Quick Wear Dream Qiqi

Chapter 428: The Heroic Knight 9

Meng Qiqi walked deeper into the cave with a sword in hand. The deeper she went, the stronger the smell of herbs in the air became, mixed with a strange fishy smell.

Turning a corner, she held up the night-shining pearl she had dug out from the crevice of the rock and shone it in the light. She almost cried out - there were five or six living people lying in a corner, wrapped in blood-soaked bandages, their skin a strange bluish-gray color, and their chests heaving weakly.

"Medicine man!" She took a half step back.

Rumor has it that some evil sects will capture living people to use as medicine, and mix various poisons and herbs into their bodies, turning them into half-human, half-ghost creatures.

These people looked like they were being treated like medicine jars. They twitched from time to time while unconscious, with black and purple juice leaking out of their mouths.

Meng Qiqi gritted her teeth, knowing that if she delayed any longer these people would die.

She looked around to make sure there was no one around, then turned her wrist and several dark brown recovery pills appeared out of thin air in her palm.

This recovery pill was made by her for fun using leftover medicinal herbs. Its effect is not as good as a regular recovery pill, but it is enough to deal with the current situation.

She pried open the medicine man's mouth, stuffed the pills in one by one, and scooped some clean water from the pond to feed him.

Time passed minute by minute, and the sound of Qinglan turning over came from outside the cave.

Meng Qiqi was so anxious that she kept rubbing her hands. When she was about to feed the medicine for the second time, the medicine man at the edge suddenly choked and coughed, and his cloudy eyes slowly opened.

"Jade... jade pendant..." The man grabbed her wrist, pus and blood running through his nails. "When they were snatching the Lingxi grass... I saw a jade pendant engraved with Tang characters..."

Before he could finish his words, the medicine man fainted again, but cold sweat had already seeped out of Meng Qiqi's back.

She had seen the Tang Clan's token before. The square jade token was engraved with the seal character "Tang" and the edge was carved with lotus patterns.

Could it be that the Lingxi grass lost by Yihua Palace is really related to the Tang Sect?

But the Tang Sect and Yihua Palace have nothing to do with each other, so why did they suddenly attack a herb?

She was thinking so hard that she had a headache when she heard footsteps outside the cave.

Meng Qiqi hurriedly stuffed the remaining pills back into the space, and pulled off her clothes to wipe the corners of the medicine man's mouth.

Qinglan came in holding a torch and saw the man on the ground with his sword half drawn. "What's going on?"

"I found it on the road." Meng Qiqi said calmly, "It looked like it was still breathing, so I gave it some water."

She kicked the broken porcelain pieces on the ground and said, "It seems that the herbalists have been robbed. How about we ask the nearby villages tomorrow?"

Qinglan looked at her suspiciously, and finally nodded.

The two men moved the medicine man to the haystack, but Meng Qiqi couldn't fall asleep.

In the darkness, she touched a smooth stone in her arms - it was taken out from the medicine man's hand, with a half-stain of blood on it, and vaguely visible strokes of the word "Tang".

The cry of an owl was heard outside the cave. Meng Qiqi looked at the shadow of the night pearl swaying on the cave ceiling, and suddenly remembered Tang Wuying's distorted face at the wedding.

Could it be that the theft of Lingxi grass and the farce at Shenshui Palace were already secretly connected?

…………

The morning light seeped in through the cracks in the cave, casting a faint glow on the medicine men's gray skin.

Meng Qiqi squatted beside the most sober medicine man, watching him holding the ceramic bowl, his hands still shaking uncontrollably, and half of the clear water in the bowl had spilled out.

The medicine man who mentioned the jade pendant last night was now staring at the night pearl on the top of the cave with empty eyes, muttering to himself, but the words could not be heard clearly.

"Brothers, do you remember the jade pendant I talked about yesterday? The one with the word 'Tang' engraved on it?" Meng Qiqi tried to soften her voice and took out a piece of broken porcelain from her sleeve. There was a rough outline of the Tang Sect token on it.

The medicine man who recovered first stared at the porcelain fragment for a long time, then suddenly started coughing violently, his knuckles turning white from pinching. "Jade pendant...what jade pendant? Girl, my head feels like it's filled with paste. I only remember that I was collecting herbs in the mountains, and then..."

He held his head in pain, veins popping out on his forehead, "And then I don't remember anything!"

The other medicine men also shook their heads, and some couldn't even remember their own names.

The medicine man who once held Meng Qiqi's wrist was now dodging her gaze, as if he was facing a flood or a beast.

Qing Lan frowned and pulled Meng Qiqi aside: "Qiqi, could it be that they were given Forget Worry Powder? This drug specifically destroys memory. The harder you try to recall, the worse the headache becomes."

Meng Qiqi looked at the mess of bandages and medicine residue on the ground, and alarm bells started ringing in her heart.

If these people's memories were really erased deliberately, it means that someone doesn't want them to tell the truth.

She squatted down, pretending to straighten the medicine man's clothes, but her fingertips quietly reached into his sleeve - there was a fresh knife wound there, with neat edges, obviously caused by a high-quality weapon.

"Girl, please save us." A medicine man suddenly grabbed the hem of Meng Qiqi's skirt, his eyes full of fear. "We woke up and felt something was wrong with our bodies, as if there were bugs crawling in our bones..."

Before he finished speaking, hurried footsteps were suddenly heard outside the cave, startling a flock of birds.

Qinglan immediately drew his sword and stood in front of Meng Qiqi.

I saw seven or eight people wearing black scarves rushing in with scimitars in their hands. There was a strange green glow on the blades - they were poisoned!

"Sure enough, it's here!" The leader sneered, "How dare you meddle in other people's business? No one will get out alive today!"

Meng Qiqi's heart sank. The reason these people came was too strange. It was obvious that they were coming for these medicine men.

She quietly reached for the sachet at her waist, which contained three specially made smoke bombs.

But just as she was about to make a move, she caught a glimpse of a jade pendant sticking out of the sleeve of a man in black from the corner of her eye - it was a light green jade with a faint lotus pattern on the edge!

"Senior Sister, be careful of their knives!" Meng Qiqi shouted and threw the smoke bomb to the ground.

In an instant, white smoke filled the entire cave, and screams and the sounds of weapons clashing mixed together.

She took the opportunity to approach the medicine man and said in a low voice, "Go through the secret passage behind the dark spring!"

It turned out that when she was exploring last night, she found a gap behind the pool that was only wide enough for one person to pass through.

In the chaos, Meng Qiqi felt someone grab her wrist.

She stabbed with her sword, but heard Qinglan groan.

"It's me!" Qing Lan's voice was filled with pain. "These people's martial arts are weird, like... like the Tang Sect's Thousand Changes Step!"

The smoke gradually dissipated, and the man in black had long disappeared, leaving only a few pools of black blood on the ground.

The morning mist outside the cave had not yet dissipated, and the smell of blood had already filled the humid air.

Qinglan covered the wound on his arm that was oozing black blood, his brows twisted into a knot.

She watched Meng Qiqi push the last medicine man into the secret passage behind the dark spring, and finally couldn't help but speak: "Qiqi, our mission this time is to find the Lingxi grass, not to be some chivalrous warrior!"

Meng Qiqi squatted down and carefully bandaged Qinglan's wound with a cloth strip.

When the special wound medicine was applied, Qinglan gasped in pain, but her words "Don't move" stopped her.

"Senior Sister, you saw it just now—those people were using the Tang Sect's Thousand Changes Steps, and one of them was wearing a jade pendant that looked like a Tang Sect token." Her fingertips paused above Qinglan's wound. "The theft of the Lingxi Grass is probably connected to the Tang Sect from the very beginning."

Qing Lan suddenly pulled his arm back, slamming his scabbard against the stone wall. "So what if it's related? We didn't even report our mission to the Grand Palace Master before we acted on our own, and now we're involved in this inexplicable medicine man incident! If something goes wrong, can you and I bear the responsibility?"

Her voice echoed through the cave, startling the bats roosting on the ceiling.

Meng Qiqi was silent for a moment, then took out the broken porcelain piece with the token painted on it from her sleeve.

The morning light shone through the vines at the entrance, casting mottled shadows on the rough surface of the porcelain. "Two months ago, the Lingxi grass was stolen, and now there are clues related to the Tang Sect. If we pretend not to see it..."

She raised her eyes to Qinglan, her gaze blazing. "When we return to Yihua Palace and face the Grand Palace Master's questioning, can you honestly say 'I have no idea'?"

Suddenly, there was a crisp sound of dead branches breaking outside the cave, and the two men turned around at the same time, holding their swords.

Yet there was nothing but swaying grass and trees.

Qinglan's shoulders were still tense. She knew that Meng Qiqi was right - Yihua Palace had lost its treasure, and although Yaoyue seemed calm on the surface, she had actually already laid a tight net in the martial arts world.

If they can really take this opportunity to catch the mastermind behind the scenes, it will be a great achievement for them.

"But these medicine men..." Qing Lan lowered his voice, "It's obvious that their memories were deliberately erased, and they are being hunted down. They dared to use a banned drug like Forget Worry Powder. The power behind them must be..."

"So we can't just stand by and watch." Meng Qiqi stuffed the broken porcelain pieces into Qinglan's palm. The cold touch made him subconsciously clench his fist. "The medicine man mentioned the jade pendant, and then he was killed. This means they saw something they shouldn't have seen. We saved their lives, so we should find out the truth."

She paused, then suddenly smiled, "Besides, with my senior sister here, what do I have to fear?"

These words made Qinglan's heart tremble.

She thought back to when she first met Meng Qiqi, the little girl who was stubbornly practicing sword skills in the martial arts arena. Now, there was a hint of calmness in her eyes and brows.

The mountain wind blew mist into the cave. She sighed and finally sheathed her sword again: "This won't happen again. But we must fight quickly. If we alert the Tang Sect..."

Before he finished speaking, a muffled groan suddenly came from deep in the secret passage.

The two looked at each other and rushed towards the dark spring at the same time.

The water's surface reflected their solemn expressions. As the ripples spread, Meng Qiqi silently calculated in her heart - the Tang Clan was well-known in the martial arts world for its hidden weapons and mechanical devices. If she really faced them, recovery pills and soft swords alone would not be enough.

Her fingertips quietly reached into her bosom, where she found a never-used "Thunder Bomb," secretly developed using rare materials from the Yihua Palace's warehouse...

At this moment, in the darkness, a pair of eyes were watching their every move through the gaps in the vines.

The man stroked the token with the word "Tang" engraved on his sleeve, a sneer appeared on the corner of his mouth, and turned around and disappeared in the morning mist.