Night fell, and darkness surged in from all directions. But as it reached the great tree that was the Withersilence Root Demon's true body, divine light radiated from all around the trunk.
This was the Root Demon's true body. To evade the ravages of the Great Ruins' darkness, it had gone to great lengths—stealing or snatching god-statues from elsewhere—to safeguard itself.
Its roots spread wide, but its true form was a tangled mass of root tendrils. By day, it unfurled its roots in all directions, shaping them into alluring maidens to lure prey to its doorstep; at night, it would retract them, hiding within the glow of the god-statues to survive.
The White Bat Demons, Dragon-Qilin, Raina Bear and her daughter, and the others were all near its roots, within the protective ring of divine light. So at night, they were relatively safe.
Yet everyone was either poisoned or numbed by Lost-Mind Incense, unable to move, forced to lie there obediently.
That night, ghostly wails and howls echoed outside. Huge shadows moved in the darkness, demonic whispers crept into their ears, and sometimes a god-statue would suddenly come alive, uttering strange, incomprehensible words.
At times, sudden light would pierce the darkness, and in a flash, the gloom receded to reveal a world of mountains and clear waters—likely where the Great Ruins overlapped with another realm, and someone from that world curiously peered at the darkness here.
Other times, a world as dead and silent as rusty iron would suddenly appear around them, gray and lifeless, without a trace of vitality.
Through a night of bizarre and shifting visions, everyone under the tree found their hearts lodged in their throats.
At last the sun rose, climbing high in the sky. Dragon-Qilin lay sprawled on his back, four legs in the air, poisoned by Mina Frost yet still able to mutter, "Cult Master hasn't fed me today..."
Another day passed. By late afternoon, Quinn Shepherd returned from his trek, dust-covered, refining pills as he walked. He had gathered fine jade and forged an Eight-Trigram Five-Elements Furnace, even more intricate and complex than the sealed furnace at the Imperial Academy.
As a master of artifact forging, crafting such a pill furnace was no challenge for him.
Quinn arrived beneath the tree, still busily refining pills.
With a sealed furnace, the toxic fumes would not escape. His methods differed from before—after dueling the Poison Prince, his mastery of poison arts had improved greatly.
This time, the poison pills he refined were all foundational types.
Just as swordsmanship has fourteen basic forms, he now refined 1,024 basic poison pills. By combining these foundational pills in different sequences and proportions, he could create countless varieties of poison. Each pill’s dosage and formula produced a different effect.
Not only that, he also refined many basic tonic pills to amplify medicinal power, boosting the potency of his poisons dozens of times over!
After preparing the basic poison and tonic pills, he took out several seeds and a dozen insect eggs. Beneath the tree, he planted the seeds and used Creation Earth Origin Art and Creation Spirit Art to spur them to rapid growth into mature spirit-herbs.
At the same time, he hatched the insect eggs, and many tiny bugs wriggled out.
Quinn fed the poison bugs with tonic pills, fattening them up, then let them crawl onto the spirit-herbs to gnaw and absorb their toxic essence, further increasing the bugs’ venom.
Although Apothecary’s mastery of medicine is profound, he never deliberately taught Quinn the poison arts; those skills were learned from the Poison Prince, Warren Foyne, and later fused with medical arts.
Quinn let the poison insects fight and devour each other until only a single king insect remained. Then he concocted various powerful poison pills and fed them to the king insect.
Before nightfall, Mina Frost finally returned.
She rode a white elephant, which swayed leisurely as it approached, trailed by a procession of flowers, grasses, birds, and beasts.
Quinn was astonished to see that even the flowers, grasses, birds, beasts, and insects followed closely behind her, never straying.
"All things have spirit—even poisons. Her method of gathering herbs is far superior to mine; she can even make poisons follow her of their own accord."
She was truly a formidable rival in the poison arts!
Quinn felt the pressure—two days before, their contest had ended in a draw, both suffering losses. But this time, it would be a true showdown!
Mina Frost arrived beneath the world-tree, and her procession of venomous flora, fauna, and insects gathered there as well.
The people lying under the tree shuddered, their eyes filled with terror as they looked at Quinn and Mina Frost.
These poisonous creatures were commonplace for Quinn and Mina, but to everyone else they were monsters to flee from.
Mina immediately got to work, activating her cultivation arts. The poisons grew and matured, each offering up its most toxic part for her to harvest.
She was meticulous and focused, wholly absorbed in cultivating her poisons.
Her poison theory differed from that of the Central Plains, targeting yuanqi—the origin of life itself. If one’s yuanqi was depleted, the body would weaken, blood and spirit would fade, complexion would fail, and bones would become fragile. Once yuanqi was gone, death followed.
This was true for cultivators as well.
Her poison theory sought the very root of life, aiming to kill from the source—a truly profound approach.
Quinn raised his eyebrows and devoted himself to refining his own poisons. The two of them competed, working through the night as the world-tree trembled and swayed, but could not escape.
At last, daylight broke. Quinn finished refining his poison, and Mina straightened up; both held a small jar and looked at each other.
“What kind of medicine did you make, elder sister?” Quinn asked curiously.
Mina didn’t open her jar. She smiled, “Your poison is fierce, but your words are sweet as honey—they warm the heart. My medicine has no recipe; I created it specifically to target god-demon bloodlines, and it doesn’t even have a name yet. Its effect is simple: it dissolves god-demon blood, destroys the root of yuanqi, and after taking it, within one short period, yuanqi will be emptied, spirit and yuan scattered, and life will be snuffed out!”