CHAPTER 127: ASK THE HERBALIST
Xue Shaonu’s place was warm, neat and simple. She seemed to be building a minamilistic style with no decorations and nothing that she did not use. It was much more than that. It was as if she had not settled in, or did not want to. Shibi’s exploration of the place was welcomed disturbance to the emptiness of the place in Zen’s opinion.
“What did you want to talk to me about.”
“My friend Chu Jiahai and his friends are in trouble.” Zen said. “I know you think he is the assassin but he is innocent and I know you would not want to punish someone who is innocent.”
“If that peron truly is innocent.” She said.
“He is, I just need to prove it. I think… I know you can help me do that.”
“How so?” she tilted her head in interest.
“I need to find out about the poison that… that was used on you.”
She produced a blue storage stone and a scroll appeared in her palms a moment later. She walked to a table and opened the scroll there as she studied the contents. “This is something Miss Hong gave me. She said, I was poisened by one of them.”
Zen stepped beside her, his heart beating quickly at being this close to her after so long. He forced himself to focus as he looked at the scroll. On it were 2 poisons and a list of ingredients needed to make them.
“Have you been able to figure out how you were poisoned?” he asked as his finger ran down the list of ingredients. “Was your food poisoned? Did they inject to you in some kind of way?”
“No,” she said. “I don’t keep food for very long.”
Zen’s finger stopped at one of the list of ingredients. “I know this ingredient.”
She looked at the word above his finger. “The Orange Orchid. Yes, it is very rare this time of year so we sent Yang Tai to check all the black markets for any information on who may have brought or sold the item.
Zen remembered Yang Tai very well from the debacle involving The Man from the Red Dragon Sect. “I once helped Geyi Kun collect this for her Forever Warm Soup.”
“She knows how make Forever Soup!” She said excitedly despite herself. “I’d love to try it out. It would be a welcome taste of home!”
Zen watched her as she closed her eyes, probably thinking of where she came from. He smiled as she watched her. She opened her eyes to see him looking at her and they both blushed.
“Anyways,” she said trying to dissipate the awkwardness, “you said you collected this for Geyi Kun.””
“Yes. It was pretty hard to find and I started suspecting that we may need to buy it. She must have considered it an option too. If anyone knows who sells this thing, its her. Maybe we could ask her and work from there.”
“Alright, let’s go!”
“W-What?”
“Let’s go ask Geyi Kun about this.” She said. “That’s what you meant, right?”
When he said ‘we’, he had actually meant him, Jiahai and Shibi but he could not say that now. “Y-Yeah, of course.”
“Wait for me outside,” she said. “I jus need to tell Solicy where I am going.”
Zen nodded before he exited.
“I do not like it, Mistress.” Silicy said.
“It’s a good chance.” Shaonu said to the Snow Dove. “I hate sitting and doing nothing while others around me act. I’m already enduring much of that as it is without this.”
“I understand, mistress.” Silicy said. “But still, I do not trust Wang Zen. In this situation, he is involved with too many of the wrong people.”
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“I’ll be careful.” She said, touching the bird’s head. “And if I need you, I will call.”
“And I shall be ready.”
Shaonu nodded her thanks before leaping off the roof to the ground to join Wang Zen. “Well, Wang Zen. Let’s go.”
Zen could feel the people following him and Shaonu. They did their best to stay out of sight but they could sense them. They finally arrived at Geyi Kun’s commune living quarters. Zen knocked and his message was reliad to Geyi Kun who welcomed them inside her warm living quarters.
“This is a surprise,” she said with a wide smile. “What are you two doing here? How can I help you?”
“We need some information.” Zen said.
“Yes. Wang Zen tells me that you both collected an Orange Orchid.” Xue Shaonu said. “That is one of the ingredients in the poison thatmight have been used to poison me.”
“Oh! I’m sorry to hear that.” she frowned. “Do you need the one we collected? I already used it to make the Forever Warm Soup.”
“We wanted to know if maybe you would know where someone could buy it.” Zen said. “If we hadn’t been able to find it, where or from who would you have brought it from?”
“Do you know how expensive that would be?” she said. “If we hadn’t found it, I would’ve just given up.”
“That makes sense,” Zen said. “I still remember when we couldn’t find the Crystal Stock. You looked like you wanted to give up even then.”
“Crystal Stock?” Xue Shaonu tilted her head. “You also collected this for the soup.”
“Yes,” Zen said.
Xue Shaonu walked around the living space. “So, Geyi Kun, Zen tells me you’re a herbalist. Where did you learn it?”
“I’m more of an ametuer really,” she said in embarrassment. “I learned it from books and scrolls.”
“Those books ever teach you how to make poisons?”
“I don’t focus on that kind of stuff.”
“You know, the Forever Soup comes from my country.” Shaonu said before turning around and facing Kun. “Very few foriegners know how to make it, so I’m surprised that you know how to make it. Unless you come from my country.”
“Oh yeah,” Zen snapped his fingers. “Geyi Kun isn’t from here.”
“Yes, she is from my country.”
“Really?” Zen said. “I didn’t know you were not… wait… what country are you both from.”
“Tell him, Geyi Kun.”
Zen looked from left to right at Shaonu and Kun, in confusion. He looked at Shibi for a clue but he just shrugged. Something was going on but he did not know what.
“I’m from the small country of Kor…”
“Liar! You are from the Flowing White Peaks.” Xue Shaonu said. “And you know who I am, which is why you tried to kill me.”
“What?” Zen said, his eyes widening.
“Crystal Stock is not an ingredient of Forever Warm Soup.” Xue Shaonu pointed. “She is the assassin!”
“N-No, I’m not.” Geyi Kun said.
“Liar!” Xue Shaonu launched forward in attack. She thrust her arm out and was surprised to see her attack was stopped when Zen grabbed her wrist while stepping between her and Geyi Kun.
Geyi Kun stumbled back with a yelp. “Zen help me!”
“Xue Shaonu, Geyi Kun is not the assassin.”
“You were right, Wang Zen.” She said, looking at him. “Your friend Chu Jiahai may not be the assassin but she is.”
“It can’t be.” He shook his head. “I fought the assassin. It’s not her.”
“She is hiding her abilities.” Xue Shaonu said. “But it all makes sense now. The first time I was attacked by the assassin, she was there.”
“No, it was only Chen Jian and I, she was…”
“Not at the hospital.” Xue Shaonu said as she pulled her hand back to escape from his grasp. “I mean when we were at the forest looking for the Snow Ram. The same Brown Hyenas that attacked me when I was at the hospital were the same that attacked me in the forest. She has had us all fooled but it ends today!”
Xue Shaonu manoeuvred around him and after the retreating Geyi Kun. She thrust her hand out again and was once again stopped by Zen. “You are wrong. I can’t let you do this, Xue Shaonu.”
“If I can’t go around you, I’ll go through you!” Xue Shaonu began attacking him in earnest.
Zen defended himself half heartedly, not daring to try and counter. Shibi leapt off his shoulder lest he got hurt during the fight.
“Pulsing Palm!” she shouted as she thrust her ki into his blocking forearm.
The attack sent Wang Zen flying back, as two pulses sent him rolling in the air before he crashed into furniture.
As soon as Zen was dealt with a knife came flying at her. She had not noticed it as it rushed for her but then it was intercepted by Shibi who snatched it from the air in sumasault. Xue Shaonu looked at Shibi with the knife in his hands.
“Sh-Shibi, thank you!” Xue Shaonu said. Her eyes widened at the engravings on the blade and the shape of the knife. “So, you have followed me this far.” She said, looking at the one who threw the knide, Geyi Kun.
“I can’t let you do this!” Zen stumbled from the broken furniture onto his feet.
Shibi ran to him and climbed back onto his shoulder.
“Look, Wang Zen.” Xue Shaonu said, keeping her eyes on Geyi Kun. “Look at what Shibi has in his hands. That is what she tried to kill me with.”
Shibi dropped the knife into Zen’s hands. He looked at the Scorch Ape’s hands and saw a cut on each hand, received from catching the knife. “Shibi.”
“That knife is only used by an elite group of assassins in my country.” Xue Shaonu said. “The ninja. They are born and raised to kill in the shadows and in secret. Geyi Kun is one of them.”
“Is it true, Shibi? Did she try to kill Xue Shaonu with this?” Zen raised his hands, with the knife. His mind refusing to believe it.
“Yes,” Shibi said in sadness.
“You are quite smart for having figured it out, Princess.” Geyi Kun said with a cruel smirk on her face that was immediately hidden by a black veil that she placed around her mouth and nose. She produced a small ball in her hand and threw it down, makingit land before the couple before breaking. Yellow smoke rose from the ball and vanished.
Xue Shaonu’s eyes widened and she covered her mouth. “Wang Zen, do not breath! It’s poison!”
Zen held his breath as he looked at Geyi Kun in disbelief. His friends eyes shone with an intent to kill them.