days to completely neutralize it."

"I'm really troubling you too much, sir!" Qin Ran said apologetically, but as he watched the Red-Clothed Man's slowly disappearing figure, a glint of killing intent flickered in the depths of his eyes.

The antidote pill was indeed an antidote pill, capable of neutralizing the poison he had simulated in his body. However, this antidote pill contained something else - another type of poison. A slow-acting, concealable poison.

"Why would he poison Tie Ruonan?" He was somewhat puzzled. "Has he already discovered me?"

"No... If he had discovered me, he should have gathered people to deal with me directly; even if he was worried about not being able to defeat me, he should have used a more potent poison. This is clearly a backup plan or a poison to blackmail Tie Ruonan."

"... Does he have feelings for a woman like Tie Ruonan?"

"But if he hasn't discovered me, he intends to poison Tie Ruonan. Could he have a grudge against Tie Ruonan? But Tie Ruonan is already a core confidant of the Dragon Whale Island Lord..."

"Is it possible that he's a true traitor, a mole! Could he actually be from another faction?"

Analyzing to this point, he shook his head, "It doesn't matter. Whether or not he's from another faction, I must kill him. Whether or not he poisoned me has no effect on my plans."

So he tossed the Red-Clothed Man aside and focused on decoding the seal.

Over the next ten days, Qin Ran decoded one hundred and one basic array patterns and consumed ten antidote pills from the Red-Clothed Man.

The poison in his body gradually disappeared under his control, and the symptoms of poisoning and injury slowly alleviated. Of course, he thoughtfully gathered the toxins from the Red-Clothed Man.

"Captain Tie, how are you feeling?" the Red-Clothed Man asked considerately after Qin Ran took the tenth antidote pill he had carefully concocted.

Qin Ran pretended to assess himself and replied, "At least seventy percent better. Sir, your pill-making skills are truly impressive! I'm genuinely in awe."

The Red-Clothed Man glanced at him and gestured for him to offer his wrist for pulse-taking.

"Hmm!" He nodded and said, "The toxins have actually been cleared. Only the internal organs damaged by the poison haven't recovered yet. Now it's just a matter of recuperation."

"The poison is already gone?" Qin Ran exclaimed with feigned joy, quickly saying, "Thank you, sir! Your divine medicine and immortal pills have saved my life. From now on, if you have any requests, just let me know. I won't even furrow my brow."

The Red-Clothed Man glanced at him and said, "We both serve the Island Lord, Captain. No need for such formalities." "I'll go make a few more healing pills for you..." He said as he stood up, then asked, "When does Captain Tie plan to return?"

"Now that the toxins are cleared, I'll return to Dragon Whale Island in the next couple of days," Qin Ran replied.

The Red-Clothed Man considered briefly, then said, "Captain Tie should stay for another five days! So I can use pills to help you recuperate fully."

Qin Ran naturally knew what the Red-Clothed Man was calculating. He needed five more days to thoroughly poison him.

So he smiled and said, "That's fine, but I'm troubling you too much, sir."

The Red-Clothed Man's lips curved into a smile as he shook his head and said, "It's no trouble." Then he disappeared into the hidden space again.

Watching the Red-Clothed Man's retreating figure, Qin Ran's lips also curved into a smile.

"You don't want me to leave, and I don't want to leave either. You need time to poison me, and I need time to break the array."

He closed his eyes, his divine soul flying out from between his eyebrows. At a certain height, he could see the full extent of the giant pit. His divine soul power activated, and he began to decode the basic array patterns of the giant pit.

It was time for him to break the array surrounding the giant pit.

The giant pit array was specifically designed for the seal, and the basic array patterns used were the same as those in the seal.

Qin Ran had already mastered over a hundred basic array patterns of the seal, so decoding this much simpler giant pit array was incredibly easy for him now.

It felt like breaking the simple arrays in the Lingnan Region. He just needed to find the basic array patterns, deduce the basic arrays, and then arrange and combine them.

Or rather, he had been doing the most challenging problems all along, and now he was going back to do the easy, point-scoring questions...

In two days, he had completely decoded the array surrounding the giant pit. In another day and a half, he had deduced all the basic arrays of the giant pit using the basic array patterns he had mastered.

And by the moment he was about to accept the last healing pill from the Red-Clothed Man, he had already figured out how to break the giant pit array, as well as...

How to enter the hidden space!

So he took the pill and casually grasped the Red-Clothed Man's hand.

"Ca-Captain Tie!" The Red-Clothed Man was startled when his hand was gripped by Tie Ruonan's rough hand. He knew Tie Ruonan was notoriously promiscuous but never imagined she would make a move on him in such circumstances. He hurriedly tried to pull his hand away but couldn't, so he said, "Captain, please control yourself!"

He was also calculating that if Tie Ruonan really tried to force herself on him, he would make her poison flare up.

But when he saw the seated Tie Ruonan raise her head, her eyes slowly lifting, with an eerie smile on her face as she looked at him.

"Captain?!" He realized something was wrong. He tried to pull his hand away again but still couldn't.

He was an alchemist, the most standard type of alchemist, the kind with terrifyingly low combat power.

"Was poisoning fun?" The Tie Captain before him spoke, her rough female voice mixed with a male tone.

"What?" The Red-Clothed Man was shocked. Had his poisoning been discovered?

"Who are you?" He reacted, realizing the person before him didn't seem to be Tie Ruonan.

"Who I am doesn't matter," the person before him raised their head completely, looking up at him with a crazed smile and fierce eyes, saying, "What's important is...

"You're already dead!!"

As soon as these words were spoken, terror struck the Red-Clothed Man's brain. Before he could speak, he felt his body rapidly weakening, quickly becoming hollow.

He looked down and saw that the hand Tie Ruonan was holding had become withered; he looked back at himself and saw the water in his body, as if boiling, being evaporated and controlled by Tie Ruonan, floating in the air.

"You are..." he asked, "Who?!"

These were his last words as a human.

As soon as he finished speaking, he fell powerlessly towards Tie Ruonan.

His last blurry sensations felt Tie Ruonan embracing him, the other hand pressed against his forehead, whispering in his ear: "I am Li Feiyu."

He heard it was a clear male voice, and then he felt himself flying.

He flew into the air, confused, opened his eyes and saw a man he had never seen before in front of him.

"Soul Cultivator?" he asked.

The man didn't speak, just smiled at him, then opened his mouth. His mouth grew bigger and bigger until it swallowed him in one gulp.

Qin Ran stood up supporting the Red-Clothed Man's withered corpse, freeing the hand that had been gripping his. He took out the Water Essence Pearl and used the water extracted from the man's body to condense a sword.

He closed his eyes, a slight smile on his lips, carefully savoring the Red-Clothed Man's memories.

But soon after, the smile on his face visibly disappeared at an alarming rate, instantly becoming extremely serious.

He enunciated each word, his voice even containing fear:

"Yuan! Orga! nization!!!"

82ChineseWebsite