Would she stay put just because she was told to?
Han Yunxi didn't care a whit and kept moving forward. In response, the masked man drew close in a flash, preventing her from escaping as he gripped her shoulder and tugged down her facemask!
As soon as he saw Han Yunxi's neat little face, the masked man grinned. "Someone with such great skills who could smell the scent of poison powder from so far away, and here your lord was wondering who it was. So it was you!"
"Let me go!" Han Yunxi struggled, grabbing his arm in the process. The masked man was in an excellent mood as he allowed her to scrabble as she wished.
"Since even Qin Wangfei has come, the other is most likely…" as the masked man spoke, he prepared to turn towards Long Feiye, but the next instant had the icy edge of a blade pressing against his neck!
It was Long Feiye!
He could actually still stand. Could it be that he hadn't been poisoned? How could this be…
The masked man was completely caught by surprise, while Han Yunxi had found out Long Feiye wasn't truly poisoned a long time ago. Her reaction was lightning quick. Taking advantage of the masked man's momentary distraction, she tore at his fanged mask and nimbly pushed it aside! Han Yunxi was extremely agitated, but saw that the face beneath the mask belonged to a stunningly handsome man. The deep contours of his facial features seemed carved by the very Heavens. He gave off an air of wild arrogance, a monarch who considered himself unexcelled in the world. At the corner of the eyebrow over his right eye was a blood red eyebrow piercing. It was covered by a part of his hair, making it hard for her to see the design of the totem[1]. Overall, he was a mysterious and unruly man.
Without doing a single thing, his face was enough to make a person tremble with fear. Han Yunxi's heart was already pounding, but it sped up at the sight of this face.
Despite the fact that Long Feiye's sword was resting on his shoulder, the masked man didn't pay it any attention. He narrowed his eyes and stared coldly at Han Yunxi, who was gripping the fanged facemask as she felt killer intent rise from all directions. Unconsciously, she backed up two steps.
"Han Yunxi, very good!" the masked man's voice was filled with menacing tones as he completely disregarded Long Feiye.
Han Yunxi felt timid in her heart, but she loathed this kind of threat. Unwilling to be outdone, she shot back, "You couldn't even tell that he wasn't poisoned. You might as well retire early from the world of poison arts!"
The masked man clenched his fists until the joints cracked, while Long Feiye slowly circled around the man with his blade pressed to his neck until they were standing face-to-face. Unexpectedly, before Long Feiye could catch sight of his face, the masked man began to emit a white smoke all around him!
"Be careful of poison!" Han Yunxi warned. Long Feiye instantly evaded to land by her side and shield her. At the same instant, the masked man vanished, leaving a blackish-red bloodstain on his blade. Long Feiye had severely injured him, but in the end he'd still escaped. Han Yunxi expelled a long breath. That was seriously close. If Long Feiye hadn't pretended to be poisoned, she would've been a burden tonight no matter how fast she moved.
"Did you remember his face?" Long Feiye asked immediately.
She could naturally remember a face as stirring as that.
"There's an eyebrow piercing over his right eye, blood red in color. It seemed to resemble a totem," Han Yunxi replied in a rush. Such a distinctive piercing had to rare.
As expected, her words elicited a cold laugh from Long Feiye. "So it was him!"
"Who? A Northern Li person?" Han Yunxi was super curious.
"Northern Li's Duke of Kang[2], Jun Yixie[3]," Long Feiye enunciated word by word. Of all the people in the three countries, Jun Yixie was the one man he'd take into serious consideration.
Who knew that it really was him!
Jun Yixie was a foreign name to Han Yunxi, but she knew of Northern Li's Duke of Kang. The Duke of Kang, Tianning's Duke of Qin, and Western Zhou's Crown Prince Ye were three well-known names across Cloud Realm Continent. Everyone knew that the Duke of Kang was despotic, the Duke of Qin frosty, and Crown Prince Ye ruthless!
Han Yunxi had already saw Western Zhou's Crown Prince Ye Duanmu Baiye early on. He was Princess Rongle's biological older brother. Though he hadn't left much of an impression, this Duke of Kang was filled with an evil, tyrannical air that etched itself deep into her memories. And that was leaving aside his poison skills!
Unlike Long Feiye and Crown Prince Ye, Northern Li's Duke of Kang wasn't a direct descendent of the imperial line, but the adopted son of Northern Li's emperor. Despite that, his position was far higher than any imperial son. He was a man who could raise his hand and block the Heavens, flip his hand and upset the rains!
Although they hadn't captured him, they didn't come for nothing, either. Now that they knew the identity of the other party, they could at least guard against him. Finally, the issue of the secret poison agents had come to light. Looking at Long Feiye's icy gaze, Han Yunxi mused, Long Feiye definitely won't let this pass so easily.
Long Feiye wiped away the bloodstains on his sword and sheathed the blade. He was about to pull out the needles stuck on the back of his hand when Han Yunxi quickly stopped him. "Don't touch, let me do it!"
She took out a handkerchief and carefully wrapped it around the poison needles before slowly plucking them out. The poison powder on these needles would affect a victim as soon as careless contact was made. In the processing of retrieving the needles, she discovered the truth: Long Feiye's sleeve hid a layer of armor that had caught the needles in place of his skin.
"You're really smart, pretending to be poisoned," Han Yunxi had to praise him. If not the for detox system, she wouldn't have been able to tell, either. Thinking up to here, she suddenly burst into laughter.
"What are you laughing about?" Long Feiye asked coldly.
"The Duke of Kang must be wracking his brains trying to figure out how I knew you weren't poisoned."
Just as Han Yunxi was chortling, Long Feiye spoke. "He'll come find you again."
Abruptly, Han Yunxi stopped smiling as the image of the Duke of Kang's dangerous eyes rose in her mind. Immediately, a chill ran down her back. All right, as the culprit who'd pulled down his face mask, she…really was in danger.
Seeing Han Yunxi's ashen face, Long Feiye was full of amusement as he asked, "Scared?"
Han Yunxi's expression immediately turned pious and devout. Her eyes fired up as she looked pitifully at Long Feiye. "With Your Highness here, chenqie isn't afraid of anything."
Actually, she was pretending to be pathetic. This was a lackey trying to curry favor, all right?
Long Feiye was a man who loathed women who affected their emotions and pretended to be helpless. Despite that, he didn't find Han Yunxi annoying. The corners of his mouth twitched as if he wanted to speak, but he didn't say anything in the end. Instead, he avoided her gaze and walked towards the poison pond.
Fine, Han Yunxi was used to the guy who yielded to nothing. She loosened her shoulders and followed after him. In any case, she and Long Feiye were on the same boat. If she got kidnapped again, it wouldn't be any good for him, either. This could be considered her "fallback," right?
—
The poison pond had modest dimensions, and the water itself was quite shallow. But the pool was filled with enough plants to cause Long Feiye and Han Yunxi to knit their eyebrows, their expressions anxious. Here was their biggest predicament. When they were far away, Han Yunxi's detox system had already set off loud alarms, proving the high toxicity of this high density poison area. But she still needed to do detailed research to determine the details of the situation. Although she didn't know what kind of poisons these were, much less where they originated from and how potent they were, the detox system could still break things down and analyze them.
Once she did, Han Yunxi received a shock.
"There's some sort of unknown hypertoxic poison inside the pool. These plants still possess very weak levels of toxicity, they're not enough to poison anyone," she said mildly.
Although Long Feiye knew Han Yunxi's poison skills were very formidable, he couldn't help but be curious at her words. "How did you know?"
"Smell. My nose is very sensitive to poisons," Han Yunxi grinned. Even she felt this excuse was too absurd, but no one could call her words into question when she spoke this way.
Long Feiye's eyes flickered with doubt, though he didn't chase them to the end. "In other words, the Duke of Kang doesn't have any new types of poison on hand yet?"
"He shouldn't have. These plants still need a long period of cultivation."
Han Yunxi felt lucky that they'd discovered the place early. The detox system had been warning her about the poison in the pond, but these plants were only barely toxic and developing poison in its early stages. To put it specifically, these plants were all non-toxic medicinal plants that were planted in the poison pool. The poison and medicine were currently in the process of reacting to each other and gradually developing into new poisons. Although the poison in the pool was uniform throughout, each of the medicinal plants carried a different medical property. As a result, the poisons they'd produce by the end would be completely different as well.
Although they'd discovered all this in time, Han Yunxi still trembled at the sight of the plants in the water. Every single plant was different, so if they were ever raised to maturity, they'd be countless new poisons!
In the midst of her fear, Han Yunxi plucked off part of a plant to study. It was a terrifying thought if these new poisons landed in someone else's hands, but what if they landed in hers? Then it'd be the other party living in terror. Thinking up to here, Han Yunxi's intelligent, crafty eyes slowly grew focused.
She knew how to take care of this problem!
As long as her detox system had a record of a poison, it could break it down to parts even without using medicinal ingredients. Additionally, she could craft an antidote formula from the results. If her detox system didn't have a record, then it was impossible to find a treatment.
However, she recalled that her detox system still had a feature that was still under development. That was its intellectual analyzation abilities. As long as she gave it enough raw, unprocessed toxins to analyze, the detox system could divide up the materials by various attributes and create new poisons. The pool and immature plants before her now could all be considered raw, unprocessed toxins!
Looking at the emerald green surface of the pond, Han Yunxi's lips drew up in a secret smile. She was determined to claim these raw materials! Though the quantity was rather large, the limitless space of her detox system could still contain it. However, it'd take a tremendous amount of brainpower for her to accomplish the feat. Han Yunxi secretly glanced at Long Feiye, only to meet his eyes looking back at the same time.
"Is there a way to destroy the poison in the pond?" Long Feiye asked.
Four words suddenly rose in Han Yunxi's mind: waste of natural resources. She mused over how to swallow up this pool without arousing Long Feiye's suspicions. And yet, it was then that a stern voice carried over.
"Who has the nerve and daring to trespass on the restricted area of the medicine forest! Do you want to make enemies with everyone in Medicine City?"
The guards of the restricted area had finally arrived. Han Yunxi quickly replaced her facemask and smiled coldly in her heart. The Duke of Kang colluded with the Mu family, but once he left, the Mu family would naturally call over the guards to catch the thieves! She soon saw a wave of guards appear from the surrounding woods. Of the two people leading the crowd, one was precisely the skinny old man who had accompanied the Duke of Kang before!
"Go!"
Long Feiye grabbed Han Yunxi and prepared to depart. The restricted area's poison pool was joint property between the three great families of Medicine City. It was inconvenient for them to stick their hands in the three families' affairs, much less make enemies of Medicine City. Right now, their only choice was to escape. However, Long Feiye had hardly leapt into the sky with Han Yunxi when arrows flew towards them from all sides! Although the restricted area was heavily guarded, there was no need for so many archers. This was an obvious move to counter a high level expert like Long Feiye. Otherwise, why would so many archers be hiding here?
Abominable, the Duke of Kang must have instigated them!
-o-
[1] totem – tuteng, used in ancient times as a representation of a clan or belief system. You can read a bit about Chinese totems here.
[2] Duke of Kang – Kang means "health, well-being."
[3] Jun Yixie – Jun is a surname meaning "monarch, sovereign," Yi is "also, too," and Xie is "evil, heretical, disaster." In other words, his name can be read as "a monarch as well as an evil disaster."