213: Chapter 213 Mo Yuan Uses Another Poisonous Scheme; Traitor Poisons Alchemy Refining

The setting sun had completely dipped below the horizon, yet the last lingering rays of light still clung to the eaves of the Alchemy Workshop.

A breeze blew from the Medicinal Field, carrying the scent of scorched earth and residual ash, swirling around the hem of Chen Wuwang's cloak.

Without pausing, he strode through the western corridor of the main domain, heading toward the cluster of buildings where wisps of smoke curled into the air.

Outside the Alchemy Workshop, the guarding Disciples were in the middle of a shift change. Seeing the Family head arrive, they lowered their heads in salute one after another.

Chen Wuwang gave a slight nod. The blue light of his Mechanical Prosthetic Eye flickered softly as he scanned the access control talisman board—the records were normal, with no unauthorized entries or exits.

He paused for a moment, then raised his hand to push open the heavy bronze door.

Inside the workshop, the furnace fires had not been extinguished, and several main cauldrons were still humming, emitting a faint fragrance of medicinal herbs.

The duty manager came forward, his voice respectful: "The third batch of Qi Gathering pills has already been placed in the furnace today. We expect them to be finished by tomorrow morning, and the quality is estimated to be top-tier."

"What about the raw materials?" Chen Wuwang asked.

"The Scrophularia powder was brought into the warehouse this morning. It passed the triple Spiritual Qi inspection and is free of Impurities and contamination," the manager said, handing over the register. "It was personally escorted by Old Zhao from the logistics team, and the procedure was fully compliant."

Chen Wuwang took the register, his fingertip lightly tracing over the two characters for "Scrophularia."

A stream of data flooded into his consciousness. The family rise system was running silently, yet no warnings popped up.

He closed the register and said calmly: "Continue to keep watch. I am going to check the constant temperature zone."

The manager withdrew.

He walked slowly along the corridor, his gaze sweeping over every ventilation opening and every monitoring crystal plate. Everything was as usual.

Yet, the calmer things were, the more he felt something weighing on his heart, like a fine needle pricking at his nerve endings—something he couldn't quite articulate or define.

He stood outside the constant temperature zone, looking through the glass wall at the rows of neatly arranged medicine jars inside.

The raw materials to be used for Alchemy tomorrow were currently lying quietly in the sealed troughs, emitting a faint glow of Spiritual Qi.

The Scrophularia powder was grayish-white and fine as dust, showing no signs of anything unusual.

Chen Wuwang turned and left, his footsteps steady as his figure disappeared into the night.

No one saw that less than a quarter of an hour after he left, a dark figure quietly appeared in the back alley of the raw material warehouse.

The person was wearing a standard logistics servant uniform, with the brim of his hat pulled very low, and the identity badge on his chest was blurred.

He skillfully avoided the patrol route, swiped his finger across the door lock's talisman array, and actually unlocked the level three protection directly.

The door opened and closed immediately. The shadow flashed inside.

The warehouse was dimly lit, with only a few energy-saving Spiritual lamps providing illumination.

He walked straight toward the Scrophularia powder storage trough, his movements without a hint of hesitation.

He opened the sealed lid, took out a tiny jade bottle from his sleeve, and poured out a few drops of nearly transparent liquid.

The liquid fell into the powder, seeping in silently without even a hint of a scent being stirred up.

He stirred it gently three times, put away the bottle, closed the trough, and restored the Seal. The entire process took no more than ten breaths.

After doing this, he stood in place, slightly lifted his head, his eyes vacant, as if waiting for some instruction.

A moment later, he murmured a sentence that no one could understand, his voice hoarse and distorted, as if it did not come from a human mouth.

Subsequently, he exited the warehouse, locked the door again, and disappeared into the night as if he had never appeared.

The next morning, just as dawn broke.

The Alchemy Workshop started the constant temperature distillation procedure on time.

The furnace fires rose, steam filled the air, and a strange smell gradually began to drift through the air.

At first it was extremely faint, mixed in with the medicinal fragrance, making it almost impossible to distinguish.

Several early-shift Disciples sniffed, assuming it was a byproduct of the herb reaction, and no one thought much of it.

It wasn't until an apprentice carrying a medicine ladle passed by the main trough that he suddenly frowned and stopped.

"This smell... it's not right." He leaned in to sniff, then backed away. "Why is it a bit sweet and fishy? Like rotten flowers mixed with rust?"

The Senior Brother beside him glanced over: "Don't make a fuss. The new batch of Scrophularia naturally has a bit of an earthy, fishy smell. Besides, since when do you understand pharmacology? Get back to work."

The apprentice scratched his head and walked away, muttering.

That scent continued to drift within the workshop, lingering in and out of existence, entwining itself between everyone's breaths like mist.

Meanwhile, Chen Wuwang was setting out from his residence, heading to the Council Hall.

When passing the outer corridor of the Alchemy Workshop, his footsteps suddenly halted.

His Mechanical Prosthetic Eye automatically focused, its blue light flickering rapidly.

In the air, a set of extremely subtle Spiritual Qi molecular fluctuations was captured—their arrangement violated natural laws, presenting a resonant pattern under some form of non-biological catalysis.

The duration was only 0.3 seconds before it immediately returned to normal.

He narrowed his eyes.

"Something is wrong," he said in a low voice.

His Mechanical Prosthetic Eye pulled up historical sampling data and began to compare it.

The data from last night's patrol had been stable and normal, but on the waveform graph at this moment, an imperceptible distortion peak had appeared, with the timestamp corresponding exactly to the moment the constant temperature procedure started.

He slowly walked toward the main gate of the Alchemy Workshop, his nostrils twitching slightly.

That sweet, fishy smell entered his nasal cavity; it was not strong, yet it made one inexplicably palpitate with unease.

Ordinary Disciples could not smell the abnormality because their senses were unable to distinguish this level of toxin—

This was a neurological toxin designed specifically for high-level Cultivators. It had a long incubation period, struck without warning, and could precisely interfere with the rhythm of Spiritual Qi circulation, leading to Qi Deviation.

Chen Wuwang stood outside the door and did not go in immediately.

He knew that someone had tampered with it.

The poison had already been administered. But the question was—who?

In his mind, he quickly reviewed all personnel movement records from last night to this morning.

A servant with a blurred identity badge, an unreported raw material handover, time gaps in the surveillance blind spots...

There were too many clues, yet they could not be pieced together into a complete picture.

What made him even more vigilant was that the family rise system remained silent.

Three heavenly secret instructions were generated as usual, but the contents were:

"There will be a thunderstorm in the East Ridge at high noon"

"The young son of the Beipo Liu Clan will Awaken a Wood Spiritual Root"

"The irrigation pipe network of the Medicinal Field must be upgraded within seven days."

None of these were related to the current situation.

This meant that the poisoner's method had completely bypassed the System's early warning mechanism.

Either it was a coincidence, or—the other party had already figured out certain patterns.

He raised his hand, switched his Mechanical Prosthetic Eye to molecular-level scanning mode, and took three consecutive samples of the air.

The data converged into a light screen that appeared in his consciousness: the toxic components had not yet been fully analyzed, but one thing could be confirmed—it was not naturally generated, but a synthetic poison processed through multiple purification and gene-splicing techniques, and its source most likely pointed to the Demon Race or the biochemical laboratories of Cthulhu believers.

Mo Yuan's name surfaced in his mind.

That lunatic still hadn't given up.

The last Puppet attack failed, so this time he had switched to a more insidious trick—not killing people, but destroying trust first.

Once there was a problem with the Qi Gathering pills, even if only a few Disciples experienced discomfort after taking them, it would shake the very Foundation of trust within the entire Alliance.

People would ask: Is the Chen Family's technology really reliable? Can their Medicinal Pills still be eaten? Does their System have loopholes as well?

Once suspicion took root, it would spread like a wildfire.

Chen Wuwang withdrew his hand, his eyes turning cold.

He did not order the scene to be sealed off, nor did he summon anyone.

He knew that alerting the enemy now would only cause the traitor to hide deeper.

He had to wait—wait for the toxicity to fully manifest, wait for the evidence to surface on its own.

But he could not do nothing.

He stood at the end of the corridor, watching the busy figures inside the Alchemy Workshop, and whispered to himself: "Who opened the door for you? Who let you touch the materials? Do you think I can't see you?"

As his words fell, he stepped forward and walked into the workshop.

In the air, that sweet, fishy smell seemed to have grown even stronger.