The Immortal’s Poison

One day, if it leaves the tripod and crawls upon your arm, this means it has acknowledged you as its master…

The words that Wen Tunhai told him kept repeating in his mind.

The sudden acknowledgment of the Buddha’s Light Bug caught Wen Leyang off guard and he fumbled and threw the notebook of Wen Lazi aside.

Wen Xiaoyi had learned about the story of the Buddha’s Light Bug acknowledging its master from the ancient books earlier on. She clapped her hands in joy and smiled, “Wen Leyang, the Buddha’s Light Bug has acknowledged you as its master!”

Upon hearing Xiaoyi’s voice, the Buddha’s Light Bug suddenly became agitated and tightened its plump body before charging towards Xiaoyi with lightning speed! Wen Leyang cried out in shock because a poisonous bug like this was regarded as the king of insects and the majority of them are known for having a violent temper. Although its toxicity at the moment was not strong enough to hurt him, Xiaoyi was an ordinary girl who did not train in the way of Wen. If she was pricked by the barbs she would die a quick death with no chance of saving her at all!

The speed of the Buddha’s Light Bug was fast like lightning and before anyone could do anything, it had climbed up to Xiaoyi ‘s white forearm. Furious, Wen Leyang let out punches like the wind and aimed to smash the little bug, which he had been playing around with for a few months now, to death. Though important, there was no way the Buddha’s Light Bug could compare to the intelligent and cute Xiaoyi.

Xiaoyi, pale and frightened, looked at the bug on her arm helplessly.

Just as Wen Leyang’s punch was about to smash the bug, an irresistibly giant force appeared suddenly behind his back, pulling him backward forcefully. Caught unawares, Wen Leyang let out a shout and rolled with his arms around his knees and the moment his body was in the air, he turned and charged towards his enemy like a ball. The odd moves of The Faulty Punch had become his natural instincts to defend himself without even thinking whenever he got attacked.

A cold snort that was so familiar to him for the past few months was heard.

Wen Leyang opened up his body at once, twisting his legs hard to change direction abruptly under the powerful inertia. Falling on the ground with his hands and legs all tied up, Wen Leyang shouted out in a hurry without even standing back up on his feet, “Fourth Grandpa, save Xiaoyi! Quick!”

With an ever so cold expression on his face, Fourth Elder Wen said emotionlessly, “What’s there to panic about? Didn’t Wen Tunhai tell you that after acknowledging its master, the Buddha’s Light Bug will become telepathic with you and your friends and family become its friends and family as well?”

Wen Leyang climbed up to his feet, stunned, and took another look at Xiaoyi, who was now happily playing with the chubby Buddha’s Light Bug on her arm.

The Buddha’s Light Bug, with its barbs now softened and wrapped around its big, round stomach, was rolling around on the arm of Xiaoyi, which was as fair as a lotus root.

Seeing that Xiaoyi was unhurt, Wen Leyang let out a silent sigh in his heart and quickly plucked the bug up and said to Xiaoyi worriedly, “Be careful. It’ll be disastrous to get hurt by it!”

He then came up to Fourth Elder Wen and stammered, “Fourth Grandpa, I’m not good at rearing this bug, I’ll…I’ll give it to you…” Growing up as an honest kid, the best things should always be reserved for the elders in Wen Leyang’s mind, especially so with his families and friends. In fact, he was feeling reluctant to let go of the Buddha’s Light Bug and the bug seemed to know of this and sadly lay on his palm motionless.

There was a trace of a smile deep in the eyes of Fourth Elder Wen that was so subtle it went unnoticed, “Boy, this bug is the coveted treasure to any poison refiner. Regardless if it manages to transform to the Buddha’s Light Fly, as a larva, it has unlimited benefits in terms of prescription refining, self-defense and attracting other precious poisonous creatures. You just almost killed it, and now you want to give it away?”

Wen Leyang caressed the Buddha’s Light Bug in his palm with a finger dearly and the fat bug immediately stuck out its head and rubbed against his fingertip with extreme intimacy, “I thought it was going to hurt Xiaoyi…and you’re my elder. Well, I should…”

Fourth Elder Wen snorted, shook his sleeves, turned around and walked away, “What an insignificant bug, save it for yourself then! You can even name it if you like, this type of bug has extrasensory perception, it’ll know through telepathy if you call out to it.”

Overjoyed, Wen Leyang shouted to the back of Fourth Elder Wen, “Thank you very much, Fourth Grandpa!”

In return, Wen Leyang received a snort that was as cold as one that just came out from the freezer.

Rejoiced and curious, Xiaoyi got closer to Wen Leyang’s palm and looked at the Buddha’s Light Bug, “Wen Leyang, it’s hot like a stove, can we just call it Stovey?”

Wen Leyang tapped on Xiaoyi’s fine and upturned nose with his finger and replied, “No, I already have one in my mind, we’ll name it You’ve Got Me !”

Frowning, Xiaoyi went, ” You’ve Got Me ? What kind of odd name is this? It doesn’t sound nice at all!”

“If I get into a fight with someone that I can’t beat, I’ll just yell out…  You’ve Got Me! …” While explaining his reasoning behind the name, Wen Leyang played around with the Buddha’s Light Bug and kept repeating its name, ” You’ve Got Me, You’ve Got Me, You’ve Got Me …”

Xiaoyi, though simple-minded, was not a fool and she immediately pictured a scene where a smart, handsome guy like Wen Leyang, as if dancing, was caught up in a fight with an ugly and ferocious villain. Just when he seemed to be losing the match to the villain, he immediately shouted bitterly, “You’ve got me!” With the villain grinning hideously, a fiery red spirit insect shot out from the body of Wen Leyang like lightning… In the end, with the triumph of good over evil, the hero of the universe Wen Leyang leaned back and laughed out loud while lifting the spirit bug high into the air.

The Buddha’s Light Bug indeed was in sync in mind with its master, upon hearing its new name – You’ve Got Me , it instantly lifted up its head and buzzed a few times to echo its master, making Wen Leyang and Xiaoyi laugh in joy.

You’ve Got Me crawled around the body of Wen Leyang for a while as if looking for a shelter. Xiaoyi then reminded him, “Don’t move, don’t you move! After acknowledging its master, the Buddha’s Light Bug will then look for a place to stay on your body.”

Wen Leyang thought for a while about the possible hiding place on his body for the bug and a terribly scary idea arose. Without uttering a word this time, he felt a sudden pain in his chest, followed by numbness and he quickly took off his shirt to have a look. ” You’ve Got Me had squeezed into his chest forcefully and now looked like a dark red birthmark, with no trace of a gap between the bug and the chest when touched, as if it was a natural part of him.

Letting out a deep breath, Wen Leyang took out a carrot and started munching. “Luckily I’m a guy…” Without completing his sentence, he slapped his head hard, bent down to pick up the notebook of Wen Lazi and hurried off to find Fourth Elder Wen. He had suddenly recalled that he first heard about the ancestor’s name of Wen Lazi from his First Uncle, who mentioned him when they were climbing up the mountain.

Fourth Elder Wen was sitting in his house with a surly expression as if thinking about something unpleasant. Upon seeing Wen Leyang walking in hastily with an ancient book in hand, a hint of subtle unease was observed on his face, thinking Wen Leyang must be here to ask about more unfamiliar words.

“Fourth Grandpa, this ancestor…” Wen Leyang obediently handed up the notebook and opened it to the page of Wen Lazi’s cursing writing, thinking he should not be the only one who got scolded by their ancestor.

Fourth Elder Wen glanced lightly at the book then closed it and threw it back at Wen Leyang. “This ancestor was uncommonly gifted with an amazing endowment, passing the Major Examination at the age of thirteen, grasping The Faulty Punch within ten months and achieving mastery through an intensive study of the cultivation methods and experiences left by the ancestors after just four years. He was the very first person to do so in over two thousand years! He then left the mountains and traveled around. Having said that, the eccentric temperament of this ancestor is in contrary to the reclusive principle of the clan.”

Fourth Elder Wen paused for a breath and closed his eyes as if to recollect the arrogance and willfulness of Wen Lazi, “It was during the troubled times when the Yuan and Ming Dynasty were at war and fights were happening all over the world. In Jianghu, the independent warlords strove for hegemony with four main sects fighting against each other. This ancestor of ours somehow went head on to challenge these people without a reason and defeated the Yin Yang Talisman of the Southern Palace in Jibei region, the Eccentric Escape of Duan Mu in the South of the Five Ridges region, the Art of Mechanism of the Ge’s Clan in Shandong region and the Godly Thunder of the Sect of Bronze in Chenzhou region, all in just six years in his twenties! When people asked for a reason, he simply said that if he never tried, how would he know more about the Art of Poison?” Fourth Elder said with a rising pride.

Wen Leyang was enraptured by his ancestor’s exploits and pushed on, “What happened next?” As expected, the disciples of an aristocratic family always got excited listening to the glorious deeds of their ancestors. A young man in his twenties who single-handedly defeated the four main noble families just for sake of training to test out his skills. Although he had found fault with others in the first place, such ability and pride were enough to stun the world and leave an amazing legacy.

“Next? He later returned to the mountain, left a Do Not Disturb  note and went on with his closed-door cultivation while leaving behind a mess for the Head of Family to deal with. His doings had caused a lot of bloodshed in the Wen clan in the following few decades. Nonetheless, the four eccentric sects were gone eventually and our Wen clan is still standing tall at Nine Peaks Mountain! It’s not until thirty years later that he came out from his cultivation.” Knowing that the story had reached its climax, Wen Leyang pulled out a carrot but, not daring to eat in front of the Fourth Elder, he tightly clutched it in his hand with his eyes shining brightly with anticipation like onyx.

The wrinkles on the face of Fourth Elder contracted and with a strange expression, he continued, “Seeing that he had finally completed his cultivation, the family was overjoyed and thought there would be more glorious and stunning prescription of poison for the Wen, but who would have thought…do you know what he had been doing during the Closed Door Cultivation for the past few decades? He had been practicing the thirteen moves of The Faulty Punch!”

Wen Leyang’s eyes widened in disbelief, “But didn’t he master it in ten months?”

Nodding his head, Fourth Elder went, “Nevertheless, for the past three decades, this ancestor kept on practicing The Faulty Punch, merging all movement including eating, sleeping, defecation and scratching into The Faulty Punch. By the time he came out from cultivation, he’d forgotten how to walk or shake hands, with his whole body practicing The Faulty Punch all the time!”

In several decades, Wen Lazi had merged all the instinctive movements of the body into The Faulty Punch. He was laughing out loud when he came out from cultivation, mumbling nonsense that no one could understand and roared suddenly, “Not trying, how do we know if Heaven’s Cultivation is not possible?” With that came the noise of muffled sound like popping beans all over his body, he was breaking his Meridian vessels inch by inch!

Disciples of Wen had been accumulating the toxins in their meridian vessels during the process of refining poison. Breaking his meridian vessels led to the explosion of the toxins which instantly burnt away his viscera.

Wen Lazi’s body shook in a peculiar manner as if he was practicing the Faulty Punch. Alas, with a long sigh, he collapsed on the ground with his staring eyes left open and died with everlasting regret!

The life of Wen Lazi had been full of ups and downs, while the tone of Fourth Elder Wen’s narration was ever so flat and cold; such a contrast created a strange and weird atmosphere within the house.

Taking another glance at the ancient book in Wen Leyang’s hand, Fourth Elder Wen waved him off tiredly, “Just simply look through the notebook will do, don’t ever take it seriously.” With that, he turned around and closed his eyes.