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“Go,” Meng Qi commanded, tilting her delicate chin towards the Netherworld Thorn. The white phantom crane ascended again, made another circle in the air, and then swooped down towards the bank of the creek.
Meng Qi watched the white figure descend with a solemn expression. Standing beside her, Li Che clenched his fists nervously. He noticed that Meng Qi was holding another handful of profound-grade spirit stones in her palm, ready to throw them into the array if the light began to fade.
It have to succeed!
Li Che silently prayed in his heart.
The phantom crane swiftly descended towards the cluster of Netherworld Thorn, its pointed beak aiming at one of the tiny plants. In that instant, Meng Qi’s expression grew even more tense. She raised her left hand, ready to hurl the spirit stones in her palm into the array at any moment.
Please succeed!
Li Che’s palms were slightly sweaty as he anxiously watched the phantom crane—
The pointed beak had already grasped one of the Netherworld Thorns.
“Fotuna—…” Li Che’s voice abruptly cut off.
Just as the crane’s beak touched the Netherworld Thorn, its pristine white figure suddenly turned a vivid green. And then, right before the eyes of both Meng Qi and Li Che, the green crane dissipated into a wisp of smoke and vanished completely.
The entire process happened in the blink of an eye. Meng Qi didn’t even have time to throw the spirit stones in her palm and could only watch as the phantom crane she had summoned disappeared without a trace.
Li Che stiffly turned his head to look at the Hundred Ghosts and Hundred Phantoms Array, which had turned completely dark and lifeless. If not for the marks left on the ground by Meng Qi’s knife, it was as if the array had never existed at all.
“What a powerful poison,” Meng Qi sighed softly, looking down at the profound-grade spirit stones in her hand. When her first phantom puppet traversed the Nether River, she still had time to replenish the array with more spirit stones, but the poison of the Netherworld Thorn had, in the blink of an eye, rendered the crane she had summoned into nothingness, giving her no chance to react.
“Alas…” Li Che also sighed with a sense of helplessness. Netherworld Thorn earned its reputation as one of the most lethal toxins in the Three Realms for a reason—all medical cultivators knew how poisonous it was.
“Meng Qiqi, let me do it.” Li Che glanced at his own palm as well, gazing at his long, slender fingers. In terms of talent, he was far inferior to Meng Qi, and even in the region where medical cultivation was in decline, he still wasn’t the most outstanding.
But he was a medical cultivator nonetheless. Faced with such a rare opportunity to actually repair a shattered inner core, he didn’t want to pass it up. Otherwise, he might never get another chance in his lifetime.
“I’ll do it.” Li Che repeated, taking a few steps closer to the Netherworld Thorn. “With my cultivation level, I should have enough time to take the Netherworld Thorn and hand it to you.” He turned to Meng Qi, his tone tinged with a mix of melancholy, but also with a touch of satisfaction and excitement. “Meng Qiqi, I’ll leave the rest to you.”
With that, he was about to stride towards the Netherworld Thorn.
“Wait.” Suddenly, warmth spread across his wrist. Li Che looked down to see a slender, pale hand gripping his wrist.
“Let’s think of another way,” Meng Qi said firmly.
“But…” Li Che frowned, “The Hundred Ghosts and Hundred Phantoms Array didn’t work either. Right now, the only option is for me to retrieve it.”
“I’m a Spirit Severing cultivator, and even though the Netherworld Thorn is extremely toxic, with my cultivation level, there should still be some time before the poison spreads from my meridians and flesh to my spiritual sea, consuming all my aura and spiritual sense.”
“There must be another way,” Meng Qi’s voice was resolute.
Li Che’s gaze shifted from his wrist to Meng Qi’s face. The blue-robed girl standing before him looked more determined than her words.
He suddenly realized that this Meng Qi seemed different from the Meng Qi he had known before—she looked more resolute now.
“Even though we are medical cultivators, saving lives shouldn’t mean exchanging one life for another,” Meng Qi said, looking directly into Li Che’s eyes. “If saving a life always requires the sacrifice of another, then what’s the point of our healing?”
“There has to be another way.”
“There has to be.”
Her voice grew firmer than ever.
“Alright…” Li Che nodded almost subconsciously. He looked into Meng Qi’s eyes, as clear as black obsidian, feeling a bit mesmerized by the pure light in them. Catching a glimpse of his own reflection in her eyes… fueled his determination somehow.”
“Alright.” Li Che nodded firmly at Meng Qi. “We’ll figure out another way together.”
Despite their resolve, the two stood silently facing the Netherworld Thorn for a moment, seemingly without any other ideas. Meng Qi stood with her hands behind her back, slowly pacing around the cluster of harmless-looking plants. “To pluck these Netherworld Thorns… She looked up at the deep blue sky of the Seven Emotions Array. The sky was clear, reflected in her clear eyes, “…we will inevitably come into contact with them.”
“And if we touch these Netherworld Thorns, it’s impossible not to be poisoned.” Meng Qi murmured.
“Exactly,” Li Che nodded in agreement, a bit of helplessness in his voice. “As long as we touch the Netherworld Thorns, we can’t avoid being contaminated by their poison. It’s too potent, capable of corroding everything. Even if we use other tools or a knife to pluck them, they would be corroded by the poison in an instant.”
He looked at the Netherworld Thorns with a troubled expression. “It feels… unsolvable.”
Meng Qi suddenly blinked and said, “If we don’t want to be contaminated by the poison of the Netherworld Thorn, we must not touch it.”
Li Che nodded, “Right! As long as we don’t touch it, its poison is useless.” He couldn’t help but smile bitterly, “But if we don’t touch it, how are we supposed to refine it with the Stardust Stone?”
As he said this, Li Che’s words trailed off. His breathing quickened, and he abruptly turned to look at Meng Qi. He turned so quickly that he almost strained his neck, but he ignored the pain radiating from his shoulder and neck, his eyes wide with excitement. “Meng Qiqi, can we maybe… just not pluck it at all, and instead…”
He gestured with his hand, drawing a semicircle in the air, then pointed towards the Netherworld Thorn, “Just refine the medicine directly like this?”
The Netherworld Thorns by the bank of the Nether River, despite their abundant appearance, were not growing in a continuous cluster. Each individual plant was spaced apart, as if they couldn’t tolerate the presence of their own kind, and even the closest two thorns were about one meter apart.
This distance was more than enough for them to place a cauldron beside the Netherworld Thorn and directly incorporate the thorns into it. Then, they could add the Stardust Stones, which had been preserved with Cold Spring Dew, and directly proceed with the refinement.
“Let’s try it,” Meng Qi nodded. She quickly crouched down and drew another Hundred Ghosts and Hundred Phantoms Array on the ground. The phantom crane once again soared into the sky. Meng Qi retrieved a small cauldron from her storage pouch and tossed it towards the crane.
The white phantom crane gracefully caught the cauldron in mid-air and flew towards the cluster of Netherworld Thorns. When it reached the top of one of the thorns, it dropped the cauldron towards the ground.
“Ah—” Meng Qi let out a small cry of surprise, looking disappointedly at the cauldron that had fallen to the ground. As it descended, the bronze cauldron, which could withstand thousands of rounds of intense flames, brushed against the leaves of the Netherworld Thorn and shattered into pieces upon hitting the ground.
“Seems like it still won’t work.” Li Che stretched his neck to look at the pile of cauldron fragments on the ground, disappointment clear on his face. “The poison of the Netherworld Thorn is just too potent. Anything that touches it will be corroded in an instant.”
“Yes,” Meng Qi nodded, also unable to hide her disappointment. “Who would have thought that something as poisonous as the Netherworld Thorn would be an essential ingredient for repairing an inner core?”
“Meng Qiqi, let me…” Li Che turned to her, his resolve returning, “We can’t afford to delay any longer. Let me do it.”
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