"Alchemy Master Niu is here, make way!" The crowd hurriedly cleared a path.
A middle-aged man clad in a second-grade alchemist robe strode over, his face full of authority.
The miserably beaten Young Master Niu cried out with a sobbing tone, "Dad, you must avenge me! This vile lowlife… he crippled me… sob sob…"
Upon seeing his son in such a state, Alchemy Master Niu erupted in fury, "Who dares to cripple Niu Baotian's son? I'll ruin you today!"
"Medicine Hall guards, where are you? Capture him! Break his legs and throw him out!"
With a cold command from Alchemy Master Niu, two ferocious and powerful guards charged forward. They were evidently much stronger than the gate guards outside, their cultivation at least at the first level of Sword Master, with steady strides and movements swift as lightning.
Before Chu Feng could even register their motion, he was already subdued.
"Please, I beg you! Let him go, let him go! It was Young Master Niu who bullied him first, and he only retaliated..." Lin Yuxin's face turned pale with fear as she continuously pleaded with them to spare Chu Feng.
"Little sweetheart, don't be afraid! Your boyfriend isn't that much of a loser!"
"These clowns want to deal with me? They're still far too green for that!"
Even though Chu Feng was captured, he remained utterly arrogant, showing no sign of someone about to be beaten into oblivion.
"Still daring to act cocky? Beat him, beat him mercilessly!" Alchemy Master Niu's face turned ashen with anger. Someone of his lofty status being provoked by a mere junior—what insolence!
Unexpectedly, Chu Feng raised his neck slightly, sneering coldly. "A mere Xie Wood Flower and Realgar can't suppress Purple Mandala Poison!"
The moment Alchemy Master Niu arrived, Chu Feng had already detected the unique scent of Xie Wood and Realgar mingling together. A glance at the unhealthy flush on Niu's face, his slightly swollen eyes, and the small red spots on his hands and neck confirmed it further.
It looked like marks left by mosquito bites.
But Chu Feng wasn't an ordinary person; in his past life, he was none other than the illustrious Eternal Life Pill Master. Just a whiff and a look, and he immediately deduced that Alchemy Master Niu had been poisoned during his alchemical practices.
It's common for alchemists to get poisoned while refining elixirs and medicines.
For ordinary poisons, alchemists can typically resolve them easily.
After all, alchemists are pharmacists themselves, adept at identifying pharmacology and understanding the properties of various medicines.
However, the poison infiltrating Alchemy Master Niu was no small matter. If not for encountering Chu Feng today, he would've coughed blood and convulsed to his death within two months.
Hearing Chu Feng accurately identify the exact poison afflicting him, Alchemy Master Niu was visibly shaken, staring at Chu Feng in alarm.
"How does this brat know I'm poisoned? And he's pinpointing it so precisely!"
"During my previous attempt at a new formula for refining a third-grade elixir to break into the third-grade alchemist level, I made a critical error and ended up poisoned by Mandala."
"Normal Mandala Poison is relatively easy to counter. But this strain of Purple Mandala Poison is particularly potent and eerie. I tried countless remedies, but none worked."
Alchemy Master Niu's face shifted unpredictably. Concerned about his own life, he immediately raised his hand to halt the two guards.
Ordering them not to rush to maim Chu Feng.
This brat not only knew what poison he was afflicted with but also accurately identified the infamous Purple Mandala Poison. It was enough to make Alchemy Master Niu reevaluate him with heightened caution.
"How did you know what poison this alchemist was afflicted with?" Alchemy Master Niu couldn't help but ask.
Chu Feng was dressed merely in the uniform of a low-grade student from the Alchemy Academy, someone Alchemy Master Niu had only regarded as a beginner learning the basics of alchemy.
How could someone like this, an inexperienced youth who didn't even qualify as an apprentice, discern the poison's nature? It was baffling.
"I guessed!" Chu Feng revealed a toothy grin.
"You…" Alchemy Master Niu was left speechless, refusing to believe Chu Feng's bogus excuse.
"Want to live? Call me grandpa and let's hear it first!" Chu Feng maintained his insufferable grin.
"You…" Alchemy Master Niu's body trembled with rage. A sitting second-grade alchemist from the Elixir Medicine Guild, with a highly esteemed position, being asked to call Chu Feng grandpa—it was absurdly audacious.
To onlookers, this was nothing short of courting death.
Lin Yuxin had been completely dumbfounded, her beautiful eyes widened, staring unblinkingly at Chu Feng.
She had always dismissed Chu Feng as a hopeless underachiever.
Yet today, his performance was overturning everything she knew about him.
First, in class, Chu Feng had correctly answered the wrong questions on her test paper. Then, during Teacher Xie's interrogation, he replied fluently with dazzling brilliance.
And now, he audaciously revealed the exact poison afflicting Alchemy Master Niu.
The surrounding crowd watching the commotion was similarly stunned. Initially, they thought Chu Feng was fabricating nonsense.
Unexpectedly, his statement turned out to be true.
After the anger subsided, Alchemy Master Niu took a deep breath, suppressing his fury, and waved at the two guards, saying, "Release him!" The guards immediately let go of Chu Feng.
"May I ask your honorable name?" Alchemy Master Niu, taking his life seriously, decided to probe further before acting rashly.
"Your grandpa's surname is Chu, given name Feng! Feng as in 'graceful breeze'!" Chu Feng flexed his limbs to relieve the pain caused by the guards' iron grip earlier.
Alchemy Master Niu paused, realizing that there was only one family with the surname Chu in the entire Royal Capital.
He immediately deduced Chu Feng's identity. Fixating on him, Niu asked, "Elder Chu, do you truly know how to resolve the poison inside me?" Demonstrating some cleverness, he addressed Chu Feng as 'Elder Chu' rather than 'grandpa.'
"Hmph, Purple Mandala Poison—within the entire Dan State, the number of individuals capable of curing it wouldn't exceed twenty. You're lucky to have stumbled upon me!"
"Let me first teach you a method to preserve your life. Completely neutralizing this poison is quite troublesome. Since the toxin has deeply infiltrated your system and reached your heart, we can only proceed step by step!"
Chu Feng spoke with such conviction that Alchemy Master Niu began to trust him a little.
The spectators, however, erupted into mocking laughter.
They admired Chu Feng's brazen boastfulness, even managing to dumbfound a sitting second-grade alchemist.
"Dad, you can't believe this waste's nonsense! He's just a low-grade student at Alchemy Academy. In this term's midterm exams, the one who ranked dead last among the low-grade students, scoring a pathetic five points, was him."
Young Master Niu, still reeling from the kicks to his body, was overwhelmed by pain and humiliation.
And Lin Yuxin, the beauty before him, had witnessed all of his disgrace, intensifying his hatred towards Chu Feng.
He had hoped Alchemy Master Niu would avenge him!
But now that Alchemy Master Niu was seemingly won over by Chu Feng, even addressing him as Elder Chu, Niu's vengeance seemed unlikely.
"Shut up!" Alchemy Master Niu snapped at his son. Even if there was only a minuscule chance, he wouldn't let it slip.
When it involved his life, his son's beating paled in comparison.
"Fetch paper and pen, and I'll write you a prescription to save your life." Chu Feng commanded unceremoniously.
"Please step this way, Elder Chu!" Alchemy Master Niu respectfully invited Chu Feng into his alchemy room. In his heart, though, he silently plotted, "Whether this boy's prescription works or not, I can discern it in an instant. If he dares to deceive me, I'll ensure he dies a miserable death."
Chu Feng turned to look at Lin Yuxin, whose face was still etched with surprise as she stared at him.
"Wifey, wait for me—this won't take long!"
Lin Yuxin blushed furiously, her delicate face flushed like a sunset, and she glared at him fiercely. "Who's your wifey? Don't call me that randomly!" She had merely picked him as a temporary shield to shake off Young Master Niu's harassment.
Yet this 'shield' was not as easy to handle as she had hoped.
He had taken full advantage of her.