Chapter 586 Ant Queen
"Wait!" I heard and suddenly a lady in pink robes came flying down. Her hair was a bright red and she had freckles all over her face. Strange enough some people consider them a blemish on one's face. But for this woman, it only added beauty on it, it was the imperfection that enhanced the perfection.
Her body was slender and her bust was abundant enough that with just one wrong move those two melons might just come spilling out. But since she's a cultivator, that will never happen, and the jiggling they do are all part of her persona.
Perhaps to distract, perhaps to entice, or perhaps just because she wants to. But one thing's for sure, after all the second most noticeable thing besides her chest was the symbol on the robe.
A red bloodied sun was proudly plastered on her robes indicating who she was for all to see.
"What's going on in here?" she said as she saw the Hunchback's corpse on the ground.
She looked and frowned, "Old wang…How did he die from poisons?" she said as her head began scanning the crowd and then finally landed on us, since obviously we were strangers to her.
"Are they the ones causing trouble?" She asked.
"So far we haven't seen any signs of trouble from them, but they killed Old Wang…" one of the cultivators surrounding us said.
"Misters, why are you killing people in my territory?" she asked.
"We didn't," I replied.
She frowned. "Everyone here saw you kill him," she said.
"Did they?" I asked.
She turned to the rest of the cultivators but everyone looked away.
"So you're telling me, he just died? Just like that?" she asked as she approached us fearlessly.
"No, he died to poison," I replied.
"Then you must know who poisoned him if you're so sure he died to poison," she said.
"Yes I do know," I replied.
'What are you doing Shen Mo?" Shen Fu asked me through divine sense.
'Testing the waters, just hold,' I replied as she got close enough that her chest was all up in front of me.
"Young man, are you going to tell me who poisoned old Wang," she asked.
"Is he anyway related to you?" I asked.
"No, but he is one under my property, if he dies under my property then that means someone is interfering with my domain," she said.
"I poisoned him," I replied.
Shen Fu's eyes opened wide. Probably thinking something along the lines, 'what the fuck are you thinking!'
"Then you're going against my domain and rule." She said.
"I didn't," I replied.
She frowned "You just admitted that you killed a man in my territory," she said.
"I didn't admit to that," I said.
"Are you fooling around with me young man, do know I have patience but not enough to tolerate being mocked and fooled with," she said.
"No, for real though, I did poison him, but it wasn't within your territory, it was a hundred thousand miles away when he attacked me and my older brother here, the poison only worked when we got here," I said "So technically, I killed him, but he was dead the moment he was poisoned a hundred thousand miles away, and if he didn't pull this stunt, I would have given him this," I said as I pulled up a red pill.
The lady squinted her eyes on the pill, and slowly went to grab it when she noticed the pill veins all over it.
I clenched the pill inside my fist and said, "Are you trying to take what is not yours?" I asked.
"The audacity on this guy! Queen! Let me handle him!" one of the gruffer looking guys around spoke, like a classic side character.
She raised her hand up and said, "Was that a Yang Blood Clotting Pill?" she asked.
"You know your alchemy," I replied.
"That pill isn't an antidot to any poison, it just clots blood when someone is suffering from heavy bleeding…" said someone from the crowd.
The lady looked at the corpse and noticed the signs on it then back at me and said, "That is indeed not an antidot…"
The people in the crowd nodded, "But that's only for normal poisons… this was a Yang Blood Clotting Pill that had Pill Veins, meaning it reached the state of quasi perfection… and that can be used to treat only one type of poison, in fact if that poison goes into one's body unless they have a Yang Blood Clotting Pill with pill veins there is no way they would survive… she said."
I smirked as I added, "You know your poisons."
"No… she said as she took a step back, horror clear in her eyes, you can use the Blood Stippling Poison…"
Everyone around us immediately began stepping back.
"Little brother, what are you hiding from me," spoke Shen Fu.
Soon the body of the hunchback began shuddering.
"Oh, time's almost up," I said.
"Burn it! HURRY!" she shouted.
One guy instantly noticed the skin on the body of the corpse beginning to change, small droplets of blood began appearing all over the body and soon it was about to burst.
The man instantly used Yang Qi and burnt the entire corpse as fast as they could.
The woman looked back at me with horror in her eyes, "How are you fine after using that poison? It's ranked among the top ten in the Heaven's List…"
"Don't you think it's a bit rude to ask a cultivator about their secrets…"
After thinking for a second she said, "You're right… I suppose he met his end at your hands, everyone disperse." She said.
"But your highness, he killed a person inside our neutral zone…" one of the people around us reminded her.
"He didn't," she said.
I smiled as she finally realized my meaning.
"Old Wang was dead the moment he went against this young man. He was living on a leased life, and by betraying them here the grim reaper came to collect. Old Wang was a dead man the moment his body came in contact with the Blood Stippling Poison. And I doubt anyone here has the antidote for it besides this young man. Old Wang crossed them and paid for it. Now everyone drop the matter…" she then looked at me and said, "You two, follow me." She said and flew up.
I looked at Shen Fu and he shrugged at me, the two of us flew forward after her until we arrived to the top of the Ant Cave mountain.
Right at the top was a palace, and it seems that it belongs to the woman here that addresses herself as the Queen.
The palace wasn't too fancy but at the same time wasn't destitute. She had a couple female guards at the front gate that allowed her in. But just as we got to them, they stopped us.
"Let them in, and treat them as esteemed guests, have them meet me at the main hall in an hour," she said.
The two of us were then let in and followed by several female cultivators that began tending to our needs.
After all, I hadn't had time to rest in a while and this was a good opportunity.
The girls soon led us to a wide room with a massive paper wall on one side. They prepared a table with plenty of food and liquor and several courtesans came over, with music instruments ranging from a wooden zither to a flute and drums playing playful tunes to the dance of other exotic looking cultivators.
Shen Fu seemed disinterested by what was happening the moment he sat down. All he cared about was that his cup remained full as he gulped one after another.
As for me, this weak liquor wouldn't satisfy my thirst. Since after one sip I didn't sip another.
The woman to my right questioned, "Sir, is the drink not to your taste? I could get you something else," she said.
"No, my taste pallet is a bit different," I said, "But since you're all treating us to such a good display there will be no harm in drinking my own liquor," I said as I pulled out a black gourd from my holding back and placed it on the table.
"Pour me some of this," I said.
The woman nodded and grabbed the bottle and slowly poured me a purple liquid that seemed almost alive as it bubbled when it touched the glass.
A purple smoke lightly floated around the glass and fell against the table corroding the wood when it touched it.
The lady's eyes opened wide as she placed the gourd back on the table and moved away.
"Don't worry, it's harmless to humans," I said as I gulped down the first glass.
"What is that?" asked Shen Fu, he was more interested with the drink I had on me than what he was drinking.
"Oh, this is a fruit liquor," I said.
"There is no fruit liquor that looks like that," he said.
"Yeah, the fermentation process is a bit special," I said.
"How come?"
"It's fermented in the tear glands of a Primordial Serpent God," I said "I call it Dragon's Tears. It's pretty strong stuff," I said.
The old man slid his glass towards me.
I smiled as I poured him a drink, and handed him a white marble like pill.
"What's this for?" he asked.
"You'd want to have that after you drink this cup."
The old man frowned since I was being mysterious and all, and downed the glass in one shot.
The moment he placed his cup down, his face began turning red and his eyes turned bloodshot. He instantly grabbed the pill and gulped it down, and after a few seconds he took a sigh.
"That… was an experience… you never told me that it was extremely poisonous I almost died there, didn't you say it was harmless?" he asked
"I'm sure you wouldn't have died just because of that, you could have easily threw it all back, but I guess the taste was too good to throw it away. And yes, it is poisonous but I'm immune to it, that pill can negate the effects, you can have more the pill will remain in effect for days." I said as the old man took another glass and drank it down.
The hour mark hit and soon the massive paper wall came down revealing the 'Queen' this time dressed in far fancier clothes which further embellished her beauty and presence, making her look like a diamond compared to the coal of courtesans around her.
Not that the courtesans were any ugly or bad looking, it was just that this woman was abnormally beautiful.
"We welcome you to the Ant Cave dear cultivators." The lady then clapped her hands and soon everyone but us were left.
"Tell me, when did you both arrive to the Beyond?" was her first question.
…