Chapter 00240: Poison and Medicine
# Poison and Medicine
Chapter 240
Novel: Above Destiny
Chapter 240: Poison and Medicine
High up in the boundless sky, fierce winds howled.
From the earth below came faint tremors and distant roars—death and destruction, so far away.
Yet the battles and struggles of life and death above in the heavens felt as if they were right next door, within arm’s reach.
Looking up, the sky was darkened, as if the gods themselves presided over all—but even these gods fought amongst themselves.
Looking down, the mortal world was vast and far-reaching, every living thing tiny as ants.
Yet these ants roared in endless slaughter, either howling in fury or wailing in pain.
Heaven and earth, a world in turmoil, all filled with incessant struggle.
Like a giant chessboard.
But what kind of invisible hand was truly moving these pieces?
And beyond the higher heavens, who was pulling these strings?
Could this really be what people call fate?
Ji Jue lifted his head, gazing at the shattered boundary membrane in front of Jian Yuan, and at that huge engine that roared in defiance.
His mind became chaotic and unsettled.
Jian Yuan suddenly turned back, flames flickering in his emerald eyes as he stared sharply:
“You seem pretty nervous.”
“Yeah.”
Ji Jue’s gaze dropped, silently gripping the wheelchair’s handles. “How could I not be, given what’s happening right now?”
Jian Yuan glanced at his wheelchair, as if seeing the hidden blades concealed within it, quietly reminding him, “Now is not the best time.”
“I know. That’s exactly why I’m nervous.”
Ji Jue smiled faintly, unguarded, his eyes drifting behind Jian Yuan. “What’s that?”
“Remnants of past glory, nothing more.”
Jian Yuan reached out to touch the scorching, spinning engine.
He sighed, “Lu Changsheng left this as a reward, asking me to assist—this is the last legacy of the Matrix Lineage, supposedly right here. People have searched for it for so many years in vain.”
Ji Jue scoffed, “Something like this, you can't make it?”
“Even if I could, so what?”
Jian Yuan shook his head. “Its value isn’t in the physical form, but in its mission—behind it was once a celestial path connecting the entire world…”
For a moment, Ji Jue wanted to leap toward the engine, to cross the close space and awaken the struggling remnants imprisoned inside.
But his body wouldn’t move.
His logic controlled his body, forcing him to sit firmly in his wheelchair, motionless.
When his eyes flickered around, he realized the chairman had vanished completely, and his heart grew heavier—the dog was truly a dog, and the dog leader was still a dog.
The most annoying things in the world—all in one person.
Why had he been foolish enough to expect anything else?
Jian Yuan stood right before him, the engine right there, and there was only one chance.
He had to wait.
Yet from the sudden silence, Ji Jue heard Jian Yuan’s mocking voice:
“Isn’t this exactly why you came?”
Dead silence.
Ji Jue froze in place, unable to budge.
“The ‘Moists’ once were merely a general name. Among them, the vast majority actually came from the Eternal Empire. For example, the last Matrix Lineage member—when he sacrificed himself to block the emperor, who would have thought the emperor himself would draw a sword against him?”
Jian Yuan looked back at Ji Jue, his hands gripping the wheelchair’s arms tightly, his expression teasing and mocking:
“Since you bear the legacy of Non-Aggression, carry the saints’ heritage, how could you possibly be ignorant of all this?”
Ji Jue did not fall silent but shook his head indifferently:
“What if I really don’t know?”
Jian Yuan said nothing.
He just stared.
Was Ji Jue playing mind games? Or mocking him?
He didn’t care.
“Whether you know or not makes no difference.”
He spoke sincerely, looking down on the so-called Matrix Lineage inheritance. “The past is gone and cannot be pursued or relied upon. If you really want to forge a new era, how could you place your hopes on the fading afterglow?”
Jian Yuan raised his hand toward the darkened sky:
“Today, I’ll show you—how much glory of the old celestial path can Jian Yuan’s creation truly revive?”
In that moment, limitless shadowed light surged forth from the workshop, erupting into the sky and showering the earth below like a pillar connecting heaven and earth’s center axis.
As if at the world’s very core.
The so-called position of the Celestial Origin!
The boundary membrane completely collapsed, crumbling and melting away like snow.
From within, the engine roared with a high-pitched, thunderous sound, echoing throughout heaven and earth.
Hearing the thunderous roar, Ji Jue instinctively tried to stand—but suddenly, darkness washed over him.
He was immobilized!
His neck, heart, arms, legs, right eye, lungs…
All the punishments Jian Yuan had ever inflicted sprang to life; the cold, black runes suddenly activated, as if alive, shifting and changing until they linked, transforming into a lock that pierced through flesh and soul, completely sealing and shackling him!
Then he saw Jian Yuan raise both hands.
From the shattered, battered corpse extended a complex array like giant tree roots, weaving through the air and transforming into intricate spiritual matter structures.
Suddenly, it pierced into the engine and took control.
Like a key sliding into a lock.
Perfectly fitting.
Click!
In that instant, a clear crisp sound rang out across earth and sky.
The engine’s noise and static vanished—every trace of resistance was utterly suppressed and erased.
In its place arose countless layers of trembling steel overlapping, revealing a majestic hymn!
The Spring City shook violently.
Immediately after, the sky cracked.
A silent purple-black fissure opened, stretching across the whole city, then another crisscrossed it—like a bloodstained cross.
A wound in the world.
From that scar emerged a monstrous entity of endless darkness and strange flowing light.
Even showing only the smallest edge seemed enough to swallow the entire world whole.
For the first time, Ji Jue saw it.
The so-called [Vortex]!
Burning or freezing, collapsing or breaking, overturning or obliterating—just looking at it projected countless illusions and histories before his eyes.
Everywhere he reached, only boundless, profound darkness.
Just like falling into a fathomless abyss…
When the light jetting from the engine shot out in all directions, it flowed into Spring City, linking with the buried colossal creatures scattered all around.
Causing the massive alchemical constructs to overload, burning red hot, scattering countless streams of light to every corner.
Breaking Zenyuan’s seals, it followed unseen paths, flying toward long-established facilities all across Haizhou…
In an instant, spreading everywhere!
This was… the celestial path that Jian Yuan had re-created!
No one knew how many years were spent planning this, with the heretical cult moving in schemes between city states, in cities, wilderness, and ruins, burying dormant alchemical constructs and setting up secret rites.
Waiting for the appointed day to come.
Now, with a flick of a finger, invisible rails of light spread out like a net, utterly enveloping all of Haizhou—and even extending endlessly toward the boundless sea and beyond…
Beneath Spring City’s shadows, amidst many living sacrifices and offerings of corpses, a topless old monk slowly raised his eyes.
The sutures above his lips cracked one by one, as he opened his mouth to chant scriptures long corrupted by evil, thunderlight flashing in his eyes.
No one could hear his words, only the surging river of spiritual essence.
When the seven-day-long chanting ended, countless words seemed to overlap at once, rising into the sky.
Into the crossing wounds above.
From the praise woven by endless evil thoughts, wrong views, evil rumors, and wicked imaginings, the vortex shook and roared.
Like a bell being struck.
Dark and grotesque, along the rails Jian Yuan forged, the sound echoed through all Haizhou, spreading.
It began to call out…
And so the world froze, utterly silent.
Where the bell tolled, everyone froze in place.
In cities, wilderness, ruins, fields—former battlefields and burial grounds—within soil, corpses, graves, underground churches’ so-called sanctuaries, even inside people themselves, wisps of inky black mist rose like fog.
The suffering of Zenyuan’s shackles, the White Deer’s violent hate, the thirst of transformation denied, the greed of cunning schemes, the pain born from conflict, death from disasters, delusions born from obsession…
For endless time, these sins buried in land and soul surged like tides, responding to the call.
Then…
—The evils of the four seas surged toward this place!
In that instant, high above in the sky, amid the desperate collapse beneath the blinding light twisted in a dark rainbow, came a sigh and a light chuckle.
“Master Tao, this game is mine to win.”
With Lu Changsheng’s words, the earth shook and infinite darkness gushed forth!
Sins crowded like seas, evils surged like tides.
When sins accrued over centuries all gathered at one point, they formed a black celestial waterfall engulfing all of Spring City!
Enveloping everything, inch by inch descending!
The vast brilliant light did not hesitate; in an instant, it stood firm before the black waterfall, holding aloft all of Haizhou’s accumulated sins—just like when it once upheld all of Spring City!
Unwavering.
At this moment, as everyone in Spring City looked up at the sky, they couldn’t help but shudder.
If the celestial waterfall fell, erupting along with the city… in a vast place like Haizhou, how many could survive?
The world seemed about to end in the next moment.
The apocalypse had come.
The heavens collapsed, the earth shook, all fell apart.
Just like decades ago, when this city faced similar devastation…
The wails buried beneath nine layers of earth, the cries muffled under the ruins, the uncared-for corpses, the lingering spirits—all seemed to come alive again.
Under an unprecedented corruption, the ghosts of the past reappeared briefly before vanishing like fleeting shadows.
Right before Ji Jue.
Blood slowly trickled down shattered faces, pooling into invisible dirt.
In the raging flames, the howls of the lost figures disappeared.
It was as if cries echoed, trampled by all and ignored.
A child slumped on the ground struggled in vain, looking around bewildered, calling out, seeing only ruins.
Until a staggering, slender figure rushed over, fell, rose, crawling forward and hugged her tight.
So tightly.
Lowering her head, she comforted her softly; she smiled, as if saying something, but no words reached him.
Only tears slowly rolled down that pale face.
Cutting across the smile.
Reflecting the final lingering light.
Ji Jue instinctively reached out, but the vision vanished quickly.
They had long been dead.
Dead many years ago.
Forgotten, ignored, buried...
From the silence, he dazedly looked around, hoarse voice asking:
“…What will happen to Haizhou?”
Jian Yuan thought a moment. “Half of it will be polluted.”
“What about Cliff City?”
“If lucky, it’ll be spared—after all, it’s far away.”
Jian Yuan answered casually, “But even so, what does it concern you?”
Ji Jue looked up angrily, wanting to reply, but saw Jian Yuan’s smile.
So mocking.
“Do you really care as much as you say? Or did you truly hold onto something?”
The aloof craftsman arrogantly lifted his eyes, looking down:
“Non-aggression’s creation is heaven-sent, all things formed by ten fingers, capable of everything and nothing lacking. But your flaw is this—because you reach toward empty places, you end up capturing nothing. What you see, what you choose, is only a barren wasteland.”
He said, “This is your true nature.”
“Now,” Ji Jue retorted coldly, “does the craftsman still expect to shake me with that old corrupted theory?”
“How powerless your words are! Why not try your old tricks again and see if I bow to you?!”
Jian Yuan’s eyebrows slowly lifted—
Confusion, sudden realization, then unhidden mockery.
He laughed out loud, throwing his head back and forward.
“So that’s it, so that’s it! Ha, hahaha, hahahaha... hahaha!!!”
“There’s one thing I forgot to tell you…”
Jian Yuan nearly laughed to tears, gasping between words:
“Maybe you misunderstood—the ‘Illuminated Style’ you suffered wasn’t actually aimed at corruption’s secret art.”
He paused; the smile grew more ferocious:
“On the contrary, that is the essence of the Ember Path’s inheritance spanning thousands of years! Even I, its host, can hardly know what you’ve truly seen—because it reveals the future you want to see, the world you want to create. It points you toward the path your heart desires… But what did you see?”
He mocked and questioned:
“Destruction? Or death?!”
Ji Jue remained unmoved, coldly glaring back:
“Wasn’t it you who instilled the teachings of corruption in the first place?”
“Three days’ work is nothing compared to the life you’ve held to since birth! How can it compare to Ye Xian’s endless, patient guidance?”
Jian Yuan stepped forward, looming over him, asking deliberately:
“How much of this guidance is truly mine? How much comes from your own heart’s genuine desires? And how much is your nature spilling out? What you see—is it not your bare self stripped of all disguise and pretense?!”
In Ji Jue’s silence and dullness, Jian Yuan admired the faint flickers of doubt and rage behind that indifferent expression.
His smile deepened, like watching a blade slowly forged in the furnace.
“I’ve said it before—the craftsman never mistakes his materials. From the moment I saw you, I knew what sort of monster you are—”
Jian Yuan bent down to meet Ji Jue’s gaze, emerald flames surging in his eyes, piercing every mask:
“I’ve never seen such a twisted soul, never such a contradictory structure. Your heart is empty; you sneer at all things glorious, propping yourself up on something nonexistent—like a prisoner, drawing your own cage. I see it. You’re like the legendary Sisyphus, endlessly cycling day after day, exhaustedly running forward without knowing where, and afraid to stop. Until one day, you completely become unrecognizable... That’s why you suffer so much; why you crave death so deeply!”
“No wonder so many great sins love you so much! Compared to a guy like you chasing after nothingness, what am I but a madman?”
Jian Yuan pointed toward Ji Jue’s heart:
“Corruption’s arrogance, Abyss’s emptiness, Raving slaughter’s madness, Vortex’s desolation, Tower’s distortion, Wolf’s hunger—all here... You don’t care for your life; no matter how fiercely you struggle now, one day you’ll care for no one’s life. Because you are that kind of person, destined to become that monster!”
Ji Jue fell silent.
No answer, as if frozen.
From that silence, he seemed to hear his own heartbeat, rising and falling between moans, so low.
Blood flowed through his veins like tides washing shores, echoes hollow.
So much so that he couldn’t hear Jian Yuan’s words clearly.
Perhaps Jian Yuan was right.
This was his nature—his ugly form hidden beneath his smile.
He was this freak.
He could no longer run from himself.
But none of this really mattered.
His gaze was drawn by something far more important.
Like passing through Jian Yuan’s obstruction, he focused on those drifting apparitions revealed in the corruption and pollution—the last remnants of the departed.
Strange faces, vague and unfamiliar.
Pushing and shoving in fights, or retreating in flight.
Crying out, cursing, calling, shouting—but no sound heard.
Like futile struggles in a quagmire, desperately reaching out again and again, trying to grasp something, but never grabbing anything.
Only when they held each other did tears fall.
Passing through his palm, dropping to the ground, scattering the last flicker of an illusion.
Ji Jue lowered his head and came back to himself, suddenly realizing that he had once again extended his hand.
An empty palm, still holding nothing.
Such futility.
But suddenly, he smiled.
Mocking, grinning.
Mocking Jian Yuan—and mocking himself.
“No.”
He lifted his head, showing the empty palm to the craftsman, telling him:
“I care.”
Dead silence.
Jian Yuan said nothing.
Only looked down coldly.
As if gazing upon an uncarvable rotten log, the blade covered in rust and dust dissolving into a twisted figure, amused in its decay.
In the end…
Utterly hopeless!
Boom!!!
Above the nine heavens, the celestial waterfall surged, the black tide of sins roiling and raining down, gradually swallowing the thin, dim white light.
Thunder roared as the laws of Zenyuan appeared, fissures opening one after another…
All riddled.
Then black rain fell, overtaking the shattered ruins of the city.
Falling into Lu Changsheng’s hands.
“Look, Master Tao, the filth of the mortal world, the sins of human hearts—it’s like the ocean.”
Beneath the dark rainbow light, Lu Changsheng lowered his gaze to the drops of sinful essence in his palm, resembling venom.
Curiously he asked, “Why do the noblest among you refuse even a glance?”
Master Tao remained silent.
Only Lu Changsheng looked up, bathing in the rain of evils, the vast rainbow light expanding, growing ever darker and more eerie.
Looking down upon the gradually rain-covered world, the surging tides of sin soared skyward uncontrollably, laughing to the heavens.
“I have always had a question.”
That low laugh spread from the sky, resounding throughout Spring City and ringing in everyone's ears:
“If the world was created by the noble, why were evils formed?”
“Until I finally understood the other question—not that people throw themselves into sin, but that sin is forged from people! Only those unable to live on, unable to understand, unable to find the way, those who don’t accept themselves, would fall into sin... But were these people created by sin? Hadn’t they first received the kindness and grace of your noble?”
No answer.
Only sorrowful cries like tides, wails like thunder, endlessly echoing.
The cult’s sacrificial saint raised his voice to question:
“When disaster first struck, the Federation abandoned this place; when mutations spread, the Security Bureau sealed it; and what brought everything to ruin was the world you all deemed usual and prided in!”
Lu Changsheng lifted his head, looking around with contempt as he opened his arms:
“Spring City, mutations, decay… These were things you rejected. But if you rejected them, why not leave them to those you refuse?”
In that moment, the vast space fell into sudden deathly silence.
From high above, fury and killing intent like thunder descended, ice-cold.
“Hahaha, hahahaha, hahahaha.”
Lu Changsheng laughed wildly and hoarsely before asking one last question:
“If the noble are the law of this world, then isn’t evil a part of it too? Why can’t you tolerate me competing with you on the same stage?!”
Boom!!!
In that instant, as his aura soared, a brutal pressure fell from the heavens and earth, as if freezing everything simultaneously.
This was no human interference, but an absolute punishment triggered by the laws of the noble.
Evil rose, brilliant light and thunder crackling.
Between the vortex’s projection and the present world, Lu Changsheng unashamedly revealed his soul.
With a vast surge of spirit essence, the heavenly beings of the evil clan crazily drew upon endless sins of the world, even…
Going one step further!
“No need for Master Tao to worry anymore…”
“All evils of this world, I take them all upon myself!”
The rainbow light suddenly shattered.
Lu Changsheng’s body collapsed, transforming wildly, turning instantly into an amorphous colossal entity, faintly outlining a sinister form bathed in the endless celestial waterfall, shedding his old shape.
Or perhaps revealing his true form…
Like a saint forged from bones and blood, with four heads and three eyes, swirling in violet, cyan, indigo endlessly—altogether unlike before, save for his face’s mocking smile, unchanged.
Standing firm in the real world, stretching a hand toward the vortex,
Gripping across the void.
In that moment, the massive vortex above Spring City trembled violently, surging powerfully.
Behind the vortex, some enormous creature wailed in despair and began to crumble.
Then, the black godly essence poured out, falling and merging into his form, making it even more grotesque.
Sacred and terrifying.
Now, in response, the two fissures in the once-healing wound of the real world sky suddenly reopened explosively!
After absorbing the godly essence of several high-level evils, he transformed himself into a senior evil!
Anchoring himself like an anchor, corrupting Spring City, rooting firmly in the real world!
From now on, Spring City would be the extension of the vortex in reality—the sanctuary of the evil clan!
No need to retreat and hide in the vortex beneath the real world like other senior evils…
He himself was the living evil among humanity!
In this silence, Lu Changsheng raised his head, looked down upon all, and then finally glanced behind to the vague figure slowly emerging from the dim light.
“Looks like I won.”
Lu Changsheng solemnly asked:
“Master Tao, do you regret now?”
If you want to sweep away the corruption and save Spring City…
This is your last chance!
At this moment, amid repeated twists of fate, the old pact between them could no longer restrain the present.
Tao Cheng could overturn the table with one move, breaking the last truce…
And make all this conflict explode into an all-out war!
At this moment, the seemingly shaky Spring City had already drawn countless gazes.
Even if Tao Cheng walked away, once the outcome was clear, it would ignite yet another brutal war.
From the shadows of all directions—senior evils, worldly sages, heavenly beings or fiends, empires or outlaws—countless impatient spectators awaited.
Waiting to decide.
And when that ancient figure appeared high in the sky, he sensed countless eyes focused on him.
No longer displayed was the glorious appearance of a heavenly being.
His pupils were murky, hair streaked with white.
Looking like any ordinary old man.
But at Tao Cheng’s arrival, Lu Changsheng instantly became alert, treating him like a formidable enemy.
“Never thought it’d come to this, but…”
Tao Cheng sighed softly:
“When it comes to human hearts’ treachery, you far surpass me. With your courage and ambition to turn evil into righteousness, all these years of preparation and waiting… Now, launching your plan, the time, place, and so-called ‘harmony’ are all in your hands. But I have no way back.”
He looked at Lu Changsheng:
“Just by seeing you today, uniting many forces and stirring up the world, you’re almost like the ultimate evil’s Celestial Origin. If the lost Tower takes shape, it might even cast a shadow over you.”
Lu Changsheng shook his head:
“Isn’t this thanks to your earnest teaching, Master Tao?”
“Wrong.”
Tao Cheng’s smile twisted oddly—or one might say, mockingly.
“I never really taught you anything, Lu Changsheng.”
He looked around at the shadowed world, regret in his voice:
“If I had, you’d understand—in this chaotic world, sometimes black and white are clear… no matter how crowned and glorious the words, or how deafening the rhetoric, it’s the same. Evil is evil. The demon is a demon. Ugly remains ugly.”
“…”
Lu Changsheng was silent a moment, then sighed sadly:
“A warrior may be killed but not humiliated. It’s only natural Master Tao refuses to ally with someone like me.”
“Don’t be so pitiful, Lu Changsheng. You say the snakes and rats in the gutter want to fight us incompetent ones, to shake the world and turn evil into right. But the true way has always been there—you just never walked it. When proud to be a snake or rat, you play underhanded tricks, scorn morals under the sun, and want to overturn everything. Aren’t you the proudest here?”
Master Tao lifted his eyes and looked at him, with no anger—only pity.
Like watching a blind man basking in the sun yet denying its light.
“That’s why you don’t understand…”
He finally smiled with relief and closed his eyes.
Making Lu Changsheng’s expression turn grave.
Watch closely, Lu Changsheng—this is the first lesson I was to teach you!
In that instant, Tao Cheng smiled and raised his hand.
Toward his own neck…
And cut.
—The so-called sacrifice for righteousness!
(End of chapter)