"I see, I see, a direct disciple of Laohe, huh? So you are Baiyun." Cobra laughed. "Then, I shall properly introduce myself."

  Laughing so maniacally...

  Baiyun tensed as the poisoner's hands reached for his, placing another disciple token upon his hands. The grooves of the carved name rubbed against his fingers, the poisoner evidently wanting him to read it.

  His eyes widened beneath the blindfold.

  Du Renhe. Direct disciple of Zhenhe.

  "I am Renhe, direct disciple of the true Myriad Herbs patriarch. You may call me Duren as well." Cobra grinned. "Of course, we shan't exchange our names outside where the spirits watch. But it is a pleasure to acquaint with an ally."

  "It is a pleasure as well." Baiyun said stiffly.

  The imprisoned patriarch, who Laohe temporarily took the place of... To think he would meet a direct disciple of that mysterious figure here of all places.

  Baiyun began to feel slightly wary. He had no idea what the relation between Laohe and Zhenhe was like, and if it turned out Laohe set up the previous patriarch to snatch his position, Cobra might view him as an enemy.

  No one would believe he was on bad terms with Laohe even if he tried to explain it, not after how he showed the direct disciple token. An unexpected double edged sword.

  As for Zhenhe... Baiyun suddenly thought of the strange old alchemist in the WanLing prison, as well as the strange green pill he had been given, suspected to have a disciple seal within it.

  He had his suspicions about whether that bum was the imprisoned patriarch. Though if he showed that pill to Duren, it was likely he could get his answer.

  ...No, that was far too risky. He had no idea how Cobra would react. It wasn't as if he had much reason to be invested in the fiasco of the Myriad Herbs Clan anyway.

  But at the very least, Duren seemed to be a better sort of person than Laohe, and the Myriad Herbs token had somewhat tied them together. Baiyun never thought the disciple token would be of use in such a manner.

  He decided to return to the original topic.

  "Then as an ally, will you sell me the poison?" Baiyun asked.

  "I would not advice that." Cobra shook his head. "I have many enemies here, so its best for our connection to remain unknown. If needed, I can sell you the herbs to concoct your own poisons, but you don't seem to be a practitioner of that field."

  Concocting his own poison? Baiyun was capable of that, but without meridians and only a simple cauldron, he wouldn't be able to make anything substantial.

  "What if I only used it in emergencies? I won't flaunt it about in regular combat, so it should be fine."

  "In that case..." Cobra mused. "Well, I don't mind selling you a little but you need to prove yourself. I won't have a fellow disciple dying because of my own concoctions."

  Baiyun nodded. Was he going to be tested on poison handling?

  Cobra slowly took out bundles of herbs and ingredients, placing them on the table. A strange astringent scent entered the air, almost all of them poisonous.

  "Concoct a Grade 1 poison and it's antidote." he rasped. "Then ingest the poison and withstand it for an hour. The antidote will only be used in an emergency, but you will be disqualified if you use within the time limit."

  Baiyun's eyes twitched.

  "Shouldn't you be testing me on poison handling instead?"

  Did Cobra really expect a random mortal to have poison resistance?

  "If you don't have this amount of resistance at minimum, you could die from a stray whiff just from uncapping the bottle."

  ...Baiyun supposed that was a fair point. Though, couldn't Cobra just give him a weaker poison? He wasn't complaining about getting a stronger ace however.

  "Fine."

  Cobra didn't seem interested in providing tools, so Baiyun had to retrieve the various tools he brought from Qinghe.

  He sifted through the herbs and ingredients, carefully selecting the best of them. Duren watched with narrowed eyes as he cut them into small portions, placing them into a mortar and grinding them up into a fine paste.

  Baiyun grabbed a bottle of snake venom and mixed it as the liquid constituent, stirring the paste back into a smooth liquid.

  He poured the resulting mixture into a glass bottle and shook it thoroughly. As it settled, an unpleasant murk of brown and green was revealed, foaming as it sloshed.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Stripes of green swirled into clouds as the concoction continued to fizzle, essences slowly reacting to form more and more compound poisons.

  "It is done." Baiyun said.

  There was no need to make anything fancy.

  "You are quick with your hands." Cobra nodded. "This is not a formula I'm familiar with, so I will assess it myself."

  Duren held the bottle to his eyes and examined its essences carefully with qi sense. He tilted the bottle and poured a droplet of it onto his finger with pinpoint accuracy, then flicked it into his mouth.

  "Hm..." Cobra seemed to think for a moment. "Not bad for an unknown Grade 1 poison. It still hasn't fully reacted, but its more than enough to kill a 5th level Qi Gatherer. With another day to sit, it might even be able to kill someone half a step into Foundational. Very well done."

  Baiyun nodded.

  "Now, make the antidote quickly. You of all should know this best, the longer you wait, the deadlier your poison."

  And yet Cobra still expected a "mortal servant" like him to ingest such a lethal poison?

  Inwardly, Baiyun shook his head, but he smiled in secret. The poison was certainly overkill for the assignment, but there was good reason for it.

  Cobra reached for the alchemy equipment and snapped his finger, pulling out the dregs of poison. Baiyun nodded in thanks at the considerate gesture, readying himself to work again.

  "You're using a formula I'm unfamiliar with, so let me know if you need specific herbs for the antidote." Cobra said.

  "It's alright. I can improvise." Baiyun mused.

  "Oh?"

  With deft hands, Baiyun snatched the another selection of poisonous herbs, slicing and grinding them as he did before, his movements quicker than before. It was as if he had been rusty before, and was now getting into his groove.

  He grabbed a bottle of spirit spring water, pouring it generously upon the slurry.

  Clumps began to form like curdling milk as he stirred, clotting into visible large clots of blackened green.

  Baiyun let it sit for a moment, then carefully sifted it through several mesh filters, the filth gathering atop fine metal threads as the liquid seeped into a waiting vial.

  The final result looked almost uncharacteristic of its poisonous ingredients, a clear liquid with only the slightest tinge of green, pure enough in appearance to be mistaken for a vial of dew.

  "Using the principle of fighting poison with poison... quite the advanced theory." Cobra mused, picking up the vial.

  As someone who made such a bizarre tea, he was intimately familiar with the process.

  Duren tasted the antidote and nodded, then mixed a droplets of both the poison and cure together. They began to fizzle violently before popped, leaving behind only thin splatters of neutral liquid tinged with harmless waste essences.

  "Not bad. Skill beyond your age, able to complete quick refinement with such ease. I suppose Laohe took you as his disciple for good reason. If not for your pallid disposition, I might have mistaken such expertise for that of a poison master's." Cobra nodded approvingly. "Now, proceed with the test. If any mishaps happen, I will save you."

  But Baiyun barely waited for him to finish his sentence before snatching back the bottle of poison, downing it in a single go. He drank with such gusto, even a parched beggar in a desert finding water would struggle to replicate his fervour.

  Cobra stared in utter befuddlement.

  Hah! Who was he kidding?

  Baiyun practically laughed as the poison rushed down his gullet, quickly reaching out his soul to suppress it. But even without his soul, merely the Black Earth constitution was enough to survive such a paltry poison. Though that was ignoring how it would have caused agony for hours on end.

  He quickly put on an act, scrunching his face like a prune and forcefully inducing his glands to sweat as his face reddened. As he was a "pitiful mortal", he would play the part dutifully.

  Inside his mind was nothing but glee however.

  Dense earth qi poured endlessly out of the poison within his stomach, his inner meridians entering a frenzy as they absorbed it greedily!

  Rich earth essences were torn out by hundreds of soul hands, like a pack of starving hyenas lunging at a corpse and ripping out every last chunk of flesh. Even the "bones" of the poison were gnawed and snapped open, the metaphoric marrow slurped up by hungry beasts.

  His Black Earth physique absorbed the essences and began refinement, his cultivation soaring alongside it as vast streams of earth qi entered his dantian, far purer than the inferior mud qi created by the Wood Rotting pills.

  It was no wonder he was laughing inwardly. What poison?

  With how generously Cobra had provided such rare herbs that would have gone for thousands of tokens, Baiyun shamelessly stuffed all the best ingredients he could into it, making sure to grab all he could out of this encounter!

  The side effect was creating a poison far stronger than the test demanded, hence Cobra estimation that it could kill a half-Foundational cultivator if it were allowed to react for longer. It was practically a pseudo Grade 2 concoction.

  Within his dantian, qi swirled like a whirlpool as impurities were shaken out. He manifested a hand of soul and crushed the whirlpool, compacting it into even denser qi.

  7th stage of Qi Gathering!

  A burst of qi exploded from within as if his dantian were crying it out in joy from the long awaited breakthrough.

  It would be trouble if Cobra saw it however, so he hurriedly suppressed the signs with soul. But as walls of soul filled his body to block the impact, his body suddenly spasmed as if losing control. His stomach churned, and before he could hold it back, he tilted forward and vomited out a puddle of liquid impurities!

  Baiyun stared at the mess in stunned silence. For his body to act up at a time like this...

  "Not good!" Cobra rushed over in panic.

  But as Duren's hands reached for him, Baiyun fought back with all his might, looking practically delirious as black liquid trickled from the side of his mouth.

  "I'm fine!" he shouted.

  "Fine?! Coughing up black blood is a sign of acute poisoning!" Cobra shouted back. "You've already passed the test, so let me treat you! You need to vomit up all the poison or you'll die!"

  "Everyone coughs up a little blood now and then, it's no big deal!" Baiyun yelled as he continued to flail.

  "What the hell are you talking about? There's no world where that's normal!" Cobra yelled back. "I told you you've already passed the test! Stop being so stubborn!"

  Helpless against the might of someone with superior cultivation, Baiyun hung limply as the contents of his stomach were pumped out. To pretend he had been poisoned, he even had to make his soul gnash his stomach lining to mix in normal blood, otherwise vomit consisting of nothing but impurities would be too suspicious.

  This was the worst...

  "Hmph. You look terrible." Cobra shook his head. "Why are you glaring at me?"

  His golden opportunity snatched away just like that... He barely managed to absorb a 3rd of the "elixir" even after all that struggling.

  If he managed to absorb all of it, he was certain he would have reached the 8th level of Qi Gathering...

  Baiyun could only sigh as he slumped over the table.