Chapter 91 Xin Man
Yin Yiru gritted her teeth, feeling humiliated and even more disgusted, and she stiffened her neck and said nothing.
The little girl is quick-witted, so just scare her.
Wen Yao didn't move anymore, withdrew his hand and looked around.
The sound of the piano was faint, and there was silence at the table for a while.
Princess Yong ignored the broken cups and bowls, as if she hadn't noticed Wen Yao's actions at all. She smiled and said, "Since the piano has begun, the Qushui Banquet is about to begin. The water is brought down from a spring on the mountain, and they've specially asked someone to mix it with scented powder. The Empress has instructed that whoever wins the first prize in the poetry competition will be awarded a piece of brocade. This is a rare gift, so everyone should take advantage of it."
Someone outside started beating a drum.
Wen Yao looked up and, through the shadowy bamboo curtain hanging in front of him, vaguely saw a group of people sitting opposite him. The sound of a zither played softly. In front of them, a wooden tray floated down from the canal, loaded with lovely pink snacks and fruits.
Wen Yao glanced at the actions of the people around him, picked up the chopsticks and reached out to pick up the plate in the canal.
Gradually, wine glasses floated down from above. Whoever took a glass had to stand up and recite a poem, which was then continued by the person opposite them.
The wine flowed by the winding stream, poems were recited and composed, and the two parties exchanged words, playing with the elegant and subtle ambiguity. In just a few moments, the men and women on both sides had already exchanged several poems.
Wen Yao was a little distracted, biting the snack in her hand. She didn't know why, but she always felt like someone was watching her.
Wen Yao's eyes wandered, slowly shifting to the screen in front of him. The plain screen was painted with a scene of an outing, and the faint silhouette of a woman could be seen sitting behind it, playing the zither.
Rongyue was a famous girl from the music troupe, a distinguished guest at banquets hosted by the powerful and influential. Wen Yao had never seen Rongyue before, and she wasn't particularly musical, but she felt the sound of the zither was very familiar.
It seemed like she had heard it somewhere before, in a very special scene, and she still had a vague impression of it...
Wen Yao's thoughts couldn't help but sink.
Where have you heard it before?
Yin Yiyu clenched her sleeves tightly, and suddenly, as if determined, she turned around and said to the waiter beside her, "Go and get some wine. I want to compete in poetry."
At the Liushang banquet, the two people agree on the rhythm of the key words of the poem, pour wine into the cup together, and then they can start the poetry competition.
Yin Yiru was not a talented woman, but she had learned poetry. She was certain Wen Yao knew nothing about it, so she waved away the maid's dissuading hand and looked at Wen Yao stubbornly, holding her breath and saying, "I want to compete with you in poetry."
As the words fell, there was a movement from the table opposite the man. Everyone's attention was drawn to Yin Yiyu's words, and their eyes were focused on the bamboo curtain in the middle.
Yin Yiru held back her anger, raised her chin, and waited for Wen Yao's reaction. However, she saw that Wen Yao was not looking at her at all. Instead, she looked up at the screen in front of her, and slowly pressed the chopsticks in her hand onto the table without moving.
"Miss Wen." She almost gasped, her voice sharp and aggressive: "Could it be that you don't dare?"
Wen Yao looked at the screen in front of him, wondering where the bad feeling in his heart came from.
You know, her intuition has always been very accurate and rarely wrong.
Suddenly, Wen Yao's eyes froze.
The screen in front had originally been painted with vivid landscapes, insects, and fish. Now, before the zither's shadow, a thumb-sized black dot slowly moved across the screen, transforming from a round dot into a long, thin line. From beneath it emerged a round shell, slowly growing diagonally. Meanwhile, the girl beside Wen Yao glanced down, saw something, dropped her cup, and stood up, her skirt lifted in shock. "What a giant centipede!" she cried, breaking the silence.
Wen Yao instinctively looked over and saw a centipede, about half the thickness of an adult's hand, emerging from nowhere and slumped against the corner of the girl's pink dress. Its legs were densely packed, its carapace gleaming red with oil, and it was incredibly plump, making one's throat churn with nausea.
The girl was caught off guard by the ferocious, poisonous insect crawling onto her shoe. She panicked and tears welled up in her eyes. Wen Yao suddenly stood up, pressed her shoulder, and crushed the thing under his foot. The girl's heart trembled, and tears almost fell. She looked at Wen Yao with rapid breathing and wanted to say thank you.
Wen Yao didn't look at her, nor at Yin Yiyu standing across from her. As the others stared blankly, she lifted her foot and hooked the Xingyi Sword at her side. She lifted her arm and leaped over the table. The chopsticks in her hand flew through the air with incredible force, instantly piercing the screen. As the others stared in astonishment, Wen Yao leaped to her feet, drew her Xingyi Sword, and lunged at the screen.
The piano music stopped abruptly.
Just as Wen Yao's Xingyi sword energy touched the screen, it suddenly cracked. A short, green dagger with a ring-shaped, straight blade, blood grooves and wavy patterns on both sides, was pulled from the woman's sleeve. It suddenly collided with the Xingyi sword and then separated.
The woman raised her head, her long hair blowing in the wind, and smiled at Wen Yao: "You recognized me so quickly, is it because you feel guilty and can't forget me?"
As she spoke, her hand, hanging by her side, gently stroked the guqin, and a resounding sound rang out. Screams erupted in panic, and the crowd began to overturn tables. Swarms of centipedes, their bellies slick with red flesh, emerged from every nook and cranny, their legs twitching and mouthparts flaring as they pounced upon the crowd.
Wen Jinran was extremely alert, his brows furrowed, and he raised his sword, pressing the Xingyi Sword tightly against the back of his hand.
"Xin Man." She called the woman's name: "Why are you here?"
The southwest is rife with forests and miasma, and its people value war and the use of poison. This is especially true of Nanzhao, where hidden within the vast mountains lies a den of poison. Within it, a group of unseen, old poisonous creatures reign supreme, establishing their camp amidst the miasma. Officials from Tianshui to the chieftains of Dali revere these old poisonous creatures, commandeering poisonous insects and snakes. Not only do they exempt them from taxes, but they also demand regular payments, food, and even slaves.
Wen Yao's connection to the Southwest drug den began when, during a drug trafficking operation, a family member of the big boss fell seriously ill and the entire family came to Wen Yao on their knees, specifically begging for the dragon grass from the deep mountains. Thinking that this deal would allow him to achieve financial freedom for the next five or six years, Wen Yao simply took the order.
Looking back now, I was young and frivolous back then, dazzled by the rising ranking on the Bai Xiaosheng list. I was careless and underestimated my enemies, and almost met with disaster at the hands of some old poisonous insects who were also picking dragon grass, and died in Nanzhao.
…But she didn't suffer any loss, having instead killed an old snake charmer. Unexpectedly, the old poisoner had an apprentice, a thin, petite girl named Xin Man, who followed Wen Yao out of Nanzhao and north, frequently poisoning and causing trouble along the way. The little poisoner was a skilled flute player and also played the Tianshui qin. She also kept a venomous scorpion the size of a human arm, so venomous that it had once killed nine families in a village.
"I came to the Central Plains to kill you." The woman across from me reached out and ripped off a complete human leather mask, revealing a face with delicate features and deep brows. Xin Man stared at Wen Yao, then flipped her arm, and a terrifying fiery red scorpion crawled onto her forearm.
Wen Yao kicked away the broken wood planks around him: "Where's Rongyue?"
The banquet was already in chaos. The master dared not leave, the servants dared not move, and there was a chaotic clamor. Yin Yiru was also surrounded by centipedes. The screaming maid pushed her onto the table, her head a mess from the sudden incident.
"Kill him." Xin Man had just thrown the mask he was holding onto the women's seat, landing right in front of Yin Yiru. She stared blankly at the white object before her, and what Xin Man said next nearly made her faint.
Xin Man pursed his lips, and the tone of Tianshui official speech was strange: "That woman's skin is very smooth, and the mask is also very comfortable to wear."
Human...human skin!
Yin Yiru's lips trembled and her legs went limp.
Wen Yao said nothing, but raised the tip of his sword and pointed it at Xin Man.
"I'm here to kill you this time." Xin Man: "To avenge Zoya."
"You haven't come to kill me for so many years, but now you are here." Wen Yao didn't buy her nonsense: "Who ordered you to do that?" She knew very well that Xin Man knew nothing about the outside world of Tianshui. If no one ordered her to do that, she would never have known about the Tangshan same-year meeting, and she would have killed Rong Yue in advance to sneak in.
Xin Man raised his finger, his smile strange and stiff, and asked Wen Yao: "I poisoned the canal, do you care about the lives of these people?"
Wen Yao's eyes rolled, and she felt a sharp pain in her limbs. Her body froze, and she subconsciously turned back to look at Zhao Xuanxu, but before she could move, Xin Man raised the emerald knife in his hand and slashed at him again.
Xin Man held the Xingyi Sword against him and said, "I'll kill you. I'll give you medicine after I kill you. How about that?"
"Here are the princes of Tianshui and the families of all the civil and military officials in the imperial court." Wen Yao's voice was almost as cold as ice. "Do you want your village to be razed to the ground by the imperial army?"
Xin Man said, "I'm no longer a member of the village. I don't care about them. I only care about revenge for Zoya." As she spoke, the scorpion on her hand moved quickly, climbing up Xin Man's arm and onto her shoulder, its tail stinger erect, stabbing at Wen Yao. Wen Yao suddenly withdrew his hand, dodged the attack, and quickly retreated.
The wooden stake holding the beaded curtain was chopped off by the following jade knife and sent it careening straight towards the Liubei Canal, about to hit the women. They were trapped by a pile of long centipedes at their feet, unable to move, and watched helplessly as the heavy stake, carrying the bamboo curtain with it, fell towards them.
Wen Yao pursed his lips, flew back and stepped into a pile of poisonous insects without any care. He stomped his feet and released his internal energy to blow away a group of long insects. With his other hand, he blocked a woman and stopped the wooden stake that was hitting her directly. He bent his arm and stretched it out to push it away.
"Every time we have a banquet, someone has to stir up trouble." Wen Yao looked back and said, "Thanks to you, I have never had a peaceful meal in such a rare occasion."
Her tone remained steady and relaxed, but a thin layer of sweat appeared on her forehead.
Xin Man wasn't just talking nonsense; she had truly poisoned the water in the Qushui Liushang. In just a short while, Wen Yao could already feel his internal energy thickening like paste. The meridians in his hands and feet tingled, his blood vessels ruptured, and tiny traces of blood seeped out of his wrists and ankles.
She stopped using her internal energy, raised her hands and tapped herself twice to seal her blood circulation.
Well, as expected, Wen Yao found that he still hated those who poisoned others at every turn.
Xin Man's eyes twitched, picking up on the subtle changes in Wen Yao's body like a venomous spider observing its prey. She grinned, about to speak, but a ruthless and brutal blow from behind cut her off instantly. She dodged to the side, only to have the blade, which changed direction, rip through her abdomen again.
Zhao Xuanxu came over at some point, looking murderous with dark eyes and holding a knife pulled from Lingyu Guard.
"You—" Xin Man was surprised for a moment: "How could it be, you are not poisoned?"
The poison she had administered didn't inflict a fatal blow, but rather caused ulcers to form at the wrists and ankles, disrupting the internal energy flow of martial artists. However, the tall man before him, clearly a skilled martial artist, remained unaffected by her poison. Surprised and bewildered, Xin Man stared at Zhao Xuanxu with a frown, then suddenly said, "It's you, Yan—"
King Yong and King Qin were still present, and Wen Yao thought something was wrong as soon as he heard them speak.
Zhao Xuanxu reacted faster.
After all, he was not comfortable using a knife or a sword, so he threw away the knife expressionlessly and raised his palm to hit Xin Man directly.
Xin Man's eyes turned cold, and she immediately turned away. She practiced poison, and rarely practiced martial arts and internal energy. In a pure martial arts match, she was no match for this man.
As she turned, a thumb-sized pouch detached from Xin Man's waist, releasing a colorless, odorless powder. This was a strange poison she had personally concocted, and even a small amount of it would cause a nasal discharge all the way to the stomach.
But under Xin Man's gaze, Zhao Xuanxu showed no reaction. He rushed forward and pierced through the powder with his palm, striking Xin Man directly on the right shoulder!
A sharp pain came from his shoulder blade. Xin Man groaned, pushed off the ground and quickly retreated, covering his shoulder.
Her right shoulder bones, from the collarbone to the forearm, were completely shattered. If she hadn't dodged just now, she would have been ripped out of her heart by now.
Yes, that’s right, it’s from the heart.
Xin Man was very sure that the man just bent his five fingers slightly, intending to rip out her heart.
She looked at the man she had met with Zoya and asked in confusion, "Why, aren't you afraid of poison?"
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