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"Your Highness, I have made inquiries..."

The elderly lady of the Beiyu Family hurried back in the evening, looking more grim than when she left. The heads of all the major families had indeed disappeared in secret chambers, just as the King of Qin had said.

Chen Qing just nodded upon hearing the news; he had anticipated this outcome, and now it was merely a matter of confirmation.

"Your Highness... What... what should we do now?"

Even though the elderly lady had weathered many storms, she was somewhat flustered at this moment. The head of her own family and the elders had also disappeared. What kind of turmoil would it lead to if all the elders of Northern Yan Country were in trouble?

She dared not think about it...

"Elderly lady, there’s no need to panic; we haven’t reached the worst point yet," Chen Qing said reassuringly.

"The other families have not found any skeletons, which means not many have died. With so many families, so many elders practicing new cultivation techniques, it’s not likely that all of them will encounter trouble. "

Upon hearing this, the elderly lady nodded slightly. The skeletons in the secret chambers had already been examined, and none bore the distinguishing features of the Beiyu Family; this suggested that her own lord and the other elders might still have a chance at life.

"Please, Your Highness, you must save our lord."

"Rest assured, Elderly Lady, I shall do my utmost!"

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"Your Majesty, what do we do now?" Shen Qi asked for the first time with a lack of caution and, perhaps due to overwhelming anxiety, he began to incessantly scratch his forearm.

Chen Qing glanced at him but did not stop him; he himself was suffering from an unbearable itch, barely enduring it through sheer willpower—clearly, the poison had begun to take effect.

"First, we need to find Zi Yue and the others," Chen Qing said, his complexion not looking very good.

This Spirit Ghost was not easy to deal with; it was a conundrum without a solution, nearly invincible at this stage!

"I don’t understand. When was the poison administered? Was it when we met on the outside?"

"No..." Chen Qing shook his head. "It wouldn’t dare on the outside; it wasn’t sure if you were part of that force, or if you possessed any specialized artifact to counter it. It wouldn’t take that risk; all it had to do was lure you in.

Once in the city, it would have all the time in the world to poison you. "

"But... we haven’t come into contact with it since we entered the city."

"It seems that in this era, poison sorcerers are quite rare," Chen Qing observed.

"Poison arts are peculiar; a skilled poison sorcerer can control poison using spiritual power, administering it in any environment.

Take, for example, the honey drink you had this morning, sold to you by a street vendor.

Anyone else could drink it and be fine, but for you, it was different. "

"That’s really..." Shen Qi said with a wry smile: "According to what Your Majesty says, if these poison sorcerers are so formidable, why is their legacy so rare now?"

"One reason is that such things attract too much fear and hostility, making them an easy target for attack.

" Chen Qing recalled the intelligent history of the Demonic World, where in the intelligent calculations, the lineage of poison sorcerers was always the first to be eliminated; because their destructive power was immense, and yet individually, they were not very strong. If they could not be used for one’s own ends, it was best to eradicate them swiftly to avoid future threats.

"Anyone with considerable strength dislikes such underhanded means of being harmed, especially those bloodline warriors. I believe that this is also one of the reasons the legacy of poison sorcerers eventually died out. Mister Five Poison was so feared for the same reason..."

"That makes sense..." Shen Qi said, laughing. "If I had known about such a thing earlier, I too would have wanted to deal with it first. After all, I don’t want to die from a mysterious poisoning one day."

"Actually, it’s not that mystical," Chen Qing smiled.

"The more ingenious the poison, the weaker its lethality. To target a master, you really need a direct and violent poison to be effective. This kind of toxin that can imperceptibly take effect is generally useless against a master, who can simply force it out with strength. It’s just that our current environment is too clever, allowing it to be utilized to its advantage. "

Upon hearing this, Shen Qi rolled up his sleeves. By then, an increasing number of black spots had appeared on his arm, emitting a foul stench.

"If left unattended, I’m afraid I won’t last more than a few days."

Chen Qing nodded, "Any cleverly crafted poison is best kept undetected as long as possible, the deeper the poisoning, the more likely it is to harm a master. But it has deliberately made it so obvious, and the itching is unbearable, clearly forcing one to use their strength."

"That monster is so magical?" Shen Qi frowned.

"The scale of Northern Wolf City is not small, even larger than Lyuzhou City. The monster can’t possibly be by your side all the time, can it?

Could it be that the moment I use my spiritual power, no matter how far away, the monster can instantly find me? "

"No..." Chen Qing said, looking at Shen Qi with a hint of a smile.

Shen Qi’s mind never disappointed, and even now, he quickly found the flaw while remaining calm.

"Then..." Shen Qi’s eyes lit up as if he had found a solution.

"The problem is... we don’t know where that thing is." Chen Qing used spiritual power to draw a map on the table, depicting the entire panorama of Northern Wolf City.

"That thing is invisible to the naked eye, imperceptible by any means, so you don’t know where it might be.

Plus, its speed is indeed extremely fast. For it, a distance of dozens of miles is virtually the blink of an eye, and its sense of smell almost covers the entire city.

The scenario you described does exist. For instance, if you are far away from it and activate your transcendent spiritual power, as long as you expel the poison before it arrives and then flee the spot, it is possible to survive, but. .. that’s gambling!"

Chen Qing looked around. "No one knows where it is. Perhaps it is even sitting opposite us right now, just waiting to confirm your identity..."

Shen Qi: "..."

"Sometimes I feel... Your Highness, you are quite suited to telling ghost stories..."

Chen Qing: "..."

"Can we use other people to attract its attention?" Shen Qi asked in a low voice.

"That idea probably occurred to some at the beginning," Chen Qing sighed.

"Many noble families unaware of the intelligence would have been calculated against a few times, but we can’t use it recklessly now, because Northern Wolf City is ours.

Theoretically, the offspring of the noble families here are also our subjects.

Using them as cover could breed resentment. "

"Moreover, this method only addresses the symptoms, not the root cause, for we would still have difficulty avoiding the Giant Serpent’s continued poisoning.

We could find other families’ hiding spots and force them to use their power to pinpoint the monster’s location, while another person detoxifies from afar.

But what then? We would still be trapped, still confined here.

The Giant Serpent has all the time to re-poison us and plenty of time to watch us kill each other. "

Upon hearing this, Shen Qi frowned, "Is there truly no solution?"

"For now, there’s no solution..." Chen Qing sighed.

"Let’s find Zi Yue and the others first. I suspect that after so much time, they would have definitely used the method you just mentioned.

Even if they managed to evade it initially, they would have left a mark on themselves.

To hide from its tracking would require an extremely secret location. "

"A secret location... Even for that monster, there are secret places?"

"Yes..." Chen Qing nodded. "That thing belongs to the realm of spirit ghosts. For it, places shrouded in complete darkness are its secrets."

"Complete darkness?" Shen Qi suddenly realized, "The Imperial Palace?"