Chapter 84: Who are you calling a brat?

Xia Jiuxiang gave a strange smile and agreed to the challenge, and when Ming Ze saw that smile, his heart lurched. He suddenly felt that he had overlooked something.

Xia Jiuxiang turned back to her seat, and Jun Wuwen leaned close to her ear and asked in a low voice, "Who is that? How do you know him? Why did you bait him into a poison duel?"

Xia Jiuxiang glanced at him and said, "Are you checking my family register?"

Jun Wuwen reached out and seized her arm. There was no hint of jest in his eyes. Not long ago, he had still been carrying Xia Jiuxiang about in tender harmony, soaring through the skies and spanning the world; yet now his gaze held a chill.

Xia Jiuxiang briefly told him about what had happened at the eastern courtyard residence of the temple in the Great Li Kingdom.

Hearing it, Jun Wuwen's expression changed. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Xia Jiuxiang did not notice his oddness and said carelessly, "Just a nobody, nothing important. I didn't pay it any mind."

Mainly, Xia Jiuxiang had thought she could deal with Ming Ze herself and had not taken him too seriously. Besides, when Ming Ze fled that day, Jun Wuwen had not been there. Xia Jiuxiang had also worked a few tricks into Ming Ze's body; if the imperial guards could not catch her, that could hardly be blamed on Xia Jiuxiang.

Jun Wuwen's eyes turned sinister. A nobody? That man was a villain from the Southern Kingdom, and now he stood right before Jun Wuwen, yet there was no excuse left to seize him. And Xia Jiuxiang actually called him unimportant, as if she had not even paid attention?

Jun Wuwen looked at Xia Jiuxiang with growing suspicion, but the contest soon began. He stood by Xia Jiuxiang, his whole body radiating displeasure.

Xia Jiuxiang sat opposite Ming Ze. A bowl of clear water was placed before each of them. They were to poison the water with colorless, odorless toxins that would not kill, and see who could decipher the other's poison first. If it could not be solved within the time it took to burn one stick of incense, then it was a loss.

Both Xia Jiuxiang and Ming Ze poured an unknown liquid into the clear water. Then Xia Jiuxiang took the cup, slid it across the tabletop, and sent it flying to Ming Ze before his face, while the teacup in Ming Ze's hand flew toward Xia Jiuxiang in turn. Xia Jiuxiang lifted a hand and covered the cup.

She picked it up, sniffed it, and said, "Not bad. What poison is this? It's tea, isn't it? Clear water, and you've actually brewed a jasmine-tea fragrance into it."

Ming Ze looked at her smugly and said, "If you think it tastes good, then drink it." Afterward, he would make this woman understand what regret meant.

He was still waiting to see hesitation and fear on Xia Jiuxiang's face, but to his surprise she seized the cup and drained it in one gulp.

"It really does taste like jasmine tea," she said. "Delicious."

Was this the arrogance of a newborn calf, not fearing the tiger? Xia Jiuxiang had drunk it so readily. Ming Ze was astonished. She truly had no fear of death.

Xia Jiuxiang held the empty cup and clicked her tongue. "They say women care most about this face of theirs. I didn't expect you to be trying to ruin my looks. But Bone-Burning Fragrance? The scent is so clean and refined. It really is rather good."

Bone-Burning Fragrance was a kind of poison powder. Once swallowed, it would make the face itch unbearably; after scratching, the skin would ulcerate and refuse to heal. Ming Ze was clever enough to know he could not use a fatal poison, yet his malice was no less vicious, for he had tried to destroy her beauty.

Ming Ze stared at Xia Jiuxiang in disbelief. Bone-Burning Fragrance did indeed have a fresh and elegant scent, but ordinary people, once they drank it, would feel no different from having swallowed plain water. Xia Jiuxiang not only tasted it out, she identified it at once as Bone-Burning Fragrance!

He, Ming Ze, was considered a master poisoner in the Southern Kingdom, yet here he was repeatedly being thwarted by Xia Jiuxiang!

Ming Ze sprang up in shock and pointed at Xia Jiuxiang. "You... you... you're an expert in poison!"

Xia Jiuxiang shrugged. "This was a poison contest to begin with. If I weren't skilled with poison, why would I compete with you in poisoning and antidotes?"

Only then did Ming Ze realize he had been tricked by Xia Jiuxiang.

She had deliberately mocked him earlier for having poisoned Xia Jiuxiang at the Great Li Kingdom temple without any effect, belittling his skill at poisoning. Then, once Ming Ze had been provoked into choosing a poison contest, he had walked straight into Xia Jiuxiang's trap.

If Xia Jiuxiang truly was a master poisoner, then identifying poison so easily would be nothing at all. Yet Xia Jiuxiang showed no reaction whatsoever, making it impossible to tell just how she had neutralized it.

Xia Jiuxiang lifted the cup to show it was empty. "I've finished mine. Now it's your turn."

Ming Ze looked at the cup before him and began to feel afraid. If Xia Jiuxiang was truly skilled in poison, then what in the world had she given him?

Xia Jiuxiang said, "What, you're afraid to drink now? If you don't dare, then you've lost the match, you grandson."

Ming Ze slammed the table in fury. "Who are you calling grandson?"

Xia Jiuxiang bobbed her head. "Whoever answers."

Enraged, Ming Ze drank the contents of the cup in one gulp. "I've finished it."

"Of course you should have finished it," Xia Jiuxiang said.

Ming Ze's face twisted with rage. In the Southern Kingdom, he was the one who bullied others; how could he be the one being bullied here?

Xia Jiuxiang said smugly, "Since this is a poison duel, the next stick of incense is the time limit. Whoever can solve the poison wins. If you can't... then that will be unfortunate."

Ming Ze was not afraid of detoxifying it. He could use his inner force to dispel poison. After drinking it, he began to circulate his energy, trying to force the poison out. Yet Xia Jiuxiang, on the other hand, sat at the side, relaxed, cracking sunflower seeds and eating preserves and pastries, looking as though she had no intention of stopping at all.

Ming Ze looked at Xia Jiuxiang in confusion. How could she be so calm? Something was wrong. He had not seen the slightest sign that Xia Jiuxiang was trying to purge the poison, but Bone-Burning Fragrance was supposed to take effect at once. Why did she show no discomfort at all?

Just as Ming Ze's attention wavered, a fierce and surging pain crashed through his abdomen.

He suddenly clutched his stomach and doubled over. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead. What kind of poison was this? His inner force could not suppress it. It was even throwing his meridians into chaos. The more he tried to force the pain down with inner energy, the more violently it rebounded.

A chill sweat sprang up, and his scalp felt icy cold.

Two burly men stood beside Ming Ze. Though both wore the clothing of the Kingdom of Li, they could not conceal their imposing build or the exotic, foreign features of their faces.

Seeing Ming Ze grimacing in agony and leaning against the table, they cried in alarm and fury, "What poison did you put on my master's person? How dare you poison him!"

Xia Jiuxiang leaned back in her chair and said, "He was the one who insisted on the duel. He was the one who said it would be a poison contest. If he can't break the poison, how can that be blamed on me?"

Ming Ze bared his teeth in pain. "You... what poison did you give me... why does it hurt so much..."

He pressed a hand to his forehead, and the hair that he had inadvertently been gripping slipped loose when he lowered his hand, falling with a soft pat and no pain at all.

Ming Ze stared in shock and grabbed at it again and again. More hair fell pattering down.

Trembling, he glared at Xia Jiuxiang. "You... what poison did you use on me? Why is my thick, black, lustrous hair falling out in handfuls?"