Farm Girl's Manor
Chapter 474: Offering Myself (3)_1

Chapter 474: Chapter 474: Offering Myself (3)_1

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Along the way, they encountered two more groups of assassins. Probably thinking Xiao Ruiyuan was doomed to die from the Heart-eating poison, the mastermind behind the scenes had sent these two groups whose martial skills were clearly inferior to the previous ones. Before the dark guards could act, the Prince’s Mansion guards eliminated them all.

However, they still couldn’t find any useful evidence on these assassins that would indicate who had sent them. Therefore, even though they were certain that some Prince or Princes with eyes on the throne were behind it, they couldn’t justly drag the culprits into the light.

As Jing City loomed in the distance, Little Flower, who had been following behind, no longer continued to follow. It called out to Maomao in the sky a few times, said goodbye to Xiao Ruiyuan, and then drifted away into the vast night sky under everyone’s gaze.

Xiao Ruiyuan, weak and sharing a ride with Xiao Jiu, looked in the direction where Little Flower had disappeared. A pale smile formed a gentle curve on his lips: "To repay a life-saving debt with my body, I owe her three lives. How can I ever repay her enough?"

Out of concern for Xiao Ruiyuan’s injuries, the group rode at a slow pace. Fortunately, aside from the two groups of assassins they had previously encountered, the rest of the journey was peaceful until they safely entered the city and arrived at the Prince’s Mansion without facing any more assassins.

Upon learning that Xiao Ruiyuan was seriously injured and, like him, had been poisoned with Heart-eating poison and had almost died from its effects, the usually gentle and humble Chu Heng smashed a cup for the first time: "I’m not dead yet, and they can’t wait any longer, good! Very good!"

A deep fury coated his typically mild eyes. Chu Heng looked at Xiao Ruiyuan lying on the bed, his face pale, and for the first time, a wave of sadness welled up in his heart.

From the day he was born, he had endured agonising pain incessantly, his constant companions were all kinds of bitter medicinal soups. And from the moment he understood his condition, he had thought of death as a relief. If it weren’t for the love of his father, Emperor Huian, and the encouragement and support of his cousin who grew up with him, he would have given up his broken body long ago and followed his mother to the grave.

To outsiders, he was the sovereign, and his cousin was a subject. His cousin’s willingness to follow him, even to death for his sake, was deemed honorable. But in his heart, his cousin was just that – his cousin, the closest kin he had besides his father. Now, these brazen plotters sought to harm his kin. No matter who it was, he would not let them go!

Worried that his agitation might be too much for his weak body, before Xiao Ruiyuan could speak up to calm him, Doctor Gui jokingly brought up the matter of Black Lingzhi: "Your Highness, luckily the Xiao lad got injured; otherwise, who knows when we would have found the whereabouts of Black Lingzhi! Rest assured, Your Highness, the Xiao lad will be fine. Once we find that Thousand-year Ginseng, the Heart-eating poison in Your Highness’s body can be successfully removed!"

Upon hearing the news about Black Lingzhi, Chu Heng almost couldn’t believe his ears. After a long moment of shock, once he was sure Doctor Gui wasn’t joking with him, a rare luster spread across his usually composed face!

Seeing Doctor Gui present the remaining piece of Black Lingzhi, Chu Heng finally believed he was not dreaming. After hearing where the Black Lingzhi had originated, hope shone brighter in his eyes.

Suppressing the urge to ask about the whereabouts of the Black Lingzhi’s owner, Chu Heng glanced at his cousin and said to Doctor Gui in a warm voice, "Oldman Ghost, since we don’t need the Thousand-year Ginseng, I will trouble you to quickly prepare the antidote for Hanzhang to take, to prevent any complications."

Doctor Gui readily agreed, took Xiao Ruiyuan’s pulse, and seeing that the sealed poison hadn’t reacted, he went to the medicine room with Black Lingzhi with peace of mind.

Doctor Gui had prepared the auxiliary medicinal materials for the antidote to the Heart-eating poison quite a while ago. Apart from Black Lingzhi, Thousand-year Ginseng, and Red Python’s Gallbladder, the others were relatively common, though brewing the medicine would require extra care. Brewing medicine was a trivial matter for Doctor Gui. In half an hour, he had prepared the medicine.

During that half-hour, Xiao Ruiyuan and Chu Heng had a detailed discussion and reached a consensus: externally, they would temporarily conceal the fact that the Heart-eating poison afflicting Xiao Ruiyuan had a cure, and they would spread the news that he had been fatally poisoned and was teetering on the brink of death.

The news of a Great General who led a 100,000 Army thousands of miles to the border, who defended the lands and people of Great Chu at the risk of his life, and who was repeatedly targeted for assassination on his triumphant return, even coming close to death, would cause a huge uproar once it became public knowledge, both amongst the common folk and in the court. Emperor Huian would inevitably order a thorough investigation into the matter, to give Xiao Ruiyuan an explanation.

The two had no expectation of exposing and avenging the mastermind behind the scenes with this move; it was merely to shake the tiger out of the mountain, to let those people slip up and to let Emperor Huian be aware and calculate from there.

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