novelaction Chapter 191 Revisiting the Source of Fragrance in the Deep Mountains
Chapter 191 Revisiting the Source of Fragrance in the Deep Mountains
Chapter 191 Revisiting the Source of Fragrance in the Deep Mountains
Revisiting the Source of Fragrance in the Deep Mountains
Dusk enveloped the inn like a piece of silk soaked in ink, and Su Yunlan's fingertips traced the dark red bloodstains seeping from the bronze box.
Xiao Yuhan's black iron lotus lamp was still trembling, casting the twin lotus patterns on the wall on and off.
She heard the crisp sound of raindrops outside the window condensing into ice crystals and falling to the ground, like the echo of the warning sound when the river lanterns exploded last night.
She had to make the new incense before Master Zhou could start. She slammed the blood-stained brocade box shut, the jade bracelet against her wrist exuding a cool sensation.
The roots spreading beneath the blue bricks seemed to be climbing along the earth's veins, and the earthy scent, carrying the smell of rust, was seven parts similar to the exotic fragrance of the twin lotus flowers in her space.
Xiao Yuhan pressed the fragment of the imperial tomb map onto the pattern on the bronze box, and the broken lines suddenly glowed with a ghostly blue light: "Enter the mountain at dawn tomorrow." The sheepskin map in the hidden bag was soaked with rainwater, revealing a spring marked with cinnabar on the waist of the Virgin Peak—the very location where the Xiao family's secret guards disappeared three years ago when they were tracking the Black Bird Totem.
Before the morning mist had dissipated, Young Master Xiao Twenty-Three was already waiting under the locust tree with a mule laden with bamboo baskets.
The boy ground the poisoned kalanchoe into powder and sprinkled it around, startling the black birds in the treetops into fluttering flight. "Sister-in-law, look!" he pointed to the gold dust falling from the bird feathers, "and the hidden lotus pattern on your clothes that day..."
·34; Silence. ·34; Xiao Yuhan suddenly pressed his hand to the sword at his waist.
From the thorn bushes in the southeast corner came the sound of snapping branches. Twenty-three barbed wire spikes disappeared into the mist with a flick of his sleeve, eliciting a few suppressed groans.
Su Yunlan's embroidered shoes crunched over the dew-covered madder, and her jade bracelet suddenly became hot.
As she bent down to part the mortar in the crack in the stone, three poisoned silver needles brushed past her hair and pierced into the ancient pine tree behind her.
Young Master Xiao's short sword was drawn with a snap, but instead of severing the assassin's throat, it severed the vine net hanging overhead.
&34;Be careful...&34;The warning stuck in my throat is now futile.
The trap beneath the decaying leaves collapsed with a crash. The moment Xiao Yuhan caught her waist, the Xuan Tie Lotus Lamp and the jade bracelet collided, sparking and illuminating the dense bamboo thorns standing in the deep pit.
The stench of blood exploded in the cramped space.
Young Master Xiao covered his bleeding right arm, the crimson blood winding between his fingers staining the plain handkerchief Su Yunlan handed him. It was a barb dipped in snakeberry juice. The boy gritted his teeth and tore open his clothes; the raw, gaping flesh of the wound had turned a strange bluish-purple.
Su Yunlan turned her back and took out Bletilla powder from her spatial storage. As the dark patterns on the jade bracelet flowed, three fresh Panax notoginseng herbs quietly fell into her sleeve pocket.
As she applied the crushed herbs to the wound, she heard the hoarse laughter of Wu the spice merchant above her: "Madam Xiao is indeed a risk-taker; she even dared to trigger the mechanisms in the secret passage of the imperial tomb."
&34;Do you think cutting off the source of the fragrance will allow you to monopolize the Southern Xinjiang market? &34;Xiao Yuhan's sword tassel swept across the damp earthen wall, and the Xuan Tie Lotus Lamp suddenly emitted a clear and melodious sound.
The originally messy moss vibrated with the sound waves and pieced together half of a fragmented star map on the brick surface.
Su Yunlan's fingertips traced the cold bricks.
The frequency of the jade bracelet's vibrations gradually overlapped with the pulsation coming from the ground. She suddenly remembered the bump she had touched in the bronze box last night—it was exactly the same as the nodule on the root of the twin lotus in the space.
As the laughter of the Wu spice merchant mingled with the rustling of falling pebbles, she finally saw the hidden secret in the cracks between the bricks: each blue brick was carved with half a black bird feather pattern on its edge, and the broken part could be connected to the lines of the imperial tomb fragments.
&34; Boom—&34;
Thunder shook the earthen walls, causing dust to fall. Suddenly, Young Master Xiao pointed to the southeast corner: "Fourth Brother, look at that brick seam!" Under the boy's blood-stained fingertips, water seeped into the three blue bricks forming the tail feathers of a black bird, and the blood-soaked patterns began to move slowly.
The veins on the back of Xiao Yuhan's hand, which was holding his sword, bulged. Suddenly, the Xuan Tie Lotus Lamp flew out of his hand, and the sparks from the exploding wick condensed into the phantom image of twin lotus flowers in the humid air.
Su Yunlan's jade bracelet almost burned through her wrist bone.
When the dull thud of a chain being dragged came from underground, she finally touched the lotus pattern protruding from under the brick surface—exactly the same as the carving on the bronze well curb in the space medicine field.
(End of this chapter)
Revisiting the Source of Fragrance in the Deep Mountains (Continued)
The damp, earthy smell, mixed with the stench of blood, churned in the deep pit, while Xiao Yuhan's Xuan Tie Lotus Lamp hummed in his palm.
He flicked his finger lightly at the sword tassel, and three copper coins pierced the moss-covered brick seams, causing the falling pebbles overhead to veer off course. "The brick wall in the southwest corner was constructed of glutinous rice paste mixed with iron filings," he traced the fine chisel marks on the surface of the blue bricks with his fingertip, "but the northeast corner showed signs of snake and rat burrows."
Su Yunlan's jade bracelet emitted a faint white light, and under the cover of the two people's overlapping sleeves, the gilded crane-beak hoe quietly fell into Xiao Yuhan's palm.
When the crisp sound of the iron chisel cutting into the brickwork startled the crows outside the cave, she pretended to tidy her hair and flicked three drops of spiritual spring water into the wound of Young Master Xiao Twenty-Three.
The purplish-blue skin on the boy's arm was healing at a visible speed, and even the oozing blood had congealed into amber-colored scabs.
"Fourth Brother, be careful!" Suddenly, Young Master Xiao grabbed Xiao Yuhan's sleeve.
The sound of rubbing ropes came from outside the hole in the wall, and more than a dozen red-chained snakes were slithering along the realgar powder scattered by Wu, the spice merchant.
Su Yunlan slapped the Garan Incense Powder against the cave wall with her backhand. In the instant sparks flew, Xiao Yuhan's sword energy, which had been unleashed with a flick of his sleeve, had already severed the snakes at their vital points.
Amidst the dust and smoke of the collapsing bricks, Xiao Yuhan, holding Su Yunlan, spun around and leaped out.
The black iron lotus lamp brushed against the jade pendant by her ear, leaving a trail of bluish-green light in the morning mist.
As his thumb unconsciously brushed against the tear in her ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress) at her waist, which had been ripped by bamboo thorns, Su Yunlan suddenly felt an astonishing heat emanating from the jade bracelet—the newly emerging black bird pattern on it perfectly overlapped with the bloodstain on Xiao Yuhan's neck caused by sword energy.
&34; My sister-in-law's hemostatic powder is truly miraculous. &34; Young Master Xiao, the twenty-third young master, swinging his arm which had recovered completely, deliberately tossed the blood-stained handkerchief to the treetop.
The moment the cloth stained with the medicine's blood touched the branches and leaves, the entire locust tree miraculously turned from yellow to withered yellow, and tiny pale yellow flowers began to fall among the newly sprouted buds.
The boy's cunning eyes flickered in and out of the flower shadows: "Such skillful hands, no wonder that old scoundrel Wu wanted to steal your incense recipe."
Xiao Yuhan suddenly grabbed Su Yunlan's hand as she was about to pick up the medicine basket.
He picked up a section of snake carcass from the ground with the tip of his sword; vermilion powder still clung to its venomous fangs. "It's a blood-line snake raised by a sorcerer from Nanzhao," he said. The black iron lotus lamp reflected the taut lines of his jaw. "These snake molts should have disappeared three years ago along with the secret medicine of the previous dynasty."
Su Yunlan's embroidered shoes rolled over the pottery shards under the withered leaves, and the jade bracelet suddenly vibrated like a buzzing bee.
As she bent down and brushed away the humus, half of a bronze key engraved with a black bird totem was wedged in a crack in the stone, the shape of the keyhole exactly the same as the root nodule of the twin lotus in the space medicine field.
Xiao Yuhan's breathing suddenly quickened. As his warm palm covered the back of her hand, the calluses from his sword rubbed against the star pattern on the key: "This is the sacrificial warrant for the Xiao family's secret guards."
A strange wind suddenly arose in the woods, and the greasy laughter of Wu the spice merchant drifted over amidst the ringing of copper bells: "Does the Fourth Madam know?"
The most precious thing about this virgin peak is not spices, but the resentment of the alchemists buried in the previous dynasty. Twenty-three iron caltrops were driven into the tree trunks as he spoke, startling the black birds all over the mountain, who then scattered golden dust like rain as they flapped their wings.
Su Yunlan's skirt was lifted by the wind, revealing a silver bell tied to her ankle—an object taken from the hidden compartment of the bronze box last night, which was now resonating with the jade bracelet in some ancient rhythm.
Xiao Yuhan suddenly placed his sword across Su Yunlan's knees.
The black iron lotus seeds hanging from the sword tassel rolled to the ground and turned into streams of light that disappeared into her skirt.
When Su Yunlan looked up in confusion, she met his deep pupils, which reflected the morning mist. The surging emotions within were more chilling than the clanging of chains from underground. "Stay close to me." His voice was hoarse, as if scorched by fire, and the veins on the back of his hand gripping the sword were like gnarled old vines.
As the three of them followed the spring marked with cinnabar upstream, Su Yunlan's jade bracelet remained hot.
She pretended to tidy her hair and secretly sprinkled snake repellent powder from the space on the path she had come from.
However, as Young Master Xiao hummed a folk tune about breaking and blocking the path with withered branches, no one noticed that the gold dust on the soles of the boy's shoes was piecing together the incomplete tail feathers of a black bird among the decaying leaves with each step.
As dusk settled, Su Yunlan, who was walking at the back, suddenly stopped.
The jade bracelet on her wrist showed blood-red patterns, exactly like the dark lines that had seeped out of the bronze box yesterday.
Ten steps away on the rock wall, three twin lotus flowers swayed in the twilight, and the sap flowing between their stamens emitted an aura similar to that of the spiritual spring in the space.
Just as she reached out to grab it, Xiao Yuhan's sword sheath suddenly blocked her way.
"Don't move!" He condensed his energy at his fingertips, causing the petals to fall. Half a bone was embedded in the exposed rock crevice, and the bronze ring on the finger bone was engraved with the emblem of the Xiao family's secret guards.
The moment Su Yunlan's plain handkerchief was swept up by the wind and stuck to the rock face, fluorescent veins suddenly appeared on the entire rock wall—completely overlapping with the star map on the tattered pages of the imperial tomb.
Twenty-three steps away, deep within the tree canopy, Wu, the spice merchant, aimed a bronze mirror soaked in snake blood at the spring.
When Su Yunlan's graceful figure as she bent down to scoop up water was reflected in the mirror, his withered fingers suddenly clenched the black bird wood carving in his arms.
In the hollow eye sockets of the wooden bird, two red beans were seeping out scarlet juice as the earth trembled, gradually forming patterns identical to those on Su Yunlan's jade bracelet.