The mood in the main tent was quite subdued. Soon Yao Yi and some others also entered and started an intensive search.
Yuwen Tong appeared fairly composed. Xie Shi’s silver needles were still blocking the acupoints in his arm, and he himself had scrupulously checked his meridians and Dantian, but hitherto nothing out of the ordinary had been found. Of course, this didn’t mean that he could take this matter lightly. On the contrary, the longer their check remained unfruitful, the more perilous the current situation might be.
Suddenly, Xie Shi spoke, confirming the truth of this conjecture.
“Bring me the candle!”
On hearing this, the bodyguard beside Xie Shi brought him the lighted candle from the table. The candle flame was burning brightly. Xie Shi moved Yuwen Tong’s sleeve closer to the candle flame and saw that a small patch of the inside of the sleeve, which approximately had been above that red spot of Yuwen Tong’s when the sleeve had been still intact, was reflecting the candlelight as though a snail had left some mucus there. Xie Shi lightly peeled off that reflective substance and found that it was something transparent and cocoon-like, something sloughed by a kind of tiny creature, to be precise.
The look on Xie Shi’s face instantly went ugly. This proved that Yuwen Tong had indeed been bitten by something. It was a living thing. Considering they had searched everywhere but failed to find that thing, it might well have entered Yuwen Tong’s body.
The thought of this possibility also occurred to the others, all of whom looked at Yuwen Tong’s arm, their faces instantly registering concern.
Xie Shi put down the cloth torn from Yuwen Tong’s sleeve, produced a very small jade casket lined with flannelette, opened it, put the tiny shell-like thing into it and then closed it.
“What is this thing, Xie Shi?” Yao Yi inquired of him.
With a serious expression on his face, Xie Shi shook his head. “I have no idea. I’ve never seen any shells of this level of transparency. If it has indeed burrowed its way into Sire’s body, it would be either a poisonous insect or a Gu worm. I’ve never heard of anything like this before.”
As he finished speaking, the looks on all the others’ faces turned ugly. If even Xie Shi didn’t have a clue what the creature was, how were they supposed to get Yuwen Tong the medical treatment he needed?!
Looking at the silver needles on Yuwen Tong’s arm, Xie Shi who also had an ugly look on his face carefully examined Yuwen Tong once again and found that the color of Yuwen Tong’s blood was still normal. The only part he was sure about was that that thing was at least not poisonous, if it had indeed entered Yuwen Tong’s body.
What with his uncertainty about whether or not that thing was in Yuwen Tong’s body, Xie Shi didn’t dare remove the needles, fearing that the creature, without the needles holding it at bay, might move to another part of Yuwen Tong’s body.
In fact, as they had failed to find anything that might be the body of a bug or a worm or any living thing after an intensive search, everybody thought of the worst-case scenario – that creature had wormed its way into Yuwen Tong’s body.
Of course, Yuwen Tong, the victim, should have perceived its existence more distinctly than anybody, but he had experienced no discomfort, outside of the sting he had felt a while ago.
“Remove the needles at daybreak if nothing has been found by that time,” said Yuwen Tong.
“Sire, that’s too dangerous. What if…” Yao Yi and the others didn’t dare agree. Xie Shi also had a frown on his face.
Yuwen Tong said, “Tomorrow I have to show my face in front of the others, and these needles will cause needless panic. The war has reached a critical juncture, and I couldn’t afford to jeopardize the morale of my army.”
Yao Yi and the others still wanted to dissuade him, but before any of them could say anything, Xie Shi sighed, “The needles must be removed before dawn. I blocked the meridians in Sire’s arm, and it will lead to some problems if his meridians are obstructed for too long.”
Yao Yi and the others opened their mouths, closed them again and lapsed into silence. Eventually Yao Yi resignedly said to Xie Shi, “Then figure out something else that might work.”
Xie Shi said, “Previously Sire ingested a miracle drug given by His Highness to detoxify the poison named ‘Mrs. Pistil’, and there’s still a certain amount of the active ingredient of the drug in Sire’s blood. No matter that thing is a Gu worm or a poisonous insect, it will be temporarily immobilized after entering Sire’s body, which means it won’t be causing any problems anytime soon. Still, we need to locate that thing as soon as possible. I’m not capable of identifying what that thing is, but I’m sure Mr. Mu can figure it out. You should write him a letter first. I’ll see what I can do to stimulate it.”
Yuwen Tong looked down at his arm and said, “Let’s do it your way.”
Yao Yi wrote a letter and then immediately had a secret bodyguard set off to deliver it to Mr. Mu.
Xie Shi began to try some other methods to see if he could provoke any reactions from that thing inside Yuwen Tong’s body which was presumably some kind of living thing.
To be on the safe side, Xie Shi readied the alexipharmic pill and panacean pill given by Mr. Mu.
…
Time was ticking away. Xie Shi had tried a variety of methods, but Yuwen Tong still hadn’t felt any discomfort. Eventually, Xie Shi began to suspect that he was overreacting, that there was actually no harmful foreign body inside Yuwen Tong whatsoever, that all their speculations were mistaken.
But better safe than sorry, so Xie Shi dismissed that idea from his mind and decided to try one last method, which might trigger some minor bodily reactions in Yuwen Tong.
Yuwen Tong allowed Xie Shi to try it on him. He rid himself of all miscellaneous thoughts and started meditating, concentrating his mind on the changes that the medicine Xie Shi had him take was bringing to his body. He could even hear his powerful internal energy coursing through his meridians. When dawn broke, he opened his eyes and shook his head at Xie Shi.
Xie Shi hastened to prepare another medicine for Yuwen Tong, who drank it and then felt his internal energy quiet down.
“Now that nothing has been found, remove the needles,” said Yuwen Tong.
Xie Shi inclined his head, pulled the needles out of Yuwen Tong’s arm and then looked nervously at him.
Yuwen Tong felt the sensation gradually coming back to his left arm as time passed at its usual pace, but after a long moment, there was still no discomfort of any kind in his body.
Xie Shi was bewildered. He had never heard of any situations as baffling as this one before. How come there had been no reaction whatsoever when he had tried every method he knew of? In recent years he had been learning medical skills from Mr. Mu whenever he had the time. He didn’t dare say that the man he had been five year ago was nowhere close to a physician of his present caliber, but he believed that with these methods he should be able to detect the existence of any poison or Gu worm inside a patient’s body. If he had had these skills five years ago, he would no doubt have immediately detected the poison named ‘Mrs. Pistil’ without being fooled by it at the beginning.
The others were also bemused. Even Chairman Sun of the imperial hospital highly appreciated Xie Shi’s detoxification skills, but now even he had failed to identify what the problem was after trying every method. Was there anything in His Majesty’s body or not?
Most importantly, even Yuwen Tong himself couldn’t perceive anything wrong. This…This was so weird.
“Sire!” Someone showed up in the doorway of the tent, requesting an audience with Yuwen Tong, a hint of anxiety in his voice.
Yuwen Tong gave the permission for that man to enter. “What is it?”
“That Wan envoy who visited our encampment yesterday died,” said the man.
Died? Yao Yi and all the others present had a sense of foreboding at these words, and their ominous feelings intensified as they connected the red spot on Yuwen Tong’s arm with the fact that they had failed to find anything suspicious after searching for the whole night.
“How did he die?” asked Yuwen Tong, looking composed.
Affected by Yuwen Tong’s composure, the man became noticeably more collected and answered, “The man died on his way back to the encampment of the Wan army. When walking towards the front gates of the encampment, he fell to the ground without warning. Even the one beside him didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary before his death. Actually even the envoy himself didn’t have any particular feelings. The expression on his face remained unchanged when he died at the front gates. There was no pain, and he didn’t struggle. His life was taken from his body in the twinkling of an eye.”
“Were there any symptoms of poisoning?” inquired Xie Shi.
The man shook his head. “We don’t know. His body was brought back into the encampment. We were unable to get access to it.”
With a grave face, Xie Shi said, “Sire, we need to figure out a way to have someone get access to that envoy’s body.”
It had been after that envoy had met them that he died, and the way he had died was quiet odd. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that something entered Yuwen Tong’s body last night when he had just had a meeting with the envoy during the day. None of them would be able to have peace of mind unless they ascertained the truth.
Yuwen Tong made arrangements for some of his secret bodyguards to look into it. A couple of years ago he had planted one of his men in the Wan army. He had never assigned any tasks to that plant of his ever since, mainly because there had never been any necessity for him to do that. He hadn’t bargained on needing the plant’s service at this point in time.
As they couldn’t find anything, Xie Shi and the others didn’t dare drop their guard for a single moment. For the rest of the day, Xie Shi stayed close to Yuwen Tong wherever the latter went, carrying the alexipharmic pill and panacean pill given by Mr. Mu at all times. This matter concerned his life, so Yuwen Tong naturally had been paying close attention to his bodily changes all day, but by the end of the day he still hadn’t experienced any discomfort.
Then he recalled that Ling Zhang had probably arrived in Jifang City by now and might show up in this encampment in a couple of days. Yuwen Tong couldn’t imagine how heavy a blow it would be to Ling Zhang if he came to know about this matter. At the thought that Ling Zhang might be upset or even anxious, Yuwen Tong began to have difficulty breathing. It was as though a giant rock were weighing him down, and his heart was throbbing painfully too.
At first it didn’t strike Yuwen Tong as some kind of problem, because lately he always felt transports of emotions whenever he missed Ling Zhang. However, on this occasion, with every thought he had about Ling Zhang, the pain in his heart worsened, the feeling of constriction in his chest deepening. It was only then that Yuwen Tong came to realize that something was not quite right.
In order to confirm his conjecture, Yuwen Tong, after handling all military affairs and fixing a date for the next attack and arranging for preparations to be made, returned to his tent, fished out a casket he had been keeping in a safe place all this time, took all the letters written by Ling Zhang out of it and started reading them one by one.
Xie Shi and all the others believed that Yuwen Tong missed Ling Zhang as they saw him produce the letters, and they didn’t give much thought to it. It was not until Yuwen Tong’s face gradually turned pallid, fine beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead, that Xie Shi came to realize something was wrong.
“Sire?!” Xie Shi hastened forward and quickly grabbed Yuwen Tong’s wrist to feel his pulse.
Yuwen Tong put down the letter and clapped a hand to his chest, gripping his clothes, wheezing heavily. Just now, for an instant he couldn’t breathe. The throbbing in his heart was so sharp all the color had drained from his face, and he had to put down the letter immediately to cool himself down.
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