A scrap of cloth in the dark drain changes the killing game; soft armor fits a slender waist
In the culvert beneath the sluice gates of Hanseong, the stagnant, foul-smelling, dark green water had just receded by half a foot.
A Wa water demon covered in black mud crawled out of a crack in the rock and crawled on all fours to the broken pottery urn.
He stretched out his webbed iron claws, rummaged through the pile of dead insects, and scooped up half of an oilcloth bag that hadn't been completely corroded by the poisonous water.
The water ghost brought the tattered cloth to its nose and sniffed it. Its mud-covered eyes rolled around, and it turned around and followed the cracks in the bricks of the culvert, making its way into the underground chamber of the inner city of Hanseong.
Four whale oil lamps were lit in the secret room.
Inukami Jusaburo was wiping his katana with a piece of deerskin when he heard the sound of water, but he didn't even look up.
Why is the mother insect in the earthenware jar not moving?
The water ghost knelt on the dripping bluestone slab, presenting the blood-stained half of the oilcloth with both hands:
"My lord, all thirty urns of mother worms in the sewage outlet are dead; they've bitten each other into pieces."
My subordinates fished this out from the bottom of the jar; it was mixed with arsenic.
besides...
It also has the fishy-sweet smell of the Kingdom of Dali's royal secret medicine, the Hundred Poisons Herb."
Inukami Jusaburo stopped wiping his knife.
He picked up the piece of oilcloth and brought it close to the oil lamp, his nostrils twitching.
"A secret medicine from Dali? Gu Moran does indeed keep a princess named Meng Jiuning in his private quarters."
He clutched the oilcloth in his hand, his knuckles cracking as he squeezed it.
"Well done Park Roejang! He's probably trying to make a fool of me with a bloodstained white tiger jade pendant!"
He must have told Gu Moran the secret of this Gu worm, and helped him cure my Gu poison!
"My lord, shall we go and chop that Goryeo dog to pieces now?"
The water ghost made a throat-slitting gesture.
"If we chop him up, who will pour Gu Moran's drinks tomorrow?"
Inukami Jusaburo sheathed his katana and kicked the iron cage beside him. "Go, drag Park Roejang out of the dungeon!"
In less than a quarter of an hour, two Japanese soldiers dragged Park Roejang into the secret room.
The basement at the end of the Yin hour (3-5 AM) was so cold it sent chills down your spine.
Inukami Jusaburo squatted down, stuffed the tattered cloth stained with poisoned blood into Park Roejang's collar, and patted his face:
" Lord Bak, the military doctors of Great Yan are truly skilled. They even managed to eliminate the mother worm, a secret technique of the Onmyōryō of Wa, so quickly."
Tell me, shouldn't I punish you for deception?
Park Roejang coughed twice while lying on the ground, spitting out a mouthful of bloody saliva:
"General, you are overthinking it. Gu Moran has the successor of the Great Yan Medicine King with him. What's so strange about him breaking the water poison?"
If the general doesn't believe me, just cut me down with a single stroke now. Why try to trick me with a rag?
"You're certainly stubborn."
Inukami Jusaburo clapped his hands, and the water ghost next to him brought over a bowl of dark, murky medicine, with a few uncooked aconite leaves floating on top.
"This is Gut-Rot Aconite Decoction. If you drink it, the effects won't appear until noon tomorrow. Without an antidote, your intestines will rot away inch by inch."
Inukami Jusaburo grabbed Park Roejang's chin and forced the entire bowl of poison down his throat.
"At the banquet at White Sandbar tomorrow noon, you will personally serve wine to Gu Moran."
This wine jug was originally intended to contain arsenic, a deadly poison that can kill instantly.
If he drinks it, I will give you the antidote; if he doesn't, you two will become a pair of rotting-gut ghosts on the sandbar!
Park Roejang clutched his neck and retched violently on the ground, his eyes bulging out, but he didn't shed a single tear, managing to squeeze out a few words in a hoarse voice:
"Okay... I'll feed him myself tomorrow!"
Inukami Jusaburo stood up, kicked Park Roejang's hand away with the tip of his boot, and turned to give the order to the water ghost:
"All the original arrangements were removed."
The shallows on the south side are upwind, Gu Moran, being a suspicious person by nature, will definitely send someone to investigate.
"Pass down the order: have those one hundred elite Shadow Ninja abandon the sandpit on the south side and sneak into the reed marshes on the north side downwind tonight!"
The water ghost looked up and asked:
"Should we move the negotiation table to another location?"
"Move it to the very center of the sandbar, and bury a thirty-pound canister of flammable oil in the sand directly beneath the wooden table!"
Inukami Jusaburo grabbed the iron fan from the table and snapped it shut.
"Whether Gu Moran drinks that poisoned wine or not tomorrow, as soon as he sets foot on White Sandbar, I will burn him to a crisp, bones and all!"
At Chen Shi (7-9 AM), on the south bank of the Han River, at the main tent of the Great Yan.
Gu Moran sat behind the desk, holding a charcoal pencil in his hand, and outlined the names of ten people on the rice paper.
Lin Qingdai stood on the left, holding her sword.
The curtain was lifted from the outside, and Kim Seon-a walked in.
She wasn't wearing her heavy, silver-scaled armor today, but only a thin, plain white silk robe Goryeo royal family.
The wide sleeves clung tightly to her body as the morning breeze blew, revealing even the outline of her moon-white strapless top underneath.
Her long, jet-black hair was loosely tied up with a single red-gold phoenix hairpin, and her neckline was slightly low, revealing a large expanse of her fair collarbone.
Gu Moran put down his charcoal pencil and looked her up and down.
"The river wind is so strong outside, and you're going to a banquet at Hongmen wearing this paper-thin dress?"
" Inukami Jusaburo is a wolf who won't act until he sees a clear benefit."
Kim Seon-a walked to the desk and met Gu Moran's gaze.
" Lord Bak told him in the city that I had murderous intent because I was forcibly taken and humiliated by the prince."
If I went up there wearing iron armor and with guards, Inukami Jusaburo would see through my disguise at a glance.
Only by dressing like this, like a plaything casually brought out by a prince to be humiliated,
Only then will he be completely at ease.
Gu Moran didn't say anything, got up and walked to the clothes rack behind him, and took down a neatly folded silver-white vest.
He walked up to Kim Seon-a and reached out to untie the white silk sash around her waist.
Kim Seon-a- ah shrank back half an inch, pressing her hands against her clothes, her ears turning bright red instantly.
"Your Highness, what are you doing? General Lin and General Tuoba are still outside..."
Lin Qingdai turned to face the tent entrance. "I'll go check if the horses have been fed."
After saying that, he stepped across the threshold.
Only two people remained in the tent.
Gu Moran didn't give Kim Seon-a a chance to resist at all. With a flick of two fingers, the white silk belt slipped to the ground.
He deftly peeled off her outer plain dress and pushed it down to her snow-white, rounded shoulders.
The Goryeo princess's body, which was usually covered up tightly, was now exposed to the air.
The pale white silk blouse couldn't contain her full breasts at all; they rose and fell with her rapid breathing. Her waist was so slender that it could be completely encircled by two hands, and her flat stomach had no excess fat. Her skin was dazzlingly white.
"Don't move."
Gu Moran patted the back of her hand that was trying to cover herself, opened the silver-white vest in her hand, and slipped it down her high chest, covering her chest and back tightly against the thin fabric.
Kim Seon-a glanced down, her fingers touching the thin, yet smooth fabric:
"This is... a silkworm inner armor?"
[Four more chapters to come, I'll try to catch up on the ones I owe, hehe. Have a great weekend~~]