Beast Taming Immortal Clan

Chapter 176: Antidote, Inventory of Gains, and Methods to Resolve Grudges

Jiufengling, Baotafeng.

"How is it? Elder, do you have a way to detoxify the Fire God Jackal?"

Inside Zhou Mingde's cave, when he came out of the spirit beast chamber, Zhou Chun looked at him with concern and asked about the situation of the Fire God Jackal.

At this time, Zhou Chun had not had time to heal his internal injuries, and he had been rushing all the way, only meditating to recover his magical power and not staying for a moment longer. His complexion was also very bad.

But he paid no attention to that, only concerned about whether there was a way to cure the poisoning of the Fire God Jackal.

This attitude caused Zhou Mingde, who was already angry because his spirit pet was poisoned and injured, to ultimately swallow his words of reproach.

He simply shook his head slightly and said, "The toxin in it is very potent. I used all my strength to only remove part of it and slightly suppress its spread. To completely remove the toxin, we would need the help of a Golden Core cultivator or to find a high-level antidote!"

At this point, he looked at Zhou Chun with a grim expression and said, "Now tell me the details: how exactly was it poisoned, and who injured it?"

Previously, Zhou Chun had just returned to his family and brought the injured and poisoned Fire God Jackal to him.

Because of the urgency of the situation, he didn't have time to ask about the details before sending the Fire God Jackal to the Spirit Beast Chamber to treat the poison.

Now that Vulcan's condition has stabilized somewhat, he has time to ask about the specifics.

When Zhou Chun heard his question, he dared not hide anything and quickly told him about his trip to Lingzhou.

After explaining the situation, he said with a self-reproachful expression, "This is all my fault. If I hadn't been so eager for revenge that I deliberately lured Master Jiang here, the Fire God Jackal wouldn't have been poisoned and injured. Please punish me, Elder!"

Hearing this, Zhou Mingde became even more furious.

According to Zhou Chun, Vulcan's injury this time was indeed entirely due to him settling a personal score.

But as annoyed as he was, Zhou Chun was, after all, a high-ranking member of the Zhou family and a junior whom he held in high regard. Even if he were to be punished, it couldn't be now.

Suppressing his anger, he waved his hand and said, "Now is not the time to talk about responsibility. Since you have obtained Master Jiang's belongings, quickly bring me his storage bag so I can take a look. If we can find the remaining poison and know what kind of poison the Fire God Jackal was poisoned with, perhaps the antidote will be easier to find!"

"Yes, the item is here. Please take a look, Elder."

Zhou Chun responded and hurriedly took out the storage bag he had picked up from Master Jiang's corpse and handed it to Zhou Mingde.

He was busy traveling and didn't have time to open the storage bag to check it.

At this moment, Zhou Mingde personally erased Master Jiang's divine sense imprint from the storage bag and began to search for it with his divine sense.

He was secretly astonished when he finally found out what he was looking for.

Although Master Jiang was only a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, the contents of his storage bag were enough to leave even a Purple Mansion cultivator like himself speechless.

Not to mention the various pills refined by Master Jiang himself and the spiritual herbs and items he collected, he alone had more than 24,000 spirit coins!

It's normal to carry a lot of spirit coins when you're going to an underground auction.

But that's still too much!

Although Zhou Mingde was surprised by the wealth in Master Jiang's storage bag, he did not forget his purpose. He immediately took out all the bottles, jars, and jade boxes and opened them one by one to examine them.

Finally, he found the remaining venom in a porcelain bottle inside a jade box.

"This appears to be some kind of snake venom!"

Seeing that only a tiny bit of grayish-purple venom remained in the porcelain bottle, Zhou Mingde, relying on his rich experience, instantly figured out its approximate origin.

Then he capped the bottle and said to Zhou Chun, "Go to the library immediately and find all the records in the family library about various snake venoms. Let's look for it together and see what kind of snake venom this is!"

"Yes, junior obeys."

Zhou Chun responded and hurriedly turned around and left the cave, heading towards the Flying Stone Peak Library.

Not long after, he returned to Zhou Mingde's cave with a pile of books.

The two then began to peruse numerous books, searching for the origin of the snake venom in the bottle.

After a while, Zhou Mingde suddenly spoke up: "I've found it! If I'm not mistaken, the Fire God Jackal has been poisoned by the Purple Black Serpent!"

Purple Black Snake?

Zhou Chun's expression shifted, and he quickly recalled the information about this venomous snake.

If I remember correctly, this is a mid-level demon beast, but its venom is enough to kill even a cultivator at the Purple Mansion stage, and it is also very effective against third-tier demon beasts.

This type of venomous snake can reproduce asexually, and the female snake can lay eggs even without a suitable mate.

However, it will only lay eggs once in its lifetime, and only before it reaches the end of its lifespan or before it dies.

While he was thinking about information about the venomous snake, the Purple Black Snake, Zhou Mingde had already mentioned how to detoxify it.

"To cure the Purple Black Serpent's venom, you either need to find a Purple Leaf Paris or a Five-Clawed Yellow Lotus that are over five hundred years old, or you need to use an antidote pill made from these two spiritual herbs, or you need to ask a Golden Core cultivator to use their great magical power to remove the toxins!"

"I remember that the Three Absolutes Sect used to cultivate Purple Leaf Paris polyphylla. Perhaps the Li family possesses this medicinal herb and related antidotes!"

At this point, he couldn't help but look at Zhou Chun and said, "Didn't you obtain an 800-year-old Crimson Essence Ganoderma? With such a spiritual herb in hand, the Li family will definitely be willing to exchange it for any antidote pills or spiritual herbs they have."

"That would be perfect."

Zhou Chun nodded repeatedly, then immediately took out the eight-hundred-year-old Crimson Essence Ganoderma from his storage bag, which was packaged in a jade box, and handed it to Zhou Mingde, saying, "The eight-hundred-year-old Crimson Essence Ganoderma is right here. Elder, please take it to the Li family and exchange it for an antidote!"

Seeing that he handed over the precious spiritual medicine he had bought for thousands of spirit coins without hesitation in exchange for the antidote pill, Zhou Mingde's anger caused by the poisoning and injury of the Fire God Jackal was completely calmed down.

He immediately gave him a deep look, then nodded and said, "Alright, I will go to the Li family myself. You should go back and get some rest."

"Yes, junior obeys."

Zhou Chun responded and immediately left the cave, returning to his residence.

Upon arriving at his lodgings, Zhou Chun immediately released the still-weak Silver Lightning Python, Bai Bai, and fed it a meal of fresh food, allowing it to rest peacefully in the courtyard before returning to his room to rest.

After meditating and resting for half a day, Zhou Chun felt better and took out the storage bag he had obtained from the wolf-faced masked cultivator to check it.

Master Jiang's storage bag is still with Zhou Mingde, and he doesn't know what's inside.

However, the wolf-faced masked cultivator's gains all ended up in his hands.

He opened the storage bag and saw that there were less than three thousand spirit coins left. However, in addition to the blue treasure bottle magic artifact that he had put away, there was also a second-tier mid-grade magic artifact that had not been refined.

This item is a magical artifact that appeared at a previous auction. It is called the "Mysterious Water Chain" and is a magical artifact used to trap people. The original price was 4,600 spirit coins.

Fortunately, the wolf-faced masked cultivator hadn't had time to refine this item either; otherwise, Zhou Chun might not have even been able to wait for the Fire God Jackal to arrive in the previous battle.

Apart from the magic bottle, the "Mysterious Water Chain," and the spirit coins, the wolf-faced masked cultivator's storage bag was clean, containing only some pills for restoring mana and healing/detoxifying, with not many other miscellaneous items.

However, if we include that dark blue curved sword magic weapon, Zhou Chun's gains are enormous.

Even if each of the two second-tier high-grade magic artifacts is not as good as the [Sun-Shining Golden Wheel] magic artifact he bought at the auction, they are still worth eight or nine thousand each.

Including other gains, the items on the wolf-faced masked cultivator alone were worth at least 25,000 spirit coins.

If he can get another share from Master Jiang's belongings, his harvest this time will definitely be over 30,000 spirit coins.

All things considered, it was a huge profit.

However, Zhou Chun did not show much joy at this moment.

Because the gains and risks are directly proportional.

The wolf-faced cultivator was clearly someone with a background, and Master Jiang was backed by a cultivation family whose influence was on the surface far greater than that of the Zhou family.

Once these two forces find out that Zhou Chun was the one who killed the person, trouble will likely follow.

Therefore, this gain is a hot potato, and we still need to find a way to resolve these two troubles for the family.

Half a day later, Zhou Mingde successfully returned to his family from the Li family with the antidote pills.

After the Fire God Jackal was given an antidote, the purple snake venom in its body indeed dissipated rapidly.

Upon seeing this, Zhou Mingde finally breathed a sigh of relief and felt at ease.

After instructing the Fire God Jackal to take good care of its wounds and neutralize the remaining poison, he left the Spirit Beast Chamber and summoned Zhou Chun to his cave.

"Alright, now that the Vulcan Jackal's poison has been neutralized, it's time to talk about the trouble you caused this time."

Inside the cave, after Zhou Mingde and Zhou Chun finished their greetings, Zhou Mingde explained the purpose of summoning him.

The trouble it caused.

The fact that Zhou Mingde started with these words reveals his opinion on Zhou Chun's matter.

He looked at Zhou Chun and said in a deep voice, "Actually, I know that this matter cannot be entirely blamed on you. After all, it was Master Jiang who harmed you first, and this time it was the two of them who took the initiative to harm others and came to ambush and kill you."

"But you and I both know that in the cultivation world, no one cares who is right; they only care who has the bigger fist."

"Master Jiang and the other person you killed were both people with powerful backgrounds. Master Jiang himself was also a master alchemist. With two late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators killed, the forces behind them would not let it go easily."

"If they trace it back to the Zhou family, they'll definitely seek revenge!"

Generally speaking, cultivators from two different cultivation families do not easily become enemies.

Because once a feud is formed, it could escalate into a hatred between families.

Favoring one's own family over reason is the survival rule followed by various cultivation families in the cultivation world.

Unless the enemy is incredibly powerful, no family would say that because one of their members killed someone outside, the enemy family came knocking on their door and handed that person over to be dealt with at will.

If that's the case, then a family has no cohesion whatsoever, and it's impossible for its members to be loyal and devoted.

For this reason, when cultivators want to take revenge on a particular family of cultivators, they don't just target the individual cultivator, but include the entire family in their revenge list.

Moreover, the ones who committed the murders this time were Zhou Chun, the deputy patriarch of the Zhou family, and the spirit pet of the Zhou family's supreme elder.

These two points alone are enough to show that this matter is inextricably linked to the entire Zhou family.

Before Zhou Chun arrived, he had also considered the potential retaliation from the forces behind Master Jiang and his group.

Faced with Zhou Mingde's words, he replied in a deep voice, "They also have families and businesses. Even if they want revenge, they can only use methods within the rules. They would never assassinate a Qi Refining stage cultivator from our Zhou family without any scruples!"

"Since that's the case, why not try asking the Qinglian Temple for help in mediating this matter? I can engage in a life-or-death battle with any non-late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator they send out, and settle this score in one fell swoop!"

"You're going to fight them to the death!"

Zhou Mingde was startled and stared at Zhou Chun with a look of surprise, not expecting him to say that.

The so-called "battle of life and death" is a special method of resolving grudges between two forces of similar strength when several members have personal feuds that are difficult to resolve.

Typically, a life-or-death duel is set up, allowing two parties with irreconcilable personal grudges to step onto the stage and settle their differences.

Regardless of which side is defeated and killed, the other side's faction will no longer be allowed to pursue the matter.

To ensure that the losing side will abide by this rule afterward, it is common practice to invite a powerful expert to act as the host.

"This is the best solution I can think of!"

Zhou Chun nodded calmly, expressing his attitude in a very composed manner.

"But are you really confident? According to you, you can let the other side send out a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator for a life-or-death battle. What if the other side also brings a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator who cultivates combat techniques and also has a second-tier demonic beast under contract?"

Zhou Mingde frowned as he looked at Zhou Chun, but he showed no joy at Zhou Chun's decision to take full responsibility for the consequences.

Even though Zhou Mingde had his own opinions about Zhou Chun's troubles, he never considered abandoning him.

Therefore, it is natural to have concerns about his risky approach to solving the problem.

Faced with his question, Zhou Chun calmly replied, "Therefore, it would be best to postpone the life-or-death battle for a year. By then, not only will my Silver Lightning Python spirit pet have recovered, but the Rock Tortoise might have also successfully evolved!"

"That's alright."

Zhou Mingde nodded slightly, indicating his agreement with his idea.

Then, with a wave of his sleeve, he said, "Then you should personally go to Qinglian Temple to visit Fellow Daoist Mingxia. Bring most of Master Jiang's belongings with you. With these things, the Jiang family should agree to your proposal for a life-or-death battle!"

First update of the day!

(End of this chapter)