Chapter 330 168: Mechanism, Part 2

Jiang Ran felt something was off. It didn't seem real.

His Inner Energy was profound and unfathomable. If there were truly that many voices swirling around, it was impossible that he wouldn't have heard them.

As for the footsteps, they most likely belonged to Feng Wu.

'That person really did run out…'

Thinking of this, Jiang Ran said to Ruan Yuqing,

"Hold out your hand."

Ruan Yuqing's heart skipped a beat, and she immediately extended her wrist.

Jiang Ran placed three fingers on her wrist. A moment later, his brow furrowed slightly.

The next moment, he brought two fingers together, bent them, and tapped the point between Ruan Yuqing's eyebrows.

The *Zhaohua Zhengxin Jing* circulated, and his Inner Strength probed into her from between her brows, coursing through her entire body in the blink of an eye.

Ruan Yuqing was momentarily paralyzed and didn't dare to move recklessly.

After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, she felt Jiang Ran's Inner Strength withdraw from her body.

She let out a huge sigh of relief. The voices that had been constantly swirling in her ears were all gone. She looked up at Jiang Ran.

"Was I poisoned?"

"Not with any potent toxin, just a simple hallucinogenic smoke."

"But this type of poison is paradoxically difficult to cure. That's because it will dissipate on its own overnight even without an antidote."

At this, his brow furrowed.

"But when could you have been poisoned?"

"We all ate together tonight... Chief Cheng ate the food he brought himself, while Dao Wuming and his group had some of ours."

"And our food was prepared by Luo Qingyi herself, with Li Tianyu watching over her... Even if there was something wrong with that old man, he shouldn't have had any opportunity to act."

Being poisoned in this post station, the most likely culprit was the hunchbacked old man.

The man's identity was unknown and his origins were suspicious. Jiang Ran hadn't moved against him because he didn't appear to know any martial arts.

Furthermore, his mind seemed muddled.

On top of that, Jiang Ran and the others only planned to rest here for one night and didn't want to stir up any extra trouble.

If he was truly the one who did the poisoning, then he was simply courting death.

Ruan Yuqing shook her head.

"I don't know how I was poisoned either. Everything was normal when I returned to my room after dinner tonight."

"I didn't use anything in the room."

"At first, everything was fine. I didn't dare to sleep, so I just sat on the bed and meditated."

"I'm not sure when it started, but I began to hear rustling and whispering sounds... I wanted to go out and investigate, but... but..."

She trailed off, a little embarrassed to continue. After a moment of silence, she went on.

"But I was a little scared."

"Young Hero Jiang, please don't laugh at me."

"Although the Gentle Water Sword has some renown in the martial world, I am still a woman. When it comes to strange tales, supernatural forces, and ghost stories, I always... I always feel a bit of fear."

"So, even though I heard the sounds, I didn't dare go out to check."

"It wasn't until I heard footsteps that I hesitated before getting up. Unfortunately, by the time I went to look, the footsteps were already fading into the distance."

"I didn't know who it was, and I was worried you might be in danger, so I hurried over to check on you."

Jiang Ran nodded.

"Miss Ruan, let's go take a look at your room."

"We should probably wake everyone else up, too, just to prevent any more mishaps."

He said this last part while looking at the wardrobe.

Inside the wardrobe, Tang Huayi shot him a vicious glare. Watching him get up and leave with Ruan Yuqing, she wished her gaze could stab him to death.

Ruan Yuqing asked,

"So, should we wake everyone up first, or go to my room first?"

"Let's check your room first."

Ruan Yuqing had no objection, so the two of them headed toward her room.

It wasn't very far.

When Jiang Ran assigned the rooms, he had naturally kept his own people close together.

As a woman, Ruan Yuqing had her own room.

As for Tang Huayi... although she was dressed as a man, she was, in fact, a young woman, so she also had a room to herself.

The others—Li Tianyu, Luo Qingyi, Man Shengming, and the Great Teacher—were all paired up in rooms, the better to look out for each other.

Although Scholar Jingtan was also on his own like Jiang Ran, he was ultimately a guest. Jiang Ran couldn't very well order him around, so he let him have his own room.

This left Jiang Ran to take a room by himself, even though he could have shared with 'Li Tianxin'.

But after all, the two of them knew exactly who the other was.

Some things are better left unsaid.

He just hadn't expected Tang Huayi to come running to his room in the middle of the night. 'If I'd known this would happen, I wouldn't have gone through all this trouble.'

Arriving at Ruan Yuqing's room, Jiang Ran took a fire-starter from his robes.

He lit the oil lamp in the room.

The soft glow pushed back the darkness, lending a touch of warmth to the room.

Outside the window, a gentle rain fell steadily, pattering on the eaves in a way that should have been pleasant. If not for the room's lingering sinister atmosphere, a good night's sleep in such an environment would have been wonderfully refreshing.

Jiang Ran's gaze swept across the room inch by inch as he and Ruan Yuqing inspected their surroundings.

But after a full circle, they still hadn't found anything unusual.

"The window is intact, with no holes. The hallucinogenic smoke wasn't blown in through a bamboo tube."

Ruan Yuqing's brow was tightly knit. "I didn't use the lamp or candles in the room, so I doubt the oil was tampered with."

Jiang Ran nodded slightly. He had lit the oil lamp as soon as he came in precisely to see if that was where the peculiarity lay.

If someone had prepared in advance and put a sedative in the lamp oil,

then after lighting the lamp, the drug would have spread with the heat, poisoning a person silently and without a trace.