29: Chapter 29 Fighting Poison with Poison

At night, as Chu Sheng was pondering how to swindle another batch of medicinal herbs, the courtyard gate was gently knocked.

Opening the door, he saw Liu Qingyan standing in the moonlight, dressed in simple white robes, her eyes slightly red.

Chu Sheng's heart skipped a beat—could this girl have been scolded by that second uncle of hers again?

"Alchemist Qin... Qingyan has a favor to ask, but... it is just too absurd, and I don't know how to bring it up."

Chu Sheng invited her into the courtyard and poured a cup of tea: "Miss Liu, please speak freely."

Liu Qingyan bit her lip, "Alchemist, why don't you... propose marriage to my family directly."

Chu Sheng: "???"

"As long as... as long as the raw rice is cooked into porridge, would the Chen family still want a woman... who has lost her purity? In this way, we can break the deadlock, and truly bind you, Alchemist, to the Liu family."

She looked up, her tear-filled eyes brimming with near despair.

"I know this is absurd and shameless... but I... I really have no other choice."

Chu Sheng nearly choked on his own saliva.

Holy crap! Cook the raw rice into porridge?!

This girl... well, even though she's been my wife for three lifetimes.

She looks so quiet and gentle, but what kind of wild and bold words are stuffed in her head?!

He composed himself, then couldn't help but chuckle:

But thinking about it carefully, it's not strange for a young lady from a noble family, pushed to the brink by a forced marriage, to come up with such a method.

Since she has to marry either way, instead of marrying an idiot, it's better to gamble on the one in front of her who knows how to refine pills.

That logic holds up.

He took a deep breath, "Miss Liu, if I may ask, can you breakthrough with your current cultivation level? Have you ever tried to fight for a say in the matter with your own strength?"

Liu Qingyan's expression dimmed instantly upon hearing this, "Cultivation? Heh... Three months ago, the Chen family sent a Ninth Grade of Qi Induction retainer to guide my cultivation."

"The result... my energy meridians were damaged, my dantian cracked, and unless there is a special opportunity, my path of Qi Induction is severed."

Chu Sheng sucked his teeth in frustration.

The Chen family is truly ruthless. First, they cripple her cultivation, then force her to marry over, completely holding her in their grasp.

"It seems... I arrived too late this time."

Chu Sheng sighed inwardly, but his gaze immediately sharpened.

"But since I've encountered it early, I will absolutely not let the tragedy repeat itself!"

"Miss Liu," Chu Sheng's tone became exceptionally serious, "Your proposal... the risk is too great, and the consequences would be endless."

The light in Liu Qingyan's eyes dimmed.

"However," Chu Sheng changed the subject, "I will help you, and I will help the Liu family! It doesn't necessarily require such an extreme method."

"But... but I am already a Trash, and the Liu family is also..." Liu Qingyan looked bewildered.

"Who says you are a Trash?" A fierce look flashed in Chu Sheng's eyes, "Damaged energy meridians and a cracked dantian are not necessarily irreparable! As for the Liu family..."

He thought of his own dreadful 'Trash' physique, and the feedback from Many Children, Many Blessings, and a bold idea emerged.

"Perhaps, we can... fight poison with poison!" Chu Sheng's eyes burned brightly.

"I have a method, it is extremely dangerous. By using several special, even... toxic pills that I refine, we can forcibly push your cultivation up!"

Looking at the man with the crazed look in the screen, Chu Sheng silently gave himself a thumbs up.

Fighting poison with poison? Using toxic pills to boost cultivation?

Repairing a shattered dantian?

Is this even a method a human can come up with? But... I like it.

"I... I am willing!"

She hardly hesitated at all, "No matter how painful or dangerous it is, it's better than the current situation! Big Brother, Qingyan's life is in your hands from now on!"

He nodded heavily: "Good! Then let's take a gamble!"

The first step of the plan was to fake Liu Qingyan's death.

Chu Sheng stayed up all night to refine a furnace of Feigned Death Powder. After taking it, her breathing became as faint as a candle in the wind, and her pulse was almost non-existent.

When the news spread, the Chen family indeed sent people to express concern, but they were firmly blocked by Liu Chengqian.

But inside the Liu family, it caused an uproar.

Liu Qingyan's father, the head of the Liu family, Liu Yuanhong, was an indecisive middle-aged man.

He both pitied his daughter and feared offending the Chen family, sighing and lamenting all day long.

Liu Qingyan's second uncle, Liu Yuanhai, was a complete capitulationist.

"What serious injury? It's clearly that the girl doesn't want to marry and is faking it! And that alchemist of unknown origin, I think he's just a charlatan!"

Liu Qingyan's Third Aunt, a sharp-tongued and mean-spirited woman.

"Exactly! For a girl whose cultivation has been crippled, being able to marry for the family's benefit is her blessing! Why look for an alchemist? It's a waste of the family's resources!"

Chu Sheng looked at this group of bizarre relatives and couldn't help but shake his head.

"No wonder the Liu family is finished. This isn't a family, it's clearly a flock of vultures waiting to divide up the property."

Only Liu Chengqian and a few elders firmly supported Chu Sheng's plan.

In fact, because he possesses the Pill Dao Physique, he is no longer an absolute Trash.

Chu Sheng's "fighting poison with poison" cultivation method is, simply put: refining oneself as if one were medicine.

He refined a strange medicinal powder.

After taking it, thousands of poisonous ants would bite the energy meridians simultaneously, while raging fires would scorch the dantian; the pain was far beyond imagination!

Chu Sheng grimaced as he watched: "This scene... just watching it makes me hurt."

Time and time again, he collapsed in pain, only to be rebuilt in the vitality.

His cultivation began to climb.

Chu Sheng rubbed his chin:

Although it looks miserable, the effect is truly fierce.

If this method could be popularized, how many fewer Trashs would there be in the cultivation world?

On the other side, Liu Qingyan's "treatment" was also proceeding simultaneously.

Every time she underwent treatment, Liu Qingyan would break out in cold sweat from the pain, but she stubbornly refused to make a sound, gritting her teeth and persisting.

Looking at that stubbornness on her pale face, Chu Sheng felt a momentary trance, as if he saw the girl from the first simulation who had relied on him for survival under the cliff.

"This time, I won't let you carry it alone anymore," he said softly.

Days passed one by one.

The Chen family, however, grew increasingly impatient.

The storm was about to break.

Chu Sheng glanced at the several strange poisons being refined in the pill furnace, and the corners of his mouth slowly curled up.

His current cultivation had firmly settled at the peak of Qi Induction Fourth Grade, just one step away from the Fifth Grade.

Liu Qingyan's dantian injury had also mostly healed, and there were even faint signs of breaking through after the destruction.

"Come on then," he said softly, a cold glint flashing in his eyes, "Let's see if your blades are sharper, or if my toxic pills are more ruthless."

Chu Sheng watched the screen.

"Fighting poison with poison, breaking through after destruction. This path is wild enough, I like it."

He stretched, then leaned back against the chair.

"But what does that have to do with me? I'm just watching the show. Continue, I want to see what kind of tricks he can pull this time."

[Simulation continues...]