Chapter 110: Poison Beneath the Cure

Rhain uncorked the jade bottle.

With a slight tilt, a pale-blue pill rolled into his palm. It emitted a faint, cooling mist and a soothing medicinal fragrance.

The Ashvele envoy sneered, his arms crossed over his chest. "Take a good look, boy. That is a pinnacle Uncommon-Grade pill, refined flawlessly by our clan’s elite alchemists. There is not a single trace of impurity in it. I dare you to find this so-called poison."

Rhain didn’t even look at him. His dark grey eyes simply locked onto the pale-blue pill.

"A brilliant guise," Rhain soliloquized, "If one were to look at this with ordinary eyes, they would only see a meticulously crafted elixir. But to me, this is nothing more than a meticulously crafted murder."

He raised his head to look at Aurelian who eyed him with suspicious gaze.

"A standard Earthfire Vein Pacifying Elixir," Rhain began, his voice echoing steadily through the silent hall. "It primarily contains Frost-Dew Grass, Moon-Petal Extract, and Deep-Ice Lotus. To a normal Alchemist, it is a perfect to suppress Earthfire toxins. It cools the meridians, numbs the burning sensation, and temporarily stabilizes the essence."

"But," Rhain’s tone dropped, carrying a chilling finality. "There is a fourth, hidden ingredient expertly woven into the refinement process. Silent Glacial Dust."

The Ashvele envoy’s sneer faltered for a fraction of a second.

A flicker of genuine panic flashed across his eyes, though he quickly tried to mask it. "Nonsense! There is no such herb in our formula! You used a demonic flame to corrupt it!"

"Shut up and listen," Rhain’s voice turned chillingly authoritative.

"Glacial Dust is entirely harmless," Rhain continued. "To an ordinary cultivator, it simply passes through the body without leaving a single trace. That is exactly why no Master Alchemist, no matter how skilled, has ever found a flaw in this pill. If you give it to an ordinary person, it is perfectly safe."

Rhain took a step closer to the center of the hall.

"But the Silvercrest Clan are not ordinary people. Your bloodlines are fused with centuries of Earthfire toxins."

"When the Glacial Dust in this pill collides specifically with the mutated Earthfire in your bodies, it acts like a passive poison. It doesn’t kill you. It just slowly, silently erodes your talent and potential. And the worst part is that this erosion doesn’t just stay within the user. It fuses with your bloodline. It passes on to the next generation."

Liana subconsciously grabbed Seris’s arm for support.

"Every generation that consumes this pill becomes inherently less talented than the last," Rhain continued relentlessly. "Their meridians are born stiffer, narrower. But the erosion is so slow that no one would ever notice it in a single lifetime. It takes generations to show even a minimal impact."

"And why would your Silvercrest Clan ever suspect the pill? When your children are born with slightly weaker talent than your ancestors, you simply blame it on the Earthfire Vein Syndrome worsening over time. You blamed the disease, while treating the actual poison as your only salvation."

Solas’s pupils shrank.

Aside from a few exceptionally lucky exceptions like Sylvan, the vast majority of their younger generation possessed mediocre talent.

And it was exactly as Rhain mentioned, they had all simply assumed that it was because of the growing toxins of the Earthfire Vein Syndrome.

Rhain shook his head, a look of profound pity flashing in his eyes.

"It has been eight generations," Rhain stated, his dark grey eyes staring straight into Aurelian’s trembling pupils. "You are at the last tipping point. If you continue consuming these pills for another century... your descendants won’t just be born with weakened talent. They will be born with shattered meridians. Utterly incapable of cultivation. Reduced to a clan of crippled mortals."

"No..." Liana whispered, her face draining of all color.

"Lies! Pure, fabricated lies!" the Ashvele envoy shrieked, his voice pitching high with panic. He pointed a trembling finger at Rhain. "You have no proof of this invisible accumulation! Patriarch Aurelian, do not listen to this lunatic’s slander!"

"You want proof?" Rhain sneered, "It’s surprisingly simple."

Fwoosh.

A beautiful, blood-red flame ignited above his fingertips

Aurelian and Solas both visibly flinched.

Rhain tossed the pale-blue pill directly into the blood-red flame.

Sizzle.

Under Rhain’s precise control, the Frost-Dew Grass and Moon-Petal Extract vaporized instantly.

A trace of fear finally appeared on the envoy’s face.

What a terrifying control of fire! Even the Master Rank Alchemists are incapable of doing it so easily.

After a second, what remained suspended in the blood-red fire was a tiny, shimmering cluster of silver powder.

Silent Glacial Dust.

"Now, Patriarch. Channel a single drop of your clan’s Earthfire essence into that dust."

Rhain flicked his finger, sending the cluster of silver dust floating toward Aurelian.

Aurelian frowned slightly, he didn’t have a very good feeling after looking at this silver powder.

He raised his hand, and a drop of essence sparked on his index finger.

He carefully touched the silver dust

Hiss!

The moment the corrupted essence made contact with the Silent Glacial Dust, the pristine silver powder instantly blackened.

It rapidly expanded, morphing into a foul, corrosive sludge that emitted rotting stench.

The sludge began to violently eat away at Aurelian’s protective essence.

"Ugh!"

Aurelian let out a sharp, choked gasp.

His face turning an alarming ghastly pale.

"Father!" Liana cried out, rushing forward to support him.

"I... I am fine," Aurelian gasped, holding up a trembling hand to stop her.

Liana covered her mouth in shock.

Seris was also frightened.

How vicious one must be to plot such plan that extended across generations?

Solas slowly stood up from his throne. His body radiating a suffocating killing intent.

For two hundred years!

For two hundred years, they had paid astronomical sums of Aetherium Crystals, offered their deepest gratitude, thanking the Ashvele Clan for saving their lives... all while their supposed saviors were slowly, methodically poisoning their children to death!

The realization was a knife twisting directly into their souls.

"No... this is not true... this is not true..." the envoy stammered, his mind shattering under Solas’s murderous aura.

He scrambled backward,

"P-Patriarch Aurelian! Master Solas!" The envoy scrambled backward, looking for any avenue of escape, tears of terror streaming down his face. "I-I am just a messenger! I didn’t know! I swear to the Gods, I only deliver the pills! Please, spare—"

Rhain looked down at the trembling envoy, his narrow eyes squinting in disdain.

"Did you not say that if I could prove your pills had even a single flaw, you would die on this very spot?"

Rhain looked at Aurelian, and gestured casually toward the envoy

"Patriarch Aurelian. I believe it is time for him to fulfill his promise."

Aurelian didn’t speak. He simply raised a hand.

"Wait! I am an envoy! If you kill me, Kynlee will—"

BOOM!

A colossal hand made of blinding silver essence materialized and slammed down onto the envoy.

There was no struggle.

In the blink of an eye, the peak Spirit Manifestation Realm envoy was pulverized into a flat, unrecognizable smear of meat and bone dust against the floor of the Grand Hall.