In the face of his student’s teasing, Baili Rui’s face turned red from coughing. He rolled his eyes at Lin Mengya, who had a sly smile on her face, and ignored her words.

“Alright. I’m relieved seeing that you’re doing good now. By the way, how did you fall into their trap?”

Back then, Lin Mengya left the city in a hurry, not having enough time to investigate the matter.

Now when she thought about it again, she found the whole matter fishy. Her teacher was a master of poison, and even if he wanted to raise that thing, he was able to keep himself from indulging in it.

But the fact was, if she had found out the matter a little later, her teacher would have gone insane completely.

Nothing could be more ridiculous than a master of poison being poisoned.

“Well, in fact, I have no idea. I can’t remember how that drug got into my place.”

There was a helpless look on Baili Rui’s face when he replied.

He couldn’t remember anything about it no matter how hard he tried to recall since he regained his consciousness.

The whole thing appeared even more confusing if what Baili Rui said was true.

Lin Mengya wanted to investigate, but she knew that this matter could not be rushed.

“Forget it. If you can’t remember, stop trying. Since they poisoned you, they had to want something from you. Besides, there were spies in our mansion. But now you’re safe because our mansion is heavily guarded.”

Lin Mengya tried to comfort Baili Rui. She had once learned from Long Tianyu that he imprisoned Baili Rui partly because he wanted to make use of his skills of making poison, but mostly because he wanted to protect him.

He knew that many people were targeting this poison master.

What was more, it was Baili Wuchen, Baili Rui’s nephew, that suggested Baili Rui be imprisoned there.

Though there were guards outside the stone room, Baili Rui could go outside freely if he wanted.

There were food and drinks in the room, where he could study poison skills quietly. Given that he was a man who would reconcile himself to every situation, the life there was very satisfying.

“I’m so old, and life doesn’t matter to me. Is there anything wrong with your right hand, Mengya? Come here, and let me have a look.”

Baili Rui stared at Lin Mengya’s right hand inquiringly with concern in his eyes.

He had always been observant. Lin Mengya had no intention to lie.

She put her right hand out obediently and let her teacher check it before withdrawing it.

“Who did it? I’ll poison his whole family!”

Baili Rui’s face turned livid as he shouted angrily.

All he hoped for was that Lin Mengya could inherit his poison skills. If her right hand was disabled, then his skills wouldn’t be handed down.

“An assassin. But I don’t know exactly who he is. Please rest assured that I’ll torture him badly if I find out who he is. I was lucky that I met Elder Chang Tianhua in the Pavilion of Herbs. With his magical medicine, I’m getting better and better.”

Lin Mengya waved her right hand, indicating that she had almost recovered.

Baili Rui’s face softened a little. He turned around, lifted the curtain, and walked into his medicine room.

There were clinking sounds coming from the room, and about fifteen minutes later, Baili Rui came out with some bottles of medicine in his hands. He placed the bottles on the stone table in front of Lin Mengya.

“Mr. Baili, what are you…?”

Baili Rui explained to her unhurriedly.

“I have never seen Chang Tianhua, but I heard that he was a strange person. He could cure people, but the process could be very, very torturing. The veins of your right arm are fine, just that the recovery is very slow. So I suggest you not take Chang Tianhua’s medicine anymore. The medicine in these bottles could cure your arm. Apply heating pads with the medicine to your arm every day after you go back. Besides, don’t get yourself busy or carry anything heavy, understand?”

On hearing these words, Lin Mengya swallowed her rejection. She didn’t know why, but Long Tianyu had been taking care of her personally these days.

He even changed her usual handkerchief to a very, very thin one. He didn’t even let her use a thick handkerchief, let alone let her carry a heavy object.

Lin Mengya thought if she refused the medicine, her teacher would get mad at her.

“Yes, Mr. Baili. By the way, I’m here to ask you for a favor. When Long Tianyu and I were in the Nation of Lintian, he got poisoned by a bunch of evil people. The poison is called Immortal Powder and hard to deal with. As my right hand hasn’t recovered fully, I hope that you can acupuncture him, Mr. Baili.”

Baili Rui’s eyes lit up when he heard there was a new poison he didn’t know before.

He immediately asked Lin Mengya to tell him the property of the poison and symptom, and when she finished her words, he frowned and seemed to be lost in thought.

“Mr. Baili, have you heard of this poison before?” Lin Mengya couldn’t help but ask when she noticed the awkward look on her teacher’s face.

Baili Rui showed an embarrassed smile and replied hesitantly, “In fact, I once developed the formula of Immortal Powder 15 years ago, or you could say that the current powder was made according to my old formula, only that the effect of the current powder is much stronger than that of the old one. I developed it for some unconventional friends of mine and added some nutritious herbs to it. But the formula of the current powder removed those nutritious herbs and has been added with some cheap poisons. That’s why it’s so hard to deal with it now.”

Lin Mengya was shocked to know that the Immortal Powder was actually developed by her teacher.

Her eyes widened in disbelief.

“Mr. Baili, are you muddle-headed? This was a kind of poison, and many families will be destroyed once it’s available on the market. Long Tianyu almost didn’t make it, let alone an ordinary person.”

After being scolded by his own student, Baili Rui felt even more embarrassed.

He immediately explained to Lin Mengya with a smile.

“No, that’s not possible! The herbs in the formula are very expensive, so ordinary people couldn’t afford them at all. Besides, I didn’t give this formula to anyone. This is so strange. I have definitely destroyed the formula. How did it spread out?”

Lin Mengya knew that it was useless to be angry because, in ancient times, few people were aware of the danger of the poison due to the limitation on the purification technology.

Though the various emerging drugs are prohibited in modern society, hallucinogenic drugs like the Powder of Five Minerals are very popular among the upper classes in a certain period of ancient times.

However, Lin Mengya was a doctor with a background in modern medicine. She hated this kind of harmful drug very much.

Back then, she had witnessed with her own eyes how a drug addict died a miserable death because of an overdose.

The man’s wife jumped down from the top of a 20-floor building with her young daughter and son in despair.

She had once been so frightened by the scene that she couldn’t sleep for a few days and nights.

Therefore, she couldn’t help feeling angry when her beloved teacher told her it was him that developed this harmful drug.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Baili. I… I didn’t mean to blame you. But if you didn’t give the formula to anyone, who would know that you had it?”

There were thousands of kinds of poisons and hundreds of kinds of deadly ones.

Yet, the formula of the current Immortal Powder was so similar to the one that her teacher had developed in terms of both dosage and materials.

Given this, Lin Mengya agreed with Baili Rui that the current Immortal Powder was made according to his old formula.

As long as she knew whom her teacher had given the formula to, she might be able to follow the clues and find the hideout where the Candle Dragon Cult made the powder.

“Back then, I had shown the formula to only one person, but he is dead now. I buried him personally. So he couldn’t have given it to anyone. I guess someone had read the formula secretly.”

There was a hint of guilt in Baili Rui’s eyes.

Since to Baili Rui, the past was so hurtful, Lin Mengya decided not to dig into it.

It was just that her decision would throw her off the scent, and she felt pity.

“Since the current powder was made based on your old formula, could you please develop some antidotes? It’s possible that one could get rid of the addiction with his willpower, but the Immortal Powder is really hard to deal with. It’s so easy to control and destroy a man with the powder, so I’m afraid that someone would take advantage of it.”

It made sense that Lin Mengya was worried.

Once the Immortal Powder was available nation-wide, the whole country would be destroyed silently.

Thus, Lin Mengya had to take precautions in advance.

Baili Rui nodded heavily in agreement because he knew the matter was serious and he felt guilty. After that, he immediately started developing antidotes to the Immortal Powder.

But Lin Mengya stopped him because she needed his help and guidance on the plague matter.

“What? Is there really such a vicious and strange poison? And it’s rampant in the Yun State? Unbelievable! This is so unbelievable!”

If the matter about Immortal Powder just brought guilty up in his heart, the truth behind the plague in the Yun State totally enraged him.

There were rules and regulations about each industry that people should follow. Even a weird poison-maker and physician like Baili Rui also needed to follow some rules.

He thought that anyone who crossed the line should be punished.

“I was shocked as well, and news from the Yun State showed that this poison has turned the place into hell. Mr. Baili, I want to go there to have a look. If this disaster is really man-made, I’ll find out the person behind it.”

As a matter of fact, all the poison-makers in the world could be regarded as coming from the same clan.

At least, they could be regarded as related to each other in many ways. This was especially so for a poison master like Baili Rui. All those famous poison-makers in the world were either his peers or inferiors.

Although he had a weird temper, he was not cold-hearted.