Chapter 203: "Dare Hurt My Men?!"
When the first ray of morning dyed over the eastern horizon, Ling Yue whose been hard at work researching inside her pocket dimension finally steps out of the Red Mist Sky where Yanche was already standing in wait outside the room.
"Sect Leader, what you asked me to investigate is done. That Lady Yao is a woman offered to the king by Hong Feng a month ago." As soon as she returned from the palace yesterday, Ling Yue immediately tasked Yanche to seek out the woman's origin for she noticed the oddity within the Hundred Fragrance Dan pill.
Ordinarily, such a pill would only require the flower pedals of a hundred flower to conceive. But during her examination, she noticed an extra ingredient that shouldn't be there. Finding it odd, she controlled her spirit smoke to swallow up the portion for further investigation.
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Normally she would've considered this as a mistake on the other party's side because everyone makes one once in a while; however, despite her search for the ingredient's name within the codex all night, she found nothing. That's when it striked in her moment of disappointment.
If not in the Red Mist Codex, what about the Five Poison Manual?
Sure enough, that's where she found a description relating to a poisonous herb called the "Lovesickness Grass" that matched the effects. A strain that hailed all the way back to ancient times, it's a rare herb that was first discovered by a female alchemist of the Miao ethnic group.
Like all the tragic love stories out there, this female alchemist was infatuated with a powerful warrior at the time, yet the man held absolutely no feelings for her. Very soon, this woman in question fell deeper and deeper into the trap known as "love".
In order to get the heart of her man, this female alchemist then resorted to dark means and utilized the "Lovesickness Grass". Without failure, she got what she wanted and took the man for her own. However, there's still the man's wife and child. To end all attachment, she manipulated the husband to murder his own family with his own hands - children included.
When the matter came to light, the horrific story infuriated the entire alchemist association in every kingdom and state. Uniting in full force, the evil alchemist was soon put to death in open public, and any seedling or plants relating to the "Lovesickness Grass" were destroyed in the process.
That's the furthest Ling Yue could read up to last night because the story was simply too heart wrenching. Though the incident happened several hundred years ago and in a far-off land where the Miao ethnic group lived, she couldn't help but get emotional for its too similar to her own story. Child and wife at the husband's own hands...
"Sect Leader, in addition to that, I also looked into the story you told me about. According to our sources, that evil alchemist also had a disciple back then and that the person escaped into the north at the end. According to the report, its said that there were sightings of the person in North Qing. Lady Yao should be a citizen of North Qing if I'm not mistaken."
North Qing... Now that's interested indeed. If my suspicions are correct, then that woman must be getting help from a high-level alchemist from that kingdom. To think the royal tutor would collude with outside power.
As much as Ling Yue wanted to get to the bottom of this, she had little to no knowledge of North Qing. Aside from the small text written in the official records, there's no other sources to refer to.
It seems its time I go look for Feng Shen again. Maybe he will tell me more. A smile escapes her when the thought came up.
While his mistress was busy musing over the information he gave, Yanche readies himself to leave now that there's nothing else to report. Just as he took a few steps back, his body unexpectedly faltered and almost took him to the ground.
"Yanche, are you hurt?" Noticing the abrupt fall, Ling Yue jumps up in shock and ran over to help.
She didn't notice it earlier, but now that she's up close, Ling Yue can faintly smell the scent of blood from the man's body. Looking down to the abdomen area, a stain of red was slowly seeping through the clothes.
"You are injured!" Disregarding Yanche's denying hand, she forcefully lifts open the robe to find a thumb size hole there. Instantly, a smelly odor hits her in the nose followed by a viscus fluid leaking out of the wound.
Apparently this was Yanche's first encounter with the female sex and Ling Yue at that. Stiff and erratic in his response, he scratches his head like a first-time lover meeting his sweetheart while the blood pumps to his head.
Then as Ling Yue attempted to go touch the wound for inspection, he panicked and grabbed her hand out of reflex. In that moment, both of them became startled as they stared at each other, unsure what to do now that their hands are holding.
Aware of his offense, Yanche stammers for a reply: "Mistress, I-you... It's dirty."
"You are poisoned, and seriously injured too. Are you planning to keep it hidden from me as long as I don't check?" Like a cat with its hair raised, she puffs up her cheeks in disapproval.
Ignoring the oddity in Yanche's behavior, she insists on seeing to his wound. One close look later, her face went dark.
What an amazing poison.
If not for Yanche's constitution and her initial modification to increase the man's resilience, a normal person would've long perished under the effects of the poison.
Quickly taking out two detoxification Dan pills, she had the man intake one while she mashed the second one up to smother the skin.
"Speak, tell me who hurt you." Like her mother Ye Huang Yu, Ling Yue's personality was that of the protective type with a short temper.
Whoever dares to harm her subordinate would be equivalent of hurting her. That's the rule she lives by.
Despite the demand to speak the truth, Yanche did something unexpected - he tightened his lip without uttering a word.
Yanche's usual post within the Lan House, at least on the surface anyways, was that of a servant. As someone with a low-key temperament, there's no way he would intentionally get into a conflict with others.
"Is it because of the recent clashes with the other powers in the capital?" Getting no answer from the blunt head, she can only think for herself. That's when she remembered the recent clashes that's been occurring due to her order of expanding their influence and power within the underground community.
Unlike Ling Yue's newly founded Ghost Sect, the underground organization she had set her eyes on had a much longer history.
Knowing the secret can't be concealed at this rate, Yanche can only submit. In a muffled voice, he unwillingly went over the details of his encounter.
It turns out that through the big loaf's development, the Ghost Sect had grown so rapidly that it's become the third largest power inside the city.
Without a doubt, the first had to be the "Life Taking Hall" used by Hong Feng to check up on Ling Yue's background. Despite being so influential in the underworld, not much was known about them. Even their headquarter remains a mystery still.
According to a rumor going around on the outside, it's said that the backer of the Life Taking Hall was in fact the Underground Palace ruled by the Ghost Emperor himself.
"Is your injury caused by the Life Taking Hall?" She asks with brows raised.
All of a sudden, the splitting image and memory of that man in the golden mask rushed back to her. That rasping and dominate voice blowing into her ear, that masculine arm forcing her down back in the cave, and that overwhelming strength in the marsh, all of it swarmed into her brain and raised all the goosebumps across her body.
Wu Chong, that hateful man again...
If the opponent was indeed that masked man, it would mean she would need to reevaluate her actions again. Compared to the power of that man and the influence of the Underground Palace, her Ghost Sect was simply insignificant in comparison.
"No mistress, the one to injure me is the leader of the Sha Sect, Yang Qing."
Due to the infamous nature and name branded into the public's eye, even a newcomer like Yanche knew better than to mess with the Underground Palace, or anything related to it.
The original plan Yanche had in mind was to swallow up the Sha Sect before working his way over to the behemoth known as the Life Taking Hall; however, thing's didn't go as plan. During their confrontation with the three thousand disciples of the Sha Sect, he ended up suffering a heavy loss in that fight.
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"Yang Qing is a crafty man and his strength is also in the 'big core' stage of the Dan realm. In my moment of carelessness, he used poison to injure me while I lost my focus."