“Alas, let us search again with more care.”
Leng Ruo Li put on a thoughtful expression, and after a moment, sighed.
Following that, the couple flew several circles above the entire Cold King's Estate, but still failed to locate the formation's eye, and they both felt a bit disheartened.
However, just then, Leng Ruo Li's sharp eyes spotted a flashing, luminous object near the rooftop where the Dark Night Pavilion Master and Huo Ying had escaped.
Leng Ruo Li quickly flew over and carefully picked up the shining object.
She curiously examined the object closely, guessing it to be a piece of high-quality jade.
Thus, she hurried to show it to Jun Mo Han.
“Jun Mo Han, what kind of jade do you think this is?” Leng Ruo Li asked curiously.
But upon seeing the piece of jade in Leng Ruo Li's hand, Jun Mo Han was stunned for a moment.
“Li'er, if I am not mistaken, this should be Warm Jade.”
“Warm Jade? Is it the same kind of Warm Jade with excellent healing properties that the Chu siblings mentioned last time?”
“It should be. As far as I know, on this continent, only the Chu family in Jiangcheng possessed a piece of Warm Jade. However, the Chu family’s Warm Jade was later stolen, and its whereabouts remain unknown. I didn't expect it to have fallen into the hands of the Dark Night Pavilion Master. Alas…”
Jun Mo Han sighed deeply.
“Then tomorrow, I will return this Warm Jade to Chu Ming Xuan and his siblings.”
Hearing this, Jun Mo Han nodded in agreement.
Afterward, the couple became worried again. How were they supposed to break the Golden Bell Shield formation above their heads?
Leng Ruo Li had heard Ming Jiu Xiao boast about his knowledge of formations before, but coincidentally, he had urgent matters yesterday and needed to leave the Cold King’s Estate for a few days. Therefore, her hope of relying on Ming Jiu Xiao to break the formation was certainly dashed.
But just as the Cold King and his consort were at a loss, a wine gourd suddenly flew from the shadows and hurtled towards them. Jun Mo Han swiftly extended an arm, embraced his consort around the waist, and with his other hand, quickly caught the flying wine gourd. He then looked towards where the wine gourd had come from and smiled.
“Senior Lu, have you thought of a good way to help us break the formation?” Jun Mo Han asked tentatively.
“In the southeastern corner of the estate, there is a Death Gate. Within it is hidden a formation eye stone. Go and retrieve that formation eye stone, and then place it in the shadowy area of the Life Gate in the northwest. This Golden Bell Shield formation can then be broken.”
Old Man Lu lay drunk in a corner of a rooftop.
“Thank you for your guidance, Senior Lu!”
Jun Mo Han cupped his hands in the direction of a shadowy spot on a rooftop and said.
Immediately after, he tossed the wine gourd that Old Man Lu had thrown back.
“Li'er, let’s go. I’ll take you to break the formation.”
The corners of Jun Mo Han’s lips curved into a handsome arc, and his eyes, like violets, suddenly held a gentle gaze as he looked at Leng Ruo Li.
Subsequently, the couple, hand in hand, flew to the southeastern corner of the Cold King’s Estate and found an oval formation eye stone, dark and black in appearance. Then, they placed this formation eye stone in the shadowy area of the Life Gate in the northwest. At this moment, the Golden Bell Shield formation above the Cold King’s Estate was immediately broken by the Cold King and his consort.
Not long after, the smell of blood within the Cold King’s Estate also faded considerably, and even the air became clearer.
After the Cold King and his consort broke the formation, they immediately arranged for people to clear the bodies of the black-clothed assassins from the estate.
Furthermore, Jun Mo Han ordered the guards in the estate to dispose of the bodies of the black-clothed assassins in a mass grave overnight, to prevent ordinary citizens from seeing them in the morning and being frightened, which would also negatively impact the Cold King’s Estate.
Meanwhile, Leng Ruo Li was busy examining the maidservants and young servants in the estate who had fainted from inhaling the poisonous smoke.
To her surprise, not a single one of the servants who had fainted from inhaling the poisonous smoke had perished.
“When the poisonous smoke was released in the estate earlier, who saved your lives?” Leng Ruo Li asked in astonishment.
“Replying to the Consort, it was Grandpa Lu, along with Miss Li Luo and Miss Yan Yu, who used silver needles to detoxify us,” a young servant replied tremblingly.
“Oh, I see!”
Leng Ruo Li quickly understood what had happened. Although she was curious about Old Man Lu’s medical skills, she recalled afterwards what Lu Li Luo had told her about Grandpa Lu teaching her how to perform acupoint injections for stopping bleeding and pain relief. Therefore, it wasn’t strange to her that Old Man Lu possessed medical skills.
When she had time another day, she, Leng Ruo Li, would personally cook a delicious meal to reward Grandpa Lu, as he had helped them, the couple, immensely twice tonight.
The next morning, just as the sky began to show the first hint of dawn, a flash of lightning quickly tore across the sky. Immediately, a clap of thunder echoed, and then a torrential downpour began.
Later, the rain grew heavier and heavier, quickly washing away the bloodstains on the ground of the Cold King’s Estate, as if nothing had happened the previous night.
When it was fully light, a new day began in the Cold King’s Estate. Last night felt like a terrible nightmare; after waking from the dream, life had to go on.
However, things were not as peaceful on Duke Lin’s side.
The Dark Night Pavilion Master, having been struck in the arm and calf by Leng Ruo Li the previous night, had sustained severe injuries.
Huo Ying swiftly took the heavily injured Lin Zhen Fan back to the small courtyard where he resided within the Duke Lin’s Mansion.
Then, she instructed Lin Zhen Fan’s secret guards to fetch two doctors from the imperial city’s medical clinics in the middle of the night to treat his wounds. However, these two doctors could only stop the bleeding for Lin Zhen Fan; they did not dare to remove the foreign objects (bullet casings) from within his flesh.
In agony, Lin Zhen Fan could only lie in bed and howl all night.
Later, out of options, Huo Ying asked one of Lin Zhen Fan’s personal guards to wake up the Duke and Duchess of Lin in the middle of the night. She then used it as an excuse to quickly slip away.
When the Duke and Duchess of Lin were informed of Lin Zhen Fan’s severe injuries, they rushed into Lin Zhen Fan’s room.
Upon seeing the basins of blood washed out onto the floor of the room, the Duke and Duchess of Lin felt their heads spin.
“Heavens, my lord, how… how could this second brother be so seriously injured?”
Duchess Lin, seeing the two wounds on Lin Zhen Fan’s body, found them quite chilling.
“Doctor, what kind of instrument inflicted these wounds on my brother?”
Lin Zhen Fei asked with concern.
“Replying to Duke Lin, the wounds on the body of the Great General who Pacifies the South were likely inflicted by some kind of hidden weapon. We are incompetent and truly dare not attempt to extract those two foreign objects for the Great General who Pacifies the South,” the two doctors said fearfully.
“Alas, alas. After daybreak, we will immediately arrange for people to request an imperial physician from the palace to examine my second brother,” Lin Zhen Fei said, frowning deeply.