Coiling Dragon (Pan Long)

Linley looked at the two female attendants outside the main hall. He called out coldly, “Leave. Without my orders, no one is to be permitted inside.”

“Yes, milord.”

The hearts of those two female attendants shook, and they quickly left.

“Master Linley, you are quite cautious.” Cesar laughed.

Linley felt helpless.

Cautious?

How could he not be cautious? He was going to use this recipe to kill Clayde.

“This Cesar probably knew all along that I am intending to kill Clayde.” Linley understood this point. Previously, he had told Cesar that he wanted to kill one of the six rulers of the kingdoms of the Holy Union. And then, he said he wanted to kill a warrior of the ninth rank.

As long as Cesar wasn’t a total idiot, he would easily be able to connect these two points to understand that Linley wanted to kill a king of the Holy Union who was also a warrior of the ninth rank. In the entire Holy Union, the only one who fit these criteria was Clayde.

“Cesar, this old freak, wouldn’t go curry favor with Clayde by selling me out.” Linley felt quite confident.

What sort of person was Cesar? Would he deal with someone like Linley using tricks like these?

“Linley, you do indeed have to be careful. That person you intend to deal with is highly valued by the Radiant Church.” Cesar said in a low voice by Linley’s side. “And he has many guards as well. If you are to try and poison him, it will be quite hard.”

Linley glanced at Cesar. “Thank you for your advice, Mr. Cesar.”

Poison Clayde?

If Linley was willing to risk his life, he definitely would be able to succeed. All he had to do was to invite Clayde to his manor, and then serve Clayde some wine. In his own manor, lacing the wine was an extremely easy task. But if he did this, he would be revealing himself as the perpetrator.

He had to find an opportunity to kill Clayde without anyone knowing about it.

Such an opportunity was quite rare.

“I can’t always rely on being lucky, like that time with Patterson insisting on meeting with me in secret.” Linley said to himself. That private, secret meeting with Patterson really was an unexpected, wonderful surprise for Linley, but such surprises could only be wished for, not relied upon.

As he was considering this, Linley opened the envelope.

There was a piece of paper within the envelope, filled with countless words.

“Drug name: Bloodrupture Poison

Ingredients: Astralagus fruit, white ginseng, turmeric, fog grass, cloud fungus, bitterskin, cardamon kernels, Blueheart Grass.

Effect: Bloodrupture poison, when dissolved into wine or water, has no odor and no taste. To this date, no way of detecting it has been discovered. Once it is ingested, it will seep into the blood and then into the dantian, preventing battle-qi from being generated, causing a warrior to have less than 10% of his strength left. Anyone below the Saint-rank is vulnerable to this poison, and there is no cure. Only by using battle-qi over a long period of time to cleanse the poison from the bloodstream can one cure one’s self.

Instructions: In order to produce one gram of Bloodrupture poison, one needs to have thirty grams of Astralagus fruit, twelve grams of white ginseng, ten grams of turmeric, fifteen grams of fog grass, twelve grams of cloud fungus, one gram of bitterskin, twelve grams of cardamon kernels, and one gram of Blueheart Grass. First use the twelve grams of ginseng, the fifteen grams of fog grass, and the gram of bitterskin. Place them into the alchemist’s pot and boil them until the fog grass begins to emit whit mist, then stop. Filter out the concentrated juice, then place it into the mixing pot and add in the Blueheart Grass, the turmeric, and the cardamon kernels….

Storage method: ……”

This paper very clearly detailed every aspect of the manufacture and usage of the Bloodrupture poison. Just from examining the concocting procedures, Linley quickly understood how difficult it would be to produce this poison. If a single mistake was made in any of the procedures, the entire potion would be worthless.

The way to store it and preserve it was also very complicated.

The cost of a unit of Bloodrupture poison was more than a million times that of an equivalent weight of gold.

“Of the eight ingredients required to concoct this Bloodrupture poison, five of them aren’t that rare. Astralagus fruit, white ginseng, turmeric, bitterskin, and cardamon kernels. The prices of these five shouldn’t be considered too high for you. But the other three are very rare. That fog grass generally only grows in the far eastern plains, east of the Four Great Empires. It is extremely rare, and is rarely found in the marketplace. As for the other two ingredients, their rarity is even greater than that of fog grass!” Cesar explained carefully.

“Both Blueheart Grass and cloud fungus are virtually un-purchasable and cannot be found in the market, even if you have money. Supposedly, a while ago, someone tried to offer a hundred thousand gold coins to buy Blueheart Grass, but still was not able to do so. Cloud fungus, as well, hasn’t appeared in the market for a long time.”

Cesar patted Linley on his shoulders comfortingly. “Linley, it will take you quite a bit of effort to gather these eight ingredients.”

Linley still felt a degree of confidence.

Of these eight ingredients, five wouldn’t pose any problem at all. As for fog grass, even though it was rare, it shouldn’t be too hard to buy it. As for Blueheart Grass…he had it already. There was no need to buy it. Right now, the only problem was the cloud fungus!

“Once I acquire the cloud fungus, I’ll be able to produce some Bloodrupture poison. And that day will be the day of Clayde’s death.” Linley said to himself.

Linley could no longer endure any longer. If in the future, he still couldn’t find an appropriate opportunity, he would go all out and kill Clayde, even if it meant exposing himself as the killer. If worst came to worst, he would go ask Yale for help and have the Dawson Conglomerate aid him in fleeing from the Holy Union.

Based on the influence and power of the Dawson Conglomerate, it wouldn’t be too hard for them to help Linley escape from the Holy Union.

“Right now, what’s important is finding these eight ingredients.” Linley was still very happy right now.

At least he now had a goal to work towards.

“Linley. Linley.” Cesar called out to him. “Ahem, Master Linley!”

“Uh?” Only now did Linley end his pondering and turn to look at Cesar. “Mr. Cesar, is there something you need?”

Cesar chortled. “Linley, are you perhaps forgetting something?”

Linley immediately understood. Laughing, he said, “Haha, Mr. Cesar, you are referring to the sculpture, right? I finished the sculpture you asked for a full month ago. Come, please, this way.” Linley immediately led Cesar towards a side room.

In the corner of this side room, there was a man-shaped sculpture which radiated a cold, killing aura. Those two eyes contained within them a disdain for all life and an arrogance that forced viewers to feel awe and terror.

As for the facial features, the facial details were carved even more accurately. The sculpture looked exactly like Cesar.

“Wonderful, wonderful!!!” Cesar was so excited, he said the word wonderful twice.

“Master Linley, you truly are a master sculptor. In such a short period of time, you were able to produce such a flawless sculpture. In my mind, this sculpture is ten thousand times better than even that ‘Awakening From the Dream’ of yours.” Staring at his sculpture, Cesar was grinning so widely that his face threatened to split.

The more he looked at this sculpture, the happier Cesar felt.

“This King of Killers is perhaps a bit too narcissistic.” Seeing the grin on Cesar’s face, Linley couldn’t help but think this to himself.

…..

“Lord Linley.” A nearby housekeeper bowed politely.

Linley pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to the housekeeper. “Go purchase these twelve ingredients for me. The exact amount I need for each is written on the paper.”

“Yes, Lord Linley.” The housekeeper accepted the piece of paper.

Of the twelve ingredients on the list of paper, six of them were the ones which Linley needed, while the other six were just some normal, random ingredients Linley had scribbled on as well. Of the twelve ingredients, only fog grass was relatively expensive. As for the Blueheart Grass and cloud fungus which the Bloodrupture poison required, Linley didn’t even bother writing them down on this piece of paper.

Linley wasn’t actually worried about these ingredients being made public.

After all, the secret formula for Bloodrupture poison was one of the secret formulas of the Deathgod’s Hands. Aside from the Saber organization, most likely no one else knew this formula. And there were many other formulas that also used those ingredients.

After all, Linley didn’t write down the two most critical ingredients; Blueheart Grass and cloud fungus.

“Find and purchase these ingredients for me as soon as possible.” Linley instructed.

After giving his orders to the housekeeper, Linley immediately sent someone to invite Yale, Reynolds, and George to come meet with him at his manor. Whenever they had a chance, the four bros would meet and have food together, thus this wasn’t out of character for Linley.

The next morning.

This was the day of Kanter Debs’ execution by hanging, but Linley couldn’t be bothered to go watch. He was in his manor, drinking wine and chatting with his three bros. Only after they finished drinking did Linley bring up what he wished to discuss.

“Boss Yale, there’s something I want to ask you to help me with.” Linley said.

“Third Bro, just let me know what you need.” Yale said boldly.

Linley withdrew a piece of paper. “Boss Yale, I need two types of ingredients. One is fog grass, the other is cloud fungus. These two herbs are extremely rare, and are virtually unavailable on the market. I was hoping you could help me, Yale.” Yale was supported by the Dawson Conglomerate, after all.

As one of the three great trading unions of the Yulan continent, the Dawson Conglomerate was a massive organization with astonishing abilities.

It would be much simpler for them to look for cloud fungus and fog grass than for Linley to do so on his own.

“Two types of herbs? Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle it for you.” His tongue slurred from wine, Yale pounded his chest and promised. At the same time, he took the piece of paper with the two herbs written down on it from Linley.

“I’ve seen fog grass at home when I was young. It is a very fun type of grass. Under the hot morning sun, it will emit white mist.” Reynolds immediately said.

Linley’s eyes lit up. However, Reynolds’ clan was back in the O’Brien Empire. From his clan to the Kingdom of Fenlai would require at least a year of travelling time. Linley didn’t have that much time to wait. Only if he absolutely couldn’t find it would he be forced to wait patiently.

“How long would it take us, if we were to wait for you to get fog grass from your home, Fourth Bro?” Yale snickered. “Third Bro, I’ll go talk to my Second Uncle right away and have him help you find these two ingredients.”

Yale really did handle Linley’s matters with high importance. That very day, he went to find his Second Uncle.

That night, with a private deluxe room, the brown-haired Myron [Mai’lon] Dawson was casually draped in a bathrobe. Bare-chested, he was lying on a reclining chair, while two beautiful young ladies were by his side, attending to him.

“Second Uncle, Second Uncle!” Yale’s voice sounded out from the other side of the door.

Myron curled his lips helplessly. Stroking the fragrant hair of the two beauties, he chuckled. “My dears, the two of you can go outside and wait a while.” Those two beautiful women left the deluxe room very obediently, and then Yale rushed in.

“Yale, you are already a grown up now. How can you act like this?” Myron Dawson said with a frown.

Yale chortled. “Second Uncle, don’t be angry. I’ve come today to ask for your help with something. This is something on behalf of my Third Bro, Linley.”

“Your Third Bro? That Linley fellow?” Myron immediately sat up straight. “Go ahead, what is it?”

Yale withdrew that piece of paper from his clothes. “Second Uncle, my Third Bro is in urgent need of these two types of herbs, which is why I’d like to ask you, Second Uncle, to help out and see if we can find them.” As he spoke, he delivered the paper to Myron.

“Fog grass, cloud fungus?” Upon seeing the words on the paper, Myron Dawson nodded. “I’ll send some people to investigate and see if there’s any to be bought nearby.”

“Haha, thanks, Second Uncle!” Yale was excited. “Then I won’t disturb you, Second Uncle, from your festivities. I’ll leave now.”

“You little punk.” Myron Dawson chuckled, then looked back at the piece of paper. “Fog grass and cloud fungus? What does this Linley need these two ingredients for?”

………

Linley had to admit, the Dawson Conglomerate was an astonishingly efficient machine.

“Third Bro, within the various branches in the Holy Union of our Dawson Conglomerate, we only have a small amount of fog grass. As for cloud fungus, we had some a while ago, but it’s already been shipped towards our headquarters. The headquarters of the Dawson Conglomerate is the place where we have the most herbs and ingredients. Here, let me give this fog grass to you first.” Yale directly handed Linley a pouch.

Within the recipe, the amount of fog grass needed was measured in grams, but the pouch which Yale handed to Linley contained nine full clumps of fog grass. This amount was more than enough.

“So there’s no cloud fungus available?” Linley accepted the pouch.

Yale nodded. “Third Bro, if you are in a hurry, I can have my Second Uncle send experts to ride flying magical beasts to head to our headquarters as soon as possible. Riding flying beasts is quite fast. From here to our headquarters, three months is more than enough.”