Tao Hua let out a quiet sigh of relief, put the longsword back on the weapon rack, and said to Guan Fusha,
“Senior Sister, then I’ll head back first.”
“Mhm. I’ll go back with you.”
Tao Hua was a little surprised. Guan Fusha was always swamped handling sect affairs, and just teaching her martial arts had already taken up a lot of her time. How could Tao Hua have the nerve to trouble her to escort her back to the side courtyard?
She thought Guan Fusha must be worried she didn’t know her way around the sect, so she said,
“There’s no need to trouble Senior Sister. I’ll just have Xiao Zhu take me back.”
Guan Fusha’s smile stiffened. She thought Tao Hua was trying to avoid her. After a pause, she said,
“…All right then. Go back and rest early.”
“Okay. Then I won’t disturb Senior Sister.”
Tao Hua had just turned to leave when Guan Fusha suddenly called out to her.
“Junior Sister, wait a moment.”
“What is it, Senior Sister? Is there something else?”
Tao Hua stopped and turned back to ask.
“Mhm. For now, don’t mention to anyone that I took you to the alchemy room or to practice martial arts today.”
Tao Hua didn’t understand why, but she still nodded in agreement.
“Got it.”
“Off you go.”
The two of them left the training ground. When they reached the fork in the path, Tao Hua insisted that Guan Fusha didn’t need to see her off any further.
“I’ve troubled Senior Sister for so long today. Thank you, truly.”
“There’s no need to be so polite. I’ll make time to give you a few more pointers tomorrow,” Guan Fusha said with a gentle smile.
“Thank you, Senior Sister. I’ll head back to the side courtyard then.”
They parted ways. Guan Fusha returned to her study and found that Yan Hong had somehow arrived without her noticing.
Yan Hong was lounging lazily on a carved wooden chair, sipping hot tea. When she saw the Protector come in, she didn’t bother to rise, looking as at ease as if she were in her own home.
“Well now, our busy lady is finally back?”
Guan Fusha was long used to her behavior and simply went behind the desk and sat down.
Yan Hong already knew Tao Hua had come to see her, and she lifted a brow with a meaningful smile. Then she asked,
“Where’s your little maid? Why don’t I see her? Didn’t she bring your little junior sister over just now?”
Guan Fusha shot her a sideways look.
“You’re the head of the Discipline Hall. Do you really need to care this much about my maid’s whereabouts?”
“Fine, fine.”
Yan Hong toyed with the end of her hair, strolled over to the desk, and as if she’d spotted something amusing, laughed.
“If I don’t care about your little maid, then I’ll care about your little junior sister instead.”
Guan Fusha’s gaze shifted.
“Did you find something?”
“But of course.”
Yan Hong blinked her beautiful eyes and threw Guan Fusha a flirtatious look, leaning sideways against the desk.
“That snake Xiao Zhu mentioned can’t be found anywhere, but if I had to guess, I’d say it was ‘Bronze.’”
“‘Bronze’?”
A trace of surprise flickered across Guan Fusha’s face, then she lowered her head in thought.
Anyone who dabbled in poisons knew that the Bronze Serpent was famed as the King of Ten Thousand Venoms. A single drop of its venom, dissolved into a well, could easily wipe out an entire village. Its toxicity was extremely fierce—once poisoned, death came almost instantly. There was practically no time to save the victim; even the greatest divine physician in the world would be helpless against it.
More importantly, Bronze Serpents usually only appeared in the great deserts of the northern kingdom. Their numbers were very few, and they were exceedingly rare. On the black market, a single one could fetch over ten thousand taels of silver. But the southern kingdom’s climate was humid and utterly different from the northern deserts, making it an unsuitable environment for Bronze Serpents. They were very hard to keep alive.
Tao Hua didn’t know martial arts and was nothing more than a frail girl who couldn’t even truss up a chicken. Who would spend such a giant sum to buy a Bronze Serpent just to kill her? And when they rushed to the side courtyard, the snake’s corpse was gone. Why?
Someone had risked exposure to retrieve the body. Did that mean it had some special significance?
Yan Hong glanced at the silent Guan Fusha and asked lazily,
“Well? Thought of anything?”
“No.”
Guan Fusha changed the subject.
“Other than that, did you find anything else?”
Yan Hong rolled her eyes. Just as she thought.
“In the last month, no one has bought ‘Bronze’ on the black market.”
“Oh?”
Guan Fusha arched a brow, her interest clearly piqued.
Leaving aside the huge climate difference between north and south that made it hard for Bronze Serpents to survive, the two kingdoms’ rulers were very strict about cracking down on smuggling. As a strategic choke point, Yancheng’s checkpoints were exceedingly thorough. Something as extremely dangerous as a Bronze Serpent could never get in without using the special channels of black market merchants.
“Yan Hong, what do you think?”
She wanted to hear Yan Hong’s opinion.
“What else is there to think?”
Yan Hong shrugged.
“It means he’s loaded, knows how to keep a Bronze Serpent alive, and his martial arts are top-notch.”
As she spoke, Yan Hong suddenly turned her head to look at Guan Fusha. Someone who met all three conditions was sitting right in front of her.
Guan Fusha’s brows curved as she smiled.
“Hm? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“N…nothing.”
Yan Hong quickly withdrew her gaze. No matter how she thought about it, it couldn’t be her.
She casually shot back,
“What about you, then? What’s your take?”
Guan Fusha laced her fingers, resting her chin on the back of her hands. Though there was a smile on her face, it was impossible to read what she was truly thinking.
“Do you think… this was done by someone from within the sect?”
“…”
After a long silence, Yan Hong gave Guan Fusha a sidelong glance and finally said,
“In the sect, you’re the only one who fits those three conditions, aren’t you?”
“No. There’s one more person.”
Guan Fusha took a letter out of a drawer and placed it on the desk. On the envelope, three upright characters spelled out the name: Dongfang Wen.
Yan Hong’s pupils widened abruptly. She stared at Guan Fusha in disbelief.
“You suspect the Sect Master?”
Indeed, aside from Guan Fusha, the only other person in the sect who met those three criteria was the Sect Master, Dongfang Wen. But he was now half-retired and rarely interfered in sect affairs at all. He had absolutely no reason to target Tao Hua. And with his level of martial skill, if he really wanted someone dead, why bother with all this trouble? A single move from him would do—why go to the hassle of releasing a snake and failing on top of that?
“No. It absolutely cannot be Master.”
Guan Fusha spoke with iron certainty.
After so many years as master and disciple, she knew Dongfang Wen very well. He was the type whose thoughts ran in a straight line from head to tail. If he wanted to kill someone, he would never use such a roundabout method. And a Bronze Serpent was so precious—he’d be far too stingy to waste one just to kill someone.
“Mmm…”
Yan Hong also felt it probably wasn’t Dongfang Wen, but she really couldn’t think of anyone else.
The two of them discussed it in the study for quite a while, but still came up empty-handed. They had gathered quite a few clues, yet they were still stuck in place.
Before long, A Tian arrived with the food.
“Protector, dinner is ready. Will the Hall Master be dining with you as well?”
Yan Hong’s gaze turned coy, and she deliberately said to A Tian,
“No, I still have to head back to the hall and wait for someone.”
