Governor Zhao let out a long sigh as he pulled the silver needle out of the roast chicken. Its metallic shaft was tainted with a blackish residue.
A clear reaction of a toxin in the chicken.
He gulped. His steaming bowl of hot rice had passed the test.
Still, it was possible that something else could be added. He sniffed at it as his hands swiftly cleaned the needle with the brown color handkerchief on the table.
"This is fast after meeting with the third prince," he grumbled.
"Fire your servants," a disembodied voice spoke from the corner of his room.
"No point. I fired most and only kept the necessary help." He picked up his chopsticks while mulling over whether he should consume the rice.
"Don't eat the rice. It has a slow acting poison which your needle can't detect, Ba-"
"Don't even mention my true name, Zaixing," he slammed his chopsticks down, interrupting Zaixing, and huffed in frustration. "Why was this body of Zhao Weiliang picked for me? I don't even want to go there."
"Not me. Not my idea for you to come down. However, I can see the advantage since the Governor has lost his only wife and child during childbirth…" Zaixing rambled and then kept quiet.
Long-term partnership with this particular primordial deity wasn't easy. Baxing, the Deity of Hegemony, is extremely difficult to deceive or play with. His unpredictability matched that of Zaixing's. He took his acting as Governor Zhao very seriously.
While Zaixing unleashed calamities, one of Baxing's talents is persuasively influencing the mortal rulers of any species, and creating great wars. The rise and fall of mortal empires, and major conquests throughout the universe had Baxing's signature.
He rolled his eyes. "It is just a rhetoric. This body of Zhao Weiliang… hopeless."
Zhao Weiliang, governor of the Northern Region, had ingested a copious amount of poison in a short matter of time. There is only so much a man could only purge with his ling qi.
Each time he survived, an increased dosage or a new poison of choice was laced on his food.
Even worse, his beloved wife died last year from childbirth complications. His baby was a stillborn. With depression and then the excruciating suffering of the continued poisoning attempts, the poor man had given up on his life.
The internal organs were already damaged to an irreversible state that Death took it in time for him to possess the body and assume Zhao Weiliang's identity.
"You got into trouble and now it involves me. So help me by giving me the antidotes for whatever crap they are putting into the food," Weiliang said.
"Well, there's a lot... the standard crane's red-crown, intestine-rupturing herb, the meeting of blood and seals throat...," Zaixing replied.
"Which great deity's idea was it to teach these humans how to obtain arsenic, Gelsemium elegans, Antiaris toxicaria, datura, nerium oleander... and give them all these Chinese names from Earth?" Weiliang asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Don't look at me. This is the first time I was ordered by Primordial Chaos to transmigrate a soul here," Zaixing replied. "There's another one on this planet, who has been transmigrating others here. This time, there's trouble with one which shouldn't be here. Besides, you can build a body of the same like."
"This is the second time, I have reconstructed internal organs of this body to hide his death fro, the physician," He grumbled. "And bloody bored with it. It's troublesome. That's why you didn't even bother to rebuild Ji Yingwen after the dumb incident to hide your identity from an ascended deity."
"Besides, I have to be in several places at the same time."
Weiliang started laughing loudly, slapping his thigh in amusement, and wiped a tear rolling down his eyes.
"And I don't? I am so split up by the jobs awaiting my completion in many worlds. This does not count cleaning up your mess and that of the other one under the direction of Primordial Chaos." Weiliang stood up and neatened himself. "If I am human, I would have a killer splitting headache."
"So how is the other? I mean…"
"Can't tell you who the human is. Need to know basis and don't even try." He warned Zaixing. "A human is coming, now leave."
The footsteps were nearing the yard. Time for his act to start.
Weiliang swept the dishes on the table off quickly. The large crashing sound brought the pitter patter of feet.
The porcelain ware laid shattered in pieces while the food form an abstract splatter of colors on the dusty floor. Weiliang looked at it with satisfaction.
The scene has been set.
He pointed at the roasted chicken, now covered with dust, and a large chunk disappeared. The details have been taken care of.
Weiliang looked around quickly for the place with the least porcelain chips. His foot swept the larger chunks of porcelain to the side.
Then he inhaled deeply and collapsed on the floor. A few scratches on his face should be easy to regenerate.
Should he add froth or not? He thought better. Sometimes exaggerating too much can lead to doubt.
The doors swung open. He peeped with a slightly opened eye and groaned as weakly as he could.
"HELP! the Governor has collapsed!" A male servant called out.
"AGAIN?" another voice answered.
***
"Do you…," Xuanyi and I both spoke at the same time after breaking the long silence in the carriage.
"You first, third prince."
His face looked rather troubled after we left the Governor's abode. Finally, he was going to speak up.
"Nothing, speak first," I said.
"There is something odd about the Governor and the staff in that residence. And he doesn't have a family. Last I heard, he did have a wife, and I checked it with his staff- they said she died in childbirth last year. That should leave me with a sense of relief instead of a very odd feeling poking away all the time," Xuanyi had echoed my thoughts. "What do you think? You spoke to him for quite a while."
I had the same vibes from the place and definitely the Governor. He did not look liked he trusted anyone in his own residence.
"When we reach Xuanlong sect, I want you to find out about him and his wife," I said. "Including the magistrate and coroner who handled the bodies. Also, trace which physician is treating him and his background."
"As for Beihou, is there any message to send?"
"I will decide when you come back with the news I want to hear," I replied as the carriage descended slowly.
How nice if it was an entire holiday which Zaixing has granted. However, anything from him is a booby trap waiting to unleash a deadly ambush with life-threatening consequences. If I could, I would teach the locals how to make pina coladas. Then live out my days by the beach in a great mansion, sipping the drink, feeling like a billionaire on a bohemian vacation.
Or maybe write novels for leisure and hope that there is enough passive income to support my vices. A cigar would be nice, but Lingyu did not seem to have tobacco in existence. Even if they did, I can't recognize the plant itself.
A mild thud of the stepping chair announced our arrival. I got out after Xuanyi, to be greeted by the worried faces of Lianfeng and his father. Bad news keeps coming today. Usually no one greets me on return from Youdu.
"Third prince," Tianjin bowed.
"Come on, dispense with the formalities. You are my coach," I laughed nervously as he lifted his head.
"There's bad news. More refugees coming from Beihou now. And some… well… some…," he mumbled with his eyes shifted around.
"What about those some?" I looked at him, puzzled by his reluctance to come straight to the point, like he always did when he whacked me in training classes.
He was cowering and Lianfeng's quiet, glum look gave me a foreboding of a disaster.
"Well, we have separated them from most of the refugees and placed them in a small villa near the back of our headquarters. They are the Hu people. The barbarians. A chieftain's son is badly injured from a skirmish, but it seems like some of the ravaged villages had formed an alliance with them against a third party. Some of the refugees from there have hidden their identities. This is getting complicated and they don't speak our language well," Tianjin muttered. "My brother is trying to calm them down now."
"Hu… are usually killed on sight. Naturally, they will be fearful. A chieftain's son would be a prize hostage for your father," Xuanyi whispered to me.
None of Ji Feng's memories can help me.
"Bring me to them," I said. "I want to see how much they know. And is there any Hu translator on our side?"
"Most are in Beihou, but Beihou is too dangerous to enter now," Tianjin replied.
"I will try to get them to talk," I said while beckoning him to show me the way.
In three hours, my life has turned upside down. In my hands laid is a ticking time bomb. Turning over, a chieftain son will win the King's praise and more assassins on my ass.
Had I been the truly naïve 13-year-old prince of this body, I may be in deeper trouble.
My miserable Earthly knowledge of three war strategy books and loaded with memories of movies about Chinese ancient kingdoms and wars can't help much.
Nevertheless, something is better than nothing.
Not handing the chieftain's son over to father, is placing two targets, Xiaohua and him, in an easy ambush. Or three, if they include me. A dilemma laid before me as we trudged up the wide cobbled path towards the building. Tianjin and Lianfeng led the way.
I could already hear the disciples talking among themselves as they walked towards us. The group bowed and quickly disappeared through a convenient side entrance.
A younger disciple came running past, only to get his collar cuff yanked by Tianjin. "Why are you running? Can't you see the third prince is behind?"
The frightened boy's eyes widen at the sight of me. His lips were trembling.
"It's okay." I placed my hand on the boy after Tianjin released his hold. "Why are you running?"
He rubbed his hands in anxiety and spoke, "T-t-the… I… I… n-need… to… get a physician for the chieftain's son. H-He is not looking good."