The moment Ziqing stepped through the gate of the Poison Den, her first impression was that this place was an enormous wasp’s nest — these poison practitioners were like termites that had eaten through the entire inside of the mountain!

By the dim lamplight she could make out that the hollowed-out interior of the mountain was densely packed with towering earthen pillars, and on those pillars were countless caves, packed just as densely.

Ziqing froze on the spot. “Magnificent” wasn’t even the right word for the sight before her — the only word that came to mind was disgusting!

And disgusting it truly was. At first she hadn’t noticed, but after standing there a moment she began to catch all sorts of strange odors, worse than the stink of unwashed feet!

Pinching her nose, Ziqing silently followed the guard. After crossing a bridge suspended in midair, the guard bound her eyes with a black cloth.

“My apologies, miss. It’s the rule,” the guard said apologetically.

“I understand,” Ziqing replied flatly. No sooner had she spoken than she felt something moving beneath her feet. She instinctively looked down, only then remembering her eyes were covered.

She seemed to be standing still, yet also seemed to be carried along by something beneath her feet. After quite a while it stopped, and everything around her went completely silent.

“Brother, are you still there?” Ziqing asked quickly.

No one answered. Growing anxious, she yanked off the blindfold and found herself inside a massive room. Rows of huge hanging cauldrons stood about, their contents boiling fiercely over roaring fires — some unknown medicinal broth that, strangely, gave off no smell at all.

“Is anyone here?” Ziqing called cautiously, searching all around. “Anyone here? Old Man of the Poison Den, are you there? I have urgent business.”

No sooner had she spoken than an eerie, hollow voice drifted out from a corner — deep, ancient, and so unsettling it made Ziqing’s hair stand on end.

“Don’t make noise!”

She looked toward the sound and saw an old man crouched in the corner, wearing a floor-length crimson robe with a crimson hood pulled over his head, fumbling with something she couldn’t make out.

Startled though she was, Ziqing had seen enough of the world to quickly compose herself. She studied him carefully but could make out nothing — the crimson robe enveloped his entire body, even his head. All she could tell was that he was quite tall; what lay beneath the hood remained a mystery.

She waited patiently. The old man slowly rose to his feet, then without warning spun around and was suddenly right in front of her.

His face was hidden behind a mask — a crimson demon’s face with jagged fangs, fierce and malevolent, covering even most of his eyes so they were hard to make out.

Ziqing stayed composed, trying hard to see his eyes clearly, but couldn’t.

The old man in red, on the other hand, seemed startled by her calm and exaggeratedly stepped back. “Little girl, aren’t you afraid?”

“No,” Ziqing said flatly. If a mere mask could frighten her, she wouldn’t have come in the first place.

“Then how about this — are you afraid of this?”

Without warning the old man in red raised what looked like a corn cob — except instead of kernels, it was covered densely with tapeworms! He thrust it right at Ziqing’s face.

“Ah!” Ziqing jerked back at once, genuinely startled. How could anyone be so disgusting?

“Scared now? Little girl, it’s good to know fear,” the old man in red said, his tone suddenly turning serious.

He casually tossed the cob into one of the hanging cauldrons. Looking closely, Ziqing saw that what was boiling inside were slow-crawling worms, and a wave of nausea rose in her throat.

“Are you the Old Man of the Poison Den? Have you seen City Lord Situ’s letter?” she asked urgently, unwilling to linger — the letter had already been delivered, and this strange old man should already know why she’d come.

The Old Man of the Poison Den didn’t answer, and instead began looking Ziqing up and down.

“Elder, I’ve come from far away and time is short. You know as well as I do that Nanzhao isn’t a place outsiders can wander freely — I’d be grateful if you’d make things easy for me,” Ziqing said politely, thinking to herself that it was said the King of Hell was easier to deal with than a petty demon, yet this old man seemed to be exactly the opposite.

The Old Man of the Poison Den still said nothing, only continuing to study her intently. Ziqing grew anxious — if time allowed, she’d happily let him look all he wanted, but she had to be back before dawn, or the consequences would be extremely hard to manage.

Jun Beiyue’s situation had finally shown some good news. She had no wish for anything to go wrong here in Nanzhao.

After a long look, the Old Man of the Poison Den finally spoke, his voice hollow and distant. “Little girl, don’t rush. Am I not already brewing the antidote?”

“You can produce the antidote directly?” Ziqing was stunned. Even City Lord Situ had said that a direct antidote could only be found on the Solitary Isle — even the Old Man of the Poison Den could only manage it through other means, such as fighting poison with poison to neutralize the toxin.

The Old Man of the Poison Den shook his head, then suddenly stamped his foot. With a loud thump, a stream of fresh blood came pouring straight down over her head!

Ziqing dodged at once, her heart pounding as she steadied herself, only then realizing the Old Man of the Poison Den had already moved aside — this old fellow’s skills were impressive indeed!

The waterfall of blood poured entirely into the hanging cauldron, and instantly the whole room filled with the stench of blood.

Ziqing felt a surge of unease. “Is this the antidote?”

The Old Man of the Poison Den still didn’t answer. He stamped his foot again without warning, and from the boundless darkness above, a stream of pungent, blue-green poisonous liquid came rushing down!

Was this old fellow actually going to brew the antidote right in front of her? She didn’t have time to wait!

Just as Ziqing was about to speak, the bubbling cauldron of medicinal liquid and worms suddenly evaporated in an instant — astonishingly!

Ziqing couldn’t help but crane her neck to look, and saw that all that remained at the bottom of the cauldron was a single blood-red pill, round as a pellet.

The Old Man of the Poison Den stamped his foot once more, and the pill leapt up and landed on a table nearby. Ziqing eyed him suspiciously — did this old man not have hands at all?

“Little girl, no need to rush — isn’t it finished now?” the Old Man of the Poison Den said with a sinister chuckle, his voice like something rising from the depths of hell.

“Thank you, elder!” Ziqing was both startled and delighted, and reached to take it, only for the old man in red to stop her. “Little girl, old me only owes City Lord Situ a favor — I never said I’d hand this pill over to you!”

At those words Ziqing’s brow furrowed at once. She’d known that anyone with such a strange temperament would be difficult to deal with. Getting straight to the point, she said, “Then what would it take for you to give it to me?”

“Girl, I want half a body’s worth of your blood,” the old man in red said with unsettling casualness.

Ziqing froze, then laughed coldly. “Half my blood? Then what use would I have for the antidote — if the Charm Fragrance goes uncured, I’d only live a few years less anyway!”

Having said this, she didn’t press further and simply said, “Elder, please see me out.”

“Hee hee hee…”

The old man in red burst into eerie laughter at once, seeming thoroughly delighted. “Little girl, there’s no such thing as something for nothing in this world. This pill isn’t an antidote — it’s a blood-generating medicine. Leave behind your own blood, which still carries the medicinal traces of the Charm Fragrance, and old me will give you half a body’s worth of clean blood in return. The Charm Fragrance’s potency inside you will then be so diluted it becomes negligible.”

So that was it. She’d wondered how someone who wasn’t from the Solitary Isle could possibly have an antidote.

He meant to exchange her blood entirely!

Ziqing couldn’t help the wave of disappointment that washed over her. After all that scheming and effort, it came down to this. Had she overestimated City Lord Situ, or overestimated the Old Man of the Poison Den? She stared at the pill on the table and said nothing.

“Girl, think it over carefully — your time is limited,” the old man in red chuckled again, sounding decidedly unhinged.

“Elder, if I exchange my blood, will I no longer carry any trace of the Solitary Isle bloodline in me? Will I no longer be immune to all poisons?” Ziqing asked.

…