Nan Shiying and Ji Hong were like being doused with a basin of cold water, instantly sobered.
If the one who had placed the蛊 on Ji Jinmo was from the Dali royal family, then the Dali imperial army would not have been slaughtered by Ji Jinmo. Therefore, if this assumption held true, the one who controlled the mother worm must not be from the direct lineage of the royal family, but most likely a collateral branch coveting the emperor's throne.
If this were the case, the other party might even be eager for them to kill Yu Chengxuan, plunging the two countries into war.
Nan Shiying slowly sat down, her hand on the table clenched into a fist.
Before any concrete evidence could be found, it was impossible to determine whether Nan Chaoyin or Yu Chengxuan was responsible for the arson at Jingren Palace, but one thing was certain: today's assassination attempt was definitely Nan Chaoyin's doing.
"Ghost Face is one of the foremost poison masters in the martial world. Since his debut until now, there has been no word of him joining any organization or pledging allegiance to anyone. How did Nan Chaoyin manage to hire him?"
"Fame? Fortune?"
"The crucial point is, how does a court official like him come into contact with the common folk of the jianghu?"
Nan Chaoyin was a court official, the Prime Minister of a nation. He had achieved top honors in the imperial examinations three times in a row. After the imperial audience, he was directly appointed as a Hanlin Academy scholar by the former emperor. From then on, he rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the head of the civil officials in the capital. For decades, apart from sending his deceased mother's coffin back to their ancestral hometown after her death, he had barely left the capital.
It would be one thing if he deployed his secret guards, but he had deployed martial arts experts?
Wasn't the purpose of Ji Hong's farewell banquet precisely to lure out that old bastard Nan Chaoyin? But now, he had made his move, yet they still hadn't gotten a hold of him.
Nan Shiying couldn't help but feel annoyed. Nan Chaoyin was truly like a slippery loach, impossible to grasp.
"Have the assassins' bodies been brought back?" she asked.
Ji Hong replied, "They have been brought back."
The moment the news of Yu Chengxuan's assassination attempt spread, he had ordered Xuan Lin to go to Xianlv Pond. The people from Prince Gong's mansion had sealed off the scene before Xuan Lin arrived at Xianlv Pond, preventing anyone from approaching the assassins' bodies. It wasn't until Xuan Lin arrived and presented the imperial decree that they were allowed into the hot spring bath, and he was permitted to take the bodies away.
"Let's go, let's examine the bodies first!"
...
The bodies were kept in the imperial prison, temporarily guarded by Xuan Lin.
"Your Majesty, Your Highness, My Lady," the big simpleton with thick eyebrows and big eyes saluted. As he stood up, he glanced at Nan Shiying. Today, her Ladyship was uncharacteristically not wearing the guise of Feng Luan. However, perhaps because he had grown accustomed to seeing her in men's attire, her sudden change to a woman's dress made him feel a little unaccustomed!
Ji Hong waved his hand, signaling Xuan Lin to rise.
After Xuan Lin stood up, he stepped aside and opened the prison door. Three bodies were neatly laid out on the ground. A thick, almost overpowering stench filled the air, emanating from Ghost Face's body. Nan Shiying frowned, then took out a small porcelain bottle from her懷. She opened the cap and poured the powder inside into her palm, then motioned for Ji Jinmo to extend his hand.
Ji Jinmo extended his hand in front of Nan Shiying. Nan Shiying flipped his hand over, palm up, and poured some powder onto it. Ji Hong, seeing this, also extended his hand.
Nan Shiying pulled Ji Jinmo's hand, and gave some of the powder from his palm to Ji Hong. It seemed as if she wouldn't give it to him if he hadn't offered his hand.
"Rub the powder evenly in your palms, then cover your nose and mouth, hold for three seconds, and then release," Nan Shiying instructed. She clasped her hands together, rubbing her palms to warm them. The medicinal powder gradually spread evenly under the warmth of her hands, seeming to be completely absorbed by her skin. Then, she pressed her clasped hands over her nose and mouth.
Ji Jinmo and Ji Hong followed suit.
"My Lady, is there poison in the air?" the big simpleton with thick eyebrows and big eyes asked. He wasn't curious, he just wanted to remind Nan Shiying that there was still a living person present. If the air was indeed poisoned, perhaps she could give him some antidote too.
Nan Shiying looked at him with surprise: "Who said there was poison in the air?"
"Then what are you doing?"
"Oh, a homemade air freshener!" Ghost Face's body was poisonous, and his blood was also poisonous. But if this poison could spread into the air through blood, Yu Chengxuan would have died long ago. He wouldn't have lasted until she could detoxify him.
It was simply because Ghost Face had consumed too many poisonous herbs. After his death, his cells lost their vitality, and bacteria began to spread, forming a corpse odor that was thousands or tens of thousands of times stronger than that of an ordinary corpse. After Nan Shiying consumed the Futihua, her senses, in addition to her eyesight reaching a new level, had also become more sensitive. With her sense of smell amplified, pleasant things became more pleasant, and foul things became more repulsive.
So Nan Shiying made this air freshener.
The big simpleton with thick eyebrows and big eyes twitched his mouth. He hadn't seen her be so meticulous before. She had been prodding people's wounds and picking out their hearts, yet she cared about fragrance and stench?
Could it be that she paired different personalities with different identities?
The big simpleton with thick eyebrows and big eyes felt that this matter had countless points to complain about, but he didn't dare to reveal his thoughts. Little did he know, his current expression had already betrayed him.
What a simpleton, whose every thought was written on his face!
Ji Hong put his hand to his forehead in exasperation.
Nan Shiying tutted, but didn't bother with the simpleton. She bypassed Ghost Face and walked towards the other two bodies.
"Perhaps, they killed each other!"
The wounds on these two people were consistent with the size of the swords in their hands. Based on the direction of the wounds, their location, and the condition of the skin on both sides of the wounds, these two people should have attacked Yu Chengxuan from the front and back, forming a pincer movement. However, something must have gone wrong, their target, Yu Chengxuan, had disappeared, and in their haste, they couldn't stop their momentum, thus dying by each other's swords.
The situation was not complicated. Nan Shiying quickly focused her gaze on Ghost Face.
She picked up the assassin's sword and lifted Ghost Face's clothes, taking a rough look at the wound: "It's also a sword wound, with this sword in my hand. A sharp sword pierced directly through the heart. What's interesting is that he didn't seem to put up any resistance."
"What does that mean?" Ji Hong asked.
"It means either he was unable to move at that moment, or Yu Chengxuan's sword was simply too fast, so fast that he didn't even have time to resist!"
"We'll have to dissect it to know!"
Nan Shiying sighed. The other two were fine, but she really didn't want to dissect Ghost Face's body. This man was practically a walking bacterial culture dish.
Most importantly, his body was a source of potent poison.
Nan Shiying took comprehensive protective measures before dissecting Ghost Face's body.
Upon opening his abdominal cavity, Nan Shiying saw his almost black internal organs. His heart was a grayish-black color, his liver was purplish-black, his kidneys were bluish-black, and his spleen and lungs were as black as a honeycomb, filled with holes.
It was difficult to imagine these were human organs, and even more difficult to imagine that Ghost Face had tortured himself to this state and yet managed to stay alive.