Lin Mu had not expected that Wu Hei would find a way to make use of a dangerous plant like this. Wu Hei had evidently turned poison into medicine!
Though it was obviously not without side effects either.
It was this very poison of the Searing Aspect Vine that made the person lose their mind. Wu Hei had tested it on other people before Zhen Sui too and most had gone mad before the poison even showed half its effect.
Not to mention, just getting the person under the grasp of the Human Controlling Blood curse was a challenge in itself. It was only because of his authority that he was able to get his older test subjects to obey him.
But now all of them were as obedient and there were bound to be some that got suspicious. They would try to resist and make the whole procedure even more difficult. The Poison of the Searing Aspect Vine was literally burning off a part of them in a way.
The Human Controlling Blood curse went far too deep than anyone could have expected.
Hearing all this only made Lin Mu that much more wary about Gu Yao. He was now starting to understand that perhaps Gu Yao might be even more dangerous than the Northern Tribes if given enough time.
After all, it was Gu Yao's efforts and creation of the Human Controlling Blood Curse that they were even able to proceed in their infiltration. If not for the man, they might still be struggling to enter.
The Formation Array and the Searing Aspect Vine's poison were only two of the many more requirements that were needed to nullify the Human Controlling Blood curse.
The third requirement was an alchemical pill. Or rather any herb that could achieve the same effect. The effect being tranquilizing. The pills that Wu Hei had used were Night Downing Pills for this.
They were strong enough to knock even Nascent soul realm cultivators out, but obtaining them was rather difficult. Mostly because they were used in the past to drug and assassinate several people.
If not for his authority, Wu Hei might not have ever gotten them.
There were other herbs that could be used as substitutes, but Wu Hei hadn't had enough testing done with them. He needed to be fast, thus took the option that was the quickest then.
Then there was the fourth requirement which was to prevent or at the very least heal the injuries that the person suffering from curse would sustain during the entire procedure. They would flail around and injure themselves and not just that even their own spirit Qi would go haywire and attack their body.
One needed to take care of this part too. Thus, even if they were tranquilized, they would still end up waking up due to the Pain from the Searing Aspect Vine.
There were also a few more additional herbs that Wu Hei added to stabilize the Searing Aspect vine, but these weren't that hard to procure. Rather, it was the specific combination and quantity that was the hardener to come up for him.
But he had a working ration that would save them a lot of time.
After hearing about all of it, Lin Mu felt a lot more confident in this. There were indeed more details in the documents, but Lin Mu reckoned the sect's experts would have a better time figuring out the finer rectifications from them.
"You did make rather good progress." Lin Mu couldn't help but praise.
"Still, it's not complete. What use is the cure if it turns the person into a doll?" Wu Hei replied.
"No, it's a good start. Right now we're many more steps ahead than I was literally yesterday. I didn't even know I would get a cure from you and was still dreading coming up with that in the future.
I even wondered if that was possible or not and whether there would be enough time for us to do that. But you… you turned that hope into reality." Lin Mu stated.
Hearing this, Wu Hei felt a bit better, but then he recalled more uncertainties of the process.
"No wait, there is more!" Wu Hei suddenly said.
"Oh? Go ahead." Lin Mu replied.
"The entire thing… it's only been tested on people who are at the Core condensation realm and below. I do not know if this would work on cultivators stronger than that. Even if the Searing Aspect Vine's poison is strong and could work on a nascent soul realm cultivator, I don't know if the power will still be enough.
The toughness of the cultivator at those levels will be a double edged sword. While I think that they will have a greater chance at survival, I think it will also make it harder for the curse to be dispelled.
But then we don't just have Nascent soul realm cultivators that are being controlled, we have those at the Dao Shell realm too. And I know for sure the Searing Aspect Vine's poison will not work against someone like that.
Even if it did, the effect might not be strong enough to work as a cure." Wu Hei explained.
Hearing this Lin Mu furrowed his brows. He thought to himself for five minutes before he spoke.
"So what I'm getting is that… the problem is mainly with the potency of the Searing Aspect Vine?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Yes. You can say that." Wu Hei answered.
"Then have you tried to concentrate this poison more or further refine it, perhaps?" Lin Mu asked.
"I don't have any confidence in refining something like this, and neither did I want to risk killing myself in the process of concentrating the poison." Wu Hei replied.
Hearing his words, Lin Mu could understand his concern. Wu Hei obviously needed to consider his own safety before he tried anything. There were alway chances of sabotaging oneself because of overconfidence and inadequate preparation.
The one thing that Lin Mu had learned for sure in all this time is that one could be over prepared for something but being under prepared was the worst.
"I'm sure the Pill refinement elders of the Long Cloud alliance will have more than experience in refining such a poison. Even if… it might be unorthodox." Lin Mu said after thinking.
"Hopefully they do. Otherwise, we will be at an impasse. Even if we do manage to cure those that are at the core condensation realm and below, the main forces of Gu Yao are all above that.
Even Core Condensation realm cultivators are no less than cannon fodder to him." Wu Hei replied.
Lin Mu nodded his head in agreement. He had already seen the groups of the Gu legion and there were plenty of Core condensation realm cultivators in them.
But then this reminded Lin Mu of another thing.
"Speaking of this… You must know about the 'cultivation boosting pills'?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Those disgusting pills?" Wu Hei asked.
"So you know… yeah, those ones." Lin Mu replied.
"Humph! Gu Yao calls them the Pills of 'grace'. Says that it is the embodiment of his grace given to every person that follows him loyally." Wu Hei said before spitting, ~ptui~ "All lies! All lies I say!" he exclaimed.
"Seems like you've had some close encounters with them?" Lin Mu asked.
"Of course! That man made me take one of those too. Which, now that I think of it must have been one of the earlier test versions of it." Wu Hei replied.
"He made you take them? But I thought he'd be a lot more cautious?" Lin Mu asked feeling surprised.
"Oh, he is alright… but at the same time he is prideful. He thinks that nothing can go wrong with his skills and has great confidence in them. He gave it to me, thinking that it was perfect in boosting cultivation.
But when I ate it, I fully felt it… those pills muddy your spirit Qi and make your foundation unstable. Those who continue to take it will end up with highly unstable foundations that can only be increased by the use of those pills.
This also makes them addicted to them due to how fast the can increase the cultivation base." Wu Hei explained.
"Do you know how they are made?" Lin Mu questioned.
"No one knows the exact details of how they are made other than Gu Yao, but his… 'refiners' still do the ending stages for it." Wu Hei answered.
"Mmm… I got some information as to how they use cultivators to make the Rebirth blood and then use that to make the Reborn. But those that fail to become reborn get remade into the pills." Lin Mu then told Wu Hei about how he interrogated Tie Niu and then raided the base of the Gu legion.
Hearing it all Wu Hei was a bit shocked but at the same time he felt several things clicking.
"So it was you who did that… We wondered how the Long cloud alliance got that brazen and learned to interfere in the empire's territory." Wu Hei said.
"Oh? You got the news already?" Lin Mu asked.
"Of course we did. The response was very quick. Destruction of a base that big is hard to miss not to mention that we lost contact with Tie Niu too. While I didn't have direct contact with him, we were still informed of it." Wu Hei replied.
"But this… Reborn… I don't know about them." Wu Hei revealed.
"What? Even you don't know?" Lin Mu was taken aback.
