Chapter 210 - A Blunt Thorn
"The Partial Poison Immunity Pill." Daniel said while forcing a wisp of immortal essence to cover the grey pill, and moving it out of the small box and above his palm. He then slowly turned around in order to let the public get a good look at it, as well as letting his words sink in their mind.
The crowd had suddenly fell silent. Everybody knew the words that Daniel had just pronounced, but they couldn't place them together. There was no poison immunity pill in the small planet from which they came from.. Nor solar system, or even galaxy at that.
Noticing that nobody knew what to say, Daniel put the pill back into the small box, and said "Does anybody have a question?" His tone contained a hint of embarrassment. He truly did not expect to shock all of these people into a coma.
Daniel's words reached their ears like a set of small flying knives straight through their bodies, causing at least twenty percent of the people in the hall to spring up on their feet, and shout questions at different volumes of voices. All of a sudden, the hall had turned from a quiet room, into the busiest of marketplaces.
"Hold on, hold on!" Said Daniel with a tone slightly more powerful than anybody else's "The mister with the red hat!" He then added while pointing at a middle aged man that fitted the description. He was clearly taking the responsibility to pick an order that would allow people to ask questions.
Unfortunately, it didn't work. The crowd started to shout even louder, making it impossible for him to understand any of them clearly. This situation went on for a few seconds before Daniel, unable to stand it anymore.. "ENOUGH!"
This shout carried the full power of a sixth stage immortal cultivator, and only the company heads, as well as the guards that had been lent by the governor, were capable of withstanding its power. Of course, Daniel hadn't used the mere power to quieten this crowd down. He had instead used sound essence, which was much more useful, as it would directly overpower the tone of their voices.
Quietness finally came back into the hall as the many company heads sat back down on their seats in a barely stable state of mind.
"The gentleman with the red hat. Please." Repeated Daniel with a much more serious tone. He couldn't afford to lose control of the crowd now, and if the cost was to appear a little rude, then so be it. He was not planning on looking like somebody that could easily be pushed around.
The man with the red hat stood up once again, and asked "Greetings head of the Golden Karma. My name is Rua, of the Ninima family.. My question is.. Can you go into deeper detail about what you mean with 'partial poison immunity'?"
"Of course Mr. Rua. I mean that this pill is capable of changing one's body, and making it permanently immune to a certain level of poison." Responded Daniel with calmness. He was naturally not going to appear rude if people simply asked questions to him, after all, this is what he wanted.
"What level of poison are we talking about?" Asked a second man in the crowd out of the blue.
Daniel turned to look at this second man, and said "Anything with a toxicity inferior to the poison of a two thousand year old ancient red carp." His response was clear, and yet his tone was not that amiable anymore.
The jaws of every single cultivator that was adept in the arts of alchemy and poison making looked at the grey pill in shock. At least half of them could barely believe what they were hearing. To them, people who constantly came into contact with poisonous ingredients, this pill meant literally everything.
A third man, which Daniel quickly recognized as the head of one of the families which belonged to the poisonous rose, said "What do you mean with 'To cure the Poison of the Night Blue Thorn'? Are you implying that this pill can also cure such a powerful designed poison?"
A faint smile appeared on Daniel's face, as he said "I am not implying it.. I'm saying it clearly. This pill was designed as a permanent cure for the poison, which personally took me weeks of long work to create. But when I've found out about the actual pill I had created, I've decided to rename this pill as 'The Partial Poison Immunity Pill'.. As the fame of the poison is not worth the value of this discovery."
Satisfied and yet not happy with Daniel's response, the man followed up with another question. "How can we know that you are saying the truth?"
"I have personally ingested one of these pills, and I am willing to make a demonstration on my own body." Responded Daniel with confidence. "Anyone that is willing to waste one of your poisons in order to test my work, is welcome to come on stage."
After hearing Daniel's words, an almost decrepit old man stood up from his chair, and slowly walked out of his seat. He wore a black robe, and moved around with a walking stick. Daniel could have easily teleported this man on stage, but he knew that that would look disrespectful towards everyone who was present. Almost as if his time was too important to wait a couple of minutes for this old man to reach the stage.
Exactly two minutes later, the old man reached the stage. Then, he took a small bottle out of his spatial ring. Daniel knew what this pill was, as he had had to check the contents of the rings of everybody before allowing them here.
"You know what this is?" Asked the old man with a croaky voice.
"An extract of blue primula. Same toxicity as the poison of a thousand years old Ancient Red Carp. Correct?" Responded Daniel while nodding slightly.
"Three drops.. And I will believe you." Said the old man while handing the small bottle to Daniel.
Daniel turned to look at the grandstands, and said "Is there somebody here that wishes to check the content of this bottle? I won't ask you to believe my words, or those of this elder."
"I'll bite into it." Said a man which Daniel recognized as one of the teachers of the 'The Superior Academy'. This teacher was in charge of teaching botany, but for a certain reason, all of his lectures were focused on how to recognize poisonous ingredients, how to carefully extract the toxins while keeping their effectiveness, and how to stabilize them for future use.
This man quickly jumped on stage from his seat, which was in the third row, and therefore really close to the stage. After approaching the old man which was still holding the small bottle, he took the bottle directly from the old man's hand, and smelled its content. His expression could already confirm that the poison was actually an extract of the blue primula, but instead of saying it, he poured a drop of it on his palm, which he then poked with his tongue and immediately spat out.
"It's really a blue primula extract.." muttered the teacher before handing the bottle over to Daniel, which curiously looked at the spectators, and after smiling faintly, he simply took the bottle and downed it until the bottle was completely empty.
Under the shocked eyes of the thousand of cultivators which were expecting for Daniel to drop dead at any moment.. He stood quietly, while showing a face contorted in disgust. "So bitter.. I understand why you'd want to spit that out.." said Daniel casually.
This last casual phrase, was the spark that once again set the fire ablaze.
The buzz of conversation exploded once again, eliminating the possibility of having any sort of conversation amongst two people. Daniel could not quite clearly understand what everybody was saying, but he could hear some people asking for another test, some asking to know if the recipe would ever be made public, or if the pill could be purchased.
In the middle of this mayhem, the man that had asked to Daniel if the pill actually cured the Navi's family poison, had quietly left the hall along with his two companions. Daniel was actually hoping that this would happen, as what he was hoping to achieve, was that at least one of the groups connected to Serf's family would go and deliver the news to them.
"Please, One at a time!" Said Daniel out loud, this time succeeding in his intent of shutting the crowd down. "You, the gentleman with the cauldron pattern robe, and the white beard." He then added while pointing at an old man that was eagerly raising his hand in hope to have a turn to ask questions.
"Mr. Hiel, will any of those pills be for sale?" Asked the old man.
The moment the old man asked this question, the hall became so quiet that Daniel could even hear the noise of his own breathing.
"Not at the moment. We will not sell them until we will manage to secure a method to mass produce them. I don't want to favor any part of a feud I know nothing about without even knowing it. This is just a presentation." Responded Daniel plainly, before turning to look at another middle aged man which was standing politely in wait. "The sir with stylish blue shirt."
Slightly embarrassed, the man asked "Are there any known side effects to this pill?"
"Yes. But I would rather not make them know for now. It's an additional way to keep my company's invention safe." Responded Daniel with a dismissive tone. He was obviously referring to the fact that whoever tried to ingest the pill, would definitely die. The only reason why Daniel had survived, was because he already had a poison in his body which the pill could fight against.. But if he hadn't been poisoned, he would have likely died from the extreme toxicity of the pill itself.
For the following half hour, Daniel kept answering to each of the answers from the many cultivators that had decided to join the event, and now, the even was finally over, and Daniel was able to dismiss the still shocked group of company heads from his territory with kind regards.
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Navi family residence, main hall. 2 in the morning.
"HE DID WHAT?!" Shouted the old lady with as much anger as her old brain could allow her to feel.
The man that had witnessed personally to Daniel's demonstration was now standing in front of her, and was ready to try and escape at any moment, as he knew of how rash the women of this family could be.
"As I've said, Lady Navi.. the kid created a cure for your family poison." Responded the middle aged man before inching backwards.
"GET ALANA HERE! NOW!!" The old lady was out of her mind. A thousand thoughts were twisting in her mind. Thoughts about what would happen to her family's future in the poisonous rose if their poison was rendered harmless, about how the poisonous rose would want to know how that could have happened, and why was this young man so keen on making a cure for her poison. And most of all, she couldn't stop thinking about the fact that the rashness of her grand daughter was what had caused all of this.
In a couple of minutes, the usually cold mother of Serf and Alana appeared with a visibly worried expression on her face. She was now dragging her daughter in front of her own mother. She wasn't worried about her daughter as much as she was worried about the reputation of her family being destroyed just a few years before she could take over.
Alana was in tears, and was fully aware that her grandmother wasn't the forgiving type. So, she fell on her knees, and said in between sobs "Grandmother.. P-please.. Don't kill me.. I know how to fix this.. I swear!.."
Lady Navi rose up on her feet, and after approaching her grand daughter for whom she felt nothing but hate at the moment, she said "Your life depends on the next words that will come out of your mouth. Make them count!"