My Years in the Jianghu with the Prince: A Time of Unethical Conduct

Chapter 27 The Totem Reappears

As Xie Yan said, sure enough, within two days, the two eagles flew back together.

Xie Yan came out of the room. He had changed his face again, but the good children could still recognize him at a glance.

After he finished reading the letter in the mailbox, Xuanfeng rushed over.

"how's it going?"

"The person is already on their way, but it will take some time. We can set off for Yongcheng first, and that way we can meet up faster."

As Xuanfeng traveled along, his already troubled face grew even more distressed. "Where is this person? I should hurry and go fetch him so that I can treat him as soon as possible."

"Don't worry."

Xie Yan put away the letter and then reached out to take a necklace from the good child's neck.

There was a hidden clasp at the back of the collar that could be opened, and if you listened closely, you could hear crawling sounds, as if there was something alive inside.

He shook the collar at Xuanfeng and laughed, "There's a way to alleviate this."

Xie Yan looked at Chu Ling, who arrived late, and said, "Let's go find Miss Tao Xian now."

Meanwhile, Tao Xian herself, who has taken on this important task, has been working tirelessly day and night to verify medical theories.

When they arrived at Peach Blossom Courtyard, it was filled with the corpses of those who had died from poisoning.

The stench of corpses filled the courtyard, enough to make anyone faint from just one whiff. Xie Yan and the other two had to suppress their sense of smell before stepping inside.

They saw Tao Xian dressed in coarse cloth, wearing a face mask, holding tools, and busily dissecting the corpse.

Standing next to her was Yu Bai, whose face was ashen and whose hands could barely hold the book, yet she still had to take notes for her.

"Amazing, truly amazing. This poison can actually cause such severe organ failure."

"How is it possible that this body hasn't decomposed much despite being dead for so long?"

"Hiss—is it because of the Gu worms? Looks like I'll have to catch some live ones to study them when I have time."

As Tao Xian worked, she kept muttering to herself.

She was so focused that she didn't even notice someone approaching. Yu Bai, however, took a moment to glance at them with sympathy.

Tao Xian stabbed the corpse on the table again. As expected, the blood on the corpse did not begin to congeal like that of an ordinary corpse. Instead, a large amount of blood gushed out, even staining Tao Xian's clothes.

But she didn't care at all, and instead urged Yu Bai to hurry up and catch the flowing blood in the bucket.

It wasn't until Xuanfeng, who had almost been splattered with blood, coughed forcefully a few times that Taoxian reacted, raising her head to look over with a heart in her hand.

"what's up?"

A beautiful, angelic girl had a bucket of heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys next to her left foot, and a vat full of blood that was so red it was almost black next to her right foot. In front of her lay a disemboweled, unrecognizable corpse.

For a moment, the three battle-hardened men in front of her couldn't bear to look at her directly and silently decided that they should just eat vegetarian food for the time being.

"Perhaps Miss Peach Fairy should stop for a while."

Xie Yan cleared her throat and held up what she was holding. "Here are some Gu worms that can alleviate the condition. Please grind them up and add a few herbs to make a decoction to feed to the person affected by the Gu. After that, they will fall into a deep sleep and will no longer be able to be controlled by anyone."

"Oh?"

Tao Xian's eyes lit up, and she casually tossed the thing in her hand to Yu Bai. The latter caught it unexpectedly and screamed in fright.

She wiped her hands clean before taking the necklace, and after confirming the remaining ingredients with Xie Yan, she immediately began to boil the medicine.

Behind her were Yu Bai, whom she had pulled aside to record, and Xuan Feng, who had gone to help.

Xie Yan kicked the heart that had rolled to her feet into the bucket, giving herself a perfect score.

He looked at the corpses scattered on the ground and saw several familiar faces.

Chu Ling watched his actions from the side and saw Xie Yan suddenly seem to have seen something, hurriedly stepping over the corpse and heading straight in one direction.

"how?"

Xie Yan walked to a corpse, squatted down, pulled out a dagger, and used it to open the corpse's clothes. Suddenly, she turned around and said, "Come and take a look at this."

Seeing that his expression was not right, Chu Ling went over to take a look. Xie Yan pointed out that the corpse he was looking at was that of another leader of the Holy Sun Sect that day.

The body was still intact, indicating that it hadn't been dissected by Tao Xian yet, but had simply been tossed into a corner, lying face down and back up.

Xie Yan used her dagger to cut open the back of the corpse, where a strange tattoo was etched.

Xie Yan stroked her chin thoughtfully: "Hiss—Your Highness, don't you think this tattoo looks somewhat familiar?"

When he said that, Chu Ling also felt that it looked quite familiar, but if he had seen such a strange tattoo before, how could he not recognize it?

Seeing that Chu Ling couldn't give an answer right away, Xie Yan pondered for a while, "I feel like I've seen him somewhere before."

But when they thought about the familiar look, the answer became obvious.

Chu Ling looked serious as he took out the long-unseen half of the treasure map from his pocket and unfolded it. The two of them turned their gazes to the lower left corner of the treasure map.

Upon close comparison, the still intact part of the tattered totem on the treasure map was exactly the same as the tattoo on the back of the corpse's heart!

The two exchanged a serious look, then suddenly turned and looked around the other courtyards.

Their unusual behavior also caught the attention of Xuanfeng and the others who were helping to prepare the medicine outside.

"Your Highness, what has happened?"

"Peach Fairy, where is the Second Master's body?"

"Second-in-command?" Tao Xian remembered the exact location of the corpses. "He was in the east corner. I haven't even started examining his body yet."

Chu Ling leaped down in front of a corpse, kicked it over, and used his finger to tear open the clothes on the back of the body, revealing an identical tattoo.

Xuanfeng also came over to take a look out of curiosity.

Upon seeing the patterns on the treasure map and the corpse, his expression immediately changed drastically. "What is this?!"

These two Christians have the same tattoo, so it's safe to assume that even if the tattoo isn't a Christian totem, it's still related to the Christian Church.

A cult of outlaws not only had connections with former officials of the previous dynasty, but also knew the secret location of the previous dynasty's treasury.

The cult's purpose is now crystal clear.

"The medicine is ready!"

Yu Bai called out from outside, and the three of them had no choice but to put that matter aside for now, as the most urgent task was to detoxify.

Tao Xian boiled three large vats of Gu worms and medicine, and had Xuan Feng and the others give each person afflicted with the Gu a large bowl of it.

Everyone held their breath, not daring to breathe loudly.

But the medicine was indeed very effective. Before half an incense stick's time had passed, those who had been struggling with their eyes open for days began to fall asleep one after another.

Just to be on the safe side, Tao Xian untied the group to check on them. Only after confirming that they were indeed completely still did everyone feel a sense of relief.

"Now that the poison has been temporarily relieved, let's pack our bags immediately and head to Yongcheng."

Chu Ling gave orders to everyone.