Chapter 1382 - Death by Poison
He set up a simple campsite by the lake. Hunter Grandpa had taught Xia Fan wilderness survival skills, and they finally came in handy.
The camp was beautifully built. Situated between two big trees, Xia Fan used the method of binding tree vines to build the frame, and then layered it with soft branches so as to keep it hidden and warm.
Sustenance was fish that he caught from the lake, or the wild hares that ran about the forest grounds.
About twenty-seven kilometers south of the lake was a small farm. There lived a kindly old couple, and Xia Fan used the materials that he hunted to exchange for salt and other condiments from them.
This old couple operated a roughly four thousand hectares automated farm. They thought Xia Fan was a vagrant, which was why the childless couple invited Xia Fan to stay and help them with the work. In exchange, they would provide Xia Fan food and a living wage.
However, Xia Fan rejected their offer, because he now had an even more important matter at hand.
He added the leftover grilled fish from last night into a pot of water, along with the wild oats he had collected from the forest to cook himself porridge, and so made his breakfast.
After he was done with his meal, Xia Fan stood by the lakeside and faced the grassfields that stretched out as far as the eye could see, muttering to himself, “Don’t you all worry. No matter how tough it’s going to be, I’ll surely live on properly!”
These words were of course spoken for the sake of his Blind Grandpa and all the other scoundrels. Even if they could not hear him, Xia Fei still proclaimed that to motivate himself.
The dead would not be forgotten; Xia Fan was gradually coming to terms with it. Rather than wallow in his depression, it was better to like out his life to the fullest! After all, this was the biggest wish the people in the ancient tomb had for him. They would be looking after him from the heavens, and Xia Fan did not wish to disappoint them.
After sorting out his feelings, Xia Fan began a set of exercises.
This was the Startip Mantra, a required course that every special ability user needed to perform. Though Xia Fan did not have any special abilities in the past, the scoundrels had nevertheless taught him this introductory exercise.
Thirty minutes later, he concluded the warm-ups.
Xia Fan let out a sigh and proceeded to lean down on the ground, one hand pressed against the ground, adopting a rather strange starting stance.
Gritting his teeth, Xia Fan directed strength to his legs and a powerful explosive force traveled through his thighs down to his toes.
*Boom!*
Xia Fan’s entire body shot forth!
In the blink of an eye, he reached the incredible speed of 153 m/s!
Yes, a speed-type special ability!
This was the special ability he had acquired after his seventh brain region had been activated!
With the wind whistling in his ears, the trees at his sides quickly faded from his sight. Xia Fan was like a sharp arrow piercing through the sky!
Just two weeks ago, his top speed had been just 112m/s! Now it was already over 150m/s, achieving the standard of Star base rank 1.
It had taken Xia Fan more than a decade to reach 112m/s, and that had been thanks to eating an astronomical amount of Grade Nine energy crystals.
But now, the moment this mystical seventh brain region was opened, Xia Fan’s speed was climbing as madly as if he was a rocket! In just two weeks, he had already advanced to Star Base rank 1!
Every day his speed steadily increased, growing faster and faster!
Every minute he could clock 9.18 kilometers, and 550 kilometers in an hour. Xia Fan was advancing crazily!
Though Xia Fan was far away from the Skywing Wolfpack, the blood of the Fiends still coursed through his body!
At high speeds, it was as if his back had grown wings, flying through the galaxy and nine heavens!
Any male from the Skywing Clan with the surname of Xia had always been tyrannical!
In a situation where he lacked the support of more techniques, Xia Fan’s training method was very simple. He would just run with all his might until he became exhausted, then he would rest where he ended up and then make his way back to his little campsite by the lake. This was his daily routine, monotonous and tireless.
—
Xia Fan sniffed as he was sprinting, and could smell an unsettling stench in the distant air.
Xia Fan was startled. He immediately shifted diagonally and accelerated, running in the direction of where the smell was coming from.
A minute later, Xia Fan saw an area of scorched land. Right in the middle were several parked hovercars, and one of them was an ambulance.
A doctor and two nurses were in the process of lifting their patient onto the ambulance. Xia Fan was anxious, and sprinted right over, rushing in from several hundred meters away.
“It’s a speed ability user!” a male nurse exclaimed in shock after he spotted Xia Fan.
As he approached, Xia Fan pushed the bespectacled doctor away from the suspended stretcher and pulled a needle out from the patient.
“That’s the Three Inch Skull! A lethal venom!” Xia Fan spoke rapidly as he examined the patient.
The male doctor that had been shoved aside by Xia Fan was originally annoyed, but his eyes were now widening in bewilderment. This young man could tell what the poison was just by how the patient looked? Was this young man not too incredible?
But who would have thought that in the next second angrily yelled at the doctor, “You’d actually inject detoxifying serum on someone who has been bitten by a Three Inch Skull? Who’s the teacher that taught you this? Are you trying to get him killed?!”
“What else are you supposed to do other than detoxify snake venom?” that doctor retorted stubbornly. “Are you the doctor or am I?! Have you gone to medical school?”
Xia Fan could not be bothered to argue with him any further. With a light brush of his finger over his spatial ring, he took out a jar of black salve and took out a measured spoonful worth of it, opened the patient’s mouth and stuck it inside, and washed it down with water from his water bottle.
The doctor panicked. He went up and pushed Xia Fan away, only to find that he was completely unable to make Xia Fan budge.
“Go away! Who’s going to be responsible if you interrupt his treatment!?”
“Call the cops! Report him to the bureau!”
The nurse and ambulance driver, as well as two passerbys watching this scene unfold, all took out their phones to call for help. But before any of their calls connected, they saw the patient suddenly cough violently and spat out a large amount of black liquid.
Xia Fan tore off part of the patient’s pants and sucked on a light wound on his calf. He spat out the black venom he extracted and then rinsed his mouth with clear water.
“That’s highly venomous poison! You actually sucked it out with your mouth?!” a blonde nurse gasped, her hand on her chest.
Xia Fan shrugged somewhat noncommittally, “Snake venom is just protein to begin with, and as long as it does not get into my blood, it isn’t harmful at all. Don’t you know this?”
Xia Fan had learned toxicology from Chef Grandpa, and wondered why the foundational knowledge of these healers outside the ancient tomb were so terrible. A doctor that would medicate so carelessly, and a nurse that knew nothing of the chemical make-up of snake venom; just how were these people working in a hospital?
The people present were all dumbfounded. They could very clearly tell that Xia Fan was still very young, yet he was lecturing the doctor and nurses like they were children.
Continuously feeding the patient his black salve to induce vomiting, the liquid vomited out became lighter and lighter. The pallor of the man turned from black to normal, but he still remained immobile with his eyes shut, not waking up.
“Water, I needed a lot more water!” Xia Fan shouted out to the people around.
Without even realizing it, Xia Fan had become the main character, and everyone hurriedly gave him bottle after bottle of water. Xia Fan forced the water down the patient’s throat, and everyone could see his stomach bloat rapidly.
Xia Fan then lifted this patient with one hand, and with that man’s head facing down to the ground, he used his other hand to push hard against the stomach.
*Blugh*
With a sudden surge, the patient vomited violently, practically spilling his guts out in the process.
This scene scared everyone and the doctor, but between their gasps of shock, they also heard a long sigh escape from the patient’s mouth.
“He’s coming around! He really has regained consciousness!” the blonde nurse exclaimed excitedly. The doctor was shocked to witness the scene. Xia Fan’s emergency treatment measures were nothing he had ever seen in medical school, and went completely against any medical sense.
“Okay, his life is finally saved,” Xia Fan sighed in relief. “Give this man some alkaline solution and have him avoid eating anything for the next three days. Stick to only clear water.”
With a whoosh, a hovercar came speeding in from afar. Inside were a man and a woman, the latter looking somewhere in her early twenties, with chestnut-colored hair and a svelte figure, while the former was about thirty, with high cheekbones and a piercing gaze, looking very astute.
‘They are special ability users!’, Xia Fan thought to himself, startled.
“This is the one!” The doctor came rushing over, pointing at Xia Fan as he complained, “This is the person who leveraged his special ability and got in the way of saving the patient. Quickly, apprehend him!”
The man with the astute eyes gave Xia Fan a once-over and pursed his lips. He took out a shiny silver badge from his bosom and flashed it before Xia Fan’s eyes. “Hello, we are investigators from the Union Special Bureau.”
..
Brenia’s capital, Mirrorsea City, Special Bureau Station..
Xia Fan was locked in an interrogation room, with nobody entering to interrogate him for several hours. He had no choice but to peer through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows and stare out into the sea beyond. There were no waves in this sea; it was as calm as a mirror’s surface, thus the name of the city.
historical
There had been several shallow lakes on the Holy Tomb planet, but this was actually the first time Xia Fan had seen a sea. Gazing out over the sea that stretched far into the limitless horizon, he felt a sense of excitement rising in him.
Someone abruptly pushed open the door to the interrogation room and entered.
It was none other than the female investigator with the chestnut hair. She entered the room with her face lowered, looking at the file she had in hand.
“Sit,” she pointed at the chair across from her. From the badge hanging around her neck, Xia Fan saw that her name was Cheyenne, a novice investigator.
Xia Fan sat down and asked with a smile, “Has the uncle who someone tried to murder gotten past his critical condition yet?”
Cheyenne, who had been reading the file suddenly, slammed it shut and stared at Xia Fan. “How did you know he was targeted for assasination? According to the records, the doctor and nurses all testify that you only arrived at the scene afterwards, and that you were nowhere around when it happened!”
Xia Fan shrugged nonchalantly, thinking nothing of the comment. “It’s very simple. That man was wearing reinforced fiber sportswear, and there were clear traces of sweat on his back and chest. He even wore a motion recorder on his wrist, which means that he ought to have been doing some jogging training when he was attacked.
“The location of the attack was 47.6 kilometers away from the city; no normal being would run so far to exercise or train, so it is highly probable that that man was a special ability user. Furthermore, the grass around the location where he was ambushed was scorched black, covering an area about 182 square meters and shaped in a circle. This means that it was not a naturally occurring fire; it was when the man attempted to retaliate after discovering that there was a highly venomous snake, hoping that his flame ability could scare the snake away.
“Unfortunately, the man had no idea of the strength of the Three Inch Skull, or even what kind of snake had attacked him, which was why he chose to use fire. If I had been in his shoes, I would have chosen to remain calm and deal with it. After all, once fire burns, your vision would be hindered, and will make it harder to keep track of the snake.
“The only explanation is that an assassination of the man had been arranged. The killer clearly knew the lifestyle habits of the man, and was already hiding nearby, waiting for him to appear, and controlled the snake to attack him.”
Cheyenne grew more astonished the more she listened. Without even realizing it, her mouth was slowly hanging wider and wider. Very few people in the bureau knew that the inspector had been attacked, and that definitely did not include Xia Fan. It was very obvious he had concluded all that from his own observations!
Finally, Xia Fan stroked his chin and chuckled as he said, “The killer nearly succeeded! Had I been a minute later, just that stupid doctor’s usage of antivenom serum would have cost that man his life. What a close shave!”
Cheyenne slowly shut her mouth and wrinkled her forehead. She watched Xia Fan with a strange expression for quite a long time before finally saying, “Your conjectures were all correct, but it’s a pity that you didn’t manage to save the man. He passed away in the hospital two hours ago.”