It was unexpected for Tang Xiu to see w.a.n.g Rui still alive. He sighed inwardly as he observed his pain through his spiritual sense before he walked out from the corner by the ladder. He knew of the tragedy that befell Qingcheng Monastery and previously thought that he could save the remaining members of the school. However, he got poisoned and heavily injured, leading to nearly half of the remaining dozens of Qingcheng Monastery"s people getting murdered.

"Who is it?"

Except for w.a.n.g Rui, nine out of the ten people inside the dungeon spotted Tang Xiu and shouted loudly.

"You don"t need to be nervous as I don"t have any evil intentions towards you all." Tang Xiu shook his head and sighed, "It was rather unfortunate that Dao Master Poison ambushed me with his poison, else I could have guaranteed the protection of the remaining members of your Qingcheng school."

"It"s you?"

When w.a.n.g Feng saw Tang Xiu, he looked pleasantly surprised and ran to Tang Xiu under the watchful eyes of everyone else. He knelt and kowtowed a few times before getting up, then gratefully said, "I didn"t expect you to be alive. That night, the remaining members would"ve definitely died if it weren"t for your actions in rescue. I"m w.a.n.g Feng of the Qingcheng school, and you"re my savior."

Tang Xiu patted his shoulder and then came to w.a.n.g Rui to speak to him helplessly, "The dead can"t be resurrected after death, so restrain your grief and move according to the inevitable. You helped Viviani in the South China Sea, so I"ll help you kill Dao Master Poison in return for the favor."

w.a.n.g Rui didn"t expect that he would see Tang Xiu here, nor did he think that the person who helped them in Qingcheng Monastery that night was Tang Xiu. Nevertheless, there was a look of hatred in his eyes when he turned around and asked, "You mean… the man who killed my father and destroyed my Qingcheng school is called Dao Master Poison?"

"The ones who ruined your Qingcheng Monastery were the disciples of Dao Master Poison, but the one who is currently hunting down and killing the rest of your school"s members is Dao Master Poison," said Tang Xiu. "Your father wasn"t killed that night; he should have been found and killed by Dao Master Poison later on. Put away that hatred, w.a.n.g Rui! I"ll help you get revenge in this blood feud."

w.a.n.g Rui was silent for a long while before slowly asking, "Is this Dao Master Poison really that powerful?"

"He"s able to fly and is impervious to attacks, so powerful beyond what average people can imagine," said Tang Xiu. "Even if you add up all the members of your Qingcheng school, it won"t be enough against him; he can just swat you away with his palm."

Slump…

w.a.n.g Rui knelt in front of Tang Xiu and enunciated harshly as he said, "Tang Xiu, I know I can never take revenge in this blood feud with my ability, but I hope that you take me with you when you kill Dao Master Poison… I… I want to witness his death with my own eyes."

Tang Xiu hesitated for a moment before he nodded and replied, "I can promise you that, but what do you want to do next? If you were to exit now, once Dao Master Poison finds you, you probably won"t be able to escape and will die."

"Are you still unable to beat Dao Master Poison currently, Senior?" asked w.a.n.g Feng.

"Maybe I can kill him in a real fight using swords and fists, but the reason why he"s called Dao Master Poison is that he"s an expert in poison and excels in mysterious poisoning methods which are unpredictable even to myself. I don"t know about the poison he uses, which is the reason he got me easily." Tang Xiu shook his head and continued, "For example, what happened that night. I wouldn"t have had any problems in keeping my words to shelter the remaining members of your Qingcheng school and would possibly be able to kill him had I not gotten poisoned first."

"Then what should we do now?" asked w.a.n.g Feng bitterly.

"Don"t worry about that. I"ve sent my men to find medicinal herbs. As long as the herbs I need can be found, I can refine the Poison Repellent Pill. As long as I take this pill in advance, even if it can"t keep all types of poisons away, common potent poisons will be unlikely to have an effect on me."

"If so, what kind of herbs do you need, Senior?" asked w.a.n.g Feng quickly. "Our Qingcheng Monastery has stored a lot of medicinal herbs in our underground vault. Maybe it has what you need."

Tang Xiu"s expression changed and he quickly told him the herbs he needed. The fact is that the Qingcheng Monastery located deep in the Qingcheng Mountain didn"t cross his mind previously. They had a unique advantage in gathering herbs, and it wasn"t surprising that they would"ve stored a large number of precious herbs.

"Please come with us, Senior!" said w.a.n.g Feng. "We"ll go to the underground vault nearby. I know that several types of herbs that you just mentioned are stored inside."

"Let"s." Tang Xiu didn"t want to delay anymore either and straightly left the dungeon with them.

The underground vault of Qingcheng Monastery was located in a high-rise courtyard in the Northeast corner. It was a treasure vault of the monastery in the past and also a forbidden place for most people. But now, the Qingcheng school had fallen into distress and had suffered great losses, so the custom of the past had lost its bind.

At the underground vault.

Apart from the s.p.a.cious empty hall under the stairs, there were six storehouses on both sides of the inner corridor that stored some precious treasures belonging to Qingcheng Monastery. The precious herbs, however, were stored in the outermost two storehouses. Tang Xiu entered the first room of the opened storehouses and saw three rows of cabinets filled with precious herbs. There were hundreds of types of them. Tang Xiu glanced over and saw that there were more than ten of the 500-year-old wild ginseng here.

A few minutes later, Tang Xiu found some of the herbs he needed. But he had probed all the herbs stored inside the two storehouses and found that he was still lacking two herbs: the Wild-goose Pond Reed and the Arcane Mugwort Flower.

w.a.n.g Rui walked next to Tang Xiu also knew that they hadn"t yet found two types of herb. He spoke out, "We"ve never heard the names of these two herbs, the Wild-goose Pond Reed and Arcane Mugwort Flower. Can you draw their pictures to make it easier for us to find them?"

"No problem." Tang Xiu took out a paper and pen, and quickly drew the two herbs.

After some of them looked at the photos, w.a.n.g Rui knitted his brows and said, "Isn"t this Arcane Mugwort Flower just a type of Nepenthes, the Warthog Pen herb? It"s just an ordinary weed endemic to the nearby swamp to the west of Qingcheng Mountain. That"s right, I used to see some of them inside the dungeon, though few in number."

A Warthog Pen herb?

Tang Xiu secretly forced a smile inwardly. Even though he had come across and read many literary works on medicinal ingredients, he had never seen any that mentioned the Arcane Mugwort Flower. Yet, such a precious herb was unexpectedly called the Warthog Pen, a common nepenthes plant on Earth. One must know that the processed Arcane Mugwort Flower produced a liquid that could promote blood circulation for removing blood stasis, as well as strengthen muscles and bones. It had a good effect on both average people and cultivators, and the flower had benefits for immortals if it was very old.

"Earth is truly a giant treasure trove!" Tang Xiu lamented inwardly and inquired, "Since we can find the Arcane Mugwort Flower, what about the Wild-goose Pond Reed? Do you have anyone who knows this herb?"

"I don"t know".

"I"ve never heard about this one."

All of them shook their heads and had bitter looks on their faces.

"Then we can only wait if you don"t have it," said Tang Xiu. "I already sent someone to buy it and he might be able to find the herb."

"Yes!"

Each of them could only pin their hopes on the people who were sent out by Tang Xiu at this moment.

Tang Xiu headed out of the storehouse but suddenly asked, "Does your Qingcheng school sell these medicinal herbs? If you are willing to sell them, I can buy them at a high price, or we can exchange it with some other things."

"We don"t sell them, but they can be exchanged," said w.a.n.g Rui without thinking. "If you exchange it with Daoist cultivation arts, you can take all the herbs stored in these two storehouses."

The rest immediately looked excited upon hearing that and nodded in agreement with w.a.n.g Rui.

Tang Xiu was silent for a while before he shook his head and said, "Speaking about Daoist cultivation arts is no small matter and it cannot be easily exposed to outsiders either. However, there are some cultivation techniques I can impart to you if you want to be stronger. Although it won"t take you to the realms of cultivators who are able to fly and drain the river or overturn the ocean, it"s still possible to increase your strength more than ten times."

"I"ll take them!" w.a.n.g Rui immediately agreed.

****

Qinglin County.

In the Chief Office of the county Public Security Bureau, the police chief, Zhu Hongguo, was wearing a deep frown while smoking his cigarette intensely. Sitting across from him included the Head of the Communist Party of China"s (CPC) county committee, the party"s second-in-command, and the squad captain of the city"s Criminal Police, Li Gangde. At this moment, the second-in-command of the CPC munic.i.p.al committee was also smoking and frowning.

"You must think of a way to solve this problem. The murders that continue to appear in the jurisdiction of Qinglin County have already caused concerns with the provincial authority. Furthermore, these murders have caused public panic and have seriously affected the stability of Qinglin County. If we can"t apprehend this ferocious beast and are unable to solve this problem completely, I"m afraid all of us who are present now won"t end up well off either." The second-in-command of CPC munic.i.p.al committee, Xiao Kang, put out the cigarette b.u.t.t and said with a vexed and sullen face.

"We"ve done everything we could think of, but the culprit is obviously not an ordinary person. Wanting to apprehend and bring him to justice proves next to impossible," replied Zhu Honggue helplessly.

"I know. The higher-ups have already sent people here, but we haven"t yet learned when they will arrive," said Xiao Kang. "However, we can"t pin all our hopes on those guys while solely counting on them. At the very least, we need to find the whereabouts of this man before the people from the Central authority arrive here."

"You mean… we must do the intel work first?" asked Zhu Hongguo.

"That"s right." Xiao Kang nodded.

Knock, knock…

A knock was heard at the office"s door and a middle-aged man in a police uniform entered the room before quickly reporting, "Chief, there are two women here saying that they were sent by the higher-ups. They"re outside now."

Two women?

Everyone"s expression changed and Xiao Kang directly got up and said quickly, "Take us to see them!"

A minute later, the group saw two women waiting outside the hall. If Tang Xiu was here, he would be able to recognize them at a glance as they were old acquittances: Electrolady and Aquababe.

"Two ladies, I am…"

Electrolady waved her hand to interrupt Xiao Kang"s introduction and straightforwardly said, "We don"t need to know who you are. Your task is very simple, find a way to help us find the whereabouts of that criminal. At the same time, we are responsible for the operation to capture… or kill him. These are our credentials."

With that said, the two females took out green books and handed them over to Xiao Kang to inspect them.

Xiao Kang forced a wry smile inwardly upon seeing the big characters written on the green books. He knew that these two women in front of him had special ident.i.ties. After returning the green books to them with a bit of a respectful att.i.tude, he said, "We have yet to find out the location of that criminal, but give us some time. I believe we"ll find him as soon as possible and we"ll report our findings to you."

"Alright, let"s exchange contact details." Electrolady nodded and said, "We"ll move to find him in Qinglin County before we obtain the intel from you. If you find him, do contact us via the number I gave you."