The Name of the Poison

1,035 words

At this moment, Doctor Mo recalled that when Han Li had first entered the room, he had stubbornly refused to let him close the door. It seemed the boy had already laid the groundwork for using sunlight reflection back then. For someone so young to have thought this far ahead, to have set such a meticulous and vicious chain of traps that made him—a seasoned Jianghu veteran—stumble headfirst with almost no chance to turn things around… the depth of this person’s schemes simply did not match his age or experience. Was this man truly a born prodigy, a reincarnated child sage?

The more he thought about it, the more he analyzed it, the more deeply afraid he became. Cold sweat poured down his entire body.

After this setback, Doctor Mo’s wariness toward Han Li only intensified. He faced Han Li with extreme caution, not daring to act rashly for the time being.

As for Han Li, for reasons unknown, he simply stared back at Doctor Mo, showing no intention of attacking. The two sides fell into a temporary ceasefire, staring each other down like a pair of wide-eyed opponents.

After a moment, in the awkward atmosphere, Han Li suddenly spoke a sentence that left Doctor Mo stunned on the spot.

“Old Mo, how about we make peace? Or maybe I surrender—what do you think?”

Having said this, Han Li flicked his wrist and casually dropped his weapon to the ground. He revealed a set of clean white teeth, smiled at Doctor Mo, and put on the honest look of a village youth.

“Surrender?”

Doctor Mo initially thought his ears had misheard, but quickly recovered. He glanced at the iron awl Han Li had discarded. There was not a trace of belief in his heart, and he sneered viciously in reply.

“What crooked scheme are you plotting? Don’t think I’ll believe a single word of your bullshit. If you wanted to surrender, you could have done so from the start. Why wait until we’ve fought to the brink of death to pull this?”

Han Li smiled at Doctor Mo without speaking, seemingly acknowledging the accusation. The two fell back into a standoff.

After a short while, as if struck by some extremely ridiculous thought, Doctor Mo suddenly doubled over, clutching his stomach with both hands, and burst into loud, unrestrained laughter. Tears leaked from the corners of his eyes.

“Ha ha! Ha! Hahaha! How… how interesting. I actually forgot such an important thing. I truly traded blows with you… with you, openly and directly.” Doctor Mo’s words came out fragmented and slurred between bursts of laughter.

Han Li frowned briefly, then relaxed his expression as if it didn’t matter. He glanced out the window, the smile at the corners of his mouth deepening, and spoke unhurriedly.

“Old Mo, don’t you think we’ve wasted too much time here? It’s about time to end this.”

Doctor Mo froze slightly, his laughter dying down.

He slowly straightened up, composed his face into an expressionless mask, and stared at Han Li. After a long pause, he finally answered in a cold, dry voice.

“I agree. It’s time to end this.”

Suddenly, both men seemed confident, as if each had in an instant found the trump card that would force the other to submit.

The silence stretched on. Finally, Han Li spoke first, his voice slow and deliberate. He was fully confident in what he held, certain it would make Doctor Mo back down and abandon any further schemes.

“Old Mo, did you know that your life is already in my hands?” Han Li’s opening words were enough to shock anyone.

“My life in your hands?” Doctor Mo sneered coldly, face full of disbelief.

“Don’t you feel something strange at your wound?”

“Nonsense! I saw it clearly—your short sword didn’t have anything on it—” Doctor Mo began to retort, but stopped halfway, his expression drastically changing as he remembered that it wasn’t the short sword that had cut him, but the concealed awl.

“It seems I don’t need to say more. Old Mo already understands my meaning.” Han Li grinned at him.

“Even if that’s the case, so what? Don’t forget, I taught you everything about medicine and poison. What poison is there that I can’t cure?” Doctor Mo’s face quickly returned to normal as he spoke with forced composure.

“Oh! I forgot to mention—the poison I applied to my weapon was ‘Entangling Silk Incense.’”

“Entangling Silk Incense?” Doctor Mo let out a low exclamation, clearly taken completely by surprise.

“That’s right. Old Mo must know how deadly this drug is, yes?” Han Li drawled in a teasing tone.

“Nonsense! How could you possibly know how to refine this poison? I never once leaked even a shred of that formula.” Doctor Mo’s words still carried a front of strength, as if he refused to believe Han Li’s claim, but the strange feeling at his wound had already confirmed it seventy or eighty percent in his mind.

Seeing that Doctor Mo still refused to admit defeat out loud, Han Li sighed and offered an explanation.

“Don’t forget, Senior—your medical texts were completely open to me back then. This formula was tucked away inside a rare and obscure medical book. If I hadn’t read it carefully, I really might have missed it.”

Only then did Doctor Mo recall that when he had first obtained that formula, because it required too many ingredients and the steps were too tedious, he had written down the preparation method and all the required herbs in detail on a slip of paper and casually tucked it into some book. Later, with everything that happened, he had completely forgotten about that slip. Now it had fallen into Han Li’s hands and brought him such great trouble.

“How about we sit down and have a proper discussion about making peace?” Han Li said confidently.

Giving a cold snort, Doctor Mo ignored Han Li and concentrated on recalling the preparation method and effects of “Entangling Silk Incense.”

The name “Entangling Silk Incense” didn’t sound frightening at all. In fact, it conjured thoughts of romance and sweetness. But its medicinal effects were like a lovesick woman’s longing—unbearable, seeping deep into the bones.

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Reading Guide Decoding

Psychological Chess: When Surrender Is a Weapon

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

Entangling Silk Incense (缠香丝): This poison’s name is deliberately misleading. It sounds romantic and elegant—silk, incense, entanglement—but its effect is the opposite: it seeps into the bones and causes unbearable, persistent pain. In Chinese literary tradition, the language of love and longing is often weaponized to describe inescapable fates, and this poison name follows that dark poetic logic. It reinforces the Mortal Stream principle that even the most beautiful-sounding things in the cultivation world are often traps.

Psychological Warfare in Xianxia: Direct confrontation is only one layer of combat in this genre. The real battle often happens through words, silence, and calculated expressions. Han Li’s offer of surrender is not submission—it’s a test. He’s probing to see whether Doctor Mo will react with greed, caution, or desperation. Every pause, every smile, every glance out the window is a move in a larger game where the loser doesn’t just lose face—they lose their life.

Momentum Reading: This chapter is the calm before a storm. Readers should pay attention to the shifts in tone—from combat to laughter, from tension to false ease. The narrative is letting you breathe, but only so the next blow will hit harder.

Two-Sided Fear

A strategic standoff where both parties are afraid of each other's lethal potential, leading to a cold war of silence and cautious probing rather than open conflict.

Deceptive Word

A verbal bluff used in combat to create hesitation; the opponent instinctively verifies the claim before committing to an action, buying the speaker a critical moment of advantage.

Chapter Overview

This chapter is a masterclass in psychological warfare. After a brutal physical clash, both Han Li and Doctor Mo hit pause—not out of mercy, but because each has realized that the other isn’t an easy kill. What follows is a tense, word-for-word chess match where surrender offers, mocking laughter, and veiled death threats replace sword strikes. Han Li plays the naive village boy again, but this time it’s a deliberate mask to lower his opponent’s guard. The chapter ends with a revelation that shifts the entire balance of power: Han Li has been holding a hidden trump card all along, and it’s not a weapon—it’s a poison that’s already inside Doctor Mo’s blood.

Key Plot Points

Han Li offers to surrender or make peace, instantly unsettling Doctor Mo—someone who fought that hard doesn’t fold that easily, and both sides know it.
Doctor Mo’s loud, almost manic laughter is a release of tension but also a masked admission that he made a tactical error by engaging Han Li directly instead of using his full arsenal.
Han Li subtly glances out the window, reminding readers that time and daylight are still structural factors in this confrontation.
Both men simultaneously claim confidence, signaling that they each believe they hold the winning card.
Han Li reveals that his hidden weapon—the awl—was coated with “Entangling Silk Incense,” a poison that has already seeped into Doctor Mo’s system.
Doctor Mo is visibly shaken; he recalls that the formula was stored in a book he had left open to Han Li, exposing his own oversight as a fatal vulnerability.

Reading Guide

If you came here for flashy magic and flying swords, this chapter might seem like a lot of talking. But don’t be fooled—this is where the real fight happens. Han Li is no longer just dodging and stabbing; he’s now playing the long game, using information asymmetry to trap his enemy before the next exchange even begins. Watch how his smile never reaches his eyes, how his offer to surrender is really a power play, and how Doctor Mo—for all his cunning and experience—is now scrambling to catch up. This is the kind of chapter that makes the Mortal Stream so addictive: it’s not about who hits harder, but who sees the board more clearly. Also, keep an eye on that window. Sunlight has already been used once as a weapon in this arc, and Han Li is the kind of strategist who uses the same trick twice exactly because his opponent won’t expect it.