As Grey started making the Pills, a frown appeared on his face. At first he followed the instructions to the utmost detail but found that something was wrong.
After crushing the blood flower petals, and mixing it with the bark from the sorrow tree, it was supposed to blend together and turn into yellowish liquid. But instead his was green and giving off a sickly smell.
He recorded it in his small Jade slip and continued. Next he was supposed to squeeze the venome from a red patterned centipede and stir for thirty seconds before adding the next ingredients.
The result was supposed to a milky yellow liquid but what he got was greenish black liquid. He gave a long sigh and continued after recording in the Jade slip.
After a while he noticed that his medicine was deviating from normal but he still continued anyway. After all mistakes were a part of progress.
When he was done and molded the medicine into a pill shapes, he put it in the pan over the fire and after a short while took it down. The Pills had now solidified but instead of a white pill, his was completely black with countless green spots on it.
Grey sighed in exasperation as he shook his head. He had clearly failed. It was not even given off the fragrance of a medicinal herb... in fact it was not given off any smell at all.
"I guess that what happens when you add a bit too much ghost grass."
He chuckled and stared at the Pills in his hand. They were clearly a flop and he wasn't going to ingest this unknown pill.
His body swayed and he suddenly disappeared, when he came back he was holding a black horned rabbit in his hands.
It was in the third level of Qi condensation. He captured it and out it into a small cage he had already prepared made of wire mesh.
The rabbit growled and shook inside the cage but Grey ignored it. Instead he placed a pill by the side and waited patiently.
The rabbit looked at the pill and kicked it away while still growling at Grey. Grey calmly opened the cage and slapped the rabbit heavily. A couple of teeth fell out and the rabbit was disoriented for a few seconds which Grey calmly placed the black pill by its side again.
His intention was clear. The rabbit growled stubbornly after getting itself tried to reatreat into the cage but when Grey slapped it a few more times, it became submissive.
It lowered it's head and swallowed the black pill. A few minutes later, Grey felt the corrosive substance gather towards the location of the rabbit and entered it body.
Some of the corrosive substance was absorbed by his shadow but the rest entered into the rabbit slowly.
A few minutes later, the rabbit laid down on the floor shaking violently as it's body turned blackish green. It convulsed repeatedly and seemed on the verge of death.
Grey fed several Pills to the rabbit wanting to prevent the corrosive substance from killing the rabbit but it was too late. The rabbit exploded into blackish green blood.
The soil and iron mesh of the cage emitted sizzling sounds.
Grey looked on, his expression still cold but was solemn. "So it attracts the corrosive substance..." He muttered and his gaze went distant as if he was pondering about something.
"...It could be useful." Instead of creating Pills to neutralize the corrosive substance, he had created poison.
By this time, the sun was setting so he decided to try again tomorrow. As he picked up the wire cage, he saw the iron mesh mostly corroded and it wouldn't take long for it to break.
"I guess I'll have to build a new cage again." He muttered under his breath as his body suddenly swayed and he sped away into the distance.
The warm glow of the setting sun highlighting his figure as he raced off into the sunset.
The next day, Grey tried to concoct the Pills but failed again. Another black horned rabbit was inside the cage as it shivered repeatedly and vomited foams of saliva.
The frown on Grey's face deepened when he saw the condition of the rabbit. He gave it some more medicinal Pills before turning away to look at the end result in front of him.
The Pills were also black, but you could sense a small presense of corrosive substance on it. The Pills emanating a smeet smelling scent due to the rose pollen he added this time.
It also seemed to have reduced the poison's potency a lot because the black horned rabbit was still alive, even though barely.
Last time, even The Pills couldn't save it and it burst into blood. But this rabbit which he had just fed one pill to now was slowly turning greenish black.
It was clear that if he didn't keep giving it the medicinal Pills, if would be dead before long. And it's spirit would turn into a malicious ghosg without a doubt.
Grey sighed regretfully and placed more of the Pills near rabbit which ate it immediately. It seemed to have neutralized some of the poison in its system.
'It seems like this batch of poison didn't attract more corrosive substance... I wonder why? It must be because of the rose pollen grain I added. It's description did say that it could neutralize and dissolve the corrosive substance in its immediate surroundings.'
He pondered as he managed his temples. He occasionally glanced at his shadow and noticed it looked darker than before.
If not for it absorbing all the corrosive substance that entered his body, by now he would be dead even if he swallowed several medicinal Pills and plants.
Just concocting this poison seemed to have an effect on the corrosive substance in the air and made it times two more lethal and potent.
By the time the sun was setting, he cleare the table and made to leave but lingered as if forgetting something.
He then turned around and placed several strips of meat near the black horned rabbit tat was still suffering from the poison. He glanced at it and then placed a few more medicinal Pills near it, only then did he leave with a regretful expression on his face.
Even though he didn't need the medicinal Pills anymore since his shadow would absorb the corrosive substance within his body, he still felt sad that the medicinal Pills that he used his own money to buy was being fed to a Mutated rabbit.
This continued for several days as Grey grew more and more familiar with medicinal herbs and the Dao of medicine books.
Even though he hadn't been able to successfully concoct a medicinal pill, he had improved in the creation of poison. Now he had three different types of poison at his disposal.
"I think the reason why I was not able to make medicinal Pills is because not all the ingredients can be found in the corroded zone. And the scavengers camp doesn't seem to have the majority of them. I wonder if I will be able to craft some at all if I get the real ingredients."
His thoughts lingered for a few minutes before he dispelld them. If he could not make the medicinal Pills, fine then. But for now he wanted to focus on concocting lethal poison first.
The very art seemed to intrigue him and because of the healing abilities of the crystal shard, most of the poison could be dealt with by the poison while he could dispell the rest by himself.