The scene was deathly silent. Wu Zhengqing’s jade pendant dangled at his waist, yet it could no longer provide him with even a shred of confidence.
Shui Yue slowly opened her eyes. Her beautiful eyes were wide, her red lips slightly parted, and her face was a mask of disbelief. She had seen many young, talented figures, but Chu Xuan was the first who could handle two opponents at once and dispose of them with such ease.
Beside her, Xinger’s legs turned to jelly; she nearly collapsed to the floor. Recalling the palm strike Chu Xuan had held back earlier, a cold sweat drenched her back. Only now did she realize she had just walked the edge of the grave.
*Tap. Tap. Tap.*
Chu Xuan carelessly flicked the blood spatters and glass shards from his shoulder. He walked across the wreckage, each step sounding like a hammer blow to the hearts of those watching. He stopped in front of Wu Zhengqing, his shadow completely engulfing the fat man’s frame, a mocking curve playing on his lips.
"You think you can throw your weight around by bringing trash like this as your bodyguard? Wu Zhengqing, you’re behind the times. The Zhao family, the Wei family, the Zhang family—I’ve already sent them all to their graves. You didn't think you’d be the exception, did you?"
The words hit the crowd like a heavy bomb! The guests’ eyes widened, and the air was filled with suppressed gasps. The bloodbath in Jinling just yesterday had already been the talk of the town, but no one could have imagined that the man who had stirred up such a storm was the young man standing before them.
Wu Zhengqing’s pupils shrank to pinpricks, and a dark stain began to spread across his crotch. His legs gave out, and he scrambled backward, slipping on his own urine. His rotund body knocked over a folding screen, and a gilded bronze censer crashed to the floor with a heavy *thud*.
"Impossible... This is impossible..."
Wu Zhengqing muttered incoherently, his chubby face twisted into a greenish-gray mask of terror. He turned and bolted for the back door, his silk robe soaked through with sweat, clinging to his body like a wrinkled shroud.
As he reached the back exit, a black sedan happened to drive by. Like a drowning man grabbing for driftwood, Wu Zhengqing lunged at it, his bloated body slamming heavily into the windshield as his fingernails clawed deep into the paint.
"Take me away! Quickly!"
"Who the hell are you! Get off!" The driver panicked and slammed on the brakes, the horn blaring piercingly through the air.
"Drive, you idiot, stop asking questions!"
Veins bulged on Wu Zhengqing’s neck as he roared at the interior of the car, looking exactly like a dying pig in its final, desperate struggle.
Watching this absurd and pathetic scene, Chu Xuan let out a cold laugh. "Trying to run? Even if you burrow into the earth, I’ll dig you out!"
He was about to lunge forward when his phone rang. It was the custom ringtone he had set specifically for Chu Keke! The sound hit him like a bucket of ice water, instantly extinguishing his white-hot killing intent.
"Keke? What's wrong?"
However, the voice that came from the other end was a man’s—raspy, like sandpaper rubbing together.
"Chu Xuan, if you want your sister to live, get yourself to the Tingyu Pavilion in Jinling immediately."
"Two hours. After that, come to collect her corpse."
"Who are you?!"
The air pressure around Chu Xuan plummeted. "If my sister loses so much as a single hair, I will grind your bones to dust and make your life a living hell!"
Facing the threat, a sinister, icy laugh came from the other end, followed by the sound of something heavy crashing.
"Brother! Don't... mmmph!"
Chu Keke’s tearful cry was abruptly cut off, followed by the muffled sound of fabric being pressed over her mouth and nose. Even though her voice was broken, she still shouted with all her might, "Brother, you must not come! These people are—"
"Remember, I’m waiting for you at the Tingyu Pavilion."
The man’s voice, mingled with the sound of Chu Keke’s suppressed sobbing in the background, was as cold as a viper’s hiss. Before Chu Xuan could speak again, the line went dead.
"Damn it..."
Chu Xuan’s knuckles turned white as he gripped the phone, his bloodshot eyes reflecting in the screen. He knew this was a trap! The fact that they dared to set this up so brazenly meant the Tingyu Pavilion was surely crawling with defenses. But the moment that tear-filled "Brother" had reached his ears, the fury in Chu Xuan’s chest had completely consumed his reason. Even if it were a mountain of blades or a pit of vipers, he would charge in without a moment’s hesitation.
*Rrrr-ring.*
As Chu Xuan stood there, his entire being surging with killing intent, his phone vibrated again. Seeing "Jinling Hotel Security Department" on the caller ID, he picked up instantly, his voice dripping with frost. "Is this how you people work? The bodyguards I paid millions for are all dead? Why didn't you call me immediately?!"
Rapid, ragged breathing came from the other side, mixed with the sound of objects crashing. The security chief’s voice was tearful and shaking uncontrollably. "Mr. Chu! I... I’m sorry! We couldn't stop them... The Chief of the Martial Administration came in person, holding the Martial Command Token, saying he had to 'invite' Miss Chu to assist in an investigation!"
"I tried to call you, but he smashed my phone and... and beat me unconscious and tied me up. I just woke up and called you as soon as I could..."
"The Chief of the Martial Administration..."
Chu Xuan’s voice stopped abruptly, and a cold sneer escaped his throat. He finally understood why they dared to be so blatant. The deaths of Song Hui and his son must have thoroughly enraged the higher-ups in the Martial Administration. Those hypocrites were using the pretense of "law enforcement" to reach out and grab the sister he cherished most.
In that moment, all of Chu Xuan’s rage and killing intent coalesced into a single, cold resolve.
"Since the Martial Administration wants to play, I’ll play along with you until the very end!"
Chu Xuan turned and left, his back radiating a bone-chilling intent. He stepped over the wreckage and vanished from the Golden House in an instant.
The crowd remained frozen, still reeling from the shock. Who could have imagined that the "demon" who had been terrorizing Jinling of late would appear here so quietly? The malevolent aura swirling around him signaled that a new round of blood and carnage was about to begin.
Meanwhile, after some maneuvering, Shui Yue finally secured the Nine-Leaf Dragon Blood Ginseng as she had hoped. As the rosewood box with its gold-leaf inlay opened, a thick, medicinal fragrance wafted out, mixed with a faint, elusive scent of ambergris. The ginseng was blood-red, with nine palm-sized leaves rimmed in a golden halo, its veins flowing with dark gold threads that looked as clear as blood vessels.
"Miss, this Nine-Leaf Dragon Blood Ginseng really lives up to its reputation!" Xinger stared at the box, her eyes full of awe.
The ginseng lay on the gold-silk velvet lining of the sandalwood box, its red leaves emitting a warm, lustrous glow, like jade soaking in a pool of blood. However, Shui Yue’s fingertips hovered over the box, hesitating. Chu Xuan’s parting words, "Ingest it and it becomes a death warrant," echoed repeatedly in her mind. Having just witnessed Chu Xuan dispose of a half-step Internal Force Expert with thunderous power, his unfathomable strength suggested he wasn't the type to lie just to posture.
"Miss, what are you still hesitating for?" Seeing her pause, Xinger lifted the box. "That Chu Xuan is nothing but a brute who relies on raw strength. What does he know of medicine? Most likely, he saw that you were a person of status and deliberately used scare tactics to get your attention!"
A look of disdain crossed her pretty face. "Our Shui family can make Jinling shake with a single stomp. Even if he has heaven-defying skills, what can he do to us? Could he really dare to make an enemy of the entire Shui family? He’s just bluffing and spouting nonsense, trying to climb the social ladder through us."
Shui Yue sighed softly. Xinger wasn't entirely wrong. Doctor King Zhu was a titan of medicine in Lingzhou; if not for the Shui family’s reputation, ordinary people would find it nearly impossible to even request a consultation with him. Chu Xuan’s talk of "gu-worm infection" was indeed far too bizarre.
"Miss, I’ll help you!"
Xinger carefully plucked a leaf and placed it into a water bottle she carried. Instantly, the clear water churned violently as if something alive had been dropped into it. In the rising mist, nine shadowy red dragons flickered in and out of existence. As the leaf unfurled, the juices flowing through its veins dyed the entire bottle of water a magnificent amber, giving off an intoxicating medicinal scent.
Such a supernatural phenomenon was proof enough of the herb’s extraordinary nature.
Shui Yue took a deep breath, cast aside her doubts, and took a small sip. The warm liquid slid down her throat, and the limbs that had felt like she was trapped in an ice cave were instantly enveloped in a warm current. The pain of the last few days seemed to be swept away, and a long-lost flush returned to her pale cheeks.
Xinger smiled, satisfied. "See? I told you that kid was lying. Miss, you..."
"Ah!"
Before she could finish, Shui Yue suddenly clutched her left chest. Her exquisite makeup was ruined by a cold sweat, and her pupils constricted to pinpricks from the sheer agony. She stumbled backward two steps before collapsing heavily to the ground.
"It hurts... It hurts so much!"
Her scream was heart-wrenching. Her left chest swelled high, as if something living were squirming frantically beneath her skin. "My chest... it’s going to explode!"
The water bottle in Xinger’s hand clattered to the floor, and she stood there like a statue. She scrambled to Shui Yue’s side, but her touch met only icy cold, as if she were holding a block of ice.
"The medicine is real, and the water was the carrier provided by Doctor King Zhu himself... How could this happen..."
Chaos erupted in the Golden House. The manager turned pale as a sheet and roared at the top of his lungs, "Quick! Find every famous doctor in the area! We cannot afford for the young lady of the Shui family to have an accident!"
Unfortunately, the doctors who arrived one after another were helpless. As her consciousness gradually blurred, the dying Shui Yue saw, in a haze, those deep, abyss-like eyes of Chu Xuan when he had spoken to her. Fear and regret engulfed her like a tide.
She was wrong! She was wrong not to have trusted Chu Xuan.
Xinger held her phone, crying out, "Miss, don't be afraid! I’m getting through to Doctor King Zhu!"
"It’s too late..." Shui Yue grabbed her wrist with her last shred of strength. "Go... find a traditional doctor who knows acupuncture..."
"Miss Shui, I know how!" An elderly traditional doctor approached, clutching a set of silver needles.
Summoning the last of her clarity, Shui Yue said, syllable by syllable, the acupoints Chu Xuan had taught her: "Danzhong point... three-tenths... Shenfeng point... oblique insertion..."
The old doctor immediately followed the instructions.
*Cough, cough, cough...* As the needles were inserted, Shui Yue coughed violently. Black-purple vomit spewed out—the very medicine she had just ingested. She lay paralyzed in the filth, gasping for air, as the abnormal swelling in her chest finally began to recede.
Just as Shui Yue was lying there, gasping and weak, Xinger let out a shriek.
"God! Miss! Look!"
Shui Yue forced herself to turn her head, and the fear rising in her stomach almost made her vomit again. Among the vomit she had coughed up, a jet-black bug was writhing. Its long, thin limbs were covered in ice-crystal-like patterns. In the mid-summer room temperature, the vomit was freezing into ice at a speed visible to the naked eye, glowing with an eerie, ghostly blue light.
"The Frost-Silk Gu..." Shui Yue whispered to herself, cold sweat trickling down her neck and into her collar.
Chu Xuan’s warning exploded in her ears, each word turning into a bone-piercing chill. She finally understood why her chest felt like an ice cave when the pain hit, why ordinary medicine had been useless. She had been nothing more than a living bait on someone else’s chessboard from the very beginning.
Xinger trembled as she raised her phone to take photos. "I’ll send this to Doctor King Zhu immediately! Let him see what this is!"
*Clack!*
Shui Yue suddenly lunged forward, grabbed the phone, and shoved Xinger to the floor.
"Stupid girl!"
Her eyes were bloodshot, her voice filled with rage. "This Gu-worm was likely planted by Doctor King Zhu himself! You still dare to look for him? Do you think I’m dying too slowly? If Chu Xuan hadn't taught me how to use those needles before he left, I would be a corpse of ice right now!"
Xinger froze as if struck by lightning. A moment later, she remembered something, and cold sweat broke out on her forehead. "Miss, Master Shui is still at Huichuntang... He... he is treated by Doctor King Zhu every day!"
Shui Yue shuddered, her fingernails digging deep into her palms. The mysterious illnesses appearing in the family were definitely no coincidence. Doctor King Zhu was staying by her grandfather’s side day and night—was that not holding the lifeline of the Shui family in his hands?
She forced down her raging fury and said in a low voice, "Make arrangements to return to Lingzhou immediately. Do not alert the enemy." She paused, then added, "Also, investigate Chu Xuan’s background."
"Remember, if it weren't for him, I would be a corpse on this floor. From now on, if you dare to utter one more word of slander against him, don't think about staying in the Shui family!"
Xinger nodded repeatedly, nearly tripping as she scrambled to her feet.
*Ding-dong.*
As Shui Yue stood up, her phone received a text message. The words "Doctor King Zhu" glowed coldly on the screen amidst the wreckage.
[Miss Shui, have you bought the Nine-Leaf Dragon Blood Ginseng? You must get it; otherwise, your illness will be beyond the help of any immortal!]
"This guy..." Shui Yue clenched her fists, her nails nearly piercing her palms.
The executioner who had nearly killed her was now urging her to buy "poison." It was unforgivable.
"Haaa..."
Shui Yue took a deep breath, turned off the phone, and looked toward the back door. The image of Chu Xuan smashing the glass with his fist overlapped in her mind with the text from Doctor King Zhu. A strange, inexplicable trust began to grow in the depths of her heart.
The man’s gaze! His tone of certainty! And the acupuncture method he had left behind to save her! All of this pointed to his extraordinary nature. If the Shui family could gain such a treasure, they would surely reach the pinnacle of the Southern Territory!