dognovel Chapter 136 Life-Binding Poison Gu
Chapter 136 Life-Binding Poison Gu
After returning to the temple.
As soon as Ning Zhi stepped into the courtyard, a woman approached her. Her skirt fluttered, and she greeted him with a joyful expression, "Your Highness!"
Ning Zhi turned her head: "Miss Chi."
Jiang Mian nodded in greeting.
Chi Yu was taken aback: "Why is Your Highness with Miss Jiang?"
"I..." Jiang Mian stammered, unsure how to answer.
Ning Zhi said, "I ran into you just now. Miss Chi, is there something you need from me?"
He casually changed the subject.
Chi Yu smiled and said, "I came to tell Your Highness that there is a tavern near the temple where the peach blossom wine is even more fragrant than the wine in the capital. Would you like to go and enjoy it together?"
Jiang Mian raised her eyebrows, thinking: In this way, it must have been Chi Yu who was drinking with Ning Zhi in her previous life.
She got him completely drunk so that the Empress could send men to kidnap her.
In this life, however, she neither met Ning Zhi in private nor did Ning Zhi drink alcohol.
She had already avoided all of these things, so why was she still attacked?
Why didn't Lu Fang tell Ning Zhi to go to Xue Lu?
She was filled with unresolved doubts, but she figured Ning Zhi must be just as unhappy.
After all, Lu Fang had served him for many years, and even such a loyal person could betray him.
It's easy to imagine what kind of people surround him.
Chi Yu saw that he didn't speak and stared intently at him.
Ning Zhi replied calmly, "Miss Chi, please forgive me. I have some urgent matters to attend to today, so I'm afraid it's inconvenient for me to go out for drinks."
He politely declined with a cupped hand, glanced at Jiang Mian, and was about to speak when Jiang Mian spoke first.
"Your Highness need not say more. If there is anything else, please take care of it. I will take my leave now."
She knew Ning Zhi was going to deal with Lu Fang, and she believed he would handle it well.
She had endured the pain all the way here, and her back was already aching unbearably. After bowing and taking her leave, she planned to go find the abbot.
Temples, far from human habitation, have their own methods for healing and saving lives.
It's just a bit austere, not as luxurious as the capital.
Jiang Wan didn't know when she had become so tolerant.
Perhaps it was thanks to Xiao Hengzhi that she, who used to cry out in pain at the slightest injury, has now learned to remain silent when injured.
But she wouldn't stubbornly endure it like Xiao Hengzhi, which would only shorten her lifespan.
Speaking of which, was the medicine Xiao Hengzhi made her take that day really effective?
Or was it a regular pill deliberately placed there to test her?
Jiang Mian didn't think much of it and quickened her pace to the central hall where the abbot was meditating.
Upon hearing that she was injured, the abbot immediately sent a female lay Buddhist to treat her wounds.
The lay Buddhist's Dharma name is Jichen. He has been a monk for many years, but he must have known about pharmacology before, and his techniques are quite skilled.
Jiang Mian took off her clothes and shivered.
The impact of my back hitting the tree trunk was not light; some bruises were already showing on my waist.
The hermit Jichen applied the medicine to her using a vessel made of bamboo branches.
Jiang Mian smelled the pungent herbal odor, and the bitterness in her mouth gradually emerged, which she could only cover up by drinking tea.
Ji Chen glanced at her: "Are you feeling unwell, benefactor? Why are you drinking so much water?"
“Oh, it’s alright, I just…” Jiang Wan paused halfway through her sentence.
“By the way, Hermit Jichen,” she turned and asked, “I have something I would like to ask you.”
"Please speak, benefactor."
“It’s me…” she said, choosing her words carefully. “I have a friend who was tricked by an enemy into taking a strange drug. Since then, he has tasted bitterness instead of sweetness, and has searched through all the pharmacopoeias to no avail. I wonder if you have ever heard of such symptoms?”
As the hermit applied the medicine, he pondered deeply.
“I used to practice medicine, but I’ve never heard of this before. Are there any other symptoms?”
"And... one day, suddenly my body started to feel cold, as if it were out of control, and I even started hallucinating..."
She spoke as subtly as possible, unaware that the person behind her had stopped moving.
"When did your friend first develop these symptoms?"
Jiang Mian recalled, "It was just a while ago..."
"But fifteen?"
"Yes, yes, it's fifteen. Do you know what that is, layman?"
After a moment of silence, the hermit asked, "If I may ask, is your friend doing well?"
Hearing the seriousness in her voice, Jiang Mian felt a slight tightening in her heart and whispered, "I'm fine for now. Does the layman perhaps know something?"
“The symptoms you described do indeed remind me of an old story, or something similar to what you said.”
"This matter has troubled me for a long time, and I urge you to speak frankly."
"..."
After tidying up his utensils, the hermit Jichen spoke slowly, his voice like a Zen bell: "In my early years, the village where I lived was poor and destitute. Suddenly one day, someone came to recruit helpers, offering silver as payment. Many people rushed to join him, but he only wanted young people... Therefore, in order to earn money, the villagers entrusted their children to that person."
For some reason, Jiang Mian inexplicably recalled what A-Yun had said on the big ship before.
But she remained silent, listening as the hermit Jichen continued.
"Later, those people went to a building where people listened to music and watched plays, and they did indeed find work... But not long after, the owner of that place made the men and women each take something... On the fifteenth, those who survived were sent to another place..."
"What did you ingest?"
"...Spring Bitterness Dispeller"
"Spring Bitterness Dissipation?"
"Hmm. Spring Bitter Powder is poisonous, and its antidote is a kind of Gu poison."
"The antidote is a poison?" Jiang Wan asked, puzzled.
"Yes. The Spring Bitter Powder, also known as the Life-Binding Poison Gu, requires one poison to be paired with one Gu, and both must take it on the same day. The person who takes the poison will initially be unharmed, but the person who takes the Gu will need three days for the Gu to integrate into their blood. This process is extremely painful, and most people cannot endure it..."
Jiang Mian recalled everything that had happened before, and it seemed she understood something.
She asked, somewhat astonished, "What if the person who took the poison survived...?"
"Once you get through it, things will return to normal. You just need to wait for the poison to flare up on the fifteenth of each month to detoxify them. Otherwise, this poison will cause excruciating pain until the meridians are severed and they die."
Jiang Mian's eyelashes trembled slightly upon hearing this.
The fifteenth of each month...
how come......
It happens once every month on the 15th...
She clenched her fists tightly, her chest heaving slightly, a choked feeling in her throat as if something was stuck there.
After a long while, a sound was finally made.
"So, does this Spring Bitter Powder mean that the two people poisoned by the Gu will be bound together for eternity...?"
"Ah."
Jiang Mian asked anxiously, "Since you know these things, you must know how to break the connection of the poison. Please tell me."
Jichen Jushi shook his head: "I only heard about these things during my travels, and I don't know how to unravel them."
With those words, despair arose.
Jiang Mian felt as if she were stuck in a quagmire.
It contained both hatred and a hint of helpless chill.
She had naively thought she could kill Xiao Hengzhi...
This madman actually used such methods to restrain her...