034: Poisoned
Zemirah has forgotten about the fact that there is Roch and Martin who could deal with the enemy. All she knew was that she must avenge the pain she suffered, give it back a thousand times.
She did not think of relying on anyone at that moment. In her mind, the only one she can rely on at a moment like this when her life is on the edge of death is herself.
As a talisman master, she never lacked a talisman. So taking out a pile of talismans and activating them altogether did not make her hesitate at all.
Cruelty and ruthlessness flashed in her beautiful fox eyes. Something that she rarely felt, only when she knew she was about to stain her hands with blood and death.
Everyone at the scene watched as colorful lights bloomed from a pile of talismans activated by the lady covered with a white veil.
Blue and white flashed and a hail of swords came, a fiery red rain of arrows, and a bloody crimson carnivorous flower bloomed. The three types of talisman caught everyone off guard with their ferocity and beauty.
However, for the Jade Teal Town Lord, it only brought a chill to his heart. He watched wide-eyed the torrent of attacks reaching the power of Foundation Building Realm cultivator, which meant that those piles of talismans reached Grade 2.
Bruises, wounds, and blood accumulated in his body. Even if he wanted to defend himself, he didn't have the energy nor the means to protect himself completely from such an attack.
While enduring the pain brought on by his worsening injuries, all he could think in his heart was that the prey he regarded turned out to be the most ferocious monster to bring him to the end of his life.
A sword light flashed, and a head flew out of the body.
Roch's eyes were so cold it could freeze everything in the world. He did not care about the headless body of his enemy but rushed to the woman who was standing unsteadily.
When Zemirah opened her eyes and saw the handsome man who seemed to resemble the biting cold winter, she smiled in relief as she finally had the time to relax.
Roch watched in panic as Zemirah fell to her knees, with him barely in time to hold her, preventing her from completely falling on the ground.
Looking at the pale lady, heartache flooded his system. He saw her holding her left arm where an eye-catching wound lay.
The wound was small and little blood leaked out, however, a purplish and greenish color spread around the wound.
Zemirah was poisoned.
And it happened under his watch.
Roch swallowed a suffocating breath as he calmed himself, trying to hold on to his sanity as he ordered his subordinate.
"Pack the corpse and clean the battlefield, then hand over the corpse to the commander in the border. I'll leave with Zemirah first." Roch can't afford to waste time as he made arrangements.
"Yes, Young Master." Martin also knew the severity of the situation so he tried to make his sense of presence low, feeling the low temperature around the young man.
His handsome face was full of frost and his eyes were so sharp that no one dared to question him at his state.
This is the young man's majesty, despite his young age.
Roch saw that Martin understood his orders so he put his attention on Zemirah. She lost consciousness after using all of her spiritual energy. Roch can still remember her ferocity as she activated her talismans.
The intensity of that attack made him understand that those talismans must be Grade 2 and their quality is not bad.
Even some Grade 1 talismans also shined at that moment, showing their high quality through the attack power released.
Roch used a technique to his sword and step on it while holding Zemirah in his hand. The sword buzz a few times before finally floating.
Roch knew that his sword is reluctant to carry other people beside its master so he sent his thoughts to the sword and barely appeasing it.
'I'm a killing sword but you actually use me as a flying sword.'
He could feel its grievance but just smiled. Roch could not use his other artifacts related to the Four Divine Arts and using a Flying Ship Artifact is eye catching. While the sword is fast and silent, it is the best choice in the current situation.
The sword buzzed a few more times before finally flying off with Roch's control. They flew away from the battlefield, Roch was looking for a suitable place to heal Zemirah.
Somewhere quiet and hidden.
They flew for half an hour with Roch giving Zemirah a Grade 1 Rare-Quality White Dew Pill, a precious pill for detoxifying poisons.
The pill barely managed to stop the poison from spreading with Roch's help. Roch's brows relaxed as he thought that it is impossible for the Teal Jade Twn Lord to own such a vicious poison with his own connection.
It must be from the people behind him.
Then this poison should be intended to be used on him.
He sighed heavily as he look at Zemirah who inadvertently saved him again. He did not stop until they found a relatively hidden cave.
He used a cleaning technique on the cave, washing away the earthy smell and dusty places. He took out a Grade 2 fur from a Foundation Building Realm Peak-Stage Bright Flame Fox.
The fur is warm and soft, making it a rare item that can be used in many artifacts.
It was hunted by Roch a few days ago that he doesn't have time to deal with it. Just in time to be used as a rag now.
He put Zemirah atop the fur and started to detoxify her.
A poison from a Grade 2 artifact used against an Energy Refinement Realm cultivator is fatal. Zemirah is always on the verge of death with this poison still on her body so Roch doesn't dare relax until she was healed.
He did not rashly gave Zemirah a Grade 2 detoxifying pill for fear of her exploding from too much energy. Now that they settled on the cave, he finally dared to fed her a Grade 2 pill.
He watch carefully as the pill dissipated in her mouth and the energy was controlled by Roch carefully.
The detoxifying lasted for an hour before the medicinal properties was used.
However, Zemirah was not yet awake. The poison inside her was detoxified but her other injuries was not yet healed.
Her meridians was a bit broken from overusing her spiritual energy, then some internal injuries and external injuries.
But this did not made Roch impatient, he carefully nursed her back to health using the resources he have on hand until Zemirah finally woke up on the second day.
Roch did not call any of his people for fear of being spied again.
"Ahem." Zemirah woke up with a coughed, her throat feeling sore and dry. It appears that she haven't taken water for days.
Her mind was in a daze looking at the unfamiliar place she woke up upon, only pressing her panic down when she saw a familiar person not far from her. It was Roch who was cultivating quietly beside her makeshift bed.
Zemirah slowly remembered what happened before she fall unconscious. The battle that night, the poison on her arm, and the activation of her talismans.
She glanced at her arm that was supposed to be wounded and poisoned by now healed. Then examined her other injuries and saw the patches of medicine and bandages. The smell of the cave was also full of medicine and herbs, which proved that Roch took care of her these days when she is weak and injured.
She sighed in relief at the thought that she did not guess the young man wrong. Fortunately, someone she could trust was beside her at the time she was unconscious.
Just thinking of the consequence of falling unconscious in the wild made Zemirah shiver in fear. The wild beasts, the demonic cultivators and unknown cultivators that may see her in that fragile state. Who knew what they would do to her.
Death is a simple thing as there are many ways to make life worse than death in this world of cultivation. Zemirah doesn't know much but she clearly understood this fact.
She waited silently for Roch to wake up from his cultivation state which did not take long. Roch opened his eyes and was greeted with a pleasant surprise.
Zemirah is awake!
This good news brought a smile to his face that has been frowning in worry these past two days.
"Many thank to Young Master Roch for taking care of me." Zemirah's face was still sickly pale but her eyes was shining with a smile on them.
The familiar eyes made Roch's heavy heat finally lift back to life as he answered, "No need for thank, my lady. It was my fault that you encountered such a thing in the first place."
Zemirah shook her head, "No need to blame yourself, I was just unlucky to be hit with that poison."
Roch wanted to argue but stopped himself when he saw her coughing. He quickly poured her water, "Here, drink some water to moisten your throat. You have been unconscious for two days."
"Two days? So long?" Zemirah was quite shock.
Roch sighed as he explained, "The poison that entered your body is called Nether Abyss Poison composed of a hundred types of poison that focused on killing. It was a very dangerous poison that may even take the life of a Mind Activation Stage cultivator. It was fortunate that only a little of that poison entered your body that i was able to detoxify it with some pills."
Zemirah heard Roch explaining the poisons details and its record of killing. She was quite scared listening to its terrifying effect while thinking that it could've happened to her. She was just lucky that she manage to dodge the attack that the needle just graze a small part of her arm.
That graze left some poison on her arm but it wasn't fatal to kill her instantly.
Thinking of that moment where she was actually so brave to counter attack instead of eating some detoxifying pill, Zemirah did not know whether to scold her previous self or praise her courage.
Sure enough, a calf is not afraid of tiger. Her ignorance that time was really a luck streak that she did not die.
"The items you used on me-" Zemirah thought of the strong medicinal smell on the cave and she instantly knew that the man must've used precious pills and spiritual herbs on her these past few days.
She wanted to pay it back.
Roch saw what was on her mind so he quickly interrupted her voice, "The Teal Jade Town Lord is dead, do you want to see his space ring? It's your loot."
Zemirah's attention was instantly diverted at the sentence.
"Where is it? Let's share it!"
Sure enough, this woman is a little money fan. Roch thought slyly in his mind.