Chapter 4778 — Inexplicable
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
That was the truth. Wei Zhao might have had a hundred ways to expose Ren Zhongyuan's slander, but he first needed the chance to use them. If Liu Ziqi had not been there to hold the situation steady, he would not even have had the opportunity to refine pills and cure everyone—still less would anyone have listened to him. With Ren Zhongyuan and Yi Xiaotian fanning the flames behind the scenes, he might well have been driven into a full-blown brawl.
"You have it backwards. I should be the one thanking you properly. Without you, I don't know how today's affair could have ended." Liu Ziqi shook her head with a hint of lingering fear. Thank goodness Wei Zhao had actually been able to refine so many antidote pills; otherwise the consequences would have been unthinkable.
"It's infuriating that Ren Zhongyuan got away with it this time. If we were on the Western Island, even without proof that he poisoned anyone, the charge of slander alone would be enough to throw him in prison!" Ning Xuefei said, fuming.
"Exactly. Anyone can see Ren Zhongyuan did this. Master, are we really just going to let him off?" Huo Yudie was just as unwilling to let it go. She had disliked Ren Zhongyuan from the start, and now he had caused such a huge uproar to frame Wei Zhao, which made her furious. She wished she could bring this scoundrel to justice on the spot.
"Without ironclad proof, we cannot touch him—especially not on this ship." Liu Ziqi sighed helplessly. It was not as though she wanted to indulge Ren Zhongyuan and his lot. But although she was the head of the Eastern Continent delegation, her status aboard this ancient warship was still merely that of a guest. The crew would defer to Ren Zhongyuan, but they would not defer to her, Liu Ziqi.
Seeing the indignant looks on Ning Xuefei's and Huo Yudie's faces, Wei Zhao could not help but be amused. "Heh, there's really no need. That fellow has already been punished. Look at him—he's in agony."
The two women brightened at once. The memory of Ren Zhongyuan rolling all over the ground just moments ago was deeply satisfying. Even Liu Ziqi covered her mouth and smiled. Evil was fated to be ground down by evil; this time Ren Zhongyuan had truly kicked a steel plate.
After Yi Xiaotian and the others carried him back to his room, Ren Zhongyuan still showed a bit of backbone. Howling in pain, he drove them all out. His current state was simply too wretched; if Yi Xiaotian and those lackeys kept looking at him like that, how would he ever hold his head high again?
"An antidote! There must be a way to neutralize it! Aaaagh!" Alone in his room, Ren Zhongyuan was hysterical. A stream of true qi was likewise coursing wildly through his body. He assumed instinctively that this was some strange poison like the heart-piercing anemone. He was both a physician and a pill refiner, and he carried high-grade antidote pills on him; no strange poison could stump him. It absolutely could not.
Without hesitation he swallowed an antidote pill, grinding his teeth against the intense pain as he circulated his cultivation method to help dissolve the true qi. One hour passed, then two, until he had tormented himself late into the night—and only then did Ren Zhongyuan finally collapse in despair, because none of it had had the slightest effect!
That ghostlike, uncanny true qi simply could not be dissolved. It was utterly baffling: not only was it faint and elusive like the poisonous vapor of the heart-piercing anemone, impossible to grasp—even when he did happen to catch hold of it, he could not dissolve it at all.
Generally speaking, once either poisonous vapor or true qi could be successfully locked onto, one's own cultivation method would always find a way to dissolve it bit by bit; the only question was how fast or slow the process would be!