In the afternoon, Yao Dai lay on a tree outside her cave dwelling, holding the pill bottle Wen Li had given her. Her left leg dangled in the air, swaying lazily.
She was approaching Jiang Nianyao as a pill cultivator. Later, she would lie and say she had developed a specific medicine, coaxing the girl to eat it to complete the mission.
However, since it was medicine, the four guards surrounding the girl wouldn't let her ingest it directly. She had to find a way to get rid of them.
Suddenly, a snake tail flashed past her ear.
“Ah!”
“Xie Xiao'er, do you want to die?!”
Yao Dai’s heart nearly stopped at the sight of the giant snake tail dangling from the tree. She immediately cursed and lashed out with her Blood Vine Whip.
To her surprise, the snake dissipated the moment it was struck.
A black-clad youth manifested on her other side.
“That wasn’t me.”
Xie Tinglan stood with his arms crossed, his cold, arrogant face appearing handsome and deep.
Only then did Yao Dai realize it was an illusion. “What do you want?”
Xie Tinglan said nothing.
Yao Dai couldn't stand his stuck-up attitude and let out a cold snort.
“Jiang Nianyao wears a bracelet on her wrist designed to catch demons. You’d better be careful; the moment you appear, you might be caught like a mangy snake.”
Hearing the term 'mangy snake,' Xie Tinglan’s face darkened, and he spoke with pride. “How can those snakes be compared to me? Anyone with eyes can see how noble my bloodline is once they see my true form.”
“Is that so?” Yao Dai, mockingly insulted as being sightless, sneered back.
“Then I’ll see what method you use to make Jiang Nianyao trust you. What? Show off your status as a snake wanted by the Beast Taming Sect?”
These words made Xie Tinglan’s gaze turn cold. He raised a hand and fired a bolt of spiritual energy at her. Yao Dai immediately swung her Blood Vine Whip to retaliate.
However...
“Ah!”
Xie Tinglan had fired a second hidden arrow, which struck the branch she was sitting on. Distracted, she fell to the ground along with the branch.
“Xie Tinglan, just you wait!”
Yao Dai, whose head had been bumped by the branch, looked up from the ground to see him already flying far away. She was so angry she wanted to eat snake meat.
“Hmph, I haven't even settled the score for the poison you gave me before.”
Suddenly, a sinister smile flickered across Yao Dai’s pretty face. The medicine bottle in her hand was already empty. Her Master had said they could cooperate or work alone, but she hadn't said... she couldn't sabotage them.
...
On the way back to the Guest-Greeting Peak tower that afternoon.
“Ah!”
A black snake, as thick as two fists, suddenly shot out from the grass, heading rapidly toward Jiang Nianyao’s feet. It looked exactly like the one that had startled Yao Dai; Xie Tinglan was using her as a test subject.
He figured that if a crude person like her could be frightened, it would be even more effective against other women, especially someone like Jiang Nianyao who was terrified of snakes.
As someone who feared snakes most, Jiang Nianyao’s face turned pale instantly, and she forgot to move.
Before the four Golden Core guards could react, a dark shadow descended from the sky.
The youth, dressed in sharp black clothes, flew in from a distance and swiftly grabbed the black snake. He looked at Jiang Nianyao with a tall and dashing posture.
“Are you alright?”
Jiang Nianyao found his face unfamiliar, but his demeanor felt somewhat recognizable. She politely shook her head.
“Thank you, Daoist friend. I’m fine.”
A breeze brushed past, carrying her light fragrance across the youth’s face.
Just as she looked up to carefully examine the disguised Xie Tinglan's identity...
“Pfft!”
A sudden noise erupted out of nowhere.
“...”
The air went silent.
Jiang Nianyao was stunned, her expression frozen. Was that... a fart?
The four guards rushing over were also bewildered. Who had farted? It was so loud and smelled so foul.
It definitely wasn't the young lady.
“No, it wasn't me.”
Xie Tinglan was about to explain when his expression suddenly changed. What was happening?
He felt...
“Pfft-pfft-pfft-pfft—”
A long series of gaseous booms rang out like a machine gun, accompanied by an incomparably revolting stench.
“...Wait?!”
Xie Tinglan’s pupils trembled. He couldn't believe this was coming from him, especially at such a critical moment. He suddenly tensed his legs as his stomach began to cramp. This was bad!
His face turned red from his neck to his ears. He instantly lost the face to continue his 'hero saving the beauty' act. He leaped onto his sword and flew away in a hurry to find a latrine!
What was going on? Why did he suddenly have such an upset stomach?
He hadn't eaten anything today. The only person he had been in contact with was Yao Dai. Could it be her!
“What... what just happened?” Left standing in the lingering mess, Jiang Nianyao couldn't regain her composure for a long time. The heart palpitations from the black snake incident finally hit her, causing her to instinctively take deep breaths.
“Ugh!”
But unfortunately, the air was still thick with...
“Blegh!”
Jiang Nianyao vomited as a physiological response. While her heart ached with pain, she was also gagging from the toxic gas, tears streaming from the corners of her eyes. It was a miserable sight.
“Protect the young lady!”
Seeing this, the four guards immediately grabbed her and flew away, escaping the area of the toxic gas.
The four cultivators, acting as her bodyguards, made a new entry in their notebook titled 'Summary Log of Assassination Methods Against the Young Lady': Killing by fart.
“This person has a vicious heart, actually trying to stink the Young Lady to death with a fart. If we see him again, we must kill him immediately! To wash away the Young Lady’s humiliation!”
...
“Hahahaha! Hahaha!”
“He wanted to play the hero, but this time he killed them with a stinking fart! Hahaha! Why didn't he use his real face? What a pity. Making him disguise himself only made him lose face once.”
Yao Dai laughed so hard she was doubled over when she heard the news from Zongzheng Huangyue. She slapped her thigh and leaned on Zongzheng Huangyue’s shoulder, unable to control herself.
Zongzheng Huangyue glanced at the hand on her shoulder but didn't push it away. She simply raised an eyebrow and looked at her, her tone certain.
“You gave him the drug.”
Perhaps because she had shared such good news, Yao Dai nodded in high spirits and brushed a lock of black hair from her forehead. “Mhm. Who told him to poison me before?”
He was tough as nails, so she had been wanting to test her poisons on him for a while now. He wouldn't die anyway, and it didn't conflict with the fact that he had risked his life to save her in the Western Province. At most, she would just pay him back later.
One thing was separate from another; she was very clear about her debts and grudges.
Zongzheng Huangyue’s brows knitted slightly. Even if she poisoned Xie Tinglan, how could she have timed the reaction so perfectly for when he met Jiang Nianyao? Unless...
“You also poisoned Jiang Nianyao?” No, it must have been a medicinal powder that acted as the necessary catalyst to trigger the reaction in the poison already in Xie Tinglan’s system.
This way, as long as Xie Tinglan got close, that embarrassing scene was bound to happen, preventing him from acting in front of Jiang Nianyao any longer—especially not a hero saving the beauty.
There was no atmosphere, only a stench-mosphere.
Hearing this, the smile on Yao Dai’s face stiffened slightly, and she withdrew her hand from the other girl's shoulder.
“No wonder... No wonder Xie Xiao'er said you were deeply scheming and told me to talk to you as little as possible, lest I be sold off.”
Her tone held a trace of coldness mixed with appreciation, but also a sense of wariness.
She hadn't mentioned anything about Jiang Nianyao, yet the other girl knew she had already made a move. She was being watched!
And how could Zongzheng Huangyue have deduced that she had also sprinkled powder on Jiang Nianyao? It was because the girl had seen through her entire plan and her advantages.
This person’s shrewdness was truly terrifying.
Rate on N.U.
