Chapter 167 – Poison (2/2)

“Died.”

Shao Xuan was speechless.

“Used too much, even if it could be used as medicine, in the end it became poison.” Yu explained.

If poison is used well, then it will be medicine. On the contrary, if medicine is badly used, then it will become a poison. Shao Xuan naturally understood this logic.

“This, this and this, their poison is not bad, a little could kill each beast in the forest.” Yu introduced a few to Shao Xuan, and then asked, “What degree of poison do you need? Poison to blind? Poison to mute? Or paralysing the whole body? Or the decomposing ones?”

Yu only stopped and looked at Shao Xuan after asking all the questions at one shot. He usually did not like going to the trade fair, it was always his grandpa bringing people over. He had to attend to them dutifully, or the trade would not be completed and his grandpa would nag at him when they went home.

Shao Xuan mused over this series of questions. When he was in the Flaming Horns tribe, he had used quite a few poisons, but had never divided them that specifically. It looked like the young man in front of him was a professional.

Seeing Shao Xuan staring at those frogs and not uttering a sound made the old man anxious, “If you don’t know which to choose, how about just buying a few of each to try them at home.” When he was finished speaking, he then turned back with a face of a tiger, “Hurry up and make a poison sting!”

Yu scratched his head and helplessly said, “Alright.”

Yu headed towards the forest after replying, while the old man determinedly pulled Shao Xuan to keep up, “This brat of mine might be a little lazy, but his knowledge towards poison, this old man won’t dare to say he is the first, but definitely ranked at the top in the tribe.”

Shao Xuan followed them further into the woods. These two did not have any bad intentions, and they were not like the other Pu tribe traders with a belly full of little extra motives swimming inside. Also, Shao Xuan wanted to see what kind of method the Pu tribe used to extract the poison from the frogs.

The understanding Yu has for poison, Shao Xuan believed. The area surrounding Yu’s eyes were bright yellow patterns, this was similar to one of the frogs who jumped away previously. What hobby they had, will be what kind of pattern they would have. Through this point, Yu’s love for poison frogs could be seen, naturally he would know more about them too.

When walking through the woods, they would occasionally pass by some long thorny plants. Yu broke off some of the thorns, continuing until his hands were full of these hard sharp thorns. The old man then chopped some wood using the stone knife he brought along. He split the wood into half and placed them on the ground; Yu then called out ‘gu gua’ a few times before some frogs came over. He then took a thorn out using his index and middle finger to hold onto it, and smeared over the body of a blue patterned frog closest to him.

Transparent glands started seeping out from the frog’s body; this was a poison that could bring down a whole deer.

The long hard thorn was smeared entirely with poison, and the process did not harm that frog in any way.

After smearing, Yu twisted his palm, with it facing down towards the previously split wood, and shot out his hand like lightning.

When he pulled back his hand, the poisoned thorns had been firmly nailed onto the wood. The sharp tip of the thorn was sticking out of the wood, just like a nail. When hammering in a nail, the end that would be sticking out of the wood from the other side would be the sharp tip, this was just like that.

This series of movements showed that Yu was very familiar with it, like he had done this quite a few times before.

One after another, the thorns that were smeared with poison were hammered into the wood securely. Five thorns each were smeared in one type of frog poison. After one type of frog poison was done, they would continue on to another frog, smearing their poison on.

“This kind of frog poison may not be able to kill people, but its main effect is this.” Yu used a hard thorn to wipe it off on a deep blue frog, then used the poison spread on the thorn to wipe it on a piece of leaf on a plant.

Only hearing a ‘chi’ ringing, the leaf that was smeared with poison immediately had a hole corroded through it. There was still smoke coming out. Smelling it may sting the nose a little, however, when smearing on the poison before, there was no smell.

It was hard to imagine that such a poison came from a frog that was no larger than a human’s palm.

Yu’s method of collecting poisons involved using the hard thorns; this is because the thorns had a not so visible layer that could keep the corrosion out.

Yu continued applying poison on the hard thorns then hammered them into the wood. He waited for the poison on the thorns to dry before plucking them out. He then wrapped the thorns up, so that the poison could use it whenever he wants, all he needed to do then was just take them out. Dried poison would not decrease its potency; the only limitation was that the longer it was kept, the weaker the poison will be.

Shao Xuan looked at how Yu had each thorn applied with poison then hammered them into the wood, he knew that many frog poisons could only work when in the blood stream. If it was not a scratch, then the poison would not have much effect, there were many that would only make the fingers have rash, it was not fatal. The Flaming Horns tribe, when carrying poisonous animals, would always take protective measures

But now, there were a lot of frog poison that could have an effect directly through skin contact, there was no need for a scratch. But he was handling that poison on the hard thorns very calmly, without using any protection for the fingers. If he slipped a little, he would have a hole in his hand or be poisoned.

Especially when throwing the thorns into the wood, many would worry that the poison on the hard thorns would slide onto the fingers. But Yu would always pull back his hand before that would happen, so that not even the slightest poison could touch him.

What surprised Shao Xuan was when there was no more space available on the wood, Yu held the remaining thorns directly in his mouth, biting on the non-poisonous end. If his lips came into contact with the poison, he would definitely suffer.

This was quite dangerous, but the old man next to him wasn’t surprised in the slightest, he had seen it quite a few times and wasn’t worried.

Once the smearing and drying of the poison on the hard thorns was finished, Yu pulled out the thorns from the wood. Of course, not with his naked hand, but with the help of leaves.