The atmosphere gradually became tense, and even the guests downstairs who were eating and drinking tea fell silent.
At this moment, the shopkeeper, seeing that the situation was getting out of hand and that his shop would be the one to suffer if a fight broke out, immediately cupped his hands and tried to mediate: "Gentlemen, please calm down. Don't get angry. We see each other all the time, why ruin our relationship over such a small matter?"
The shopkeeper seemed a bit flustered, perhaps because he had caught a cold; his words were punctuated by coughs.
The swordsman and Li Jiang on the stairs were still locked in a standoff, neither willing to concede defeat.
After a while, the young man released his sword hilt, his face still showing disdain. He braced himself against the railing with one hand, and with a slight effort, jumped directly down from the middle.
After landing, he didn't forget to glare at Li Jiang, as if to say, "I'll remember you, you just wait," before turning around and heading straight out the door.
Li Jiang said calmly to the shopkeeper, "Boss, you'd better keep your eyes open when you receive customers in the future. Don't bring just anyone into the shop. Not every customer is as good-tempered as me, willing to teach you a lesson for free."
The shopkeeper was probably cursing in his heart, but on the surface he could only nod and agree with a smile.
Because the customer is king.
After the rooms were assigned, everyone went back to their rooms.
After entering the room, Qinghe glanced around and then threw his bundle on the table. He then lay back on the soft quilt, spread-eagled, and closed his eyes to pretend to sleep.
"Knock knock," the door was knocked on. Qinghe got out of bed and opened the door. The person who came in was Mo Junqian.
With a smile in his eyes, he said to Qinghe, "Senior Sister, can we talk?"
Qing's eyelids twitched almost imperceptibly: "What are you talking about?"
Mo Junqian seemed a little uneasy: "It's just a normal chat, it won't take you too long."
Qinghe met his sincere eyes, and the next moment she refused, saying, "If it's about cultivation, I have nothing to teach you. If it's anything else, I have no interest in listening."
After saying that, he was about to close the door when Mo Junqian suddenly raised his hand to block it: "It's not about cultivation or anything else, it's about you and me."
"Then I'm not interested in listening."
He smiled wryly and said, "Don't you even give me a chance to speak? Or have you never considered me your junior brother at all?"
Qinghe's tone was slightly cold: "And what about you? Do you even consider me your senior sister?"
Mo Junqian remained silent, and the two of them remained in this stalemate, one outside and one inside.
Suddenly a sound came from downstairs. The two of them relaxed a little and, forgetting that they were still arguing, looked down from the second floor and saw the innkeeper lying on the ground.
Qing knocked on the other three people's rooms, then went downstairs to check on the innkeeper.
The two arrived at the spot where the shopkeeper had collapsed. Mo Junqian knelt down to check his breath, but Qinghe stopped him, saying, "Be careful, it might be poisoned."
Mo Junqian then observed his complexion. His face was pale and his lips were slightly purple, indicating that he had indeed been poisoned. However, he had a smile on his face, as if he had entered a dream, and did not seem to be suffering from the torment of the poison. This was truly strange.
Li Jiang arrived quickly, confirming Qing He's opinion.
Qinghe: "I just don't know what kind of poison it is. Senior brother, you have a good understanding of medicine. Do you have any clues?"
Li Jiang: "There are several types of toxins that can cause these symptoms. We can't see anything right now; it will take time."
People gradually gathered around, chattering and making a bit of a commotion.
Li Jiang: "Let's carry him to the room first."
Mo Junqian came up to help, but before he could do anything, he heard a familiar voice coming from outside.
"What are you doing! Get out of my way, you good dogs don't block the road!"
His fierce appearance frightened the onlookers, who immediately stepped aside to make way for him.
The one who kept referring to himself as "this great master" was none other than the swordsman who had blocked his way earlier.
His first glance fell on the shopkeeper on the ground, and his tone remained smug: "Oh, so someone's been poisoned? What a coincidence, I have some miraculous medicine here, perfect for you to cure." As he spoke, he took out a bottle of pills from his pocket, took one out, and was about to put it into the shopkeeper's mouth.
Li Jiang grabbed his wrist and said in a deep voice, "Do you know what kind of poison he's been poisoned with? If someone dies, you can't bear the responsibility!"
The swordsman abruptly broke free of her grasp and sneered, "It's you again? Why are you always going against me? You're the one stopping me from healing people right now. If someone dies, it won't be me who takes responsibility, it will be you."
Li Jiang hadn't taken the previous argument to heart, but seeing the other party's indifferent attitude towards human life, she was truly enraged.
As more and more people gathered to watch, and the shopkeeper was still lying on the ground, it would obviously be unwise to take action at this point.
At that moment, a woman dressed in plain clothes rushed out from the inner room, pushed through the crowd, and threw herself at the shopkeeper, crying out, "Master! What's wrong, Master! Don't scare me... Wake up, Master..."
From her words, it was clear that she was the proprietress.
The boss is now poisoned and collapsed. Li Jiang is worried that if she moves too much, he might die on the spot before she can save him. Just as she was about to comfort him, the swordsman spoke to the boss's wife first: "Boss's wife, don't be sad. He can still be saved."
Upon hearing this, the proprietress quickly wiped away her tears and anxiously asked, "Young master, do you have a way to save our master? Please, please save him! I beg you!"
The swordsman calmly took out the bottle of pills again: "Here, this is the divine medicine that can save your master's life. Each pill costs only one thousand taels."
"A thousand taels...that's too expensive..." The people around gasped when they heard about the exorbitant price of the pill.
When the proprietress heard the other party ask for a thousand taels, her eyes widened suddenly. But then she looked at her husband, hardened her heart, and said, "Fine, as long as you can save my husband, I'll give you a thousand taels!"
Li Jiang frowned and stopped her, saying, "Madam, you mustn't be reckless. We don't know what kind of poison the shopkeeper is suffering from. You mustn't use medicine indiscriminately."
The proprietress was just an ordinary, respectable woman. Her husband always made the decisions. Right now, she was only concerned with saving the man and didn't understand anything else. Upon hearing Li Jiang's words, instead of considering them carefully, she blamed him: "How can you be like this? People are trying to help my husband, why are you stopping them? Don't you want my husband to wake up! You look so righteous, maybe you're the one who poisoned him!"
Upon hearing this, even Qinghe frowned. This woman was unguarded and quite adept at spouting nonsense. She could easily make up false accusations. He should be careful and sue her for defamation!
The swordsman stood to the side, smug and looking at Li Jiang with a provocative gaze.
Li Jiang tried to stop him to no avail, and could only watch as the pill was fed into the shopkeeper's mouth.
In the blink of an eye, the pill had just been put into his mouth and hadn't even had time to dissolve when a blur flashed before his eyes. The shopkeeper, who had been lying on the ground, was suddenly lifted up by a force. A man in white slapped his palm towards the shopkeeper's chest, and a pill rolled to the ground. Then, the man pressed several acupoints on the shopkeeper's body, finally striking his forehead. A beam of white light entered his brain, and then the man gently laid the shopkeeper flat on the ground.
The movements were fluid and seamless, executed in one go.
The man in white picked up the pills from the ground, walked up to the swordsman, and said rudely, "It is a good thing for you to heal the sick and save lives, but you do not know how to prescribe the right medicine. Using ordinary strengthening pills to detoxify will ultimately turn saving lives into harming them."
The swordsman snorted coldly, showing no shame at being exposed for selling fake medicine. He snatched back the pills, turned around, and pushed through the crowd.
With the excitement fading, the crowd gradually dispersed.
The man in white turned around and bowed to Qing and the others in a traditional martial arts salute, saying in a somewhat familiar tone, "So you're here. I've been looking for you everywhere."
Qinghe looked at the person in front of him; it was Luo Fan, Zhuge Hongming's disciple. They had met once when they were fighting the fire in the palace.
Although Li Jiang and Mu Dong did not know him, they recognized the unique Tianqi Academy attire Luo Fan was wearing and politely returned the greeting.
Qinghe: "What are you doing here? What do you want with us?"
Luo Fan: "To be precise, it's my master who wants to see you."
Qinghe: "Dean Zhuge?"
Luo Fan nodded: "Master is developing an antidote, but he doesn't have enough manpower. He would like to ask the two of you for help."
Li Jiang, standing to the side, said, "Could it be the antidote for this poison?"
Luo Fan turned and looked at Li Jiang for a moment, then said, "That's right. There have been quite a few people poisoned in the city these days. After my master found out, he started to develop an antidote, but the process was complicated and the people in the palace couldn't help. So he sent me to find some help."
Li Jiang then asked, "So many people have been poisoned? Is this poison contagious? What kind of poison is this that's so potent?"
Luo Fan: "It is a poison called Forget-Soul, which has a faint fragrance and is extremely toxic. At first, the poisoned person's body does not change much, but they can feel a little excited. However, after three or four days, they begin to feel weak, cough, and feel cold, just like they have caught a cold. Ordinary people can hardly detect it and think that there is no big problem until they faint, at which point the toxicity will become apparent."
After remaining silent for a while, Mu Dong helped the proprietress lift the shopkeeper from the ground onto a stool, poked his shoulder with his finger, and said, "Then why is he still smiling? It doesn't look like he's been poisoned, but just dreaming."
Luo Fan patiently explained to him: "That's what the Soul-Forgetting Poison is like. It immerses the poisoned person in a beautiful dream, draining their energy and making them never wake up again. Without an antidote, they will be trapped in the dream for life. Just now, I only stopped the poison and slowed its spread by pressing his acupoints."
Mu Dong glanced at the shopkeeper's expression, and it was indeed much better than before.
Qinghe frowned, suddenly recalling the strange behavior she experienced that night during the flower-viewing ceremony and wine-offering ceremony. She seemed quite excited, could it be...?
She looked sharply at Shen Xun, who nodded to her. Surprised and confused, she realized she had also been poisoned. But with her spiritual energy protecting her, how could she have been poisoned?
Luo Fan: "So, young masters and young ladies, may we enter the palace now?"
These words were spoken to Qinghe and Mojunqian.
This is undoubtedly a good opportunity to enter the palace and find out the whereabouts of the divine pearl.
Although they didn't know what Zhuge Hongming was up to, since he had offered himself up, they might as well make good use of it. So without any hesitation, after discussing it with Li Jiang in Linghai, Qinghe and Mo Junqian followed Luo Fan into the palace.
Li Jiang watched them leave the inn when suddenly his sleeve was tugged. He looked down at Shen Xun, who frowned and said aggrievedly, "Why do they always forget I exist?"
Li Jiang was taken aback by the expression and unconsciously raised her hand to pat the little head. Then she suddenly remembered something, pretended to be nonchalant, and withdrew her hand, saying perfunctorily, "Maybe you're too small, they didn't see you at all."
Shen Xun's face scrunched up even more.
Li Jiang said to Mu Dong, "Let's go, we shouldn't just sit around, let's find out who poisoned us."
Mu Dong responded and obediently followed.
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