Chapter 125
Chapter 125
Even if only half of the dozens of merchants and their lovers present had an allergic reaction, it would have been a catastrophe. Most of these wealthy merchants, accustomed to a life of luxury, had fair and delicate skin. The hives breaking out on such skin were incredibly itchy, causing them immense suffering... Some couldn't bear it and scratched relentlessly, eventually drawing blood.
The one with the most severe allergic reaction was a merchant from the Western Regions with an aquiline nose. His entire body swelled and turned bright red, and his throat swelled shut, making it impossible for him to breathe. When his lover had emerged wearing the rainbow-dyed skirt, he had been captivated by her charming and beautiful appearance. After kissing his lover, he had frantically pressed his hands and lips all over the rainbow silk that enveloped her, peppering her with kisses. Consequently, the allergen had been transmitted not just through respiration or skin contact, but directly into his mouth.
“Ghk... Gkk...”
The hook-nosed merchant from the Western Regions clutched desperately at his throat, in extreme agony, his eyes bloodshot and seemingly on the verge of bursting. He looked as if he had been poisoned.
“Agh...! Ahhh...!”
Dozens of merchants present screamed in terror. For these men who enjoyed wealth and status, nothing was more important than their own lives. Thus, seeing the state of the Western merchant, they were all scared out of their wits.
“There's poison in this silk! Poison!”
People who had been fine just moments before were now suffering after putting on the new clothes gifted by Xu Qianqian, leading everyone to believe the silk was poisoned. Ten of them had allergic reactions, and the results were devastating. The merchant with the aquiline nose, in particular, ended up suffocating to death. A physician on site tried everything to revive him, from pressing the philtrum below his nose to administering ginseng soup, but nothing worked.
“Ah... someone's dead. Someone died because of the Xu Clan's silk.”
The merchants and their lovers, despite being watched by many, tore off all the new clothes they were wearing. Compared to their lives, modesty was nothing.
“Give us our money back! Give it back!”
“Compensate us three times the deposit!”
“Pay for this life!”
All the merchants surrounded Xu Qianqian, protesting like madmen. Xu Guangyun watched everything unfold, frozen like a statue. When the workshop burned down, he had held on, forcing himself to stand even as he coughed up blood.
Although his daughter, Xu Qianqian, was exceptionally talented, she lacked the experience to oversee everything at a different workshop. Therefore, he had to personally supervise everything on-site to ensure there were no setbacks. He had poured his heart and soul into the dyeing process for this day, eating less and sleeping less. It was all so the Xu Clan could overcome this critical crisis and prevent its reputation from being ruined. But now, everything was over! Utterly finished. Once again, the image of Shen Lang surfaced in his mind.
'It was definitely him again!'
Xu Guangyun didn't know how Shen Lang had done it, but he was absolutely certain that Shen Lang was behind this vicious scheme.
“Shen Lang, I'll haunt you even as a ghost!”
Xu Guangyun's vision went black, and he collapsed. And this time, no matter what anyone tried, he did not wake up.
As Xu Qianqian watched the scene before her, a roar echoed in her mind. She shut down all sensation in her body, sinking into a feeling of complete isolation from the world. She wanted to believe that everything happening before her was nothing more than a simple, terrible nightmare. When a person suffers extreme pain or shock, the body's defense mechanisms kick in to protect itself. She felt trapped in a shell, unresponsive to all external stimuli.
How much of her heart and soul had she poured into this? She had practically lived in the Lin Clan's workshop every day, all to overcome this hardship, to uphold the Xu Clan's reputation for the finest silk, and to not disappoint her fiancé and his family.
But now, all her efforts had vanished like bubbles. Everything was completely ruined, utterly destroyed.
The glorious past of the Xu Clan now seemed like a fleeting dream. After a long while, Xu Qianqian felt a warm presence behind her. Someone was supporting her back with two strong hands. She turned weakly to see Zhang Jin looking at her with pity in his eyes.
“My love!”
Xu Qianqian finally broke down and burst into tears. The Xu Clan's event was already in chaos. The enraged merchants were threatening to burn the mountain of silk, surrounding Xu Guangyun and Xu Qianqian, demanding money to compensate for their losses. Zhang Jin watched the scene unfold, his head throbbing. In the end, the situation he had dreaded most had come to pass. Just then, he saw his fiancée, Xu Qianqian, about to be swarmed by the merchants. Without hesitation, he rushed forward to save her.
“Guards! Bring soldiers and suppress this situation.”
***
Inside the Ends of the Earth Sea Pavilion.
Shen Lang, the rake, was enjoying himself so much he'd forgotten his duty. In his hands was the *Meteor from Beyond the Heavens* manual. It looked like a brick, but it was actually made of jade. Shen Lang had seen many movies and read many novels, but this was the first time he had seen a martial arts manual shaped like a brick. However, the manual itself was incredibly rare, and since the Sword King of the South Sea had made his name with it, this sword art had come to be known as a treasure of the Ends of the Earth Sea Pavilion.
But Shen Lang noticed that the scholars of the Pavilion treated this manual with a remarkably indifferent attitude. Because they treated it no differently than any other martial arts text, it had easily fallen into Shen Lang's hands.
The female scholar known as Jade Maiden was actually named Zhang Yuyin. Among the scholars of the Ends of the Earth Sea Pavilion, she was the youngest and prettiest, making her the most popular. The reason they called her Jade Maiden was a playful jab at her habit of referring to herself with the airs of a grand dame.
Jade Maiden sat snugly beside Shen Lang, placing various snacks on the table—delicacies even finer than those served at the Count of Xuanwu's Estate. At first, Shen Lang picked up the food himself, but soon, Zhang Yuyin was feeding him with her own delicate hands.
“Little brother, can you guess how old I am?”
Shen Lang looked at her plump, beautiful face, tilted his head, and after a moment of thought, replied.
“You look to be 23.5.”
One had to be precise, even down to the decimal point, for nonsense to be perceived as sincere.
“Hehehe... You even make nonsense sound charming. I'm only eighteen.”
Jade Maiden was shaking with laughter.
'Oh? So she gets that joke too?'
The other scholars from the Ends of the Earth Sea Pavilion standing nearby watched the pair and sighed inwardly.
'They say no one stays innocent forever. Zhang Yuyin, you claimed to be eighteen eighteen years ago, and you're still eighteen now? And how do you usually treat us? Barking orders, bossing us around as you please—isn't that your daily routine?'
'You, a scholar of the lowest rank, acting like a commander just because you're the prettiest woman in the Pavilion! Spouting coarse words and acting like you don't know the meaning of courtesy! And now you're fawning over some handsome young man? Where's your dignity, your self-respect?'
But could they really blame Zhang Yuyin? For over a decade within the Pavilion, she had only seen old men day in and day out. Of course, there were young men, but they were apprentice scribes of the lowest status. As a scholar of higher rank, she naturally paid them no mind. But now that such a handsome young man had arrived, she naturally couldn't control her feelings. If the roles were reversed, and a man hadn't seen a young woman in over a decade, the outcome would be self-evident. In comparison, Zhang Yuyin was clearly exercising considerable restraint.
Looking for all the world like she was eighteen, she rested her chin on her jade-like hands and gazed at Shen Lang without blinking. She listened to him, captivated, as if every word he spoke was the most fascinating thing she had ever heard. An old scholar beside them, unable to bear the sight any longer, coughed a few times to bring her to her senses. A reminder to uphold the noble decorum of a scholar of the Ends of the Earth Sea Pavilion.
“Ahem, ahem, ahem.”
Zhang Yuyin turned her pretty face towards him and said menacingly.
“Caught consumption? Go cough over there.”
She turned back, her voice dripping with alluring sweetness.
“Your stories are so interesting, little brother. Go on, please continue...”
She once again placed a pastry in Shen Lang's mouth, and her finger "accidentally" brushed against his lips. She said in a coquettish voice.
“Little brother, looking at the *Meteor from Beyond the Heavens* sword art isn't really a good idea. After the Sword King of the South Sea rose to prominence, many martial arts masters borrowed it for a time, but none could decipher it. One grandmaster even stayed here for a year and a half and still couldn't crack it.”
“Who was that grandmaster?”
“A man named Zhong Chuke, a truly incredible sword master. He only left here a short while ago.”
'So that's why the Grandmaster told Mulan that Tang Yan's *Meteor from Beyond the Heavens* sword art was impossible to counter.'
The female scholar, Zhang Yuyin, continued.
“Over a hundred years ago, a certain couple spent more than ten years to finally interpret the *Meteor from Beyond the Heavens* manual, but unfortunately, they didn't leave a copy behind at the time. If they had, this big sister would have brought it to show you. What a shame.”
Regardless of her words, Shen Lang was already examining the manual in detail, using his X-ray vision and mental computer to their fullest extent. He scanned the jade stone layer by layer, recording all the characters, diagrams, and qi circulation paths within his mental computer. He couldn't help but marvel once again.
'So incredibly intricate. A jade piece, one inch thick, is composed of two hundred and thirty overlapping layers to form this brick shape. The characters and diagrams engraved on each layer are less than 0.015 centimeters in size.'
Shen Lang couldn't imagine how the first Sword King of the South Sea had managed to analyze this, layer by layer. Previously, when Shen Lang had heard that the couple took over a decade to decipher it, he had thought it was a long time. But seeing it for himself, he realized that deciphering it in just over ten years was truly a remarkable feat. No wonder the people in this world who specialized in deciphering martial arts manuals seemed more like scholars than warriors. Deciphering just two or three manuals in a lifetime was a monumental achievement; where would they have found the time to practice martial arts?
Seeing Shen Lang's serious expression, Zhang Yuyin fell silent and simply watched him quietly. Every two minutes, she would place an exquisitely made pastry into his mouth. This scene was rather familiar to Shen Lang. Back in high school, the prettiest girl in his class would often stare at him just like this, with a dazed expression.
After three hours, Shen Lang had completely deciphered the *Meteor from Beyond the Heavens* manual and recorded it in his mental computer. His guess had been correct. The manual was indeed divided into a positive and a negative side, one yin and one yang, mutually generating and overcoming each other. Shen Lang then returned the original manual to be put back in its place.
Seeing the reluctance to part in Zhang Yuyin's eyes, Shen Lang bid her farewell. At that moment, a few of the old scholars present let out a long sigh.
'The handsome one is finally leaving.'
Shen Lang and Mulan once again mounted their horse and rode north, back to Xuanwu City. Shen Lang was still riding the same horse as his wife, nestled in her embrace. Suddenly, Mulan spoke to him.
“Husband, you smell of another woman.”
***
After dispatching several hundred private soldiers to protect the Xu Clan, Zhang Jin rode hard for Jinhai City without a moment's rest. He had to inform his father, Zhang Chong, of everything that had happened with the Xu Clan. Zhang Chong was silent for a long time. A short while later, Shu Tingyu, an envoy from the Hidden Yuan Society, paid a visit to Zhang Chong's residence.
“I have a younger sister, as beautiful as a flower. She would be a match made in heaven for the young master Zhang Jin. If they were to marry, my family would provide a dowry of one hundred thousand gold coins, with no strings attached.
Our Hidden Yuan Society has limited influence and lacks the power to interfere in the court of the State of Yue. However, we can certainly silence any who would oppose Your Excellency the Prefect's appointment to the post of Area Commander of Yan Province.”