Chapter 41: Unusual Physique

()Chapter 42 Unusual Physique

Li Bucai was secretly startled: Damn, in this situation Jingyi and the others know what's happening, but Zou Ying does not. If Jingyi were to spout blood and insist that I have improper thoughts toward the Young Marshal, even jumping into the Yellow River wouldn't clear it.

At this moment the lingering effect of the medicine in his body still wouldn't dissipate, making his head feel swollen. He hurriedly wrapped the square blanket around his waist, then suddenly drew his sword and thrust at Jingyi, forcing her to step back. Li Bucai kept going, swinging toward the crowd, while saying: "You daring traitor, Li Bucai is here, don't even think of moving a single hair of my commander."

He hacked wildly, knowing he couldn't hit them, and kept forcing everyone out of the tent. Only then did he turn, lift the Young Marshal and walk toward the screen, taking only three steps, looking as if he could barely support himself, struggling to set the Young Marshal down steadily, fetched a chair to block in front of her, and collapsed to the ground.

"Lord!" Wu Zhuoran and the school‑uniform girl and others rushed over to inspect. Jingyi and Jian Yu went to support the Young Marshal.

Zou Ying asked: "What's happened to them? How did this happen?"

Jingyi said: "Just now Lord Li said there was an urgent matter to report to the Young Marshal, so we couldn't stay nearby. The Young Marshal had us wait outside the gate, and as soon as we stepped out we encountered rebels, and no one else entered. It must be that Lord Li coveted the Young Marshal… In the Ant Cave he had already learned the Young Marshal's true identity, so he must have slipped a trance drug into the wine while we were away, intending to …"

As a palace noble and also the commander‑in‑chief of the Sixteen Divisions, she obviously couldn't claim that the Young Marshal was avenging the torn‑cloth grievance, deliberately arranging a Hongmen banquet, and that the drug failed to stupefy the target but instead intoxicated herself. Li Bucai's servant and other lordly school‑uniform girls were here; if this spread, not only would she be unable to command the Sixteen Divisions, but given her original status, it would also disgrace the Emperor's face, so she could only say this.

Zou Ying twirled his beard and said: "Why would he himself be poisoned?"

Li Bucai's gaze was clearly no longer as bright as before.

Jingyi was also secretly puzzled: clearly she saw him drink the wine; even if it didn't go down, as soon as the wine touched his mouth the effect would trigger. Anyone poisoned by this toxin could not recover within a short hour, yet he could still wield his sword and lift a person for several steps—truly incomprehensible.

"Where could he be poisoned? He was obviously faking it. He even claimed there were wineworms in his stomach that would go mad at the scent of alcohol, playing dumb and frivolous to me—how could such a strange thing happen? He must have seen us come in, couldn't explain, so he pretended."

Wu Zhuoran said calmly: "Lord is not that kind of person." Lord always had many beautiful girls around, never rude to anyone, and would not act like this when a massive army pressed in, so she firmly believed there was another hidden reason.

Jingyi said: "If you say he's not, then he's not. You saw the whole scene just now—if it's not disrespect to the Young Marshal, what else could it be?"

At this moment, the school‑uniform girl also calmed down, angrily saying: "Clearly someone is framing and slandering. You said you left the tent exactly when the rebels attacked; we fought for at least half an hour. If he intended disrespect toward the Young Marshal, would the Young Marshal still be lying there in tidy clothes after more than half an hour? If there was disrespect, it should be you who wanted to disrespect him."

"How audacious, you dare say the Young Marshal would disrespect him? The Young Marshal is more deeply poisoned than he is. Moreover, a petty little lord—there are tens of thousands in Sky City who are more handsome than him, and millions who are more mighty and robust. What could possibly merit the Young Marshal's disrespect? Not even the Young Marshal, even I, a tiny servant, see any such reason."

Wu Zhuoran replied: "Whether he has any extraordinary qualities, Qi, it's up to your word—if you say he has, he has; if you say he doesn't, he doesn't."

The school‑uniform girl noticed the torn cloth on the ground and said: "Even if you wanted to disrespect the Young Marshal, would you go as far as tearing his clothes like this?"

Jingyi retorted: "For someone like him, what is impossible?"

"Enough, enough," Zou Ying, seeing everyone arguing loudly, cut in: "With the army pressing in, this is not the time to discuss these matters. Determining right and wrong can wait. The urgent priority is to revive the two of them; we still need the Young Marshal to take charge here. To avoid unnecessary panic, let's not spread this incident, and go rescue them first."

The school‑uniform girl, Wu Zhuoran, and the blue‑clothed guards glared at each other, then each went to rescue. The school‑uniform girl took off her cloak and draped it over Li Bucai; Zou Ying sent someone to bring Li Bucai to his own tent, and Wan'er took his pulse.

"How is it?" the others asked.

Wan'er remarked oddly: "Strange, Lord's pulse pattern is peculiar, sometimes overly calm, sometimes overly frantic. From the calm pulse it seems something is blocking its flow; if I'm not mistaken, it should be due to a sedative‑type drug. As far as I know, among such drugs the weakest is 'Zhenhun San', which can, within eight hours, stop the heartbeat, producing an extremely weak pulse and putting a person into a coma; after eight hours the effect dissipates on its own. Yet Lord's body sometimes shows a burst of frantic pulse, likely the impact of that pulse allowing him to awaken after being poisoned. As for why this pulse appears…' Wan'er could not determine at the moment, and examined his pulse more closely. Curious, she lifted the cloak covering him, used the healer's unique 'Holy Spirit Eye' to inspect his organs, and exclaimed: 'So that's it. It's Lord's heart.'"

"What's wrong?"

Wan'er said incredulously: "A normal person's heart is about the size of a fist, but Lord's heart is a half‑size larger than a normal one! No wonder there's such an extraordinary frantic pulse."

The school‑uniform girl gently stroked Li Bucai's temple and said: "How can we wake him up?"

Wan'er said: "The antidote requires 'Hanbing San'; I only treat bruises and injuries, so… I don't have it on me."

Xianghong said angrily: "How could Lord have Zhenhun San on him? They were the ones who gave him the wine, and they also prevented us from following; clearly they bear an old grudge and intend to harm Lord."

"That's all there is," Wu Zhuoran said: "You take care of Lord, I'll go find them."

Li Bucai suddenly opened his eyes and said: "Come back, don't go."

"Lord! You're awake?"

Li Bucai had never actually been unconscious; he just felt a constant dizziness, and the recent situation forced him not to feign fainting, otherwise under everyone's eyes he would truly become a demon.

"There's no point in looking for them; they won't give you the antidote." Li Bucai already knew the Young Marshal had asked him to drink the wine to avenge the torn‑cloth grievance; for the sake of their reputation they would not provide an antidote, and anyway after eight hours it would clear on its own, and Zhuoran's look seemed to want to reason with them.