Chapter 85: A Stunning Face Paired with a Receding Hairline Style

Ming Ze swept a hand through his hair. This was not the same as stroking a cat; why was he losing so much of it? His face turned ashen as he cried, “What... what poison did you give me?”

Xia Jiujiang shrugged. “Nothing much. The one that makes your hair fall out is simply the baldness powder.”

Ming Ze let out a horrified cry. “Baldness? You made my peerless beauty go bald!”

With his soft curls and foreign features, he had bewitched countless maidens. Xia Jiujiang had the nerve to do this to him, and Ming Ze was furious enough to spit fire from all seven apertures.

Xia Jiujiang smiled wickedly. “A peerless face suits a monk's crown, don't you think? It makes it special.”

“You... you... how can you be so wicked!” Ming Ze stamped his feet in rage.

The two hulking men beside him were his guards, Hei Da and Hei Er. They exchanged glances now and then; their master had no self-awareness at all. When it came to wickedness, who could possibly compare to Ming Ze, the little tyrant of the Southern Realm?

Still, it was impressive that this woman could make that tyrant lose his temper so completely.

Xia Jiujiang gave a cold laugh. “I haven't broken any rules. The rules only forbid poison that kills people. So why is it all right for you to poison me with Bone-Burning Incense, a drug that ruins a person's appearance, but not for me to give you one that makes you go bald?”

It would have been generous not to turn Ming Ze into a monk.

He simply lacked the skill to win. He was the one who had challenged her to a poison duel, and now he had the gall to blame Xia Jiujiang for giving him a baldness poison? If he didn't want to compete, he shouldn't have started.

Once again, Ming Ze had been outmaneuvered by Xia Jiujiang. Ever since he had encountered her, nothing good had happened. At the Great Glass Temple, she'd tricked him three times. Now at the Four-Directions House, she'd tricked him again—tricked him into a poison duel, and tricked him into baldness!

What an utter humiliation.

Jun Buwen secretly glanced at Xia Jiujiang. The little fox looked truly triumphant now, one leg shaking as she munched melon seeds. The damage was not great, but the insult was devastating.

Ming Ze trembled all over in fury. Then, with a sudden loud blast, he let out an earthshaking fart in full view of everyone.

Ashamed and pale, he was assailed by one blast after another. His whole body shook. “What... what else did you do!”

Xia Jiujiang went on, “The baldness is only the beginning. Now your qi is out of balance.”

“Only the beginning!” Ming Ze shrieked.

His stomach cramped uncontrollably, and waves of gas kept surging downward. The spectacle was enough to drive everyone back in alarm.

Ming Ze roared, “You cheated! You poisoned me with so many drugs, you poisonous woman!”

Xia Jiujiang looked at him with contempt. “What, there was a rule saying I could only use one poison? You couldn't even poison me yourself, and now you blame me for using several? Besides, this really is one poison. The baldness, the farting, and the freckles are all just side effects.”

Ming Ze felt a mouthful of dark blood lodge in his chest.

Xia Jiujiang said, “Don't get angry. The angrier you are, the more you fart...”

As if on cue, Ming Ze let out another thunderous blast.

What a disgrace!

But his qi was already chaotic; if his internal energy could not gather properly, any reckless movement would be dangerous.

The onlookers gathered around Ming Ze and Xia Jiujiang began to drift away from behind him one by one, all of them regarding him with the same amused expression, as if watching a joke.

Seeing his face go red while he still stubbornly refused to surrender, Xia Jiujiang sighed. “Since you can't cure the poison, then you've lost. And thank you, dear grandson, for helping me spend your money and win the Medical Gu Poison Classic. Such a filial child.”

“You...” Ming Ze's face reddened with embarrassment. The Medical Gu Poison Classic of the Southern Realm was a sacred treasure, yet after the departure of the previous saintess, Nangong Zhaoxue, it had been lost to the world. How could he stand by and watch the holy treasure of his homeland fall into someone else's hands?

And seeing Xia Jiujiang's smug expression, as though she were waiting for him to beg, only made the fire in his chest burn hotter.

Hei Da stepped forward and said, “Please, have mercy and spare my master.”

Hei Er added, “My master is unruly by nature and only issued the challenge out of impulse. Please spare him.”

Xia Jiujiang blinked meaningfully. “You want the antidote? Easy. I've already had you call me Grandpa, so what should you call me now?”

Ming Ze's face darkened like ink. Farting in public was humiliation enough; now she wanted him to call Xia Jiujiang Grandma. How could he possibly say it out loud? Yet the more he refused, the less he could hold it in.

He tried to endure, but suddenly his face began to itch, and the people around him began pointing in bafflement.

“Why does his face look like that?”

“Right? It really is terrifying.”

Panic seized Ming Ze. “Give me a mirror. Hurry, give me a mirror.”

Hei Da helplessly took a small bronze mirror from his sleeve. Ming Ze cared most about his face. When he saw his reflection blooming with a field of freckles, he howled in misery. “What poison did you give me? Why has my face turned into this!”

Xia Jiujiang soothed him. “Don't worry. This is the last side effect. Baldness, farting, and freckles—there won't be any more. How about it? Isn't my poison even more unforgettable than Bone-Burning Incense?”

“Aah!” Ming Ze felt as though he might go mad. He had wanted to hold out for the sake of his dignity, but with even his face ruined, what dignity was left to protect?

At last, the little tyrant of the Southern Realm had met his match.

Xia Jiujiang looked at his crumbling expression. “Still not surrendering?”

Ming Ze clenched his teeth. “I won't. In any case, after a stick of incense, the poison's effect will be gone.” He wanted to preserve the last shred of his pride. Even if he lost after the incense burned out, he could not beg Xia Jiujiang for mercy.

Xia Jiujiang grinned wickedly. “Baldness, farting, and freckles last for only one stick of incense. After that, the poison really will fade—but your baldness and freckles will remain as aftereffects.”

The moment he heard that, Ming Ze immediately threw in the towel and knelt to beg for mercy. Tears streaming down his face, he cried, “I lost. Give me the antidote quickly.”

Xia Jiujiang held back her laughter. “Why are you so rushed? Since you've lost, what should you call me?”

The people around them jeered thoughtlessly.

“Say it!”

“Big grandson, your grandma is waiting.”

“Exactly. Respect the old and cherish the young. Hurry up and show your elders some respect.”

Ming Ze ground out the words, “Gr... grandma...”

Xia Jiujiang scooped up a handful of melon seeds and placed them into Ming Ze's hands. “Good grandson, here are some melon seeds for you. Eat them. You were so obedient and even helped your grandma pay for the Medical Gu Poison Classic.”

Ming Ze trembled all over. How utterly insulting!

The people from the Four-Directions House delivered the Medical Gu Poison Classic into Xia Jiujiang's hands and announced, “The poison duel is over. The young master in Heaven Room Number One has won. The bill for the Medical Gu Poison Classic goes to Earth Room Number One.”

Holding the Medical Gu Poison Classic, Xia Jiujiang's eyes gleamed with excitement. Ming Ze said unwillingly, “The item is already in your hands. Can you give me the antidote now?”

Xia Jiujiang spoke without pause. “Oh, the antidote? Simple. Drink a little boy's urine and you'll be cured without a trace.”