Chapter 525 Strange Poison

SLAP!

A crisp sound echoed.

Man clutched her face, a bright red handprint already blooming on her cheek. Her mouth fell open as she stared at Ji Yuyan in disbelief. “You dare hit me? Ji Yuyan, you actually dared to hit me? Ahh!”

With a shriek, Man charged forward again in a frenzy. This time, she unleashed her full strength, striking viciously at Ji Yuyan’s chest and screaming, “You bitch, I’ll kill you!”

SLAP!

Ji Yuyan raised her hand. This time, she showed no mercy, sending Man flying with a vicious slap. “If you keep that venomous mouth of yours running, I won’t let you off so easily!” she said coldly.

“Man!” Ji Yuyan’s aunt cried out in alarm, rushing to her daughter’s side. Seeing that half of her daughter’s face was swollen, two teeth had been knocked out, and her mouth was full of blood, Ji Yuyan’s aunt finally exploded.

She pointed at Ji Yuyan and started cursing, “What’s wrong with calling you a bitch? You lowly creature, you come to my home to cause trouble and dare to injure my daughter? Li Si, are you stupid? Your daughter just got beaten like this by someone, and you’re just standing there watching the show?”

So the long-faced man was named Li Si. Qin Li glanced at him, then looked at Ji Yuyan, who was trembling slightly with anger. “Forget it, Yuyan,” he said softly. “Why lower ourselves to their level? Let’s go.”

With her eyes red-rimmed, Ji Yuyan nodded slightly and said, “Let’s go.”

“Go? You took my treasure and beat my daughter, and you think you can just walk away?” Li Si’s eyes were filled with venom as he said grimly, “Nobody is going anywhere!”

As he spoke, he took out an object from his robes. It looked like a piece of white cloth. He shook it forcefully at Qin Li and Ji Yuyan. With a soft POP, a colorless, odorless, and formless substance shot directly toward them.

Qin Li sneered. He had been wary of the long-faced man all along. With a backhand palm strike, he sent an incomparably tyrannical force blasting toward the substance the man had released.

The power of this palm strike was so overwhelming and domineering that it directly rolled the poison Li Si had released back at him, without leaving a single trace behind!

Li Si’s expression changed drastically. He hurriedly held his breath, took out a porcelain vial from his robes, tipped out an Elixir, and was about to put it in his mouth.

BANG!

The vial suddenly exploded. Many Elixirs scattered across the floor, including the one in Li Si’s hand. They all fell to the ground. Li Si’s face instantly turned ashen, with a faint hint of purple beginning to show. He threw himself to the ground, trying to grab the Elixirs, but whichever one he touched would explode.

A roar like that of a wild beast escaped Li Si’s throat. He bellowed, struggling to pick up the Elixirs.

Qin Li shielded Ji Yuyan behind him. Wherever his Spiritual Power went, the Elixirs all exploded!

“Quick… quick, give me the antidote!” Li Si roared at Ji Yuyan’s aunt. At this moment, his complexion was actually starting to return to normal, but the desperate look in his eyes made it clear that this poison was lethal!

Ji Yuyan’s aunt was practically frozen in shock. Seeing Li Si roaring at her, she finally remembered, fumbling a porcelain vial out of her pocket. She poured out a few Elixirs, gave one to her daughter, quickly swallowed one herself, and only then threw the vial to Li Si.

Qin Li watched Ji Yuyan’s aunt and Man take the antidote but did nothing to stop them. After all, Yuyan needed to find out the cause of her parents’ death, and for that, he had to leave two of them alive.

As for this Li Si… Qin Li let out a cold laugh. A gust of energy shot out, and the porcelain vial exploded in mid-air once more. This time, all the Elixirs inside turned to dust!

Li Si let out a blood-curdling shriek. Staring at Qin Li, he said with absolute venom, “I won’t let you go, even as a ghost!”

“You should be more concerned about how you’re going to face Yuyan’s parents when you become a ghost!” Qin Li said with a sneer.

Li Si looked at Qin Li, about to say something more, but his body suddenly trembled, and he collapsed to the ground, dead!

Qin Li walked straight over, felt for a pulse on Li Si’s neck, then ripped open his shirt and glanced at his chest. He stood up and sneered, “What a fascinating poison. It leaves absolutely no trace that he died from it!”

Ji Yuyan stood there stunned, watching everything unfold. It was as if she understood something, yet at the same time, understood nothing at all. Her pure, beautiful eyes were filled with a confusion and helplessness she had never felt before.

“What… what in the world is going on?” After a long silence, Ji Yuyan finally turned to Qin Li and asked. Tears were already streaming down her face, but she herself seemed completely unaware.

“What do you think is going on? Your Ji Family never wanted to investigate this matter at all! If they had wanted to, they would have found out a hundred years ago! How did your parents die? Now look at how this animal died!”

Qin Li said with a cold smile, “Or, you could ask your dear aunt. I’m sure she knows more!”

Ji Yuyan lifted her head and looked at her terrified aunt, who was sitting there clutching her daughter. “Tell me,” she asked slowly, “is this true?”

“I-I don’t know, I don’t know! I don’t know anything!” Ji Yuyan’s aunt stammered. Her daughter had long lost her previous imperious attitude. She was trembling all over, huddled in her mother’s arms, not even daring to lift her head to meet Ji Yuyan’s gaze.

“You really don’t know? Or are you lying to me?” Ji Yuyan’s voice grew colder. “Aunt,” she said slowly, “this is the last time I will call you that. Right now, I am still treating you as my mother’s sister. Tell me the truth. What… exactly happened? My parents… was it you? Did you kill them back then?”

“It wasn’t me! It really wasn’t me! I… I only wanted to break up your family! I never thought about killing them, I really didn’t!”

Ji Yuyan’s aunt was now weeping uncontrollably, stomping her feet and beating her chest as she wailed.

At that moment, more and more people from the Ji Family Valley began to gather. Suddenly, a voice drifted down from the sky, “Yuyan, stop asking her. Grandpa will tell you!”

“Grandpa?” Ji Yuyan was slightly stunned. She squinted, looking up into the sky. From a great distance, a figure was streaking toward them like a bolt of lightning!

Inside a room, Ji Yuyan sat with her grandfather and Qin Li. Nearby sat her aunt and the long-faced girl, Man. The swelling on Man’s face hadn’t subsided yet. She sat with her head down, sobbing, a flash of venom occasionally glittering in her eyes.

Ji Yuyan’s grandfather was Ji Chang, the former Patriarch of the Ji Family, who had stepped down ten years ago. Ji Chang had a kind and benevolent face, with a long white beard and hair. Dressed in a black robe, he looked like an old god of longevity.

“Sigh. Take Man and get her treated for now. I need to have a talk with Yan’Er,” Ji Chang said, glancing at Ji Yuyan’s aunt. He sighed and had someone lead them away.

Then, Ji Chang looked at Qin Li, who was sitting next to Ji Yuyan, and a light of approval couldn’t help but shine in his eyes. He said, “Yan’Er, so many years have passed in a flash, yet you, this hard-hearted child, have never been willing to come home for a visit. What? You found a good husband and forgot all about your grandpa?”

In truth, when Ji Chang was the Patriarch, he had always doted on his granddaughter, Ji Yuyan. Otherwise, even if the Tree Lotuses belonged to the Ji Family Valley, the Ji Family Valley was still part of the Ji Family!

If they hadn’t wanted Ji Yuyan to eat so many Tree Lotus Fruits, how could she possibly have eaten them? In fact, many people in the family were dissatisfied about this at the time.

But Ji Yuyan’s parents also doted on their daughter. Moreover, they had an identity that very few people knew about back then—the couple were both Advanced Plant Masters!

Advanced Plant Master. This was a profession passed down from the Primordial Era. It was almost a lost art in the Land of the Far West and the East, but it had been preserved here in the Land of Extreme Cold Ice and Snow.

The so-called Plant Masters were similar to Alchemists. Alchemists use all sorts of materials to forge powerful weapons, such as Spiritual Artifacts or Treasure Artifacts.

Plant Masters, on the other hand, had an encyclopedic knowledge of all kinds of plants. By studying the characteristics of these plants, they could cultivate even higher-quality Heavenly and Earthly Treasures!

This profession was once highly respected in the Primordial Era!

Even many high-status Alchemy and Artifact Refining Grandmasters made a point of befriending a few Plant Masters! Because whether it was Alchemy or Artifact Refining, neither could be done without the support of a Plant Master!

Many Alchemy Masters were also Plant Masters themselves. This was a common occurrence during the Primordial Era.

But in modern times, “Plant Master” has become a very unfamiliar term!

Ji Yuyan had always thought she was just lucky, happening to be there when the Tree Lotuses in her family’s valley bloomed and bore fruit. In truth, almost all the core members of the Ji Family knew that this wasn’t luck at all. It was the result of Ji Yuyan’s parents using a special concoction they had developed on the Tree Lotuses!

The timing of the Tree Lotus’s blooming and fruiting was considered an absolute secret within the Ji Family. Therefore, apart from a few core members who knew the truth, everyone else thought the Tree Lotuses just happened to bloom and bear fruit at that time.

Even Ji Yuyan had always believed this. So, upon hearing what her grandfather said, she couldn’t help but widen her eyes. She looked at her grandfather in disbelief and cried out, “Is that true?”

Ji Chang nodded somberly. “Does Grandpa have any reason to lie to you?”

Ji Yuyan sat there, recalling the care her parents had shown her back then. A wave of sorrow washed over her, and tears began to fall silently once again.

Ji Chang sighed and continued, “Your aunt and your mother never got along. One time, she secretly read your mother’s journal and learned about this. She then tried every means possible to get close to your father and seduce him. Sigh… Your father was young back then and couldn’t resist the temptation, so he married your aunt into the family as well. Who would have thought that your aunt had ulterior motives? Before she even entered our Ji Family, she was no longer a virgin and was even secretly pregnant…”

As Ji Chang spoke to this point, he couldn’t suppress the hatred on his face. He gave a bitter smile and said, “Yan’Er, are you wondering why, if I knew everything, I didn’t just get rid of them? Why I’ve tolerated these people until now?”

Ji Yuyan nodded silently. She truly didn’t understand. Why could her grandfather, who knew everything, tolerate the family that had harmed his own son and daughter-in-law and driven away his granddaughter, allowing them to live within the Ji Family’s sphere of influence?