"Let me think it over before I say anything!" Dong Jun had wanted to go see Yang Ce in the first place, and along the way see whether he could help Yang Ce out, playing the part of an inside man working in concert with him against the Right Elder—but Dr. Ban Lin had not given the word, and he did not dare leave on his own whim.

So for now, all he could do was put the Right Elder off.

"Fine. When the time comes, if you're not interested, come be my guest and take a look at what a laborer Yang Ce has become—it's actually quite satisfying!" the Right Elder said. "After all, we're old partners, old business associates!"

"All right, let me think it over. If nothing comes up, I'll go!" Dong Jun's words seemed to be an agreement, but to the ear they sounded like anything but.

"Fine, I'll be waiting." The Right Elder had caught the perfunctory note in Dong Jun's voice too, and so did not press him, speaking with a touch of regret.

After hanging up, Dong Jun burst out laughing. "Hahahahaha! I never would have guessed—the Right Elder actually invited me to go see Yang Ce! This is a stroke of tremendous luck!"

"It is. If you go and work with Yang Ce from the inside, killing that Right Elder shouldn't be any trouble at all. But this business—first, we have to worry about the Center's reaction, about Dr. Ban Lin; second, we can't be too hasty. If we're too hasty, we won't get the result we want. You should go only when the Right Elder desperately wants you there—that's the best time to make your move, when he's off his guard," Huang Shu said. "If you go now, he's bound to be on his guard against you."

"You're right!" Dong Jun nodded. "From now on, I'll call the Right Elder regularly and keep the relationship warm."

"That's the way," Huang Shu said, nodding as well.

……………………

Over at Medicine Valley, Yang Ce's side naturally had no idea how much had happened out in the world, nor that Dong Jun had in fact turned over a new leaf and was scheming to work with him from the inside to take down the Right Elder.

Because Yang Juehuan's energy was still mainly devoted to refining the Great Strength Divine Gu.

Setting aside all the difficulties in between, another month passed in the blink of an eye, and at last, with Yang Ce and the others throwing everything they had into it, the Great Strength Divine Gu was successfully refined.

But what followed on its heels was a very serious problem.

That is: although the Great Strength Divine Gu had been successfully refined, it could not simply be taken at will. It had to be nourished in concert with a kind of nutrient solution before it could exert its effects. Conversely, if one were struck by the Great Strength Divine Gu without any nutrient solution, not only would the Gu fail to exert its effects—the victim's whole body would go weak, the Gu would devour all the nourishment in the body, and the person would slowly die.

A Gu poison that terrifying—who would dare test it casually? Without a nutrient solution, who would dare try it at random?

So Yang Ce and the others felt not the slightest joy at having researched the Great Strength Divine Gu; instead they were filled with deep anxiety.

The next step now was to find a suitable nutrient solution for the Great Strength Divine Gu. Of course, this nutrient solution had no fixed formula—so long as it could be accepted by the Great Strength Divine Gu and nourish it, that would do.

Otherwise, without nutrient solution, the Great Strength Divine Gu would die within a few days.

So the group, who had just been about to breathe a sigh of relief, threw themselves once more into tense research and development.

All sorts of nutrient solutions were developed and placed into the vessels holding the Great Strength Divine Gu—but some not only had no effect at all, they killed the Gu outright. Others simply did nothing: they could not kill the Gu, but when the time came, the Gu died all the same, and they were utterly useless.

Only a handful of nutrient solutions could keep the Great Strength Divine Gu alive a few extra hours—but those few hours achieved nothing. No matter how much nutrient solution was added, it could only prolong the Gu's life by an hour or two, and not a single second more.

"It seems none of these ordinary nutrient solutions we've mixed up for nourishing Gu poisons are any use!" Yang Ce sighed. "We'll have to think of something else…"

During a break, Yang Jincong said with a laugh.

"True enough—ordinary nutrient solutions have no effect on this Great Strength Divine Gu," Lan Ling said. "But for the moment, I can't think of any other way."

Liu Yan was at that moment fiddling with the little bottle in his hand that held the Swift Cicada Gu. Over the past few days he had developed an interest in the Swift Cicada Gu, and whenever he had a spare moment he liked to study it.

He wanted to see whether he could work out the principles behind the Swift Cicada Gu—and this little creature's vitality was remarkably tenacious. After Yang Ce pricked it with a needle, it turned out to be completely fine; the needle was pulled out, and it was living better than ever.

Only, inside the bottle, the Swift Cicada Gu had secreted a thick layer of transparent liquid, and no one knew what it was for.

Liu Yan had nothing else to do, so he drew off some of this transparent liquid with a dropper, intending to study just what it was. After all, this Swift Cicada Gu neither ate nor drank, yet could still secrete something, and lived better than ever—which left Liu Yan puzzled. How did the Swift Cicada Gu stay alive?

Of course, this sort of bizarre Gu poison could not be judged by ordinary reasoning, so Liu Yan studied it purely as a pastime for his leisure hours.

"What is that stuff? Why not put a little of it into the Great Strength Divine Gu's culture dish?" Seeing how splendidly the Swift Cicada Gu was living, and that there was this transparent liquid in the bottle, Yang Ce, as if possessed, suddenly said this.

The speaker meant nothing by it, but the listener took it to heart. Hearing Yang Juehuan's words, Liu Yan was slightly taken aback—and then he really did drip the transparent liquid from the dropper into one of the Great Strength Divine Gu's culture dishes. After that he drew off some more of the liquid, preparing to put it into the instruments for analysis.

No one paid this any mind—but the next day, when everyone was about to continue researching new culture solutions, they discovered that the Great Strength Divine Gu in the dish into which the transparent liquid had been dripped the day before was living splendidly. Not only had it not died, it had become even more active.

"This…" Everyone was dumbstruck by the sight before them. They had never expected anything like this—the transparent liquid secreted by the Swift Cicada Gu could actually serve as nutrient solution for the Great Strength Divine Gu! It sounded a little fantastical, but Gu poisons were fantastical things to begin with, and much of the principle behind them even Lan Ling could not explain.

So everyone was delighted by this important discovery. Liu Yan hurriedly drew off more of the transparent liquid and put it into the Great Strength Divine Gu's culture dish, planning to check the results again the next day…

And sure enough, the next day they found that the Great Strength Divine Gu was still living happily.

……