Chapter 006: Poison

Farmer nodded gently, acknowledging this fact.
The two exchanged another glance and, in unison, drew their long swords from their waists, carefully making their way toward the direction of the divine palace.
Suddenly, a light laugh came from somewhere. Farmer and Witt were shocked, their faces filled with disbelief.
Du Fan appeared before them abruptly. With his hands behind his back, he walked slowly, saying as he went, “Your senior, Aldas, actually has quite good eyesight. To be honest, my strength isn’t even at level five. After all, I’ve only been practicing my combat energy for three months. If I can reach level three by then, that would already be remarkable. So, you guys might as well just attack me now and avenge your dead brothers.”
Although Farmer and Witt had spoken grandly earlier, facing Du Fan head-on, they didn’t know what to do. Though both Aldas and Du Fan themselves said Du Fan’s strength was below level five, could it really be trusted?
Full of doubt, Farmer and Witt hesitated. But fleeing in shame would be too embarrassing. They both raised their swords, their combat energies still burning.
However, Du Fan simply smiled faintly and said in a low voice, “It’s too late… If you had raised your swords a few steps earlier, you might have had a chance. But now…”
Before he could finish, Farmer and Witt’s heads sank downward, and they collapsed to the ground with a thud.
Looking at their bodies, Du Fan sighed. “Just two mediocre yet cowardly scumbags. They wasted so much of my poison? Sigh… This is a huge loss. Dozens of magic scrolls, piles of poison, sedatives, laxatives… If I sell these, how many gold coins will they be worth?”
Feeling pain at the loss, Du Fan began calculating again. If he could obtain one or two divine artifacts in the palace, his losses would definitely be made up. And even if he got nothing, returning safely would only boost his status in the Holy Church.
Thinking of this, Du Fan felt that all his spending these past few days was worth it. It was like paying to buy an official position. After all, with that mysterious girl, Chenchen, as long as he had money, would he worry about lacking magic scrolls or poison?

Du Fan sneered. With a flip of his right hand, a magic wand appeared in his grasp. He waved it a few times before uttering a few short spells. Several small tornadoes immediately wrapped around the two men on the ground, dragging them deep into the dense forest. After taking out some cowhide straps from his storage ring to tie them tightly, Du Fan roughly searched their bodies but found nothing valuable except for a few communication magic scrolls. With a resentful kick to one of their faces, he hung both of them upside down from a tree. Then, he waved his wand and scooped up some mud to block their mouths and noses. Moments later, loud coughing sounds arose as the two men, drugged into unconsciousness, slowly regained consciousness. When Witt and Farmer opened their eyes, they saw Du Fan walking back and forth in front of them, his expression inscrutable. They immediately felt a chill overtake them, wishing they could faint right away. But Du Fan smiled at them and said, “I am a very kind person. I suppose you’ve heard of the name ‘Priest Du Fan’ before. Then you should understand that as long as you don’t deliberately oppose me, I won’t trouble anyone. You see, I’ve never even killed an ant in my entire life.” Both men’s heads spun, and for the first time, they felt as if they could read each other’s thoughts: How dare this bastard claim to be kind? How dare he say he’s never killed an ant in his life? Du Fan, seemingly able to see through their thoughts, kicked one of them hard in the chest, infusing the kick with light combat energy and various spells—something truly bizarre. Witt and Farmer, caught off guard, had the energy penetrate their lungs, causing them to spew blood. But since they were hanging upside down, most of the blood flowed into their noses, triggering more intense coughing. They felt dizzy, saw stars before their eyes, and suffered severe chest pains. It wasn’t just torture—it was extreme torment. Yet Du Fan still wore a kind and holy smile. He kicked their heads lightly and said in a low voice, “I don’t like it when people slander me while I’m talking… Do you… understand what I mean?”

The two nodded repeatedly, eager to say, “Elder Du Fan, don’t even say you haven’t killed a single ant. Even if you claim an angel has descended, we’d still believe you!” Seeing their expressions, Du Fan smiled again and said, “That’s right… Alright… Now that you’ve felt my mercy, I suppose you’ll answer anything I ask, right? In that case, can you tell me… who else are there in your group who are formidable? What other trump cards does Aldas have? Is that possible?”
Whit hesitated for a moment before staying silent.
Farmer, on the other hand, whispered, “We don’t know…”
As soon as he finished speaking, Whit let out a half-screamed cry before his head fell to the ground. Blood sprayed from his neck, instantly turning Farmer’s entire body red.
Farmer broke into a cold sweat and was too stunned to speak.
Du Fan gently waved the long sword he must have pulled from Farmer’s waist at some point, blew off the blood droplets on it, then looked down at Farmer and said, “Now… do you know anything?”
Farmer tried to resist a bit longer, but upon seeing Du Fan’s smiling eyes, he felt a chill run through his body. Instantly, all his mental defenses collapsed, and he confessed everything he knew.
Du Fan listened while asking questions, pressing for details several times before finally believing Farmer’s account.
Among these confessions, besides revealing the strength of Roland Academy’s delegation this time, there was also news that greatly interested Du Fan.
It seemed that Bruce had somehow consulted some ancient texts and claimed the existence of a divine artifact in the Supreme God’s Palace, which excited Du Fan immensely.
He asked further about this artifact, but unfortunately, Farmer knew very little. After much questioning, no more useful information came out.
Du Fan sneered, thinking, No wonder they sent so many people this time, with such determination to succeed. And earlier, to please Aldas, they didn’t even care that he was from the Green family and tried to take his life. So that bastard Bruce was after the artifact after all.
But since the young master knows about this, when will it be your turn?
With this thought, Du Fan calculated briefly in his mind, and his original plan changed slightly. Yet his ultimate goal—obtaining the artifact successfully—would never change.

Finally, Du Fan ended the interrogation. He kept his word, agreeing to let Farmer go, and even gave him a healing potion with a rather complicated preparation process.
Looking at Du Fan’s smiling eyes, Farmer didn’t dare say much and could only force himself not to drink the potion. Moments later, he felt his injuries improve somewhat, which immediately sparked in him the desire to kill Du Fan right away to avenge Witt. But as soon as he stood up, Farmer felt a pain in his stomach and collapsed, never able to stand again.
Du Fan shook his head slightly as he watched his body, frowning and murmuring, “It seems adding poison to the healing potion works after all. But did I use too much? In that case… it won’t work if a group of people drinks it together.”
After thinking for a while, Du Fan decided he must study the ratio between healing potion and poison when he had time later. Yet somehow, he couldn’t help but sigh.
His attempt to seek wealth through danger seemed far more difficult than he thought. The Roland Academy was manageable—he might even have a chance to deal with them all at once—but how should he handle the people from the Holy Church?
After thinking some more, Du Fan felt another headache. In the end, he stopped thinking about it and took out a magic scroll from his pocket, throwing it on the ground.
A moment later, Ferey appeared in front of Du Fan. Seeing the two corpses before him, Ferey was surprised but said nothing.
Du Fan glanced at the corpses and said indifferently, “The plan has changed. Throw away the original body of the little white wolf and replace it with these two. I think since that magical beast in the lake likes blood, this should suit its taste better.”
Ferey frowned but didn’t say much. Instead, he picked up the two corpses and quickly left.
Du Fan watched him go, shook his head slightly, waved his wand to cover up the smell of blood, then glanced at the few communication magic scrolls in his hand. With a cold smile, he rushed toward a corner of the dense forest.
But this time, he didn’t retreat—he headed in the direction where Aldas and the others were.