Chapter 55

"Grab the baby!"

This was a slightly more colloquial way of saying it, coming from Yue Yuan's mouth. In fact, it simply meant finding the five types of venomous creatures needed to practice the Five Toxins Secret Technique with the lame girl.

Fortunately, this was in ancient times, and most venomous creatures could be found in those deep mountains and old forests. If it were in modern times, unless you bought them, you would have to search around... well, probably the only thing you'd find would be cockroaches.

Even in the countryside today, such venomous creatures are quite rare, with toads being slightly more common.

And, of course, spiders.

But whether these spiders were venomous was something worth considering.

In ancient times, due to the different environment, it was much easier for Yue Yuan to obtain these venomous creatures compared to modern times. The only thing that modern times had an advantage in was convenience.

"..."

Looking up at the sky, Yue Yuan glanced at the afternoon sky, which was clear and cloudless, a truly good day. After another glance at the many withered leaves around him, Yue Yuan knew that finding toads and venomous snakes now would be extremely difficult.

These two had already begun their hibernation.

To find toads and venomous snakes on the ground would be a stroke of luck.

As for scorpions, they were even rarer in the Central Plains.

Beside the grass, the lame girl Lu Wushuang looked at Yue Yuan's back with surprise, watching him look around, occasionally gazing at the horizon, and sometimes pushing aside the grass to scan the surroundings. Though full of doubts, Lu Wushuang remained quiet and did not disturb him, just watching from the side.

"Wushuang, there's something I need to tell you about practicing the Five Toxins Secret Technique!"

After searching around, Yue Yuan suddenly turned his head and said to the lame girl Lu Wushuang standing behind him, "If you practice the Five Toxins Secret Technique using live creatures, the best time is around the Dragon Boat Festival!"

"Hmm?"

Hearing Yue Yuan's words, Lu Wushuang, who was deeply engrossed in the Five Toxins Secret Technique, asked in confusion, "Why is that?"

"During the Dragon Boat Festival, the weather is hot, the five toxins awaken, and they are restless!"

"This is a folk saying, because May is when these venomous creatures are most active. They will be out and about, making them easier to catch compared to now."

"You should know that toads, snakes, and centipedes all hibernate in winter and won't come out! And these things rarely appear during the day, mostly coming out at night."

Yue Yuan did not directly use the term "hibernation," but casually described it as "sleeping." As a disciple of the Red练Immortal Li Mochou, Lu Wushuang naturally knew some of the situations. She had some understanding of venomous creatures.

In Yue Yuan's view, Lu Wushuang's knowledge of venomous creatures was much stronger than her three-legged cat-like sword skills.

After all, when she was with the Red练Immortal Li Mochou, Lu Wushuang had already started to covet the Five Toxins Secret Technique written by Li Mochou.

Moreover, the Five Toxins Secret Technique was written in great detail, describing the appearance and habits of the five venomous creatures. It could be said that the Five Toxins Secret Technique was entirely Li Mochou's work. If it weren't for the unexpected incident at the inn, Li Mochou, who valued the Five Toxins Secret Technique so much, would not have left immediately.

It was very likely that she would have conducted a thorough search for Lu Wushuang.

However, while the Five Toxins Secret Technique described the habits of the venomous creatures, it did not mention their hibernation habits. Clearly, Li Mochou might have left something out, or perhaps the secret manual was not yet complete when it was stolen by Lu Wushuang.

More importantly, the Five Toxins Secret Technique also contained information about the antidote and preparation method for the Ice Soul Silver Needle.

In a sense, obtaining the Five Toxins Secret Technique basically revealed the essence of Li Mochou's martial arts, which was why Li Mochou valued it so much.

For example, the Ice Soul Silver Needle contained the highly toxic venom of a scorpion. From Yue Yuan's understanding of the descriptions in the book, he knew that it was a highly toxic neurotoxin from a scorpion, capable of causing severe local or systemic consequences, such as convulsions, paralysis, arrhythmia, and death.

Moreover, the main poison in Li Mochou's Five Toxins Palm was also likely to be scorpion venom. Otherwise, Wu Sanlang would not have been paralyzed and nearly died just from being touched by Li Mochou.

Furthermore, in Yue Yuan's eyes, Li Mochou was now almost like a scorpion spirit, occasionally stinging others.

Given the hibernation habits of the five toxins, the best time for Lu Wushuang to achieve some success in practicing the Five Toxins Secret Technique, in Yue Yuan's view, would be around the Dragon Boat Festival next year. After all, it was already autumn, and winter would soon arrive. Once winter came, it would be extremely difficult for Yue Yuan and Lu Wushuang, who were not familiar with the area, to dig out the venomous creatures hidden in the soil.

Therefore, given the wrong season and Lu Wushuang's lack of knowledge, Yue Yuan devised the best training plan for the lame girl in his mind.

That was to learn how to raise venomous creatures while practicing the Five Toxins Secret Technique.

Otherwise, to truly achieve mastery in the Five Toxins Secret Technique, relying solely on catching them by hand would take an indefinite amount of time.

While telling Lu Wushuang about the habits and other precautions of the five toxins, Yue Yuan also searched the nearby grass to see if he could get lucky and catch one.

Actually, in the world of "The Return of the Condor Heroes," there was a rare and ancient poison, the passion flower poison from the Valley of Absolute Affection. However, Yue Yuan did not think it was suitable for Lu Wushuang to practice the Five Toxins Secret Technique. For Yue Yuan, although it was not suitable, he had a great interest in it.

Yue Yuan had heard of the Three-Corpse Brain Spirit Pill, the Life and Death Mark of the Free and Easy School, and the Muscle-Dissolving Great Technique of the Xingxiu Sect, but the latter two were martial arts techniques. There were also the highly toxic substances like the Breeze of Sorrow from the First-Class Hall of Western Xia, but in terms of rarity, the passion flower was unmatched.

While contemplating the opportunity to obtain some passion flowers from the Valley of Absolute Affection, Yue Yuan suddenly brightened up after uncovering a lot of soil in front of him.

"Good luck!"

He had found a centipede about the length of a palm, its body a bright red, almost blood-colored. It seemed to be startled by Yue Yuan suddenly uncovering the soil above it and immediately started crawling around in the grass.

Casually breaking a piece of grass into two segments like chopsticks, he picked up the centipede that was crawling in front of him and turned to walk toward Lu Wushuang.

"Hey, Wushuang, I've caught a baby for you to carry around!"

Lu Wushuang, who was listening intently to Yue Yuan and trying to memorize everything, was startled when she looked up and saw a bright red centipede curled up and wriggling, being held by Yue Yuan with a piece of grass. She immediately jumped back, her hair almost standing on end.

Baby... baby?

If before, Lu Wushuang might have thought it was a child or something else, but now she finally understood what the "baby" meant by the Taoist in front of her. What shocked her even more was the phrase "carry around"...

Babies are meant to be carried around!

Thinking of this, and looking at the bright red centipede wriggling in Yue Yuan's hand, Lu Wushuang's face turned green.