Chapter 181: Identity, so it was him (2/2)

Abruptly, Han Yunxi stopped smiling as the image of the Duke of Kang’s dangerous eyes rose in her mind. Immediately, a chill ran down her back. All right, as the culprit who’d pulled down his face mask, she…really was in danger.

Seeing Han Yunxi’s ashen face, Long Feiye was full of amusement as he asked, “Scared?”

Han Yunxi’s expression immediately turned pious and devout. Her eyes fired up as she looked pitifully at Long Feiye. “With Your Highness here, chenqie isn’t afraid of anything.”

Actually, she was pretending to be pathetic. This was a lackey trying to curry favor, all right?

Long Feiye was a man who loathed women who affected their emotions and pretended to be helpless. Despite that, he didn’t find Han Yunxi annoying. The corners of his mouth twitched as if he wanted to speak, but he didn’t say anything in the end. Instead, he avoided her gaze and walked towards the poison pond.

Fine, Han Yunxi was used to the guy who yielded to nothing. She loosened her shoulders and followed after him. In any case, she and Long Feiye were on the same boat. If she got kidnapped again, it wouldn’t be any good for him, either. This could be considered her “fallback,” right?

—

The poison pond had modest dimensions, and the water itself was quite shallow. But the pool was filled with enough plants to cause Long Feiye and Han Yunxi to knit their eyebrows, their expressions anxious. Here was their biggest predicament. When they were far away, Han Yunxi’s detox system had already set off loud alarms, proving the high toxicity of this high density poison area. But she still needed to do detailed research to determine the details of the situation. Although she didn’t know what kind of poisons these were, much less where they originated from and how potent they were, the detox system could still break things down and analyze them.

Once she did, Han Yunxi received a shock.

“There’s some sort of unknown hypertoxic poison inside the pool. These plants still possess very weak levels of toxicity, they’re not enough to poison anyone,” she said mildly.

Although Long Feiye knew Han Yunxi’s poison skills were very formidable, he couldn’t help but be curious at her words. “How did you know?”

“Smell. My nose is very sensitive to poisons,” Han Yunxi grinned. Even she felt this excuse was too absurd, but no one could call her words into question when she spoke this way.

Long Feiye’s eyes flickered with doubt, though he didn’t chase them to the end. “In other words, the Duke of Kang doesn’t have any new types of poison on hand yet?”

“He shouldn’t have. These plants still need a long period of cultivation.”

Han Yunxi felt lucky that they’d discovered the place early. The detox system had been warning her about the poison in the pond, but these plants were only barely toxic and developing poison in its early stages. To put it specifically, these plants were all non-toxic medicinal plants that were planted in the poison pool. The poison and medicine were currently in the process of reacting to each other and gradually developing into new poisons. Although the poison in the pool was uniform throughout, each of the medicinal plants carried a different medical property. As a result, the poisons they’d produce by the end would be completely different as well.

Although they’d discovered all this in time, Han Yunxi still trembled at the sight of the plants in the water. Every single plant was different, so if they were ever raised to maturity, they’d be countless new poisons!

In the midst of her fear, Han Yunxi plucked off part of a plant to study. It was a terrifying thought if these new poisons landed in someone else’s hands, but what if they landed in hers? Then it’d be the other party living in terror. Thinking up to here, Han Yunxi’s intelligent, crafty eyes slowly grew focused.

She knew how to take care of this problem!

As long as her detox system had a record of a poison, it could break it down to parts even without using medicinal ingredients. Additionally, she could craft an antidote formula from the results. If her detox system didn’t have a record, then it was impossible to find a treatment.

However, she recalled that her detox system still had a feature that was still under development. That was its intellectual analyzation abilities. As long as she gave it enough raw, unprocessed toxins to analyze, the detox system could divide up the materials by various attributes and create new poisons. The pool and immature plants before her now could all be considered raw, unprocessed toxins!

Looking at the emerald green surface of the pond, Han Yunxi’s lips drew up in a secret smile. She was determined to claim these raw materials! Though the quantity was rather large, the limitless space of her detox system could still contain it. However, it’d take a tremendous amount of brainpower for her to accomplish the feat. Han Yunxi secretly glanced at Long Feiye, only to meet his eyes looking back at the same time.

“Is there a way to destroy the poison in the pond?” Long Feiye asked.

Four words suddenly rose in Han Yunxi’s mind: waste of natural resources. She mused over how to swallow up this pool without arousing Long Feiye’s suspicions. And yet, it was then that a stern voice carried over.

“Who has the nerve and daring to trespass on the restricted area of the medicine forest! Do you want to make enemies with everyone in Medicine City?”

The guards of the restricted area had finally arrived. Han Yunxi quickly replaced her facemask and smiled coldly in her heart. The Duke of Kang colluded with the Mu family, but once he left, the Mu family would naturally call over the guards to catch the thieves! She soon saw a wave of guards appear from the surrounding woods. Of the two people leading the crowd, one was precisely the skinny old man who had accompanied the Duke of Kang before!

“Go!”

Long Feiye grabbed Han Yunxi and prepared to depart. The restricted area’s poison pool was joint property between the three great families of Medicine City. It was inconvenient for them to stick their hands in the three families’ affairs, much less make enemies of Medicine City. Right now, their only choice was to escape. However, Long Feiye had hardly leapt into the sky with Han Yunxi when arrows flew towards them from all sides! Although the restricted area was heavily guarded, there was no need for so many archers. This was an obvious move to counter a high level expert like Long Feiye. Otherwise, why would so many archers be hiding here?

Abominable, the Duke of Kang must have instigated them!

-o-

[1] totem (图腾) – tuteng, used in ancient times as a representation of a clan or belief system. You can read a bit about Chinese totems here.

[2] Duke of Kang (康王) – Kang means “health, well-being.”

[3] Jun Yixie (君亦邪) – Jun is a surname meaning “monarch, sovereign,” Yi is “also, too,” and Xie is “evil, heretical, disaster.” In other words, his name can be read as “a monarch as well as an evil disaster.”