Soon, the clear water in the wooden tub turned a vibrant green and emitted a pungent, unpleasant odor.
Yang Che, expressionless, stripped off his clothes and stepped directly into the wooden tub, sitting down until only his head was visible.
His entire body immediately began to sting, and the sensation grew increasingly intense, as if thousands of venomous snakes were crawling on his skin, sucking his blood, causing him pain and palpitations.
After a while, the intense pain throughout Yang Che’s body transformed into an unbearable itch, and wisps of black Qi emerged on his face.
Elder Wei Yongzheng, observing the changes in Yang Che’s complexion, revealed a hint of madness in his eyes. He suddenly took out another packet of poison and poured it into the wooden tub. At the same time, he took out a Medicinal Pill and said to Yang Che, “This is an Antidote Pill. Swallow it quickly.”
Yang Che hesitated slightly but still swallowed the Antidote Pill.
Soon, the black Qi on Yang Che’s face began to recede, but not long after, the black Qi became more pronounced again.
Wei Yongzheng’s eyes showed reluctance, and finally, he said to Yang Che helplessly, “Get up. Today’s Medicinal Pill test ends here.”
After Yang Che got up from the wooden tub, Wei Yongzheng was about to take away the poisonous liquid in the wooden tub, but Yang Che suddenly spoke, “Elder Wei, please leave this poisonous liquid to me. I’ll go find an abandoned mine pit and pour it out later.”
“Alright. However, this poisonous liquid is highly toxic. Although you took the Antidote Pill, the residual poison in your body has not been eliminated, so it’s best to be careful.” Wei Yongzheng didn’t think much of it, only assuming it was Yang Che’s ‘show of goodwill’ towards him.
After speaking, he left another Antidote Pill and instructed Yang Che on when to take it before hurrying away. Based on his observations, he needed to quickly continue refining the Antidote Pill Formula.
After Wei Yongzheng had been gone for a while, Yang Che’s gaze returned to the green poisonous liquid in the wooden tub.
While immersed in this poisonous liquid just now, he clearly felt the miraculous stimulation the poisonous liquid had on his skin and flesh, which made him instinctively want to operate the Body Refining method of the Heaven and Earth Chaos Art. However, due to Elder Wei’s presence, he did not act rashly.
Now, he could try it with peace of mind.
Stripping off his clothes again and sitting back into the wooden tub, Yang Che immediately circulated the Heaven and Earth Chaos Art, slowly absorbing the poisonous liquid in the wooden tub to strengthen his Physical Body.
“It really works.” Yang Che’s heavy heart, which had been tightly strung, was released at this moment.
One hour later, the poisonous liquid in the wooden tub actually began to turn into clear water!
To prevent Elder Wei from noticing anything unusual, Yang Che deliberately left some toxins in his body. He then got up, put on his clothes, and carefully felt the changes in his body, his heart filled with joy.
He could feel that the skin and membranes of his body had undergone subtle changes; the surface was smoother, but the internal toughness had increased. This made him once again marvel at the miraculousness of the Heaven and Earth Chaos Art.
For the next two months, Yang Che followed the same method, secretly using the poisonous liquid from each Medicinal Pill test to strengthen his body.
During these two months, Elder Wei was also very satisfied with Yang Che’s extremely cooperative attitude. In a rather good mood, he taught Yang Che a few hand-to-hand combat techniques, and even a poisonous Cultivation Technique.
Unconsciously, it had been almost a year since he arrived at Xingshan Mine, and Yang Che was now thirteen years old. Not only had he shot up in height, but his once naive face had also gained a hint of tenacity and composure.
Yang Che had now completely learned to read and interpret characters. He could read the entire Purple Origin Art and Alchemy Notes without missing a single word, but he still hadn’t completely understood the Heaven and Earth Chaos Art.
Although the Heaven and Earth Chaos Art only had three pages of densely packed text, each page was more obscure and difficult to understand than the last.
Yang Che still had no clue about the Spell attached to the end of the Purple Origin Art ancient book; learning a Spell was simply too difficult.
However, he was now gradually settling down, focusing solely on the Ice Arrow Technique. No matter how curious he was about other Spells, he would temporarily ignore them.
In terms of Cultivation, due to Cultivating both the Chaos Art and the Purple Origin Art simultaneously, his Cultivation progress was too slow. Yang Che clearly felt that he was still very far from the third level of the Qi Refinement Stage.
However, he also adjusted his Cultivation plan. The Cultivation of the Chaos Art was no longer as fervent as it was initially, but the Cultivation time was significantly reduced, with his main energy focused on Cultivating the Purple Origin Art, in order to Breakthrough to the third level of Qi Refinement as soon as possible, so that he could take the Eight Treasures Pill.
Late at night, inside a certain abandoned mine shaft.
Yang Che held the Alchemy Notes, his eyes burning with excitement.
He could now read the entire Alchemy Notes without missing a single word. He also knew that the seven-leaf plant that bore seven black fruits in the Stone Cave that day was called a ‘nine-leaf dark yang fruit’, which was an ‘Immortal Plant’ even more precious than medicinal herbs in the Cultivation World.
This Immortal Plant, when fully mature, could grow nine leaves, bloom nine flowers, and bear nine fruits.
Even ordinary Mortals, if they consumed its leaves, could cleanse their marrow and refine their tendons, undergoing a complete transformation. If Cultivators consumed it, it could not only increase their Cultivation but also enhance the strength of their Physical Body.
This made Yang Che, who had already experienced the marvels of the Heaven and Earth Chaos Art, wish he could immediately return to that Stone Cave.
The reason was simple: the Alchemy Notes stated very clearly that the reason this medicinal plant was called an Immortal Plant was that even after it withered, as long as its roots were not dead, it could be re-cultivated to grow, flower, and bear fruit again.
Yang Che had long wanted to leave Xingshan Mine, but he had observed carefully several times that the only exit leading to the outside world was the passage they had taken when they came by carriage.
This was also why Elder Wei dared to let him run laps around Xingshan Mine with peace of mind.
And at that sole exit, there were more than a dozen experts from the Wu Gate’s outer sect guarding the path. Yang Che had no idea what the combat strength of these so-called experts was.
Although he already had the Qi Refinement Stage second-level Cultivation, he couldn’t use any Spells. Relying solely on the few ordinary hand-to-hand combat techniques and poisonous Cultivation Technique taught by Elder Wei, Yang Che had no confidence at all in escaping this place, so he had been diligently Cultivating while silently waiting for an opportunity.
Yang Che’s greatest hope was initially placed on learning the Spell ‘Ice Arrow Technique’, but there had been no progress whatsoever until now. This forced him to start looking for other methods.
Yang Che took out the white, flat jade stone and the palm-sized box filled with mysterious fine needles from another rock crevice.
Neither the two Cultivation Techniques nor the Alchemy Notes, nor the black scroll, contained any information about this flat jade stone and fine needles.
And after Yang Che learned some information about the Wu Gate from Elder Wei, he suspected that these fine needles might be a type of hidden weapon.
Unfortunately, Elder Wei flatly refused to teach him hidden weapon techniques, saying that hidden weapons were the foundation of the Wu Gate’s inner sect, and could not be taught to anyone outside the Wu Gate’s inner sect.
Yang Che sat cross-legged on the ground, turning the white jade stone over and over, even having a sudden whim to bite the jade stone with his teeth, but still couldn’t figure out anything.
He wanted to smash it with a rock to see, but he was also afraid that he would regret it if he actually broke it.
Tormented, Yang Che finally put the flat jade stone and fine needles back into hiding with a sigh of helplessness and quickly walked towards the stone house where tools were stored.
From afar, a series of shouts and sounds of fighting came from a certain direction.
Yang Che’s heart tightened. Wasn’t that direction precisely where Elder Wei’s stone house was located?
He pondered for a moment, then crouched down and stealthily crept towards that side. Then, in the dim moonlight, he saw a person in green clothes, completely wrapped and masked, fiercely fighting Elder Wei in front of Elder Wei’s stone house.
