Chapter 45
The Red Widow Queen and Goddess's Smile
What kind of being was Xie Suyao?
Lofty, independent, and extremely willful!
Those were the three words that could best describe her character.
When Huang Zihuan first encountered Bai Fanxian, he felt she was somewhat similar to Xie Suyao in some aspects. They both disliked being forced, were easily annoyed, and liked doing as they pleased.
Grandmaster Bai seemed calmer and more serene, though.
Xie Suyao's name and "Red Widow Queen" became famous about ten years ago. When she'd just emerged from training and was harassed by a young master from a clan in the north, that night, everyone in that young master's clan was afflicted by incurable poison. They all suffered muscle pain, dizziness, and vomited non-stop for two whole days and nights, until they had to rush to apologize to her at her door.
Even one Grandmaster from the military had to come out and talk with her personally.
That's when they discovered the truth—Xie Suyao was also a Grandmaster!
That day, people witnessed the debut of a new Grandmaster.
That made the northern Xie Clan immediately known. Xie Suyao positioned herself as free and without heirs, though. She gave the Xie Clan head position to her younger brother to handle cultivators wanting to join the Xie Clan instead. As for herself, she traveled and adventured throughout the entire country.
Even Uncle Huang didn't think Xie Suyao would appear at Village Beneath the Clouds at a time like this, though!
Normally she didn't get along very well with the Alchemists' Association.
Poison and medicine were naturally opposites. Though not to the point of hatred requiring killing, the feeling of antagonism made both sides uncomfortable being near each other.
"Are you 'Goddess's Smile'?"
Xie Suyao narrowed her eyes while staring at Bai Fanxian's face. The face, figure, and external demeanor of the woman before her could be considered perfect.
So perfect that for a brief moment even she admitted she couldn't compete!
"..."
"...No."
Bai Fanxian tilted her head in confusion. She was just interested in this automatic beverage machine and had extracted some coins from Tang Tianjie to try pressing it. She didn't expect that when she looked up, a woman would be standing staring at her face intensely.
She truly didn't know "Goddess's Smile."
"You are! This is definitely you!" Xie Suyao furrowed her brows tightly. She took out her mobile phone, opened it, and held it out in front.
Inside was a photo of Bai Fanxian's face with a beautiful smile gracing her lips—a photo taken this afternoon when she'd just arrived at the village.
"Mm... that's me."
Xie Suyao felt like the woman before her was somehow getting on her nerves. Uncle Huang was surprised, though. The extremely fearsome Red Widow Queen didn't seem as scary as the rumors.
When more and more people gathered to watch, naturally some recognized her. The Red Widow Queen's name was extremely famous, especially during these four years when people ranked her face in the martial world's Goddess Rankings.
When there were many people, there were many matters. Some just whispered. There were some whose mouths were too quick when seeing Bai Fanxian's face, though.
"...Isn't that 'Goddess's Smile'?"
"Yeah. Look at this photo. No mistake. Definitely her."
"What's she doing here?"
"I think the Red Widow Queen must be jealous of her beauty."
Who said it wasn't known. Xie Suyao, hearing it, furrowed her brows tightly.
Her qi power exploded from her body almost instantly as her emotions fluctuated. The onlookers could feel pressure that made their faces pale. The weak ones even collapsed, foaming at the mouth, with purple bruise marks appearing on their bodies in spots.
They were fully poisoned!
Xie Suyao seemed to realize what happened. She quickly calmed her emotions down slightly, making that fluctuating qi power return to her body. Her eyes were filled with a small sense of guilt.
Bai Fanxian looked at Xie Suyao's demeanor with surprise.
This young woman seemed not to want to harm unrelated people?
Bai Fanxian's Heaven Sense swept once and covered all of Xie Suyao's body without her realizing. She immediately understood the cause of the problem.
This woman's body and techniques were rather special.
She was born with a "Poison Absorption Body."
Poison Absorption Body was the name for a body with the ability to absorb deadly poisons into itself. Besides not harming the body, it even promoted development in all aspects. When combined with the poison qi technique she practiced, Xie Suyao's body was constantly nourished by deadly poisons.
That also resulted in her body not aging, even though she was already over half a century old.
There were side effects, though. Her body could be easily stimulated by emotions and feelings. Just feeling angry or displeased, the qi power full of poison would immediately spread from her body.
Xie Suyao took a deep breath.
Part of why she traveled everywhere was for this reason.
Its symptoms kept getting more severe over time, until these past few years she was almost driven mad by it.
That made people always afraid and not dare approach her. She was unintentionally misunderstood as a dangerous being. Like just now—just feeling displeased and the qi power in her body surged out.
In reality, Xie Suyao wasn't as scary and selfish as others thought. She was just a bit hot-tempered. With her power that couldn't be controlled, it resulted in her often accidentally hurting others without realizing.
Her meeting Goddess's Smile today was merely coincidence. She traveled to this village to wait for the day the Divine Doctor emerged from cultivation like everyone else.
She wanted him to help cure her. She thought her body definitely had abnormalities.
Her staring at Bai Fanxian's face and asking to confirm her identity was just from being happy to see someone who might enter this year's Goddess Rankings.
People always misunderstood her, though!
Sometimes Xie Suyao wanted to cry out loud. Those untrue rumors made her never have even one friend she could talk intimately with.
Xie Suyao bit her lip. She thought today she'd have to stay somewhere else. The young woman turned and prepared to leave. The watching audience immediately shifted to open a path for her to walk conveniently.
"...Wait."
At that moment, Bai Fanxian called out. It was a voice imbued with qi power and sent directly to Xie Suyao. Only she could hear and sense it.
The Red Widow Queen turned to look in confusion.
"Your power seems about to explode, doesn't it?"
Bai Fanxian's next words made Xie Suyao's eyes widen. Her brief shock made the qi power in her body burst out until the gathered crowd scattered in a circle.
The young woman quickly gathered her wits and controlled her power again. She looked at Bai Fanxian with disbelieving eyes. Her voice transmitted through qi power to Bai Fanxian as well.
"How do you know?"
"Whether I know or not isn't important..." Bai Fanxian paused.
"...Your body should be able to endure no more than three days. Your Poison Absorption Body should've reached its limit. It can't handle the poison qi that increases every day."
"Poison... Absorption Body?" Xie Suyao muttered the name she'd never heard before with surprise. She knew her body was stranger than ordinary people's. Her technique didn't have effects in helping slow aging, yet she still looked like she was in her early twenties no matter how many decades passed.
"If it explodes... this valley would definitely become hell on earth. Living things wouldn't be able to inhabit this area for a hundred years." Bai Fanxian spoke of serious matters with a calm expression.
Xie Suyao was stunned. She didn't want something like that to happen. Even though she liked doing whatever she pleased, the truth was the number of people she'd killed in her entire life was extremely few, and they all deserved to die.
Her poison mostly caused muscle pain, nausea, and dizziness, but not death.
Thinking that if it really exploded, more than ten thousand people here would die because of her made her body feel cold and shiver.
"...Do you know how to fix it?"
Xie Suyao asked with trepidation. She and the woman in front had never met before, but the fact that she could speak her symptoms accurately confirmed that at minimum she must have a certain level of knowledge.
"Not just know... I can solve this problem for you."
Bai Fanxian looked at Xie Suyao consideringly. Even though she practiced with deadly poison, this person's killing intent wasn't severe. That meant she wasn't a bad person.
"Poison Absorption Body" was a body type she was extremely familiar with from the era ten thousand years ago.
She'd solved this problem once before. That time it was even more severe than this by several times. Back then, by the time she realized, it was almost "exploding" right in front of her.
"Then please... can you cure me?"
Xie Suyao begged Bai Fanxian with hope. She was truly out of options. At first she thought she'd rely on the Divine Doctor, but she feared she couldn't wait until then.
"...Release your power."
Bai Fanxian nodded in agreement easily. Xie Suyao, hearing this, hesitated. She looked at the people around who would definitely be caught in the crossfire if her qi power exploded.
"Trust me."
Once Bai Fanxian finished speaking, Xie Suyao felt like between her and the outside people, there was something powerful blocking them. She looked at Bai Fanxian with trembling fear.
"...Yes."
Boom!
In just a blink, massive qi power exploded from Xie Suyao's body like a flood. The nearby spectators were startled and quickly retreated far away, afraid of being caught. When they felt safe, they sighed in relief.
No one suddenly thought that the qi power that severe didn't harm them in the slightest.
Even if it didn't harm them, the high pressure of a Grandmaster-level being still made them tremble. Even though some were beings at Martial Master level, they still looked at the power they could only dream of with trepidation.
When they realized it, they found only the young woman called Goddess's Smile was facing Xie Suyao.
As if they were about to clash head-on!
Rumors spread like wildfire. In just a few minutes, people in City Beneath the Clouds all knew that the Red Widow Queen was about to clash with Goddess's Smile!
No one knew the true reason! Since they talked through qi power, the news spreading was that Xie Suyao was displeased with beauty greater than hers. If she heard this, she'd definitely want to cry again.
Because it wasn't that at all!
Miss Goddess's Smile was the one who told me to do it!