Yin Silan had not died because the Gu worm inside her body had already perished.
After Nan Shiying opened her abdominal cavity, she used a dagger to pierce the Gu worm from her heart. The Gu worm ceased to make a sound the moment it was stabbed by the dagger.
With the Gu worm dead within her body and promptly removed, Yin Silan would have no life-threatening issues as long as her wound did not become infected or inflamed.
However, having a worm removed alive from one's body was different. If the mother worm was not dead, the dormant eggs remaining in the host's body, deprived of the mother worm's suppression and pacification, would secrete a substance similar to a neurotoxin. This substance would control the host, absorb various nutrients from the host's body, and struggle to break free from the eggshells.
Yet, without the mother worm, the eggs could not possibly hatch. The toxins emitted by the eggs and their actions of absorbing nutrients were merely desperate struggles.
The mother worm did not die, the eggs did not die, but the eggs emitted toxins after losing the mother worm.
When the mother worm died, the eggs immediately died.
This was why Nan Shiying was so astonished when she heard that the old poison master had removed the worm from a living host, yet the host had not died.
It was unscientific!
Nan Shiying bent over, placing her hand on the host's wrist to feel the pulse, her brows occasionally relaxing and then furrowing.
"Old man, this pulse is not right!"
Nan Shiying felt as though she wasn't listening to a person's pulse, but rather a piece of music. The pulse was alternately fast and slow, with varying highs and lows, utterly outrageous.
Old Poison raised an eyebrow slightly, a smug look on his face, tinged with a hint of curiosity. "Guess why?"
Nan Shiying chuckled. This old man was playing coy.
But since he had posed a question and there was nothing else to do, Nan Shiying began to seriously ponder.
The host's survival after the mother worm left clearly indicated that the old man had found a way to inhibit the eggs. The mother worm, upon entering the Gu Master's body, would secrete a substance that would form a net-like structure within the host's body. As the host grew, this net-like structure would eventually become something akin to a honeycomb, small, no larger than a thumbnail, located at the second segment of the spine.
When the host reached adulthood, the mother worm would leave the host and then return.
Upon its return, the honeycomb would contain the eggs.
This was how the offspring emerged.
Therefore, after the mother worm left, to prevent the offspring within the eggs from secreting toxins, one method was to use poison to fight poison, and another was to create the illusion that the mother worm was still inside the host.
Both of these methods required the use of certain substances. However, in the path of using poison to fight poison, each of the myriad Gu worms secreted different toxins, making this approach feasible but extremely difficult to implement.
If creating an illusion... Nan Shiying scoured her mind for all knowledge related to medicine, poison, and Gu, but found no clue.
What could fool the offspring and also cause a person's pulse to become erratic?
She glanced at Old Poison, her gaze sweeping around the room, and spotted a package of medicine, wrapped in gauze, spread open on a table nearby, presumably removed from the host.
Seeing Nan Shiying approach the medicine packet, Old Poison picked it up and slightly raised an eyebrow.
Nan Shiying unwrapped the gauze and was slightly taken aback.
"Chuan Ning, Four-Leaf Pine, Yu Luo, Pan Ou..."
Chuan Ning was cold in nature, bitter in taste, used to treat ghosts and evil spirits, and had the effect of strengthening the body. Four-Leaf Pine was neutral in nature, slightly bitter in taste, and primarily cleared heat and detoxified. Yu Luo... The functions and effects of the medicinal ingredients flashed through Nan Shiying's mind one by one. However, if this combination of herbs were presented to her in a different setting and by a different person, she would have definitely crumpled the entire paper and thrown it at the person, telling them to get lost.
What a nonsensical prescription!
What a jumbled mess of ingredients!
But this medicine appeared here, on the table. This particular dosage was likely the reason the host remained alive.
But why?
Nan Shiying cradled the medicine packet in her hands and turned to look at Old Poison.
After so long, he finally saw shock and admiration on his disciple's face, which was a difficult feat. Old Poison nearly burst into laughter.
However, Old Poison merely adjusted his sleeves and said nonchalantly, "Although these medicinal ingredients appear haphazard, as if randomly combined, they actually complement each other. For example, the Four-Leaf Pine with Yu Luo, and Solomon's Seal with Chuan Ning... But you should understand that the efficacy of these medicines lies not in healing, but in deceiving the heavens and crossing the sea, making the offspring believe the mother worm is still within the body. The only drawback is that this medicine will cause the patient's pulse to become greatly disordered, fluctuating wildly."
Nan Shiying looked at Old Poison. If not for the tell-tale twitching at the corners of his eyes, revealing his desire to show off while trying to hold back, she might have been truly impressed by his nonchalant demeanor.
This old man was really putting on airs!
However, putting aside everything else, in this world, only this old man could simultaneously master medicine, poison, and Gu, and integrate them all seamlessly!
He was truly one of a kind, like a scorpion's turd!
Nan Shiying gave Old Poison a thumbs-up. "Old man, you truly are worthy of being my master."
Old Poison: "..."
The smile on his lips, which had yet to fully spread, froze in place.
Listen to this, listen to this. Was this something a person would say?
This was indirectly praising himself!
How preposterous!
Ji Jinmo shook his head helplessly, watching the master and disciple bicker.
Nan Shiying and Old Poison soon engaged in a series of discussions about the prescription, ranging from whether the prescription could be improved to stabilize its properties, to whether it could effectively maintain the host's life signs, and how to control the offspring through the mother worm, and so on and so forth, eventually leading to an argument.
Old Poison's intention was to formulate the next plan based on Ji Jinmo's condition, while Nan Shiying felt that the most urgent matter was to resolve the Gu poison on Old Poison himself.
"Look at yourself, the wrinkles on your face are like crevices hiding white paper. If you weren't exposed to the sun daily, the color of your entire face would be almost the same as the skin in those wrinkles, turning so pale it's like you've applied a layer of powder after being dead for eight hundred years!"
"Pah, look at your prince's situation. The mother worm in Yin Silan's body is dead, but the offspring inside him are still very much alive. Have you forgotten how scales grew on his temples that day? Do you want him to turn into the appearance of that monster from Weian Mountain?"
"He won't. Were his body's acupoints for circulation and respiration pierced for nothing? I tell you, don't force me to dissect you alive!"
"Dissect? Go ahead and dissect me. If you don't, you're my grandson!"
Nan Shiying turned to look at Ji Jinmo, pointing at Old Poison's nose and saying to him, "My lord, he's scolding you!"
Old Poison: "You b*stard, stop talking nonsense!"
"He called me his grandson, which means you are his granddaughter-in-law. Not only is he taking advantage of you, but he's also scolding you for being neither male nor female."
Old Poison: "..."
(╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻
Are you f*cking incapable of playing fair!