Inside the Marquis's estate, even Marquis Tenglong himself had been alarmed.
The spiritual medicine masters in the manor came forward one by one to examine the patient, including the newly recruited officials from the Pill King Garden — all of them took turns inspecting Long San's condition.
Director Wang, the spiritual medicine master Marquis Tenglong relied on most heavily, was equally at a loss.
"My lord, this is no ordinary poison. It entered through the pores — this is the king of poisons. Let me see… what's this?"
Director Wang had been racking his brains for a way to excuse his incompetence when he suddenly discovered a small cloth strip tucked inside Long San's lapel.
On it were actually four characters — fight poison with poison.
Behind the cloth strip, several tiny characters were written in fine brushwork — let the manor's greatest poison master try this poison.
Marquis Tenglong was about to reach for the cloth strip when Director Wang quickly stopped him. "Marquis Long, you mustn't touch it — it might be poisonous."
Now, the entire Marquis Tenglong estate was like birds startled by the mere twang of a bowstring. Hearing Director Wang's words, Marquis Tenglong withdrew his hand and stared at the cloth strip, his expression growing terrifying.
"My lord, this Long San was sent by you to hunt down Jiang Chen. And this cloth strip carries a pointed message. Could it be that Long San actually fell at Jiang Chen's hands?" Director Wang had become quite wary of Jiang Chen lately.
"Impossible! How old is that Jiang Chen? In terms of cultivation, he's at most in the high-level True Qi Realm — how could he possibly inflict this kind of injury on Long San?" Long Zhaofeng shook his head.
"But it says here 'fight poison with poison.' This is clearly payback without delay — revenge for the poisoning of Jiang Feng that day, isn't it?"
Long Zhaofeng continued to shake his head. "I've investigated the Jiang family's assets thoroughly. Whether it's Jiang Feng or Jiang Chen, they simply don't have this kind of capability. Long San is a True Qi Grandmaster — and not an ordinary one. I suspect someone has been secretly helping the Jiang family. And it's quite possibly someone from the Eastern Royal Clan."
Now that the Jiang family and the Eastern Royal Clan had grown close, it wasn't impossible that the royals had secretly sent a powerful cultivator to assist Jiang Chen.
As for Jiang Chen personally having the strength to harm Long San — that simply defied all logic.
"Old Wang, you've been rambling on and on — can you cure Long San's poison or not?" Marquis Tenglong did genuinely place great importance on Long San.
"This subordinate specializes in the way of spiritual medicine and has no authority to speak on the subject of poisons. The only sliver of hope is to wait for Master Zi to emerge from seclusion," Director Wang said, though inwardly he understood better than anyone that Long San would never survive long enough for Master Zi to come out.
Moreover, the poison had already nearly reached the heart. Even if Master Zi intervened, there was no guarantee of salvation. Besides, while Master Zi's expertise in poisons was formidable, he might not be able to unravel this particular poison's mysteries and neutralize it in time.
Long San was clearly at death's doorstep.
"The Jiang family!" A terrifying light flickered in Long Zhaofeng's eyes.
"My lord, what should be done about the wandering cultivators who brought Third Master back?" asked a captain of the estate's core guard.
"I don't want to hear any idle gossip spreading outside," Long Zhaofeng said flatly.
"Understood." The guard captain nodded, grasping his lord's meaning. Marquis Tenglong clearly did not want word of Long San's fate to spread.
What kind of person could keep a secret best? A dead one, of course.
…
Having returned to the Royal Capital, Jiang Chen disguised himself and made his way back to the Jianghan estate. The round trip had taken exactly half a month.
The first mission could be considered a complete success.
But Jiang Chen was in no rush to report in. Instead, he first informed his father, Jiang Feng, of the Long San affair.
"Long San?" After hearing the account, disbelief shot from Jiang Feng's eyes. "Chen'er, are you saying you used poison to cripple Long San?"
"To be precise, he's probably dead." In his previous life, Jiang Chen had been a grandmaster of alchemy in the Myriad Heavens Planes — using poison, a mere side path, was child's play.
He had sent Long San back with full calculation.
There was absolutely no possibility of the other side saving him!
Jiang Chen was not the type to hold grudges excessively, but neither was he someone who could be trampled on without consequence. What the Marquis Tenglong estate had done to his father last time — today's strike against Long San was merely the first step of his retaliation, barely enough to count as interest. In the future, there would certainly be far more principal to collect!
The words on that small cloth strip had been deliberately placed by Jiang Chen himself — a warning to the Marquis Tenglong estate.
As for those wandering cultivators, Jiang Chen naturally wouldn't send innocent people to their deaths. Those fellows had been loitering around the outskirts of the Royal Capital, openly posing as wandering cultivators while secretly engaging in robbery and murder for profit.
In plain terms, they were a band of vicious bandits.
Jiang Chen had sent them to the Marquis Tenglong estate precisely because he had calculated that the estate would certainly kill them to silence them.
"Chen'er, Long Zhaofeng is the kind of ruthless man who repays every slight a hundredfold. Long San was one of his most trusted confidants, and his strength could easily rank in the top five of the Marquis Tenglong estate. If this man is truly dead, Marquis Tenglong will inevitably launch even more vicious retaliation against you."
Jiang Feng spoke with gravity. When it came to this son, he could no longer judge him by conventional standards.
"Mm, you can never be too careful." Jiang Chen nodded. "But I can't very well stay locked indoors just because they might retaliate. I'm going to train for a few days — this time, I aim to break through to the Eight-Meridian True Qi Realm and further strengthen my cultivation!"
In the path of martial cultivation, relying solely on closed-door training sometimes led to bottlenecks.
Venturing outside, walking the world, and gaining experience, however, often brought fresh insights and new understanding — triggering the catalyst for a breakthrough.
This mission had further refined both Jiang Chen's resolve and his experience. The sights he had seen and the lessons he had learned would all be distilled into essence, absorbed by him, becoming invaluable catalysts for his martial breakthrough.