Cuddling with the Cold Female Protagonist – Chapter 102

Volume 4: The Perils of the Jianghu

Passing Off the Fake as Genuine

Learning that the Valley Master had indeed left with the frog, Su Yi smiled. “Alright, now we’ll be able to find out where that Gu King will actually go.”

Feng Qing gave her a thumbs-up. Su Yi smiled faintly. After recovering some strength, when no one was around, she brought Feng Qing into the room and asked her, “Senior, how did you manage to disguise the frog as a Gu?”

“Hai, all medicinal herbs and poisonous creatures in the world have distinct characteristics. All I had to do was use some medicine to give it the obvious features of a Gu. Besides, my junior martial sister—half her hair is white, and she has an eye ailment. Isn’t it easy to deceive her?”

“An eye ailment?” Su Yi murmured to herself. No wonder she always carries an umbrella whenever I see her outside. It turns out she can’t stand sunlight.

“I’m just waiting for those few young ladies to bring out that Gu King so I can study it.” After Feng Qing explained this to her, she went to sort out her medicine box. “I need to get everything ready in advance.”

Su Yi smiled faintly. “Alright, I’ll go help Senior.”

While they were helping, Ye Shui also came over enthusiastically. However, she was illiterate and, standing in the pharmacy where labels were posted, she didn’t know what to do with her hands and feet.

Seeing this, Feng Qing gestured for her to go and amuse herself. Su Yi, sitting in her wheelchair and holding a dustpan full of herbs, also said to her, “Miss Ye, please go rest. I can handle this.”

As she spoke, she followed the names pasted on the medicine cabinets, sorting the herbs from the dustpan into the correct drawers.

Feng Qing smiled and patted her shoulder, rewarding her and the two accompanying maidservants each with a piece of dried fruit.

Gancao, being young, didn’t know what modesty was and said with a smile, “Doctor Feng, by helping you, did we save you a lot of effort?”

Feng Qing nodded repeatedly, her face wreathed in smiles, and gave them another thumbs-up.

But the smile on her face stung Ye Shui’s heart.

She remembered that her former Langjun¹ had been the same, only smiling at Su Yi like that. Now, his mother was also like this.

They were all like this only towards Su Yi.

Even knowing that Su Yi and he were a legitimately married couple, she still felt heartache and sorrow.

The few of them were busy sorting herbs, and no one noticed her despondent state.

The light in Ye Shui’s eyes dimmed and went out, then extinguished and dimmed again. She stood in place for nearly two kezhong². Apart from Su Yi telling her midway to go out and sit down, they hadn’t spoken to her again.

She lowered her head and silently walked out.

[LP: Poor girl… I hope she won’t do anything bad though]

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Ji Qingchi and the others used their qinggong to follow the Valley Master from a distance. They saw her enter her own courtyard with something in her hands, but instead of going into her room, she went to a corner on the west side of the bamboo building, where there was a small, low-ceilinged room.

The few of them exchanged a glance and leaped onto the roof. Ji Qingchi carefully used her flexible sword to cut open a small section at the corner, revealing a tiny hole through which they could see the situation below.

Judging by its layout, the room appeared to be an ordinary study. They saw the Valley Master holding a glazed bottle. She twisted a book on the bookshelf a few times, and the bookshelf immediately flipped over, revealing a narrow passage.

The three of them looked at each other. Hua Wuying made a hand gesture: Go down and follow?

Ji Qingchi gently shook her head, signaling them to observe a little longer.

So, they hid in a concealed spot and continued to wait. After about half a shichen, the Valley Master finally emerged from the passage. Leaning against the bookshelf, she looked somewhat puzzled. “Strange, how come my Gu King shows no signs of becoming stronger after eating that new Gu…”

She hadn’t realized that Su Yi had given her a fake Gu. After thinking for a moment, she muttered to herself, “Perhaps that Gu is too potent, and its effects don’t manifest quickly after being consumed.”

Such situations had occasionally occurred in the past, but it had been a long time since she last encountered one.

Having figured it out, she breathed a sigh of relief, picked up a medical text, and went out to continue her breakfast.

Once the room was empty, Ji Qingchi gestured, and they took the opportunity to climb in through the west window. They gently twisted the mechanism, revealing the passage.

Hua Wuying and Ji Qingchi slipped into the passage, leaving Yue Ling hidden in the study to keep watch.

The passage was extremely narrow, allowing only one person to pass at a time. It was pitch black inside, and the floor was wet and slippery, making for a very unpleasant experience.

The two patiently navigated the darkness for quite a distance. Finally, light appeared ahead. When they reached the end, they found it was the place where they had previously fallen off the cliff.

“So this secret passage leads directly to the bottom of the cliff.” Gazing at the familiar waterfall and lake before them, Ji Qingchi exclaimed in surprise, “Didn’t Senior Feng say that the Valley Master’s beloved man is buried here, and that she usually doesn’t come here, nor does she allow others to? Why would she specially build a secret passage to this place?”

Hua Wuying, as an assassin, understood it well. “It’s just a pretext, probably to prevent others from entering.”

“That makes sense.” Ji Qingchi looked around. Thankfully, Feng Qing’s cave and the place where they picked herbs are still quite far from this lake and waterfall, otherwise they would have been discovered.

Hua Wuying said, “That Gu must be here, but where exactly is it hidden?”

Ji Qingchi shook her head. “I’m not sure. Let’s look around.”

The two searched around the waterfall and the lake. Soon, Hua Wuying discovered something unusual. “Your Highness, come here quickly.”

Ji Qingchi went to the spot Hua Wuying indicated. It was an area of the lake near the shore. Tall trees stood on the bank, and in their shadows, a large patch of white three-leaf flowers floated on the water’s surface. Their petals were pure white and elegant, silently exuding fragrance.

Ji Qingchi frowned. “What is this?”

Hua Wuying had been following Feng Ruoqing during this time and had also learned some medical principles. Gazing at this large patch of strange flowers, she thought for a moment, then walked to the lake’s edge, carefully took out a dagger, and made a small cut on her wrist.

Fresh blood dripped into the pure water, yet it wasn’t diluted by it.

The pure white three-leaf flowers, like sentient beasts, smelled the blood in the water and rapidly converged towards it. One flower, the size of a wooden basin, was the first to arrive, moving quickly to absorb the fresh blood with its petals.

As if it had consumed something delicious, its petals slowly unfurled.

However, the next moment, the parts of its leaves bathed in sunlight rapidly withered. The other half, hidden in the shadows, struggled desperately. The entire flower quickly moved to a shaded spot, and the withered leaves slowly regained their white color, though they still drooped, looking quite listless.

The remaining flowers, still vying for the blood, seemed to sense that the blood was gone, or perhaps they saw what happened to their companion. They stopped jostling and slowly quieted down, and the entire lake returned to tranquility.

“The Gu should be underneath these strange flowers.” Hua Wuying stood up, applying medicine to her wound as she spoke. “I heard Doctor Feng say that her ancestors recorded that wherever these Gu creatures live, they are accompanied by strange flowers and exotic grasses. Moreover, the plants growing next to the most poisonous Gu share the Gu’s habits and love to feed on blood. Since the Valley Master went to such lengths to place these flowers here, she must have a purpose. The most likely reason is to hide the Gu King beneath them.”

Ji Qingchi walked around the grassy area by the shore twice and soon returned, dangling two wild chickens. “If that’s really the case, I have a way to lure that thing out.”

She let the chicken blood flow into the lake water. Smelling the blood, the flowers stirred restlessly again. The leaves that touched sunlight withered rapidly, while the remaining ones stubbornly continued to move into the sunlight, all withering instantly without exception.

In an area about half a li across, more than half of them withered quickly. The withered flowers scattered with the wind. Soon, in the very center of the flowers, they saw a toad, only the size of a baby’s palm, with a crimson mark between its brows.

Hua Wuying asked uncertainly, “Is that the Gu King?”

Ji Qingchi wasn’t sure either. She thought for a moment, then tossed the dead chicken next to the toad. Its tongue shot out, and in an instant, only the bones of the plump wild chicken remained.

Hua Wuying exclaimed, “What a venomous creature!”

“It seems that’s it.” Ji Qingchi smiled faintly. “Miss Hua, go catch a few more wild chickens. We’ll feed it full before we capture it.”

“Alright.”

Hua Wuying quickly caught a few more wild chickens. The two of them slowly fed the creature, luring it towards the shore. When it was about one cun³ away from the bank, Ji Qingchi used her zhenqi⁴ to scoop up water, directly enveloping the toad and placing it into a thick, pre-prepared glazed bottle.

“Done.” Seeing they had obtained it, Hua Wuying smiled. “We can go back and report now.”

“That won’t do.” Ji Qingchi’s lips curved slightly. “We’ve taken the Valley Master’s creature; we have to compensate her with another one.”

After saying this, she had Hua Wuying watch the bottle while she went and caught a similar-looking toad, releasing it back into the lake.

“But the one we caught has such a vibrant red mark between its brows. Won’t the Valley Master realize the one in the lake isn’t right?”

Ji Qingchi smiled. “Don’t worry. Didn’t the Valley Master have her Gu King devour a potent Gu today? The effects brought by that Gu—aren’t they manifesting right now?”

Hua Wuying understood and nodded with a smile. “That makes sense. It wouldn’t be too strange if it ate a Gu that caused the mark between its brows to fade. Even the withered flowers can be explained by the Gu being too strong and poisoning them.”

After their smiling exchange, the two of them carried the bottle and quickly left the passage. After reuniting with Yue Ling, the three of them returned to the bamboo building unnoticed.

After handing the item to Feng Qing, the old woman was as excited as a young girl who had just come of age. “Good! With this, my antidote pills will be even more effective! Just you wait, I’ll definitely be able to develop them soon.”

With that, she took Feng Ruoqing, carried the item, and went to the specially built medicine cottage to study it.

The Valley Master didn’t know martial arts, and the group acted cautiously and covertly, so she was unaware that someone had followed her and stolen her Gu King. After finishing breakfast, she went to the lake on the back mountain again. Indeed, just as Ji Qingchi and Hua Wuying had anticipated, she attributed the changes in the toad and the flowers to the effects of consuming the new Gu.

She was instantly overjoyed⁵ and left, completely satisfied.

Upon returning, she couldn’t wait to find her son to share the good news, but after searching everywhere, there was no trace of him.

The Valley Master frowned, recalling the recent rumors in the Jianghu about Changsheng Valley being on good terms with the Xuanji Tower… She sighed. Never mind. Changsheng Valley will be handed over to Feng Lin eventually anyway. There’s no harm in him being on good terms with the Xuanji Tower. Let him be.

She wasn’t wrong in her guess; her son had indeed gone out to meet people from the Xuanji Tower.

Feng Lin, dressed in his black cloak, appeared as usual at the appointed place: in front of the stuffy woods at Changsheng Valley’s Kun Gate⁶.

Hua Wushang flicked his fan twice, a ball of anger in his heart refusing to dissipate.

Ever since that Chancellor of Yanxue Kingdom was investigated, the business of their Yiyun Tower had plummeted. Three days ago, it was even raided and confiscated by the Emperor on charges of bribing officials. Having lost such a significant source of income and intelligence network, his father was fuming. He had whipped him, cursing him for being inferior to his sick younger sister, while ordering him to quickly connect with the people from the Xuanji Tower, capture the individuals from Changsheng Valley who were seeking medical treatment, and use them as bargaining chips to negotiate with the Emperor.

The whip wounds on his back hadn’t even healed, and now the contact from the Xuanji Tower seemed to have gone mad, arranging the meeting point in this corpse-ridden, godforsaken place⁷, making him even more irritated.

“Speak. What do you want us to do?”

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