Chapter 448: Fiendish genius leaves a move
Despite Gu Qi Sha’s obvious scorn, Long Feiye remain calm. Instead, it was Chu Xifeng who got annoyed instead.
“Gu Qi Sha,” he raged, “The duke won. Wipe that smirk off your face!”
When His Highness Duke of Qin had first come to ask for ingredients, he’d resorted to peaceful methods first before things got physical. It was Gu Qi Sha who didn’t appreciate the favor and made things hard on purpose. Otherwise, His Highness Duke of Qin wouldn’t have injured the man and pressured him.
“The duke won? I think he was forcing others to bend to his will instead,” Gu Qi Sha’s smile grew even more scornful. “Your Highness Duke of Qin is stronger than me, after all.”
Chu Xifeng couldn’t listen to him anymore and retorted, “If you know that you’re weak, then stop showing off!”
“Are you saying that His Highness Duke of Qin bullies the weak?” Gu Qi Sha chucked out loud.
“So what if he does?!” Chu Xifeng really wanted to have a rousing argument with this fellow. His weird smiles and infuriating attitude was too much. Long Feiye watched them argue, finding something familiar about such a talkative scene. It felt like he’d met someone with the same rattling mouth somewhere. Still, he pushed the thought aside in favor of more serious business.
“Gu Qi Sha, how can your lordship be sure that this is a real Bear chuan?” he asked coldly.
Even Chu Xifeng was surprised by his words, much less Gu Qi Sha. He thought Long Feiye had another task in mind, but he was only asking after the Bear chuan.
“Didn’t you inspect it just then? What, you’re only asking about authenticity after accepting the item?” Gu Qi Sha said sourly.
Chu Xifeng didn’t speak, but he was confused as well. Before coming here, His Highness Duke of Qin had written at least 10 letters to elder Wang from Medicine City to get details and medicinal properties of the Bear chuan, Panoptic Red Lotus and Serpent Fruit, as well as the various reactions when the three were mixed together to create the antidote for Broomcorn Millet Poison.
Each of the letters had been longer than 10 pages. Chu Xifeng had glanced at two to three and once wondered why His Highness Duke of Qin was so particular about the steps used to make the antidote. Couldn’t they just make it themselves once they got all the ingredients? Even if it wasn’t esteemed wangfei, the Wang Clan head had said that any poisons master could create the antidote as long as they had the real ingredients on hand.
His Highness Duke of Qin already knows this much, so he should be able to figure out the authenticity of the Bear chuan by himself! Chu Xifeng thought. Furthermore, the monk can run away, but the temple won’t run with him. If Gu Qi Sha wanted to abandon his Pill Fiend Valley altogether, he could’ve just given us false goods and ran instead of agreeing to a one-year time limit.
“Your lordship doesn’t understand such things, so how am I supposed to tell?” Long Feiye said coldly.
Hearing this, Chu Xifeng realized something was up. But without knowledge of His Highness Duke of Qin’s intentions, he could only keep quiet. Gu Qi Sha’s Bear chuan was naturally the real thing. Being suspected like this only made him indignant. “I only have that single Bear chuan. If you don’t want it, forget it! You can find someone else to get one!”
Long Feiye’s lips quirked up into a sardonic smile. “And if your lordship refuses?”
Chu Xifeng’s mouth twitched at the words. I can’t believe His Highness Duke of Qin is playing the rascal this time. Just what is he planning?
Gu Qi Sha really had no choice after all. Who told me to lose against Long Feiye? His eyes flashed shrewdly before he endured it all!
“Your Highness Duke of Qin, just get to the point. What else do you want?”
“The Serpent Fruit and Panoptic Red Lotus in your lordship’s hands are all genuine goods. When combined with Bear chuan, the three of them can make a very specific antidote. Do you know which one?” Long Feiye asked.
“Certainly, the antidote to Broomcorn Millet Poison. What, Your Highness Duke of Qin has someone with the poison?” If Gu Qi Sha knew the antidote formula for Broomcorn Millet Poison, then he would have understood what Long Feiye wanted as soon as he listed off the ingredients. Why was he asking these questions now? Obviously, to bring it up on purpose.
Still, Long Feiye was quite satisfied with his answer. If Gu Qi Sha knew about the formula, then he could save himself a lot of talking. “Since you already know, then make the antidote as a test of the Bear chuan’s authenticity, how’s that?” Long Feiye said coldly.
A complicated look flickered past Gu Qi Sha’s eyes as he remained silent.
“As this lordship understands, if any of the ingredients are false, it’ll be impossible to mix them together and create the antidote,” Long Feiye said seriously.
Gu Qi Sha hid a cold smile. If you already know this much, then you should know whether the Bear chuan’s authentic already.
Meanwhile, Chu Xifeng finally realized what His Highness Duke of Qin was up to! But for him to go to such pains…he’s really taking cares! For the sake of saving Baili Mingxiang, both His Highness Duke of Qin and esteemed wangfei had come to Pill Fiend Valley to ask for medicine. The trip had alerted esteemed wangfei to His Highness Duke of Qin’s previous visits to the valley, and how he’d been searching for the antidote ingredients.
Now that all the ingredients were present, how were they supposed to hide everything from esteemed wangfei? Requiring Gu Qi Sha to keep his mouth shut would only end with them making a fool of themselves. Once Gu Qi Sha realized that His Highness Duke of Qin was keeping secrets from esteemed wangfei, he’d probably spill the beans to her right away.
But if they made Gu Qi Sha ‘prove’ the authenticity of the Bear chuan by making the antidote himself, it’d be hard for the Pill Fiend to get a handle on them. Moreover, once His Highness had the antidote in hand, all he had to do was treat Mute Granny with a portion while bringing the rest to esteemed wangfei with a ready explanation.
The size of the Serpent Fruit, Panoptic Red Lotus, and Bear chuan determined how much antidote one could make from the ingredients. Esteemed wangfei had never seen the Bear chuan before, so she’d never know how much antidote there was originally. Now Chu Xifeng knew why His Highness Duke of Qin had spent all that time communicating with the Wang Clan head about the antidote details. It seemed like he had been looking for ways to keep things under wraps so esteemed wangfei wouldn’t get suspicious.
But to manage something like this really cost him lots of time and effort!
Reality proved that one had to weave an even bigger lie to cover the original fib. But there was no need for His Highness to do such things. With his power and influence, what did he need to fear? Why had he ever even offered excuses for his actions at all? In the past, he’d never bothered to answer when Han Yunxi asked him any questions.
Now he’s really changing by the day!
Both Long Feiye and Chu Xifeng waited for Gu Qi Sha’s answer. As Chu Xifeng saw it, Pill Fiend was a shrewd man, but it’d be impossible for him to figure out Long Feiye’s intentions with his words. Moreover, he had no idea what was going on between His Highness and esteemed wangfei, nor was he aware of the existence of Mute Granny.
Gu Qi Sha’s eyeballs simply rolled in his sockets as he mused over the matter. Still, he soon accepted the offer. “Heheh, then may Your Highness Duke of Qin take out all three ingredients! This one will create the antidote right now!”
The three of them made their way to his pill hall before Long Feiye gave up all three ingredients. Gu Qi Sha stood in front of them and created the antidote before their very eyes. His movements revealed his thin, bony fingers, which moved rapidly as they weighed, sliced, pulverized, ground, and powdered. His movements were smooth and fluid, his billowing black robes acting as the backdrop to his performance. At these speeds, a single blink meant they could miss everything.
Long Feiye and Chu Xifeng both stared at the man as he worked. Soon enough, the antidote for Broomcorn Millet Poison was completed. Gu Qi Sha offered up all of the antidote before Long Feiye with a cold smile. “Your Highness Duke of Qin, see if this is real or not. I won’t accept any claims once you take this out of Pill Fiend Valley!”
Long Feiye glanced at the pile of powdered antidote before personally putting it into a porcelain bottle. Without another word, he turned and left. This was his true personality—someone who never wasted words when there was nothing more to say. Though there was no need to send him off, Gu Qi Sha accompanied him all the way to the end of the valley.
“Your Highness Duke of Qin, we’ll meet again one day!”
Long Feiye didn’t even look back. He’d gone around in a huge circle today just so he could substantiate an excuse for Han Yunxi. Once he cured Mute Granny’s poison and figured out Lady Tianxin’s origins once and for all, he’d give the rest of the antidote to Han Yunxi. He hadn’t left her alone for this long since returning from the disaster areas. According to his estimation, it wouldn’t be more than five days before he went back.
Most likely, that woman wouldn’t settle for staying idly at the estate. She’s probably been running in and out everyday.
—
Gu Qi Sha stood at the top of the mountain as he watched Long Feiye’s figure vanished into the forests. Finally, he took out a bottle of antidote from his sleeve. He was a fiendishly clever pharmacist, after all. Putting aside Long Feiye, even the three clan heads of Medicine City would be hard pressed to see just what he’d done. In the end, he’d only given Long Feiye half the antidote, while the other half was comprised of powders with no medicinal properties whatsoever. The bottle in his hands perfectly held the other half of antidote.
One couldn’t accuse him of giving Long Feiye a fake antidote, either—after all, it was the quantity that had been falsified, not the content itself. Long Feiye and Chu Xifeng wouldn’t be able to tell. Even if they went to consult with top-level experts, it wasn’t certain that anyone would notice the difference.
However, Gu Qi Sha was 100 percent certain that Han Yunxi would know!
“Your Highness Duke of Qin, we’ll meet again one day!” In splendid spirits, Gu Qi Sha returned to his estate while humming a tune. The first thing he did was to tell his steward, “No need to send that secret missive anymore. Things have turned more interesting than I expected!”
The old steward had no idea what Gu Qi Sha meant. As he went to burn the secret missive he couldn’t help but hesitate. His Highness Duke of Qin’s repeated visits to the valley had spurred his master to write this letter to Qin Wangfei in secret. He couldn’t help but wonder at the contents, so his curiosity got the better of him as he stole a peek inside. Unfortunately, it only left him more puzzled.
His master had originally written one line: His Highness Duke of Qin came to get the Bear chuan.
“That’s it? I thought there was a secret love affair going on!” the old steward muttered to himself. By the time he returned to the courtyard, Gu Qi Sha had already disappeared.
Two days later saw Long Feiye and Chu Xifeng returning to the capital on fast horses. They galloped right past the Duke of Qin’s estate to make a beeline for the Solitary Enclosure. There, Mute Granny had taken up residence ever since the duke and wangfei’s return from the disaster regions.
As soon as Tang Li saw Long Feiye arrive, he rejoiced. “You got it?”
Long Feiye didn’t reply, but headed straight for the study, opened up a hidden passageway, and walked through a miniature maze before arriving at the secret rooms where Mute Granny was being held. Even Tang Li and Chu Xifeng weren’t allowed to enter by that point, so they simply exchanged resigned looks.
“I can’t wait!” Tang Li sighed with emotion. After standing guard for so long, he still had no idea who Mute Granny was or what kind of secrets she held.
“It’s nerve wracking!” Chu Xifeng couldn’t stop fiddling with his hands. He only hoped that the Mute Granny’s secret wouldn’t make esteemed wangfei’s origins too intolerable to His Highness Duke of Qin.
Mute Granny was sitting at her table drinking tea when Long Feiye entered. Unlike her previous explosive self, she was much calmer this time. Still, the sight of Long Feiye stirred up her nerves. Here was the young man who possessed portraits of Mu Xin and her daughter both, but kept herself locked up. Just what were his motives?
Long Feiye had rushed here so fast that he’d even skipped stopping at home, but now he was proceeding at a sedate pace. He sat down on one side of the table and brewed some fresh tea before indicating, as before, for Mute Granny to take a seat.