Chapter 145: Immune to All Poisons (Part 1)

At that moment, the employer observed the mercenaries either slumped over the table or collapsed on the ground, all dead from poisoning.

He nodded with satisfaction. "Very good. Just as I suspected, except for one person still eating, the rest have already fallen."

"Wait?! Someone is still eating?" The employer stared in surprise at the table, where a young mercenary was calmly eating, seemingly unaware of the situation.

That young mercenary, of course, was Ye Lang.

He apparently had not noticed anything amiss. In his mind, the others were simply drunk—he never imagined they had died from poison.

Surely the poison hadn’t taken effect yet; it would hit soon enough.

The employer thought to himself, convinced Ye Lang must have just started eating, which explained why he remained unaffected. Otherwise, he would have collapsed just like the others.

If that was the case, then he would wait for the poison to take hold—then his plan would be complete.

However, as he waited and waited—well past the expected onset time—the young mercenary still ate and drank without any sign of poisoning.

What could this mean? The food he ate was poisoned—he had personally ensured that. It was impossible to be mistaken!

The employer was baffled; he could not understand why Ye Lang remained unharmed.

"When did you eat?" the employer asked cautiously.

Ye Lang looked at the employer, about to answer, but suddenly remembered he was not supposed to speak. They had told him he must not utter a word, even in death.

So, Ye Lang pointed at the others, then at himself, shaking his hands to indicate that those men forbade him from speaking.

"A mute?" the employer murmured to himself, then pressed on, "Did you eat with them?"

Ye Lang nodded and continued eating.

"How is this possible? Why are you fine? Could it be that you have some resistance to the poison, which is why you’re still unharmed after so long?" The employer frowned, muttering to himself.

Ye Lang shook his head at the employer, then kept eating.

He wanted to explain that it wasn’t resistance—he was immune to all poisons. No matter the toxin, it had no effect on him. The exact reason was unknown even to him.

Perhaps it was due to his internal energy, or maybe because he had grown up taking various medicines and had ingested many poisons, rendering him impervious.

It seemed this boy was not only mute but not very bright. Otherwise, how could he be so carefree about eating at such a critical moment? Still, his body was intriguing—so for now, the employer decided to spare his life.

Looking at Ye Lang, the employer formed a new plan—to use him as a test subject in hopes of discovering a way to become immune to poison himself, or at least to develop an antidote.

"Your name is Frank, right? From now on, you’ll follow me. Stop eating that stuff. Come on, we shouldn’t linger here." The employer glanced at Ye Lang’s identification tag—a mercenary group badge. Though not a large organization, such groups usually issued identity tags to their mercenaries.

Typically, mercenary companies provided their members with badges that bore the company’s name and emblem, along with the individual’s identification.

Ye Lang’s group had just formed, so he had been given a random badge not truly his own, leading the employer to assume his name was Frank.

"??" Ye Lang looked at the employer, still confused about the situation. He thought the mercenaries had handed him over to this man.

Whatever—the person he was handed to made no difference, and it saved him the trouble of finding a carriage.

He never considered that no one here cared who he was—they merely regarded him as a lowly mercenary.

Thus, Ye Lang followed the employer, not by choice but because the employer pulled him away from the table, reluctantly separating him.

When the employer began activating an alchemical array to burn down the estate, Ye Lang’s eyes lit up briefly, then hesitated.

"It’s on fire. Aren’t you going to call for help?" Ye Lang stared blankly at the flames and asked the employer beside him.

"Why would I? Let it burn… Wait, I thought you were mute?" The employer replied, then quickly realized that the voice speaking belonged to Ye Lang, whom he assumed to be mute.

"Did I ever say I’m mute?" Ye Lang asked, puzzled.

"No…" The employer was embarrassed. "But why did you just point and gesture without speaking?"

"They wouldn’t let me speak. They said I would say nonsense. But everything I say is true—it’s just that some people don’t like hearing the truth. Like you, you definitely don’t seem like a good man!" Ye Lang pointed accusingly at the employer’s nose.

The employer’s face twitched slightly, struggling to suppress the urge to deal with this brat then and there.

Hmph, if not for that poison immunity, I’d have finished you off on the spot!

But on second thought, the boy was indeed foolish. No wonder others silenced him. Whether he was mute or not didn’t matter—he was useless either way.

"You really should keep quiet. Say less and do more from now on!" The employer continued walking without looking back.

"But I’m a young master. I’ve always only needed to speak, not to do work," Ye Lang replied obediently.

"A young master?! Dream on. Don’t say so much. Hold this for me, and be careful not to break it!" The employer handed Ye Lang something heavy from his back, something the boy could barely manage.

He had already relegated Ye Lang to the role of servant. For him, a servant like Ye Lang was perfect—not too smart, but obedient.

In any case, he wouldn’t entrust anything requiring intelligence to others. His servants only needed to be strong and simple-minded.

Ye Lang, though unremarkable in appearance, was after all a mercenary, so his strength should be decent. That was the employer’s thought.

"Okay…" Ye Lang took the item and immediately opened it to inspect. At that moment, his eyes brightened briefly before the gleam vanished.

"Stop looking. You won’t understand it in your lifetime," the employer said.

Pfft, it’s just an alchemical device—what’s so hard about that? Though, indeed, it would take some time to figure out.

Ye Lang could instantly tell it was an alchemical artifact. He also recognized that the employer was an alchemist—an exceptionally skilled one at that—and the alchemy was unlike anything Ye Lang had seen before. Naturally, he was curious and wanted to keep watching.

(To be continued)