I Became the Alchemy Master by Picking Up Trash-Chapter 273 - 271: Finding Xue Han
The waters near Ring Reef Island truly live up to its reputation as a diving paradise. The water is clear and warm, with high visibility. Numerous brightly colored small sea beasts swim in groups within the reef, looking like countless dreamlike colorful clouds from afar.
Ye Qingting, Cui Tianxiao, and Qi Ming were having a lot of fun underwater, but Li Xing felt the water was too shallow and not challenging at all. After swimming for a while, she greeted them and went ashore by herself.
There is a unique type of shellfish on Ring Reef Island, whose shells are colorful and beautiful when dried. They produce a sound as melodious as wind chimes when they collide and are especially soothing to infants, often made into bedside chimes. Before coming here, Li Xing had already planned to buy one as a gift for Anna’s baby.
There are many specialty shops on the island. However, because Wind Bell Shells are famous, almost every tourist visiting Ring Reef Island buys one as a souvenir. Because of this, Wind Bell Shells are often sold out. Li Xing visited several shops but couldn’t find any in stock.
Just as Li Xing was about to try her luck on the last shopping street, a large group of panicked tourists came screaming out of an alley, almost bumping into her.
A man wearing a straw hat passed by Li Xing and kindly warned her, "Young girl, don’t go in there. Someone’s dead inside!"
"Dead? What happened?"
The man in the straw hat covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief and, with a look of terror, glanced at the alley, saying with lingering fear:
"I don’t know. I just heard someone shout ’someone’s dead,’ followed by all sorts of screams. Then everyone started running out, so I ran out too!"
Li Xing was really amazed by this group of people who ran without understanding the situation. It was lucky there wasn’t a stampede! Since she was a reserve student, she felt she couldn’t ignore the matter upon coming across it.
"I’ll go in and take a look. Please report to the Guard Team for me, so they can come to the scene immediately!"
After saying this, Li Xing dashed into the alley against the flow of the crowd and disappeared with a few swift moves.
A recent commotion had left hats, sunglasses, and various uneaten snacks scattered all over the blue brick pavement of the street. The shops along the street were deserted, doors left ajar. Li Xing could imagine how chaotic it must have been.
Since the street was empty, Li Xing simply expanded her Divine Sense for a search and quickly found the person in question beneath the back wall of a seafood store. Although he was motionless and appeared dead, there was a faint rise and fall of his chest.
Li Xing used the Green Smoke Step and soon arrived beside the person. Upon closer inspection, she found he was blind, with bluish-purple lips and his face covered in gruesome pustules, looking quite terrifying.
It was likely this obvious sign of poisoning that had scared the first tourist who discovered him, causing them to flee and trigger the panic.
Li Xing didn’t know this person’s identity or what poison he had ingested. She could only first give him a Revitalizing Pill to wake him up quickly, and then ask about the situation.
After the Revitalizing Pill entered his stomach, he slowly regained consciousness. Upon sensing someone nearby, he became tense immediately, turning his ear slightly in Li Xing’s direction and adopting a defensive posture.
"Sir, don’t be afraid; I am a Healing Master. You’ve been poisoned. If you can describe how you were poisoned, I might be able to help you."
Upon hearing Li Xing’s words, the person suddenly turned his empty eye sockets toward her, showing a look of disbelief.
"You, are you Li Xing?"
Li Xing raised her eyebrows in surprise. If he could recognize her by her voice, he must have seen her before and possibly knew her well. After examining him again carefully, she finally recognized his identity and exclaimed, "It’s you!"
Xue Han showed a bitter smile and said slowly, "I never thought it would be you to see me off for the last time, cough, cough—"
Black blood trickled down from Xue Han’s mouth, carrying a rancid smell. His internal organs must have been corroded by the poison.
"What kind of poison did you take?"
"Pumo Flower Powder..."
Li Xing’s heart sank instantly. The whole Pumo plant is poisonous, with the pollen being the most toxic. Xue Han’s symptoms clearly showed heart-attacking toxicity, beyond the help of medicine or herbs.
"That old thief Mingzhen sent Lin Yin to kill me. I won’t survive, but neither will he! Lin Yin was also poisoned by Pumo Flower Powder and won’t live long. To have someone accompany me in death isn’t a loss for me, haha, ha—cough, cough..."
Xue Han’s words made Li Xing even more certain that Lin Yin belonged to the Exterminate Immortals Cult. If he could receive direct orders from Mingzhen, his level must be quite high.
Feeling Xue Han’s Life Force rapidly fading, Li Xing quickly injected some Spiritual Energy to keep him barely alive, hoping to extract the secrets of the Exterminate Immortals Cult.
"Xue Han, since the Exterminate Immortals Cult wants you dead, you don’t need to keep their secrets anymore, do you?"
In fact, a Soul Search could work, but Li Xing worried he might die before any useful information could be retrieved. It was best if he was willing to talk.
Xue Han curled his lips and weakly said, "That’s right! Ask what you need to know, and I’ll tell you everything I know!"
"Where is the Exterminate Immortals Cult’s base?"
"In... the deep mountains of Dark Moon Forest, protected by a powerful array barrier. Even if you find it, you can’t get in..."
Dark Moon Forest is the largest and most dangerous forest on the Qianyuan Continent. No wonder the Exterminate Immortals Cult has been invincible for thousands of years by building its base there.
"What about the Three-eyed Worms? Where’s the base for breeding them?" If the base is also in Dark Moon Forest, then it’s troublesome.
"There is no breeding base... all Three-eyed Worms are Mingzhen’s offspring."
"What—!" Li Xing was shocked. Mingzhen is the mother of the Three-eyed Worms?
"Is Mingzhen’s true form an antennaed monster?"
Xue Han weakly shook his head: "I don’t know... he never showed his true form in front of me... I only know that he eats a dozen Twin Blacks from time to time and lays a large number of eggs on the corpses."
Xue Han’s breathing became more rapid, and the Spiritual Energy could hardly sustain his vital signs.
Li Xing: "What happens to the eggs afterward?"
"Mingzhen seems to have a genetic collapse problem; the eggs he lays vary greatly in quality... He disposes of most dead eggs and allocates the remaining ones according to their grade."
"The low-grade ones are used to control Star Beasts to attack fortresses, and the medium-grade ones are made into Holy Pills."
"The highest-grade ones are most concealed and harmful, enabling Mingzhen... to obtain the information he wants." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚
Unexpectedly, the Holy Pill is not the highest grade of the egg, and there is an even more dangerous type above it.
"Do you have high-grade eggs in your body?"
Xue Han nodded: "Yes... Just by a single thought from Mingzhen, everything I see can be instantly transmitted to him, that’s why I, I gouged out my own eyes."
"Not only me, but many people also have high-grade eggs implanted inside without knowing it..."
Li Xing’s face turned extremely grim: "The many people you mentioned, who does that include?"
"The nobility of high society, elites in the military and political circles, outstanding students of reserve schools, even ordinary people — anyone may become Mingzhen’s eyes unknowingly..."
Li Xing was shocked: "How is that possible!"
Xue Han chuckled softly: "Why not? The eggs are colorless and tasteless, so small that even spiritual power can barely detect them. A large banquet is enough to infect most of the upper-class society..."
"Once high-grade eggs enter the body, there are no anomalies, and even if Mingzhen activates his spying technique, the host won’t realize they’ve become a tool."
Li Xing’s heart sank to the bottom. Yes, for the people of Qianyuan, there is no effective way to detect the Three-eyed Worms.
Eggs are smaller than the adult worms. If Mingzhen were deranged enough to mix them into nutrient solutions and various medicines, given the time the Exterminate Immortals Cult has existed, it might be that more than half of the Qianyuan people are already parasitized by the Three-eyed Worms.
