Sword drawn from the constellations, poison as its edge.

Chapter 40 Forcing Blood to Melt Poison
Jiang Mingzhe's gaze towards Azi contained emotion, joy, sympathy, and self-reproach.

Azi might not be able to understand such complex emotions, but she could still sense the increasingly intense feelings in the other person's eyes.

"oops!"

Azi suddenly became shy, but at the same time, she couldn't help but feel a little smug. She turned her head to look at Princess Qingtang, rolled her eyes, stuck out her tongue, and made a face at her.

He thought to himself with delight: "Big Ginger wants to team up with me as the White and Green Twin Demons, but I won't be your stinking official."

Jiang Mingzhe witnessed this scene and roughly guessed what Azi was thinking. He smiled slightly and changed the subject: "Senior sister, should I find a secluded place to dissolve the poison?"

Azi nodded and said, "Yes, you go and get your luggage first."

Jiang Mingzhe went to retrieve his luggage and basket, while Azi ran up to Princess Qingtang and held out her hand, saying, "Hand over the scabbard!"

Previously, the princess had stabbed her with a dagger, which was snatched away by Azi. Now, she was brazenly demanding the scabbard back.

Sangzhu whispered, "Princess, give it to her."

Princess Qingtang took a deep breath and threw out the scabbard.

The scabbard, like the hilt of the short sword, was made of pure gold. However, while the blade of the short sword was inlaid with small gemstones, the scabbard was covered with large gemstones that shone brightly in the sunlight.

Azi snatched it, sheathed the knife, and happily played with it for a while before saying, "You don't need to be unconvinced. Your Iron Rod Lama broke my sword, so this little knife is your compensation. Hmph, Big Ginger thinks you're a brat, so I'll take pity on you and spare your two stinking lives."

The princess was furious and thought to herself, "Your sword is broken, so you should pay for it. You killed so many people for no reason, yet you haven't paid for it with your life."

Sangzhu held her princess tightly, afraid that she would retort and anger Azi again.

Seeing that the other party remained silent, Azi snorted and dashed to Jiang Mingzhe's side, grabbing his arm and pulling him away.

Princess Qingtang stared at the two without blinking until they disappeared from sight, then whispered to Sangzhu, "This time, our lives were saved by that big ginger. Hmph, this little vixen seems to care about him a lot. I will definitely take him to Qingtang to be an official and make this little vixen very sad."

Sangzhu whispered, "Princess, you are engaged to the King of Guge. Although this man is handsome, he..."

Before he could finish speaking, the princess glared at him fiercely and interrupted him, saying, "What nonsense are you spouting? Do you think I would be lustful at first sight? If you say such stupid things again, you'll regret it!"

Meanwhile, Jiang Mingzhe was being pulled along by Azi, unable to stop, but he was worried: "Are we just going to leave the corpses like this? What if a plague breaks out?"

Azi said indifferently, "Our sect has always killed people without burying them. Why do you care so much? There are crows and vultures in the sky, and wolves and wild dogs on the ground. These few people are not enough to feed us. Besides, even if there is a plague, our disciples are not afraid."

Jiang Mingzhe was actually somewhat worried about Princess Qingtang and her maid. This place was wild and desolate, with few people around. How dangerous would it be for two women who didn't know martial arts?

But knowing that if he spoke out, Azi would probably turn around and kill him immediately, he had no choice but to put it aside. He thought that at least the carriage and horses were still there, and most of the people of Qingtang were good riders, so he was not exactly desperate.

The two walked eastward for another twenty miles or so. As the sky gradually darkened, they heard a rumbling sound like thunder ahead. After turning a mountain ridge, they saw a vast expanse of water rushing and flowing, with the river channels forming a net-like pattern, outlining streaks of silver across the land.

Jiang Mingzhe asked curiously, "Is this the Yellow River?"

After a moment of observation, Azi shook her head and said, "This is probably the Zhaqu River. Master said it means 'rocky river.' If you go down this river, you will reach the Lancang River, which can reach the Dali Kingdom and the Jiaozhi Kingdom. Little ginger was brought back from there by Master."

She looked around and said, "We're not leaving today. We'll rest here for the night and wait for you to recover from the poison. Tomorrow, we'll head south along the Zhaqu River. There's a stone mountain called Centipede Ridge. We'll go there to catch centipedes!"

After saying that, he led Jiang Mingzhe along the riverbank and soon found a cave. It was called a cave, but it was really just a depression in the mountain wall, no more than two meters deep, with little soil on the ground and no dampness.

The two found some stones to build a fire pit, and gathered a lot of dry branches and leaves to light a bonfire. Azi took out some powder of unknown origin and sprinkled it around the stone wall, probably to repel snakes and insects.

Jiang Mingzhe carried an earthenware pot in his basket, took it to the river to fetch a pot of clean water, heated it in the fire pit until it was half-boiled, and then they washed their hands and feet.

They didn't bring any basins, so they had to help each other: one person held the jar and slowly poured water in, while the other quickly washed the contents.

When it was Azi's turn to wash, she took off her shoes and socks, revealing her two little feet.

Jiang Mingzhe couldn't help but glance at her, and found that her figure was well-proportioned, her skin was fair and translucent, and her toenails were painted with a light red color, just like cherry blossom petals. When water was poured on her feet, her toes immediately curled up.

Jiang Mingzhe found it pleasing to the eye, and a smile unconsciously crept onto his lips. However, Azi noticed this and suddenly blushed, saying coquettishly, "You big ginger, why are you staring at my feet? Don't look, turn your head away!"

Jiang Mingzhe turned his head as instructed, but then he heard Azi chuckle softly, as if a mosquito were buzzing, and ask, "Big Ginger, do you think my feet are very pretty?"

Jiang Mingzhe hesitated for a moment, thinking that a gentleman is open and honest, and there is nothing he cannot say to others, so he nodded. Azi chuckled again, and then kept muttering under her breath, "You stupid ginger, you idiot ginger, you actually like looking at women's feet..."

After muttering and babbling for a while, she finally washed her feet, put on her shoes and socks, washed her hands again, fetched a pot of water to boil, took out some tea leaves from her bundle, sprinkled a handful into the pot to cook, and took out some dry rations to share with Jiang Mingzhe. However, she kept her face red and refused to look him in the eye.

After eating and drinking her fill, the shyness on A Zi's face faded. She took out a small jade bowl and a small porcelain bowl, rinsed them clean with hot tea, and then took a pill the size of a soybean and had Jiang Mingzhe hold it under his tongue. Finally, she released the six-winged iron centipede and pinched the centipede's wing root with her slender jade fingers.

Jiang Mingzhe, with the pill in his mouth, sat cross-legged and circulated his internal energy, first making several circles within his body, then accumulating it at the joint of his right index finger before extending his finger.

Azi whispered, "Ready? It hurts a lot!"

After saying that, he pinched the centipede and brought it closer. He applied a little pressure with his fingers, and the centipede felt pain and bit Jiang Mingzhe's index finger. Its two venomous fangs penetrated deep into the flesh, trembling as it desperately injected venom.

Jiang Mingzhe felt an indescribable, electric-like pain spread throughout his body. Although he had prepared himself mentally, he still couldn't withstand the excruciating pain. He let out a low growl and watched helplessly as his finger inflated like an air balloon. Then, the skin around the bite quickly turned black and blisters the size of mung beans appeared.

A hint of panic appeared on Azi's face: "Oh dear, this centipede is really poisonous!"

She knew that the six-winged iron centipede was a rare species, but this was the first time she had ever seen it bite someone. Its venom was even more potent than she had imagined. Fearing that Jiang Mingzhe would not be able to withstand it, she reached into her hair with her left hand, picked out a silver needle, and with a flick of her wrist, pulled out the venomous fangs from Jiang Mingzhe's skin. She hurriedly said, "Quickly, force out the poisonous blood."

Jiang Mingzhe's expression was solemn, and he dared not be careless in the slightest. He quickly channeled his inner strength, and saw that jet-black blood was gushing out from the wound. Azi hurriedly used a jade bowl to catch it. Drop by drop, the black blood fell into the jade bowl, and in a short time, it had filled half a bowl.

This jade bowl is not large; it contains about half a bowl of blood, which is approximately three qian (a unit of weight).

Once the blood from his wound turned bright red, Azi quietly breathed a sigh of relief and reminded him, "That's enough."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Mingzhe stopped trying to expel the poison, but his fingers remained swollen and painful.

Azi put away the centipede, took out a small bottle and a goose feather, poured a little powder into a porcelain bowl, added some tea to mix it, and then carefully applied it to the wound on Jiang Mingzhe's finger with the goose feather. Before long, the pain stopped and the swelling subsided, but the area around the wound was still faintly black.

Jiang Mingzhe breathed a sigh of relief, wiped the cold sweat from his brow, and marveled at the medicine's miraculous effects. He couldn't help but pick up the small bowl and sniff it.

Azi laughed and said, "Pretending to be something you're not, do you think you can even smell the formula? This is a two-ingredient detoxifying powder, made by grinding realgar, alum, coptis, and licorice into powder, mixing it with tea, and then wiping it with a goose feather. With the detoxifying and heart-protecting pill you're holding in your mouth, even if you don't have internal strength, you can still save your life."

After saying that, he picked up the jade bowl containing the poisoned blood and handed it over: "Dissolve the poison. I hope your method works, so that you won't have suffered this poison in vain."

(End of this chapter)