Shui Bing's words left Zhong Ren hesitating for a moment.
Just then, Wei Qian abruptly interjected, "Shui Bing, unless you give us a reasonable explanation, I won't agree to let this 'real Ye Bing' you speak of aboard, even if it means turning around and going home."
Shui Bing said, "You can all rest assured that I mean no harm. The truth is, the 'Shui Bing' who contacted you through the Dual Extremes Sect token over the past twenty years wasn't me, but someone else. For certain reasons, she couldn't board in the Ganchang Wasteland. I happened to want passage on the Cangyu Flying Vessel as well, so I took her name and traveled with you first. Once we were deep within Rotting Miasma Ridge, I would have her come aboard."
"Then what is your name?" Wei Qian asked.
Shui Bing said, "My real name is Xiao Ying. I'm a friend of Shui Bing's."
"Xiao Ying?" A thoughtful look crossed Wei Qian's face. Then, as though he had recalled something, his eyes widened slightly. "You're the Xiao Ying known as the 'Poison Lady'?"
Xiao Ying said, "You certainly are well-informed, Fellow Daoist Wei Qian, to have heard of a nobody like me."
Wei Qian said, "You are hardly a nobody. In Qingye City, your name resounds like thunder in everyone's ears. Over a hundred years ago, you were concocting a poison in a small market not far outside Qingye City. The concoction failed, releasing a vast amount of poisonous gas. Tens of thousands of low-level cultivators in the market died horribly, dissolving into puddles of yellow liquid. Ever since then, that market has been a death zone. Its soil was contaminated and remains extremely toxic to this day."
Xiao Ying smiled faintly, as though she had heard some sort of