Chapter 593 Unleashing a Powerful Move (Second Update)
The pharmacist from Yan State came to the underground martial arts arena in Zhao State more than ten years ago. Princess Xinyang hadn't paid much attention to him before; to be precise, she hadn't paid much attention to the underground martial arts arena.
There's constant fighting and killing there; after going once or twice, I lost interest.
After emerging from the underground martial arts arena, the Yan State pharmacist boarded a rather unremarkable carriage, accompanied by four guards including the driver.
Princess Xinyang did not understand martial arts and could not discern the depth of their skills, but according to the intelligence she had, the Yan Kingdom's pharmacist had never suffered a loss at the hands of anyone in the Zhao Kingdom since he came here, and almost no one in the entire underground martial arts arena dared to challenge his authority.
"Follow him from a distance, and don't let him spot you," Princess Xinyang instructed the coachman.
The driver replied, "Yes."
There were many carriages heading towards the west gate during the day, and even if you followed behind, it wouldn't be easy for anyone to notice that you were doing it on purpose. However, you had to be a little more careful after leaving the west gate. But Princess Xinyang was prepared, and her carriage was marked with the insignia of a post station.
The sky was dark.
"It looks like it's going to rain," Yu Jin said, looking out the window at the sky.
Princess Xinyang hummed in agreement: "It was a bit stuffy when I woke up this morning, so it's probably going to rain. It's fine if it rains, we can let him go to the estate to take shelter from the rain."
The carriage followed at a leisurely pace, and stopped when it approached the official road near Cangbei Mountain.
The pharmacist from Yan left the coachman to watch the carriage, and he himself, along with three guards, each carrying a medicine basket, went up the mountain to collect herbs.
The frequency with which the pharmacists of Yan go out of the city to collect herbs is not fixed. Sometimes they can't go out even once a year, and sometimes they are away for half a month. It has been almost half a year since the last time the pharmacists of Yan went out to collect herbs. If they miss this time, they don't know how long they will have to wait.
After all, it's not always possible to find the medicinal herbs he needs to lure him out.
Princess Xinyang's carriage also stopped. Yu Jin peeked through the gap in the curtains at the group of Yan Kingdom pharmacists: "Princess, they have entered the mountains."
Princess Xinyang also peeked through the crack and said, "It's good that we've entered the mountains."
She had already arranged for the medicinal herbs to be planted in the mountains. To be honest, they weren't particularly valuable herbs, but they weren't commonly found in this season, and it took her a lot of effort to buy them from someone else.
“Long Yi,” Princess Xinyang gestured.
Long Yi darted away.
Princess Xinyang was unsure whether the Yan Kingdom pharmacist was actually part of the Yan Kingdom's forces, so she needed to test him. The first step in this test was to lead him to meet with the Nangong family.
The herb was planted on the hillside, and the pharmacist from Yan discovered it not long afterward, much to his delight.
This herb must be dug up along with its roots, otherwise it will easily lose its medicinal properties.
He took out a shovel, squatted down and dug out the herbs. Just as he was carefully putting the herbs into a box and preparing to put them into the medicine basket, Long Yi appeared out of nowhere.
Long Yi snatched the box from him and ran away!
"Pharmacist! Are you alright?!"
A guard hurried over.
Long Yi's movements were too abrupt, and the Yan Kingdom pharmacist fell hard on his backside. With the help of his guards, he stood up, dusted off his trousers, and said, "I'm fine."
Having lived in Zhao for so many years, he had become accustomed to speaking the Zhao language, as had his guards.
"I'll go after them!" the guard said.
The pharmacist from Yan waved his hand: "It's just a medicinal herb. If it wants it, give it to it. There's no need to chase after it."
Princess Xinyang waited in the carriage for a long time, only to see the Yan Kingdom's pharmacist continuing to gather herbs from afar.
Princess Xinyang: "..."
"He's a pharmacist from the Yan Kingdom, after all. His medicinal herbs were stolen, and he didn't even chase after the thief..." Princess Xinyang said angrily, "Who was it?"
Yu Jin thought for a moment, then said awkwardly, "Could it be that Long Yi moved too quickly and didn't... didn't let anyone realize he was a person?"
A shadow flashed by; people probably mistook him for a mountain rocket.
Princess Xinyang thought it was possible: "Long Yi, go again... but don't go too fast."
It must be slow, not fast.
Long Yi understood and left.
He approached the Yan state pharmacist with exceptionally slow speed, and then, as if in slow motion, reached out and snatched the medicinal herbs from his hand.
Then he turned around slower than a tortoise, took a step slower than a seahorse, and looked back like a sloth.
It was as if he were speaking to a pharmacist from the State of Yan.
Come on, chase me!
Yan State Pharmacist: "..."
"Pharmacist!"
His bodyguard spoke in a low voice.
The pharmacist from Yan shook his head: "I thought he was a monkey, but he's just an idiot. Oh well, I'll ignore him."
It's already pitiful enough that someone has become mentally impaired, why would you chase after them and try to cause trouble?
Then Ryuichi's attempt to lure him failed again.
Princess Xinyang held her forehead.
Long Yi, can't you be normal for once?
“I’ll do it myself!” Princess Xinyang said sternly.
Yu Jin looked at her with concern: "Princess, how will you get here?"
"A honey trap!" Princess Xinyang said coldly. "I'll go find him and say I'm lost. I'll ask him to give me a ride to the post station."
Yu Jin looked Princess Xinyang up and down: "...You don't seem like the kind of person who would get lost."
Princess Xinyang glanced at her and said, "Is it wrong to be robbed by an idiot?"
Yu Jin chuckled dryly, "Okay."
You are the princess, you make the decisions.
"You are not allowed to come along!" she ordered Long Yi.
Princess Xinyang gracefully alighted from her carriage.
As a princess of a nation, even amidst the chaos of a mountainside, I remain undisturbed by the turbulent winds.
Princess Xinyang raised her chin, lifted her skirt, and walked towards the hillside like a proud peacock.
The mountain path was rugged, and after only a few steps, she stepped on the hem of her skirt, cried out, and tumbled down the hillside with a splash, landing face-first in the mud!
Yu Jin gasped.
Long Yi covered his eyes.
However, it was precisely because of this fall that the screams were heard by the pharmacist of Yan, who sent his men to check what had happened.
A guard found Princess Xinyang, who was stunned from the fall, in a ravine. Her jewelry was scattered, her hair was disheveled, and she was covered in mud, looking just like a lady in distress.
"Someone has fallen at the foot of the mountain," the guard reported.
"Go and take a look," said the pharmacist from Yan.
The Yan Kingdom's pharmacist arrived at the foot of the mountain and had the guards pull the person out of the ravine. Princess Xinyang's face was covered in mud, and she was unrecognizable.
The pharmacist from Yan was naturally skilled in medicine, but he couldn't touch the person's body without their permission. He simply took their pulse through their sleeve and said, "The pulse doesn't look too bad. I wonder if there are any other internal injuries."
As he spoke, he looked around, and Yu Jin and Long Yi quickly hid themselves inside the carriage.
Their carriage was hidden behind a row of large trees, and you wouldn't notice it unless you came over.
The Yan State pharmacist said helplessly, "Go and fetch a stretcher, and lift the person onto the carriage first."
"yes."
Two guards went to the carriage to get a stretcher and carried Princess Xinyang onto it.
The pharmacist from Yan had finished collecting the herbs and boarded his carriage.
The carriage had no curtains at the front and the rear windows were wide open, so it wasn't a completely enclosed space. Princess Xinyang didn't feel too uncomfortable.
Guard: "Pharmacist, where are we going?"
The pharmacist from Yan said, "There's a post station ahead. Let's go there."
Princess Xinyang never expected that her honey trap would fail and instead become a self-inflicted injury scheme.
But it doesn't matter, as long as we can fool people.
When the carriage arrived at the post station, Princess Xinyang pretended to open her eyes groggily.
Her acting skills were somewhat inferior to those of the old chief priest and Xiao Heng, but still much better than Gu Jiao's. At least she didn't make any major mistakes, and since she was already dazed from the fall, it was a natural performance for her.
"My house... is up ahead..."
She said weakly.
Since we're already so far ahead, we might as well see it through to the end.
The pharmacist from Yan instructed them to continue their journey.
After walking for ages—
The pharmacist from Yan asked, "Madam, which front are you from?"
Princess Xinyang feigned fainting: "It's...it's just ahead."
Another half day passed—
The pharmacist from Yan: "Are you sure you haven't forgotten the way?"
Princess Xinyang continued weakly, "No, my home is really up ahead... it's a village... have you passed by it?"
"No." The pharmacist from Yan looked out the window.
At this moment, a guard riding alongside suddenly pointed ahead and said, "Pharmacist! There's a manor over there!"
"Is that your home?" The Yan State pharmacist asked Princess Xinyang.
Princess Xinyang closed her eyes in a second and "fainted" on the spot.
The pharmacist from Yan sighed, "Never mind, let's go ask him first."
The coachman drove the carriage over, and as they drew near, he muttered, "Whose estate is this... why is it built near a cemetery?"
The carriage stopped.
A guard dismounted and knocked on the door.
"Is anyone there? Excuse me, is anyone there? We're just passing by, and your wife is injured!"
"Is she your wife?"
Hey! Is anyone there?!
The guard turned back strangely: "Pharmacist, it seems like no one's here."
Princess Xinyang's eyelids twitched.
Nobody here?
Or are there people who are afraid to open the door?
"Perhaps the estate is too big and the people inside can't hear you. Why don't you go in and take a look?"
"yes!"
Don't break other people's things.
"Understood, pharmacist."
The guards pushed open the courtyard gate, which wasn't locked from the inside, so they shouldn't be considered to be forcing their way in.
Is anyone there?
The guards searched the village while asking questions loudly.
However, after wandering around for a while, the guard was completely bewildered: "Pharmacist, there's not a single person in the manor!"
Princess Xinyang sat up abruptly: "What do you mean there's not a single person here?"
The pharmacist from Yan looked at her in astonishment: "You're awake? Is this your family's estate?"
Princess Xinyang, ignoring her aches and pains, gritted her teeth and got off the carriage. She entered the manor and found that, just as the guards had said, the manor was empty and there was not a single person in sight.
"How could this happen? Where did everyone go?"
Princess Xinyang frowned and stood still, her mind racing. As she thought of something, her expression changed.
"Oh no! We've fallen for their trap!"
There is a moat outside the capital city, and boats can travel on it. It takes only an hour to go from the west gate to the south gate downstream.
Outside the south gate, dozens of cargo ships landed one after another.
"Who goes there?" The guards on duty stopped the caravan.
The leading merchant smiled, took out his travel permit and a heavy bag of gold, and handed it to him: "I run a cloth business, and this is all silk that I transported from the south."
The guard accepted the gold, lingered outside the long carriage for a while, and checked two of the boxes; they were indeed silk.
"All this silk is yours?"
"Yes, they're all mine."
“Every vehicle must be inspected.”
"Of course, of course, please feel free to investigate!"
Every time a carriage passed by, the guards would select a box to inspect. Sometimes it was the top box, sometimes it was the bottom box, but no matter how they checked it, it was always silk.
"Alright, let's move on."
"That's what the guard said."
"Hey!" The leading merchant laughed as he led his caravan into the city.
In a teahouse near the city gate, an old man and a middle-aged man in black robes sat facing each other in a private room on the second floor overlooking the street.
The two looked out the window at the caravans on the street.
The leading merchant nodded to the old man without making a sound.
The old man smiled knowingly, took a sip of tea, and said, "Princess Xinyang probably didn't expect that we would put on an empty city ruse for her, did she?"
The man in black robes said with satisfaction, "Grand Tutor Zhuang is resourceful and wise; he is truly admirable."
The old man, Grand Tutor Zhuang, waved his hand and smiled: "General Nangong, you flatter me. If it weren't for your trust in me and your telling me that Xiao Liulang is Xiao Heng, how would I have thought of keeping a close eye on Princess Xinyang?"
General Nangong said, "This Princess Xinyang is very capable. She actually guessed why we couldn't take action in the capital and even lured our Yan Kingdom's Changfeng Envoy out. If we hadn't evacuated early, the Changfeng Envoy would have discovered us by now."
Changfeng served the royal family of Yan. Although the Nangong family was powerful, they did not dare to challenge the royal family's authority.
Grand Tutor Zhuang said arbitrarily, "Now that she has lured the Changfeng Envoy out, you can make your move in the capital."
General Nangong said meaningfully, "I didn't even tell Qin Fengyan about Xiao Liulang's identity, but I told the Grand Tutor. It turns out I made the right bet. The Grand Tutor is indeed a more suitable ally than Qin Fengyan."
Grand Tutor Zhuang chuckled: "I've eaten more salt than they've eaten rice. General Nangong won't be disappointed if you cooperate with me. They think I'll obediently surrender without the imperial decree? Ha! If they make my life difficult, then no one else will have an easy time! I want to see what the Empress Dowager will do after Xiao Heng falls into my hands. She can only protect one of the Emperor and Xiao Heng. Let's see who she protects!"
“If she protects the emperor, she will betray herself, offend the Gu family, and also offend Princess Xinyang and Marquis Xuanping; but if she protects Xiao Heng, she will be committing regicide, betraying the royal family and the entire world!”
"Princess Xinyang is trapped outside the city, and Marquis Xuanping has not returned from his campaign. General Nangong, this is the perfect opportunity for you to make your move. Even the heavens are on your side!"
"Cooperating with Grand Tutor Zhuang was indeed the right decision," General Nangong said with satisfaction. "After this is done, I want Xiao Heng's head, and that girl's too. That girl killed one of my masters, and I want to avenge him."
Grand Tutor Zhuang smiled faintly and said, "Don't worry, they all belong to General Nangong!"
(End of this chapter)
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