"Master Zhao, what’s wrong?" Big Eye Lamp asked.
"Nothing."
Zhao Ya didn’t mention his worries; after all, it was just his suspicion.
Big Eye Lamp didn’t press further.
Though only ten years old, his upbringing had made him adept at reading people.
Just now, he keenly noticed a hint of worry on Zhao Ya’s face after hearing the report about the exotic beasts outside the city.
Since Zhao Ya didn’t want to say anything, he must have his reasons, so Big Eye Lamp wisely kept quiet.
"How’s your martial arts practice lately?" Zhao Ya asked.
"In response to your question, Master Zhao, Yan and I have been practicing diligently at home every day, and we feel we’ve made progress," Erqiangzi eagerly replied.
"Good, then you two practice for me."
Big Eye Lamp and Erqiangzi started practicing the Five Tiger Fist in the courtyard.
Zhao Ya watched from the steps, nodding silently.
Although their fist techniques were far from exquisite, they were quite good for their age.
At least they practiced enough to show some momentum and even a bit of might.
After practicing, the two looked at Zhao Ya, panting.
Zhao Ya nodded, "You practiced well enough; I can see you haven’t been slacking off. This attitude is commendable. Now let me point out where you can improve."
Zhao Ya pointed out the shortcomings that had been exposed during their practice and offered corrections.
His mastery of the Five Tiger Fist had already reached peak performance, so often, a simple word would enlighten Big Eye Lamp and the others.
After finishing the corrections, Zhao Ya also gave them some low-tier jerky.
"The situation outside the city has been unstable recently. You must be careful, especially not to let greed cloud your judgment and rush out to hunt exotic beasts," Zhao Ya advised.
Recently, with the increase in exotic beasts outside the city, many people in the commandery started getting restless.
Some martial artists had already made significant profits by hunting exotic beasts.
This naturally drew more jealousy.
For a time, it had become somewhat of a trend to go outside the city to hunt exotic beasts.
Even some daring ordinary people dared to team up in threes or fives to hunt exotic beasts near the city.
They wouldn’t dare touch high-realm exotic beasts, but first-realm beasts were weak and not intelligent, so ordinary people could hunt them with proper planning.
Although first-realm exotic beasts weren’t worth much, bit by bit, the profit wasn’t bad. If they got lucky and found a usable meat field, they could make a small fortune.
Zhao Ya worried that Big Eye Lamp and Erqiangzi, driven by the few days of martial training and the lure of profit, might head outside to hunt exotic beasts, inviting unnecessary danger, so he advised them carefully.
Of course, they dared not defy Zhao Ya’s words, promising they wouldn’t take any risks.
Zhao Ya nodded and sent them on their way.
After they left, Zhao Ya returned to the house and found Zui’Er busy making juice.
Lately, the girl had been obsessed with making juice, tirelessly squeezing various fruits daily and experimenting with different ratios to create the best taste.
Zhao Ya suspected that with the right ingredients, she might even manage to make milk tea.
However, since this hobby was harmless and only a bit of money went into buying fruits, it wasn’t a big deal.
But today was different.
Zhao Ya called out to Zui’Er.
"Stop messing with those for now."
"What’s wrong, Ya?" Zui’Er asked curiously.
"How’s your martial arts practice lately?" Zhao Ya asked.
At his words, Zui’Er blushed and lowered her head, mumbling softly, "I’ve been practicing every day."
"Good, then come to the courtyard and show me."
"Ah...."
Zui’Er looked like a student caught trying to get away without doing homework, looking reluctant.
Zhao Ya couldn’t help but chuckle, but he maintained a stern face, "What do you mean ah? Hurry up and go."
Left with no choice, Zui’Er shuffled to the courtyard, practicing in front of Zhao Ya.
Starting with the lightweight body technique, naturally.
Thanks to her talent in this area, she practiced well.
But when she moved on to her sword technique, she faltered.
Swinging the sword, she would forget one move after executing another. What should have been a smooth set of the Gale Saber Technique turned broken and disjointed.
After finishing, even Zui’Er herself felt embarrassed, lowering her head, waiting to be scolded.
"Your body technique is decent but needs more practice. Your saber technique is poor, but there’s room for improvement."
Zhao Ya didn’t scold her, merely giving a brief critique, then said,
"Starting today, spend an hour each day practicing your saber."
"Okay!" Zui’Er nodded vigorously like a pecking chick.
"I’ll check your progress every five days."
"Ah...."
"What ah? Is five days too long? Then how about three days?"
Zui’Er dared not speak anymore, fearful that the time might shrink further, so she could only look at Zhao Ya pitifully.
Zhao Ya stifled his laughter, maintaining a stern face, "Start practicing now."
Zui’Er began practicing the Gale Saber Technique.
Thanks to her previous foundation, though she had been lax lately, with just a bit of effort, she quickly regained her proficiency.
Zhao Ya guided her the whole time until she fully grasped it, finally resting assured.
Being prepared was crucial.
Zhao Ya wasn’t sure if the beast tide was truly dangerous, but to be cautious, he decided to prepare in advance.
Improving Zui’Er’s skills was part of that preparation.
In addition, Zhao Ya bought various medicinal herbs, experimenting with concocting usable poison.
Previously, in the earth cave, the poison he carried played a vital role.
Zhao Ya saw the great potential in the poison, so he decided to study it thoroughly.
He properly categorized every lethal substance he could find on the market and then began experimenting with various proportions, trying to find the most effective methods.
If anyone saw Zhao Ya doing this, they would definitely think he was mad.
In this world, there are indeed ways to poison others, but few delve deeply into this path.
It’s not that they don’t want to; they simply don’t dare.
After all, for every poison, there’s an antidote. Once you take the antidote, you can safely poison others.
But if over a dozen poisons are mixed together, the combined properties make the toxicity extremely complex.
In such a situation, no one can guarantee the antidote will still work.
And even if the antidote does work, would you dare to take over a dozen antidotes at once?
As for general antitoxic elixirs, they often have poor effects. Even the better ones are extremely expensive and aren’t affordable for the average person.
This innate condition restrains people from researching poisons.
Moreover, poisoning is a double-edged sword, capable of harming both others and oneself.
If careless, you could end up poisoning yourself before harming your enemy; wouldn’t that be ridiculous?
For these reasons, poisoning became a somewhat useless method.
Only people from the Lower Five Sects use it when engaging in shady activities or deceiving travelers in black-market inns.
But Zhao Ya is different.
Zhao Ya has an innate immunity to hundreds of poisons, so any poison that he encounters is like drinking water.
Thus, there’s no need to worry about conflicting drug interactions.
The supply of those hypnosis drugs obtained from the Paradise Sect was limited; once used up, they were gone, so it was safer to figure out how to mix them by oneself.
However, the wild dogs outside the city became unfortunate victims this time.
Every day, several died from Zhao Ya’s poison.
One day, Zhao Ya took over a dozen newly concocted poisons outside the city and adeptly caught several red-eyed wild dogs.
These red-eyed wild dogs had all tasted human flesh.
Once an animal tastes human meat, it becomes incredibly ferocious, daring even to attack living humans.
Such were these wild dogs.
Zhao Ya often heard stories of solitary travelers being attacked by packs of these dogs, bitten to death, and then devoured.
Although the Commandery sent people to exterminate these wild dogs several times, they were so cunning that they would flee into the woods at the sight of a large force, making them nearly impossible to catch.
Over the long term, these wild dogs became a significant threat.
Thus, Zhao Ya had no moral qualms about using these red-eyed wild dogs for his poison experiments.
Soon, as each poison was either poured into their mouths or applied to their skin, the red-eyed wild dogs began to struggle.
However, the manner of their struggling varied.
Some were desperately vomiting, while others frantically bit at their own bodies.
Zhao Ya observed carefully, occasionally taking out a notebook to jot down a few notes.
This was all incredibly valuable experimental data that could help Zhao Ya understand the potency and properties of each poison.
Soon.
The wild dogs were on their last breaths, and Zhao Ya put them out of their misery, then stood in place, lost in thought.
Over the past two days of experiments, Zhao Ya had mixed all the poisons available on the market.
The toxicity varied; the potent ones needed only a spoonful to make a wild dog perish within a few breaths.
The weaker ones couldn’t even kill a chicken.
Zhao Ya was not surprised by this.
The conflicting toxicities were to be expected, and Zhao Ya recorded them all in his notebook, gathering data.
His concern was that after two days of experiments, he had yet to find a poison with effects similar to the hypnosis drugs from the Paradise Sect.
It seemed the Paradise Sect’s hypnosis drugs didn’t use the common goods found on the market.
Zhao Ya sighed, ready to return to the city.
Suddenly, a small black snake with white stripes leapt out from the bushes, quickly fleeing into the distance.
The speed was so rapid it caused a sharp wind sound.
Clearly, it was an Exotic Beast.
Zhao Ya initially paid it no mind.
Such occurrences had become increasingly common; Exotic Beasts’ traces could be found even on official roads, so it wasn’t unusual.
But when he saw that the grass and trees where the snake passed were slightly withered, his eyes lit up suddenly.
Of course!
If suitable poisons couldn’t be bought, why not collect them himself?
Most poisons are obtained from Exotic Beasts.
And currently, there’s no shortage of Exotic Beasts in the forests outside the city!
Filled with delight, Zhao Ya dashed in front of the little snake, flicked a finger, and shot a pebble at its critical point, knocking it unconscious.
He reached out, picked it up, placed it into a porcelain bottle, and sealed it tightly.
With this in mind, Zhao Ya caught some spiders, scorpions, and other poisonous creatures—all Exotic Beasts of the First and Second Realm—and brought them back, placing them in a separate room.
He warned Zui’Er not to enter this room casually, and then Zhao Ya threw himself into the experiments.
Meanwhile, in a secluded courtyard in the Commandery, a figure wearing a mask and a long robe, with indistinguishable gender, sat on a chair.
Several people knelt before them.
These people trembled, not daring to lift their heads.
"You’re saying... Han Suyun and Qu Xiaoxiao may very well have died at the hands of someone named Zhao Ya?"
"That’s right, Hall Master!"
At this, one person crawled forward a few steps in trepidation and said, "Hall Master, after you left, Senior Brother Han acquired a batch of cloth used to make Cloth Armor, intending to offer it, but it was thwarted by that Zhao."
"Afterward, Senior Brother Han and Junior Sister Qu both died, and even that base was burned down. Only we escaped unscathed because we were out on an errand."
"Later, we dug out the bodies of Senior Brother Han and Junior Sister Qu and others from the ruins. Through various inquiries, we found that Zhao Ya is the prime suspect. But this person is skilled in Martial Arts and is a disciple of Lu Dingtai, so we dared not act rashly, just waiting for you, Hall Master, to come back and avenge us."