Shu Tiantian had gotten two bottles of Bigu Pill for free, but there was also a drawback. Because the people in the market looked at Shu Tiantian as if they had seen a ghost, it was impossible to ask them for information.

The Scarlet Flame Flower could burn for four hours, and Shu Tiantian still had plenty of time left.

She plucked the Scarlet Flame Flower and put it back into the small medicine box, planning to leave the market, wander around in Black Valley, and find someone to ask.

Shu Tiantian kept thinking about the small thatched hut where she had just awakened in Black Valley, suspecting that her little bell might be there, so she lifted her foot and headed in that direction from memory.

Shu Tiantian had intended to look for evil cultivators along the way to gather information. But the Void Abyss was truly different from the outside world. Whenever anyone discovered that Shu Tiantian had the intention to ask questions, that person would immediately grow wary and shut their mouth. Several times Shu Tiantian tried chatting with stall owners, but once they learned she was not buying anything, they rolled their eyes straight to the sky.

This group of evil cultivators was extremely xenophobic, and even more vigilant toward anyone asking for information.

Shu Tiantian realized direct questioning would yield no results and felt a slight headache. However, before she had even taken two steps, her attention was drawn by the commotion ahead.

Surrounded by a crowd, a baby-faced youth seemed to be choking on something, clutching his throat as if something were stuck. His whole face had flushed red, tears streaming down in torrents, crying miserably.

The medical cultivators nearby all folded their arms and watched the excitement, fully embodying the Void Abyss spirit of harming others without benefiting oneself—others’ suffering is my joy.

Only one woman held the boy, wailing “My son, my son,” while sweating profusely as she pushed spiritual energy into the baby-faced youth’s throat, trying to force him to spit it out.

The moment Shu Tiantian saw the baby-faced youth, she froze. What a coincidence, wasn’t that the same fellow who had just tried to rob her? Looking again at the woman crying her heart out, Shu Tiantian grinned—wasn’t that the same woman who, when she had just awakened, had intended improper actions toward her?

So Shu Tiantian folded her arms as well and blended into the evil cultivators, watching the excitement for quite a while.

After all, they were cultivators—being choked wouldn’t kill him that quickly.

This group of poison doctors loved excitement and chatted enthusiastically. This baby-faced youth was a notorious bully in Black Valley. Some time ago, his miasma poison had flared up, so his mother had asked someone in the city to buy a Qingxin Pill from outside the Void Abyss—

Who would have known the seller was black-hearted and had given this mother and son a Jingang Pill that looked extremely similar!

After swallowing a Jingang Pill, one could become impervious to blades and weapons for one hour. The effect was certainly good, but the pill could not be broken by spiritual energy nor crushed—if one accidentally choked on it, the result would be exactly like this: the baby-faced youth could neither spit it out nor swallow it down.

In fact, the best method was to force it out with spiritual energy. But because of the special nature of the Jingang Pill, spiritual energy would undoubtedly become blocked in the throat. If the spiritual energy condensed to a certain level, the baby-faced youth would explode. It wasn’t that there were no other methods—but since they were already in the Void Abyss, could there really still be proper medical cultivators here?

Faced with the Jingang Pill, the poison doctors watched with grinning faces while enthusiastically discussing among themselves—cutting open the throat to remove it, pouring bone-dissolving liquid down… Shu Tiantian had originally stood with the same arms-folded posture as the evil cultivators, but hearing this, she could not help twitching the corner of her mouth.

Everyone in the Void Abyss was skilled at refining poison pills. Aphrodisiacs and toxins came easily to them, but their methods of healing and saving people were extremely crude. Shu Tiantian had previously only known they were crude—who would have thought they were crude to this extent.

This group of poison doctors were all self-taught and had never systematically studied medicine. Each was an expert at making poison, but saving lives… generally, once the illness was cured, the person was also gone.

Shu Tiantian originally did not want to meddle, but after thinking about it, since they could ask someone to buy pills from outside, this mother and son seemed to have some connections—passing along a message probably wouldn’t be difficult, right?

Amid the woman’s ghost-like wailing, the youth’s baby face had already turned purplish. Seeing him roll his eyes back, clutching his mother’s hand with difficulty as he began to deliver his last words, Shu Tiantian finally stepped forward.

From beneath the veiled hat, a slender hand pressed on the youth’s shoulder. Before the woman could react, she suddenly lifted her leg—her knee struck the youth’s abdomen with precise skill, fast, accurate, and ruthless. The youth cried out in pain, but suddenly coughed up that poison pill.

Simple, brutal.

The Heimlich maneuver—you deserve it. 

The poison doctors around first froze, then began whispering to one another in surprise and sudden realization—of course, no one thought it was a matter of skill. Each felt they had simply not thought of such a simple method, and they all began offering hindsight remarks.

As for the youth, his mother was patting his back. Just as he coughed and raised his head, he looked as if he had seen a ghost, clinging to his mother in terror!

Shu Tiantian pressed down her veiled hat and smiled.

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

The baby-faced youth’s mother was called Poison Lady. Compared to the baby-faced youth, this little hooligan, Poison Lady was far more famous in Black Valley.

Some time ago, people in the Void Abyss had pushed the price of Qingxin Pill above the Profound rank to astronomical levels. Pills were divided into four grades—Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Yellow. There were several people in the Void Abyss who could refine Profound-grade Qingxin Pill, so logically it should not have been that expensive. But the baby-faced youth’s miasma poison had penetrated to the bone, and Poison Lady did not have enough spirit stones, so she had no choice but to contact acquaintances outside to buy Qingxin Pill.

Who would have known that the messenger, upon turning around, had swapped the valuable Qingxin Pill for a cheap Jingang Pill, nearly costing the youth his life. Even though Shu Tiantian had saved him now, with the miasma poison unresolved, he was still only waiting for death.

After learning from the mother and son that the black fog everywhere in the Void Abyss was filled with miasma, Shu Tiantian was slightly stunned.

Poison Lady glanced at her.

“Just looking at you, I can tell you haven’t been here long—the miasma is born alongside the Void Abyss itself. Stay here long enough, and inner demons will flourish. The higher one’s cultivation, the greater the influence; the closer to the center of the Void Abyss, the denser the miasma poison. Originally, with my son’s Golden Core cultivation, a Yellow-rank Qingxin Pill could last a year or so. But Black Valley is closest to the center of the Void Abyss, where the miasma is most concentrated. For the past two years, Yellow-rank ones have already stopped working for him.”

Shu Tiantian examined the baby-faced youth—sure enough, it was miasma poison, exactly as described.

Shu Tiantian raised her brows slightly and asked again, “Then why don’t you leave Black Valley and go somewhere where the miasma is thinner?”

Poison Lady had been sizing up the girl across from her all along. The voice sounded familiar, and the cultivation was equally weak… but hadn’t the little furnace cauldron she had tried to abduct that day already been burned to death by the Scarlet Flame Flower?

Her voice suddenly softened by several degrees.

“What kind of place do you think Black Valley is? Those of us who know a bit of alchemy or understand some poison arts—once we’ve been sent here, where could we possibly run? You’ve heard that we people were captured and sent here for that Old Ancestor, right?”

Shu Tiantian nodded. “You were captured to refine pills for him, to treat his illness.”

Poison Lady and the baby-faced youth exchanged a glance. The youth gave a mysterious smile.

“Wrong. Not to treat that one. Our only task is—”

“—to prolong the blooming time of the Scarlet Flame Flower.”

The Void Abyss Old Ancestor had no desires, no demands, and a mercurial temper. Over countless years, innumerable great evil cultivators had tried to curry favor with him. No matter how many beauties or heavenly treasures they presented, Ji Wushu remained unmoved.

For thousands of years, he had only accepted medical cultivators—but his requirements were strange. He never allowed anyone to approach him, nor did he allow anyone to treat his illness. Those “medical cultivators” merely researched methods to make the Scarlet Flame Flower bloom longer.

Yet after thousands of years, no one had found a solution.

And those cultivators sent into Black Valley were as if branded with a mark—before finding a solution, it was impossible for them to remain outside the valley for more than a single day.

That was why, even though the miasma here was dense, they could not leave because they had no choice.

When the baby-faced youth finished speaking, he cast a lingering, fearful glance at Shu Tiantian’s utterly ordinary little medicine box.

Although the medical cultivators of Black Valley studied the Scarlet Flame Flower year-round, no cultivator had ever courted death by touching it—let alone casually carrying a whole box of it like this girl!

Seeing his mother staring at Shu Tiantian with drool nearly dripping down, the baby-faced youth hurriedly grabbed hold of her.

Shu Tiantian paid no attention to the silent exchange between mother and son, but recalled the first time she had seen the Void Abyss Old Ancestor—blood dripping to the ground, blooming into a Scarlet Flame Flower.

If blood = Scarlet Flame Flower, then a Scarlet Flame Flower that extinguished after four hours represented life that would vanish after four hours… and stretching to the horizon was an endless expanse of Scarlet Flame Flowers. Shu Tiantian suddenly thought of the dragon that had died yet continued bleeding. Remembering that sea of flowers, she felt somewhat shaken.

But when she came back to her senses, Poison Lady had completely ignored the baby-faced youth’s hints. She casually grabbed her nine-foot-tall son and kicked him out the door, then turned toward Shu Tiantian with a ferocious grin.

“Hmph, you brat—this little furnace cauldron is worth more than just one Qingxin Pill!”

Poison Lady looked at Shu Tiantian, this little furnace cauldron, her greenish gaze practically glowing.

Poison Lady shut the door, her vicious intent fully exposed, completely ignoring her son anxiously pounding on the door outside—still less knowing that the baby-faced youth was not worried about the pretty young medical cultivator, but about his own mother!

That was someone who used Scarlet Flame Flowers as hairpins!

Shu Tiantian remained unhurried. Beneath the veiled hat, the corner of her lips curled up. Suddenly, she asked, “Poison Lady, you need Qingxin Pill, don’t you?”

She lifted her head. “If I say that I can refine Qingxin Pill above the Profound rank?”

Outside the door, the baby-faced youth’s terrified pounding and Poison Lady’s fierce advancing footsteps both halted at the same time.

Shu Tiantian curled her lips into a smile.