Jing Yuan's mood was extremely complicated.
After they were knocked out by the hotpot and fainted, then woke up again, everyone was badly shaken, especially Jingliu. After a hurried rest, she went straight to Dan Feng asking for some men to go look for another victim, Zero.
At first, aside from Dan Feng, who was confronting the dragon monks, they all thought it was just some kind of food poisoning. The three of them sat at that hotpot table, reviewing the whole thing over and over.
They completely ignored Dan Feng, the head of the Alchemy Commission, while the three of them clutched their jade tablets, endlessly searching for incompatible food ingredient combinations, but no matter what, they couldn't find the culprit that made them all pass out.
Baiheng looked extremely miserable. Hugging her own tail, she wailed, "I feel like my tail got ugly… the fur isn't shiny anymore! Just what the heck happened?!"
Jing Yuan had a suspicion, suspecting they'd been dragged into some internal strife of the Vidyadhara.
He didn't voice this guess.
Anyway, there was Dan Feng. Lord Dragon would take care of it.
Jing Yuan took a deep breath, then deflated, slumping onto the stone table, casually saying, "Could it be the thousand-year-old ginseng was too strong? Directly over-supplemented us into poisoning?"
Yingxing looked calm on the outside, but inside he was panicking like crazy. He muttered to himself, "No way… it couldn't have been the pot of ginseng broth I cooked, right?"
The three exchanged looks, then rushed straight to the kitchen where the ginseng was cooked. But there, they only saw Dan Feng, cold-faced, commanding attendants to dig through the leftover ginseng and roots in the pot.
The attendants neatly and orderly picked up roots with chopsticks, standing in a line, waiting one by one for Dan Feng to inspect them.
The Dragon Lord gave them a glance, quickly identified the culprit, and sneered coldly, ordering the attendants to put it away.
Turning to his three friends, the chilling aura that had kept people three steps away instantly changed. Suppressing his fury, he said,
"It's pokeweed. Don't worry. I will definitely make those people pay the price."
Then Dan Feng led a group of attendants and left.
Baiheng stroked her tail fur, dazed, asking Jing Yuan and Yingxing, "What's pokeweed?"
Yingxing looked at Jing Yuan, "What's pokeweed?"
Jing Yuan set down his jade tablet, face tense, "Do you know about the legendary Shennong who tasted all the herbs? The very last one he tasted was pokeweed."
The three of them went online, carefully searching for all information about pokeweed. After reading, they were filled with lingering fear. Once they calmed down, Baiheng quickly bounced back to her usual energy.
The fox girl patted her chest, feeling incredibly lucky,
"Looks like aside from being bad with friends and with the starskiff, I'm actually pretty lucky! Didn't get poisoned to death, hey!"
Jing Yuan, "..."
'So optimistic, Sister Baiheng!'
Yingxing couldn't sit still anymore. Hesitating, he asked, "Then what about Jingliu's beloved one? He should be fine, right?"
Jing Yuan, "......"
It's over. The gate of Zero's house probably won't survive.
He had a kind of blind confidence in Zero, believing the guy definitely wouldn't have an accident.
After all, that was Zero! With words he could trick tycoons, with fists he could spar with his master.
If he could run into trouble, wouldn't that be as absurd as the final villain in a story slipping on a banana peel and exiting stage left?
The three exchanged looks and quickly rushed to the Alchemy Commission.
Having something happen on the Vidyadhara's turf, Jingliu would definitely not bring Zero home, but instead go straight to the Alchemy Commission.
Sure enough, they saw Jingliu there… and Zero lying on a sickbed.
Baiheng cautiously leaned in to ask. From Jingliu's mouth, they learned Zero was fine. The three simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, thinking to give their friend a chance for privacy, they hurriedly left the Alchemy Commission.
Jing Yuan didn't know what happened after that, his heart itching with curiosity like a little kitten scratching.
He didn't dare ask his master, so he had to swallow his curiosity, until he heard Dan Feng say the words "to watch the fun," and suddenly understood.
'You brat, what gossip did you eat behind our backs again! Why won't you say it!'
Jing Yuan was already unhappy with Dan Feng's presence. He wanted to ask why Zero was here, but worried if he asked one more question, he might ruin his master's plans, so he had no choice but to lead Zero and Dan Feng into some casual, half-hearted conversation.
As they walked, they saw small groups of Cloud Knights quickly heading in one direction.
Never one to miss any chance to catch gossip, Jing Yuan immediately went over to ask.
"Seems like Lord Swordmaster has thought up some new move. Everyone wants to go take a look, even grasping one-tenth of it would be worth it!"
Zero sighed in his heart.
'So competitive… it's almost quitting time, and they're still practicing swordsmanship.'
Compared to him, a salted fish already itching to get off work thirty minutes early, the difference was heaven and earth.
Dan Feng chuckled coldly, turning to ask Jing Yuan, "Jing Yuan, as her disciple, why do you look like you didn't know about this?"
Jing Yuan put on an embarrassed but polite smile.
'What disciple, what disciple!' He pretended not to know.
Could it be his master wanted to follow the guidebook cooked up by Dan Feng and Yingxing?
He gave a pitying glance at the clueless Zero.
He blocked what he could block. But some things, he really couldn't stop.
Zero, "...?"
Zero didn't understand what Jing Yuan's look meant. He didn't dwell on it and threw it aside, following the other two toward Jingliu.
By the time they saw Jingliu, the area was already packed full of Cloud Knights waiting to witness the Swordmaster's technique.
Jingliu naturally ignored the gazes of the crowd, but among them, she sharply noticed Zero's eyes.
With her dazzling red pupils, she seemingly casually swept across the crowd at the edge of the field. When she saw Zero, she paused slightly.
Then, the silver-haired beauty holding the fractured sword twirled it smoothly, drawing a sword-flower flourish.
Jing Yuan, "..."
Dan Feng, "..."
The two simultaneously looked at Zero, who was staring intently at Jingliu, then tacitly shifted their gazes away.
Jing Yuan felt uncomfortable.
Even though he had started preparing his mentality the very first moment he found out, but… this wasn't something a not-even-two-hundred-year-old long-life species could just handle, right?
It looked like his master really, really liked Zero.
Even if a friend gave some unreliable advice, his master would follow it…
Jing Yuan silently turned his gaze on Zero, 'You brat, best not screw up!'
'No wait, even if you did screw up, law enforcers still couldn't possibly catch you out!'
'Wouldn't that be as absurd as a villain boss being arrested in chapter one?!'
Dan Feng coldly snorted inwardly.
When he found out Jingliu paid Zero's medical fee, he already knew Jingliu would definitely make a move.
But he never expected… this time Jingliu intended to show off her sword skills.
'Flashy, so flashy.'
'This Jingliu... how could she have two faces?'
When he twirled his spear, she scorned him. But now, chasing someone, suddenly it's not flashy?
Dan Feng, 'Double standards! Jingliu really is way too double standards!'
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
patreon.com/XenosX
🥳Joining Patreon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰