Ch.36 Part 2 – Accusations (II)
Even facing such accusations, there was nothing Meng Qi couldn’t say. She indeed knew the name of the immortal devouring vine from Su Fox. But when she met this chattery fox in her previous life, he had been injured by the vine for ten days, and couldn’t even maintain his human form. What Meng Qi saw was a fluffy five-tailed white fox. Su Junmo had fallen into a coma at the time, and could only lay on the ground motionless. Dark red blood and mud dirtied his long white fur, making him looked weak and pitiful.
Meng Qi couldn’t get any information from the unconscious white fox. She only smelled the lingering faint floral fragrance in the air. The scent was a bit peculiar but somewhat familiar. It was the smell of the forest after the rain, mixed with the sweet fragrance of white peaches, and the bitter taste of pine leaves. In addition, there was also a faint bittersweet aroma of charred sugar. That kind of smell was actually very relaxing and didn’t make people sensed any danger.
Meng Qi had examined the unconscious Su Fox, but found nothing except for the wound on his body. At that time, the chattery fox had already equivalent to a Spirit Severing cultivator and was even stronger than his current self. It was impossible for him to fell into such a state just because of skin trauma.
She pondered hard for a long time before finally remembered a description in a book she once read about a similar floral fragrance. At that time, she had not met her master yet, and most of her knowledge came from Qingfeng Valley’s Library Pavilion. Besides, she also read various bamboo slips she bought from Cloud Immortal Pavilion with the spirit stones she saved. All of them could be shown to the people here.
Facing Lu Qingran, Meng Qi smiled indifferently: “In Cloud Immortal Pavilion, we can buy three bamboo slips for two hundred first-grade spirit stones.” She paused for a moment, “They are: ‘Record of Demon Method,’ ‘Qingfeng Town Materia Medica’ and ‘Demon Realm’s Scenery.'”
Meng Qi took three bamboo slips from her storage bracelet. They were very ordinary books she bought from Cloud Immortal Pavilion. Because the books only wrote about local specialty and travel notes instead of spell or such, they were sold very cheaply. Even ordinary disciples in Qingfeng Valley could easily buy them after doing several elementary tasks.
Lu Qingran was startled. Chu Tianfeng waved his hand, and the three bamboo slips flew to her.
“Although Qingfeng Town is small, it is located at the border between the Eastern Realm, the Demon Realm, and Devil Realm. There are cracks in the boundary from time to time, allowing demon and devil cultivators to cross the border. So it isn’t strange that some books written by locals will have information about demons and devils. This book writes that the Demon Realm has a strange vine with flowers of various colors growing. The vine is extremely dangerous because it sucks other living being’s flesh, blood, and spiritual aura for its nourishment. After being injured by the vine, the body would exude a strange fragrance. It was as sweet as white peach and as bitter as pine and charred sugar.” Meng Qi said slowly.
Lu Qingran was speechless.
Meng Qi’s expression remained unchanged, and she calmly continued, “This one records the experience of a great senior who once entered the Demon Realm. The senior mentioned seeing a green vine that can bloom multi-colored flowers, and use the body of monster beasts as a nutrient to grow itself. It was an abnormal and dangerous monster. The flowers emit a bitter and sweet fragrance, like sugar and pine, and people should avoid when smelling it.”
Meng Qi pointed to the last bamboo slip: “This book is compiled by the senior who has seen various plants from the Demon Realm. The record is similar to the previous two. In addition, it also mentioned that the monster beasts injured by this fragrant vine will be thirsty and drink a lot of water.”
“Except for these three, there are also several similar books and related records.”
Meng Qi looked at Lu Qingran’s eyes: “When I enter senior sisters’ tent that day, I immediately smell this fragrance. Qingfeng Valley is a medical sect, when I was in the sect, senior sisters mostly only had light medicinal scent on their body, and I never smelled such a scent. So I was suspicious, and after a few inquiries, found out that they were indeed injured by a vine-like weapon, and always feel thirsty and hungry afterward.” She finished her words: “Thus, I suspected that they were injured by the vine described in these books.”
“Even so… “Lan Zhuxuan, who was supposed to soak herself with the five elements blue crane, was still standing in place. She looked at Meng Qi palely, but her eyes were flickering. “How do you know its name? And also the treatment method?” She recalled Xun Yan’s previous accusations and became more and more angry. “Is it also mentioned in those books?”
“No.” Meng Qi shook her head.
“So, you really are lying to us!” Lan Zhuxuan suddenly raised her voice, “You actually don’t know the cure! You…you want to kill us!”
Meng Qi stared at Lan Zhuxuan. She couldn’t tell them that she had once cured a person injured by immortal devouring vine. She, however, could guarantee that the method was correct.
To explain the logic clearly, it would take too much time. But she indeed could tell her thought of process when trying to save that Su Fox and how she reached that conclusion. Thinking of this, Meng Qi couldn’t help but look at Su Junmo again.
At that time, in order to save his life, she tried many methods she could think of, and gave him quite a number of unpleasant experiences. But this chattery fox generally only became noisier when in discomfort, and his endless prattle turned her into the receiving end of the discomfort instead.
