Impératrice douairière Xiaoxuan

Chapitre 212

When an ordinary person is poisoned by the Bone-Eroding Powder, the poison travels throughout the body via the blood vessels, slowly causing pus to form all over the body, leading to ulceration and death. Even the bones are slowly eroded and melted by the poison after death, hence the name "Bone-Eroding Powder." When this poison is administered to a corpse, because the blood vessels in the corpse are not as strong, the effects are slower than in a living person, but it will still slowly dissolve the corpse.

Tang Ling wanted precisely this "slow" pace.

When the coffin arrives in the capital, bodily fluids will seep out from the cracks, greatly alarming the Song emperor, who will then order the coffin opened for inspection. The corpse will be unrecognizable, leading the Song people to conclude that the Liao people poisoned Zhao Yu, inevitably causing a major upheaval between the Song and Liao dynasties.

At this point, she was about to poison the coffin.

Volume 3, Chapter 47

Although the coffin was already nailed in place, it wasn't difficult for her. She took out a small wooden bottle from her bosom, uncorked it, and carefully dripped a drop of water into the nail hole in the coffin.

Mo Yan heard a chilling "sizzle" sound, not knowing what had happened. Then she heard several more sounds in succession, becoming increasingly puzzled, wondering what the people outside were up to.

After dripping water into all the nail holes, Tang Ling smiled with satisfaction, put away the wooden bottle, and pushed the coffin lid open. The nails, after being dripped with water from the bottle, had all turned into molten iron, and the coffin lid was easily pushed open.

The moment the coffin lid slowly slid open, Mo Yan instinctively closed her eyes, even though she hadn't decided whether she should continue pretending to be dead.

Tang Ling removed the gold-threaded mask and hastily touched the corpse's face a few times. She had originally planned to pour the bone-corroding powder directly onto the face, but then thought better of it. If the face dissolved first, it would be troublesome if they couldn't identify Zhao Yu during the autopsy. Having no other choice, she had to take the more troublesome approach herself. The bone-corroding powder had to come into direct contact with the skin, so Tang Ling began to peel off the corpse's clothes…

Mo Yan endured the pain as she peeled off her outer garment.

Once the deep robe was removed, Mo Yan gritted her teeth and actually began to unbutton her quilt. At this point, Mo Yan could no longer pretend to be dead.

She suddenly grabbed Tang Ling's wrist and pressed down on her pulse point, then opened her eyes and hissed, "What do you want to do?"

A zombie has risen from the dead!!!

This was Tang Ling's first reaction; her legs went weak, and she stammered, "You, you, you..."

After all, he was a member of the Tang Clan. Although his pulse was held and he was so frightened that his hands and feet went weak, his instincts were still intact. He lightly raised his other hand, which was not held by Mo Yan, and a diamond-shaped dart was thrown towards Mo Yan like lightning.

The space inside the coffin was cramped, and Mo Yan had almost no way to avoid it. In addition, she had been lying there for too long and her body was stiff from not moving for so long, so her movements were very slow. The dart hit her shoulder blade, and bright red blood gushed out immediately.

"The blood is red, so you were faking your death!" Tang Ling breathed a sigh of relief, her courage returning immediately.

Despite being poisoned by the dart, Mo Yan's mind was perfectly clear. She knew that if Tang Ling started making a scene and attracted attention, the matter would be exposed. The only option now was to keep her calm. With a quick thought, she said, "Madam Fang from the embroidery shop has something to say to me. Do you want to hear it?"

Tang Ling was indeed stunned by this one sentence, and asked hesitantly, "How do you know her?"

"Don't worry about that."

Mo Yan, clutching her wound, struggled to emerge from the coffin and said, "This place is not suitable. Let's find somewhere else to talk." With that, she took off her funerary clothes and put them back in the coffin. She then laboriously closed the coffin lid and covered it with a cloth so that no one could see any trace of it.

Tang Ling stared at her suspiciously, without moving: "What does she want you to say?"

"She told me I could only tell the Tang Clan," Mo Yan said coldly. "Are you a member of the Tang Clan?"

Tang Ling neither confirmed nor denied it.

"If that's the case, let's talk somewhere else." Seeing that she was still suspicious, Mo Yan added, "I've already been hit by your poisoned dart, are you really afraid of me?"

Tang Ling snorted coldly: "Fine, if you're lying to me, then you can forget about living."

There was almost no one outside the tent. The snow was falling heavily, and people could not be seen beyond a few feet. The two walked one after the other into the snow. Mo Yan was injured and stumbled, almost falling. Tang Ling was very impatient. She simply picked her up and moved her around a few times. The two of them were already outside the town.

Mo Yan found a tree and leaned against it weakly, blood still seeping from her wound.

"What exactly are you trying to say?" Ignoring Mo Yan's injuries, Tang Ling asked sternly.

Do you know how Madam Fang died?

Tang Ling bore a striking resemblance to Madam Fang, and given her apparent interest in Madam Fang's words, Mo Yan guessed she too would want to know the cause of Madam Fang's death. The reason she lured Tang Ling to a secluded spot was to prevent her from revealing Zhao Yu's faked death to others. Now that they were here, she had to find a way to kill her. However, Mo Yan herself was severely injured and barely able to protect herself; killing Tang Ling alone was no easy task. Therefore, she had to stall Tang Ling for time, waiting for an opportunity to launch a surprise attack.

"My elder sister was killed by Zhan Zhao!" Tang Ling said decisively, staring coldly at her. "I already knew that."

"So she's your sister. I was wondering why you two looked so alike." Mo Yan sighed and shook her head. "But you've still been deceived. She wasn't killed by Zhan Zhao."

Tang Ling was stunned for a moment, but she didn't believe her either, saying, "Don't try anything funny! I saw it with my own eyes, not that I was deceived."

Mo Yan shook her head again: "Why are you being so stubborn? Not only did you not see it with your own eyes, but you probably didn't even see your sister's body."

"What...what gives you the right to say that!"

"It's very simple. Your sister died from being poisoned by the Rain of Pear Blossoms Needles. Everyone knows that Zhan Zhao never uses poison, let alone swords. If you had seen your sister's body, you would never believe the lie that Zhan Zhao killed her."

"Rain of Pear Blossom Needles! Impossible. This is something my elder sister always carried with her. How could she give it to someone else and let them kill her?"

"That's a question for you to answer." Mo Yan smiled faintly: "You should know what kind of person could make your sister willingly hand over the Rainstorm Pear Blossom Needles to her, and be completely unguarded against her."

Upon hearing this, Tang Ling's eyes revealed a hint of shock, clearly indicating that she was beginning to believe Mo Yan's words.

"But why...why did she kill my older sister?"

Mo Yan shook her head again: "She didn't want to kill your sister, but Zhan Zhao. But at the time, Zhan Zhao and your sister were locked in combat, and she couldn't care less about your sister's life because she was focused on killing Zhan Zhao." She told this story in a way that was both true and false, yet it made perfect sense, leaving Tang Ling no choice but to believe her. "It's a pity that your sister went to save her, but ended up losing her own life."

"Who exactly are you? How do you know all this?"

“I… I’m an old friend of Madam Fang.” Mo Yan thought to herself, this wasn’t entirely a lie, but the latter half of her statement was completely fabricated. “If the poison on the needle hadn’t been incurable, I would have definitely saved her.”

Upon hearing that the poison used on her sister's Rain of Pear Blossoms Needles was indeed incurable, Tang Ling was already largely convinced of Mo Yan's words.

Seeing this, Mo Yan knew that the other woman had lowered her guard. She lowered her eyes slightly, feeling that the best time to make her move had arrived. "Your sister left something for me before she died, asking me to pass it on to someone in the Tang Clan," she said softly, her hand laboriously reaching into her waist as if to rummage for something.

Tang Ling waited a while, and seeing that she still hadn't taken it out, she impatiently squatted down and leaned forward to ask, "What is it...?"

Before she could finish speaking, a flash of silver light appeared and pierced straight towards her like lightning. Tang Ling had no time to retreat and could only roll on the ground. Mo Yan still managed to slash a bloody mark on her neck.

Having missed her first attack, Mo Yan gritted her teeth and lunged forward, giving her no chance to catch her breath.