Chapter 119: The Mosquito Venom Antidote Pill

The lion-horse beast, known for its strength, keen sense of direction, and obedience to its owner, had become one of the most favored draft animals among the caravans. Although the faint whistle had not sounded again, the lion-horse beast remained steadfast in its chosen path, galloping like a bolt of lightning toward its destination.

Yun Qing could not communicate with the lion-horse beast and had no idea where it was headed. Now that they had left the town’s boundaries, it was impractical for her to return alone, so she could only let the beast lead her to wherever it intended to go.

The mosquitoes couldn’t keep up with the lion-horse beast’s speed, but many still swarmed around. Yun Qing had to wield her mosquito swatter, activating its sticky function to kill the relentless insects.

After running several miles, Yun Qing had slain dozens of mosquitoes. Watching the durability of her swatter steadily decline, she chose a more conservative approach—waiting for mosquitoes to come to her rather than attacking proactively.

The lion-horse beast’s pace was incredibly swift. The further they ventured beyond the town, the more unstable the beast became. Whether sensing its owner’s peril or feeling the dwindling presence of its master, it grew increasingly restless.

Yun Qing’s head was throbbing from the jostling. Sitting upright on the beast’s back, she could no longer pay attention to the mosquitoes around her.

In just a short while, they arrived at the entrance to the underground passage where the caravan leader and others had gone. Before Yun Qing could fully grasp the situation, the lion-horse beast plunged headlong into the cave.

Inside the cavern, the beast continued its wild dash.

“Bang!”

Suddenly, darkness enveloped her, and a cavern wall appeared out of nowhere. Caught off guard, Yun Qing’s head struck a stone above her.

A sharp ringing filled her mind, and warm liquid trickled down from her head. Her balance faltered, and she tumbled off the lion-horse beast.

Two seconds later, she came to her senses, but by then, there was no sign of the lion-horse beast.

Focusing her thoughts, Yun Qing retrieved a luminous stone from her system backpack to survey her surroundings. The lion-horse beast’s shadow was nowhere to be found. A thick black toxic mist filled the air, within which many hostile creatures bore red name tags and health bars.

Touching the liquid running down her forehead, she found it was blood—quite a lot of it—and it still flowed. Her head spun intermittently.

Fearful that the mosquitoes would swarm her, and worried that the recent impact had caused serious injury, she quickly activated the cave’s protective formation.

Once inside, she checked her health bar: 194 out of 200.

Fortunately, she was not severely wounded.

Apart from the dizziness from the bump, she felt no intense pain. Judging by her health bar, Yun Qing believed she had only suffered superficial wounds; her sturdy skull likely prevented any internal bleeding.

The sight of the blood streaming down her head was unsettling, especially in a place teeming with mosquitoes. The caravan leader might even be nearby, so lingering in the cave was unwise.

As she prepared to leave, Yun Qing noticed that the Spirit-Repelling Fruit on the exorcism tree was ripe for harvesting.

She gathered it and decided to craft a spirit-repelling orb.

While waiting for the orb to be made, Yun Qing thought of her universal antidote recipe. Now armed with the mosquito’s poison needle—the main source of the insect’s venom, which had afflicted many in the caravan and the nearby town—she was eager to test her antidote research.

Placing the mosquito poison needle and the universal antidote recipe into her system, she silently recited, “Researching universal antidote formula.”

The system prompted: “Do you want to research the mosquito poison antidote pill? Cost: 10 gold.”

“Why does researching cost gold?” Yun Qing muttered.

Her system companion, Liuliu, rolled its eyes. “Nothing is free. Different poisons require different costs. Since this only costs gold, it means the poison isn’t too severe. Some poisons even require spirit stones.”

That made sense. The system never gave anything away.

Ten taels of gold equaled a thousand taels of silver—an expensive venture. With a determined nod, Yun Qing responded, “Understood!”

Given the many poisoned individuals here and the town’s relative wealth, she wouldn’t give away the antidote pills for free. Once she successfully crafted them, she intended to sell them in large quantities, at least to recoup the ten taels spent.

“Gold -10. Research successful.”

The universal antidote formula now included a recipe for the mosquito antidote pill.

“Liuliu, what does ‘research successful’ even mean? Is it even possible to fail?”

“Of course,” Liuliu replied. “If you tried to use this universal antidote formula on an extremely rare poison, it would fail.”

The system was thorough. Hoping no bugs existed, Yun Qing teased, “You’re a dog. Everything you say is right.”

The mosquito antidote pill required: 1 mosquito poison needle and 1 mosquito nutrient liquid.

She had plenty of poison needles but none of the nutrient liquid.

Unsure where to find mosquito nutrient liquid and lacking the materials to brew the antidote pill, Yun Qing felt the ten taels of gold might be wasted.

System notification: Spirit-repelling orb production complete.

That was quick. Setting aside the antidote pill for now, Yun Qing examined the spirit-repelling orb.

Spirit-Repelling Orb: A single-use item capable of permanently banishing souls that do not belong to the host. No level restrictions.

It was a valuable item. Had she possessed it earlier, during her time at the Han family mine, she could have expelled the soul of Qin Feng from the monsters. Whether the banished soul remained alive or could possess someone else was unknown.

She stored the orb in her system backpack for future use and, with a thought, exited the cave.

“Liuliu, do you see which direction the lion-horse beast ran?” Yun Qing looked around; the poisonous black mist surrounded her on all sides. She was trapped in a toxic cave swarming with poisonous mosquitoes.

“Your front-left. But are you sure you can catch up to it?”

Yun Qing glanced up and could still see the cave entrance she had entered. Indifferently, she said, “If I can’t catch it, I’ll try. If it’s no use, I’ll climb back up, rest in the cave, and wait until dawn.”

“Bzzz, bzzz!” At that moment, several mosquitoes flew toward Yun Qing from the black mist.

They seemed to sense her intent to exit through the entrance, blocking that direction.

Yun Qing noticed that some of these mosquitoes were level 40, and even first-tier—equivalent to a human in the early Qi cultivation stage, levels 41 to 43 in the system.

She raised her mosquito swatter, bypassing the sticky function, and channeled her inner strength, holding the swatter horizontally between herself and the mosquitoes.

A level 40 mosquito darted toward her—the first time she faced an innate monster up close.

“Smack!”

It collided with the swatter, the inner strength striking it with a crisp snap.

Critical hit -100;

Battle experience +400;

The level 40 mosquito’s health dropped by nearly half. It seemed dazed momentarily before flying away nimbly from another direction.

Looking at the webbing on her swatter, she saw that the impact had pushed a mosquito-sized hole through it.

Yun Qing’s expression darkened. When fighting innate-level foes with postnatal-grade equipment, critical hit effects were halved, and weapons could be damaged.

Fortunately, only one hole had appeared—the swatter was still usable. Too many holes and it would be useless.

Though level 40 mosquitoes yielded rich experience, Yun Qing knew she couldn’t go head-to-head with them.

She dodged their attacks, guarding her exposed skin against bites.

One second to memorize 114 Chinese characters: