Chapter 228 - 104: Everything is Ready Except for the East Wind, So Finally, No More Problems?

Jiang Lan recalled Emperor Xia’s appearance from the original plot, back when he had revealed himself to the members of the Naxian Alliance. He planned to use this information to set another scheme in motion.

At 7:00 PM, the sun sank in the west.

The city’s lamps were just being lit.

All of Jingyang City was bathed in a sea of brilliant lamplight.

In halls and pavilions, bright lamps were lit one after another. The palaces, shrouded in clouds and mist, were a scene of brilliant lights and bustling activity.

Following his usual custom, Jiang Lan left the Prime Minister’s Mansion with a large retinue of guards and Knights, heading for Lishui Pavilion.

Behind Lishui Pavilion was the Desire Immortal Pavilion, Jingyang City’s largest pleasure district. Backed by the Changlong Business Alliance, it occupied a vast area.

Inside, palaces were as numerous as clouds and pavilions stood in clusters, dotted with Bihu Lake and crisscrossed by flowing streams. As painted boats and Cloud Boats drifted by, a hazy mist permeated the air, shrouding everything in a dreamlike veil.

One could often see scholars, artists, Celestial Prides, and other brilliant talents coming and going.

From a distance, between screens illuminated by the lamps, graceful silhouettes flickered in and out of sight. Accompanied by flirtatious laughter, the scene was enough to set one’s imagination running wild.

As a regular patron of this place—and in a sense, its owner—Jiang Lan made his way to Lishui Pavilion with practiced ease.

To the side was a flowing stream, its water murmuring gently.

The light of the rising moon shimmered upon the water’s surface. A thin mist rose, making the place look like a paradise on earth.

Inside Xiaoque, next to a Golden Lamp Incense Burner, the view looking down was superb. A wide variety of wine and Spirit Fruits had already been laid out on the seating mats.

A woman dressed in a white robe and white socks sat cross-legged on a mat, where she had clearly been waiting for some time. Her beautiful hair was pinned up, revealing a slender neck, and her fair, lovely face was free of any makeup.

Only after Jiang Lan arrived and dismissed all the servants did the woman rise and bow.

"Greetings, Sir."

Her expression was calm and gentle. As her gaze fell upon Jiang Lan, who had casually settled into a cross-legged position, she showed no surprise.

Back on the Blood Red Plateau, when Jiang Lan gave her the token bearing the surname "Jiang" so she could find him through the Changlong Business Alliance, she had already guessed his identity.

"Aren’t you afraid your identity will be exposed, coming to see me so brazenly?" Jiang Lan asked as he sat down, a look of keen interest in his eyes.

"Since I’ve dared to appear in Jingyang City, I naturally have my own assurances. My identity and related matters have been taken care of; I’m not afraid of my cover being blown."

"Besides, weren’t you the one who asked me to meet you here, Sir?" the woman in white replied gently.

She was none other than Song Youwei, the demoness from the Blood Immortal Sect in the original plot who wanted nothing more than to escape it.

That day, at the Blood Red Plateau, the ruins of the Blood Immortal Sect, she and her companions were backstabbed by Ye Ming while searching for a way to break the Blood Immortal Curse.

At the time, Jiang Lan had been hurrying through a nearby corridor and had no time to get involved.

Song Youwei had sensed his presence and, at the moment she was sent flying, diverted the trouble onto him by crashing into the corridor and exposing his location.

And since he had no cultivation of his own, he could only use the Destiny Dao Fruit to manipulate the blood-colored miasma permeating the Blood Red Plateau to eliminate the Disciples from the Ten Thousand Laws Sect and scare off Ye Ming in the process.

However, he was already at his limit by then and couldn’t deal with Song Youwei.

He could only bluff Song Youwei with a Healing Elixir, making her mistakenly believe she had swallowed a Heart-Devouring Pill and would have to obey his commands. In this way, he secured a chess piece.

’A cultivation at the peak of the Fifth Realm, the Soul Palace Realm... she’s much stronger than most of the younger generation. As the demoness of the Blood Immortal Sect, it’s a good thing something was wrong with her back on the Blood Red Plateau. Otherwise, with the paltry tricks I had at my disposal, I never would have been able to intimidate her...’

As Jiang Lan sized up Song Youwei now, he could clearly perceive her current cultivation level.

After arriving in Jingyang City, he learned from his steward that someone was looking for him using an Identity Token.

After a moment’s thought, he knew it had to be Song Youwei, coming to ask for the antidote.

After all, on the Blood Red Plateau, he had deliberately tricked her, telling her she had to take the antidote within three months or she would surely die when the Heart-Devouring Pill activated.

With Song Youwei’s experience and caution, she would never guess, not even on her deathbed, that what she had swallowed was just a simple Healing Elixir, not a Heart-Devouring Pill at all.

However, because he had to go see Xie Jianjia in the Observatory prison at the time, Jiang Lan hadn’t gone to see Song Youwei, instead telling her to wait.

Conveniently, he now had some things he needed her to do, and her identity was perfect for the job. The chess piece he had casually acquired back then could now be of considerable use.

"This is the antidote for the Heart-Devouring Pill..."

Jiang Lan didn’t waste any words, once again producing a White Jade Bottle from within his robes.

It was, once again, a Healing Elixir.

He was actually a bit troubled that he didn’t have any actual Poison Pills on hand. Otherwise, just to be safe, he would have swapped this "antidote" for a real poison.

’Looks like I’ll have to visit Medicine King Valley more often in the future and have Xiao Yingyue refine some pills for me, just to be prepared.’

Song Youwei looked at the White Jade Bottle before her but did not immediately reach out to take it.

She, too, had her doubts about whether the pill she had swallowed back then was actually a Heart-Devouring Pill.

In the time that followed, she had searched through numerous ancient texts and even had several physicians examine her, but all to no avail.

Her body showed no abnormalities, not the slightest sign of having been poisoned by a Poison Pill.

But considering the situation back on the Blood Red Plateau, Jiang Lan clearly could have killed her, yet he hadn’t. Instead, he had exposed her identity and secrets, even stating outright that he could help her kill her master.

That was a secret she kept buried deep in her heart.

Only a few companions from the Blood Immortal Sect—those she was on good terms with and who understood what she had gone through—could possibly have known this secret.

Back then, Jiang Lan had clearly never met her before, yet he had stated it all so bluntly, causing her to freeze on the spot, her heart flooding with overwhelming disbelief and panic.