Chapter 16: Haven't even managed to inflict a scratch yet
What had he just heard?
This wild girl was actually dismissing his miraculous poison as some cheap, defective knockoff?
And she even knew what was in it.
What terrified him most was that this girl’s inner voice could worm its way into his mind!
Su Jin’s brain short-circuited.
On the bed, Su Yaoyao looked like a traveler who had spent three days and three nights dying of thirst in the desert before suddenly spotting a glass of ice-cold soda.
She tipped her head back and poured the entire cup of Thousand-Gut poison wine into her mouth!
“Gulp! Gulp!”
The sound of swallowing echoed through the silent Zhaoyang Hall.
Su Yaoyao drank with astonishing boldness and efficiency.
A cup of deadly poison powerful enough to kill an elephant was emptied into her stomach without leaving behind a single drop.
When she finished, she even smacked her lips regretfully.
She stuck out her tender pink tongue and licked the black poison still clinging to the corners of her mouth.
“The flavor’s a little weak. It tastes like watered-down, expired herbal tea. Not nearly stimulating enough.”
Su Yaoyao wiped her mouth carelessly with her sleeve, then patted her little belly in satisfaction.
“Burp.”
A loud, long belch rang out.
A tiny black bubble carrying a faintly sweet, fishy odor floated out of Su Yaoyao’s mouth. It popped in midair with a sharp snap.
Su Jin nearly popped, too.
He stood there like a stone statue, still holding the poisoned dagger aloft in a daze.
That was Thousand-Gut Powder!
It was the poison the Western Regions’ imperial family used to execute rebellious ministers!
A single drop was enough to tear the intestines apart, make blood pour from all seven orifices, and leave its victim howling in agony before dying a horrible death.
And this wild girl had downed it like tea?!
How was that possible?
There was absolutely no one in this world who could withstand the poison’s effects!
Su Jin tightened his grip on the dagger, forcing down the shock and absurdity surging through his heart.
He stared coldly at Su Yaoyao on the bed and spoke through clenched teeth, his voice icy.
“Stop putting on an act and pretending to be some kind of mystic.”
“Once the Thousand-Gut poison wine enters your throat, not even an immortal can save you.”
Su Jin’s eyes turned vicious as he watched Su Yaoyao’s face.
“Before I count to three, you’ll feel your internal organs being scorched by raging fire.”
“You’ll watch helplessly as blood pours from your seven orifices, until you turn into a foul-smelling puddle of pus.”
Su Jin loved counting down to death.
There was an indescribable pleasure in looking down from above and savoring the desperate struggle of prey in its final moments.
“Three!”
Su Jin spat out the first number.
Su Yaoyao showed no reaction whatsoever. She merely shifted into a more comfortable position and leaned against the soft pillow.
“Two!”
Su Jin stared at the corners of Su Yaoyao’s eyes and mouth, waiting for black blood to spill out.
Su Yaoyao gave a bored yawn and looked at him as though he were an idiot.
“One!”
As the final number fell, a cruel smile curled up at the corners of Su Jin’s mouth.
Die.
Howl in agony!
One second passed.
Then two.
...
Nothing happened in Zhaoyang Hall.
Su Yaoyao had not even suffered so much as a scratch. In fact, because the inferior poison wine contained certain herbs that promoted blood circulation, her fair little face had taken on a healthy flush.
She looked even more energetic than before she drank the poison!
The air froze in awkward silence.
Sitting on the bed, Su Yaoyao propped her chin in both hands and blinked her limpid, peach-blossom eyes at Su Jin.
“Um... Brother Crown Prince.”
Her tone was completely innocent, with even a hint of sympathy, as she asked:
“Did someone cheat you at the black market?”
“The fake medicine you bought is way too low-quality. Other than making me feel like I need to use the toilet, it couldn’t even give me a superficial wound.”
Her words landed like a resounding slap, viciously striking the face of the Great Yuan’s Living Yama.
Behind his mask, Su Jin’s face turned the color of pig liver.
Fake medicine?!
He was the Crown Prince of Great Yuan, the Eastern Palace’s God of Death, a man whose very name inspired terror.
And he had been cheated by a medicine peddler at the black market, buying a cup of fake poison wine to murder someone?!
What!
Utter!
Humiliation!
No wonder this wild girl had dared to gulp it down. She must have seen right away that the poison was fake!
Rage and humiliation surged like a violent hurricane, obliterating Su Jin’s reason.
“Since the poison can’t kill you, I’ll personally skin you alive!”
Su Jin had been provoked. He no longer had the patience to toy with his prey.
He was going to use his blade to chop this bastard who dared mock him into mincemeat—right here, right now!
“Whoosh!”
A shrill sound split the air.
The wave-shaped poisoned blade in Su Jin’s hand transformed into a streak of dark-blue lightning.
It shot straight toward Su Yaoyao’s slender throat!
He held nothing back in this strike. It was a pure killing move.
He wanted to watch Su Yaoyao spray blood everywhere, her head severed from her body!
Faced with the lightning-fast fatal attack, a disdainful, mocking smile tugged at the corners of Su Yaoyao’s mouth.
Thinking of using a blade? You really think I’m a pushover?
Just as the dark-blue blade tip came within half an inch of Su Yaoyao’s throat, she moved.
Her upper body tilted sharply to the left at an angle that defied human anatomy.
The poisoned blade grazed her neck and narrowly missed.
Her seemingly boneless little hand shot out like a striking viper.
Smack!
The crisp sound of bone meeting bone rang out.
Su Yaoyao clamped down on Su Jin’s right wrist—the hand holding the blade.
Her thumb and forefinger locked onto the ulnar nerve at the most vulnerable point of his wrist.
A sharp, numbing pain swept through Su Jin’s right arm.
His right hand suddenly went limp, and his five fingers lost all strength.
Clang.
The dagger coated in deadly poison fell uselessly onto the footboard of the canopy bed.
Su Jin was horrified beyond belief!
He was one of the Great Yuan’s most formidable experts!
Even the chief eunuch of the imperial palace would never have been able to disarm him so easily.
Yet this little girl before him had crippled his right arm with just two fingers?!
What kind of sorcery was this?!
Before Su Jin could recover, Su Yaoyao’s counterattack descended like a sudden storm.
“There’s a saying: courtesy demands that favors be returned.”
Su Yaoyao’s voice was clear and sweet, yet carried a streak of innocent wickedness.
“Brother fed me such awful fake wine. Now it’s little sister’s turn to feed you!”
Before she finished speaking, Su Yaoyao gave his arm a sharp pull.
Using the momentum, she launched herself into the air.
Her left hand moved with lightning speed, gripping the joint of Su Jin’s lower jaw.
Then she wrenched it downward!
Crack!
Su Jin’s jaw was forcibly pried open.
At some point, a perfectly round pill the size of a small ball had appeared in Su Yaoyao’s right palm.
It had no medicinal fragrance. Instead, it gave off a strange, faint glow.
This was an interstellar specialty that Su Yaoyao had just exchanged for from her personal military-tech vault.
Truth Serum—Flashing Fluorescent Edition!
“Swallow this!”
Su Yaoyao stuffed the pill into Su Jin’s wide-open mouth.
With her left hand, she slapped his chin shut.
Gulp.
Under Su Yaoyao’s smooth, rapid sequence of violent maneuvers, Su Jin had no time to react.
His Adam’s apple bobbed once, and the strange pill slid down his esophagus into his stomach.
After finishing, Su Yaoyao sprang lightly backward like a nimble cat and landed steadily at the other end of the bed.
She dusted off her hands and watched Su Jin with an expectant expression.
The pill entered his stomach.
A monstrous fury and murderous intent erupted in Su Jin’s eyes.
He had been ambushed by a little girl—and forced to swallow some unknown substance!
“You’re courting death!”
Su Jin roared and sat down cross-legged, circulating the pure qi within his body.
He was going to force the strange poisonous pill out with his internal energy!
But in the very next instant, Su Jin’s expression changed.
The qi he took such pride in was completely useless!
A strange current of heat pierced through his internal organs and spread through every meridian in his body like a wildfire.
“What... is this...?”
Cold sweat beaded across Su Jin’s forehead beneath his mask.
He lowered his head and stared in shock at his hands.
In the bleak moonlight, Su Jin was horrified to discover that his paper-pale hands had undergone a bizarre transformation.
A faint, eerie glow radiated from beneath his skin!
It was dazzling, outrageously garish, and utterly devastatingly...
Barbie-pink fluorescence!
Su Jin’s cold, merciless heart of a killer, hard as stone, shattered into powder.
He looked up and stared through his mask of blue-green fangs at the girl in the corner of the bed, who was grinning like a little demon.
His voice was filled with terror and despair.
“You... What kind of monster did you make me eat?!”