The Fourth Lady

"That's right, if I've guessed correctly, she must be raising a ghost ringed scorpion in her own body like a parasite." Chonglou looked to Murong Jingxuan and respectfully answered, "Although this miss is quite daring, if she had failed she would have died."

"Then why did she pass out? Saying it like that isn't logical." Murong Jingxuan looked to him with a frown.

That look made Chonglou swallow his saliva. Why did he feel that his master was interested in that lady? Could it be that red rain* will fall?

(*TN: Red rain symbolizes something good will come; in this context he most likely thinking along the lines of romance since traditional weddings are in red, thus he's alluding to that)

"Master, you don't need to worry. This young lady is quite impressive." Chonglou bluntly said as he looked to Murong Jingxuan, "Who is this young lady? I keep feeling she looks familiar."

"She's Su Yun's daughter, and also the girl that unintentionally saved me many years ago. But her personality is really different from before. Although Fengluo looked into her, could it be that the people of the Su manor were so impatient that they wanted to kill her? Murong Jingxuan furrowed his brows as he muttered to himself.

"Fengshuang, go and investigate any news regarding Su Qingyan." As if he'd thought of something, Murong Jingxuan smiled, "If there's really no other way, then go find the 'Pavilion of Thousand Beasts' and buy all the information relating to the Su manor in the recent years. Most importantly, find out just who in the world would want to kill Su Qingyan."

Although Fengshuang's figure didn't appear, his voice respectfully sounded in the air, "I will take care of it right away."

"Chonglou, can you figure out exactly what poison she's been suffering from since birth?" When Murong Jingxuan turned his head towards him, he had a serious look.

Chonglou nodded at Murong Jingxuan, "Nevertheless, I would still need Miss Su to cooperate with me. Else, even I wouldn't be able to tell what kind of poison it may be." "Shizi sure is interested in the poison within me."

When he heard this voice, he looked over to see Su Qingyan standing at the doorway. Her face was still gravely pale, as if the arrogant young girl who was bickering with him earlier was completely different person.

"Could it be that you know what you've been poisoned with?" Murong Jingxuan said this as he walked over to her side, supporting her unstable body. "Just who was the one that poisoned you, making you become like this?"

Su Qingyan felt the warmth coming from his hands. Generally speaking, how could someone as cold blooded as snakes have such warm hands? She attentively looked at the 20* year old young man before her and helplessly shrugged her shoulders, "Truthfully speaking, even I'm not clear as to who it is that wants to harm me."

(*TN: The original term is 'ruoguan' which literary means the approach of adulthood, which in ancient china refers to when a young man, reaches 20 according to traditional Chinese system; this system starts at age 1 when a child is born. So technically going by modern system he would be 19)

"Then do you know what you've been poisoned with?" Seeing her forcing herself to be strong, Murong Jingxuan impatiently asked.

"Do you know the usefulness of the banded krait and king cobra?" Su Qingyan raised her eyebrows at him, "To tell you the truth, I can only use them to temporarily suppress the poison in me, this is the same reason I'm using the ghost ringed scorpion."

Murong Jingxuan didn't think that Su Qingyan would explain it to him. Seeing her delicate and fragile appearance, he lightly tapped her on the nose, "Chonglou just said that the poison within you, you've had since you were in the womb."

"According to my speculations, that is the case as well. But the servant girl by my side told me that I was born at a military camp. If there really was someone that wanted to harm me, then my mother should have perished as well. However, my mother has always been in good health."

Chonglou listened to what Su Qingyan said. He then took a step forward and bowed to her with his hands before him, "I am his Highness's servant from the imperial physician's court. Just now, I heard Miss Su say that your mother has always been in good health, and even after giving birth to the miss she is still very strong?"

Su Qingyan looked to him and nodded, "That's right, I remember that even after giving birth to me, mother was still in good health. Yet, my body has always never been well. Right when I was born, the imperial doctor kept saying that I won't live past 10."

Chongloug turned to his master with an even more grave expression, "Your Highness, if I'm not wrong, then the poison that Miss Su has been poisoned with must be the 'Seven Toxin Five Flower' powder. This particular kind of poison is extremely prevalent in Xiyue. It's said that this poison was created by a clan from the Xiyue Kingdom. The ingredients that this poison is composed of contains the spiritual essences of the heaven and earth. It varies from person to person, thus there are 35 different ways to prepare it. For every mistake in the sequence, there's a possibility of death."

As Murong Jingxuan listened to Chonglou explain, his brows were tightly knitted into a frown. Su Qingyan was just shy of 15, yet to reach marriageable age. 15 years ago, when Qinzhou was locked in battle with Xiyue, Su Yun had lead the army into battle, forcing Xiyue to retreat. Could it be that something unspeakable had happened during then, which caused the pregnant su madam to be poisoned by the 'Seven Toxin Five Flower' poison?

"Beautiful, were you poisoned by the 'Seven Toxin Five Flower' powder?" When Murong Jingxuan looked to her he had a serious look.

Seeing Murong Jingxuan's expression, she could only helplessly nod.

That's right, she was undoubtedly suffering from the 'Seven Toxin Five Flower' poison. When the golden ringed snake had told her, she was just as shocked. But she didn't expect that just from her words, Chonglou would be able to deduce that she was suffering from the 'Seven Toxin Five Flower' poison.

It's just as Chonglou said, the 'Seven Toxin Five Flower' poison has 35 different combinations, and she just didn't know which combination that she was poisoned with. She couldn't just rashly try to treat the poison herself.

"Chonglou, can you find out which combination of the 'Seven Toxin Five Flower' poison that Miss Su was poisoned with?" Murong Jingxuan looked to Chonglou still with a stern expression. Listening to his words, Su Qingyan and Chonglou simultaneously replied, "Impossible..."

Su Qingyan looked to Murong Jingxuan and withdrew from his embrace, "Shizi, you don't understand, not only doctor Chonglou can't figure out which combination of the 'Seven Toxin Five Flower' poison I'm afflicted with, but even the ghost ringed scorpion in my body doesn't know. Although I know how to concoct the 'Seven Toxin Five Flower', I don't know the exact sequence in which the ingredients are put in. Unless we find the culprit from that time, I can only temporarily treat the symptoms by countering the poison in my body with another poison.

"So that's why you let the ghost ringed scorpion reside in your body?" Murong Jingxuan stared at her as a tinge of pain flashed through his heart. If he had known earlier, then he wouldn't have tried to stop her. "Though, this ghost ringed scorpion originally is one of the ingredients of the 'Seven Toxin Five Flower' poison, so I can only rely on it to suppress the poison in my body. As for the other ingredients, they're rare to begin with anyway." Su Qingyan let out a heavy sigh before suddenly vomiting a pool of black blood.

"What's wrong? Why did it become like this?" Murong Jingxuan immediately held on to her body that was on the verge of collapse. He looked to Chonglou and anxiously spoke, "Chonglou, just what in the world is happening? How could she have such a big reaction?"

Su Qingyan pulled on Murong Jingxuan's sleeve and shook her head, "Shizi, this has nothing to do with doctor Chonglou. Earlier, the ghost ringed scorpion also left toxins in my body. This black blood is just my body expelling the poison, there's no need for your Highness to worry."☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐