Chapter 678: The Secret in the Letter!

"Mr. Ming, do you know how to play Go?"

"No. There's a Blind Man back home who does."

"That would be Mr. Bei, yes?"

"Mm."

"We're out of wine." Sun Ying shook the wine pot.

"Sigh. We never entered the city." A’Ming shook his head. "We should have had some."

If they had entered the city, getting a few jars of fine wine from the Sixth Prince's residence would have been the simplest thing in the world.

Unfortunately, after Master and the Southern Prince entered the city and went into the palace, they simply came back out again and returned to the camp.

The court had sent out plenty of wine and meat, but that sort of wine was not what A’Ming and Sun Ying liked to drink.

"You're still playing?"

Siniang walked over.

"Mister Feng."

Sun Ying, seated in his wheelchair, immediately lowered his head in greeting.

He knew perfectly well that this "Mister Feng" was not merely one of the Marquis's subordinates.

She was also the mistress of the Marquis Residence.

Siniang took out a folding fan and handed it to Sun Ying.

Sun Ying accepted it.

It was already late autumn. The weather had turned cold.

Giving him a fan at a time like this...

Still, Sun Ying thanked her sincerely and held it in his hand.

Wheelchair.

Fan.

Mm.

Now he had the right sort of look.

"Where's Master?" A’Ming asked.

"He ate too much. He's walking it off."

A’Ming froze for a moment.

Then all he could say was:

"All right."

"Where's San'er?" Siniang asked. "And A’Li?"

They could be seen during the day.

At night, they disappeared.

That had been the pattern these past few days.

"They're making medicine."

"Making mischief?"

"Medicine," A’Ming repeated.

Then he shook his empty wineskin.

"Siniang, any way to find me some wine?"

"Out of blood?"

"Sun Ying doesn't drink blood."

"..." Sun Ying.

"Better not go into the city right now. Heaven knows what trouble it could stir up. The people involved would know you only went in to beg for wine. Everyone else might think you ran into the city to pass secret messages."

"Fine, fine."

A’Ming switched to another wineskin and opened it.

The smell of blood immediately drifted out.

The instant Sun Ying caught the scent, his throat moved and his mouth opened.

A’Ming and Siniang both looked at him.

Sun Ying forcibly swallowed it back down.

Siniang turned and left.

A’Ming shook his head.

"You could have vomited."

"I was afraid it would be impolite. I was embarrassed."

"Swallowing it back down is actually more disgusting."

"..." Sun Ying.

"You should rest. I'll go find someone else to drink with. This stuff is actually quite good. You hardly ever see sunlight, and your body is weak. Look at your hand. Even after you clench your fist and open it again, there's barely any color in the palm. That's anemia."

"This... If I'm anemic, do I need to drink that to replenish myself?"

"No need. From now on, when you drink wine, just suck on an iron nail a few times as a snack."

A’Ming rose, took the wineskin, and left.

He walked to a carriage and climbed inside.

There was a cage in the carriage.

Outside the cage sat a chest.

The chest was wood on the outside and iron within, extremely sturdy.

Xue San had made it.

He had even carved several runes across the surface and painted them.

In Xue San's words:

"I specially made you a Saint Cloth Box!"

And damned if it didn't look like one.

Inside the cage, Kashir chuckled twice and accepted the wineskin from A’Ming.

He did not drink from it directly.

A’Ming opened a chest fixed to one side of the carriage and took out two stemmed glasses.

He passed one over.

Blood was poured into its proper vessel.

Each man held a glass.

They gently clinked them together.

Then they slowly savored the drink.

"We've reached the heart of the Great Yan Empire, haven't we?" Kashir asked.

"Yes."

"Do you know how people in the West describe this eastern empire?"

"No. And I'm not interested."

"In their eyes, this empire is terrifying."

"All right. You can shut up now. Don't disturb my blood-wine."

"You truly should go west and see it one day. It will not disappoint you."

"I will. Our Master has always had that thought."

"When the time comes, I can introduce you to some old friends."

"Then what should I prepare?"

Kashir pointed toward the exquisite chest outside the iron cage.

"More boxes like that. You'll want quite a few."

...

Because the Marquis of Pingxi and the Prince of Jingnan had returned to camp together, their two Pixiu had been penned in the same enclosure.

During military campaigns, Pixiu were not particularly picky.

In ordinary times, however, their feed was naturally completely different from that of normal warhorses.

Xue San sat on Fan Li's shoulder as they approached the enclosure.

The soldiers around the perimeter saw who they were and naturally did not stop them.

Once they arrived...

Xue San jumped down from Fan Li's shoulder and rubbed his backside.

He complained:

"Hard as hell. Not comfortable at all. How does that Sword Maid like sitting up there so much?"

Fan Li patted his own shoulder.

"Didn't put the cushion on."

"Oh. No wonder. Didn't bring it?"

Fan Li reached into his pocket and pulled one out.

"Brought it."

"..." Xue San.

Fan Li's gaze had already settled on the two Pixiu behind the fence.

The Prince of Jingnan's Pixiu remained sprawled there.

Earlier, it had opened its eyes once. After seeing who had come, it closed them again.

Zheng Fan's Pixiu, however, immediately stood and came over when it saw familiar faces.

It looked exceptionally affectionate.

Exceptionally eager to please.

It had been tormented until it was afraid.

Tormented badly enough to develop a psychological shadow.

For a period back at the Residence, whenever the Demon Kings had nothing better to do, they would come over, draw a little blood from it, and play around with whatever experiment had caught their interest.

Xue San reached into a pouch and took out a black ball about the size of an adult's palm.

A rich fragrance wafted from it.

Fan Li had eaten something he should not have.

He was constipated.

He was suffering.

Fortunately, although he too was a Demon King, he had absolutely no sense of the dignity a Demon King ought to possess.

He did not feel the least embarrassed about being constipated.

So... he went to Xue San.

At first, Xue San mixed several laxatives.

Fan Li took them.

Nothing happened.

His constitution was too strong.

His resistance to medicine was too high.

In truth, five of the Demon Kings possessed extraordinarily strong resistance to poison.

The Demon Child was a spirit body. Poisoning him was difficult in the first place.

Liang Cheng was a zombie.

A’Ming was a vampire.

Fan Li had Barbarian blood.

And Xue San himself had practically been soaked in vats of poison.

That kind of constitution was excellent when someone else tried poisoning you.

But when you actually needed treatment... it became miserable.

So Xue San had compounded one enormous pill.

But he did not dare give it directly to Fan Li.

If Fan Li swallowed it and something went wrong, how were they supposed to face each other afterward?

And if they never got the chance to face each other again, that would be even worse!

So there was only one thing to do.

Find something with skin as tough and a body as large as Fan Li's and use it for a trial.

Naturally...

Marquis Zheng's Pixiu had been selected.

As for the Prince of Jingnan's Pixiu... well... normally, if you had to run an experiment like this, using someone else's property would obviously be preferable.

The problem was... that was Tian Wujing's mount.

It was not that the Demon Kings were afraid of him.

It was simply... not a good time right now!

As for the claim that Pixiu had no "back door"... that was true.

Pixiu really did not have one.

But that did not mean Pixiu never excreted.

In fact, along the lower rear portion of a Pixiu's abdomen, beneath the scales and long fur, were rows of shallow grooves and seams.

When the beast needed to excrete, those grooves widened slightly and waste was expelled through them.

Ordinarily, Pixiu needed to excrete very little.

First, their entire bodies possessed a special ability that allowed them to exchange qi with the surrounding world more rapidly.

That meant the energy-conversion efficiency of whatever they ate was extremely high.

Very little true residue needed to be expelled.

So there was no need for a "back door."

The rows of grooves beneath the belly were more than enough.

The waste simply fell away almost like flakes of dead skin.

"Come on. Good boy. Eat this and you'll become even stronger!"

Xue San placed the fragrant black pill in front of Zheng Fan's Pixiu.

A special scent had been added to the medicine.

It made the thing much more attractive.

To humans?

No.

To beasts.

The Pixiu should have found the temptation impossible to resist.

After putting it down, Xue San clapped his hands and looked up at Fan Li.

Then he discovered Fan Li had taken out another flatbread and started eating again.

"You bastard! Aren't you afraid you'll stuff yourself until you burst?"

"Uh... hungry."

"Fine, fine. I give up. You eat over there. In a while, a much bigger pill is going to come out over here. Holy shit... that scene could make a man vomit. If you want to eat, I'll go outside with you. By the time we're finished, things here should be done too. Then we can come back and inspect the results."

Xue San kicked Fan Li several times until the big man followed him out.

Inside the enclosure...

Zheng Fan's Pixiu stared at the large pill placed in front of it.

It licked its lips.

It truly could not resist that smell.

But it hesitated.

Because it remembered those days back at the Residence, when the Demon Kings kept feeding it all sorts of bizarre things and nearly tortured it to death over and over again.

But... it smelled so damned good.

It couldn't hold back.

Eat it!

Yet just then... the larger and more fully grown Pixiu walked over.

With an overwhelmingly domineering shove, it squeezed Zheng Fan's Pixiu aside.

Zheng Fan's Pixiu grew angry.

Its gaze fell on the huge pill.

But it did not go forward and challenge the other beast.

It merely continued being angry from a safe distance.

The Prince of Jingnan's Pixiu swept its smaller cousin with a contemptuous glance.

Then it lowered its head.

Opened its mouth.

And swallowed the beast-enticing pill whole.

Afterward... it belched.

Then turned around in perfect satisfaction and lay back down.

...

About half an hour later...

Xue San and Fan Li returned.

"I'm telling you, next time you eat, pay attention to what you're putting in your mouth. Even if your body is missing a few trace elements, you don't need to chew rocks directly. What the hell are you doing, refining iron inside your stomach?"

Xue San cursed as he jumped into the enclosure.

He first went to Zheng Fan's Pixiu.

The hay beneath it was completely clean.

"Huh? Didn't work?"

Xue San scratched his head.

"That shouldn't be possible."

Then... a peculiar smell drifted through the air.

It was not exactly foul.

More sour than anything.

Xue San sniffed.

Then his gaze slowly moved toward the Prince of Jingnan's Pixiu.

The beast, which usually lay there with the noble elegance of some sacred creature... now had all four limbs flattened against the ground.

It looked utterly drained.

"Hiss..."

Fan Li sucked in a breath first.

"We're screwed."

Then...

Fan Li pointed at Xue San and added another stab:

"You're screwed."

Xue San exploded.

"Fuck your uncle! How shameless can you get?"

After cursing, Xue San stormed over to the Prince of Jingnan's Pixiu.

Beneath it... everything was wet, sticky, and slimy.

But since he had run a drug trial, Third Master had to confirm the results properly.

So he reached down and rummaged through the sticky mess several times.

"Huh?"

Xue San froze.

Then he pulled his hand back and looked.

"Holy shit. It actually shit out a letter!"

[End of Chapter 678]