Chapter 9: Learning Without Shame

  In the following year, young Fan Xian began to follow Fei teacher from Kyoto to learn all about poisonous knowledge. Occasionally, he would sneak out of the city, climb mountains and cross ridges to find plant-based poisons such as Ma Qianzi and Barbados nuts. He also tasted various fungi, suffering stomach pain countless times. If it weren't for having a poison master by his side, he might have gone to the underworld long ago.

  Of course, in order to learn more deeply about all this, under the leadership of Fei Jie teacher, the private son of Count Sannan has committed countless bloody cases, and the souls of countless short-tailed little white rabbits and wandering toads have been buried under his delicate and weak hands.

  This year, Fan Xian was five years old.

  It's strange, after Fei Jie arrived at Danzhou Port, Wu Zhu who had been living in the grocery store seemed to no longer deliberately avoid Fan Xian. At least every time Fan Xian sneaked into the grocery store to drink wine that kids couldn't drink, Wu Zhu would always help him make a few small dishes to eat.

  Fan Xian was sometimes very strange, Wu Zhu was his mother's servant, why didn't he even care about drinking himself?

  Fan Xian knew that his mother must not be an ordinary person, so she would have a strong and terrifying servant like Wu Zhu. However, Fan Xian was also uncertain whether this blind master would stay by his side to protect him forever.

  For some reason, Fan Xian had gradually gotten used to Wu Zhu being not far away, guarding him. He was also accustomed to the black cloth covering Wu Zhu's eyes occasionally appearing in a certain corner, such as under the eaves of a bamboo house or beside a tofu stall on the street, and so on.

  In this year, Fan Xian's true energy inside his body has been advancing very slowly but exceptionally stably, and it seems to be approaching a certain threshold. However, the Overbearing True Energy that can be accumulated even in sleep has become somewhat unstable, making his emotions slightly irritable.

  He knew that in this still unfamiliar world, there were many unknown dangers, and at least in the Kyoto Shonan Earl's mansion, there must be many things he didn't understand very well.

  And after he just woke up, he set a goal for himself: "Live well and strive upwards every day!"

  It was because of this "great" goal that he was so persistent in his cultivation, in order to preserve his own life and carry out his even more "great" three major tasks later on.

  Moreover, because he suffered from severe myasthenia gravis in his previous life and was unable to move, the fact that he can now walk freely in this life makes Fan Xian cherish this ability even more. Every day at dawn, he gets up to exercise, climbing high and low, working hard to the point where even Fei Jie finds it terrifying.

  It's just a pity that I couldn't find any training methods for magic. If diligence is the criterion, he is absolutely more diligent than any child, but he often comforts himself, as a 20-year-old young man, of course, he should be more diligent than those little kids.

  Actually, nobody knows that he is not someone who can endure hardship, but rather has hyperactivity disorder. After lying in bed for over a decade, even the laziest person would no longer want to lie down.

  ……

  ……

  At night, Mr. Fei's solitary residence still had the glow of the oil lamp, he leaned against the table, his gray hair seemed to have more black than when he first arrived in Danzhou Port. At this time, he was holding a goose feather pen and writing something on white letter paper.

  A knock at the door was heard from outside, Fei Jie didn't even turn his head and said softly: "Come in."

  Fan Xian pushed open the door, stepped over the high threshold, rubbed his little head, and chuckled as he approached: "What is the teacher writing?"

  Fei Jie didn't avoid him at all, and very casually pushed the letter paper to one side, turned around and asked in a loud voice: "What's up?"

  After spending a year with the illegitimate son of Count Shangnan, for some reason, this toxicology expert from the Inspectorate who had made countless officials and thieves lose their souls, actually felt a little warmth in his heart. Looking at this young boy was genuinely delightful to him. The kid was very young, but he could endure hardship, was willing to study diligently, and didn't have that artificial aversion towards toxic substances like most people did. This made Fei Jie feel quite comfortable.

  Moreover, what's most important is that Fan Xian is very clever and sensible, and sometimes doesn't even seem like a five-year-old child.

  "Teacher." Fan Xian shifted his buttocks and moved to the bench with some difficulty, "I really want to know what kind of people my parents were."

  It was actually the fourth time in a year that Fan Xian had asked about the past of Count Sounan and his own mother, but every time he asked before, Fei Jie would not say a word.

  "Your father... is a great man." Fei Jie said: "Of course, your mother is an even greater person."

  It's all talk and no action. The Control Yuan is the most feared place in the country, responsible for investigating major cases of corruption and crimes committed by officials, and Fei Jie was one of its early members, later serving as the head of the Third Bureau, a position of great power and prestige, making him an object of fear and respect even in Kyoto, a city full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers.

  It was such a terrifying poisonous sect master who was actually sent to the distant city of Tangzhou by Count Sannan with just one sentence to teach his own illegitimate son.

  It's imaginable how terrifying the power of Count Sanno in Kyoto is, but it's unknown whether this power is on the surface or hidden energy.

  As for the mother who died on her own "birthday", Fan Xian didn't know what kind of woman she was, but his intuition told him that this mother must be very unusual. And he didn't know if it was because of their physical blood relationship or something else, but he always felt a faint sense of longing for that nameless, never-seen woman deep down inside.

  Fei Jie seemed reluctant to discuss the matter, and asked lightly: "Since your aunt has already given birth to a son, you naturally won't be able to inherit everything from the Earl's estate in the future. What do you plan to do?"

  Fan Xian smiled sweetly: "Teacher taught me to use poison, also taught me to detoxify, actually learned a lot of medical knowledge, in the future if all else fails, can go be a doctor."

  He stroked his whiskers and said proudly, "That's natural. Even the imperial physicians in the palace can't surpass me in medical skills. As my only student, you will naturally become a great doctor in the future."

  The two masters and apprentices were talking like this, but in fact they both deeply understood that it was just a luxury.

  Fan Xian suddenly spoke up and asked: "Teacher, the true energy method I've been practicing seems to have some problems. Actually, I came over quietly tonight to ask for your guidance."

  Fei Jie believed that in terms of poisoning, no one in the world was better than him. However, he had always refused to teach Fan Xian any other skills, because he would often say to Fan Xian:

  "Human life is limited, but the methods of killing are infinite, so we should put our limited life into the infinite pursuit of the most lethal method of killing."

  In Mr. Fei's eyes, the most ruthless way of killing someone is poisoning.

  Now that Fan Xian has the best poison master, what's the point of cultivating true energy? As for the spells that Fan Xian can't forget, Fei Jie also thinks like ordinary people in Qing Guo, that it's just a supplementary combat technique.

  But today Fan Xian took the initiative to ask, which was also the first time in a year. Fei Jie couldn't help but be curious, stretched out two fingers, and lightly touched his pulse, his face suddenly changed color.