Chapter 477: Lil Thing’s miraculous help
It didn’t take even half a day before Long Feiye and Gu Qi Sha had swept through all of the warehouses in the black market, but neither of them found a single speck of gunpowder, much less entire stores of the stuff. The duo hadn’t exchanged a single word since leaving Wu Shu’s shop. They traveled together and only split up whenever they reached a new target for them to search. Generally speaking, both men would finish scoping at the same time, their maintained silence enough proof that the other hadn’t found a thing.
Currently, they were searching yet another giant warehouse. Both of them had split up within the same room to hunt for any signs of secret doors, but an extensive examination had only left them empty-handed. The two exchanged glances before silently leaving the warehouse behind. The first thing Gu Qi Sha did upon exiting was take to the roofs. Long Feiye’s martial arts were much better than his, but he kept behind a step on purpose. The entire way, Long Feiye had been observing Gu Qi Sha’s gestures, lightness techniques, leg strength and flying and sky-walking postures. He had never scrutinized the man’s movements so closely when they fought in the past, but now he gave them his utmost attention.
After a careful study, Long Feiye finally rose into the sky himself to land on the roof next to him. He directed coldly, “We’ll go that way for the next one.”
“We’ll split up and search! Otherwise we won’t finish for days!” Gu Qi Sha said unhappily. Every since coming out with Long Feiye, he hadn’t been searching seriously at all. The only reason he’d gone with the man in the beginning was just so he could slack off while they worked together. He didn’t need to think as much if he was just following the other man’s lead. But now he realized that even mindless copying was rather tiring. He planned to sneak back and catch some shuteye—or if he couldn’t fall asleep, go drink tea and have a chat with Han Yunxi.
“Your lordship will go to the west. The east shall be left to you,” Long Feiye said icily. He had a good estimation of Gu Qi Sha’s movements after spending half the day with him now, and was too lazy to stay with him any further. Splitting up to search really would save time.
Gu Qi Sha didn’t answer, but simply left the scene. Long Feiye watched his retreating form before a mocking smile rose to his lips. He seemed to have figured something out. Next he headed for the west, but before he entered another warehouse, he spotting a familiar white figure rush inside before him!
Why did I bump into it here? Long Feiye was greatly puzzled. He quietly followed the little animal, but it froze before he even came close. Long Feiye didn’t stop, but kept walking until he flashed in front of the creature. “What are you doing here?”
Who else could this be but Lil Thing?
Right now, it was nothing more than a round white ball thanks to all its fur standing on end. It didn’t know what Papa Long was saying, but it still found him plenty scary and began to back away. Long Feiye was certainly feeling furious. If Lil Thing here was, there very well might be a chance that Han Yunxi was around, too.
This restless woman. Didn’t I tell her to stay quietly at the grain shop? All she knows is some hidden weapon skills, so how could dare run out by herself into the black markets?
If someone kidnaps her again, I wouldn’t even know how she died!
“Where’s Han Yunxi?” Long Feiye said coldly.
Lil Thing was scared to begin with, but his demand only terrified it all the more. It turned tail and ran for its life! Even though it wouldn’t die, meeting Papa Long made it fear for its life. It was afraid that Papa Long would secretly finish it off one day with Mama Yunxi none the wiser. Long Feiye assumed that Lil Thing had gone off to find Han Yunxi again, so he immediately gave chase. Seeing this, Lil Thing grew even more frightened and put on another burst of speed. It had no idea what Papa Long was up to.
Aside from that one time in Medicine City, Papa Long’s never chased me when I’ve run away!
Long Feiye ended up chasing Lil Thing all the way back to the courtyard of Wu Shu’s grain shop, where he stopped upon realizing that Han Yunxi hadn’t left it at all. Lil Thing scampered up the walls and leapt into the courtyard. It wasn’t planning to come back, but Papa Long was so eager to catch it that it could only seek shelter with Mama Yunxi! It really didn’t understand why someone as smart as Mama Yunxi would fancy a scary fiend like Papa Long. Why doesn’t Mama Yunxi pair up with my gentleman instead? If she and the gentleman were together, my world would be perfect!
Long Feiye was about to turn around and leave when he paused and changed his mind. He didn’t know whether that woman was resting now, or doing something else. As it turned out, Han Yunxi was currently researching Beauty’s Tear and Perplexing Butterfly Illusion. Although Long Feiye hadn’t brought up either of these issues recently, she would always study the two poisons when she had free time. Sometimes she’d mix them with other toxins to see if there were any reactions. Other times, it was figuring out ways to analyze the individual components of each poison. Of course, aside from that, she was keeping an eye on the poison pool in her detox system dimension too. Last time the detox system had undergone upgrades because of that very pool, allowing her to raise the plants and analyze their compounds.
The poison she had used on Jun Yixie had been one of the earlier toxins cultivated by the poison pool plants. Its antidote was still in progress, while the original poison had matured quite nicely. Han Yunxi was now entertaining a bold thought: what if she mixed the poison pool water with Perplexing Butterfly Illusion and Beauty’s Tear? Would the former two poisons consume the pool water, or would the opposite happen instead? After all, poisons consumed other poisons as well. The stronger toxin would overpower weaker ones to increase its own toxicity. Han Yunxi took out the poison pond water, some Perplexing Butterfly Illusion, and a tiny sample of Beauty’s Tear. She put drops of the latter two into the former and prepared to observe the results when Lil Thing jumped in through the window and knocked against her shoulder.
“Ah!” the poison bottles in Han Yunxi’s hands nearly went flying; fortunately, she had a strong grip on them both. Lil Thing couldn’t even be bothered with the delicious scent of poisons as it grabbed onto Han Yunxi’s clothes and crawled onto her shoulder, then slid down her arm like a slide to scurry into her sleeve.
What’s up with this little fellow? While Han Yunxi was puzzling it out, someone knocked on her door.
“Who is it?” she asked. But the person outside didn’t answer beyond knocking again.
Strange! None of Wu Shu’s subordinates would dare to keep quiet, so just who was it? Han Yunxi glanced at the bottles of poison samples in her hands. When she saw that mixing them with the poison pond water showed no reaction, she simply placed both bottles in her medical pouch. Quietly, she approached the door with her Pear Blossom Raindrop Needles ready to launch.
Knock knock knock!
The knocking wouldn’t stop, but Han Yunxi only drew her lips into a cold smile and kept quiet. Very soon, the person outside stopped knocking. Silence followed in their wake—almost as if they’d left the doors. Han Yunxi grew even more doubtful as she grew even more guarded. She cautiously peeked out of the left and right windows. One of them was shut tight, while the other had been knocked open by Lil Thing. She was just looking out the open window when a few golden needles flew in through the cracks of the door. Han Yunxi didn’t even notice until they brushed past her face to break the teacup on the table to pieces. She grew alarmed at the same time Long Feiye called out, “Open the door.”
It’s him? At a loss, Han Yunxi opened the door to see Long Feiye standing outside. He looked at her a little helplessly. “You and your sense of vigilance…”
Although there were hidden guards stationed by her side, they still couldn’t guarantee her safety in the face of high-level experts. He couldn’t always stay be her side, either. Long Feiye began to reconsider whether he should teach this woman martial arts. He’d refused in the past and called her a hopeless case simply because he had reservations about Han Yunxi, but now he was looking for a chance to start instructing her formally.
Fine, Han Yunxi could admit that her own precautions against strangers were terrible, but she had no choice! “Why did Your Highness come back? You’ve found the gunpowder?”
“I ran into Lil Thing and chased it back for a look. If you’re not tired, we can look for it together,” Long Feiye said mildly.
Han Yunxi was thrilled. “Really?”
“Let’s go,” Long Feiye turned to leave. Had he seen how much I wanted to come along and indulged me because of it? That was something only he would know.
In any case, Han Yunxi happily left with Long Feiye to go hunting for gunpowder. By the time Gu Qi Sha came back, she was already gone. He couldn’t find her anywhere in the courtyard, nor did any of the other people in the shop know where she’d gone. Gu Qi Sha wanted to go sleep, but found that he couldn’t after lying down…truly, a tragedy!
When Han Yunxi found out that neither Long Feiye nor Gu Qi Sha had gotten any results despite searching for half a day, Han Yunxi urged Lil Thing out of her sleeve and dangled the creature in front of Long Feiye.
“Your Highness, it has a way!” Han Yunxi grinned, but Lil Thing only felt like crying.
“Chee….chee, chee…”
“What kind of way?” Long Feiye knocked Han Yunxi’s fingers loose. “Aren’t you afraid of getting dirty? How many times have I told you, don’t carry that thing on you all the time!” Long Feiye still looked down on the poison beast even now, not because he disdained its skills, but because he didn’t like furry little animals.
Lil Thing dropped to the ground and scurried to hide behind Han Yunxi’s foot, feeling both wronged and afraid. Han Yunxi only crouched down and gave a cold snort. “Lil Thing, show him up one by tracking down the gunpowder!”
So speaking, she took out the sulfur again for Lil Thing to sniff. Bolstered by her words, Lil Thing quickly scampered up Han Yunxi’s shoulders and stuck its tongue out at Long Feiye before running off.
“Your Highness, hurry and chase it! It’ll definitely track it down!” Han Yunxi pressed.
Could Long Feiye refuse her? Obviously not. The high and mighty Duke of Qin thus ended up chasing after a little squirrel for the third time in his life, rounding corners and crossing roofs and walls. Lil Thing seemed to bear a grudge this time, because it picked all of the hardest roads to travel, including a few dog tunnels as if Long Feiye would follow it through them, too. Long Feiye’s excellent lightness techniques simply had him leaping over the walls instead. Dog tunnels had nothing to do with him. Han Yunxi witnessed them both and couldn’t help but fret over Lil Thing’s lack of brains!
Just when Long Feiye was about to lose his patience, Lil Thing suddenly screeched to a halt and turned back to cheep at Han Yunxi.
“It found it!” Han Yunxi rejoiced.
Lil Thing nodded its head furiously before running into a restaurant. This was the only restaurant in the entire black market and one of the properties in the documents that Long Feiye had reviewed. However, he hadn’t gotten a chance to search the premises yet. Long Feiye brought Han Yunxi along as they caught up with Lil Thing in the back courtyard of the restaurant. Here was the wine cellar, and the smell of alcohol overpowered them as they approached the door. By avoiding the servant in the back courtyard, they managed to sneak in via a window into the cellar, only to see it filled to the brim with wine jugs. There was only a narrow passage left in the room for moving around. Lil Thing was like an arrow released into flight as it shot towards the very back of the cellar!
Long Feiye and Han Yunxi chased after it and quickly found an entrance to the basement. But once they went in, all they saw were more jugs of wine below.
Where was the gunpowder?
Long Feiye and Han Yunxi both glanced at Lil Thing, who rammed into the nearest wine jug until it fell and broke! And then…