The Borrowed Blade and the Poisoned Act

"Tang San, come out."

Zhu Zhuqing stood outside the dormitory, holding the leaf wrapped around the scrap of skin.

Xiao Wu was making her bed. At the sound of Zhu Zhuqing's voice, her face darkened.

"You really came?"

Zhu Zhuqing looked at her. "I'm here for him, not you."

Xiao Wu threw the quilt onto the bed. "My brother's unwell. Do you have to put him through this?"

Tang San put on his coat and stopped Xiao Wu. "I'll just say a few words. I'll be right back."

Xiao Wu grabbed his sleeve. "I'm coming with you."

Zhu Zhuqing said, "He won't tell the truth with you there."

Xiao Wu sneered. "As if you know him so well."

Tang San gently pressed her hand. "Xiao Wu, it's fine. I'll be right outside."

Xiao Wu stared at Zhu Zhuqing for a moment before letting go. "If she attacks you, call me."

Ma Hongjun poked his head out of the next room. "Who's attacking whom? Is there going to be a fight?"

Oscar appeared behind him. "If we don't sleep tonight, the dean will make us run laps again tomorrow."

Dai Mubai stepped out of the dormitory and frowned at Zhu Zhuqing. "You're still making a fuss about this?"

Zhu Zhuqing did not look at him. "I only want to ask a few questions."

Tang San walked into the courtyard.

Moonlight fell across the ground. The dirt path still bore footprints from the day's training.

Zhu Zhuqing opened the leaf wrap, exposing the charred scrap of skin.

She held it out to Tang San. "See for yourself."

Tang San took it. He kept his fingertips off the new shoot and examined it through the leaf.

The scrap was charred black. The dark red bit along its edge had been crushed, and black sap had dried on the leaf.

"This doesn't look like ordinary Blue Silver Grass."

Zhu Zhuqing said, "Good. You can see that much."

Tang San looked up. "What do you suspect?"

Zhu Zhuqing stared at his left hand. "There's something on you."

Dai Mubai's expression changed. "Zhu Qing!"

Zhu Zhuqing went on. "You've been weak lately. You've coughed up blood, your left hand feels heavy, and today this scrap appeared beside your foot. Don't you think that's too much of a coincidence?"

Tang San did not answer at once.

He did think something was wrong.

Ever since Notting Academy, one thing after another had weighed on him: his inner energy draining away, his body slipping out of control, the dreams, the dragging pain in his left hand.

But his teacher had given him explanations.

His Twin Martial Souls rejecting each other. Lingering Datura Snake venom. The toll of advancing his Mysterious Heaven Skill.

Each explanation made sense.

Ji Yuan waited coldly inside his shoe sole.

Just a little more.

Let the doubt grow, then make him strangle it with his own hands. It would sink in deeper that way.

Tang San said quietly, "Grandmaster said my Martial Souls were rejecting each other."

Zhu Zhuqing asked, "Has Grandmaster ever seen something like this grow beside your shoe?"

Tang San tightened his grip on the leaf wrap. "No."

From the doorway, Xiao Wu could not help shouting, "Zhu Zhuqing, stop scaring him!"

Zhu Zhuqing looked at Tang San. "Take off your shoe."

The courtyard fell silent.

Ma Hongjun even forgot to crack the sunflower seed in his mouth. "Huh?"

Oscar rubbed his nose. "Isn't that a strange request?"

Xiao Wu flushed with anger. "What's wrong with you?"

Zhu Zhuqing stood her ground. "I checked the dirt during the day. Whatever's wrong is near his shoe sole."

Tang San frowned.

Dai Mubai stepped forward. "Zhu Qing, that's enough."

Zhu Zhuqing's voice grew colder. "If something really has its sights on him, shouldn't we check now instead of regretting it after something happens?"

That silenced Tang San.

He looked down at his shoe.

Ji Yuan had already cleaned the cracks in the sole. He had even absorbed the sap left by the severed skin.

Go ahead. Check.

Tang San bent down, took off his shoe, and turned the sole over.

Dirt, bits of grass, worn tread.

No dark red.

No roots.

Nothing living.

Xiao Wu immediately snatched the shoe, looked it over, and tossed it back into Tang San's arms. "See? There's nothing there!"

Zhu Zhuqing's brow tightened.

She took the shoe and, without minding the dirt, slowly ran her fingertips along the cracks in the sole.

Ji Yuan drew himself tight, becoming as inert as a dead object.

When Zhu Zhuqing reached the deepest layer, she found only a small, hard splinter of dry wood, indistinguishable from the worn sole.

She returned the shoe to Tang San.

"Did you change shoes today?"

Tang San shook his head. "No."

Zhu Zhuqing asked again, "Then where did that scrap come from?"

Tang San looked at the leaf wrap without answering.

Ji Yuan made his move.

He did not touch the shoe sole.

Instead, he touched the pocket of poison he had buried long ago beside Tang San's Heart Meridian.

The lingering Datura Snake venom, the corrosive toxin of the Man-eating Flower, and the bloody stench in the Netherworld Wolf's blood—he had pressed them all into a corner of Tang San's meridians. Usually, he let only a trace show, enough to mislead Yu Xiaogang without killing Tang San.

Now it was time to let it erupt.

Tang San was about to speak when his chest suddenly tightened. The leaf wrap fell from his hand.

Xiao Wu's face changed. "Brother!"

Tang San clutched his chest. His lips went pale, and his knees struck the dirt.

Dai Mubai caught him. "Tang San, what's wrong?"

Tang San tried to speak, but the taste of blood rose in his throat first.

He bent over and spat out a mouthful of black blood.

The black blood hit the ground, spreading a foul stench. Ma Hongjun covered his nose and backed away.

Oscar went pale. "That blood's the wrong color!"

Zhu Zhuqing froze.

She had meant to ask more about the shoe sole, but the sight before her sent every suspicion in another direction.

Tang San was not hiding something.

He really had been poisoned.

Xiao Wu's eyes reddened. "Brother, don't scare me!"

Tang San heard her voice, but he could no longer make out her face.

The courtyard twisted before his eyes. Dark red poisonous vines burst from the ground and wrapped around his limbs. Their tips burrowed into his chest, squeezing his heart until it hurt.

He tried to break free with his Mysterious Heaven Skill, only to find a vast stretch of his inner energy gone.

His left hand felt heavier still.

The Clear Sky Hammer seemed to have sunk into a deep well. No matter what he did, he could not lift it.

As Tang San spat blood, Ji Yuan drew the vital essence from the poisoned blood back into the shoe sole.

Even spoiled blood was still blood.

As long as he squeezed it dry, not a drop needed to go to waste.

Frantic, Xiao Wu shouted toward the dormitory, "Oscar, a sausage!"

Oscar snapped out of it and raised his hand. "I Have a Big Sausage!"

The moment he made one, his face grew paler.

Ji Yuan did not take much. He intercepted only the restorative power at the sausage's edges, leaving most of it to mend Tang San's visible injuries.

Tang San ate the sausage, but the tearing pain in his chest barely eased. Instead, he spat out another mouthful of black blood.

Zhu Zhuqing crouched beside him. For the first time, urgency entered her voice. "Was there poison on that scrap?"

Tang San gritted his teeth. "No. I didn't touch the scrap."

Dai Mubai said, "Then it's the old poison!"

Xiao Wu turned and shouted at Zhu Zhuqing, "It's all your fault! You had to push him!"

Zhu Zhuqing's face paled, but she did not retreat. "I only wanted to find out what was wrong."

Xiao Wu was about to say more when Tang San caught her wrist.

His hand was icy.

"Stop arguing."

Tears spilled from Xiao Wu's eyes. "You're like this, and you still care about that?"

Ma Hongjun turned and ran. "I'll get the dean and Zhao Wuji!"

Oscar said anxiously, "Get Grandmaster too! My sausage can't hold down Tang San's poison!"

Dai Mubai said at once, "I'll go!"

Zhu Zhuqing suddenly stood. "I'm faster."

Before the words had left her mouth, she had rushed out through the courtyard gate.

Xiao Wu watched her go and said through gritted teeth, "Now she's worried."

Tang San knelt on one knee, the hallucination still clinging to him.

The faceless dark red plant appeared again.

It said nothing. It merely coiled around his left hand and burrowed deep toward the bone.

Tang San clenched his teeth and struggled to circulate his Mysterious Heaven Skill.

Ji Yuan took the opportunity to push the toxins outward through Tang San's meridians, creating the appearance that his body was expelling the poison.

Black blood seeped from the corner of Tang San's mouth again.

Xiao Wu wiped it with her sleeve, growing more panicked with every stroke. "Brother, stop using your skill. Please, stop."

Tang San said hoarsely, "If I don't, the poison will spread faster."

Oscar paced in frantic circles. "He can have more of my sausages, but he's coughing up blood. Eating more won't help!"

Zhao Wuji arrived with a coat thrown over his shoulders. One look at the black blood on the ground changed his expression.

"What happened?"

Dai Mubai followed behind him. "Zhu Qing said something might be affecting Tang San and asked him to check his shoe sole. He started coughing up blood right after."

Zhao Wuji looked at the leaf wrap on the ground. "What's that?"

Oscar hurried to answer. "A rotten vine we found this morning."

Zhao Wuji cursed. "All this over a scrap of rotten vine?"

Flender arrived too. He pressed a hand to Tang San's shoulder, but just as he sent his Soul Power in to examine him, the poison inside Tang San surged more violently.

Tang San spat blood again.

Flender immediately withdrew his hand. "I can't probe recklessly. His Soul Power is in turmoil."

Xiao Wu sobbed, "Dean, please save him."

Flender asked gravely, "Where's Grandmaster?"

Zhu Zhuqing's voice came from beyond the courtyard. "He's here!"

Yu Xiaogang hurried in, wearing an outer robe and supported by Zhu Zhuqing. There was not a trace of sleepiness on his face.

The moment he saw the black blood Tang San had spat out, his whole body went rigid.

"Xiao San!"

Tang San heard his teacher and managed to lift his head. "Teacher, I..."

Yu Xiaogang crouched and took his wrist. As soon as he sent in his Soul Power, his brow furrowed deeper.

Ji Yuan immediately pushed the lingering Datura Snake venom into the most obvious position.

At the same time, he stirred the source of the Clear Sky Hammer in Tang San's left hand, letting its heavy pressure leak outward along his meridians.

Yu Xiaogang pressed harder with his fingers.

Tang San groaned in pain.

Xiao Wu cried, "Grandmaster, be gentle!"

Yu Xiaogang ignored her. His gaze fell on the scrap of skin.

Zhu Zhuqing briefly recounted what had happened.

Yu Xiaogang's expression grew darker as he listened.

He did not rush to a conclusion. He merely told Tang San to put his shoe back on, then asked Oscar to make another sausage.

Ji Yuan hid in the sole of the shoe, suppressing all his activity to the bare minimum.

Yu Xiaogang looked at the black blood at the corner of Tang San's mouth and suddenly asked, "Did you see Red Vine just now?"

Tang San's pupils tightened.

"How did you know, Teacher?"

Yu Xiaogang let out a long breath, as though he had finally found the answer.

Zhu Zhuqing looked up. "Red Vine?"

Yu Xiaogang picked up the scrap of skin and looked at the others.

"It isn't a parasite."

Ji Yuan silently spread his feeding orifice into a grin.

Here it came.

This useful pawn had finally brought the perfect disguise right to him.