At the first glimmer of dawn, the outskirts of the Royal Hunting Grounds were already in an uproar, with banners fluttering everywhere.
Young noblemen in fine brocade robes rode tall horses, bows and arrows in hand, exuding confidence and energy as they gathered in small groups, chatting excitedly.
This annual hunting spectacle was the perfect chance for them to showcase their edge and win the king’s favor.
Shen Ji, wearing coarse servant’s clothes washed pale from repeated laundering, with dust smeared on his face and his back slightly hunched, silently blended into the bustling logistics crew.
He spread his mental energy out, carefully probing for the location of the forbidden zone within the hunting grounds.
Time passed quietly. Shen Ji hid behind a tree not far from the entrance to the forbidden zone, holding his breath and concentrating as he watched the guards’ rotation pattern. When the patrol guard changed shifts once more, Shen Ji’s figure leaped like a phantom over the high outer wall surrounding the forbidden zone.
Inside the wall, it was like another world. Thick, suffocating miasma rushed at him, carrying a cloying sweetness mixed with the stench of decay, drilling straight into his nose and mouth.
Shen Ji immediately used his ability to raise an invisible barrier around his body, while his mental energy stayed highly focused, warily probing for any movement around him.
The light suddenly dimmed. Ancient towering trees twisted and coiled together. On the damp trunks, venomous spiders as large as washbasins silently slid past, their compound eyes flickering with eerie light.
From a pile of rotten leaves, a brilliantly colored giant lizard a full five feet long suddenly darted out, its scarlet tongue hissing.
The surroundings were eerily silent. Only the faint crunch of dead twigs and leaves beneath his feet, magnified endlessly in the thick fog, made every step a terrifying ordeal.
The deeper he went, the thicker the fog became. Just as Shen Ji felt his ability was about to be exhausted again, his mental energy finally caught a pure, extreme wave of yin-cold energy coming from deep within the ravine ahead!
There it was!
Shen Ji’s heart tightened. He held his breath and sped toward that direction.
Pushing aside the deadly poison vines hanging in front of him, the view suddenly opened up… beside the spring at the bottom of the ravine, seven narrow, sword-like green leaves formed a perfect star shape, supporting a budding white jade lotus. The petals were crystal clear, and within the dense miasma they faintly glimmered with a starlike luster!
The Seven-Star Lotus!
However, a tremendous sense of danger instantly seized Shen Ji’s heart! Right beside the Seven-Star Lotus coiled a giant python as thick as a water barrel, its whole body pitch black! Its triangular head lifted slightly, and its cold vertical pupils were already fixed tightly on Shen Ji, the intruder!
Hiss… !
The piercing hiss was like a declaration of war! The giant python’s massive body sprang up violently like black lightning, lunging straight at Shen Ji!
“Not good!” Shen Ji’s pupils shrank sharply, and he rolled hard to the side!
Boom!
The ground where he had stood a moment ago was smashed by the python’s tail, sending gravel flying everywhere! Shen Ji struggled to his feet and hurriedly launched a mental energy attack, like an invisible awl, stabbing fiercely into the python’s spiritual consciousness!
Hiss!
The python flinched in pain, its huge head whipping around wildly as its movement stalled. Shen Ji seized that fleeting chance and frantically condensed the last of his ability!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several ice-crystal spikes, condensed to the extreme, turned into a grim, cold light and shot with pinpoint accuracy toward the python’s vital seven-inch spot!
Thud! Thud!
The ice spikes hit home! The pain drove the black giant python completely berserk! Its massive body twisted violently, and its tail, with the force of a siege hammer, swept toward Shen Ji with furious power that tore through the air!
Too fast! Shen Ji only had time to cross his arms in front of his chest, pushing his ability’s defense to the limit!
Bang!!!
A muffled impact rang out! Shen Ji was sent flying like a broken kite! His body smashed hard into a huge rock behind him, and it felt as if his organs had shifted out of place.
“Cough… cough, cough…” He rolled with the momentum beneath a nearby boulder to take cover, blood continuously spilling from the corner of his mouth. Not far away, the giant python thrashed and crashed in its death throes, rocks breaking apart and the ground shaking violently. The birds and beasts around them were startled into panic and fled madly toward the outskirts.
Shen Ji gritted his teeth, enduring the intense pain, and stared fixedly at the Seven-Star Lotus not far away. At last, the noise outside gradually subsided, leaving only the python’s faint, dying gasps.
Shen Ji struggled to his feet and staggered over to the Seven-Star Lotus. Without hesitation, he placed the Seven-Star Lotus into the wooden box. The instant it touched his hand, it was ice-cold to the bone, and a pure, yin-cold energy surged wildly up his arm and into his body!
Shen Ji dared not linger. Dragging along a body that was nearly coming apart, he fled desperately through the thick fog. At last, in a hidden mountain hollow, he found a narrow natural stone cave.
After moving several large rocks to firmly block the cave entrance, Shen Ji’s tightly stretched nerves finally relaxed. He went limp and collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath. Every inhale tugged at the pain inside him, and darkness repeatedly crept across his vision.
Not daring to delay, Shen Ji carefully plucked the seven petals. Finding a relatively clean stone inside the cave, he carefully crushed the petals. Clear, cold juice flowed out, releasing a rich, chilling fragrance.
According to the scroll’s instructions, he mixed the flower juice with morning dew. Looking at the cool, crystalline liquid in the stone hollow, Shen Ji took a deep breath, tilted his head back, and drank it in one gulp!
The icy liquid slid down his throat. Shen Ji’s whole body convulsed violently. He curled up on the ground, his fingernails digging deeply into the rock beneath him, his gums bitten until they bled!
He clung desperately to the last trace of clarity in his mind, frantically urging the weak ice ability within him that was almost extinguished, guiding the Seven-Star Lotus’s domineering medicinal power to continually attack the Heart-Eroding Powder’s deadly poison entrenched in his heart meridians!
“Ptoo… !”
A mouthful of thick, foul black blood suddenly burst out, splashing against the cave wall with a faint hissing sound of corrosion!
In the midst of this soul-rending agony of detoxification, a strange warm current actually began to slowly grow and spread from deep within his heart meridians, driving away the bone-deep cold and stiffness.
The weakness receded like a tide. A long-lost, newborn sense of strength, faint but unmistakably real, began to flow through every limb and bone.
A trace of color finally returned to Shen Ji’s paper-white face, and the black deathly aura beneath his eyelids, along with the bluish tint on his fingernails, slowly faded at a pace visible to the naked eye.
The Heart-Eroding Powder poison… was cured!
Shen Ji leaned weakly against the cold cave wall, feeling the reborn vitality after surviving disaster, and let out a long, slow breath.