It was simply that, in the end, the antidote had overcome the poison!

"Aah—" Zhu the Second cried out again, a sound brimming with incomparable comfort and the sheer bliss of shattering a rank barrier, and then he unleashed the full extent of his early Earth-rank strength: "I'm healed—and I've actually broken through!"

Healed? And broken through? Apart from Zhu the Leader, who understood well enough, everyone else's eyes went wide! They had never expected this potion to be genuine—that it truly restored Zhu the Second's meridians and even pushed him through the barrier, vaulting him in one leap from the Mystic rank to the Earth rank!

"Good medicine—truly good medicine!" Old Bi said, trembling from head to toe. "I want to take it too..."

"Wait..." Zhu the Leader suddenly spoke up.

"Oh?" Old Master Zhao had been about to have Old Mian hand the other bowl of potion to Old Bi, but hearing Zhu the Leader's interruption, he turned around in some displeasure and asked with a frown, "Zhu the Leader, what is it now?"

"Old Master, you saw it just now—my second brother has recovered and even broken through the rank barrier, but have you any idea how much agony he endured? His injuries were nowhere near as grave as Old Bi's, and yet he suffered like that. I fear Old Bi may not be able to hold out..." Zhu the Leader said, his words heavy with care. "Besides, who knows whether this stuff has aftereffects? Shouldn't we observe a while longer before saying anything?"

Old Master Zhao was rather displeased at this. "Zhu the Leader, is it that you've seen how well the potion works and can't bear to give it to Old Bi—you want to keep it all for yourself? Let me tell you, that notion won't do at all. Before, when you didn't know what the potion could do, you came running to me and asked me to help find the Medicine King to take a look! And when I had Zhu the Second take it, you were none too willing either. Now that you've seen how well it works, you mean to hog it?"

"I... that truly wasn't what I meant!" Zhu the Leader gave a bitter smile and shook his head.

"Enough, say no more. Let's just ask Old Bi what he wants." Old Master Zhao waved his hand impatiently. "Old Bi, what is your meaning?"

"I want to take it right now, Old Master. You know as well as anyone that in my present state, I'm better off dead than alive. If I can recover even a day sooner and serve the family, naturally I don't want to drag it out!" Old Bi said. "Besides, my cultivation was deeper than Zhu the Second's to begin with. If he could pull through, there's no reason I can't!"

"Very well—but let it be this way. Medicine King, go and examine Zhu the Second, see whether there's any problem at all inside his body, whether there might be aftereffects." Old Master Zhao, thinking more comprehensively, turned to look at the Medicine King.

"Yes, Family Head!" Though the Medicine King's skill fell short of Wei Zhao's, he was still quite capable of examining Zhu the Second's body. Detecting a problem was no trouble for him; curing one might have been beyond him. So the Medicine King declared with great assurance, "There's no escaping my discerning eye!"

With that, he began a thorough examination of Zhu the Second. But he had come to examine him too late—had he done so earlier, he might have discovered that Zhu the Second's injuries had in fact long since healed. Examining him now, if the injuries had not been healed, that would have been the problem!

And besides, the poison was gone, the antidote was gone, and the strength really had risen. What the devil could he possibly detect?

Sure enough, after examining for quite a while, Medicine King Zhao announced with a delighted expression, "Reporting to the Old Master, Zhu the Second's body is entirely normal. There is nothing strange about it whatsoever. His strength is abundant, his meridians are intact, and I have found no aftereffects!"

"Mm, that's good then." Old Master Zhao nodded. "In that case, give Old Bi the other bowl of the barrier-breaking liquid!"

"Yes!" Old Mian hurriedly took up the other bowl and handed it to Old Bi, and Old Bi, without the slightest hesitation, tilted back his head and drained it in one gulp...

"Urk, urk, urk, urk... huff, huff, huff, huff..." After drinking the medicine, Old Bi's reaction was identical to Zhu the Second's before him. His hand spasmed, the bowl dropped, his face turned a purplish red, and he gasped sharply through his teeth in agony.

Because they had Zhu the Second's example before them, Old Bi's expression of suffering, falling into everyone's eyes, seemed commonplace enough, and no one worried overmuch.

But only Zhu the Leader and Zhu the Second knew that although Old Bi's initial reaction to the medicine was exactly like Zhu the Second's, the outcome would surely be different. Old Bi had not taken the antidote, and the only possible result was death.

"Aah—" Old Bi let out a miserable scream, his face turning even paler, but the crowd still paid it no mind, for it was much the same as when Zhu the Second had taken it—nothing to make a fuss over.

About an hour later, just as everyone was eagerly anticipating the moment when Old Bi's meridians would be restored and he would step into the heavenly realm, Old Bi suddenly let out an even more wretched scream: "Awoo—!"

"Bang!"

Then came a tremendous crash. Blood sprayed in jets from all seven of Old Bi's orifices; his legs kicked out once, and he dropped straight to the ground, seemingly unable to endure it any longer and dying as his body burst apart.

"This..." Apart from Zhu the Leader and Zhu the Second, who knew the truth in their hearts, everyone was dumbstruck. What on earth had happened? How had Old Bi suddenly died?

"What is the meaning of this?" Old Master Zhao was the first to recover from the shock, his voice carrying a roar of fury. "Zhu the Leader, what is the meaning of this? How did Old Bi die?"

"This... I don't know either..." Zhu the Leader now wore a look of utter panic and helplessness, his head drenched in sweat. "I... Old Master, I... I'm not clear on what exactly has happened either..."

It had to be said, Zhu the Leader was a fine actor. At this moment he portrayed ignorance, dread, and terror to perfection. But small wonder—all these years, before Chen Xi and her mother, he had done nothing but act. Had his acting been poor, would he not have given himself away long ago?

In the end he had failed to fool Wei Zhao, but that was only because Wei Zhao had a golden finger and could see through Zhu the Leader's true strength. Old Master Zhao, however, no longer harbored any suspicion of Zhu the Leader now. By all reason, if Zhu the Leader truly were the culprit, he could not possibly be this frightened!

If he had known all along that he meant to poison Old Bi to death, would he still be afraid?

By now, Medicine King Zhao had begun examining Old Bi's condition. His brows were tightly knit as he cautiously performed the autopsy. Medicine King Zhao was in truth a man of considerable ability. Never mind that he suffered repeated setbacks before Wei Zhao—at the level of the hidden families, he was still quite renowned. Otherwise, when Pi Zhihai had been injured back then, Old Master Pi could never have placed such high hopes on Medicine King Zhao.

"Medicine King, what is the situation? How did Old Bi die?" Old Master Zhao's expression was exceedingly grim.

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