Cultivation is Just That Scientific

Li Shiming walked into the garden. He didn’t see Chief Escort Wang, but he knew very well that he must be watching him.

He arrived at the designated meeting spot near the rock garden. The sky had darkened slightly, and the surrounding plants cast shifting shadows.

“Chief Escort Wang, I’ve brought the medicine!” he said, setting down the food box.

“You are indeed trustworthy, Young Master!” Chief Escort Wang stepped out from behind the rock garden, smiling.

His face looked even paler than it had during the day, suggesting that his injuries were worse than Li Shiming had imagined.

Li Shiming opened the food box, revealing a large bowl of medicine.

Chief Escort Wang took a deep sniff, satisfaction appearing on his face.

He was a seasoned man of the martial world; just by smelling it, he could judge whether the medicine was genuine.

He had chosen Li Shiming because, although clever, Li Shiming was as naive as a blank sheet of paper — a young master who only knew how to study, with little chance of resistance when threatened.

Considering Li Shiming’s social circle and the fact that the prefect’s household only had the prefect and his son, it was unlikely he had come into contact with any underhanded dealings. In his view, Li Shiming wouldn’t even be able to obtain poison if he wanted to.

It was easy for Li Shiming to buy other things, but as the prefect’s son, who would dare sell poison to him? If anything went wrong, it would be serious trouble.

Besides, with Chief Escort Wang’s experience, poison couldn’t escape his trained nose. He had been specially trained in this regard.

Without the ability to detect poison, how could he safely escort shipments? He would have long since been incapacitated by someone’s trickery.

In fact, this bowl of medicine was entirely legitimate, brewed according to Chief Escort Wang’s prescription with the finest ingredients.

Li Shiming carefully lifted the bowl from the food box and handed it to Chief Escort Wang.

“Chief Escort Wang, I’ve done what you asked. When will the poison in me be cured?” he asked in a low voice.

Chief Escort Wang was pleased with Li Shiming’s attitude. This kind of concern for his own life was exactly what he wanted.

“Brew the medicine two more times tomorrow. Tomorrow night, I will give you the antidote!” Chief Escort Wang took the bowl, smiling faintly.

“Please keep your word, Chief Escort Wang!” Li Shiming said with a grim expression.

After speaking, he picked up the food box, turned, and walked away, as if upset over not being cured yet.

In reality, he was worried that if Chief Escort Wang had a violent reaction to the poison, he might kill him in a fit of rage, so he quickly made his exit.

Just moments ago, when he handed the bowl to Chief Escort Wang, he had secretly retrieved abrin from his server room and put every last bit of it into the bowl.

Because the abrin was introduced directly into the bowl, it hadn’t yet mixed with the medicine, meaning any scent would go unnoticed by Chief Escort Wang.

Moreover, the amount of abrin relative to the bowl of medicine was small and odorless. Even if added directly to the medicine, it was highly unlikely that Chief Escort Wang would detect it.

The so-called ability to detect poison comes from regular exposure to known poisons, familiarity with their distinctive scents, and thus the capacity to identify them.

Abrin, however, was a poison that had never appeared in this world; his ability to detect poisons was useless against it.

Li Shiming quickened his pace, leaving Chief Escort Wang behind.

Chief Escort Wang couldn’t wait any longer. He picked up the bowl and drank it down in one gulp.

His injuries were severe. He had been relying on temporary medicines, waiting for this secret remedy to heal him.

As the medicine entered his system, he felt a familiar warmth — the effect of the healing elixir.

But almost immediately, he experienced difficulty breathing, and his body began to tremble uncontrollably, his temperature rising rapidly.

“There’s poison in the medicine!” He tried to speak, but the words caught in his throat.

Already weakened, his body quickly succumbed to the effects of the abrin, which was twenty times the lethal dose for an ordinary person.

Intense abdominal pain and muscle spasms left him unable to move.

As his consciousness faded, Chief Escort Wang thought of Li Shiming’s refined face. He couldn’t believe that an old hand like himself had been poisoned by a scholar, a young master, and even while he was on guard.

A deep sense of shame and unwillingness welled up inside him as he struggled to regain control of his body.

His internal energy surged wildly, trying to expel the toxin, but without knowing what poison he had ingested, he had no idea how to counteract it.

Earlier, to absorb the medicine more quickly, he had enhanced his digestion with internal energy. Now, it was too late to expel the poison.

Unable to breathe, his face turned purple.

Twenty meters away, hidden behind a tree, Li Shiming observed Chief Escort Wang. His heightened senses allowed him to see the situation clearly in the moonlight.

When Chief Escort Wang collapsed, Li Shiming didn’t go to check. He waited quietly.

The abrin he had used was an easily absorbed toxin. According to his data, unless one was treated in a high-tech hospital from his previous life, with precise knowledge of the poison, survival was impossible.

In his final moments, Chief Escort Wang still didn’t understand why Li Shiming was so resolute, willing to perish with him.

He had seen Li Shiming consume the Three-Day Soul-Breaking Pill. As he said, apart from the unique antidote, no renowned physician could cure it in time.

With lingering confusion and resentment, he took his final breath.

Li Shiming remained still, watching from behind the tree.

Only after confirming that Chief Escort Wang’s chest had shown no movement for a full ten minutes did he approach the corpse.

He walked carefully, maintaining vigilance. Against a seasoned veteran like this, he couldn’t afford any carelessness.

Li Shiming looked at Chief Escort Wang’s corpse. The twisted, pained expression on the dead man’s face made him feel nauseous.

In his previous life, he was an ordinary person. In this life, a scholar. He had never encountered a corpse before. The fact that he hadn’t vomited was impressive enough.

After all, he had killed Chief Escort Wang himself; remaining calm during his first kill was remarkable.

He found a nearby stick and began searching the corpse.

Aside from a sword and some loose silver, there was nothing else on Chief Escort Wang.

Li Shiming knew that a cultivator wouldn’t have attacked Chief Escort Wang without reason.

The incident at the Tianxiang Pavilion, where the cultivator killed seven escorts from the Weiyuan Escort Agency, suggested there was something valuable involved.

The case files indicated that such attacks by cultivators were extremely rare; there hadn’t been an incident like it in decades in Nanling Prefecture.

The authorities also suspected that Chief Escort Wang possessed something the cultivator wanted, which had led to his demise.

Li Shiming’s desire to kill Chief Escort Wang stemmed not only from a fear that the desperate man might harm his family, but also from his curiosity about whatever the cultivator sought.

Now that Chief Escort Wang was dead and the item hadn’t been found, he felt a twinge of disappointment.