Chapter 23 Poison Body Immortal Technique

“That is such a deadly poison,” said Master Muzna. “That poison is nearly one hundred percent fatal to all early stage Immortals. Things must be worse for the Sect than I thought if the venerable Elder Hakeem Bey would offer that poison up on a second tier Resource Day. So where is your cousin, Mourntree? Did he die trying to risk his life to obtain such a highly toxic poison?

Well that’s just it, master. Khyree did fight for the right to claim the poison, but instead of dying outright in competition for it, he was made to swallow the poison itself!” exclaimed Daquan Mourntree. He then pointed to the sealed body that floated behind him.

Master Muzna stepped around Daquan to examine the body. Instantly he could see that it had been expertly wrapped in essence and then sealed for safe transport. This was way beyond the abilities of a neophyte. “I take it that Elder Hakeem Bey assisted you with the seal. Where is the command artifact?”

Daquan, seeing the serious look on his master’s face, immediately handed over the commend bracelet. “Here you go master.”

Master Muzna never thought he would see the use of the infamous Nine Venom Mandrake Poison down on the second tier. It wasn’t the type of poison that most students of the Sect gained access to until the fifth or sixth or tier. By then they were more qualified to be judicious in its use. A poison this lethal was highly dangerous to both its intended victim and the user if any of them were below the meridian stage, and even then without the right precautions death was still a distinct possibility.

Up until now, although he had been aware of the poison, he had not had an opportunity to examine its composition up close. For that he would have needed to be a grandmaster alchemist at least. Unfortunate as the case may be, especially when considering that it was one of his apprentices that was afflicted with the poison, this nonetheless represented an amazing learning opportunity for the master alchemist. Mentally he was rubbing his hands with glee.

Seizing the command bracelet, Master Muzna guided the sealed body over to the central fire pit. He knew the first thing that he had to do was to ensure his own personal safety. With a wave of his hand and a burst of his own ka he activated several defensive and life preserving spellscripts he had personally installed in his private chamber. Then because he was quite adamant about his own personal survival he removed a couple of items from one of his own interspatial storage objects.

“Mourntree, here put this on. It is an essence containment suit. The suit will shield you from the effects of the toxic fumes,” the master alchemist said right before donning a suit of his own. It was an insulated suit that was only one centimeter thick. The thin silvery polymer material slid over their frames like a well worn glove. The suits completely covered their bodies from head to toe. Daquan Mourntree was pleasantly surprised to find that he had no problem breathing through the thin material.

The outside of the suits were covered in elaborate hieratic spellscript. Master Muzna had paid a fortune for the suits. The only reason he had two of them was because he firmly believed in having a spare one in case something went wrong.

Once the suits were on, Master Muzna used the command bracelet to release the seal around the body. As soon as the seal was released the master alchemist was finally able to to get an appreciation for the ka that the elder had encased the body in. It was a thick and rolling energy of darkness essence. The level of intensity was so strong that it would rip apart any Immortal below the meridian stage. “Okay get over here, I am going to need you to assist me. The containment suit will allow you to handle your cousin’s body while ignoring effects of the poison. Now what I need you to retrieve and administer the herbs and elixirs as I attempt to stabilize his life signs.”

“So then there is a way to save him then?” asked Daquan.

“We will try our best, and hope that it is good enough. If it is not, then at least his body or whatever remains of it will give us some insight on how to treat the next person who decides to consume such a deadly poison.”

“Master, you speak as if he had some manner of choice in the matter. I assure you that he did not. My cousin was fighting off a senior brother of the Sect, a rank four at that and somehow he was holding his own for most of the fight. That’s a whole two ranks, master! Now that by itself might sound surprising to you, but my cousin for as long as I have known him has always been fighting above his weight class. Not that he won every fight, mind you.

Indeed, he lost most of them. But it could never be said that he lacked the courage to fight for his reasons. My cousin is a born fighter through and through. I can’t tell you how many times I have had to administer medicines and patch him up over the years, before we joined the Sect. In truth, I wish that I had the fighting spirit that he does. But at heart my passion only lies with studying the alchemical arts.

Now don’t get me wrong it’s not like my cousin to fight for no reason at all. In fact for the most part he generally prefers his own company. No, my cousin typically only fights when he feels like there is a good reason for it. In regards to this most recent battle I believe that he was initially going to abstain from the massive free for all. But when the elder announced that he was putting up the Nine Venom Mandrake Poison for whoever could claim it, Khyree must have felt like he had no choice in the matter. He had to fight for it. He said that he needed it for one of his Immortal Techniques.”

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“One of them?” asked the master alchemist in surprise. “If memory serves, your cousin only just recently ascended to the rank of neophyte. How is that he would have access to more than one Immortal Technique? Do you know which one of them he needed the poison for?”

“Forgiveness, master. But I do not know. He never specified for what technique exactly. I was as shocked as you are to learn that he had acquired multiple techniques so soon. I have been a neophyte for two years and I just got my second technique not long ago,” replied Daquan earnestly, with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Well that’s a shame. If we knew what technique he was trying to acquire the poison for, we might have better understood his motivation. Right. So if he was doing so well against his opponent, then how did he come to consume the poison?”

“That’s just it, master. He was doing really well against the senior student. Shockingly so, and I think that caused the senior student to resort to rash action. Their fight was a confusing mass of strikes against one another that it was difficult to make out exactly how it happened, but at some point the senior student was able snatch the poison out of the air and shove the vial into my cousin’s mouth. That alone should have been bad enough, but then that brute went and stomped on Khyree’s throat!”

The master alchemist nodded his head in understanding. Now he felt like he had a better understanding of the situation he was brought into. “Hmm okay. Well first things first. The first thing I have to do is test his blood.” After saying so, Master Muzna summoned a knife out of one of his storage objects and used it to slice open Khyree at various points on his body.Once the open wounds were bleeding freely used some vials of his own to collect the blood. In total he collected nine different samples.

Master Muzna then took the blood samples over to a nearby bench and then proceeded to run a battery of tests on them. “The thing about dealing with a complicated poison of any kind is that you have to first get past all of the symptoms in order to attack the real root cause of it all.”

“Master, is that why you took so many samples of his blood?” Daquan asked as he hovered nearby with a concerned expression on his face.

“Yes. I have to determine how the venom is attacking his system in order to find a way to break it and reverse the damage. But in the meantime what I need for you to do is start the fire. We need to stop the poison from causing any more damage while I determine a possible cure. The fire will serve as a means of burning off the toxic fumes and absorb the twisted essence that is attacking your cousin,” instructed the master alchemist.

“Yes, master. I will attend to it right away,” replied Daquan. Heeding his master’s instructions, Daquan made sure that his cousin was positioned directly over the central fire pit. From all of his previous experience working with the head alchemist he knew that the type of fire was determined by the fuel source it used. As some chemical reagents required vastly different temperatures in order to catalyze. For this particular situation he used the most basic starter for the fire. Old discarded fallen tree branches, and kindling. With a couple of strikes of a small rock against a flint he was able to quickly get a fire going.

Immediately the flames increased in size and eagerly began to feed on first the darkness essence that enveloped the body, but as that was consumed by the fire then the flames sparked to new life as they burnt away the toxic fumes emanated by Khyree’s still convulsing body. Daquan could feel the intensity of the fire ramp up as beads of sweat began to form on his forehead. He could only imagine what the heat must feel like to his cousin.

Daquan noticed that the fumes that surrounded his cousin were at least twice as dense as it was the last time he had laid eyes on it. “But it hasn’t even been that long since he was exposed,” Daquan muttered aloud.

“That’s the thing about this poison. It is incredibly virulent and fast acting. Left on its own in most cases, the victim would have already been a pile of rotting toxic biological waste. Fortunately, your cousin seems to have some sort of resistance going for him. It is the only thing that makes sense as to why he is even still alive at this point. Now the results from the tests are already starting to develop. As I call them out I want you to administer the medicines directly. Some you will need to place directly into the fire as the catalyzed component smoke needs to be inhaled, others will need to be topically applied to his skin and still others will need to be ingested. Are you ready?” the master alchemist asked.

Daquan couldn’t stand the thought of his adopted cousin continuing to suffer from the effects of the poison. Even though they were not related by blood, Khyree had long ago earned his place in their family. Just as knew that Khyree would do anything for his adopted family, Daquan felt the same way about him. “Yes, master. Instruct me.”

Master Muzna stared closely at the vials of blood that he had methodically subjected to a wide range and variety of tests. In moments, he was able to observe as the blood in the samples changed in consistency and texture. Some exuded foul smells, while others dried and withered as they died completely. “Alright, here we go. First crush up some bark of three hundred year old Acacia Senegal, then add that to the fire. That should hopefully address some of the respiratory issues.

Then I want you to apply a paste of ninety year Aloe Ferox to his chest and limbs. That should help with cellular regrowth. Next crush up some bark and leaves of seventy-five year old Wormwood and mix it with just a dribble of water. You will need to slowly make sure that he drinks it. That should aid his body in fighting off the poison. Think of it like a super vitamin juice.”

The master alchemist continued to run more tests as he occasionally came and checked on Khyree’s condition. When the next round of results were ready to be analyzed he studied them in great detail before issuing out some new orders. “Next I need you to boil a tea made of fifty year old Rooibos leaves and help him drink it. That should ease the muscles contractions and help to bring his body back to a baseline state.”

Over the course of the next thirty six hours, the master alchemist and his apprentice did everything in their power to save the life of the new neophyte. Finally after applying more than fifty-six different medicinal concoctions, Master Muzna declared that they had done all that they could do and that they should rest and meditate to restore some of their energy. Only time would tell if Khyree Mourntree would survive.