novelapdf Chapter 25 Dragon-Attracting Powder
Chapter 25 Dragon-Attracting Powder
"I...I only know it's a catalyst for making medicine..." Wang Kong's forehead was covered in cold sweat, and his voice was intermittent: "Steward Zhao said...that this Dragon-Inducing Powder is different from the previous ones, and that he obtained it at a great cost...He cherishes it extremely, and I was the one who handled its use, and he wouldn't allow anyone else to touch it..."
"The medicinal ingredient." Chen Lingxi interrupted him: "What kind of medicine are you making?"
"I really don't know!" Wang Kong's voice became a little shrill. "Steward Zhao never tells me these things. I only watch you take your medicine and remember who lives and who dies... He never tells me anything else..."
Chen Ling looked into his eyes.
Wang Kong's eyes were filled with panic and fear, but he didn't seem to be lying.
A dying person, at this point, has no reason to lie anymore.
"Where is Liu Changle?" Chen Lingxi asked again. "Where did he go?"
Wang Kong paused for a moment, then shook his head: "I don't know... He suddenly disappeared... That morning, Steward Zhao sent people to look for him in the back room, but he was already gone... Steward Zhao was furious about this and beat up all the servants in the north courtyard, but he still couldn't find out where he was..."
"Disappeared suddenly?"
"He just suddenly disappeared!" Wang Kong said anxiously, "His things are all here, but he's just gone, like he vanished into thin air... Steward Zhao said... said it's impossible, a government slave couldn't leave the Marquis's residence, someone must be hiding him... But after investigating for so many days, we haven't found anything..."
Chen Lingxi remained silent for a moment.
Having lived two lives, he still has a knack for judging people.
Wang Kong's behavior at this moment did not seem fake.
He asked a few more questions, and Wang Kong answered them one by one, but incoherently and repeatedly, without saying anything useful.
Chen Ling took a deep breath.
The spring breeze blew through the willow-lined streets and alleys, ruffling the stray hairs on his forehead.
The peddler's cries echoed from the alley entrance, drawn out and leisurely.
A dog barked twice in the distance, then fell silent.
He withdrew his gaze and clenched his fist.
Wang Kong's eyes suddenly widened, and his mouth opened, as if he wanted to say something.
"Bang!"
A crimson light flashed by.
Wang Kong's forehead was shattered by his punch, and his body slowly slid down the earthen wall.
died.
Chen Lingxi squatted down and turned him over.
He pulled out several silver ingots from his pocket, mostly loose silver, about twenty or thirty taels in total.
Two small deerskin pouches were sewn onto the inside of the belt. One of them was opened, and inside lay three round, dark pills that emitted a pungent medicinal smell.
He leaned closer to smell it, but couldn't identify what kind of medicinal herbs it was made of, so he put the whole bag into his pocket.
There was a packet of medicine powder in another small bag.
"This should be the [Dragon-Attracting Powder]."
He carefully put away the Dragon-Inducing Powder.
He glanced again at the Hetian jade pendant at Wang Kong's waist.
The jade is warm and lustrous, with a distinct white color and excellent quality.
He hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not remove the jade.
"This jade and dagger are valuable, but if we bring them back to the courtyard, they have many flaws and could cause trouble."
After doing all this, he stood up, dragged Wang Kong's body into the half-collapsed mud-brick house at the end of the alley, and threw it together with the two bodies from before.
She changed back into the blue short-sleeved shirt she had taken off earlier.
"Once the arrow is released, there is no turning back."
Just keep moving forward.
Chen Lingxi quietly walked out of the winding alley and blended into the crowd, her steps never stopping.
According to regulations, government slaves and servants must report to the government office before noon.
Previously, Chen Lingxi and the other government servants would always set off more than an hour early to avoid being delayed on the road.
Therefore, Chen Lingxi killed three people in Liujie Alley without delaying his reporting time.
He walked through the streets and alleys, and soon arrived at the Yuanjiang Prefecture government office.
The Yuanjiang Prefectural Government Office is located in the center of the east of the city, facing south. It has a vermilion gate with copper nails, and two stone lions in front of the gate have wide-open eyes, with an embroidered ball and a cub under their paws.
It was the hour of Chen (7-9 AM), and a long queue had already formed in front of the government office. There were commoners handing over petitions, constables escorting prisoners, and clerks dressed in neat uniforms waiting to be summoned.
Chen Lingxi blended in unnoticed in the crowd, quietly queuing up at the side gate where the government servants reported for duty.
The side door was half-closed, and there was an elmwood table in front of it. Behind the table sat an old official with a sallow complexion and a sparse beard, squinting as he sketched on a book with a brush.
Chen Lingxi stepped forward and gave his name and slave status. The old official raised his eyelids, glanced at him, flipped through a few pages of the register, found his name, made a mark next to it, and waved his hand to indicate that he could leave.
The other ten government slaves on the list were not mentioned at all.
Chen Lingxi bowed his head in thanks and turned to leave when he suddenly heard a rapid sound of horses' hooves behind him.
The sound of horses' hooves came very quickly, the horseshoes clattering on the bluestone slabs like a summer downpour hitting the roof tiles.
The crowd in the square spontaneously moved aside, and some people who were a step behind were pulled aside by their companions.
Chen Lingxi looked in the direction of the sound.
A chestnut horse turned into the square from the street corner. It was a tall horse with snow-white hooves and a mane as black as satin. As it ran, its muscles rippled beneath its coat. It was truly a fine horse.
A woman was sitting down immediately.
She was about eighteen or nineteen years old, extremely tall, with shoulders and back as straight as a spear.
She wore a black, fitted outfit with a scarlet cloak over it, which fluttered in the wind like a waving battle flag.
A long sword hung at his waist, its scabbard dark and undecorated, yet it exuded a chilling aura.
She wasn't particularly beautiful; her eyebrows were slanted, her eyes were slightly upturned, her nose was high and straight, and her jawline was sharp, making her face look as if it had been carved with a knife and axe, yet she possessed an indescribable heroic spirit.
What made Chen Lingxi's mind and spirit tremble was the surging blood and qi around her.
The flow of qi and blood was not intentionally stimulated, but rather a natural outflow of energy.
A faint silvery-white light emanated from her body, blending with the morning mist and outlining her silhouette in a hazy way, like an unsheathed silver blade.
Even more remarkably, with each breath she took, a faint silver mist rose from her body. The mist did not dissipate but instead swirled and flowed around her, like a gentle silver dragon coiled around her.
Chen Ling squinted her eyes.
"Silver Bone Realm".
"Moreover, it's the pinnacle of Silver Bone, or even higher."
Chen Lingxi was astonished.
The woman appeared to be around the same age as Lin Longyue, perhaps a year or two older, but her cultivation level was even higher.
In Yuanjiang Prefecture, a woman of such age with such cultivation level is already quite obviously identifiable.
"The daughter of the lord of the manor, Chu Linzi." He silently recited the name in his heart.
He had already heard of this man's name and that he was highly regarded by the Crown Prince.
Meeting you today, I can see you are indeed a person of great talent and ambition.
Not wanting to cause trouble, Chen Ling lowered her head and turned to leave.
Just then, Chu Linzi reined in her horse.
She dismounted, her scarlet cloak billowing as she moved, and she was already several feet away.
She casually tossed the reins to the groom who came to greet her and strode towards the main gate of the government office.
When she reached the stone steps of the main entrance, she suddenly paused.
She turned her head to the side.
That gaze, sharp as a blade, swept across the crowd in the square, finally settling on the group of government slaves.
It landed on Chen Lingxi.
Chen Lingxi felt a chill run down her spine.
Their eyes met from a distance of more than ten steps.
A hint of surprise flashed in Chu Linzi's eyes, which then turned into scrutiny.
She raised her hand and beckoned, and a yamen runner who was accompanying her quickly stepped forward, hands at his sides, ready to obey.
Chu Linzi tilted her chin slightly toward Chen Lingxi and said something.
The voice wasn't loud, and Chen Lingxi couldn't hear it clearly. He only saw the constable nod repeatedly and then turn around and walk towards him.
Chen Lingxi's heart sank, but she remained expressionless, standing still with her hands at her sides.
The constable walked up to him, looked him up and down a few times, and asked, "Whose servant are you?"
His tone carried the arrogance typical of people from government offices.
"Reporting to Your Excellency, this is Chen Lingxi, a servant of the Marquis of Baosu's household." Chen Lingxi replied with his head bowed.
The constable grunted in response, turned around, and quickly returned to Chu Linzi's side, reporting in a low voice.
Upon hearing the report, Chu Linzi raised her eyebrows almost imperceptibly.
"The Marquis of Baosu's residence." She repeated those four words.
"It's a pity. If you were in another residence, I would have wanted to bring you here and take you into my household."
She glanced at Chen Lingxi, then looked away, waved to the constable, and said, "Since he is a servant of the Marquis of Baosu's mansion, there is no need to pay him any mind."
After saying that, she strode into the main gate of the government office, her scarlet cloak trailing an arc across the threshold before disappearing into the depths of the doorway in an instant.
The constable waved to Chen Lingxi, indicating that he could leave.
Chen Lingxi bowed and turned to leave.
He broke out in a cold sweat.
"In my daily life, I use the Concealing Edge Technique to hide my spiritual energy, but I never hide my blood and qi all the time, because blood and qi are sometimes present and sometimes absent, which makes them even more suspicious."
"Unexpectedly, this Chu Linzi seems to be able to see through my cultivation level at a glance."
"His insight is even sharper than Jiang Yuan's."
Chen Lingxi walked quickly through the streets and alleys, and soon he could see the vermilion gate of the Marquis of Baosu's mansion in the distance.
The two rows of golden door studs gleamed in the morning light. Several guards were leaning against the doorposts, chatting and laughing quietly. When they saw him enter through the side gate, they only glanced at him and then ignored him.
He walked through the covered walkway, around the Silver Peace Courtyard, and continued walking straight back to the servants' quarters in the West Courtyard.
He pushed open the door, turned around and bolted it shut, then closed the window, plunging the room into darkness.
He did not light a lamp, but sat down at the table by the few rays of sunlight that seeped in through the cracks in the window.
He took the items out of his pocket and placed them on the table one by one.
First came a few ingots of silver, which Wang Kong took from his pocket. He weighed them and they amounted to about twenty taels. Combined with his monthly allowance, he was finally a little more financially comfortable.
He carefully put away the silver and then laid out the three crimson pills in a row.
The pill was about the size of a longan, perfectly round like a pearl, with a smooth, jade-like surface. He brought it close to his nose and sniffed it; a rich medicinal fragrance wafted up.
Just from smelling it, Chen Lingxi felt a slight invigoration, and the spiritual energy in his dantian seemed to become more active, gently pulsating in his meridians.
"This elixir is no ordinary medicine; it must have been bestowed by Zhao Yong."
He carefully wrapped the three pills in a clean piece of coarse cloth and hid them inside his clothes before turning his attention to the last item—the packet of Dragon-Attracting Powder.
The deer-skin pouch was opened, revealing a dark brown powder, as fine as dust, emitting a peculiar odor.
Chen Lingxi brought the medicine powder close to her nose, about to take a closer sniff, when her mind suddenly trembled slightly.
He subconsciously sank into the void of the divine chamber, only to see that the line of golden tadpole-shaped characters had jumped one level—[Complete Enlightenment Divine Power: Replenishment Progress 53.4].