Xie Zhaolin forced herself to look up, her pupils shrinking tight.
The Vine King had already started adapting to the toxin, its tendrils ripping through the surface of the swamp as they lashed toward her in a frenzy.
It was too late!
She yanked out a stalk of Yin Spirit Ganoderma and shoved it into her mouth. The bitter juice slid down her throat, barely suppressing the raging poison inside, but a crushing wave of dizziness crashed over her, and her vision began to blur.
"Take me… somewhere… safe!"
Burning her last shred of clarity, she released three puppets and gave the queen bee her final command. Then her consciousness sank into endless darkness. The queen bee let out a sharp, urgent buzz. The remaining worker bees swarmed together into a dense defensive formation while three Shisha Spider Puppets wove a simple stretcher from silk, gently lifting her body.
"Sha, sha—"
At the swamp's edge, the Soul Devouring Vines writhed violently. The Vine King's scarlet single eye rolled madly, never leaving the retreating swarm. But just as it was about to surge beyond the swamp's boundary, its body froze stiff. The improved toxin Xie Zhaolin had prepared finally took hold.
The bees seized the chance to carry her unconscious form away at full speed.
The lead worker's antennae trembled rapidly, guiding the swarm until, before sunset, they found a hidden cave.
Its entrance was shrouded by ghost vines, the interior dry and well-ventilated, with rare drops of Yin Spirit Milk condensed along the rock walls, the perfect natural antidote to suppress poison.
"Tick-tock."
A milky drop fell onto her lips. Even in her stupor, she swallowed it, and a faint blush returned to her pale face. The queen bee's compound eyes reflected the change in her leg—the hideous black veins were fading, visible to the naked eye.
Three days later.
Xie Zhaolin's eyes snapped open, black qi instinctively gathering at her fingertips. When she finally took in her surroundings, her tense nerves eased slightly. She tested her right leg and found the numbness mostly gone, though her meridians still felt sluggish.
"How long was I out?" She asked through divine sense.
The queen bee tapped the ground three times, then beat its wings seven times.
"Three days and seven hours…" Her brows knit tight.
Almost half a month had already passed since her one-month agreement with the gray-clothed man. She had to pick up the pace.
She forced herself upright and carefully checked her body.
The meridians in her right leg still carried hidden injuries. Whenever her spiritual power flowed past the Zusanli acupoint, it clogged. Her Primordial Soul had been badly depleted after suppressing the Soul-Chasing Seal for so long.
Worst of all, the Soul Devouring Vine's toxin hadn't been purged. The Yin Spirit Milk only forced it down, locking it inside her Yongquan point for now.
Bracing against the cave wall, she stood. Agony stabbed her right leg like needles. She looked down and saw the fading black veins creeping back up her meridians. It was the side effect of swallowing Yin Spirit Ganoderma directly. She never expected it to flare up now.
"There's no escaping it after all…"
Her gaze dimmed as she undid her robes. Web-like purple veins spread across her chest. The domineering medicine power of the Yin Spirit Ganoderma was backlashing. The suppressed venom had fused with the herb's force, forming something even worse.
The queen bee buzzed frantically around her, its eyes reflecting her ever-paler face.
But she was eerily calm, fingertips brushing over the spreading marks. "I knew the price."
She understood the herb better than anyone. Grown in places of extreme yin, it could instantly suppress any poison. But taken raw, it mixed that poison with her own blood, like pouring oil on fire. It smothered the blaze only to fuel an even greater inferno later.
"If only I'd used a detox pill back then…" The image of her storage bag surfaced in her mind, row after row of bottles and jars.
Ordinary antidotes needed a full hour to activate, yet the Soul Devouring Vine's venom reached the heart in a single cup of tea's time. Even Zhou Zhilán's specially prepared Green Spirit Powder, designed for plant toxins, needed thirty-six great cycles of cultivation to work.
She simply hadn't had the time.
"Cough—!"
A violent spasm wracked her chest, dark blood seeping between her fingers. The queen bee hurriedly fed her the last drops of Yin Spirit Milk. Only then did her complexion ease slightly. Staring at the poison marks crawling across her chest, her eyes turned cold.
"Chi!"
A lash of black qi stabbed into her own chest.
The purple-blue veins froze in place. She'd used the vein-sealing method of the Xuanyin Foundation Technique. It stopped the poison's spread, but her meridians would slowly petrify in the process.
She didn't care. She had no other choice.
The queen bee landed on her shoulder, its antennae brushing against her earlobe. Through their divine sense bond, she saw herself reflected: lips tinted unnatural purple, whites of her eyes bloodshot, like a corpse crawling out of its grave.
"Better ugly than dead." She actually smiled. "Makes me look more like a native of the Blackwater Abyss."
She glanced around. Fewer than five hundred bees had survived, most scarred and battered. Even worse, the queen bee's left wing bore a crack, meaning its flight speed would drop sharply.
The three Shisha Spider Puppets she'd unleashed earlier had been whittled down to just one. Clearly, while she was unconscious, they'd paid dearly to find this shelter.
"Thank you." Her voice softened toward the queen bee. It couldn't speak, but the faint vibration of its wings carried quiet reassurance.
She drew in a deep breath. Even the slightest motion sent needle-like pain through her body. Her gaze locked on the creeping poison lines, her eyes gleaming dangerously.
"If I can't outrun it…" she muttered, pulling a yellowed jade slip from her ring, "then I'll just test this."
The slip's title read Hundred Poisons Body Tempering Art. She'd once seen it in the Punishment Hall of the Hehuan Sect, a secret art used to craft living poison puppets. It soaked victims in hundreds of toxins, refining their flesh until they became indestructible shells immune to any poison.
Her fingers trembled. She knew better than anyone the price. A cultivator's Primordial Soul would rot under the poison, leaving nothing but a hollow husk. But right now, it might be the only way to survive.
"Better than dying outright…" She gave a bitter laugh, unrolling the jade slip to study its poisonous formulas.
Just then, a searing pain split her consciousness.
The Soul Chasing Seal flared without warning, its blue light writhing like vipers through her divine sense.
"Arghhh—!"
She curled into herself, skull cracking against the cave wall. Blood trickled down her brow, yet her eyes burned brighter.
Something was off!
Why would the Soul Chasing Seal flare now, of all times?
Unless…
A wild thought struck like lightning.
"I'm such an idiot!" She slammed her hand down, bloody fingers gouging deep scratches into the rock. "If it's all poison anyway, why can't I use the Soul Devouring Vine's venom to counter the Soul Chasing Seal?!"
The queen bee startled, wings buzzing frantically. Its eyes caught her twisted expression, madness and exhilaration tangled together.
Xie Zhaolin's chest heaved with ragged breaths. The idea was insane. A cultivator's divine sense was the most fragile thing. One misstep and she'd be obliterated, body and soul. But the fire dancing in her eyes belonged to someone with nothing left to lose.
"If I'm gonna die either way…" She licked her cracked lips. "Then I'm betting it all!"