Chapter 987 - 983: Celestial Demon Vine
Kojima Minako, after a bout of busy work, slowly stood up. Ignoring the middle-aged man who kept wanting to speak but held back, she fixed Xiao Tian with a sharp gaze and asked directly, "You just said you discovered another kind of toxin. Do you know what poison that is?"
Xiao Tian looked at that clearly unfriendly gaze, and together with her interrogative tone, he couldn’t help feeling that Kojima Minako seemed to know something.
"I don’t know." Xiao Tian answered very crisply, and also with complete honesty.
Kojima Minako gave a light snort, as if in disdain, yet also seeming to show off as she said, "So you’re only this capable after all!"
"I’ve never claimed to be that amazing. But I am curious—what do you think that poison is?" Xiao Tian replied in an even tone, then shot the question back at her.
As for Kojima Minako’s attitude, Xiao Tian didn’t really take it to heart. As long as Ozawa Miwa could be saved, whose credit it was wasn’t that important!
Besides, Xiao Tian truly was very curious. How did Kojima Minako know what poison it was? And how had she discovered it in such a short time?
"Ever heard of the Celestial Demon Vine?" Kojima Minako’s gaze was like a blade as she looked back at Xiao Tian. Yet inwardly she was also puzzled—why did this guy give her such a strong sense of repulsion the very first time they met? It was like he came with a built-in mockery aura that made people hate him!
"Celestial Demon Vine?" Xiao Tian softly repeated the name, and his mind began to race. But even when he recalled that entire bizarre book of Sun Bo’s, he still couldn’t find any mention of a Celestial Demon Vine.
Xiao Tian couldn’t help feeling a bit frustrated. This was his first time, in a professional field, encountering such a gap and blank spot in his knowledge.
There’s always someone better, and a sky beyond the sky—nothing more than that!
But this was also where Xiao Tian’s strength lay: since he didn’t know, he’d just ask those who did. Not knowing wasn’t a problem; pretending to know when you didn’t was the biggest issue!
This point was especially crucial in a field like medicine, where you were racing against the Death God by the second, because pretending to know often meant playing with the patient’s life. This was also why Chinese medicine had been so heavily criticized in recent years.
On the one hand, they’d trot out all kinds of nonsense theories to fool laypeople, all the while thinking about how to rake money into their pockets. By the time they’d conned all the patient’s money over, they’d discover that not only had the illness not improved, it had actually gotten worse.
At that point, if the patient’s family came to argue, they’d find that the other side seemed to have prepared for this long ago. After a long-winded tirade, most of these disputes would end up fizzling out.
The reasons behind this situation were varied. For example, the black sheep in the Chinese medicine industry were simply too rampant, leaving people with the impression that they were all swindlers. As a result, many people with real skills didn’t dare call themselves Chinese medicine doctors. Even if they treated people at a loss, they’d still be seen as profiteers with black hearts.
In short, in his own professional field, Xiao Tian’s attitude had always been extremely serious, because this concerned human lives and could not be taken lightly!
"Celestial Demon Vine is a signature technique of Yin Yang Masters. Once you’re struck by it, within ten days vines like tendrils will start growing all over your body, turning you into something neither human nor ghost."
After giving this brief explanation, Kojima Minako looked at the middle-aged man who had already fallen into a daze, and said in a tone full of ridicule, "You know who did this, don’t you?"
Hearing this, Xiao Tian suddenly realized why he’d never heard of this Celestial Demon Vine. Turns out it didn’t belong to his field at all. As the saying goes, different trades are like different mountains. If that was the case, then not knowing was only normal.
What puzzled him, though, was Kojima Minako’s attitude toward the middle-aged man. It was as if there was some grudge between them; her every word and action carried a sense of someone stirring up trouble just to enjoy the spectacle.
After a long silence, the middle-aged man lowered his voice and said, "Nako, I know you’re very dissatisfied with me, but no matter what, Ozawa Miwa is still your niece. Please put aside your prejudice and save her!"
At this moment, the middle-aged man was like a defeated rooster, his whole body exuding a sense of dejection, and in his eyes there appeared a trace of bewilderment that was hard to understand.
Kojima Minako suddenly let out a sneer. "Of course I’ll save her. I’m just very curious—toward that vicious-hearted person, the one who wants to harm your daughter, what kind of attitude will you have?"
With that said, she closed her mouth and fell silent, her beautiful eyes locked on the middle-aged man, as if she were looking at a loser.
"I will take care of this."
After a long time, the middle-aged man closed his eyes and let out a long sigh toward the ceiling, saying this.
"Good."
Hearing the middle-aged man’s reply, Kojima Minako shifted her gaze to Xiao Tian and asked, "If I can remove the Celestial Demon Vine’s poison, to what extent can you control the Heart-Breaking Fruit’s toxin?"
"Three cun away from the heart meridian." Xiao Tian gave a precise answer, and the confidence in his demeanor made it hard for anyone to doubt him.
After confirming that Xiao Tian wasn’t lying, Kojima Minako stopped wasting words. She beckoned Xiao Tian over and instructed, "Next, I’ll extract the Celestial Demon Vine from her body. In this process, it’ll inevitably tug at the Heart-Breaking Fruit."
"So what you need to do is, at the very instant I pull out the Celestial Demon Vine, you must immediately lock down the Heart-Breaking Fruit’s poison. If anything goes wrong on your end, I think you know what that means!"
Of course Xiao Tian understood what Kojima Minako was saying. Although he still had many unresolved doubts—for example, who was that unknown Yin Yang Master? What kind of deep hatred did they have with Ozawa Miwa to use such a vicious method?
And, for another example, what exactly was the story behind the aunt-niece relationship between Kojima Minako and Ozawa Miwa?
However, these could only be set aside for now. Once this matter was over, he could slowly unravel these mysteries one by one.
After indicating that he fully understood, Xiao Tian gave Kojima Minako a look, then placed his hand on Ozawa Miwa’s pulse, signaling that she could begin.
But before Kojima Minako could start, Xiao Tian saw the middle-aged man bow deeply toward him. "I’m counting on you!"
These simple three words, along with that bow, didn’t make Xiao Tian feel pressure, but rather an uncontrollable sense of being moved.
Given the other party’s status, being able to go this far was no easy thing. From this, it was clear that Ozawa Miwa still held a very important place in his heart.
As for Ozawa Miwa, Xiao Tian would naturally give everything he had. However much ability he had, he’d use that much, without hiding or holding back. He agreed on the spot.
Kojima Minako, however, answered with a cold snort. Then, without saying another word, she squatted in front of Ozawa Miwa and began to mutter under her breath, as if reciting some kind of incantation.
Before long, Xiao Tian sensed something unusual. As Kojima Minako muttered, the surrounding True Qi began to stir slowly, gradually forming above Ozawa Miwa a True Qi vortex that was invisible to the naked eye, yet very much real.
The moment the vortex formed, it began to spin on its own. And as the True Qi vortex slowly rotated, a mysterious suction force spread out from within...