C118- 1: Poisoning People

"Papa! Eat?" Little Zhe asked in an innocent tone while edging near the contents of the box nonchalantly. Han Xuhan, who was busy deciphering the terrible handwriting on the paper that had come with it, lightly gripped the snake by a rib and pushed it back.

The main issue concerning little Zhe was that its appearance had screwed up Xuhan's personal control over his dao tower far more impactfully than its two predecessors. While Zhanxian and little Tian had started showing signs of becoming partially owners of their 'rooms' in the tower, little Zhe's appearance had changed something much more basic and fundamental.

Han Xuhan couldn’t control this third minion's summoning. While he could summon it and send it back to his dao tower freely, it too could appear and disappear from the real world as it pleased. Coupled with its extremely young mental state, it was no different from a lively child running back and forth all over the house, barging into rooms and randomly trying to eat stuff with and without permission. The only positive thing Xuhan could think of concerning its existence that it at least didn’t need its nappy changed every few hours.

Moreover, as an undead sensitive to qi, little Zhe feared cultivators like nothing else. Just then when Xuan Zi had shown up inside his hut and noticed the snake, it had ran off, crossed worlds and hid inside his dao tower where a snake pit had appared right in the middle of the main room.

Han Xuhan had taken a good look at it from above when it had first appeared. It was at least a few yards deep, with a radius of only one meter. The bottom was like a dark maw of a leviathan waiting for food to drop in conveniently. The sensory connection he had with the dao tower told him it was just an empty hole with a bottom made up of flat rocks and walls that could be climbed easily. But his astral eyes had refused to believe his mind. The hole looked too sinister. Being around it made him feel the nervous pressure of a claustrophobic's worst nightmares. Xuhan had no idea what caused this uncanny feeling, but he had decided to trust his senses and hadn't gone down to investigate. Instead, he had thrown Zhanxian and little Tian inside. They should have been out by now if nothing was wrong with the pit.

The new development was, however, not much of a surprise compared to what he discovered upon reading the contents of the paper.

The first bit with the atrocious handwriting was from crazy Xie. He seemed to have intentionally written it that terribly in order to inconvenience Xuhan. In all honesty, the only remark Xuhan could make about his little petty games was 'damn, this guy is good at this'.

There are five vials in the box. Each vial contains a certain amount of a potion called 'mind killer'. As you can guess, the moment someone takes a sip of this potion, their mind will be 'killed' in a certain sense. The dosage here, however, is pretty low. Once you make somebody drink from a vial, or inject it in their bloodstream, they'll become mentally crippled for a few days. What you need to do during that time is to inform me that you’ve done your job using the method I've shown below. Once I've identified all the targets in the tournament, another message will be forwarded to you. Do not try to double cross me, and our little contract will end in its due time.

Beneath the paragraph was a simple looking qi formation that even an amateur like Xuhan could design easily.

However, the contents of the paper did not end there, because a new, more legible handwriting started beneath the formation design.

Disciple, maybe you're surprised, maybe you're not, that your tasks involve poisoning people and mentally crippling them. As you're aware, his targets are talented youths from various sects. This task is quite risky, and almost impossible for you to do by yourself. So I've taken the risk to modify the formation design he his given you. You can find this upgraded version on the other side of the page. The new version will not only allow him to connect with the paralyzed mind of his victims but also let ME appear at the place of the crime to help clean up the clues and ward off any potential threats around. While I do not support what Fang Xie is doing, it will not stop me from extending a favour to a disciple as valuable as yourself.


Han Xuhan turned the page over and observed the next formation design. It hadn’t been modified too heavily. He could still make one on the go.

"Papa! Big brother cried !"

Broken out of his thoughts, he turned to look at little Zhe who had gone into the dao tower while he was reading. The skeleton didn’t have any expression on its draconic face, but a state of panic radiated from the way its body twisted and turned on his shoulders.