Looking at the rabbits in front of him, he saw that they were still growing bigger and bigger.
Xu Su had, at last, realized that something was wrong, and suddenly remembered something. He looked at the porcelain bowl in his hand like a snake and threw it to the side by the medicine field. He then turned around and took to his heels, running straight away from the rabbits for more than ten meters before stopping.
Just as he thought of looking back, one after another, two sounds simultaneously exploded over. Xu Su shuddered and turned his head for a look. As expected, each of the two rabbits had turned into a bloody carcass, exploding into several chunks. Flesh and blood were scattered on the ground, covering a patch of grass with a blanket of blood. Two pits appeared in the places where the rabbits had been originally tethered to. Surrounding the pits were the rabbits' messy remains. Bloody chunks of meat sprinkled the ground, creating a spectacle too terrible to observe.
Xu Su let out a breath and sat down on the ground. He feared that if he had not reacted quickly enough at that instance, he would've been caught in the explosion. Although he might not have been seriously injured, having his entire body drenched in rabbit blood and dregs of meat would not have been a pleasant affair.
Waiting until after his heart calmed down, Xu Su stood up and walked over to the pits.
After seeing the mutilation at the site, he took a look at the shattered porcelain bowl by the medicine field feeling speechless.
Xu Su originally believed that he would have discovered the green liquid to be some sort of panacea, but he didn't expect it to be such a frightening thing. Poison was poison, but it made the rabbits die so tragically! No matter what he said to himself, he could not pass this off as a trick. It was far too frightening! Xu Su was not unfamiliar with deadly poisons. Under Physician Wu's several years of instruction, Xu Su was experienced with many poisons capable of delivering an instant death, but none of them were capable of killing a man so terribly.
After a while, Xu Su regained his composure. Keeping his head calm, he made plans to depart from the medicine field.
Because it was soon going to be noon, he had to deliver the secret medicine to Senior Disciple Lie. As for everything here, he would deal with it once he finished delivering the medicine.
With these thoughts in mind, Xu Su didn't bother taking another look at the scene of the explosion, leaving all these troubles behind for later, and returned to his residence. After resting for a moment, he went and brought the medicine to the entrance of Green Eye Valley.
Xu Su was very punctual. He arrived at the entrance just as noon arrived, but Lie Feiy seemed to have already been there for a while now, anxiously waiting for him.
He was waiting alone at the valley's entrance, wearing a white embroidered robe. However, he still carried along the saber that had previously left a deep impression on Xu Su. Since Xu Su hadn't arrived yet, Lie Feiy's face showed a sliver of worry, anxiously looking towards the direction of the valley.
As soon as he saw Xu Su finally arrive, he put away his anxious expression. The corner of his mouth slightly rose, showing a smile on his face.
"Junior Disciple Xu, you are truly quite punctual! You said noon, and you arrived right on time. I was waiting here for almost an hour," Lie Feiy said half-jokingly, half complaining.
"My apologies. Blending the medicine took too much time yesterday, so I didn't sleep until it was very late. I woke up a little late this morning. By the time I finished taking care of a some errands, it was almost noon already." Xu Su said. Only half of what he said was true.
"Junior Disciple Xu … medicine, the medicine, did you finish making it?" Senior Disciple Lie was quite anxious and flustered, actually speaking with somewhat of a stutter.
Xu Su didn't directly answer Senior Disciple Lie's question. Instead, he calmly smiled, slowly taking out a large medicine bag out from his robes and throwing it over to Lie Feiy.
"Every time before you consume the Essence Extraction Pill, take the medicine by mixing a spoon of the medicinal powder in cooled boiled water, and it will help alleviate your pain."
"Thank you, Junior Disciple Xu! Thank you!" Senior Disciple Lie was wild with joy. Even if it could only ease his pain, he still regarded it as great news. The pain from taking the Essence Extraction Pill made it so that he would shiver even when he just thought about it. He had already tried many painkillers before, but they all had no effect. However, since Junior Disciple Xu knew all of the characteristics of the Essence Extraction Pill and had taken it before, perhaps this medicine would actually be effective.
"Don't thank me just yet, let's wait and see if the medicine works first. Also, this is only a year's worth of medicine. I've currently used up all of the medicinal ingredients I had and I won't be able to make any more for you until I gather enough again," Xu Su spoke bluntly.
"No problem. Isn't this a year's worth of medicine? This is enough for now. Regardless of whether or not this medicine is effective, I, Lie Feiy appreciate Junior Disciple Xu's kind intentions." Having gotten what he wanted, Senior Disciple Lie's expression returned to normal and was no longer so anxious, and he once again expressed his gratitude to Xu Su.
Xu Su faintly smiled. Not saying anything else, he took the initiative to part ways with Senior Disciple Lie.
With the secret medicine in his hands, Lie Feiy naturally wanted to test its efficacy as soon as possible. He didn't keep Xu Su waiting, and the two mutually took their leave.
After returning from the valley entrance, the first thing Xu Su did was clean up the medicine fields. He swept the rabbit remains, bloodied earth, and broken bowl shards all into a hole and buried them, and just like that, it appeared as if nothing had happened.
Satisfied, Xu Su patted his hands and looked around to see if he had missed anything.
When his eyes fell onto where the porcelain bowl had shattered, he couldn't help but start thinking.
He remembered very clearly that when he threw away the bowl, the diluted water within had spilled all over a small portion of the medicine field, landing on several medicinal herbs. He couldn't help but be somewhat hesitant since he didn't know whether these medicinal herbs would become poisonous after absorbing the water. Also, if someone were to eat these poisonous herbs, would they also experience the same horrible death as the rabbits? Should he just destroy these poisonous plants? This chain of questions abruptly rose in Xu Su's mind.
Xu Su pondered for a while, and eventually decided to wait and do another small experiment. If in the following days, the medicinal herbs really became poisonous, it still wouldn't be too late for him to destroy them.
With that decided, he looked around to see if there was anything else he could do and then went back to the stone room to practice. He hoped that he would be capable of making a breakthrough, on account of his earlier advancement.
Xu Su currently no longer cared about the chant's specific usefulness. His cultivation of this chant had already become instinctive. If he didn't cultivate it, Xu Su wouldn't know what else he would do in the mountain valley. Stubbornly cultivating this chant to a greater layer of cultivation had already become his current life goal.
After an afternoon absorbed in cultivation, Xu Su dispiritedly discovered that he truly wasn't a genius. Although he felt that the distance from the fourth layer could be pierced through by a finger, he couldn't advance an inch forward and had diligently cultivated the whole afternoon in vain.
It seemed he couldn't cultivate any further without the support of medicinal elixirs. Otherwise, it would be very likely that he would forever stay at the peak of the third layer, unable to advance any further.
Xu Su's mind began to hope expectantly that Physician Wu would return a bit earlier, and that he would have been lucky enough to have found enough medicinal ingredients to help Xu Su break through his current predicament.