Lu Qing and Zhu Yu naturally wouldn’t refuse his request. After briefly describing the appearance and the clothing of the other deceased beneath, Lu Yan’s expression could be described as stormy, with veins bulging on his forehead and his cheeks puffed out, as if he were on the brink of erupting.
Seeing this, Lu Qing calmly walked up to him, placed a hand on Lu Yan’s shoulder, and said, "The dead cannot co back to life. If rushing into that passage now and slaying all those whose origins we do not know could bring your tax collectors back to life, I would accompany you in charging in right now, as it would be worth it."
A surge of anger rose in Lu Yan, causing his ears to buzz, and initially, nothing could break through his single-minded determination to gather forces and flatten this ridiculous so-called Immortal Castle at once!
However, when Lu Qing placed his hand on his shoulder, the heavy weight of it startled him, and Lu Qing’s words doused half of the raging fire burning within him.
"Rest assured, when the ti is ripe, I will ensure the culprit behind the death of your tax collectors is handed over to you for personal judgnt. At that ti, whether to kill or maim, I will not stand in your way. A man’s word is his bond." Lu Qing’s grip tightened slightly, and his tone was extrely solemn.
Across the table, Lu Zhang observed Lu Yan, seemingly speculating on what his reaction might be, whether he would flare up and have a big confrontation with Lu Qing.
However, instead of witnessing such a scene, Lu Zhang saw Lu Yan sitting there with a sullen face, neither relaxing nor contradicting Lu Qing or arguing.
Yan Shu felt a bit uneasy upon hearing that there were so many dead bodies hidden within the underground passage beneath the small pond.
She wasn’t afraid of the dead, as they wouldn’t spring up to harm anyone.
But this fundantally eerie Immortal Castle, with its bizarre farrs, stewards, and servants, had already made her feel uneasy. Now, hearing about the dead bodies exacerbated her apprehension.
Lu Qing briefly explained the situation in the passage, and anwhile, the talisman had already tidied up the small pond below and ca upstairs.
"Master, all the water from the small pond has been poured back in, and the buckets have been returned to that wood shed. From the outside, it looks just as usual, except for the second master’s tricks preventing the flowers from blooming," the talisman said, carefully taking out a previously handkerchief-wrapped flower seedling and looking at Lu Qing for instructions.
Lu Qing threw a glance at Yan Daoxin, and the talisman imdiately handed over the item to Yan Daoxin: "Divine Doctor, we discovered a completely black wooden box below with such a strange type of flower inside, and I brought a seedling up for you to see."
Yan Daoxin curiously took it, placed the handkerchief on the table, and gently pinched the corners of the handkerchief with his fingers to unfold it.
The flower seedling was presented to everyone.
Though the lamps in the room weren’t very bright, they outshone the darkness of the passage, allowing Zhu Yu, who initially saw the seedlings under the dim, flickering torchlight, to curiously look at the item on the cloth now.
Under the glow of the lights, the seedling looked even more translucent and verdant, with both its leaves and buds exhibiting an extraordinary hue that had never been seen before.
Zhu Yu glanced at the seedling, then at Yan Daoxin.
She had heard from Lu Qing that Yan Daoxin was deeply imrsed in the study of dicine and pharmacology and enjoyed researching poisons, which often led him to travel extensively rather than staying quietly in Shanqing Temple.
If not for coincidentally encountering Lu Qing along the way, and being continuously drawn into various matters leading him to Lan Country, who knows where he might be right now.
Such a person had undoubtedly seen a lot in his travels.
Yet, observing Yan Daoxin’s slight frown and the cautious manner in which he examined the seedling, it seed he was unfamiliar with this plant.
"This thing grows in completely dark places, without a hint of light?" he asked in disbelief, voicing the exact question that had crossed Zhu Yu’s mind.
Lu Qing nodded with certainty, "I can confirm that the place where this plant was, even without the black wooden box covering it, remains in complete darkness, without a hint of sunlight."
"Oh... this is indeed peculiar!" Yan Daoxin’s brief puzzlent soon turned into excitent, with his eyes alight, as he remarked, "I thought being held up by you would cost a lot of ti, yet along the way, we stumbled upon sothing quite extraordinary!"
He lifted the handkerchief with his hand, cradling the seedling, and used his thumb and forefinger of the other hand to pinch a small amount of soil from the plant’s roots, gently rubbing it to feel its sticky texture, with residues an unusual rust-colored dark red instead of typical soil.
He brought his finger close to his nose and sniffed, imdiately overwheld by a pungent odor.
Yan Daoxin was montarily stunned but did not reveal any further expression, instead raising the seedling higher, bringing the small flower bud to his nose for a closer scent, and after thinking, called out to Zhu Yu, "Chief Historian Yu, you have a keen sense of sll, co and give it a try."
Zhu Yu hadn’t initially caught the bud’s scent, having been hurriedly startled out by noises from the other end of the passage. Seeing Yan Daoxin beckoning, she quickly went over and took the handkerchief with the seedling from him, bringing her nose close for a thorough sniff.
A very faint and subtle fragrance cautiously crept into her nose, making her pause.
The scent was faint, hard to grasp, yet inexplicably familiar.
The human sense of sll never forgets; all scents once encountered are rembered, although sotis the impression isn’t deep enough to imdiately identify them.
Zhu Yu was sure that this faint fragrance was one she had slled sowhere before, and probably more than once or twice, but she couldn’t quite rember where.
Yan Daoxin deduced her reaction from Zhu Yu’s furrowed brow and contemplative expression.
He said nothing, rely took paper and pen from the side, and with a few strokes, vividly sketched the appearance of the seedling before wrapping the handkerchief again.
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