Many of the names on the bamboo slip had been scratched out. But there was one name that was very prominent. The characters were a magenta color, thanks to the blood that had previously run into them but later dried up.

Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan.

As Xu Qing looked at the name, his expression was seemingly calm and emotionless. But the hand with which he held his iron skewer tightened imperceptibly. He eventually put the bamboo slip away and looked up into the crimson evening sky. Some time passed, and he turned to the Captain and Yanyan.

“I’m going into seclusion for a while,” he said quietly.

Yanyan could tell that his mood had dipped, so she just nodded.

Meanwhile, the Captain laughed heartily. “Go ahead, little Ah Qing. With your Elder Brother here, you can safely break through to the three-palace level.”

“Eldest Brother,” Xu Qing said, “it’s possible that some poison might seep out from the cabin. I wouldn’t get too close. In case something dramatic happens… the two of you should get as far away as possible. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

The Captain had been planning to brag a bit more, but hearing that, he thought for a moment and then went to the other side of the dharmaship. Having dealt with Xu Qing’s poisons on a few occasions, he knew how vicious they could be.

Yanyan also backed away, her eyes wide. She couldn’t help but think to all of the Night Dove operatives she’d seen poisoned back in the Violent Crimes Division cellblock.

Seeing the two of them back away made Xu Qing feel a bit better. After all, he was planning to try to put the taboo poison pill into one of his heavenly palaces. Though he’d had this plan for a while, it had always seemed too dangerous, and besides, there were certain aspects he wasn’t sure about.

Not knowing how long he would be in seclusion, he passed control of the dharmaship to the Captain, then walked to the cabin. Just before going inside, he suddenly thought of something and turned to look over his shoulder at the Captain.

“Eldest Brother, how come I’ve never seen your dharmaboat?”

Hearing that question caused a pleased look to appear on the Captain’s face. “It’s hidden in a secret location,” he said proudly. “Powering up. It’ll be done soon. Once it’s done and I reveal it, I guarantee you the old man is going to be totally shocked.”

Xu Qing was used to the Captain’s hyperbole, so he merely nodded and walked into the cabin. Once inside, he closed the door and sat down cross-legged. Hands flashing in a double-handed incantation gesture, he tapped into the spell formation to seal the cabin and prevent any energy or auras from seeping outside. Then he took out some magical devices which he set up around him.

Having done that, he took a deep breath, opened his bag of holding, and started arranging everything else. Taking out all of the mirrors and bottles from August Spirit Nethersprite’s mansion grotto, he carefully inspected them and put them in order, setting aside everything that related to life force. After all, life force was the only thing that would help in resisting the effects of the taboo poison pill.

Continuing to go through everything in his bag of holding, he made all of his final preparations, and after a short time contemplating what he was about to do, took out the wish box. He didn’t open it at first. Instead, he took out the old jade slip that had been inside.

The jade slip was still infected by traces of poison, but Xu Qing’s resistance had reached the point where it didn’t affect him. And with the regenerative powers of the violet crystal in him, though his hands turned black when touching it, they didn’t start to rot. He sent some divine will into the jade slip, whereupon an ancient voice reverberated in his mind like thunder.

“What makes a great dao?

“Three thousand great daos, all may be holy. Might one of them be the dao of poison?

“People of the world disdain the treacherous and vicious. They disdain the poisonous and vile. How could those who mock it as a minor dao turn it into a great weapon?

“In the past, I did think the same, and spurned the vile methods of poison. One day, I cut down a nonhuman who emerged from a god domain. This cultivator commanded shocking battle prowess, and walked an incredibly treacherous dao. Before dying, his poisonous eyes glared at me, causing my cultivation to drop by an entire realm in a single day. Ten days later, I was a mortal. I lived for a sixty-year-cycle in the mundane world, experiencing endless torment and suffering. I wasted endless precious materials, but finally drove the poison from my body and collected it into a pill.

“Afterwards, I researched that pill until the apocalypse began. I never fully succeeded, and thus, am leaving behind this partially completed pill.

“This pill is a poison, and it is also taboo! If you are a high-level cultivator, do not attempt to use it. You will be damned by myriad tribulations and will die beyond the shadow of a doubt. Seek a low-level Gold Core cultivator with one heavenly palace, then use this poison pill as their gold core. That person will become a poison core cultivator like no other in existence.

“Only in this way can one transform the soul and truly walk the path of the taboo pill!

“Based on my calculations, the path of the taboo pill uses poison to shake all living beings. Use the taboo to eradicate myriad worlds. Ultimate dread and terror! Or perhaps, fathom the magic of god domains to be the archenemy of all peoples!”

Xu Qing’s eyes gleamed with determination.

The plan is to take the taboo poison pill and put it into my heavenly palace…. Based on what this Senior said, he wanted to do the same thing. I refuse to believe that he didn’t do tests regarding that process.

Obviously, no such tests succeeded.

Regardless of anything, this is going to be dangerous. I have no idea what transformations might occur. Everything is unknown.

And yet, he seemed no less decisive than before.

I’ve been constantly working at getting used to the poison. I definitely have a certain level of resistance. Plus, my beetles can stay inside the pill for short periods of time. Though my resistance hasn’t reached the ultimate level, I think it’s gone as far as it can go. It’ll be hard to improve it any further.

What’s more, the taboo poison pill has lost most of its spirit nature, and will soon be a dead pill. And it wasn’t even a complete pill to begin with. It seems like a big waste to let it just waste away and eventually become dead and useless. Why not absorb it and see if I can restore it? There’s no way to know what will happen if it dies, but maintaining the status quo isn’t going to help me reach my goal. I need to get stronger, regardless of how dangerous the process.

Taking a deep breath, he reached inside to his third heavenly palace, which was already ninety-nine percent materialized. All it lacked was a gold core to make it complete.

“On the path of cultivation, the only way to succeed is to take big risks!”

Reaching out, he opened the wish box. Inside was a black poison pill. Even before, the pill had been shriveled, having lost much of the life it once contained. After Xu Qing opened the wish box, and the pill was exposed to the outside world, it began to shrivel even more dramatically. Xu Qing had long since come to realize that if things proceeded in that way, the pill would become empty and useless. Upon opening the wish box, a poisonous energy erupted out, causing Xu Qing to tremble.

Though he had built a resistance to the pill, and also had his violet crystal, the effects of the taboo poison pill still caused his entire body to turn black. He wasn’t worried about that. Eyes flickering with determination, he reached out and took the pill from the box. Next, his hand became transparent like a Gruegloom’s. However, the poison pill was so shocking that, even though Xu Qing’s hand was in that state, it was still filled with black streaks. Not even being in that state could spare his hand the effects of the pill’s poison.

Xu Qing ignored that. Using his Gruegloom hand to control the pill, he inserted it into his dantian region. It entered his sea of consciousness, and then touched the heavenly palace. Xu Qing had used the Gruegloom hand on many occasions, but this was his first time using it on himself. 1

This was the method he had come up with to make his plan succeed.

If he consumed the pill, he didn’t think his fleshly body would survive. But if he used the Gruegloom hand to directly insert it into his heavenly palace, then he was confident he would have good chances of succeeding. Without the slightest hesitation, he pushed the pill against his third heavenly palace.

The process was painful by itself, and the poison effects made it worse. Xu Qing was shaking. However, he gritted his teeth and didn’t pause for a moment. He knew that the more quickly he finished, the better. Relying on his great perseverance, he pushed the pill inside the third heavenly palace, then carefully released it. After that, he quickly pulled his hand out. Despite the speed with which he worked, the pain was so intense that he shivered and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

His internal organs were affected, and pulsed with pain. Then, before Xu Qing could acclimate, his third heavenly palace suddenly erupted with wild fluctuations. The poison pill therein erupted with poison power, causing the heavenly palace to surge with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force. Those fluctuations rapidly filled Xu Qing’s sea of consciousness, then spread to influence his soul and the rest of his body.

Xu Qing shivered as rot spread through him. His sea of consciousness began to shrivel, and his soul started fading.

The taboo poison pill was terrifyingly strong. At the same time, streams of light shot out from every brick and tile of the third palace, which swirled around the pulsing poison pill. It was both a fusion and a transformation.

Any external gold core that a cultivator put into one of their heavenly palaces would take time to be integrated. And when the integration process was complete, that item would have changed into a life essence treasure for that cultivator. 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝐞𝐥.

Previously, the third heavenly palace had been golden in color. But as the streams of light wrapped up the pill, blackness spread to the palace, and it slowly started changing color.

It was a slow process. Xu Qing could sense that when the third heavenly palace turned completely black, it would mean that the poison pill had been fully integrated, and it would be connected to him. Then he would be able to fully control the heavenly palace, and retract all of the poison that had seeped into the rest of his body.

The time that passed would be a deadly test for Xu Qing. If he failed to integrate the poison pill, then that failure would result in him being killed in body and soul.

Xu Qing shivered as intense poison spread to every inch of him. The pain grew so intense and piercing that eventually he couldn’t hold back from letting loose an agonized shriek. This pain was worse than anything he had experienced when risking his life in the past. Whether it was in the temple in the Merfolk Isles, or the incident with the dragon chariot, this surpassed everything. The difference was that those past situations had involved external pain, and this was internal. 2

Because of that pain being external, he had been able to fight back against it. But in this case, the pain came from inside.

That said, he wasn’t completely unfamiliar with this feeling. On that one particular night in the rain when his heart was ripped apart, and when the walls protecting his mind had crumbled. That was the worst pain he had ever experienced. Compared to that, this didn’t count as much. 3

Because of that, Xu Qing didn’t want to cry out. Eyes bloodshot, he gritted his teeth and transformed his scream into the sound of teeth grinding against each other.

Meanwhile, the violet crystal in his chest sent violet light streaming through him to help him resist. The golden crow appeared, sending out flames that augmented his fleshly body. And within his sea of consciousness, the immortal energy he’d stockpiled was also present to aid. The two life lamps in his other heavenly palaces manifested as umbrellas, providing blessings. And then there was black light emanating out from the ghost emperor mountain.

Time passed.

1. I know I’ve mentioned this before, and I’m sure many of you readers are already very familiar with this, but “core” and “pill” are the same character in Chinese. 👈

2. The Merfolk Isles event was in 👈

3. The reference to “that one particular night” is vague, but I’m pretty sure it’s referring to the event in 👈