Chapter 38: Gelsemium
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“Third Sister!”
In his low call, Xu Yan grabbed Mei Sanniang’s arm and pulled her away from the well’s edge.
Her body swayed, and only now did Mei Sanniang realize she had almost tilted into the well opening. Her face was somewhat pale, and she looked at the well with fear in her eyes, retreating several steps together with Xu Yan.
“This place is unclean…” Mei Sanniang’s chest rose and fell. To say she wasn’t afraid would be impossible – anyone encountering such a terrifying scene would feel lingering fear.
If Xu Yan hadn’t pulled her back, Mei Sanniang would probably have fallen into the well too.
Jumping into a well oneself and being pushed down were two entirely different feelings.
“It’s not yet dawn. Leave early.” Mei Sanniang steadied her mind, patted Xu Yan’s shoulder with a word of advice, then turned to leave.
“I’m not leaving.”
Behind Mei Sanniang came the little Taoist’s soft words, low and persistent.
The woman who turned back had her willow brows tightly furrowed. She didn’t speak, silently watching the little Taoist with deep confusion in her eyes.
“The Xingwu grass in the mountains – Third Sister planted it, didn’t you?” Xu Yan said calmly. As soon as these words left his mouth, the woman opposite him visibly trembled.
“The venom of living creatures is hard to collect and even harder to store.”
Xu Yan looked at the woman’s hands and continued: “Third Sister has some small scars on her hands – you must have been bitten by those venomous insects. People whose families deal in medicinal herbs should know some methods of detoxification, but the poison from a few scorpions and centipedes can’t kill too many people.”
With just these few simple sentences, Xu Yan directly exposed Mei Sanniang’s plan that had been years in the making. At this moment, the originally charming and alluring woman’s face had begun to turn pale.
That Xingwu grass had indeed been painstakingly planted by her over five years.
When she was first captured and brought to Yuan Mountain Stronghold, Mei Sanniang hadn’t carried Xingwu grass seeds with her. It was her younger brother Little Cheng who, in a moment of playfulness, had stuffed a handful of Xingwu grass seeds in his pocket. These seeds from her deceased brother became the key to Mei Sanniang’s revenge.
She wanted to poison Yuan Mountain Stronghold. She wanted to kill all these evil bandits!
Five years of scheming, five years of false compliance – Mei Sanniang’s only goal was revenge. Though she had some knowledge of medicine, she lacked experience dealing with centipedes and scorpions. When collecting venom, she was often stung. Fortunately, she knew how to detoxify herself and remained safe. Otherwise, if it had been someone else, they would have died from poison before their enemies did.
The reason she never ate food made in the kitchen, the reason she often lingered near the well at midnight – Mei Sanniang’s plan was to turn the water in this well into poisoned water. Only this way could she kill all the Yuan Mountain bandits in one stroke. Never eating food made in the kitchen was an escape route Mei Sanniang had set for herself. Otherwise, if she also ate meals cooked with well water, wouldn’t she also be poisoned to death?
Being stung by venomous insects could still be treated, but if she consumed large amounts of venom, she wouldn’t survive either.
Five years of planning exposed in a single sentence – Mei Sanniang’s mind began fluctuating violently. She stared fixedly at the little Taoist before her, her expression constantly changing.
Before long, Mei Sanniang covered her mouth and laughed softly, saying: “A few scorpions and centipedes indeed aren’t enough to kill people. So what should be done? Third Sister really doesn’t have any good methods.”
Xu Yan was just a little Taoist who had recently arrived at Yuan Mountain Stronghold, and Mei Sanniang had even helped resolve the situation when Nine-Headed Snake wanted to kill Xu Yan. The little Taoist before her had no grudge against her and shouldn’t betray her.
“Third Sister is taking the long way around. Xingwu grass alone can poison people to death, but it needs another poisonous herb to work.” Xu Yan smiled dryly, his white teeth looking somewhat sinister in the moonlight as he whispered: “Gelsemium.”
“Gelsemium?”
Mei Sanniang’s willow brows suddenly locked. Her family had sold medicinal herbs for generations, and the gelsemium Xu Yan mentioned sounded somewhat familiar. She quickly remembered and said in surprise: “Heartbreak grass!”
Gelsemium, also called heartbreak grass, was a deadly poison no less potent than red-crowned crane poison.
Xu Yan nodded and said: “Gelsemium tastes bitter, Xingwu grass has a fishy smell. If these two herbs are combined, the fishy and bitter tastes cancel each other out, becoming colorless and tasteless. Especially when Xingwu grass is paired with gelsemium, it can multiply gelsemium’s toxicity. Once Linshan Town had a wolf disaster, and Master used gelsemium mixed with Xingwu grass to feed chickens, then threw the chickens that hadn’t yet been poisoned into the mountain forest, eliminating over a hundred wild wolves.”
Blinking his eyes, Xu Yan scratched his head bashfully: “The wolves were gone, but so were the chickens. I didn’t get to eat eggs for a year.”
Listening to Xu Yan’s explanation, Mei Sanniang suddenly felt a chill in her heart. The foolish little Taoist before her no longer seemed foolish in her eyes, but rather like a fierce beast hiding in the shadows, disguising itself as a pig or sheep!
“Third Sister doesn’t recognize what gelsemium looks like. Little Taoist, do you recognize it?”
Mei Sanniang tilted her head slightly, a strand of black hair falling down to cover a trace of fear deep in her eyes. The source of that fear was precisely this little Taoist who seemed foolish but was actually even more ruthless than she, Mei Sanniang.
“I recognize it. It should be findable in the deep mountains.” Xu Yan showed an innocent smile: “I’ll help Third Sister find it.”
Mei Sanniang fell silent, looking at Xu Yan for a long time. The fear in her eyes finally disappeared. She opened her arms and once again embraced the flustered little Taoist, rubbing Xu Yan’s head. Tears welled up in her smiling eyes. After a long while, she finally let go and turned away.
“Thank you, little Taoist…”
When Mei Sanniang left, she only left behind a soft word of thanks, but hearing it in Xu Yan’s ears, this thanks was heavy enough to suffocate.
That was resentment and hatred suppressed for five years!
By the quiet well, only the little Taoist’s figure remained. Xu Yan didn’t leave immediately but continued standing in place.
In others’ eyes, there was indeed only the little Taoist by the well, but if viewed through Xu Yan’s eyes, one would discover that opposite him floated a woman’s shadow with a blue face and fangs, clawing menacingly!
The Zhao family girl who had committed suicide by jumping into the well had ultimately become a malevolent ghost. She couldn’t enter other bandits’ dwellings because they were surrounded by the bandits’ killing aura. She could only wander around the well opening, or entangle this foolish little Taoist before her.
Xu Yan wasn’t seeing a ghost for the first time, nor was this his first malevolent ghost. He knew malevolent ghosts could harm people. If he encountered one normally, he would definitely stay far away, and upon returning to the temple, he would chant sutras for salvation to remove the yin energy from his body.
But today, Xu Yan didn’t hide, nor did he turn a blind eye. He just watched the female ghost.
Ghosts weren’t pleasant to look at, especially malevolent ghosts. Their sinister appearance looked like they wanted to devour people.
“You can’t harm them, and you can’t devour them either…”
Soft self-talk, not knowing who it was meant for. The little Taoist conversing with a ghost had slightly furrowed brows, his lowered face showing both compassion and sorrow.
Whoosh!
Cold, yin wind struck his face as the blue-faced, fanged female ghost suddenly pounced.
The malevolent ghost sought a life, but wanted to take an innocent little Taoist’s life.
Having become a malevolent ghost, she had also lost her sanity. That unwillingness had become the female ghost’s only resentment. Being injured by this level of malevolent ghost would put Xu Yan in great danger.
“I’ll do it for you…” As the female ghost pounced, Xu Yan suddenly raised his head. His face no longer showed compassion but was filled with twisted ferocity as he hoarsely growled: “Devour them all!”
I’ll do it for you – devour them all!
With Xu Yan’s low roar, a killing intent a hundred times stronger than that group of bandits emerged from his small body. In his left eye, the dim, formless star-pattern mark suddenly blazed bright for an instant, and the pouncing malevolent ghost was instantly scattered into nothingness.
The life-seeking malevolent ghost ultimately couldn’t match the demon in Xu Yan’s heart, much less withstand the mysterious aura in the little Taoist’s left eye.
