Qin Yunuan glimpsed at Bochaerji in the banquet. She could vaguely recognize this khan from the north prairie was a very tall man. By contrast, those warriors behind her were conspicuously lean.
The warrior of Bochaerji strode onto the arena with his half drooping woolen sleeves tucked into his belt, which looked very capable and resolute.
The ritual official continued to report the serial number, “The second is the warrior recommended by Prince Regent.”
Prince Regent smiled and seemed to be very courageous. And then he turned back to tell the warrior behind him, “Maomu, Bochaerji Khan is your eldership. Don’t hurt the follower of the khan when battling.”
The words of Prince Regent dissatisfied Bochaerji immediately. Bochaerji said in a husky voice, “It’s absurd, Your Highness. You ordered your follower to surrender to my warrior. I feel insulted. This time, we battle without preserving our fighting capacity,” And then he said to the lean man in the arena, “Try your best. I will support your old mother for her whole life if you get injured or disabled.”
And then he bowed his fists to Prince Regent, “Your Highness, with all your forces, please.”
Prince Regent just smiled and observed the arena silently.
Although the man called Maomu was a head shorter than the lean man of Bochaerji, he was agile and had firm strength of legs. His eyes were full of shrewdness and ferociousness. Qin Yunuan could not see them clearly but heard their strong heartbeats explicitly. Qin Yunuan had a better ability of listening recently.
Suddenly a strong wind came. That was the legs sweeping of Maomu. All present here could see the brute forces of the warrior from North Di and the skills of close fighting and wrestling. When the two warriors were fighting, the man from Bochaerji suddenly straightened his legs and widened his eyes, and then foams outflowed from his mouth.
The audience watching the battling around suddenly got panic. The Grand Khan from North Di dispatched people to check the warrior instantly. Bochaerji looked very worried, but Prince Regent looked so calm.
Qin Yunuan smiled slightly. As expected, she heard the answer she wanted from the ritual official who came to check, “My Grand Khan, the warrior of Bochaerji seems to be poisoned, judging by his blue coated tongue and dark face.”
Poisoned?
The Grand Khan of North Di frowned more heavily after he heard the answer. Wanyan Ba took the chance to sow discord, “Who did that? How dare the person played tricks near Grand Khan. Song Lian, you are good at the medical skill. Go to check what happened on earth.”
And then Wanyan Su added leisurely, “Brother, khan still sits in the feast. You may not respect Grand Khan since you gave orders so arbitrarily.” Wanyan Su implicated that since Wanyan Ba acted so arrogantly in front of Grand Khan, it seemed that he could not wait for the position of Grand Khan.
Wanyan Ba was hesitant for a second, but the Grand Khan of North Di had nodded to agree what Wanyan Ba said just now. Wanyan Su could only tolerate the rolling eyes and contempt from Wanyan Ba, who was displaying his strength and incomparable glory.
Wanyan Su felt upset in his heart but heard the caution from Leng Changxi, “Your Highness, you should remember that the more glories the Grand Prince display, the less time he could enjoy his glory.”
Song Lian obeyed the order of Wanyan Ba to check clearly the condition of Bochaerji’s warrior. Qin Yunuan could describe his injury condition without checking.
“The wound is in the nape of Bochaerji’s warrior. It is a needle-sized aperture with black cruor around, which smells fishy. It should be the poison from Tripterygium wilfordii. The poison was first smeared in the silver needle, and then the assailant attacked the warrior when nobody saw him.”
What Qin Yunuan guessed in her heart was identical to Song Lian’s report.
Qin Yunuan nodded and smiled. She could hear that the Grand Khan of North Di swatted the chair arm wrapped by tiger skin.
“Investigate who made the sneak attack. How dare the assailant hurt my warrior of North Di.”
Wanyan Ba took the chance to add, “Yes, investigate if there are some traces of bow and crossbow placed around.” It was a common way among hordes from North Di’s prairie to use bow and crossbow to shoot silver needle with poisons for hunting.
Suddenly, an ice-cold voice came, “the assailant might not shoot distantly. Actually, it is more convenient to shoot more closely.”
“Who was the blabber?” Wanyan Ba looked very fiery.
Leng Changxi walked out but heard the overwhelming laugh from Wanyan Ba, “It is you, a useless ugly monster. Who are you? You have no right to speak here. Have your master ever taught you that do not chip in casually as a flunkey?”
Facing the personal abuse from Wanyan Ba, Leng Changxi looked relaxed. He knew that, facing such kind of person, he should act calm so the person would become crazy. The crazier the person was, the more advantageous Leng Changxi could be.
Wanyan Su said slightly seriously, “Brother, I have said Young Master Tuoba is my respected guest, not a flunkey.”
Wanyan Ba glimpsed at Wanyan Su arrogantly, “Any difference?”
Prince Regent asked with great interest, “You are from Tuoba Family? What is your relationship with the emperor of West Xia?”
“What’s the matter of Tuoba Family?” Wanyan Ba raised his head and said scornfully.
Prince Regent smiled softly, “Your Higness, you may not know that Tuoba is a very ancient surname in West Xia. Originally it was the same branch with the imperial surname of West Xia, Jing. But later, it was separated from the branch for some reason but was still the most respected surname in West Xia. There are only a few people whose surname is Tuoba. That’s why I asked this Young Master Tuoba about his relationship with West Xia.”
Leng Changxi nodded and answered casually, “No, it is just a very ordinary surname.”
And then the Grand Khan of North Di continued, “You said just now that the silver needle might not be shot in the distance, and it was more convenient to shoot it closely. You did not give us a detailed explanation. So what on earth do you mean?”
Leng Changxi shrugged, “I mean, it is so easy to shoot the silver needle closely.” And then he pointed at the warrior called Maomu recommended by Prince Regent, “You can search him to check if there is a silver needle with him.”
“Ridiculous!” Wanyan Ba, who was always impulsive, stood up first, instead of Prince Regent, “Maomu is a famous warrior of our North Di. He couldn’t do such a dirty thing. I don’t care you are from Tuoba Family or others. You have to be responsible for what you said just now.” And then he took up the golden machete at hand with a vivid snake carving, and then jumped to point the machete nose straight at Leng Changxi. He moved so quickly, which made people here frightened.
The abrupt ferociousness almost suffocated people. Leng Changxi held his breath and used his six-sense to feel the move of Wanyan Ba. The moment Wanyan Ba almost poked the face of Leng Changxi, another strong strength was tangled with the ferociousness. Leng Changxi was about to withdraw his gesture of exerting power, and then he opened his eyes and found Prince Regent had appeared near him somehow.
Prince Regent held the handle of a golden cup, and the mouth of the golden cup faced the machete nose of Wanyan Ba. He just used an ordinary cup to stop the ferociousness of Wanyan Ba. How unusual his skill was.
Leng Changxi looked at Prince Regent silently. Prince Regent was so distant from Leng Changxi, but he could act so lightly and quickly, just like standing near Leng Changxi.
“Uncle.” Wanyan Ba was stunned and a little bit surprised.
Prince Regent turned back to glimpsed at Wanyan Ba coldly, but then quickly turned to look at Leng Changxi with softer eyes.
“Ba is still young and a little bit impulsive. Please forgive him, my respected guess.”
Wanyan Ba could not understand why his uncle with supremacy treated such an unimpressive ugly monster so politely.
Leng Changxi turned back calmly and just looked at the actionless warrior from Bochaerji and Maomu from Prince Regent, “I am just a countryside boor. Don’t be so polite to me, my prince. If you really want to know the truth, you can dispatch people to check the warrior called Maomu to figure out if there is a silver needle.”
Wanyan Ba was about to rebuke but only saw Prince Regent raised his arm, which was an indication of the agreement for searching.
After a while, the soldier for searching reported the conclusion.
“Your Higness, a magnet with a silver needle, was found in the belt of Maomu.”
Prince Regent frowned slightly, “Take it here.”
A tray was presented at once where an index-finger long and embroidery-needle sized silver needle was put down. The top of the needle was black. The Grand Khan of North Di just glimpsed at it and seemed to be very exhausted.
Song Lian checked the poison on the needle and nodded, “There is poison on the needle, and it is Tripterygium wilfordii.”
He felt the threatening eyes from Wanyan Ba immediately after he said those words, “Song Lian, you are such a man from Qi. You should be cautious about your words.”
Bochaerji sneered, “Just ignore his warning. Mr. Song, say what you want to say. Prince Regent, your warrior assassinated my follower. This time, how do you handle this?”
Prince Regent looked at Maomu coldly and seemed not to help him. Maomu felt feeble and had already knelt to beg for the forgiveness of Prince Regent. He said he had done nothing, but now there were complete human testimony and material evidence.
Bochaerji Khan was a man with good sense. He said straightly, “A warrior winning by sneak attack won’t live in this world with dignity.”
Prince Regent agreed and nodded. He threw a cold dagger to Maomu, “So Maomu, you just suicide.”
Maomu dared not commit suicide. It was ominous to suicide in front of the emperor of Qi, but the thing was different in North Di. The Grand Khan of North Di had once killed his traitor minister in the imperial court. Having seen the shuddering Maomu, Leng Changxi suddenly stepped forward, “Since this warrior dared not to suicide, let me help the prince to kill him.” And then he pinched the dagger handle wrapped by a piece of black cloth and poked Maomu at the place of three inches below his rib.
“How dare you!” With a roar of Wanyan Ba, blood spurted from the waist of Maomu. Leng Changxi raised his head and loosened the dagger in his hand. He looked at Wanyan Ba coldly and said aggressively, “Your Highness, why are you so nervous? I just killed this traitor who played dirty attacks, following the order of the prince.”
