She'd learned something she shouldn't have? Shen Lixue frowned slightly. What could have gotten her into such a deadly predicament...?
"Dongfang Heng, Dongfang Heng..."
A familiar call came, and Shen Lixue pulled back the carriage curtain to look out. Nangong Xiao rode a fast horse and hurriedly caught up. His charming eyes were cold and wicked. Shen Lixue's eyelids twitched. Could it be that the matter at the other courtyard had gotten out of hand and he had come to settle accounts with Dongfang Heng?
Nangong Xiao came to the car window, looked through Shen Lixue at Dongfang Heng, his eyes flickering. Instead of shouting and making a scene as expected, he reluctantly said, "Thank you."
"Why are you suddenly being so kind to him?" Shen Lixue was taken aback. Nangong Xiao and Dongfang Heng had always been at odds, always clashing whenever they met. In the morning, Dongfang Heng had just schemed against Nangong Xiao, and he was furious. How come by evening, he had actually softened his stance and even thanked Dongfang Heng?
"This is not the place to talk. Let's go back to the Holy King's Mansion!" As if he had expected Nangong Xiao to come, Dongfang Heng did not react much. He said calmly and pulled down the carriage curtain. The carriage quickly headed towards the Holy King's Mansion.
Under the same magnolia tree, at the same small square table, the same three people sat in the same spot, but the confrontation of yesterday was gone.
Nangong Xiao picked up the teacup in front of him and took a big gulp, his gaze extremely complicated: "You made me drink fine wine and eat fruit that caused diarrhea, all to create conditions for me to discover the clues?"
Dongfang Heng remained silent, but the unfathomable glint in his eyes served as a tacit admission: "You soaked in hot ginger water all night, didn't you hear any unusual noises outside?"
Nangong Xiao's expression instantly turned somewhat unpleasant. He had heard light footsteps more than once, but he assumed they were servants bringing him hot water and paid no attention.
Dongfang Heng glanced at Nangong Xiao: "As expected, you've gotten too used to a comfortable life. You've lost even the most basic vigilance..."
"Try staying in the capital for a few years..." Nangong Xiao argued defiantly, his eyes flickering unnaturally. Everyone in that villa was his trusted aide, which was why he hadn't suspected anything...
"I'm not as foolish as you..." Dongfang Heng retorted coldly, his right hand lightly touching his chest. Even through layers of clothing, he could clearly feel the scars there...
"What exactly are you talking about?" Shen Lixue listened for a long time but could only understand the general meaning. She couldn't understand what had happened.
"In Nangong Xiao's villa, two servants have been poisoned with Gu!" Dongfang Heng glanced at Nangong Xiao's gloomy face and continued to explain, "The Gu is very special, one male and one female. You need to find a man and a woman, and apply it to them when the moon is at its fullest. They need to be nurtured for three months. On the night of the full moon in the third month, the male and female Gu will be activated to break out of their bodies and combine to form a new poisonous Gu that can control a person's mind..."
After a pause, Dongfang Heng said softly, "Tonight is the third full moon night of the month..."
"A new Gu must find a host before it can be released, otherwise it will die of thirst. Therefore, the person who cast the Gu must be targeting someone in the villa." This Gu is very difficult to cultivate, and once it is cultivated, it will definitely not target ordinary people. In the entire villa, Nangong Xiao has the highest status.
He tricked Nangong Xiao into drinking hot ginger water, but Nangong Xiao didn't notice anything. After dawn, he did nothing but go to the street to invite Shen Lixue to dinner. Helpless, he had to use his last resort, having someone break the beauty's head to reveal the blood infused with the poison...
"Could it be that person is going to transfer the new Gu into Nangong Xiao's body?" Shen Lixue was shocked. She never thought that there was such a vicious method of controlling people in the world. If Dongfang Heng hadn't discovered the clues, then Nangong Xiao would be in grave danger tonight.
"Then why didn't you just tell me?" Nangong Xiao muttered in dissatisfaction. When the steward of the villa told him that the servant had been poisoned by Gu, he thought it was Dongfang Heng's doing to show him off. It wasn't until he found out that the Gu had been poisoned for three months that he realized the seriousness of the matter.
Dongfang Heng glanced at Nangong Xiao: "If I told you, would you believe me?"
Nangong Xiao was speechless for a moment. He and Dongfang Heng had a deep-seated conflict, and if Dongfang Heng told him the truth, he really wouldn't believe it...
"How did you find out?" Nangong Xiao stayed in the villa every day and didn't notice anything, but Dongfang Heng had only been back in the capital for a little over half a month and had already found out everything about his villa.
“A friend of mine, who enjoys playing the flute, unintentionally played a tune outside your villa, nearly activating the Gu worms within those two people, which is why he noticed the anomaly!” Dongfang Heng replied calmly, taking a sip of tea. His dark eyes, hidden in a light mist, were unusually deep and unfathomable: “Are those two people dead?”
"Not yet!" Nangong Xiao's face was gloomy, and his wicked eyes were coldly flashing: "I secretly locked them up to lure the mastermind out."
Dongfang Heng looked up at the sky: "It's already dark. Hurry up and go to the palace to find Imperial Physician Chen. Get rid of the poison in your body before the full moon..."
"Am I poisoned?" Nangong Xiao was surprised, wondering why he felt nothing at all.
Dongfang Heng glanced at Nangong Xiao indifferently: "That new Gu needs a medicinal catalyst to enter a person's body. You should have been taking colorless and odorless medicine for a month. The dosage is very light and not easy to detect. Symptoms will only appear when it takes effect..." Otherwise, why do you think that Gu would only enter your body among so many people in the other courtyard?
"Shen Lixue's silver needles can also detoxify, right? Let her give me acupuncture, and I won't waste my time going to the palace!" As he spoke, without caring that Shen Lixue was a woman and that Dongfang Heng was still sitting opposite him, Nangong Xiao began to undress.
“She doesn’t understand Gu poison, so she can’t remove the medicinal ingredient poison from your body!” Dongfang Heng glared at Nangong Xiao, his brows furrowing slightly.
"Really?" Nangong Xiao looked at Shen Lixue, still somewhat doubtful.
Shen Lixue nodded, her eyes clear: "I can cure ordinary poisons, but I have never dealt with Gu poison!"
"Alright then, I'll go to the palace!" Nangong Xiao reluctantly tied his belt, lightly touched the ground with his feet, and his slender figure instantly flew out of the Holy King's Mansion.
"Dongfang Heng, are you going to help Nangong Xiao?" Anyone who dares to use Gu to control the heir of the Mingnan Prince must be extraordinary.
A dark glint flashed in Dongfang Heng's ink-black eyes: "I've already laid the trap, just waiting for the full moon to lure you into it..."
Suddenly, a melodious flute tune rang out. Although it was a beautiful melody, it sounded extremely jarring. Shen Lixue frowned slightly: "What is that sound?"
Dongfang Heng's expression changed instantly. He looked up and saw a full moon emitting a faint light in the sky: "That's the sound of the Gu-inducing flute! Oh no, something's happened to Nangong Xiao!"
063 Hero Saves the Beauty
Dongfang Heng's eyes darkened, and he reached out to embrace Shen Lixue's small waist, carrying her as they flew towards the direction from which the flute music came.
From afar, Shen Lixue saw a misty, dark alley below, where a man in black could be vaguely seen playing a flute with great passion. Three meters away from him stood three people, two men and one woman, judging from their clothing.
As they flew closer, Shen Lixue was instantly horrified by the sight before her. The man and woman were both very young, but their eyes were empty and their faces were ashen. A colorful, fat worm wriggled out from above their heads and merrily approached each other.
Among them stood a devilishly handsome man, holding a folding fan. His light sandalwood robes fluttered in the wind, but he remained motionless like a statue, his eyes unfocused. His once alluring gaze had become hazy and dull...
"Nangong Xiao!" Shen Lixue exclaimed in surprise, as Dongfang Heng's sharp palm strike had already reached out to the man in black.
The man in black was startled and quickly dodged. The palm strike hit his arm, and his entire left arm instantly lost sensation. The flute music paused slightly, and the Gu worms that were desperately wriggling together also stopped.
Seeing an opportunity, Shen Lixue reached out and pulled Nangong Xiao out, hiding him behind her and Dongfang Heng. When she tried to destroy the two Gu worms, she discovered that the man and woman who were raising the Gu had disappeared.
"Azure Flame War God Dongfang Heng!" The man in black landed on a rooftop not far away, his voice low and hoarse. His eyes, hidden in the shadows, shone with a terrifying light. Beside him stood a man and a woman, their heads adorned with two brightly colored Gu worms that stood out against the misty environment.
"You've come to the wrong place to cause trouble in my Qingyan capital!" Dongfang Heng's dark eyes were unfathomable, and his cold voice made one feel as if they were in an ice cellar in the dead of winter.
"Heh..." The man in black laughed loudly, his hoarse voice extremely eerie in the full moon night.
"Nangong Xiao, wake up, wake up!" Shen Lixue patted Nangong Xiao's devilishly handsome cheeks and kept calling out to him, but he just stood there quietly, his eyes glazed over, without moving.
Shen Lixue took the silver needles and stabbed them hard into Nangong Xiao's acupoints, but he remained dazed and unresponsive!