novelraw Chapter 424 - 319: Heart-devouring Incense
Chapter 424 - 319: Heart-devouring Incense
Entering the palace, of course, no weapons could be brought in. Apart from the Crow Order, a packet of preserved fruits hidden and a dagger tucked by her boot, there were no suspicious items on Gu Lan, out of which the Crow Order was the easiest to discover.
After handing the Crow Order to Meiduo, she was completely at ease.
Walking on the bluestone and white jade path, the Xiu jade hanging from the folding fan at Gu Lan’s waist lightly clinked against her jade belt. She even had the leisure to admire the beauty of the Imperial Garden in autumn.
The autumn wind swept by, stirring desolation everywhere. In the distance, the maple leaves were dyed a sea of fire; nearby, the golden chrysanthemums burned brightly, like gold congealed into starry fragments.
A group of people passed through the Imperial Garden and arrived at an inconspicuous palace near Yongshou Palace. Gu Lan looked up to see the words "Yongming Palace" inscribed above.
Gu Lan had heard from Jiu that this palace seemed to be the residence during Empress Dowager Su’s or the Empress’s time and was where Rong Jing stayed before being crowned as Crown Prince.
Once they reached Yongming Palace, the imperial guard was withdrawn, leaving Lin He and his group to stand watch outside the hall.
Gu Lan stepped forward, just about to enter when the door to Yongming Palace opened from inside. Zhang Fengcai, in his dark teal official robes, stood at the entrance, blocking her view, and said with a slight bow, respectful yet deep:
"Young Master, please come in."
A hint of impatience showed on Gu Lan’s face as she strode inside without hesitation.
As she passed by Lin He, she saw him subtly shake his head at her, a warning flashing in his eyes.
What was he trying to tell her?
No matter what... since she had come, there was nothing to fear.
The next moment, Gu Lan understood why Lin He had shown such an expression.
The instant she stepped into Yongming Palace, an indescribable cold fragrance invaded her nose without warning.
Gu Lan instinctively held her breath but was still a step too slow.
"Cough... cough cough!"
Gu Lan suppressed a cough, accompanied by a needle-like stabbing pain in her brain. She suddenly spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.
Lin He only heard a "thud" and instinctively looked up to see Gu Lan with her back to him, already kneeling on one knee at the entrance.
Her knee hit the ground hard, yet she showed no reaction, nor did she make a sound.
— Because, all of a sudden, her entire body was shattered with stabbing pain, she couldn’t even feel the real injury on her body.
Her supple back involuntarily arched, her body curling like a cooked shrimp.
"Don’t look around!" The leader of the red-robed eunuch called to Lin He in a low voice.
The heavy door of Yongming Palace slowly closed with a resounding "boom," and Gu Lan struggled to turn her head, catching only a glimpse of Lin He’s worried gaze.
She knelt on the ground, her forehead pressed against the cold floor, gasping urgently as if a hand had reached into her abdomen, twisting her organs with heart-rending pain.
"I’ve heard that Young Master Gu is formidable on the battlefield, able to fight a hundred men single-handedly, a rare warrior... Yet upon meeting, it’s truly nothing special. You can’t handle even this level of Heart-devouring Incense?"
Rong Jing’s cold and deep voice came from behind a large landscape screen inside the hall.
Gu Lan squinted her eyes, discovering that in the center of Yongming Palace was a three-foot incense burner emitting a continuous, visible pale blue eerie fragrance, which must be the Heart-devouring Incense Rong Jing spoke of.
Heart-devouring Incense?
She remembered, among the poisons Du Changning once sent her, there was a piece of Heart-devouring Incense.
When Rong Heng was explaining the usage of each poison, he mentioned that Heart-devouring Incense was developed by a noble in Qing Country hundreds of years ago.
The noble families devised the Heart-devouring Incense to specifically train the willpower of their family death warriors. This incense has no concealment, its scent and color cannot be hidden, it cannot be used as a stupefying fragrance, and it is not lethal. Its greatest effect is to make people wish for death.
Due to the rarity of the materials, it couldn’t be mass-produced, and with time, the Heart-devouring Incense had already been lost. The one Du Changning sent her was crafted according to ancient methods.
Anyone who smells the Heart-devouring Incense, no matter how profound their martial arts inner strength, will be so pained that they lose the ability to act, becoming helpless.
However, if one remains in the environment of Heart-devouring Incense for a long time and has strong enough willpower, they will gradually become numb to the pain.
Those with a detoxifying sachet can also relieve most of the pain.
So Rong Jing possessed such a thing; no wonder he dared to summon her to the palace confidently.
Gu Lan considered whether she would be incapacitated by stupefying drugs and then imprisoned in the dungeon as a bargaining chip for Rong Jing, but she didn’t expect Rong Jing did not prepare stupefying drugs for her, but intended to torture her instead.
In fact, before there’s concrete evidence or behavior of a rebellion from Dingyuan Marquis Mansion, Rong Jing wouldn’t dare to kill her, and could only vent his anger in this way.
Gu Lan used one hand to support her body, preventing herself from collapsing, while the other trembled as she wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, struggling to take in everything before her eyes.
In her limited field of vision, she saw a plum-colored sachet hanging from Zhang Fengcai’s waist. Her acute sense of smell detected a comforting medicinal fragrance emanating from it...
That should be the detoxifying sachet that counters the Heart-devouring Incense.
"Still able to stand? Seems this incense isn’t potent enough," Rong Jing said coldly.
Before Gu Lan’s eyes, a pair of black short boots with gold dragon patterns appeared through her blurred vision.
She panted as she looked at Rong Jing walking out from behind the screen, calculating in her heart whether she could endure the pain, seize the sachet from Zhang Fengcai’s waist, and exchange blows with Rong Jing in a life-and-death struggle.
The answer was yes.
Rong Jing’s martial skills should be mediocre; otherwise, he wouldn’t need to use Heart-devouring Incense against her. In the hall now, there were only her, Zhang Fengcai, and Rong Jing. Normally, Zhang Fengcai wasn’t a match for her, but now... she was in too much pain!
This feeling was as if every slender, sharp needle was driven into her body along the gaps of her bones, and she even felt that each breath tore at her flesh, and managed not to scream in pain, already exhausted her whole energy.
No, in a life-and-death exchange, she would suffer a loss...
Rong Jing picked up the incense tweezers next to the incense burner, seemingly intending to add more incense.
Zhang Fengcai’s voice was tinged with fear, perspiration beading on his forehead as he whispered, "Your Majesty, this incense is already potent... Even I’m a bit uncomfortable with a sachet."
The detoxifying sachet couldn’t completely block out the Heart-devouring Incense’s scent. Although it had no poison, if overdosed, pain could indeed kill someone.
"What use are you to me?"
Rong Jing snorted coldly, tossing aside the incense tweezers and sitting on a chair beneath the screen.
He looked down at the sweat-soaked Gu Lan with an indifference in his eyes.
Gu Lan’s teeth chattered as she raised her head slowly at Zhang Fengcai’s words, meeting Rong Jing’s gaze.
Suddenly, she noticed at Rong Jing’s waist...
It was empty.
—He wasn’t wearing a detoxifying sachet.