The Medicine Sect was located atop a deep mountain peak, blessed with natural beauty.
The Lezheng family had been miracle healers for generations, saving lives and healing the wounded—except for Lezheng Jiu.
The year they entered Tianyan Academy, the Medicine Sect had mysteriously sealed all their barriers and gone into complete seclusion, cutting off contact with all the great families of Central State, leaving only one gate open for sect elders to treat patients on selected days.
All thirteen provinces were shocked.
That year, Lezheng Jiu, son of the Medicine Sect’s master, entered Tianyan Academy to study. Many people came to Zhuxing Zhai to probe about what had happened to the Medicine Sect.
Lezheng Jiu had been a perfectly good little medical immortal, but at twelve years old, he’d accidentally awakened the poison xiangwen “Falling Jiu Feather.” Despite his young age, he was gloomy and dark, completely at odds with the ethereal bearing of the medical immortal family.
Whenever anyone came to Zhuxing Zhai to ask, he would curse them out—curse one person, curse a pair, curse whoever came.
Over time, no one dared to provoke him.
In Jiusi Courtyard, Lezheng Jiu sat in the farthest corner, nearly buried under a pile of medicinal herbs on his desk. No matter which elder came to teach which class, to him it was all poison technique class, and he never even looked up.
“Hey.” Someone pushed aside the poisonous herbs to call him.
Lezheng Jiu wore a black hood that hid his entire face in shadow, his whole being so gloomy he seemed to radiate darkness. He said coldly, “Don’t disturb your father. If you have that much free time, go clean the silt from Pan Pool. Say another word and I’ll poison you to keep the dirty mud company.”
“……”
Xi Jue said quietly, “They all say you’re good at cursing people. I didn’t believe it, but seeing you today, you really are extraordinary.”
Usually after Lezheng Jiu cursed like this, people would either run away scared or angry. No one had ever dared to respond.
Lezheng Jiu frowned and looked up from the pile of poisonous herbs to see Xi Jue had swept the herbs from one corner of the desk to the floor and was propping his chin up, grinning at him.
The other students at Zhuxing Zhai seemed to be studying diligently, but were actually watching the two of them.
Feng Yu excitedly nudged Heng Yudu, his face screaming “Fight! Fight!”
This Lezheng poison brat always liked to slip all sorts of weird poisons to people he didn’t like, and Xi Jue was famously annoying throughout Zhuxing Zhai. Everyone wanted to see this Young Immortal Lord get his comeuppance.
Lezheng Jiu frowned: “You’re Xi Jue?”
“That’s me.” Xi Jue said, “I know about you. Your name is Le, Le…”
He “Le’d” for a long time but couldn’t get it out.
Lezheng Jiu: “……”
Lezheng Jiu’s little face immediately darkened, and he said irritably, “Get lost. Don’t bother me.”
“Lezheng Jiu! I remember your name now.” Xi Jue said happily, “I heard the Medicine Sect’s reputation for miraculous healing is renowned throughout the world. Why did they suddenly go into seclusion?”
Everyone at Zhuxing Zhai clicked their tongues in amazement.
These past few days, anyone who asked this question was either cursed out by Lezheng Jiu or poisoned until they howled like ghosts—none were spared.
This young master was really too fearless.
Feng Yu whispered to Heng Yudu, “What poison do you think Little Poison will use on Xi Jue?”
Heng Yudu said gently, “Gossiping about others behind their backs is really…”
“Cut the crap,” Feng Yu said. “Want to bet?”
The gentleman said, “Bet—I guess it’ll be an itching poison.”
“Heh.” Feng Yu snickered, “Won’t that Young Immortal Lord’s pretty face be ruined? Hahaha, I bet it’s the kind that makes you stiff as a board and you can only hop around.”
Heng Yudu very ungentlemanly snorted with laughter, then forcibly held it back.
Sure enough, Lezheng Jiu impatiently stood up, put one foot on the desk, grabbed a handful of poisonous herbs and tried to stuff them in Xi Jue’s mouth: “None of your damn business! Noisy! Don’t move! Let your father poison you to death!”
Xi Jue scrunched up his
face and desperately leaned back, his slender waist nearly bending like a bow as he frantically kicked his legs and shouted, “I won’t ask anymore! I won’t ask! Gege! Spare my life—”
Lezheng Jiu glared at him, then finally let him go.
Xi Jue’s chin was pinched red. He took out a red spirit fruit from his storage ring and stuffed it in his mouth to calm himself, then dejectedly walked back to his seat.
Having suffered such a big loss at Lezheng Jiu’s hands, the other students at Zhuxing Zhai who disliked him and the Xi family were delighted, watching him with schadenfreude.
But before Xi Jue could reach his seat, his face suddenly turned ugly as he clutched his chest, stumbled two steps, and collapsed to the ground.
“Thud.”
Everyone was stunned.
Xi Jue had fallen right beside Sheng Jiao, his little face deathly pale, covering his lips in pain as he coughed with difficulty. Soon, bright red blood began seeping through his snow-white fingers.
Sheng Jiao glanced over, his vacant pupils trembling slightly.
Xi Jue was poisoned?
Feng Yu jumped up and rushed over to help Xi Jue up: “Hey! Xi Jue!”
Xi Jue kept vomiting blood, his eyes unfocused, looking like he was on death’s door.
Feng Yu shouted angrily: “Lezheng Zheng… bah, Le Jiu Jiu! Le, Le Jiu Zheng… damn it! Little Poison! How could you be so vicious, using such deadly poison—are you trying to kill him?!”
Lezheng Jiu was also stunned: “I… I didn’t poison him!”
Feng Yu raged: “Then why is he suddenly vomiting blood?! Give me an explanation!”
Lezheng Jiu’s face went pale.
He only knew how to curse people, not how to defend himself.
Everyone looked at each other.
Heng Yudu also wheeled over, frowning as he prepared to check Xi Jue’s pulse.
But just as his hand reached out, Xi Jianlan, who was dying in Feng Yu’s arms, suddenly opened one eye and gave him a sly wink.
Heng Yudu: “…”
Heng Yudu withdrew his hand.
Feng Yu asked urgently: “Can he be saved?!”
Heng Yudu said heavily and sadly: “It’s difficult.”
Feng Yu had never seen someone who was lively just moments ago now dying before his eyes. He immediately went berserk, ready to fight the vicious Lezheng Jiu to the death.
“Little Poison! You really are poisonous!”
Lezheng Jiu stuck his neck out stubbornly: “I didn’t poison him means I didn’t poison him. Even if you report this to the headmaster, that’s what I’ll say. Maybe he accidentally touched some poisonous herb just now—what does it have to do with me?!”
They were all classmates—would he really be so vicious?
Feng Yu said angrily: “Then hurry up and save him! If something happens to him, do you think your Medicine Sect can escape responsibility?!”
Lezheng Jiu smiled coldly: “I won’t save him. He deserves to die. He’s the one who approached me voluntarily. I never gave him… ah!”
Before he could finish, a dark figure suddenly rushed forward, forcibly pinning Lezheng Jiu down. The impact was so great it overturned the desk, scattering poisonous herbs all over the floor.
Everyone looked closely and were all shocked.
—It was the usually silent Sheng Jiao.
Sheng Jiao forcibly pressed down Lezheng Jiu, his vacant eyes showing a golden Tianyan glow, eerie and terrifying. The oppressive feeling made even the fearless Lezheng Jiu break out in a cold sweat.
Sheng Jiao opened his lips, seeming to want to say something, but after trying for a long time, no sound came out.
Soon, a voice powered by spiritual energy echoed word by word through Jiusi Courtyard.
“Anti… dote.”
Lezheng Jiu was stunned, then got so angry his face turned red as he struggled with Sheng Jiao, shouting: “How many times do I have to tell you people before you’ll believe me! I didn’t poison him means I didn’t poison him! Who do you think you are to hit me?! Bastard, go die—!”
The two immediately began wrestling desperately in Jiusi Courtyard.
The other young students watched in shock, taking a while to react before hurrying to break up the fight.
“Calm down, calm down!”
“Stop fighting! The headmaster will be angry if he finds out. Do you want to be punished?!”
The “culprit” Xi Jue, lying in Feng Yu’s arms playing dead, was dumbfounded and didn’t recover for a long time.
He seemed to have…
Caused trouble.
***
“Don’t… don’t fight.”
Xi Jianlan rarely dreamed of his youth, mumbling a few words and waving his hand randomly, hitting the hard wooden table. The pain made him hiss and fully wake up.
Sheng Jiao’s scent, a mixture of osmanthus and frost and snow, was like a calming incense. Every time Xi Jianlan got close, he felt drowsy. This time, being carried through the air to the Medicine Sect, even the weightless feeling of being high up without solid ground couldn’t prevent his peaceful sleep.
Xi Jianlan had slept the whole way, groggily opening his eyes.
All around was the strong scent of medicine. He was lying on a bed wrapped in Sheng Jiao’s Xiezhi-patterned outer robe, with walls covered in densely packed prescriptions—clearly Lezheng Jiu’s territory.
Lezheng Jiu was almost fanatical about medicine and poison arts. His dormitory at Zhuxing Zhai had been full of prescriptions and ancient texts.
Xi Jianlan wanted to lie down and go back to sleep, but suddenly remembered that after that fight years ago, the two had never gotten along. Lezheng Jiu would definitely mock and ridicule Sheng Jiao when they met.
This time, asking Little Poison to treat Xi Jianlan and Xi Minghuai, who knew what trouble Lezheng Jiu would cause.
Xi Jianlan roughly arranged his long hair, put on his shoes, and walked outside.
As soon as he lifted the bamboo curtain and stepped out, he saw a huge snow-white hook placed on the central table in the outer room, looking like bone or some kind of refined magical artifact.
Xi Jianlan was well-traveled and raised an eyebrow slightly, walking forward to touch it.
“Hook snake?”
There were many hook snakes swimming in the waters outside Xiezhi Sect. This bone hook should have come from a hook snake’s tail.
Lezheng Jiu had always stayed indoors—where did he get a hook snake tail?
As he was touching it, a cold voice suddenly came from behind.
“Keep your paws to yourself, or I’ll cut them off and replace them with real claws.”
—That was definitely Lezheng Jiu, who never spoke like a human.
Xi Jianlan turned around with a smile to reminisce with Lezheng Jiu, but when he looked, his face immediately turned green.
Back when Xi Jue had formed his core earlier than everyone else at Zhuxing Zhai, everyone was half a head taller than him. Sometimes when people casually patted his head, Xi Jue would consider it a provocation and pounce on them like a wild animal, trying to bite them.
Lezheng Jiu had the rare poison xiangwen, and because poison constantly flowed through his meridians, it was difficult for him to grow tall—which had been Xi Jue’s only comfort during his long adolescence.
After six years apart, they met again.
Lezheng Jiu had already grown into a tall, imposing adult man with cold, handsome features. Black and red poison marks intertwined across his cheeks, sinister and mysterious yet strangely beautiful, standing tall and elegant.
Xi Jianlan: “……”
Xi Jianlan looked at him expressionlessly.
Lezheng Jiu gave him a cold smile, then under Xi Jianlan’s gaze, slowly raised his hand…
And patted him on the head.
—He looked like he’d wanted to do that for a very long time.
Xi Jianlan: “……”
Xi Jianlan grabbed the snow hook: “I’ll kill you!”
But the hook looked light and weightless. When Xi Jianlan casually picked it up, it was so heavy his hand sank, and he nearly fell to the ground from the weight.
Lezheng Jiu couldn’t maintain his cold expression anymore and burst out laughing.
He walked over and easily picked up the snow hook that Xi Jianlan couldn’t even lift, placing it back on the table. He looked Xi Jianlan up and down with disdain: “When Sheng Jiao brought you here, I thought you were dead. I almost had a coffin prepared for you.”
Xi Jianlan glanced at him and slapped the snow hook hard: “Where did this thing come from?”
“Weren’t you captured and taken to Xiezhi Sect back then? Except for Rang Chen, who was severely injured and unconscious, and Heng Yudu, who couldn’t walk, the other three of us broke into Xiezhi Sect together.”
Lezheng Jiu’s temper was much better than when they were in school. The strange poison marks on his face seemed to move, creeping to his eyes.
“But that whoever… what was his name, Qu something-or-other, anyway that bastard deliberately let us into the Zi waterway and lured hook snakes to eat us.”
Xi Jianlan was stunned.
“Luckily Liu Tiaotiao had her sword with her, or we would have died at Xiezhi Sect.” Lezheng Jiu had just come out of seclusion, his whole body surrounded by poison mist. As they chatted, he stuffed several antidote pills into Xi Jianlan’s mouth.
Xi Jianlan felt an inexplicable warmth in his heart. Holding the antidote pills, he smiled at Lezheng Jiu: “I never expected you guys to have a conscience. All those years of me caring for you weren’t wasted.”
Lezheng Jiu said quietly, “I also put a poison pill in your mouth just now.”
Xi Jianlan: “……”
What conscience indeed.
Xi Jianlan swallowed the antidote pills while stroking the snow hook, asking casually, “Why only three people? I mean, wouldn’t more people mean more help?”
Lezheng Jiu: “Oh right, I almost forgot—it was four people.”
Xi Jianlan’s lips curved slightly.
“There was also Fu Man.” Lezheng Jiu thought for a while. “Tsk, why do I always forget him? His presence is too weak. When we all fell in the water, Liu Tiaotiao almost forgot to pull him up.”
Xi Jianlan: “……”
Xi Jianlan didn’t hear the name he wanted to hear, and his face immediately fell.
“Stop reminiscing,” Lezheng Jiu said. “Let’s talk about your serious illness first. Bushu was nagging for ages earlier, saying if you don’t get treated, you really will die soon.”
Xi Jianlan was holding back frustration, his tone turning cold: “Where is Xi… my brother?”
“My mother is treating him—stop talking nonsense, come sit here.”
Xi Jianlan was pulled to sit in a soft chair, extending his wrist while making small talk: “Feng Yu said you recently came out of seclusion after researching something incredible?”
“Mm.” Lezheng Jiu channeled spiritual power into Xi Jianlan’s meridians, saying casually, “Ancient texts record that highly poisonous substances can, like spiritual objects, develop consciousness after years of accumulation.”
Xi Jianlan was startled: “Consciousness?”
“Yes, currently no poison in the thirteen provinces has been found to have developed consciousness. The top-ranked ‘Endless Period’ in the ancient texts probably has this potential, but it’s too hard to find.”
Xi Jianlan pressed his lips together, his face turning pale.
Just then, the black cat emerged from the back of his neck, silently perching on his shoulder, licking its paw and asking in confusion, “Where is this now?”
Xi Jianlan said nothing.
Suddenly, Lezheng Jiu seemed to sense something. His purple-black pupils contracted sharply, and his large hand, like a cold, sharp blade, struck toward Xi Jianlan’s neck.
Xi Jianlan was completely unguarded around the Zhuxing Zhai people and didn’t react in time.
“Bang—”
Lezheng Jiu’s whole body emitted black and deep purple poison smoke, his face cold as frost and snow. His five fingers forcefully gripped the black cat’s neck and slammed it hard against the wall.
The force was so great it dented the wall covered with prescriptions, sending papers scattering to the floor.
The black cat, caught off guard, spat out blood and let out a short, agonized cry.
Xi Jianlan was stunned.
Lezheng Jiu’s knuckles were white from the force, countless poisons like dense nets desperately drilling into the black cat’s forehead. Hearing the struggles and screams, his smile grew wider and wider.
Xi Jianlan sat alone, lowering his gaze as if unable to bear watching.
“Well, no wonder today’s divination was so favorable.” Lezheng Jiu nearly broke the black cat’s neck, poison marks covering half his face as he said coldly, “Just as I was talking about it, a poison consciousness delivers itself to my door. What effortless gain.”
The black cat spat blood while trembling in horror.
He… could actually see him?!
##
(advanced chapters available on kofi)