Chapter 31 – Poisoning without any sense of beauty

Inside the pastry, there is naturally a good poison that Fan Xian has carefully prepared, and which is essential for home use, and which he can’t afford to miss on this northbound trip.

With the other party’s status thought not bother to use fraud, see the other party see through this, Fan Xian said with a bitter smile, “I’m confident that this powder should not have any odor at all, how did Mr. Xiao detect it?”

Sean glanced at him and slowly closed his eyes again, saying, “You are Fei Jie’s student, no matter how much you come up with your own loom, you still can’t get out of Fei Jie’s category. I have been in your prison for more than ten years taking the poisons that Fei Jie dispensed, he and Chen Pingping couldn’t afford to kill me, so they had to use these medicines to damage my body’s meridians. If, in your place, you had been eating shortcake at a stall for more than ten years, and suddenly one day, the stall’s teacher’s new apprentice made another shortcake, and even though it was made to taste like scallion oil, I think you would still be able to taste that it was a product of that stall.”

A hint of admiration rose from the depths of Fan Xian’s heart, and he sighed, “It’s probably because each stall has a different portion of flour, and water.”

“Yeah.” Sean smiled, but that smile sent a bit of a chill down one’s spine, “It’s the same with poisons, old and undead like me, tasting poisons isn’t based on how it tastes like anymore, it’s purely based on the texture.”

Fan Xian opened his mouth to say something, but finally just smiled and sighed, “What realm is this? This is the realm of eating poison as if it were a large white meal.” Since Xiao En tasted the poison in the pastry and still ate it openly, he thought that the poison must not have any effect, Fan Xian then said with a smile, “There are three great masters of using poison in the world, my family’s teacher is one, and there is another one who is already dead, I almost forgot that Mr. Xiao is also one of these three, the kid is really a bit self-important.”

Xiao En moved his wrist, the chain dangled, and Fan Xian aptly delivered the clear water to his hands.

When the bowl of water was finished, Sean suddenly closed his eyes and smiled, “What if I have to go out of my way?”

“There’s a toilet in the car.”

“It’s a nice sun out there.”

“It’s already setting.”

“It’s also good to see the nighttime colors of Gyeongguk.”

“The night is cold and dewy. Mister is old, it’s better to stay in the car and rest.”

An old man and a young man, one closed his eyes and lightly spat out words, while the other smiled in response. Sean opened his eyes and said serenely, “I’ve been in jail for many years, and I’ve only seen a sliver of sunlight at the gate, Lord Fan, how about allowing me to go out and take a look?”

Fan Xian shook his head very firmly, but still had a smile on his face, “It’s dangerous.”

“I’m not dangerous.” Sean said softly, “Since you have reached an agreement with the north, anyone with some wisdom knows that following the legation peacefully is the wisest choice for me.”

Fan Xian calmly responded, “Mr. Xiao, before leaving the Kyoto Road, the safety of the legation all the way was the responsibility of the Kyoto Guard Division. I think you should be able to guess why this time, Qing is willing to hand you back to Northern Qi, which is a very humiliating thing to do, so I’m worried that if you do get off the car in handcuffs and shackles to spread the wind, there might be many feathered arrows suddenly flying from the distance to shoot you into a hedgehog.”

Sean knew that what this enemy young lord said was not false and smiled, “Don’t you want to kill me? If I return to the north, within three years, I will surely inflict losses on your country that are difficult to bear.”

Fan Xian shook his head, but his clear face was filled with a sense of confidence, “I’m not from the older generation, so I only have respect for you in regards to the legends, and I never thought that even if you returned to the north, you would still be able to call the shots like you did back then. Of course, if I can kill you, this is the easiest way to deal with it, but compared to that, I value the safety of that bargaining chip that I exchanged with you, so don’t worry, I will definitely keep you alive all the way up to the upper capital of Northern Qi and give it to those friends of yours.”

Sean was silent.

Fan Xian smiled and said, “Until now, I still can’t accurately judge how much strength you currently retain, so I’ll be very careful along the way, and as for the outside of your carriage, I’ll maintain enough strength at all times to ensure that when you want to get out of the carriage for a break and blow off some steam, we’ll be able to react accordingly right away.”

Sean smiled and still didn’t say anything.

Since the secret poisoning had been detected and was clearly ineffective, there was no choice but to come up with an openly savage trick–Fan Xian exhaled softly, then stood up, stretched his feet over the chains that firmly bound Sean’s hands, and strangely tied a piece of black cloth around Sean’s elbows, and gently, but extremely impolitely, patted the old man on the backs of his hands.

Then he took out a flat iron box from his pocket, open the box to take a long, thin, sharp and incomparable long needles, thin syringes skillfully made hollow, long needles after a bulge, I do not know what material to do, I think it is to instill the medicine with the storage device.

Sean’s eyes blood red color, coldly looked at Fan Xian’s eyes, while Fan Xian holding the needle close to the pace without a trace of panic.

The carriage was suddenly flooded with a very strange feeling, Fan Xian’s nose suddenly felt slightly sweet, the air was full of blood, and even vaguely red, this breath came from Xiao En’s vaguely angry body.

The tiger guards and officials of the Supervisory Yuan outside the carriage immediately sensed the abnormality in the carriage and ran over in silence, taking out the weapons in their hands. Wang Qinian, who was guarding under the carriage, glanced back at the car and frowned slightly before waving his hand at the people beside the car who were like enemies, signaling that there was nothing wrong.

On the carriage, Fan Xian slowly removed the fine needle from the back of Sean’s hand, took out a silk scarf and wiped the tip very carefully, then looked up and smiled, “Thank you, Mr. Sean, for your cooperation.”

Not knowing what acupuncture point the needle was stabbed on, or what kind of medicine was actually instilled in the needle, Shawn’s amazing aura had weakened a lot, and even his face looked a bit resigned up.

“I respect you, just respect the elderly.” Fan Xian walked towards the outside of the carriage with a rickety posture, “But you have to remember, you’re not some Northern Wei secret spy leader or a fierce man who shakes the world right now, you’re just my prisoner, and if you want to try and escape, I’ll have plenty of ways to kill you.”

“My lord, there is no need to be so careful.” Wang Qinian accompanied him as he sat under a tree by the roadside, looking at Fan Xian’s slightly tired face and said, “If Sean wants to regain his freedom, he should cooperate with us and honestly enter the border of Northern Qi.”

Fan Xian shook his head and said, “You don’t understand, a character like Sean, so what if he’s been locked up for ten or twenty years? Look at his eyes, what else is there besides resentment? There’s also the terrifying insight into everything, and the burning ambition. If he’s only asking for freedom, then he’ll cooperate with us, but if he’s asking for more, he’ll definitely find a way to escape. He doesn’t have a single chance with the tight watch in the Procuratorate’s dungeon, but he has too many chances on this long road north, so I’m going to do everything I can to weaken his fighting ability and desire to fight while keeping him alive.”

“Why is he fleeing?”

“Because the regime in the north now is not Northern Wei, which he served for many years and was even imprisoned for, but Northern Qi.” Fan Xian smiled and said, “Although the Northern Qi royal family, the War Family, that Marshal War Qingfeng was extremely close to Sean back then, but after all, the dynasty has already changed. Xiao En has been imprisoned for so many years, and he doesn’t know exactly how the royal family in the north will treat him nowadays. If the royal family of Northern Qi felt that he still had value to utilize, then they would naturally respect him as a guest. But if there is no such interest, think about it, the Northern Qi royal family is crazy enough to let a terrifying secret spy leader like Sean regain a foothold in Shangjing?”

“Then why is Northern Qi willing to trade Duke Yan for Sean this time?”

“Because of two people.” Fan Xian didn’t explain deeper, “One is Zhuang Mo Han, and the other …… I guess would be that famous northern general called Uesugi Tiger.”

“Your Excellency thinks that the reason why Sean took the risk of escaping was because he didn’t trust the royal family of Northern Qi?”

Fan Xian thought of the words Uncle Five Bamboo had said to him and sighed quietly, “Those who are in our line of work are not supposed to trust anyone. As for Sean, there must be something else in mind, but I can’t guess for a moment, all I know is that I must make it to Shangjing alive, it’s as simple as that.”

“Where will Sean strike?”

“Before leaving the country, if he enters Beiqi’s borders, even if he escapes, it will still be Beiqi’s responsibility.” Fan Xian said indifferently, “Since Sean wants Bei Qi to recognize his position, he can’t botch this agreement.”

He suddenly stood up and shouted, “We won’t go to the post today, so we’ll camp in the field.”

The men responded in unison and went to their teams to organize the camping matters. Wang Qinian gave Fan Xian a somewhat puzzled look, Fan Xian shook his head and said, “Exercise and get used to it, after leaving Cangzhou, there won’t be any stagecoaches available in the north, let these men get used to the atmosphere as soon as possible while it’s not far from the capital.”

“Wild battle is not playing house.” Wang Qinian saw that his elder brother’s worries were difficult to go away, and was wise enough to start playing the comic relief again.

Fan Xian gently clapped his hands, smiled and waved him away, then sat alone in silence under a tree, his eyes looking at the carriage, thinking about the old man in the carriage.

“I don’t want you to suddenly change your name to Shawshank.”

Earlier, when he was in the carriage, sticking needles and pouring poison, Fan Xian was still a bit nervous; he didn’t know if Shawn would actually storm out or not. After a few probes, he still didn’t know how much strength this one of the world’s few ninth-ranked masters had retained after more than a decade of life in a deep prison, but he knew that the terrifying Sean would be very honest until he had searched for the best time to do so.

The mountain wind blew from the woods behind Fan Xian, blowing through the sweat-dampened clothes on his back, a damp chill. After a while, he stood up expressionlessly and walked towards Si Li Li’s carriage.