Chapter 111: Poison Human, a fierce foe (1/2)

Chapter 111: Poison Human, a fierce foe

Han Yunxi was caught tight in the female assassin’s clutches. No matter how much she struggled, the assassin didn’t stir. These killers had been thoroughly familiar with Mu Qingwu but aimed for her instead. Could they be related to Mu Qingwu’s Ten-Thousand Snake Poison? They knew she was investigating its origins, so they kidnapped her?

Besides this reason, Han Yunxi couldn’t think of any other purpose. She was a person who cherished her life. The only reason she could calmly think over the problem now was because she was certain the assassin wouldn’t kill her. Otherwise, why would she kidnap her? There were plenty of chances to stab her and end her life.

Since it was a kidnapping, there had to be demands involved. For now she was relatively safe. Currently, Han Yunxi’s ears were filled with the sound of dootdootdoot from her poison alarm. Not only did this assassin have poison on her sword, but she had plenty of other poisons squirreled away on her person. It looked like she was well-versed in using poisons. Add that to her formidable martial arts skills and Han Yunxi couldn’t help but wonder if she was the head of all the Northern Li spies. Thinking up to here, Han Yunxi pretended to struggle again, grabbing the assassin’s arm as she used her fingernails to dig into the skin.

But the assassin only lowered her head to sneer at her in disdain. “Han Yunxi, stop playing pretend. That’s nothing impressive, hmph!”

She knew that Han Yunxi was trying to poison her, but didn’t try to prevent it. Her eyes glanced towards her arm, where the poison hidden in Han Yunxi’s nails had already sunk into her skin. But she had no reaction whatsoever.

How could this be?

Han Yunxi wore a face full of surprise. She’d used ant poison, the same toxin that made Han Yuqi suffer so much that he felt like dying. Its victim would first feel extreme pain, then the sensation of hundreds of thousands of ants gnawing into their skin. A person wouldn’t be poisoned to death, but they’d scratch themselves until they were less than human and half-dead. But this woman not only felt no pain, but still retained enough arm strength to hold her tight.

Impossible!

After all, you couldn’t even extract ancient ant poisons in the past. You would only get poisoned after you were bitten by an ant. The venom she used was something she’d carried along inside the detoxification system, extracted from the body of poisonous ants as a poison. Thus, her any poison differed slightly from that of ant bites and required a different antidote. In other words, Han Yunxi’s ant poison only had one antidote: hers. This assassin couldn’t have one! Without an antidote, she still showed no reaction?

Strange!

Han Yunxi didn’t believe this. She gritted her teeth and dug in deeper with her nails, allowing the poison to seep in faster. But the female assassin only kept her disdainful smile, ignoring the pain without sparing her another look. She used a tree for ballast and flew off even faster than before.

Unless…

Han Yunxi thought of something and nearly blurted it out. Fortunately, she kept her mouth shut, but her face paled to the point that it was unsightly.

Immunity!

Judging by the assassin’s reaction to the ant poison, it was very likely she had immunity to poisons. There were people who were naturally immune and thus never got poisoned, though they were few and rare in between. Even if they existed, they were only immune to one or two poisons. But people could also be injected with all kinds of antibodies to create various immunities. In this way they could develop immunity to a wide range of poisons within a specific class. Inoculation was a modern-day concept; in ancient days they called it “poison nurturers.”

Modern poison antibodies were divided into stage one, two, and three immunity. The higher the stage, the higher the level of immunity, and the more poison the victim could take. Of course, high levels of immunity would adversely affect normal functions of the body, including endangering one’s life. Thus, both research and clinical trials on the matter were strictly controlled or even prohibited.

Han Yunxi remembered reading an ancient text of poisons that stated there were differences between poison nurturers divided into Poison Humans, Poison Corpses, and Poison Gu[1].

Poison Humans had limited lifespans and could live at most 30 years. They had their own sense of independence and personality and weren’t much different from regular humans. These people possessed immunity against low level, non-fatal poisons that affected the skin, flesh, and hair.

Poison Corpses were similar to people willing to fight to the death. They had less than a year to live and were immune up to mid-level, fatal poisons that affected the bones and blood.

As for Poison Gu, very few records of their existence had survived in the present day, much less writings on what they were. Han Yunxi didn’t understand much either; she only knew that high-level poisons that targeted the internal organs were useless against Poison Gu.

Han Yunxi had always assumed that the past was filled with a plethora of poisons, but that its poison arts couldn’t compare to the present day. The ancient poison manuals might have been tentative theories for individual cases, since it seemed unlikely for anyone to meet the conditions and make them happen. But who knew that she’d underestimated poison arts of the past so much!

Today, she personally witnessed one of its records first-hand. Judging by this assassin’s situation, she was probably a Poison Human. Discovering the Ten-Thousand Snake Poison and poisonous mosquito swarms had already given Han Yunxi enough dread. Today a Poison Human had appeared. What kind of high-level poisons expert was behind these Northern Li spies?!

Earlier on, she’d wondered if this female assassin was the head of the spies. But now facts proved that she was just a tool at most. There had to be someone else backing her. Han Yunxi had to admit that the mystery and daring of her opponents went beyond her estimations. Of course, she wasn’t someone easy to deal with, either. She carried along with her a whole storehouse of poisons, so she had no fears about finding one that worked.

She feigned dejection and made a big show of releasing the assassin’s hand, asking coldly, “Just who are you? What are you kidnapping me for?”

The female assassin seemed to feel it was beneath her dignity to reply. She was even a little resentful, and only snorted coldly instead of speaking.

“You dare to kidnap me, His Highness Duke of Qin won’t let you guys off!”

Han Yunxi intentionally provoked her on one side while her hand secretly snuck into the medical pouch on the other. Her thoughts concentrated until she materialized a handful of Eroding Bone Essence. Eroding Bone Essence was just as the name implied, a type of poison specially used to corrode away the bones. Once it entered the bloodstream, it’d immediately invade the bone marrow.

“Han Yunxi, you really think you’ve turned into some phoenix? You’re so shameless!” the assassin felt even more disdainful. She landed by the edge of a cliff, holding Han Yunxi tight as if preparing to jump.

“I’m just so-so. You’re about the same,” Han Yunxi said calmly, her eyes sweeping past the place on the assassin’s arm where she’d pierced the skin with her nails.

“You’re even verbally abusing me!” the assassin said, enraged. Her cold eyes glared over at the same time her arm shifted towards Han Yunxi.