Something happened three days after that and that incident made everyone sank into a state of panic because Feng Huang wasn’t dead at all.
That time the owner’s son came crying at me, pulling my hand and telling me that his favorite flowers had withered and then he brought to the back of the inn. When I came to that place, I went silent all of a sudden. Yue Shen and Huang Tuo came after me and their expressions were just like as serious as mine.
Because that huge patch of gra.s.s behind Ting Zhu Xuan was all withered like a scar.
“There’s problem with the soil beneath.” Huang Tuo said.
Yue Shen came over and slashed her moonlight blade at the ground, and then the ground split open. I could see there were huge amount of needles through the crack and they were all coated with lethal poison. This was why the gra.s.s was all dead. But the top of those needles didn’t have the head of a Phoenix.
“We need to look at Zhen’s body again.” Huang Tuo said.
Once again, we dug out Zhen’s body from the grave.
“My king, look at her fingers.” Huang Tuo pointed at the blood clot on her fingers.
“Why are there blood clots?” I asked Huang Tuo.
“Because her body had already stiffened after her death, but someone moved her body and also tried prying her fingers open.” Huang Tuo replied.
“Because the time when the person tried to kill Zhen, Zhen was already holding the needle in her hand but she didn’t manage to use it and the person had already killed. After that the person tried to replace the needle in her hand with the needle that Feng Huang used, making us think that Zhen is Feng Huang.” Yue Shen added.
Shang Lie didn’t say a word; his expression was serious all the way. He finally spoke after a long time. “Bury her and don’t touch her anymore.”
—
The next morning I wast eating at the main hall, Huang Tuo walked over and sat down next to me. He told the waiter what he wanted to order and didn’t say anything after that except opening his palm at me. I saw a piece of white paper on his palm and there was a needle, which was dug out from the ground.
I took a good look at those needles because I knew Huang Tuo wouldn’t ask me look at these things for no reason. After looking at them under the light for a long time, my eyes went wide and then I saw Huang Tuo smiling at me. He knew I have already discovered the secret.
There was blood on one of the needle and it would mean that the needle had p.r.i.c.ked person, who replaced the needle from Zhen’s hand, and so he or she would have been poisoned.
“To neutralize this poison, it requires several rare medicines.” Huang Tuo said.
I saw his eyes sparkled brightly and then I understood what he meant. “We just need to know who in the inn is buying these medicines and then we will know who is being poisoned.” I said.
Huang Tuo nodded. “Then we will know who is Feng Huang once we know who got poisoned.”
Everyday there would be a delivery cart parked outside the inn, and the owner and waiter would go collect those stocks that the inn required. Of course there would be medicines. If any customer in the inn were to order any stuff, the deliveryman would send it directly to the customer’s room.
We noticed that everyday there would be medicines being delivered to the inn from all medicinal halls of various cities; majority of them were were required by the inn for their menu while the other portion was delivered to Yi Zhao’s room.
When Huang Tuo and I told Shang Lie about it, Shang Lie just shook his head and said. “Definitely not Yi Zhao.”
Shang Lie told us that Yi Zhao has been taking such medicine because her injuries have yet to recover and she would have someone to send her these medicines everyday while she was staying at Tai Zi’s residence. But now that she has moved to the inn, they could only send the medicine here.
“The medicine that Yi Zhao are is to recover her spiritual power and it’s definitely not those poison neutralizing medicine.” Shang Lie said.
When we left Shang Lie’s room, Huang Tuo told me this. “My king, we should go check out Yi Zhao’s medicine.”
—
Luo Cao Zai was the biggest medicinal hall in this city and the deliveryman for Yi Zhao’s medicine was the worker from the medicinal hall. We went into the medicinal hall to look for the doctor and then asked him for her prescription.
The doctor smiled but I could still see the inadvertence in his smile. He told us it was against the patient’s privacy so he couldn’t reveal it to anyone.
“If you agree to show us the prescription, I can help you to cure three persons any time.” Huang Tuo went up and told him that.
That doctor gave us a despising kind of smile and said. “I am the best doctor in the whole city. Why should I let you cure my patients?”
Huang Tuo gave me a look and I walked up to the worker next to me and swung my hand with an ice sword pierced through his chest suddenly. I saw the fl.u.s.ter look on the doctor’s face when he saw the blood of his worker flowing down to the floor. Huang Tuo and I turned around to leave with a smile and when we were about to step out of the main door, we heard the doctor’s trembling voice. “Please stay.”
Huang Tuo stroked his glowing hand on the worker’s chest and then the wound began to heal on its own, leaving his skin scarless like there wasn’t any injury before. That doctor was already sitting on the ground and his eyes were filled with fear and horror.
We have already gotten the prescription, and there were three rare herbs written at the end of the prescription.
“These herbs are the best poison neutralizers,” said Huang Tuo.
I looked at him and his eyes sparkled with a special yet exceptionally attractive glow. I knew what he meant.
—
When we went back to the inn, I saw Yi Zhao at the courtyard of Qian Cao Tang; she was wearing a long black robe, so gorgeous yet mysterious. Her expression was cold, arrogant and mysterious, just as creepy as a blooming black Mandala flower. But when she saw me, a smile crept across her face so suddenly like wind blowing on the frozen lake; her smile was like those small and beautiful ripples spreading out on the lake surface. “My king, Ka Suo, how are you?”
“I’m good. I’ve seen you taking medicine everyday. Are you okay?” I said.
She brushed her head away from her forehead and smiled. “I’m fine. Those medicines are for my injuries. Thank you for your concern, my king.”
—
That night Huang Tuo came to my room. “Ka Suo, we should pay a visit to Yi Zhao’s room.”
“For what?” I asked.
“To see if her medicines are truly tonics or not.”
“We should get Yue Shen as well.” I told him.
Huang Tuo looked at me for a while before he spoke. “Why must we get Yue Shen?”
“If Yi Zhao were Feng Huang, Yue Shen would be the only one who could fight her with her a.s.sa.s.sination skills.” I said.
Huang Tuo looked out of the window and then nodded his head.
That night when the three of us were at the door, we knew that Yi Zhao was already asleep because there wasn’t any light in there.
Just when I was about to push the door open, I have this weird feeling all of a sudden. It was like the same scene had happened before; I turned to look at Yue Shen and her expression was the same. We looked at one another for a moment and then we knew what happened, so we pushed the door open but it was still too late. Yi Zhao was lying on the floor; her face staring at the ceiling and the twisted expression on her face was filled with fear and disbelief. There was a tiny cut on her throat and it was caused by a lethal sword move. The person, who killed Yi Zhao, must be someone whom she would never think of because she didn’t even have a chance to fight back. If not because she was caught off guard, the person wouldn’t even have the chance to attack her because Shang Lie had once told me before that Yi Zhao’s spiritual power was already at the level of an illusionist.
Yue Shen lighted up the lamp in Yi Zhao’s room and then we saw the cabinet next to her bed; the cabinet had already been opened before but was never shut back. The cabinet was full of medicines but Huang Tuo told me that those three herbs for poison neutralizing were missing.
“It would mean Yi Zhao isn’t Feng Huang and the real Feng Huang is the one who killed Yi Zhao. She came to steal the herbs but Yi Zhao discovered her and so she killed Yi Zhao. With our sudden arrival, she didn’t have the time to close the cabinet before she left.” Yue Shen said.
“Who do you think is Feng Huang?” I asked Yue Shen.
“We should go to the room to take a look.” Yue Shen said.
There wasn’t anyone in the rooms; everyone was gathered at the main hall except Chao Ya.
Shang Lie was sitting at the centre; Pian Feng was next to him; Hua Xiao was sitting at the side of the main hall but she wasn’t playing the zither, she just sat there quietly; the young handsome swordsman, Ya Zhao, was at the other side and next to him would be the old man, Tong Xie, and the muscular man, Yu Po.
“Was there anyone not around just now?” I asked Shang Lie.
“Everyone has been here drinking since the sky turned dark, only Ya Shao and Yu Po who did step away for a moment.” Shang Lie said.
“Is the time enough to kill one person?” Yue Shen continued asking.
Shang Lie’s expression turned serious. “Not enough. Definitely not enough.”
Ya Zhao shot Yue Shen a cold look and said. “Not even enough to kill a chicken let alone a person.”
“Who died this time round?” Shang Lie asked me softly.
“Yi Zhao.” I replied.
Just then I heard Huang Tuo’s gasp. “We have actually missed out one important thing.” With that he rushed out of the hall. Yue Shen and I followed after him and I could roughly sense the direction that Huang Tuo was heading to.
By the time we arrived at Luo Cao Zai, the place was already on fire. Standing in front of the burning place, I felt myself going back to Ren Xue Cheng; the day where Mirage Sky was on fire, Shi’s lean body was lying on the floor and his eyes were crystal white.
“How did you know about this?” I asked Huang Tuo.
“Because we have missed out one important thing. My king, do you still remember those three herbs?”
“Yes.”
“My king, do you know that these three herbs are only available in Huan Xue Shen Shan (snow mountain) and Ren Xue Cheng? How will a normal doctor in the mortal world know that these herbs require spiritual power to grow?”
“Then that doctor…”
“Yes, someone disguised to be the doctor.”
“We should ask Chao Ya where did she go tonight?” Yue Shen said slowly.
—
The second night everyone gathered at the main hall of the inn right after we buried Yi Zhao’s body. That night Hua Xiao has yet to come out, Shang Lie told the waiter to serve the dishes and the dishes that day were extremely sumptuous but none of us has the appet.i.te; no one was able to have good appet.i.te after so many deaths happening these few days. When the waiter was done with the serving, Hua Xiao has yet to come out as well so Shang Lie told the waiter to leave while we continued to wait for Hua Xiao.
When we almost thought that Hua Xiao had been a.s.sa.s.sinated, she appeared in a casual outfit and there wasn’t any make-up on her face. She looked pale.
Both Shang Lie and I didn’t ask anything and everyone started eating.
After some moments, I saw the murderous aura around Yue Shen. I have never seen such murderous expression on her face before and then moonlight appeared on her hand when she charged out. When the door was open, Yue Shen saw the owner’s son hugging the pillar at the corridor. He looked scared; his mouth was open and his eyes were looking towards Ting Zhu Xuan. Everyone was affected by the fear in the boy’s eyes and Yue Shen charged towards Ting Zhu Xuan.
I could somehow sense that Feng Huang had already appeared. I was worried for Yue Shen and so I went after her but a sudden pain hit my stomach. And then countless of illusions started to float up the sky, I turned back to see everyone falling down to the ground. This was when I realized that someone had spiked the food. Only Huang Tuo and Chao Ya were still standing up in the black wind, the wind was blowing their robes and then my eyes went black before I fainted. Just when I fainted, the last image made me wanted to shout because Huang Tuo had already shot his attack at Chao Ya. His protection enchantment was activated and Chao Ya’s soundless zither was out. I saw countless white b.u.t.terflies forming above the chords and I knew she had already mastered Die Che’s a.s.sa.s.sination skill. It’s just that I would not know who would be killed. I was so weak and darkness came crumbling down, burying me in the depth of an abyss.
