57: Chapter 57 Poisoning and Framing, Exposed in One Move

The sun in Huoyang Commandery was scorching.

The Alchemy room in the backyard of Qixia Alchemy Pavilion was even hotter than outside.

The Earth Fire Array operated day and night, baking the blue bricks until they faintly glowed red.

"Control the fire, regulate your breath."

Yao Shifei's cold, clear voice echoed in the room.

Before the Pill Furnace, Jiang Qing's face was covered in soot and ash, her hair plastered to her cheeks by sweat.

She dared not slack off, forming seals with both hands to execute the Pill Collection Incantation.

The Pill Furnace trembled, and three round Qi Gathering Pills fell into the jade plate.

The quality was excellent: two High Grade and one Medium Grade.

Yao Shifei walked forward, pinched one between her fingers, and brought it to the tip of her nose to sniff lightly.

A Supreme Wood Spirit Root's perception of Spirit Medicine was far superior to ordinary people; although Jiang Qing possessed Gold-Fire Dual Spiritual Roots, her grasp of the heat was naturally precise—startlingly so.

"Ten days to go from producing waste pills to High Grade ones. Although these are the lowest-priced Medicinal Pill, this talent is on par with those so-called Prodigy from Medicine King Valley."

It was rare for Yao Shifei to give such high praise.

Outside the door, Jiang Feng leaned against the doorframe.

"In a while, all the ordinary Medicinal Pill can be handed over to this girl."

Jiang Qing wiped the soot from her face with her sleeve, revealing two rows of white teeth: "Second Master, it's all thanks to Second Mistress's teaching!"

Ever since her Awakening of her Spiritual Root, Jiang Qing had become confident and cheerful.

The dozen or so juniors brought by the Jiang Family were all busy; those without talent for Alchemy sorted Spiritual Plant, watched the furnace fire, or handled accounts, each performing their duties.

In the past half month, business at Qixia Alchemy Pavilion had been surprisingly good.

The market price was twelve Spirit Stone, but here they only sold for eight.

The quality was genuine, and the efficacy was pure.

The Loose Cultivator of Huoyang Commandery were not stupid; they had almost trampled the threshold flat.

Not only did the Loose Cultivator approve, but even the great Family in the city could no longer sit still.

In the morning, the Third Steward of the Zhou Family snuck in through the back door and bought three hundred Qi Gathering Pills.

In the afternoon, a branch member of the Zhu Family quietly delivered a cart of Spiritual Plant, specifically asking to exchange them for five hundred Rejuvenation Pills.

Both families pretended to be deaf and dumb on the surface, but behind the scenes, they had already cut off more than half of their business with the He Family, shifting it all to Qixia Alchemy Pavilion.

Only a fool wouldn't take advantage of a bargain; that was how the Immortal Realm had always been.

Compared to the bustle of Qixia Alchemy Pavilion, the He Family was now deserted.

There were no lights in the conference hall, and even in broad daylight, it felt eerie.

Patriarch He Wanshan leaned back in his armchair, his eye sockets sunken, his entire frame having thinned significantly.

They couldn't fight, and they couldn't afford to drag it out.

The income from the pill workshop worsened day by day, yet the Spirit Stone for the subordinates had to be paid in full without missing a single one.

If they dragged it out for a few more months, the He Family would collapse on its own.

"Patriarch."

In the dim light, Grand Elder He Shou stepped forward with his cane, pulled a small black bottle from his sleeve, and placed it gently on the corner of the table.

The bottle was sealed with dark red wax and bore no markings.

"This, combined with a pill bottle from Qixia Alchemy Pavilion, will splash dirty water on them... Whether the Loose Cultivator in the west of the city believe it or not will be up to them."

Patriarch He Wanshan stared at the small bottle, stroking the carvings on the armrest, and remained silent for a long time.

"Have the dead soldiers been found?"

"Their backgrounds are clean; it won't be traced back to the He Family. After it's done, Soul-Devouring Powder will silence them, and that will be the end of it."

Patriarch He Wanshan spat out a few words: "Do it tomorrow morning."

The sky was bright.

The street vendors at Black Stone Plaza had just set up their stalls, and Qixia Alchemy Pavilion had also removed its door panels.

With a dull thud.

A tattered straw mat was thrown heavily down at the foot of the steps.

The mat unrolled, revealing a male corpse.

His body was purple all over, black blood flowed from his seven orifices, and his death was gruesome.

Three men with red-rimmed eyes rushed up immediately after.

The leader, a dark-faced man, bellowed at the top of his lungs, his voice shaking the sky: "Murder! Qixia Alchemy Pavilion sells poisonous pills, they've killed someone!"

This shout immediately drew the attention of the entire street.

In the blink of an eye, the surrounding Loose Cultivator blocked the entrance completely.

Wearing a veil, Yao Shifei walked out of the shop gracefully.

She ignored the three wailing men and walked straight to the corpse, crouching down to place two fair, white fingers on the male corpse's blackened pulse.

Cold spiritual energy probed inside.

In just a breath, Yao Shifei withdrew her hand, stood up, and took out a handkerchief to wipe her fingertips carefully.

"It is indeed death from consuming the wrong medicine. Severe pill poison has attacked the heart and severed the Meridians."

The dark-faced man immediately jumped up: "Did everyone hear that! The shopkeeper admitted it herself! My brother bought Qi Gathering Pills from you yesterday, and after swallowing it, he died from the poison in less than half an hour! You are murdering for money!"

A commotion rippled through the crowd.

Many Loose Cultivator subconsciously touched the Storage Pouch at their waists; some even took out the Medicinal Pill they had just bought, clutching them in their hands to inspect.

"Empty words are no proof. Where is the evidence?" Yao Shifei's voice was flat.

"We expected you to deny it!"

The dark-faced man pulled a small white jade bottle from his bosom and held it high, turning the base over.

A tiny Qixia cloud pattern was clearly engraved on it.

"This is a bottle from your shop, right! Inside is half a poisonous pill that hasn't been finished!"

He pulled out the wooden stopper and poured the blackened half-pill into his palm.

Everyone stretched their necks.

The jade bottle could not be fake, and the cloud pattern on the bottom was clear.

The expressions all around changed.

The Loose Cultivator who had originally been watching the spectacle now had eyes filled with vigilance and hostility.

Yao Shifei stepped forward and pinched the half-pill from the man's hand.

With a slight force, the pill crumbled into powder, and a pungent, fishy stench spread.

"The bottle is mine. The medicine is not."

The man stiffened his neck and sneered: "You say it isn't, so it isn't? Could it be that we poisoned our own brother just to extort a few Spirit Stone from you?"

Yao Shifei didn't respond, turning instead to look at the surrounding Loose Cultivator, her voice raised by two degrees.

"Since you all often buy Medicinal Pill from my Qixia Alchemy Pavilion, feel free to take them out and test them."

A few bold Loose Cultivator took out their Qi Gathering Pills.

"Bring the Medicinal Pill to your nose and smell it; besides the natural fragrance of the Spiritual Plant, is there any other scent?"

The Loose Cultivator followed suit. Someone sniffed and quickly cried out.

"There is! There really is a faint scent of pine!"

"Mine too!"

Only then did Yao Shifei look at the dark-faced man.

"Every batch of Medicinal Pill refined by Qixia Alchemy Pavilion has a drop of purified Green Pine Dew added before the pill is formed. This scent lingers for a long time and only disappears when burned with spirit fire."

She raised her finger, pointing at the man's open palm.

"This half-pill of yours is full of the stench of Snake Kiss Grass; is there even a trace of pine scent?"

The man's face turned pale.

The onlookers were not stupid.

The situation had reversed too quickly; the Loose Cultivator who had just been clamoring for a refund all realized what was happening.

It was clearly a frame-up.

On the periphery of the crowd, the one-armed swordsman Captain Zhao Du spat, gripped his sword hilt, and his face turned ashen.

"I've been buying Medicinal Pill for half a month; which one has ever had a problem? Someone paid to buy three lives just to smear mud on them; who this person is, one could figure out with their toes!"

As soon as his voice fell, the Loose Cultivator exploded in an uproar.

"Damn it! Setting up a poison scheme to harm Qixia Alchemy Pavilion, do they want us to have no medicine to eat in the future?"

"The He Family! Who else could it be but the He Family!"

The dark-faced man and his two accomplices exchanged glances, cold sweat pouring down.

The matter was exposed; staying any longer would be waiting for death.

The three of them retreated in unison, wanting to slip into the crowd and run away.

A massive pressure of spiritual energy crashed down suddenly.

The three men's knees went weak, and they knelt heavily on the bluestone slabs, shattering the floor tiles.

Yao Shifei walked in front of the three and looked down: "Who instigated this?"

The man opened his mouth, his tongue just moving.

The three men's eyes bulged simultaneously, and their throats emitted a strange "gurgling" sound.

Immediately after, a wisp of foul-smelling black smoke emerged from the center of their brows.

Without even a scream, the three Physical Body fell straight over, their skin rapidly turning purple and festering; they were dead.

The onlookers were so scared they retreated again and again.

Silencing them.

The employer had even calculated the end for his own people.

This scene was far more effective than a confession—everyone present now understood how ruthless the person behind the scenes was.

On the second-floor balcony.

Jiang Feng leaned against the railing, flicking the finished core of a spirit fruit precisely into a bamboo basket at the corner of the street.

He had watched this play from beginning to end.

"Patriarch He Wanshan."

Jiang Feng recited these three words and smiled.

"Husband."

Yao Shifei had come up to the second floor at some point, taking off her veil to reveal a face slightly flushed from the heat.

Jiang Feng glanced at her, his gaze lingering for a beat on that flush.

"You've worked hard, having to show your face while pregnant."

Yao Shifei didn't acknowledge this concern, but instead pulled a silk handkerchief from her sleeve and unfolded it; on it was a simple diagram of human Meridians.

"There are residual spiritual energy marks inside the male corpse; the technique is of the eighth level of Qi Refining, and the way it gathers Qi follows the methods of the He Family."

Jiang Feng took the handkerchief, glanced at it, folded it, and tucked it into his sleeve.

"Keep it. Killing requires a legitimate reason, and this thing is more useful than a blade."

He stood up, brushed the fruit debris from his hands, his tone exactly the same as when he was eating the spirit fruit.

"Tell Young Master Jiang Chen to go sharpen his blade. Doesn't the He Family like to play in the shadows? Then let's help them bring all those shadows out into the light."