After the tea entered his mouth, Xiao Mo immediately coated it with his Spiritual Qi and analyzed its properties.
One of the four Noble Clans that was a part of the Heavenly Murim Alliance was the Tang Clan, who specializes in deadly poisons. Even though Xiao Mo had never fully studied at the Murim Alliance Academy where he would have had access to some of the Tang Clan and other Clan's teachings, he still took time out of his Sword Training to study poisons given how important they were during a battle.
So, needless to say, his knowledge of poisons was not shallow.
However, after analyzing the tea in his mouth with his Spiritual Qi, Xiao Mo didn't detect any poison. He sighed in relief, and then finally swallowed the bit of tea.
"Hm?"
Immediately after entering his stomach, the tea released a soothing current throughout Xiao Mo's body that involuntarily made him relax.
However, this unexpected effect almost made him relax too much and released the cultivation base that he was suppressing.
"Good tea."
Xiao Mo said, feigning composure before he took a proper sip of the tea.
Bai Luo had been silently observing Xiao Mo's throat and seeing that he had drunk the tea, he finally relaxed his tense muscles before saying with a smile.
"Thank you, my Si-ehem, my brother taught me a bit about how to brew tea."
Not realizing his fiancée's slip-up, Xiao Mo latched onto the latter part of the sentence. His posture straightened as he glanced over with a slight gleam in his eyes and asked curiously.
"Your brother? Does he like to make tea as well?"
Upon seeing his sudden shift in demeanor, Bai Luo was somewhat baffled but still responded.
"I suppose he does. However, Brother Xiao Mo, can I call you that? Tell me about yourself."
Bai Luo tried to change the topic so as to not draw any suspicions to his earlier mistake, but Xiao Mo's expression suddenly became disinterested.
"Hm, what is there to know?"
Once again, Bai Luo was befuddled by Xiao Mo's sudden change in demeanor.
Meanwhile, Xiao Mo was thinking to himself.
'I should start my plan now.'
Xiao Mo put down his cup of tea he had already drunk two-thirds of and then said with a smile.
"I have something I want to give you."
"Oh, what is it?"
'Ugh, is this brat alright in the head?'
Bai Luo couldn't keep up with Xiao Mo's constant change in behavior, but he just needed to keep him distracted until the drug kicked in.
"Here, I brought you some perfume."
Xiao Mo said as he pulled out a small blue vial from his robes and then handed it to Bai Luo.
"Perfume?"
Bai Luo took it and then examined it curiously.
"Yes, you can open it to see if it's to your liking."
"Okay."
Bai Luo said before he went to open the marble stopper atop the vial.
'I'll just humor him until the drug kicks in. Since I used one that focuses on concealment rather than fast effectiveness, it will take a while.'
As Bai Luo thought this, he finally opened the vial and looked inside--only to see that it was empty.
"Wait, there's nothing in… side…"
Before Bai Luo could finish his sentence properly, he suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him. He tipped sideways about to fall, and even though he instinctively tried to call on his cultivation to dispel this sudden sleepiness, his mind was too scattered, and his eyelids felt like they were being weighed down by a ten-ton boulder.
With a thud, Bai Luo powerlessly fell out of his chair and onto the ground.
Xiao Mo glanced down at his now unconscious fiancée on the ground, before sweeping his senses outside to check if anyone was secretly observing them.
After waiting for a bit and hearing nothing outside but the sound of crickets making their mating call, Xiao Mo chuckled softly. Then, picking up the tea, he downed the last remaining contents before he stood up and walked over to his fiancée.
Once there, Xiao Mo reached down and carefully picked her up before walking over to the bed across the room.
However, just as he reached, he heard a soft thud. Something had slipped from her robes and fallen onto the ground beside the bed.
Xiao Mo placed his fiancée onto the bed before he reached down and picked up the object that had been dropped.
"It's a book."
Xiao Mo stared at the back cover of the book which was somewhat covered in dust.
"Why was she carrying this on her, is it like a diary? But what diary is so dusty?"
Xiao Mo muttered under his breath before he flipped the book around to see if there was anything written on the front.
Indeed, there were words written there.
"Hm? Severing Dual Cultivation Technique? So, it's a Technique Manual. Huh? Wait, this name is…"
Suddenly, Xiao Mo read the name of the Technique Manual again to make sure he wasn't just seeing things. But upon confirming he wasn't, his face turned stark white while a cold feeling appeared between his legs despite there being no wind.
With eyes as wide as the moon that was faintly shining its light through the slightly open window over the bed, Xiao Mo stared at his fiancée's unconscious body with a multitude of expression on his face ranging from shock, horror and fear.
However, those expressions soon coalesce into intense anger.
"You-You…"
Xiao Mo said jabbing his finger at the unconscious girl on the bed, but he was so angry he could hardly finish his words.
"You Demoness!"
Xiao Mo finally finished what he wanted to say. However, after he did, he suddenly felt a wave of dizziness wash over him.
"Shit, I forgot to take the antidote."
Xiao Mo momentarily put away his anger and hurriedly reached into his robes to pull out an object wrapped in a small blue cloth.
After quickly unfurling the cloth, Xiao Mo popped the white pill inside into his mouth. Only when he felt the warm sensation of the pill melting in his stomach did he release a sigh of relief.
Xiao Mo then turned his attention back to the demoness and was about to let out another curse at her. However, the dizziness that went away after he took the pill came back in full force.
"Ugh, what's going on? Didn't I take the antidote?"
Xiao Mo unsteadily fell onto the bed, but at the same time, he tried to fight off the dizziness by circulating his Spiritual Qi. Though, he didn't even know what to dispel with his Spiritual Qi, he couldn't sense any anomaly in his body.
However, Xiao Mo suddenly remembered something that made him glance over at his empty teacup on the table.
"Damn it, this wasn't caused by the Tang Clan's Elusive Sleep Dew. It's... It's the Demonic Cult's Night Demon Poison… Fuck…"
Xiao Mo could only let out one final curse before the effects of the Night Demon Poison fully kicked in. His eyes rolled back as his body went slack, causing him to fall onto his unconscious fiancée.
As Xiao Mo's last curse faded, the cricket noises from outside came and engulfed the now uneventful room.