Book 14: Chapter 100
100% Kill Rate – Life and Death Unknown Pill
It was a clear day, yet the black whip created an ominous atmosphere. Were Che Gulu still conscious, he would’ve belted, “Sonorous Roar!” Quanmu’s students had started yelling out to Tang Ye, trying to persuade him to give up; even students from other classes persuaded Bai Yumo and Tang Ye to forfeit the match for a loss to Bai Ju was nothing to be embarrassed about. Si Fu turned around so that she wouldn’t have to see Tang Ye perish to the azure energy that she could tell was Bai Ju’s ultimate technique. The only person who watched on without batting an eye was the person most confident in Tang Ye – Su Xiao.
With his arms crossed and gaze on the match, Su Xiao reproached, “Hmph, put a sock in it, or you won’t know where your jaw went once Tang Ye makes his move!”
Bai Yumo remained as cool as a cucumber. Whether she was stupefied or incapable of discerning the danger was uncertain, but it was just the way she was. In fact, she was more worried about Tang Ye than Bai Ju. “Wh-what’s the matter?”
The last time Tang Ye used the mobility skill, his meridians were set alight. This time, he perspired profusely and couldn’t stop trembling. Bai Yumo was more freaked out about it than he was. He could feel half of his body scalding, while the other half was ready to freeze. Bai Yumo didn’t need to be a doctor to see he was in a bad state.
“It’s… that pill.”
Tang Ye could only think of one cause. He was aware that his new internal energy was supplied from an external source, but he never questioned how he’d be able to control it so freely if it was. Although he was no expert on controlling internal energy, his usage of it a few days ago should’ve been his personal best, considering it wasn’t even as impressive as when he first joined Liu Shan Men. After all, despite not having the knowledge and experience he now had, his control of his internal energy and Yang Blood True Qi was excellent.
Tang Ye sabotaged himself following his defeat at the hands of Yi Wangyou, so he asked Ming Feizhen to erase Nanjiang’s Poison King’s martial arts from his body when he returned. As a result, he was back to 80% of his level prior to Huzhou. Little did he know that, though the discipline Luo Ming collaborated with Poison King to come up with wasn’t orthodox, it was the product of two cream-of-the-crop martial artists’ dedicating ten years of their life to. Boosting Tang Ye’s internal energy by 70% within a matter of days couldn’t be put down to just “unorthodoxy”.
“Binary Poison” combined the concept of “fight fire with fire” to boost strength and the concepts of “Repository Swordplay”. He was able to improve drastically in “Scorching Sun Spirit” within a short time frame thanks Yang Blood True Qi acting as his foundation. That said, it was only expedited because Poison King used poison to force two different heat energies to synergise. The thing was, Poison King used an extremely potent poison – gu poison.
Gu poison could potentially cling to its host’s body and feed off the host’s body, thereby strengthening itself perpetually. Using Tang Ye as an example, the exceptionally hot energy was the result of the gu’s work. Carelessness was all it took for one to lose their mind and control of their martial arts. Even Luo Ming nearly lost his mind and swordplay had Ming Feizhen not given him a taste of death.
Tang Ye had Binary Poison erased from his body for a simple reason: it didn’t belong to him. An unwritten rule in the pugilistic world was to not keep what wasn’t yours. Had Tang Ye kept Scorching Sun Spirit, he’d have his hands disabled as comeuppance.
As a consequence of removing Scorching Sun Spirit, the gu lost its source of sustenance, so it “threw a tantrum”. Though Ming Feizhen could’ve expelled the poison from Tang Ye, he would’ve regressed Tang Ye’s progress, too. The ramification could’ve been subverted; however, Ming Feizhen only supressed the poison using his internal energy until he had the luxury to get rid of the poison. Consequently, Tang Ye’s original internal energy from Yang Blood True Qi as well as the Binary Poison’s were inaccessible. His growth in the last six months was solely in terms of knowledge and maturity. The five blade techniques Ming Feizhen imparted expanded his knowledge, but it didn’t raise his strength. Tang Ye assiduously studied the five techniques as he had a strong suspicion that his internal energy wouldn’t increase again no matter how he trained. Considering it karma for his thoughtless decisions, he gave up on improving his internal energy. He came to terms with the fact that he’d have to take revenge with skill alone. His reasoning was flawed, though.
Development from training couldn’t just evaporate without a catalyst. The internal energy, including that of which he developed in Huzhou, he developed had to go somewhere inside him. Ming Feizhen suppressing the gu poison was just that – suppressing it; he didn’t set it into a dormant mode. The qi and essence developed continued to develop as the gu fed off him. It just couldn’t be withdrawn since Ming Feizhen suppressed it. Gus had an insatiable appetite by nature, so the real reason Tang Ye plateaued was due to the gu continuing to use Binary Poison’s method of absorbing the heat energy. Tang Ye wasn’t privy of the fact until he was hurt badly against Tang Za. Most importantly, he had learnt techniques from Ming Feizhen’s Ancient King String.
Not even Ming Feizhen realised that his techniques that shared Ancient King’s origins loosened his seal on the gu, allowing it to attempt forcing its way out of its confines. Ever since then, Tang Ye felt the flow in his meridians was clunky. The second time he utilised Ming Feizhen’s skills was when he employed Hazy Steps.
There was no way Tang Ye could’ve performed Hazy Steps based on his internal energy development; not even Ming Feizhen could perform it. The intense drainage pattern of internal energy, nevertheless, closely resembled the way Ming Feizhen moulded energy, which was extremely close to what humans could achieve. What Tang Ye lacked in internal energy, Ming Feizhen made up for with his seal. Ming Feizhen’s internal-energy-moulding method sucked the internal energy right out of Tang Ye in addition to the true qi that made up Ming Feizhen’s seal. As a result, the gu escaped, dragging the uncontrollable heat energy along.
The gu had feasted off the heat energy Tang Ye toiled for and the huge amount of heat energy it absorbed prior. Thus, when it surfaced again, not only was there uncontrollable heat energy but also its own venom. Without Ming Feizhen’s seal and the Binary Poison’s refinement taking place, there was nothing inside Tang Ye to restrain the gu. Given the way it rampaged inside him, Tang Ye should’ve been nothing more than charcoal before he could’ve returned to Liu Shan Men. His saviour was Ming Feizhen’s “life and death unknown pill”.
Ming Feizhen never imagined anyone would consume a “life and death unknown pill”. If he ever needed to feed it to anyone, he would’ve done so with the intent of poisoning them since, despite it being able to neutralise venoms, it was so potent that people would’ve died before it could’ve neutralised the poison. In saying that, he decided to add “life” into the name as it also had the potential to save someone on the verge of death… though the odds were slim. Before the pill could torment Tang Ye, it killed the gu inside him. Overnight, the pill also cleared out the poison they couldn’t do anything about. Thus, Tang Ye’s body transformed.
The gu’s escape restored Tang Ye’s internal energy back to his level in Huzhou, which was 70% higher than when he joined Liu Shan Men. His internal energy development over the last sixth months was also liberated from its constraints. Subsequently, the internal energy that the gu refined was restored. Lastly, “life and death unknown pill” converted the gu’s poison into more potent internal energy using Binary Poison’s method. From a volume perspective, Tang Ye essentially gained four times his original internal energy.
On top of all that, his heat energy was no longer that which he developed via Yang Blood True Qi. Owing to the gu’s refinement approach, it combined Yang Blood True Qi and Scorching Sun Spirit. Tang Ye was unable to control the heat energy moulded through that method, leading to the anguish he went through all last night. The heat energy was too intense for him, while Binary Poison didn’t need one extreme.
Celestial spider silk and its cold venom was a delicacy to Tang Ye’s heat energy. Accordingly, they synthesised without a hitch, becoming a new energy source beyond his comprehension. Sadly, he still had no discipline to reign them in. Every time he exceeded his expenditure limit, he’d be left wondering how to keep the energy under control. He hadn’t found an answer, and his opponent certainly wasn’t going to wait for him.
“Now, die.”