A deadly trap

Lu Changfeng slowly drank his soup.

He was not worried about Qing Dai revealing her suspicions to Taiping.

Although they had known each other only briefly, Qing Dai was undoubtedly a good maid who knew when to advance and retreat, and where to draw the line. She would help him get away to prevent a clash with Wu Lingyun, and she would also do everything within her duties to prepare whatever he needed.

Even something as risky as "pufferfish."

She was carrying out Taiping's instructions: do everything possible to meet his legitimate needs so he could serve the princess.

Lu Changfeng had deliberately sent her away to give her an excuse to conceal the matter. But even if she revealed it, it would be no great problem-poison masters were sometimes more useful than physicians.

So many experts in poison-making roamed the martial world, yet people still took them in as retainers. Wu Lingyun was one example. Her master was Xiao Changchun, the "Myriad Poisons Primordial Lady," one of the Ten Absolutes. Taiping would be no less magnanimous than Wu Sansi.

It simply went against Lu Changfeng's nature.

He knew how to refine pufferfish toxin. In medicine, it was a potent anesthetic and painkiller. After a second refinement, a mere thousandth of a gram could kill!

And whether in his previous life or this one, there was no antidote!

The difficulty lay in how ferocious the toxin was! Even he had to handle it with the utmost care. One careless slip would mean an untimely death!

Had Zhang Shouzhuo not provoked him again and again, he would never have taken this risk.

This should hold the people behind Zhang Shouzhuo in check for a while. Even if Medicine King Valley knows I have the Glazed Glass Art, as long as they have doubts, they won't dare act rashly...

Lu Changfeng sighed inwardly. I'm still too weak. I need to hurry and grow stronger.

After the meal.

The sky was growing dark, and it was nearly time to finish work.

Lu Changfeng took out the Hundred Herbs Garden token. Just as he was about to visit the western gardens and see their treasures of heaven and earth, hurried footsteps approached.

Princess Taiping's personal maid, Jinghong, flickered toward him like a phantom, her movement technique astonishing and terrifying. Her expression was grave. Upon seeing Lu Changfeng, she gave a hurried bow and went straight to the point. "Master Lu, please leave the residence with me at once!"

Lu Changfeng froze. Qing Dai hurriedly asked, "Sister Jinghong, what happened?"

Jinghong spoke rapidly. "Just now, the Inner Guard was ambushed while pursuing fiends of the Great Vehicle Sect in Pingkang Ward. Several were seriously injured! The Three Pentads of Major Cold were poisoned and gravely wounded. Their lives are hanging by a thread! The physicians accompanying them are helpless. Her Highness has ordered that you go treat them immediately!"

Qing Dai's expression changed as well. Seeing that Lu Changfeng still had doubts, she hastily explained through a voice transmission.

The innermost guards of the Princess's Residence, who also formed the backbone of the Plum Blossom Guards, were an assassination unit whose code names came from the "Twenty-Four Floral Messenger Winds." In earlier years, they had followed Princess Taiping in rooting out rebels and purging forces opposed to the Wu regime. Even the weakest among them was in the third realm, the Xiantian realm!

The season when flowers bloomed in profusion began with Minor Cold and ended with Grain Rain, spanning eight solar terms and twenty-four pentads. The ancients had chosen a flower to represent each pentad, thus creating the "Twenty-Four Floral Messengers."

The Three Pentads of Major Cold referred to Winter Daphne of the first pentad, Orchid of the second, and Sweetleaf of the third.

Sweetleaf was Qing Dai's friend, the very person Qing Dai had used as an excuse to help Lu Changfeng out of his predicament today, saying she could help back up their story afterward.

Lu Changfeng understood. So they were core personnel. No wonder this was so urgent...

That was the downside of being a private physician. Whenever she summoned him, he had to go.

"Lead the way."

Lu Changfeng had no room to refuse. Everything he knew about the Great Vehicle Sect flashed through his mind. Fortunately, he had memorized the entire Medical Compendium today; otherwise, the consequences would have been unthinkable!

Seeing how readily he agreed, Jinghong's expression eased. With no time to worry about propriety between men and women, she reached out and wrapped an arm around his waist. She leaped, turning into a white blur as though riding the wind, glided out of the Princess's Residence, and vanished after a few flickers.

Qing Dai was about to prepare his medicine chest. At the sight, she pressed her lips together, paused, then swiftly gathered all the necessary instruments and chased after them.

Lu Changfeng had read accounts of Sun Simiao treating patients persecuted by the Great Vehicle Sect.

It was an evil cult through and through!

Its followers were crazed and bloodthirsty, forever dreaming of "Maitreya's descent" and "changing the heavens and replacing the sun." They preached that this world was a sea of suffering, and that they should uphold the compassionate spirit of Great Vehicle Buddhism, usher in Maitreya Buddha, establish a Buddhist kingdom on earth, and deliver all living beings.

Their slogans rang loud, but their deeds were nothing more than murder and rebellion.

Their doctrine held that anyone who delivered-killed-one person became a bodhisattva of the first abiding stage, while anyone who delivered ten became one of the tenth abiding stage. And so it went: the more people they killed, the more revered they became. Thus the Great Vehicle Sect razed monasteries wholesale, slaughtered monks and nuns, and burned scriptures and sacred images. They also concocted madness-inducing drugs and made people take them, until fathers, sons, and brothers no longer recognized one another and knew only killing...

Simply put, they were a pack of lunatics who knew nothing but rebellion!

But mad though they were, their foundations were anything but ordinary.

Faqing, the founding patriarch of the Great Vehicle Sect, had been a supreme expert in the Great Grandmaster realm. The cultivation art he created ranked at the fifth tier. His followers cultivated both internally and externally and fought without fear of death. During the Northern Wei era, the Great Vehicle Sect had run rampant across the land, and the court had needed an army of a hundred thousand to wipe it out!

Now, Wu Zetian had "promoted Buddhism and suppressed Daoism," proclaiming herself Maitreya Buddha incarnate, descended to rule the world. Though this had consolidated her reign, it had also made Maitreya Buddha's name resound throughout the land once more. As a result, the Great Vehicle Sect had risen again from the ashes and grown increasingly brazen!

I hope it isn't some new poison. I'm still at the rote-memorization stage. I can only solve problems I've already seen...

Lu Changfeng sighed inwardly. He was already learning remarkably quickly, but he had simply had too little time.

Seeing his troubled expression, Jinghong naturally thought of yesterday's situation, when failure to cure the patient would have meant death. Assuming he feared punishment, she reassured him:

"Just do your best, Master Lu. There is no need to worry too much. Pavilion Commander Gao has already sent the Three Signs of Minor Cold after the remaining cultists. Though those fiends succeeded in their sneak attack through their evil arts, they were badly wounded themselves and surely cannot escape. As long as we capture one alive, we can force them to reveal the antidote. You need only do everything you can to stabilize Sweetleaf and the others and buy us time. If truly nothing can be done... then that is their fate. Her Highness is Discerning the Subtlest Detail and will not blame you."

In the end, core personnel still could not compare to her own son. She probably would not kill anyone over this.

Lu Changfeng, however, noticed something else.

Gao Jian is leading the pursuit?

Lu Changfeng's heart gave a sudden jolt.

He remembered Gao Jian's undisguised jealousy and icy gaze at the Fragrant Waterside Pavilion earlier that day with perfect clarity. Now Gao Jian was in charge of the pursuit, and, by such a "coincidence," he, the newly appointed Director of Medicine, was urgently required to leave the residence to treat the wounded...

Was this truly a coincidence?

His face betrayed nothing, but inwardly, he was already on guard.

Jinghong moved at tremendous speed through the night. The scenery on either side raced backward. Carried along in her arm, Lu Changfeng sharply scanned the increasingly tangled streets and alleys, their lamplight hazy and shifting.

Pingkang Ward was already just ahead.

Meanwhile.

Inside a brothel somewhere in Pingkang Ward, before the entrance to a secret passage.

Gao Jian stood with his hands clasped behind his back. As he monitored the movements of the villains below and listened to his younger cousin Gao Sheng's report, a cold smile curled his lips.

"Very good. With Jinghong fetching him in person, he certainly won't suspect anything."

Gao Jian's tone was chilling. "Have all the others been put in place?"

"Rest assured, cousin!"

Gao Sheng lowered his voice. "Our men will disguise themselves as remnants of the Great Vehicle Sect and ambush them along the route they must take back. The terrain there is complicated. A death or two would be perfectly ordinary! Then Lu Changfeng will 'unfortunately' be killed by Great Vehicle Sect fiends seeking revenge, giving his life in his mistress's service. No one will be able to trace it back to us. Even if Her Highness flies into a rage, she will only settle this debt with the Great Vehicle Sect!"

Gao Jian nodded in satisfaction, then cautioned him. "There is something strange about this man. He may have some hidden fallback. Send someone capable."

Gao Sheng said, "I've arranged for the household elder to act personally. He's in the Upper Realm of Xiantian, with poison arts honed throughout his body. Even Qing Dai won't be able to stop him! He is certain to die!"

"Good."

Gao Jian smiled faintly, murderous intent laid bare in his eyes. Lu Changfeng, blame only yourself for not knowing whether you live or die! The heavier the snow, the straighter the pine's branches stand? Let's see how straight you can stand! This Pingkang Ward will be your burial ground!!