Xinye had just finished instructing his subordinates when he saw Bai Ruozhu and the others dragging the captured Shadow Ninja into an empty room. Bai Ruozhu was holding a pill, ready to feed it to him.
"What are you doing?" Xinye rushed forward with an arrow-like stride.
Jiang Yichun moved swiftly and blocked Xinye, "Can’t you see it’s an interrogation?"
Sa Tian quickly said a few words in Fusang Language, probably explaining that Bai Ruozhu and the others wouldn’t act recklessly.
Bai Ruozhu ignored Xinye. They were the ones who captured him, and he was targeting them, so she would interrogate him however she wanted. Even if General Chisong ca personally, he couldn’t stop them from questioning a killer.
"Don’t act recklessly, leave him alive!" Xinye said anxiously.
Bai Ruozhu rolled her eyes directly at him, "Do you think we don’t know whether to leave him alive or not? Could you have caught them yourself?"
Xinye was so stifled he almost couldn’t speak. He felt he should be angry, but couldn’t muster the temper. Was it because he lost to that woman that he beca respectful?
Bai Ruozhu fed the pill into the mouth of the Shadow Ninja and saw it was about right before undoing his acupoints.
"Ask him who sent him?" Bai Ruozhu said to Sa Tian, as it was likely these Shadow Ninjas couldn’t understand Chinese.
Sa Tian cautiously asked, and unexpectedly, the Shadow Ninja opened his mouth, uttering sounds incoherently. Gao Zhou pinched his cheeks, revealing his mouth.
"His tongue is gone," Gao Zhou said sowhat frustratedly.
Everyone inhaled sharply; these Shadow Ninjas were pitiful, their faces ruined early on, living in perpetual darkness underground, and even having their tongues cut.
It was simply not a human’s life, more like a killing machine.
"Let him write," Bai Ruozhu said.
Sa Tian spoke to the Shadow Ninja again, but he shook his head, waved his hand emptily, indicating he couldn’t write.
"Damn! So ruthless!" Tang Feng couldn’t help cursing.
Bai Ruozhu frowned, "It’s impossible they don’t have a way to communicate. Even if he couldn’t write, there must be so code or sothing, otherwise how could they pass on ssages?"
Sa Tian realized and spoke a few more words in Fusang Language to the Shadow Ninja, who eventually dipped his hand in water, began drawing and scribbling on the table.
Bai Ruozhu hastened to fetch paper and pen, copying what he wrote down.
What he wrote looked like Ghost-Drawn Talisman, incomprehensible even to them, and Sa Tian couldn’t understand it either.
They could only find a way to decode it slowly.
Then Bai Ruozhu had Sa Tian ask several more questions, which the Shadow Ninja wrote down again, and Bai Ruozhu continued to note them.
At this mont, his gaze slowly focused when he suddenly bit down fiercely upon awakening.
He had a poison slot in his back teeth that, once bitten open, he could kill himself for sure. Previously, his acupoints were sealed, losing the chance, but this ti he was determined to die.
Jiang Yichun reacted quickly, reaching to seal his acupoints, but was one step too slow. The poisonous slot broke open, and the Shadow Ninja’s eyes shone brightly, not with the despair of dying, but with excitent and relief, making one feel a touch of heartache.
Everyone assud he was beyond saving, but Bai Ruozhu suddenly flashed over, several silver needles swiftly sealing a few major acupoints on his body.
A green pill was tossed into his mouth, Bai Ruozhu coldly said, "You have the courage to kill, yet no courage to live?"
The Shadow Ninja couldn’t understand Chinese, but he clearly realized he wouldn’t die. He wanted to struggle, but with an acupoint sealed, he could only let the other side treat him.
"Can his poison be cured?" Sa Tian asked in shock.
"Let’s try," Bai Ruozhu watched the dark green blood flowing from his mouth, feeling sowhat excited inside.
She tried to calm herself; she recognized the poison, it was in the "Poison Classic," but the raw materials were rare, the preparation steps extrely complex, so she never attempted it. Unexpectedly encountering such poison in Fusang.
Sa Tian translated Bai Ruozhu’s previous words to the Shadow Ninja in Fusang Language, and his once murderous eyes slowly cald down.
Bai Ruozhu completed a set of needlework, and the Shadow Ninja no longer vomited green blood, everyone collectively breathed a sigh of relief.
"You are captured by us, so your life now belongs to us. You don’t need to serve your forr masters anymore. Think about living a normal life," she said.
Bai Ruozhu saw the fear in the Shadow Ninja’s eyes; he felt dood to his fate as a Shadow Ninja. But seeing he couldn’t speak, Bai Ruozhu couldn’t help thinking of La i killed by Wu Wanqing, contemplating perhaps she could help this pitiful person.
Once the Shadow Ninja’s condition stabilized, Sa Tian suddenly bowed deeply to Bai Ruozhu.
Bai Ruozhu was a bit surprised, "Why are you doing this?"
Sa Tian’s eyes were slightly red, "This bow is to thank you for saving the abbot and for your key arrangents in rescuing people, preserving more monks’ lives."
"You already thanked before," Bai Ruozhu didn’t like excessive courtesy.
Sa Tian continued bowing deeply, "This is to thank you for saving him and treating him as a human being."
At this point, Sa Tian was already in tears.
"Do you know him?" Xinye asked in surprise from the side.
Sa Tian shook his head, "I don’t recognize him; his face is destroyed, I can’t tell. Just..."
He paused, and then resud speaking, due to speaking Chinese, he spoke slowly.
"Actually, I have an elder brother. During the great plague, our parents contracted it and died one after another. It was my brother who took begging all the way to Kyoto. But soon after, he was seized. I was young, only rembering they wanted him to beco a ninja."
Sa Tian wiped away tears, choking, "Those people wanted to kill , saying ninjas can’t have weaknesses, can’t have attachnts. My brother fought to protect , claiming I was young and wouldn’t rember these things, swore he wouldn’t recognize for life. If they killed , he’d die as well, making their efforts in vain!"
"Later, I was knocked unconscious, woke up to find my brother gone. I cried for a long ti, ultimately sent by kind-hearted people to Zhaoti Temple, becoming a young monk."
Sa Tian smiled bitterly, "I don’t know who took my brother, nor do I dare tell others, fearing endangering him. But I’ve always wanted to find him, rescue him. Hence, I couldn’t focus on Buddha, told the abbot I couldn’t sever worldly ties, returned to secular life, and entered the General’s Residence for a living."
"Seeing these Shadow Ninjas, I couldn’t help but think of my brother, fearing he might be among them, fearing I’d never save him from suffering, fearing..."
Bai Ruozhu’s eyes grew warm; she knew he feared his brother was already dead, even imagining the man before him as his brother, just like she thought of La i.
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