Chapter 325 — Heroes Admire Heroes
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
The woman in black was none other than Mu Yingxue, poison master of the True Heaven Palace of the Western Lands. She was young, and the body beneath her black robes brimmed with the vigor of youth; set against that black, her skin seemed all the fairer, white as driven snow — a fairness that suited her name well, for skin so white could mirror the snow. She raised a hand and caught the jade bottle, and only then did Shen Mu notice the black silk gloves she wore, gossamer thin, yet enough to keep her skin from being exposed to the air.
Such gloves were surely no ordinary things. Those who made a habit of refining and wielding poisons had to be exceedingly careful, lest they touch the poison themselves; Shen Mu would wager that her black silk gloves were not silk at all, but so tightly woven that not even air could pass through.
Her chest did not rise and fall; she breathed through the pores of her skin instead, so as not to take in poison. Clearly her strength lay not in cultivation or in primal weapons, but in her poisons. Cultivation realm had never been the measure of an alchemist's power; even one of low realm might poison a god to death.
Mu Yingxue glanced at the jade bottle, but rather than sniff the Bewildering Incense within it directly, she pushed up her sleeve and let her skin do the smelling, absorbing the faintest trace of it — and at once half her arm went numb and dead to all feeling.
"Good medicine!
" Her eyes lit up.
She stoppered the bottle and tossed it back to Shen Mu. "It may not bring down a Heaven-Man realm expert," she said in praise, "but it can certainly limit their movements. A remarkable numbing drug.
" Shen Mu turned his palm over and sent out his primal energy to hold the jade bottle aloft, never letting it touch his hand, and from his Taotie Pouch he drew a three-legged toad with jade-green eyes.
The toad opened its mouth, croaked, and swallowed the jade bottle whole; then it closed its mouth, and after a moment spat the bottle back out. Shen Mu set the toad down, and the three-legged creature went hopping toward Mu Yingxue.
Xiong Xiyu and the others stared, dumbfounded. They knew only that Shen Mu had gathered herbs in that basin; they had no idea when he had caught a jade-eyed toad and tucked it into his Taotie Pouch.
"Sister Mu's poisons are hardly ordinary either," Shen Mu said.
"Yet your poisons are but a minor art.
They are not fit for the halls of the great, and cannot be called unmatched under heaven. " Mu Yingxue's eyes shone bright as snow.
Watching the jade-eyed toad hop toward her, she flicked her fingers lightly, and a thread of primal energy became a flying insect that darted to and fro.
The three-legged toad lashed out its tongue and swallowed the insect; it croaked twice, then swelled as though being inflated, and in the blink of an eye it was as big as an ox.
Shen Mu took out a spirit elixir and drew his finger lightly across its middle; the elixir split in two, and with a buzzing sound a mosquito flew out — the elixir had been hollow at its core. The mosquito beat its wings and flew to the toad's back, settling there, and before long the toad grew smaller and smaller while the mosquito grew larger and larger, its belly like a great waterskin — only what filled it was blood, and not red blood but a glossy green. Once it had drunk its fill, the three-legged toad returned to its usual size and went hopping about, lashing its tongue at the mosquito that now hung in the air, more than ten feet long — but it was too small to swallow it. Mu Yingxue was astonished.
"Raising insects in spirit elixirs? Interesting.
" She pushed up her sleeve, baring her fair, tender skin, and the great mosquito came at once to settle on her arm and bite. The instant it pierced her skin, the mosquito shrank rapidly as though all the water had been wrung from it, and its color changed as well, turning red; trailing fire, it flew back toward Shen Mu. Shen Mu's pupils contracted.