"Nothing to worry about," Meng Hao said and tried to wrench his hand free.

"Stop!" I called, and immediately all of the arena had their attention focused on us, but I didn't care. Seems like something big was happening behind me but I didn't care, someone tried to hurt a friend of mine.

Meng Hao gulped hard as he was looking not at me, but behind me but I didn't care.

A man came behind me and stood tall, I could even feel his shadow behind me.

"What's going on here?" asked the man.

At this exact moment, I should have turned but I was too focused on the type of poison within Meng Hao's body to care and turn to talk to some stranger behind me.

"Stop gawking, you, help me, do you have a clean blade, a dagger would be best?" I asked the man who was behind me, still, I didn't turn.

"Eumm… yes," said the man and handed me a dagger.

The moment I took the blade from the hilt and was amazed at the intricate and colorful designs of the dagger.

"Hemm, really nice piece, it's good for what I'm about to do, but you should really not rely on this for battle, I said as I ripped Meng Hao's clothes with the blade.

The audience gasped. But no one dared move, hell I'm unable to understand what's going on here, I'm just treating a patient.

"What seems to be the problem, you haven't answered me."

"Oh, yes, my friend here was poisoned, it's a slow-acting poison the purple Jade Marrow Poison. Thankfully it's still in its early stages." I said.

The man behind me took a step back, and said, "That's an incurable poison, if you were to touch the blood you'll be infected."

I could even feel a barrier being set up behind me.

"Yes, incurable for the ignorant," I said and then said to Meng Hao, "Kid, you're going to die if I don't help you out, do you trust me?" I said.

"With how big of balls you have right now, hell I'd trust you with my life."

"Big balls? What are you talking about?" I said.

"Well…" meng Hao looked at the man behind me and said, "If you turn around you'll probably find out."

Just as I did, I turned to see a man of full ornate clothes, wearing armor fit for a king, it had shoulders made of lion maws, a black mane surrounding the neck, and golden chains. While he had a sword made of dark gold and his hair was well combed and had a golden hairpin that grasped half of his hair in a majestic hair bun while the other half draped over his shoulder like a cascading waterfall.

The man had a gentle smile on his face and was clearly missing a dagger from his outfit, the dagger was in my hand.

"Ah, the emperor," I said.

I could feel the metaphorical facepalms of everyone in the audience. Though they won't be rude to do it right here and then, I could still feel it.

"Well, if you'd excuse me, I'd like to cure my patient," I said then turned away from the emperor, if I'd kept looking him in the face I'd turn beat red from embarrassment.

"You know, if a single drop of blood from the kid even touches me, then I'll also be infected, this whole thing could be a ruse to try and assassinate me." Said the emperor.

"Euh, but I never invited you over to come to witness this. Also, you can leave anytime you want."

"What about my dagger, you'll infect it with the poison."

"I'll find it really hard to believe if an emperor can't find a replacement to this dagger especially with the faulty inscription on it, you can do way better than this dagger."

"Faulty? It was made by the best craftsmen of the Zhou Empire." Said the emperor.

"Then you should really get a refund, look," I said as I touched upon an inscription.

The dagger elongated a bit and began vibrating.

"This inscription extends the length of the dagger and makes it vibrate so it would increase its cutting power, but every time the inscription is used, the damage to the dagger's hilt becomes greater. The inscriber only thought about making the dagger sharper and totally forgot about the hilt which will take damage he could easily counter this effect by making an inscription that can absorb the extra vibrations from the dagger and even transform them into kinetic energy that can also be used as an electric attack. Such wasted potential," I said then disabled the vibration.

The emperor began laughing like a mad man then said

"Impressive."

"What's so impressive, this is basic stuff."

"Not that," the emperor shook his head "The most impressive wasn't how you showed the faults of the dagger but the fact that you brute-force your way through the Imperial sigil that only allows me to use the dagger's honing ability.

"Huh? Bruteforce? The inscription on it was so mediocre anyone with a brain could figure it out, you should really get better craftsmen."

The emperor continued laughing like a mad man, but during this whole conversation, I was sweating buckets, well figurative buckets. Because Holy fucking shit! This is the same guy I wanted to capture and force him to tell me about what happened to the purple cloud sec, and fucking hell he is a Soul Formation cultivator!

"You're most impressive. Still, I don't think you'll be able to cure this disease, but if he is your friend I have a few medical saints that can help alleviate his pain until his due time."

"Sir, you seem knowledgeable about poison," I said to the emperor.

"Sir?"

"Ah, right, your majesty? Is that correct," I said tilting my head.

"Em, most appropriate."

"Right then you know what this is," I said as I showed the emperor my arm.

The emperor took even more steps back.

"Bone and Body Grinding Poison," the emperor said.

"I've had it for a long long time, and I'm still alive and kicking, so I say I know what I'm talking about. Anyway, may I start?" I asked.

"Go ahead, I'm really tempted to see how you'll treat this." The emperor said and the rest of the cultivators around his moved away creating a wide space.

"Right, Meng Hao, this is going to hurt," I said. and immediately stabbed him to the kidney.

Meng Hao keeled over, but before he would fall I gave him a pill and said, "Eat this."

Meng Hao took the pill and just before he was about to eat it the emperor coughed.

"That's a poison pill, isn't it, if I didn't know any better I say you really wanna kill the kid."

I sighed and looked at Meng Hao's eyes.

"Do you trust me?" I asked.

"Hell no!"

"Euh, most appropriate answer. Right, just eat that I swear I'll make you even better than before."

Meng Hao grumbled something then ate the pill. It seems that I wasn't the one that convinced him, he sorta spaced out for a moment then his resolve was confirmed. As if someone told him to eat the pill.

Immediately black veins started popping all over Meng Hai and I went behind him. I pressed a palm behind his back and began redirecting the poison pill I gave him. It was a poison made from a Death Cape Spiritual mushroom. In low dosages, it could help a cultivator relax, but in a pill, it will cause hallucinations and give the consumer a heart attack in less than a minute. But there was also a secondary effect to the Death Cape Spiritual Mushroom, it is a jealous poison and will actively assault any other poisonous substance and encompass it within it.

And it worked wonders in consuming the Purple Jade Marrow Poison. Once it contained it and was about to start wrecking through Meng Hao's body, I guided the poison to the wound in his kidney. Black blood began seeping out of Meng Hao's side until clear red blood came out to wash over it.

Meng Hao's complexion turned pale and I handed him two more pills. A blood restoring pill and a healing pill.

"Take this and take a half an hour rest, you'll feel better, and as a bonus, your marrow has been cleansed," I said to Meng Hao.

"Most impressive!" the emperor began clapping and almost all the audience followed suit. Definitely not for me but to give the emperor 'face'. Man, I hate this expression something fierce.

"Not only did you treat a friend, but you also showed us all how one can use poison to counter poison, your name shall go down in the history of the Zhou continent as the discoverer of the Purple Jade Marrow's cure."

I stood and faced the emperor saying "I won't dare claim I discovered the cure, there are probably many people who figured it out, but sadly the Death Cap spiritual Mushroom can only work on weak poisons."

"Right, I believe you would have used it against the Bone and Body Grinding Poison plaguing you."

"It wouldn't work. This damn poison is really persistent and can't be removed. I'll figure something someday for now I'm good as I am." I said to the emperor.

"HA! So promising, and so humble. You've earned yourself a seat at my table. Do you still wish to partake in this event? You seem to be qualified to be a good alchemist."

"Yeah, I still do. I began alchemy a few months ago."

"Just a few months ago. The disciples here have been doing alchemy for years if not decades. You think you can compete with them?" the emperor asked.

"I'll do my best." I nodded to the emperor.

"Well, since our friend here is wounded, we'll delay the competition until little brother Meng Hao can stand and compete. Please forgive this delay but this emperor is fond of youths and enjoys seeing young talents." The emperor said and no one was going to object to his words.

The emperor suddenly took off to the skies and flew all the way back to his own seat where many people surrounded him were talking vehemently to him and pointing at us. I couldn't hear what they were saying but the gentle smile on the emperor's face was significant enough that it wasn't something bad.

I looked at Meng Hao and said, "Who poisoned you?" I asked.

"As much as I appreciate your help, I'd like to take care of my own troubles myself. I'll repay this favor. This I promise."

"I shook my head, "Nothing is owed between friends. Sister Yan Song, take care of my little brother, also I still have your token I'll make sure to pay a visit to your sect soon enough." I said then sat down to meditate, I needed to be in perfect mental condition once the event starts, I wasn't going to waste all that time I spent making my Qi furnace and not even showing the world how it works.