Chapter 65 - The Valley Of Kings (2)

“What do those do?” Jim said, looking at each different vial in the sunlight. There were a variety of different colours to pick from, but every single tube gave off a sense of foreboding. Laurence quickly took the tubes back from Jim and pulled out a crystal beaker.

“Careful, some of these substances have bad reactions to high levels of natural light,” he said, pulling out a couple of stoppers and mixing in a green and a blue liquid. “Tears of Mercury and Soul Salt are two of the nastiest poisons pre-Immortal stage, but in very small doses they can be used to cure some other nasty diseases. Unfortunately either one is too powerful on its own for it to be usable in the situation I’m thinking of. I want for everyone in that camp to be affected by it before they realise anything is wrong. If I mix this solution with some powdered nereid aquamarines then the materials should suppress the potency by a large enough margin that it will spread to everyone before being noticed. It should take two days or so to come into effect and then they will have two thousand bedridden saints instead of an army. If we’re lucky then a few might even die”.

“So what does the poison actually do? And how do you know about it? I thought poison was the domain of the Mephisto clan, not yours,” said Louisa.

“I know about poisons because of how connected Book paths are. Even though I’m a False Immortal of Creation and Destruction, I’m still a member of the Absolution clan. My father tried to drill the Book of Life into me before I was seven, but I took to the Book of Creation far more than I ever did with Life. I still remember a lot about the mixtures and materials though. This particular mixture should shut down the internal organs one by one until the body enters a deathlike state. If they do not exit it then they will either die or stay comatose until they are given the antidote”.

Louisa looked at Yun before nodding, standing up and sitting in front of Laurence. “I need some of that,” she said, looking at the mixture in front of them. “I need that to become a Heaven ranker”.

“What,” Laurence said, his face deadpan.

“I need some of that mixture in order to take the next stage in Physical ascension. It requires me to remove myself from the fetters of the body so that I can transform myself into anything I can think of. I will still be physically there, but my body should be under complete control of my mind. If you have the antidote then there should be no threat of me becoming permanently comatose. Just revive me when it looks like I am out of mana”.

“You can do this too?” Laurence said, looking at Yun. “Have you been holding out on me? Are you already an immortal?”

“No,” Yun barked in laughter, “I have the ability but cannot cultivate it. Think of it like an extra ability for me with each rank up”.

“Well I guess I can agree with that. Give me a little extra time then”.

Laurence grabbed a second beaker and poured a few drops of the noxious liquid into it. He then grabbed a vial of another liquid, poured the entire vial into the beaker, filling it half way up. After mixing the liquid vigorously, he grabbed a large shard of nereid aquamarine and wrapped it in his inner flame. The flame bit and cut into the gemstone, slowly turning its form into ash which floated down into the beaker below, tainting it and turning it an ashy dark blue. The colour seeped down into the clear fluid until just before the beaker was fully saturated when Laurence stopped. He then put away the blue gem and pulled out a much smaller shard of salamandrite. Igniting this in the same way he watched as the remaining five percent of the liquid was saturated and the entire mixture turned an ash-purple. Using his truesense Laurence performed the final touch by sinking into the liquid and controlling it so that it span like a whirlpool before he placed a tiny bead of liquid into the middle of the beaker. Infinitesimally small pieces of the liquid were pulled into the whirlpool, shrinking the drop until there was nothing left. Only then did the liquid whirlpool collapse in on itself and settle down.

Laurence put down the beaker and just let it sit near the fire for a minute while watching as it slowly turned from the ash-purple colour that it had been into a deep, rich emerald green. Sighing he put a single drop of his original poison into a test tube and filled it with the same vial of clear fluid, before mixing it in thoroughly. He then separated it into ten parts in ten vials and did the same thing, mixing thoroughly once more, before doing the same thing to one of the ten new vials. He then stoppered all then of the new vials and gave them to Louisa.

“You have ten chances, after the tenth you will likely become immune to the poison and it will do nothing to you. The antidote is the green liquid in the beaker, don’t drink it if you have no toxins within your body as it will just expel everything it can”.

“Is that a marrow washing solution?” Jim said, his eyes wide. “I thought that the solutions were only myth”.

“They are. True marrow washing solutions are awful for you if you cultivate. If you have a marrow washing solution before you start, and you’re old, it will likely be great for you, and probably gift you with a much extended life, but if a cultivator who isn’t poisoned tasted it, they would have very little for the solution to remove. If they had too much then the solution would cause their blood to seep out of their pores rather than the toxin. Yun, administer a single drop of this mixture at a time, with five second breaks until a grey-green fluid is expelled through Louisa’s skin if you want her to wake up. Never do more than that or she will likely die”.

“Understood brother, what now?”

“Now,” Laurence said glancing out towards the encampment once more. “I poison some dogs”.


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