Is His Majesty still alive?
Do you even need to ask?
Seeing Dr. Marcus Guile react so strongly, Serena was briefly puzzled, and answered naturally, "Of course he's still alive. If he were dead, what would we be so busy for?"
If he were dead, why would you all be here? No, that’s not right—if His Majesty were dead, there wouldn’t be black-clad men blocking us. Just the Eighth Prince alone wouldn’t be worth all that trouble.
"Still alive? How is that possible? Once the gu poison is triggered, how could anyone survive? Why would the gu-caster ever stop—aren’t they afraid of the gu’s backlash?" Dr. Marcus Guile fell into deep thought, looking completely lost, muttering to himself, "Impossible, impossible..."
Serena worried he’d get stuck in a spiral, so she gently said, "It wasn’t the gu-caster who stopped. I suppressed the gu poison outbreak with medicine."
"What? You, His Majesty—ah!" Dr. Marcus Guile was so agitated that he jumped up, only to pull at his wound, pain twisting his face as he gritted his teeth, unable to speak for a long moment.
"Please, don’t get so worked up. Calm down, calm down!" Serena was startled and quickly tried to soothe Dr. Marcus Guile. "Take a deep breath, just relax."
As a doctor, Dr. Marcus Guile quickly regained his composure, but the eagerness in his eyes couldn’t be hidden. He gripped Serena’s hand tightly, excitedly asking, "How did you suppress the corpse-eating gu?"
The corpse‑eating gu is a very peculiar kind of parasite. Its cultivation method is different from other gu. Once it erupts, unless the caster risks being fatally backlashed, it will never stop on its own.
Watching the corpse-eating gu devour nonstop, yet never growing bigger, you know its nature is insatiable greed. Once it starts consuming, it won’t stop until it’s finished everything.
"I used a pretty aggressive drug," Serena admitted, a bit embarrassed. The medicine she concocted for His Majesty hadn’t even been tested in clinical trials.
Honestly, she’d basically used His Majesty as her test subject.
"What kind of drug? You can’t suppress this kind of gu poison without something strong." Dr. Marcus Guile was always one for powerful medicine, so her words didn’t surprise him. The Valley Master, though, raised his brows in disapproval.
Serena pretended not to notice and explained the drug she’d made: "The corpse-eating gu is extremely greedy. No matter what the host eats, it devours everything, stealing all the host’s vital energy. So I wondered—if I fed poison to the gu, would it eat it too?"
"It would eat it, but it wouldn’t die," Dr. Marcus Guile said confidently—he’d tried that method himself.
Serena nodded. "Exactly. The corpse-eating gu devours deadly toxins but isn’t affected at all—no matter how lethal the poison, it can’t harm the gu one bit."
Of course, Serena hadn’t actually fed poison to the gu—she’d used gu samples for her experiments, mixing in toxic substances and discovering that no poison worked against it.
Likewise, unless the host swallows a truly instant-kill poison, with the corpse-eating gu inside, the host remains unharmed.
"So what did you use to suppress the corpse-eating gu?" Dr. Marcus Guile pressed, and the Valley Master’s interest was piqued. Serena didn’t keep them guessing: "Gu‑Parasite Corpse Powder."
"What?" Dr. Marcus Guile and the Valley Master asked in unison.
Did they hear her wrong?
"You heard me right—it’s powder ground from gu parasite corpses. Wait here, I’ll go get it." Serena got up and went to the small cabin next door, where she kept her extracted Gu‑Parasite Corpse Powder.
"Do you think Serena is lying to us?" As soon as Serena left, the Valley Master asked. Dr. Marcus Guile shook his head. "No way."
"I don’t think so either, but... where did she get Gu‑Parasite Corpse Powder? Gu parasites usually get eaten by their own kind. Finding enough to grind into powder must be nearly impossible—you don’t have many gu parasites yourself, do you?" With the extinction of the gu‑raising clans, gu parasites have become a rare calamity in the Nine Provinces Realm.
"We’ll see soon enough." Dr. Marcus Guile wasn’t worried; as long as Serena brought it, they’d know what it was.
Serena quickly returned with a small bottle, a glass vial about the length and thickness of a finger, filled seven-tenths full with grayish powder.
"Want to open it and take a whiff?" Seeing the suspicion in their eyes, Serena offered.
Dr. Marcus Guile shook his head. "No, that stuff is deadly. If it touches either of us, we’re in trouble." He trusted Serena, and though curious about the source, didn’t press her further.
The Valley Master didn’t care; seeing the Gu‑Parasite Corpse Powder, his eyes lit up. "Serena, where did you get this stuff?" He even considered getting some himself—maybe he really could raise gu parasites.
Serena briefly recounted the events at sea, skipping the gold but not hiding anything about the Jade‑Flora Orchid.
"Jade‑Flora Orchid? You actually got your hands on Jade‑Flora Orchid?" The Valley Master and Dr. Marcus Guile weren’t interested in the island’s dangers—they only cared about the Jade‑Flora Orchid.
Both men gasped, eyes full of envy as they stared at Serena. "My goodness, your luck is unreal."
The Valley Master rubbed his hands, already scheming how he might get some Jade‑Flora Orchid from Serena.
Though Dr. Marcus Guile was just as envious of Serena’s luck, he was genuinely happy for her. "Serena, can we see the Jade‑Flora Orchid?"
They’d only ever heard of it, never seen Jade‑Flora Orchid with their own eyes. Just glimpsing it in their lifetime would be enough.
"Of course." Serena got up again and went to the small cabin, retrieving the Jade‑Flora Orchid from her Smart Med‑Pack.
"Serena really has dumb luck—even a random trip to sea and she finds Jade‑Flora Orchid. I’ve climbed mountains and crossed rivers and never come across such a treasure." The Valley Master was practically gnashing his teeth. "And Nolan was with her, too! Why didn’t he grab it first and let Serena snatch it away? Honestly..."
Dr. Marcus Guile just rolled his eyes, not bothering to respond to the Valley Master.
Just seeing Jade‑Flora Orchid once in his life would be enough for him.
Serena entered, carrying a jade box in her hands. "You probably won't see the Jade-Flora Orchid in its complete form," she said. "Back then, things were urgent, so I had to use it as medicine."
"It's the same, it's the same. No point looking for the chicken after eating the egg," the Valley Master waved his hand, quickly taking the jade box and opening it. His eyes lit up instantly.
The jade glow rippled; each leaf looked like top-grade jade, irresistibly inviting one to touch. And inside, that vial of clear liquid drew every eye.
Its color was brighter than the purest water on earth. The Valley Master held it, caressing it for a long moment before, with obvious reluctance, setting it back inside. "Jade-Flora Orchid truly deserves its name. To see it once in my lifetime—that's enough for me."
No healer could help but love such a treasure. Yet both the Valley Master and Dr. Marcus Guile were people of principle; no matter how much they longed for it, they would never claim Serena’s medicine as their own.
Even so, the Valley Master found it hard to let go, looking again and again before finally steeling himself and handing it back to Serena. "Serena, put this away. Never show it off lightly—something so precious will always breed greed."
Just a drop could multiply any medicine’s power a hundredfold. Such temptation—no one could resist it. Not even him...