Lin Yuan opened the stone box. Both of them cast their gazes inside, and a multicolored, ancient-looking scroll appeared before their eyes.
At the instant she saw the colorful scroll, the Little Fairy Doctor felt a slight tremor in her heart. Her intuition told her that this scroll was extremely important to her.
As he looked at the scroll, Lin Yuan's eyes narrowed slightly. This scroll was the beginning of the Little Fairy Doctor's fate—the starting point for her understanding herself and stepping onto the path of the Heavenly Poison Woman. He had no intention of cutting off this fate; instead, he would place the choice in her hands.
For Zi Yan and Qing Lin, whose minds were still immature, Lin Yuan would dote on them, guide them, and protect them during their weaker years. But for the Little Fairy Doctor—young yet already mentally mature, after giving some guidance, he would respect her decision.
Under the Little Fairy Doctor's hesitant gaze, Lin Yuan picked up the scroll. Beside it were a few small words: Seven-Colored Poison Scripture.
"This is a poison manual. Do you want to read it together?" Lin Yuan asked, shaking the scroll slightly as he looked at her.
"You're willing to share it with me? That's great." The Little Fairy Doctor's eyes lit up, her mood turning a little excited as she wanted to quickly confirm the reason behind the unease in her heart.
"Then let's begin." Lin Yuan waved his hand, and green Dou Qi condensed in the air into a green table and two green chairs. He sat down on one of the chairs, then beckoned to the Little Fairy Doctor.
Seeing this near–void-creation-like technique, the Little Fairy Doctor finally truly understood just how vast the gap between the strong and the weak was. What seemed like miracles to the weak were often nothing more than casual actions in the hands of the strong. Taking a deep breath, she sat down on the chair beside Lin Yuan.
Noticing her somewhat thin clothing, Lin Yuan raised his brows slightly. The depths of this cave were quite cold, and the Little Fairy Doctor's cultivation was still very low. With this thought in mind, he quietly formed a warm fireball beside her, dispelling the chill around her body.
He then opened the scroll, and the two of them began studying the Seven-Colored Poison Scripture together. The poison manual recorded a large number of poison formulas, and even Lin Yuan gained quite a bit from reading it. He did not reject the use of poison—after all, poison was also an excellent means of dealing with enemies. Moreover, the ideas behind the use of various medicinal ingredients in the formulas gave him considerable inspiration.
As time passed, the two eventually reached the final section. What was recorded there was precisely the Woeful Poison Body. The scroll described in detail the characteristics of the Woeful Poison Body, methods of identifying it, the kind of devastation it would cause, and even recorded the bloody calamities and tragic end of a former Woeful Poison Body.
After reading the method of identifying the Woeful Poison Body, the Little Fairy Doctor's face turned deathly pale. As the subsequent contents gradually entered her mind—especially after reading about the tragic end recorded in the scroll—the despair in her eyes became impossible to conceal.
Inside the cave, the invisible atmosphere grew heavy. Lin Yuan did not even need to deliberately sense it to notice the Little Fairy Doctor's turmoil, her shoulders were trembling uncontrollably. This was likely the weakest and most shaken moment of her life. A physician who dreamed of becoming an alchemist was instead destined to become a poison master, the complete opposite of her ideal.
'Some things must be faced sooner or later—knowing, accepting, and confronting them. This is the process of human tempering.' Lin Yuan sighed softly to himself, as if recalling certain past experiences, his gaze growing more distant.
He gently closed the scroll, looked into the empty space ahead, and softly asked, "Little Fairy Doctor, you are a Woeful Poison Body, aren't you?"
The words struck her ears, and her body trembled. She turned to look at Lin Yuan's profile, her expression and voice tinged with sorrow. "How did you know…? Well, of course—you're so intelligent. My state just now must have given it away. What do you plan to do with me? Are you going to eliminate me before I can bring disaster upon the world?"
"That would be fine too. I don't want to harm innocent people. Rather than becoming such a calamity, I'd rather die here. Compared to being hunted down because of the identity of the Woeful Poison Woman, dying as a physician might actually be a kind of happiness…"
Lin Yuan listened quietly at her side, waiting for the Little Fairy Doctor to vent the pressure in her heart, waiting for her emotions to gradually stabilize.
As she continued speaking, after a while, she suddenly noticed that the corner of Lin Yuan's mouth had lifted slightly.
"Hahaha—bring disaster upon the world? Dying now is a kind of happiness?" Lin Yuan's mischievous laugh broke her soliloquy and interrupted her self-pity.
The Little Fairy Doctor could not help but look at Lin Yuan with slight anger. She was already grieving over her unpredictable fate—how could this guy be so tone-deaf? With him laughing like that, she no longer even felt like continuing to feel sad; the atmosphere was completely ruined.
Lin Yuan looked at her, put away his smile, and his expression turned serious. In a deep voice, he said, "There's no need for self-pity. Your constitution is a gift from heaven, a treasure countless people would kill for. You should be happy about it."
"Would anyone really desire such a curse-like constitution? Didn't the scroll say that the Woeful Poison Body represents disaster and self-destruction?" Lin Yuan's words left the Little Fairy Doctor confused. Her knowledge was still very limited, and when it came to matters concerning her own constitution, her concern clearly clouded her judgment.
"Heh." Lin Yuan chuckled lightly. "What's recorded in that scroll is merely the experience of a Woeful Poison Body at the Dou Ancestor level. How great a disaster could a mere Dou Ancestor cause? It's nothing more than a reflection of the recorder's limited horizons."
"Little Fairy Doctor, remember this: on the Dou Qi Continent, things are not defined by good or evil, but by strength. There are plenty of people whose destruction is far greater and whose slaughter is far more severe than that of a Woeful Poison Body, yet they are still revered and worshipped to this day. Why? Isn't it simply because they are strong enough?"
"What you should be grateful for is that you were born with a key to power. The path that key opens is indeed dangerous, but you still have the right to choose—don't you?"
"The choice is in your hands. Ask your own heart what you want, then make your decision. As your friend, I will support whatever choice you make."
Hearing Lin Yuan's words, Little Fairy Doctor was momentarily stunned. A friend… Such a familiar yet distant concept. Thinking carefully, she realized that in all her years of drifting from place to place, she seemed never to have truly had someone she could call a friend. And yet, through this strange encounter, she had gained one—someone who did not fear the Woeful Poison Body, a powerful friend with a touch of mischievous humor.
From the corner of her eye, she glanced at the cyan flame orb beside her that dispelled the chill around her body. A warm current flowed through her heart. Was this what having a friend felt like? It didn't feel bad at all.
"Why are you so good to me?" Recalling her brief yet profound interactions with Lin Yuan, Little Fairy Doctor voiced her doubts. Clever as she was, she could sense that the young man seemed to treat her with a certain special regard, but this feeling was very different from the affection shown by those in Qing Shan Town who admired her.
"Perhaps because of fate, perhaps because of your exceptional beauty, perhaps because you have the potential to walk alongside me in the future. But the biggest reason is simply this. I wanted to do so, so I did. Nothing more than that." Lin Yuan's voice carried a faint sense of detachment.
"You really are that carefree," Little Fairy Doctor said softly as she stood up and solemnly extended her jade-like hand toward Lin Yuan. "Although I don't know why you treat me differently, thank you for still being willing to become friends with me, even knowing that I possess the Woeful Poison Body. I'm very happy to have a friend like you. My name is Mu Yunxian—everyone calls me Little Fairy Doctor."
Lin Yuan stood up and clasped the hand she offered. "My name is Lin Yuan—Yuan as in 'a hidden dragon in the abyss.' A man determined to ascend to the absolute pinnacle."
The two exchanged a smile.
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