Although Qi Guze was extremely unwilling, his body was completely out of his control, and he involuntarily followed the woman.
They left the restaurant together, walked through bustling streets, crossed a wooden bridge over a river, and strolled through several alleys before finally arriving at a very quiet bamboo forest.
Moonlight filtered through the sparse bamboo leaves, falling on the woman, who was sitting on a soft couch deep in the bamboo forest, gazing at Qi Guze with alluring eyes.
What trick is the mastermind behind luring me here?
Qi Guze bit his tongue to steady himself and looked at the woman warily.
The woman smiled slightly, and in the moonlight, she appeared somewhat otherworldly, as if she were in a fairyland.
"My lord, why are you so nervous? I mean no harm. I have long admired the wise and mighty Regent of the Great Zhou Kingdom and have wanted to meet you for a long time. Seeing you today, I can confirm that your reputation is well-deserved!"
"Since you recognize me, you know what happens to anyone who dares to play tricks on me." Qi Guze was surprised, but his expression remained cold and arrogant.
“Of course, you are the cold-faced Yama whom everyone fears. Naturally, I wouldn’t dare to play any tricks on you. You clearly followed me here!” The woman raised her eyelids playfully.
Qi Guze said coldly, "I'm not going to beat around the bush with you. I recently discovered that some government officials are colluding with criminals in that restaurant. I suspect you are one of those criminals!"
Upon hearing this, the woman suddenly burst into laughter: "Hahahaha! Your Highness, you are joking! Look at me, I am just a weak woman with no strength to even kill a chicken, how could I possibly be a criminal? However, although I am not the person behind it all, I do know the clues you are looking for."
"Oh? What do you want before you tell me the clues?" Qi Guze asked directly.
He understood that the best way to deal with such a mysterious and somewhat eerie woman was to be straightforward.
The woman suddenly stood up, tiptoed, and stepped over the bamboo leaves, walking towards Qi Guze.
She stopped when they were almost touching, and their eyes met.
"What I want is a promise."
Looking into her clear, watery eyes, Qi Guze suddenly found himself unable to understand the woman in front of him.
“Very well, I can grant your request.” He tapped the scabbard with his finger, emitting a deep and terrifying sound. “But if the information you provide is of no use, you can forget about escaping unscathed.”
The woman remained calm and composed, saying, "Since I dared to make a deal with you, I naturally know what I'm doing."
After speaking, the woman took out a secret letter from her bosom and handed it to Qi Guze.
The moment Qi Guze caught the letter, she vanished into the depths of the bamboo forest with a fleeting fragrance.
"She comes without a trace and goes without a trace. Her martial arts seem to be on par with mine. How could there be such a woman in the Four Kingdoms?"
He originally thought that there couldn't possibly be any other woman with such high martial arts skills besides Xu Yuehuai, but it seems he had only scratched the surface.
Or perhaps the strange occurrences in the four countries caused some people to also undergo abnormal changes.
However, if more and more dangerous opponents emerge, it will be very disadvantageous for them, and they must curb this unfavorable trend as soon as possible.
Qi Guze took the secret letter back to the mansion, and only opened it after confirming that no one was around.
However, after opening the letter, he couldn't understand the text.
"This seems to be some kind of ancient cryptic script."
He searched through several books but still couldn't find out what the text meant.
So he copied the coded message, changed the position of some words, and gave it to Yan Qing, asking Yan Qing to find someone who could decipher the message.
Meanwhile, Yan Qing had been tracking the minor official, Wu Yong, who was only seventeen or eighteen years old. He lived alone and was always on the move, wandering the streets, except when he was working for the government.
The night was deep, and Qi Guze looked slightly tired.
He had planned to get some rest after washing up, but the distance from his desk to his bed, which was only a dozen steps, made him sway as if he were about to collapse at any moment.
At this moment, his body was inexplicably radiating an extremely hot temperature, and something within him was stirring restlessly.
Upon hearing the sound of him falling to the ground, Yan Qing immediately rushed in and asked with concern, "Master, you don't look well. Are you injured?"
Qi Guze waved his hand. "I'm not injured. However, there does seem to be something wrong with my body. I need a medicinal bath to relieve the feeling. Go arrange it quickly, or it might be too late."
Immediately, he took out a crystal-clear pill from his sleeve, which was one of the emergency pills that Xu Yuehuai had prepared for him.
After handing the medicine to Yan Qing, Yan Qing did not dare to delay. He first helped him to bed to rest, and then immediately turned around and went out to prepare a medicinal bath.
Soon after, Yan Qing rushed back and arranged the medicinal bath in a corner of the room.
A simple medicinal bath was set up there, large enough for Qi Guze to use.
The hot steam in the bathtub continued to rise, reaching a temperature of at least seventy or eighty degrees Celsius, which was enough to continuously stimulate the medicinal properties of the pills.
In an instant, the aroma of various herbs filled the entire room.
Qi Guze breathed in the scent of medicine, and his physical discomfort subsided somewhat.
He then stepped off the bed, took off his clothes, and walked into the pool step by step.
In an instant, the warm water seeped into his skin, and the warm sensation spread from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, quickly relieving the inexplicable heat in his body.
However, his good health didn't last long. Before he could fully recover, his body became burning hot again, and this time the burning was even more severe than before.
Before long, his skin began to turn red, a redness like that of insect bites, spreading little by little across his face and gradually covering his entire body.
"I didn't expect it to have such a strong aftereffect. But I'm not so easy to manipulate."
He immediately gritted his teeth and calmed himself down.
Immediately, he formed hand seals and attempted to mobilize the internal energy and spiritual power within his body.
The two forces intertwined and surged, like two rivers converging together. Their combined power possessed a special magic that penetrated into the body where there was something unusual, suppressing the sudden and strange feeling.
These two opposing energies, one righteous and one evil, collided, much like Mars colliding with Earth.
Whether or not he can be successfully suppressed, it will be a great loss for him.
Soon, large beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. When these sweat beads dripped into the water, they caused a huge transformation in the medicinal properties of the water. The original reddish-brown liquid suddenly turned dark green.
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