Chapter 680: Fighting Poison With Poison (2)

Third Person’s POV

He was made to lie down on a broken stone bed.

Strangely, Aria, the blue-haired girl from Erius’s party, had also insisted on staying with him.

Her reason was straightforward.

Ethan was technically a member of their party, and as such, they were responsible for ensuring his safety.

She also bluntly added that she didn’t trust Arlene and the two unfamiliar women enough to leave Ethan alone with them.

Others had to agree to the arrangement, as in the end, Ethan was technically a member of the prince’s party.

Prince Erius himself openly supported Aria’s suggestion, making the others naturally assume that the two had discussed it beforehand.

Meanwhile, in a separate room adjoining Ethan’s, Eleanor had completely transformed the space into a temporary laboratory.

A large makeshift table had been filled with potion ingredients, beakers, spatulas, containers, heating equipment, and numerous other tools.

The atmosphere had completely changed.

The woman who had been crying for her son earlier was now nowhere to be seen.

Eleanor’s entire attention was focused on a single droplet of blue blood.

Her eyes were slightly bulging, with red veins spreading across the whites as she stared at the poisonous substance with frightening concentration.

She carefully took a sample of her blood and allowed a single droplet to fall into the blue poison.

Plop.

The moment the two substances touched, the blue poison reacted violently.

Eleanor’s eyes narrowed.

She immediately recorded the reaction before repeating the experiment.

Again.

And again.

Aurelia remained beside her, silently watching.

She didn’t dare interrupt her aunt.

Eleanor had insisted from the beginning that the solution to this poison might actually lie within the poison itself.

She had stressed the fact repeatedly that her intuition was signalling her this.

Since she was the only hope for Ethan at this moment, being one of the most famous potion masters in the Ice Emperor City, no one dared to refute her authority.

Aurelia had never heard of such a rebellious method before.

In all the potion knowledge she had studied, poison was something to be neutralized, purified, or suppressed.

Using the poison itself as the foundation for an antidote sounded completely absurd.

Yet Eleanor hadn’t wavered.

She had already spent nearly two hours experimenting.

She tested the poison against stored beast blood.

Then the sheep demon’s blood.

Then their own blood.

She even extracted mana of different attributes from mana stones and carefully observed how the poison reacted to each one.

Every reaction was meticulously recorded.

Every failed combination was discarded, yet nothing seemed to yield any result.

Aurelia’s mind gradually became plagued with uncertainty.

She looked toward the neighboring room where Ethan was still unconscious.

Her hands tightened around the edge of the table.

What would happen to him if they failed?

Would he really lose his cultivation?

Would the incredibly talented young man who had just fought two terrifying demons to the death really be reduced to an ordinary human?

The thought terrified her.

Then—

"Aha!"

Eleanor suddenly shouted.

Aurelia jumped.

Her eyes widened as she immediately turned toward her aunt.

"What happened, Aunt?"

Hope instantly appeared in her eyes, as Eleanor’s expression was completely different from before.

There was excitement burning within those violet eyes.

"I think I have found the solution to this pathogenic poison."

"What is it?"

Aurelia immediately moved closer.

Eleanor pointed toward the experimental setup.

"We need to concoct an antidote potion with this poison as its main ingredient."

Aurelia stared at her.

For several seconds, she remained completely silent.

Then her expression became incredulous.

"But that’s absurd!"

Her voice almost rose into a shout.

Even though she respected Eleanor more than anyone else and considered her potion-making talent and skill second to none, this proposal sounded completely outrageous.

For a moment, Aurelia genuinely wondered whether seeing Ethan in such a terrible state had caused her aunt to lose her mind.

Eleanor, however, merely smiled.

"It’s not absurd."

Her tone was unusually confident.

"You don’t understand the nature of this poison, little Aurelia.

Nothing like this exists in our world, or at least, nothing that I have ever seen or read about."

She picked up the vial and carefully observed the blue substance inside.

"It seems to possess an instinct of its own. Perhaps even a primitive form of beastly consciousness."

Aurelia’s expression became serious.

"It reacts especially violently when it comes into contact with blood. And when that blood contains mana, its reaction becomes even stronger."

Eleanor’s eyes gleamed.

"I have observed enough reactions to understand one of its primary properties."

She paused.

"And the thing I am most certain about is that it is a powerful mana paralyzing poison."

Aurelia’s pupils contracted upon hearing this.

"And it doesn’t merely paralyze the mana."

Eleanor’s expression became increasingly solemn.

"It appears to be capable of eventually devouring the mana it has paralyzed and using it to strengthen itself."

Aurelia’s face paled.

"Then..."

Her gaze unconsciously shifted toward the room where Ethan was resting.

"That means once it enters the bloodstream of a magical being, it can’t truly be stopped after it has remained inside the body for a certain amount of time."

"And do you remember the battle that Ethan transmitted into our consciousness at the last moment?"

"Yes, I remember."

Aurelia nodded, though confusion still lingered in her eyes.

She couldn’t understand what Eleanor was trying to point out.

"Even with my son’s powerful battle instincts, that demonic creature still managed to stab him."

Eleanor’s voice became heavier.

"And it wasn’t just once. It managed to infect him with its poison surprisingly early in the battle."

"By the time Ethan realized how dangerous that poison was, he had already been pushed into a situation where he couldn’t afford to fight cautiously."

Aurelia’s expression became increasingly tense as she listened.

"But despite that, my son still chose the only course of action that could have allowed him to win against that creature."

"By attacking it suddenly and aggressively, catching it off guard and forcing a situation of possible mutual destruction but sure defeat for the demonic creature?"

Aurelia finished quietly.