Chapter 3852: Cleansing

"Wait, it can defend against poison too?" Alex asked the Artifact God.

"Yes," the God answered.

Alex narrowed his eyes. "How?"

"Dao of Cleansing," the Artifact God said. "You do realize we kept it, right? It’s the main Dao that allows water to be used to cleanse toxins from bodies and improve someone’s healing capability."

Alex had heard about it, but he had been so focused on the regular defense part of the artifact that he did not expect this to be possible as well.

"I would not have thought to make this at all," he said in the end.

"Well, I didn’t at first either. But as I thought about it, I realized that it was going to be the greatest water artifact anyone has. When I thought along that line, I was reminded of the Ocean God, and he has an artifact that is rich in this particular aura, which is how I thought to make use of it."

Alex narrowed his eyes. "The Ocean God’s Teardrop?" he asked.

The Artifact God turned to look at him. "You know of it?"

"I’ve seen it," Alex said with a light chuckle. "It was in the lower realm I come from. A princess of an empire had found it and used it to heal her soldiers. The White Tiger looking over that land had to bring the teardrop back."

"Huh? So the artifact is already with the Ocean God?" she asked.

"I believe so," Alex said. "It should have come a lot earlier than the rest of the things that went down there."

"I see. I don’t remember the Ocean God mentioning that his prized artifact had been returned to him long before anyone else’s," the Artifact God said.

"It’s not his, though, is it?" Alex asked. "It should have belonged to another Water God who came before him."

"It’s the same cult, and with inheritance, it is now his," the Artifact God explained. "Anyway, there’s no point in conversing about this. Just know that this shield, when actively used, can also help you heal faster and protect you from toxins."

Alex looked at the vial. "And you want to test it right now?"

She nodded.

Alex could see the hesitation she had. She did not want to test it on herself if she could avoid it.

"How strong is that poison?" he asked.

"Huh?" She looked toward him. "It came from a Divine plant."

"I see. So it is a Divine poison."

"Obviously!"

"May I try it then?"

The Artifact God paused. "What?"

"The poison. You appear quite worried about using it, so why don’t I use it instead?" Alex asked. "That is assuming that I can activate the shield."

"No, you can’t," she answered. "It’s a Dual-Line system."

"Dual-Line?" Alex asked.

"The Qi lines overlap each other in a way that a Divinity using it and a Celestial using it produce different degrees of strength," she answered. "So it can be used by either one without worrying about not having the cultivation base."

"But not Immortals?" Alex asked.

"No. Triple-Line systems are harder to achieve, and I didn’t want to bother with it," she said.

"I see. Still, I should be able to try it," he said, gesturing for her to hand both the shield and the poison over.

"Are you mad?" the Artifact God finally asked, realizing the situation. "You do understand what it is that you’re asking, don’t you? It’s a Divine-grade poison."

Alex nodded. "I do understand that. However, you clearly fear it, senior, and I don’t. I can’t die to poisons, even Divine-grade ones. So I am the perfect person to test this on."

The Artifact God was somewhat taken aback, but with everything she understood about him, she was persuaded to believe him.

"Even if that were true, I told you. You need Divine Qi to activate it," she said.

"That’s fine too," Alex said. "I will handle that."

The Artifact God hesitated.

"Senior, what are you going to lose? Just a vial of poison," Alex said. "If you’re that worried, just keep it. I have tons of Divine poisons myself that I can use. I’ll just get one of those."

The woman finally relented and tossed the vial over to him, as well as the shield.

Once Alex got both of those things, he uncorked the vial. He was about to drink the poison when the Artifact God stopped him.

"It’s poison prevention. You need to activate it before you use it," she advised.

"Ah!" Alex said and still drank the poison.

"No!" the woman shouted. "What are you doing?"

"Don’t worry, senior. I needed to do that."

He closed his eyes and focused on the poison inside his body. Instantly, it began wreaking havoc on his system, which he stopped immediately as he burned the poison and turned it into Qi. The Qi suddenly filled his body, making his veins bulge.

Alex concentrated on the Qi and began compressing it, like he had done back then. Without his improved mental fortitude, it became a lot harder than what he had done last time, but unlike last time, he didn’t need the Qi to reach an equivalent quality to that of a Divine Creation 9th realm cultivator.

This time, barely reaching the Divine Creation realm itself was fine, which was also much easier.

Alex converted much of the Qi inside his body into Divine Qi and then pushed it into the shield. Thankfully, he once again didn’t need to use the Qi itself.

As soon as the shield received the Qi, it activated. At the same time, Alex let the rest of the poison inside his body start affecting him again.

Almost immediately, he could tell a difference.

The poison’s effects on his body had reduced significantly. Somehow, his body was reacting much better than before to the poison. It was stronger now, fighting back a lot harder and healing quicker than normal as well.

Without a doubt, the shield was most certainly doing its job.

"It’s working," he told the Artifact God. "It is cleansing the poison."