502: Chapter 12 An Unexpected Twist

"What kind of bet? We have the numbers. Whether you have the antidote on you or not, we'll know as soon as we catch you and search you."

Seeing that the Immortal Binding Rope had successfully bound Yan Lie, Meng Li said lightly, then added, "If we find the antidote, City Lord Wei's poison will naturally be cured. If we don't find it, we can just call a doctor and subject you to a harsh interrogation at the same time."

Hearing this, Wei Qiong, who was circulating his Qi to suppress the poison, laughed aloud, "That is indeed the logic."

As he spoke, he signaled to several guards not far away.

The lead guard understood and immediately walked up to Yan Lie, reaching out to search his body.

Seeing this, a flash of panic crossed Yan Lie's eyes, but there was nothing he could do.

Because when the Immortal Binding Rope tied him up, it had also sealed the magic power within his body.

Before long, the searching guard produced three porcelain bottles and some loose silver from Yan Lie's person; there was nothing else.

Afterwards, he opened the three porcelain bottles one by one to take a look and discovered they all contained pills. Unable to determine which bottle held the antidote, he asked Yan Lie, "Which bottle is the antidote?"

Yan Lie replied with a cold face, "None of them."

"You..."

The guard was just about to get angry, but was interrupted by Wei Qiong: "Tell someone to go get a few rabbits. I will draw some of the poisoned blood and test them one by one, and we will know."

As soon as these words were spoken, Yan Lie's expression changed drastically.

Clearly, the real antidote was among those three bottles.

The other guards agreed and hurried off to find rabbits and tools for Wei Qiong to draw blood.

In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the rabbits and the bloodletting tools were gathered.

Through experimentation, Wei Qiong soon found the real antidote, then consumed it and circulated his Qi to refine the medicinal power and dissolve the poison.

Seeing this, Yan Lie's face turned ashen.

Wei Qiong immediately ordered someone to take him to the cell to be held in custody. The reason he did not execute him on the spot was because Yan Lie was involved with the Wandu Sect, and he wanted to clarify the relationship between Yan Lie and the Wandu Sect, as well as his plot to infiltrate the City Lord's Mansion.

Therefore, Yan Lie would likely suffer greatly from here on out.

After arranging these matters, Wei Qiong turned back to express his gratitude to Meng Li, Lu Xueqi, and Tian Linger. Seeing that it was getting late, he invited them to a banquet and to stay at the mansion temporarily.

Unable to refuse such hospitality, the three of them had no choice but to agree.

Once at the banquet, Meng Li spoke with measured propriety, chatting freely with Wei Qiong.

Tian Linger occasionally chimed in a sentence or two, but was mostly attracted by the delicious food, burying her head in eating.

Lu Xueqi spoke the least; she only responded when asked or mentioned, and she ate in a slow and orderly manner.

However, the corner of her eye would glance at Meng Li from time to time.

Because she was curious.

She did not understand why Meng Li could chat so happily with Wei Qiong.

Additionally, after reflecting, Lu Xueqi discovered a strange issue: Meng Li was clearly the Junior Brother and should be the one being taken care of. Yet, throughout this journey, he often ended up taking care of her and Tian Linger, his two Senior Sisters, instead.

Yet, none of the three of them felt there was anything wrong with that.

This puzzled her somewhat, and after much thought, she reached a conclusion—Meng Li was mature beyond his years!

But what had he experienced to become so mature beyond his years?

Lu Xueqi did not know the answer to this question, nor did she ask.

She felt that their relationship had not reached the point where they could talk freely about the past, so she could only bury the question and her curiosity in her heart for now.

When the moon rose above the treetops, the host and guests were satisfied, and the banquet dispersed.

The three of them each went to the guest rooms arranged by Wei Qiong.

Meng Li carefully recalled the events of the day, thought for a moment, and then used the transformation technique of the Wind-After Odd Gates to turn into a gust of breeze, flying toward the prison of the City Lord's Mansion.

Before long, he found Yan Lie.

He was locked alone in a corner cell, covered in blood, lying on the ground unconscious.

Seeing that no one was paying attention, Meng Li appeared on the spot, first using a blinding technique, then bringing Yan Lie into the Eight Gates Space, and then using the Shuangquan Hand.

After copying the memory files, he restored everything to its original state, then turned back into a breeze and returned to his guest room to decrypt them.

A moment later, the decryption was complete, and Meng Li began to browse and extract the main information.

Yan Lie, whose real name was Qin Wuyan, was nicknamed the "Poison Young Master."

He was abandoned by his parents when he was young and was later picked up by the Wandu Sect and raised as a human medicine test subject.

In such a cruel environment, he managed to survive. Because of his extremely high talent, the Sect Leader of the Wandu Sect, the Poison God, took him in as his last Disciple and even passed the divine weapon Zhan Xiangsi to him. However, the Poison God had planted a poison Gu in him, clearly not trusting him, or rather, not viewing him as a true Disciple.

Later, he was arranged by the Poison God to go to the Demonic Path's headquarters, the Barbarian Desolate Temple, to study. There, he accidentally met Azure Dragon, one of the four holy envoys of the Demonic Path, and they hit it off, developing a deep friendship.

After completing his studies, Qin Wuyan received a mission to go undercover in Yudu City under the alias Yan Lie.

The chaos caused by the Mountain Lord of Wushan Town was a setup he orchestrated in collaboration with people from the Wandu Sect, intending to establish an image of loyalty and righteousness for himself, enter Wei Qiong's line of sight, and then climb up step by step, hoping to help the Wandu Sect take control of Yudu City.

The Wandu Sect had two goals for taking control of Yudu City: First, the location of this city was excellent with high Spiritual Qi content, making it suitable as a development base. Second, to search for the legendary Wanfu Ancient Cave.

According to Qin Wuyan, the Wanfu Ancient Cave was an underground palace built by the Black-Hearted Old Man, a great cultivator of the Demonic Path who had founded the Blood Refining Hall and unified the demonic cult. It contained the Black-Hearted Old Man's base, the Dripping Blood Cave, which held many Demonic Path Magic Treasures.

Later, through the investigation of the Wandu Sect, it was confirmed that the Wanfu Ancient Cave was near Yudu City, but the specific location and entrance were unknown.

After reading the useful main information, Meng Li was very surprised.

Because of Yan Lie's identity, and also because of a fortuitous turn of events.

He had originally only intended to go down the mountain with Tian Linger to collect some Materials and complete their training; meeting Lu Xueqi and joining her was purely accidental.

The news about the Wanfu Ancient Cave and the Dripping Blood Cave was an even more unexpected turn within an accident.

Meng Li remembered that there was a volume of the Heavenly Book in the Dripping Blood Cave, and this place was an important plot point; the TV version shouldn't have changed that setting.

Therefore, if he could find the location and enter, he would have a high probability of obtaining that volume of the Heavenly Book.

However, he was not clear about the situation inside the Wanfu Ancient Cave, mainly because he didn't know if the TV version had made any changes. Under these circumstances, if he went in and something unexpected happened, he might not be able to return for a while.

By then, if Tian Linger and Lu Xueqi couldn't find him, it would likely cause problems.

Therefore, Meng Li suppressed the urge to immediately search for the Wanfu Ancient Cave, planning to come back when he went down the mountain alone in the future.

Anyway, Zhang Xiaofan hadn't even taken a master yet, and the plot of the Wanfu Ancient Cave would only start after he had achieved something in his studies, so there was still plenty of time.

The next morning.

The jailer in charge of the interrogation found Wei Qiong, who was chatting with Meng Li and the others, and reported that Yan Lie had died, having succumbed to poison—it seemed he had been poisoned by someone beforehand.

This was very much in line with the style of the Wandu Sect.

Wei Qiong and the three of them went to check Yan Lie's corpse and confirmed it was correct.

Wei Qiong had no choice but to have someone dispose of the corpse; apart from the regret of not being able to ask for useful information, he had no other emotions.

With Yan Lie dead, the trail went cold, and the matter of Wushan Town had to come to a temporary close.

Meng Li and the others took the opportunity to propose leaving and embarked on the road to collect Heaven And Earth Treasure.