Volume 2: Forbidden City, Jianghu and Imperial Court Chapter 7 Peony Poison
"What Lu Xiaofeng meant was that someone flew directly from the street to the windowsill on the third floor." Fang Yunhan said, "Just like him, standing on the windowsill with outstanding lightness skills, no one can tell that there was a trace of someone standing there before."
Qiao Xiaoshan was puzzled: "But the window latch is still intact. Even if he can use his inner strength to shake the latch open and open the window to come in, when he leaves, how can he get the latch on the inside of the window back to its original position when he is outside the window?"
Lu Xiaofeng turned around and floated into the house again, saying, "This is not difficult."
He walked to the bed in the room, grabbed the quilt, pulled out a piece of silk thread with two fingers, wrapped the thread around the wooden latch of the window, then climbed onto the windowsill again and closed the window.
At this time, he was outside the window, but the bolt was inside the window. A thin silk thread passed through the gap of the tightly closed window, connecting the inside and the outside.
Lu Xiaofeng outside the window exerted his internal strength, and the two people in the room saw that the soft silk thread suddenly straightened, throwing the wooden pin back to its original position with a slight "click" sound.
Then the silk thread wrapped around the wooden latch shook, and the knot at the thread end was loosened with internal force. The whole silk thread broke away from the wooden latch and was pulled out of the window through the gap in the window.
In this way, the window still looks tightly closed, leaving no trace.
"So that's how it is." Qiao Xiaoshan walked forward and opened the window to let Lu Xiaofeng in. He said, "It seems that this person's Qinggong and internal strength are very advanced. And since he used such a troublesome method, it means that it is unlikely that he is a traitor in Wanxiang Tower."
Lu Xiaofeng rolled up the silk thread in his hand and threw it away, saying, "If that person had used his own gold and copper threads and practiced beforehand, then there wouldn't have been the slight sound of the pins colliding just now. Alas, it's also because the quality of the things in Wanxiang Tower is too good. There is no strange sound when the windows here open and close, otherwise the leaders might have been alerted earlier."
"Let's go to the other rooms and have a look."
Fang Yunhan turned around and left the room first.
After arriving at another room, Qiao Xiaoshan and Lu Xiaofeng went to check the windowsill again. Fang Yunhan glanced at the ground and walked to the corner.
There was also a pot of peony in the corner of the wall. The flowers were light purple in color. Fang Yunhan observed carefully and found that the flowers in the pot had no broken stems, but there was a red flower fallen on the ground in the corner.
Lu Xiaofeng found the same marks on the windowsill of this room and said, "It seems that the person who poisoned the house repeated this behavior more than a dozen times in order to avoid being discovered by the disciples of various sects on duty in the corridor. And he knew that the leaders lived in these rooms."
"Many people know that the rooms on the third floor of Wanxiang Building are specially provided for the leaders of various factions." Qiao Xiaoshan shook his head, "If I had known earlier, even this information should have been kept secret."
"Come and look at this flower." Fang Yunhan said, picking up the red flower with his scabbard.
Qiao Xiaoshan took a look and said, "There are too many peonies in Luoyang recently. Is there anything unusual about this flower?"
Lu Xiaofeng saw the flowerpot in the corner and said, "This red flower is not the same as the one in the pot."
Qiao Xiaoshan said, "Maybe the guy who was changing the flowers accidentally broke it off."
"Just now, Lu Xiaofeng praised the quality of Wanxianglou's products. I'm sure the service won't be too bad." Fang Yunhan picked up the flower and walked out. "Besides, there was also a red peony that fell on the ground in the previous room, but it was crushed."
The other two hurriedly followed, and the three of them checked the remaining rooms. When they checked the fifth room, even Qiao Xiaoshan was sure that this was not a coincidence.
In every room, there is a red peony fallen on the ground.
Lu Xiaofeng found a piece of cloth and wrapped all the red peonies. He said, "Using a strange poison to assassinate the gang leader and leaving a red peony mark, what does that make you think of?"
Qiao Xiaoshan said in a deep voice: "The Peony Envoy of the Yaksha Sect."
The Yaksha Clan is a mysterious organization. Their traces first appeared in Nanjing Yingtian Prefecture 18 years ago. They rose in the south and have been involved in many major events over the years. Some say that their influence has spread all over the country, and that countless high-ranking gang members and government officials are their people. But this is just hearsay, without any real evidence.
The most famous person in the Yaksha Clan is the Peony Messenger, who has assassinated many powerful people in the martial arts world.
It is said that this Peony Messenger has a thousand faces and can't tell whether he is a man or a woman. He is good at using flying needles and strange poisons. After each assassination, he will leave behind a red peony. Even in winter, the peony is still gorgeous.
But before today, no one could have imagined that he could be so bold and so capable that this time, he actually poisoned the leaders of more than a dozen first-rate gangs, including the seven major sects and nine major gangs.
The three of them took the peonies downstairs and told Qiao Shangzhou about their discovery.
On the other side, Doctor Wuqi had already examined everyone and came over, saying, "Alliance Leader Qiao, the poison in the heads of the sects is very strange. I guess it is a kind of poisonous smoke. If the poisonous smoke is dispersed in the room, it will disappear in one or two hours. If it is inhaled into the body, it will explode in a few quarters of an hour. I don't have a ready-made antidote, so they can only rely on their own internal strength to suppress it ."
Qiao Shangzhou asked , "If they only rely on internal strength, how long can they suppress it?"
The poisoned people were originally top-notch masters in the martial arts world. With their internal strength attainments, as long as they did not die on the spot, they would seal the acupoints and meridians in time when they discovered the poisoning. At least 80% of the poisons in the world can be forced out by their internal strength.
Doctor Wuqi shook his head and said, "Most poisons in the world travel through the blood vessels, spread, and then penetrate into the internal organs and bones, but this kind of poison penetrates directly into the bones after breathing. No one dares to use their own internal strength to penetrate into the bone marrow to expel the source of the poison. So no matter how high their internal strength is, they can only dispel the poison in the flesh and blood, and delay it for four days at most."
"Four days." Qiao Shangzhou murmured in a low voice. If all else failed, four days would be enough for them to prepare for their funerals and minimize the disturbances that might be caused by their deaths.
Lu Xiaofeng asked, "Divine Doctor, do you think this flower is poisonous?"
Doctor Wuqi took the package from Lu Xiaofeng and examined the red peony inside. A look of joy welled up on his face. He said, "This peony itself is not poisonous, but it should be the medium used by the poisoner. If you give me this to study and take some bones from the two corpses, I may be able to make an antidote within four days."
Qiao Shangzhou was overjoyed and said, "That couldn't be better. If the doctor wants anything else, just ask. If he can really detoxify you, I'll reward you with at least 10,000 gold coins."
Under normal circumstances, the disciples of Kongtong and Hengshan sects would never easily allow others to damage the bodies of their leaders, but now that the situation is like this, they will definitely compromise.
Doctor Wuqi said, "My things are all at home. There are some things that only I can touch. I want to go back and study them."
"Okay." Qiao Shangzhou waved his hand, "Xiaoshan, you personally bring people to protect us. Please ask all factions to send out some elite soldiers. The miracle doctor must not make any mistakes."
