Moreover, the Pavilion of Herbs had many disciples.
One would be digging his own grave if he was not selling fake medicine under the protective umbrella of the Pavilion of Herbs given that he dared do this in front of them.
The shop assistant thought this situation was going to be as easy as that of the past.
What he was unaware of was the already chaotic situation in the Pavilion of Herbs.
Lin Mengya was not in a hurry. She merely had him bound up by the guards. He had also been gagged, so he could not speak.
Lin Mengya wiggled her sharp nose. Strangely, while the man carried the scents of the two herbs, they were not found in the medicine cupboards.
It was not possible for the Shen Nung system to make a mistake in its analysis. Could the two herbs be elsewhere?
“Watch him on my behalf while the rest of you follow me to the backyard to check it out!”
The shop assistant panicked the moment he heard that they were going to the backyard.
“Behave yourself!”
To his surprise, the guard by the side gave him a hard kick and he almost fainted.
He did not panic even when Lin Mengya claimed that the Ganoderma was fake and that she would send him to the officials.
Something fishy had to be going on in the backyard.
Lin Mengya, followed by two guards and Xiu, turned around the corner of the front hall and went into the backyard of the pharmacy.
The moment they entered the backyard, the scents of the two herbs coming onto them were so strong that even Xiu could tell that something out of normal was going on.
“Elder Sister, the air smells so strange.”
Xiu’s pretty little face blushed deeply all of a sudden.
She felt her chest slightly heaving. Instinctively, she held on to Lin Mengya’s hands as she began to feel as if her legs would give way.
Her pair of small hands subconsciously crawled up Lin Mengya’s arm as she bit down hard on her lips. Her beauty and charm made others dote on her.
“Oh dear, Xiu.”
Lin Mengya instinctively came to the realization that the scent had the effect of inducing oestrus.
Naturally, Xiu was unable to withstand it.
Even the guards behind her were trying hard to resist the effects of the herbs, but they, too, felt as if their feet might give way.
Fortunately, Lin Mengya had quick wits in this emergency situation. She quickly scooped up a bowl of water from the water jar by the side.
She splashed the water onto Xiu’s face as well as the others and saved the situation.
“What’s happened to me…, Elder Sister?”
Xiu’s face was still blushing but her eyes were back in focus as she recovered.
“It’s alright now. It was my moment of negligence that almost got everyone tricked. Let’s retreat from the backyard now. Let me prescribe you some herbs before we come back in again.”
Lin Mengya and companions quickly retreated. At that moment, the shop assistant, who had been pinned by the corner of the wall, wore a smug look on his face.
However, he could not help but be surprised when he saw that they emerged unscathed.
“What are you staring at? Did you think we would be tricked? Let me tell you, my Elder Sister here is highly skilled medically. She wouldn’t be tricked by you!”
Xiu was a little upset about what happened since she was still a virgin who was not married.
Something terrible might have happened if not for Lin Mengya’s quick reaction.
Unable to calm her anger, she gave the shop assistant two tight slaps.
The man rolled his eyes and almost fainted from the blows.
Lin Mengya put together a prescription of herbs that helped cool down the heat in the body and calm the heart. She packed it into a small sachet and in this way, things were settled.
“Carry this with you; then you won’t have to worry. With this, you won’t be affected by those herbs.” Then to the man, she said, “Don’t you be complacent because nothing in the backyard escapes my eyes.”
Lin Mengya said slowly with a sneer.
In fact, the herbs did not have such a great effect under normal circumstances. However, they ought to have stocked up a great amount of the herbs in their refined form.
For this reason, the effect of the herbs had been greatly multiplied.
Seeing that he had been exposed, the shop assistant kept quiet and did not dare to be complacent any longer.
Lin Mengya and her companions reentered the backyard, carrying with the sachets.
There were no longer other people inside the small backyard now. The shop assistant’s cries just now ought to have alarmed the people in the backyard.
Nevertheless, they did not have time to pack up the place given that they left in a hurry.
Lin Mengya entered one of the rooms. The moment she opened its door, she spotted a table covered with drips of liquid herbs.
There were some remnants of half-refined Fairy Herbs and Beauty Laurel Orchid were left all over the room.
Lin Mengya ordered for some water to be splashed onto the half-refined herbs before she dared to enter the room.
Apart from Fairy Herbs and Beauty Laurel Orchids, there were other spices kept in the room.
She assumed that they were to be packed into sachets to be carried around by the girls.
The boss of this place could not be a decent man given that not only did he sell fake Ganoderma, he also produced philters such as these.
However, Lin Mengya’s pupils shrunk when she saw a big bowl containing pink powder sitting on the table.
She dipped her finger into the bowl to pick up a little of that powder and put it at the tip of her tongue.
In that instant, a subtle sweet but fishy taste started spreading from the tip of her tongue.
“Pah! Go inform the officials. We have to round up all the girls who carry these fragrant sachets with them!”
Lin Mengya waved the unfinished sachets from the table and she gave out the order.
Now she finally knew the reason why Sumei would emit the stench of blood.
The powder in the bowl was made by drying the mixture of the two herbs and spices that had been soaked in blood.
Any regular girl carrying the sachet would come across as a very charming and attractive woman.
However, based on the analysis by the Shen Nung system, together with the music score for the green stringed instrument, Lin Mengya gathered that when this powder was used together with warm blood, its effect would become more pronounced.
It could even produce some anti-aging effects.
It was no wonder that Sumei’s complexion was fairer than before and she also behaved a little abnormally. However, she did not emit any smell of blood.
Indeed such herbs had been mentioned in the music score for the green stringed instrument.
It was called the Medicinal Powder of Unrivalled Beauty.
If one were to use such an extremely strange item for the long term, her mentality would be very twisted.
“What shall we do now, Elder Sister?”
Xiu also found the scent to be bizarre. If she put it close to her nose and sniffed it lightly, she would feel faint.
Fortunately, she was carrying the sachet of herbs prepared by Lin Mengya; otherwise, she might well fall unconscious right here.
“Go after them. Didn’t I say to have some men block the way out of the backyard? I think they’ll have news for us. We should not remain here. We’ll have the governor lock down this place.”
It was really a shameless thing to use Philter to create chaos in the hearts of people.
Now they had even mixed it with fresh blood.
Lin Mengya was worried that many lives would be lost because of this.
Once again, she was able to witness how this evil power treated the lives of people so lightly.
It must be very dangerous where Qinghu was planted as an agent.
In this instant, Lin Mengya regretted not asking Qinghu to stay behind that day. He would not have to go to such a dangerous place.
Just as Lin Mengya had guessed, the shop keeper of this pharmacy had escaped the moment the shop assistant stirred up the commotion.
He was after all a business even if he had been vigilant. He was completely unaware that someone had total control over his movement at this moment.
Lin Mengya led a group of able men, and following the traces left by the two men, they soon arrived at a huge but well-hidden house.
“Your Highness, the princess, the man had slipped into the house through the back gate. There are many invisible sentries outside the house so it will be difficult for us to get close. Yet if we make this a public affair, we might alarm our enemies.”
Both the main gate and the back gate of the mansion were at the deepest part of the alley.
If they were to enter hastily, they would be detected immediately.
No matter how many people she gathered here, if they were to be careless and alarmed the people inside the house, the people inside the house might kill to silence them. This was something they were good at doing all along.
After pondering over it, Lin Mengya decided to take the risk.
“Let’s discuss this over and then we will carry out the decision in a while.”
With a twist in her thoughts, Lin Mengya immediately thought of a plan.
After a short discussion with the guards behind her, all of them dispersed to prepare for the task they were to carry out.
“Help! Help! No, don’t come closer!”
Two girls in a sorry state of ruffled clothes were darting deeper into the alley.
As they fled, they were simultaneously looking back with fear in their eyes.
“Elder Sister, you go ahead first. I’ll… I’ll try to hold them up!”
The younger of the two girls was covered with dirt on her made-up face, but her large clear eyes were filled with tears, which made her very pitiful.
“No, if only one of us can escape, it will be you. Father and Mother had left us when we’re still young. I’m not going to leave you on your own!”
The older of the two girls was lithe and slim. Although she was dressed in simple clothes, her poor-looking clothes could not cover her graceful carriage.
The two girls were panic-stricken as they kept knocking on the doors of the houses in the alley.
Unfortunately, no one came to answer the doors no matter how hard they knocked on them.
“Haha, where can you go? You two better come back with me, lest Fanglan Pavilion’s madam break your legs!”
The hatchet men closed in on the girls as they berated and shouted curses at them.
“Big Brothers, please let us sister off. We… we will repay you the money owed!”
The two girls pleaded as they retreated simultaneously.
“What are you going to use to repay? Don’t forget that you belong to Madam Zhang now. Once we bring you back to Madam Zhang, we will receive our reward!”
The able-bodied men slowly closed in on the two girls who were now huddling together and shaking in fear.
However, there was still one more house, whose gate was brown, at the alley’s end.
The older of the two girls appeared to have gone wild as she threw herself against the gate with as much force as she could muster.
“Please, save us!”
The initially quiet alley was now filled with the sound of the girls’ pleading and the men’s licentious laughter.
Just when the two girls were about to give up all hope, the sturdy gate suddenly opened a little.
“Please, save us! Please!”
The elder sister continued weeping and imploring as if she had found their savior.
The gate opened wider. A middle-aged man dressed in grey clothes, who looked like a servant of the house, finally opened the gate wide.
However, the moment the servant saw that it was two girls who stood by the gate, he seemed elated.
He stepped back in a flash and allowed the two girls, who had nowhere else to turn to, to get through the gate and hide behind him.
“Damn it! Don’t you meddle with other people’s business! Hand the two girls over to us! They belong to the Fanglan Pavilion!”
