Chapter 485: The Gu Mistress

The black-lacquered wooden chest was placed carefully by the servants onto the bluestone floor of the Martial Arts Arena, emitting a dull thud; judging by the weight, it was certainly not light.

After setting the chest down, the two servants hurried away, their faces showing clear signs of fear, as if the chest contained something unspeakable.

Huo Luan leaned in curiously, twitched her nose, and then frowned: "What is this smell? Sweet? But it doesn't smell like flowers; it's strangely cloying."

"Hold your breath."

The voices of Cheng Feng and Liu Yu came from behind at the same time.

Huo Luan reacted extremely quickly; almost at the same instant they spoke, she held her breath and retreated three steps.

Cheng Feng also stepped back simultaneously, his gaze fixed on the chest.

Liu Yu walked forward and tapped the lid of the chest three times with his scabbard, the rhythm distinct—two short, one long, like some kind of secret code.

A rustling sound came from inside the chest, as if something were crawling. A moment later, the lid was gently pushed open from the inside, leaving a crack.

A hand, fair to the point of being nearly transparent, reached out from the gap; the five fingers were slender, and the nails were painted with dark red henna, making the skin look even more unnaturally white, unlike that of a living person.

The hand rested on the edge of the chest, and then the lid was pushed open completely.

A woman sat up from inside the chest.

She looked to be only in her early twenties and was extremely beautiful, yet between her brows lingered an indescribable, bewitching aura.

Her long, raven-black hair hung over her shoulders, making her face appear no larger than a palm; her lips were dark purple, as if she had been poisoned, or perhaps as if she had intentionally painted them that color.

She wore a dark green, front-opening long gown with dense silver patterns embroidered on the cuffs and collar; looking closely, one realized they were not floral patterns, but rather various, distinct Gu insects, shimmering with a faint, eerie light in the illumination.

What made one's scalp tingle most was her neck—resting in the hollow of her left collarbone was a thumb-sized red armored beetle with strange golden patterns on its shell, its wings fluttering slightly with her breathing.

"Officer Liu." The woman gave Liu Yu a charming smile, her voice as soft and sweet as a sticky rice ball soaked in a honey jar.

"Your place is truly hard to find; I've been jolted about in this chest for over an hour, and my bones are nearly falling apart."

As she spoke, the red armored beetle crawled from her collarbone to behind her ear, then from behind her ear into her hair, finally stopping on the bun atop her head like a living hair accessory.

Liu Yu looked at her expressionlessly: "Gu Niangzi, I recall you said you would arrive tomorrow when you sent word."

"Oh my, I just missed you." Gu Niangzi stood up from the chest,

her movements as light as a feather; as her skirt hem swirled,

Cheng Feng vaguely saw something thin and long wrapped around her ankle, black and shiny, which flashed and vanished.

"Spare me that." Liu Yu didn't buy it at all. "Speak plainly."

Gu Niangzi pouted, the coquettish air instantly receding by half, and her tone became much more normal: "Fine, fine, it's because there was a change in the south. I managed to uncover some things about that Wen Family Firm you asked me to investigate, and I felt it necessary to tell you in person."

She took a silk handkerchief from her sleeve and wiped her fingers unhurriedly, her gaze passing over Liu Yu to land on Cheng Feng and Huo Luan.

"Are these the two people the Highness mentioned?"

Liu Yu nodded and introduced them briefly: "Huo Luan, from the Zhennan Army, skilled in fast attacks and reconnaissance. Cheng Feng, trained in hard-body techniques, defensive type."

"Uh, hello!" Cheng Feng took the initiative to greet her.

Huo Luan also nodded, acknowledging the greeting, though her eyes remained fixed on the red armored beetle in Gu Niangzi's hair, seemingly wondering what species the thing was.

Gu Niangzi looked the two of them over several times, finally letting her gaze rest on Cheng Feng, the corners of her mouth slowly curling into a meaningful arc.

"Interesting." She stepped lightly out of the chest, her bare feet touching the bluestone floor; sure enough, a thin black snake was wrapped around her ankle, only as thick as a chopstick, flicking its scarlet tongue.

"There aren't many people the Highness would specifically mention in a letter, and you are the first."

She walked up to Cheng Feng and stood on tiptoe, leaning close to his face—so close that Cheng Feng could smell the sweet, cloying fragrance on her, along with the faint rustling sound of the beetle's wings rubbing together in her hair.

"And—" She took a deep breath, her pupils slightly shrinking, "the aura on you is a bit special. Different from others.

It has the aura of my Black Jade Snake's kin."

Cheng Feng felt a slight stir in his heart, but his expression remained unchanged: "Gu Niangzi is joking."

"I never joke." Gu Niangzi stepped back and tilted her head to look at him, a flash of greed appearing in her eyes, though she quickly suppressed it.

"But since you are the Highness's person, I won't set my sights on you. Rest assured."

The words "won't set my sights on you" were spoken in a light, casual tone, yet Cheng Feng felt as if he had just walked through the gates of hell.

Liu Yu coughed lightly, interrupting the subtle atmosphere between the two: "Let's talk business. What did you find regarding the Wen Family Firm?"

Gu Niangzi's expression finally turned serious. She put away her handkerchief, took a small bamboo tube from her sleeve, pulled out the stopper, and tipped it into her palm.

A black flying insect the size of a grain of rice crawled out of the tube and shook its wings in her palm.

"This is a Tracking Gu," Gu Niangzi explained. "I placed one in the Wen Family Firm's warehouse the day before yesterday, and it brought back some interesting things."

She took a silver hairpin from her bun and gently prodded the black flying insect with the tip; under the stimulation of the silver hairpin, the insect's abdomen began to squirm, and a moment later, it spat out a small clump of gray-white powder.

"Do you recognize this?"

Cheng Feng leaned in to take a look; it was a small pinch of extremely fine gray powder, shimmering with a faint metallic luster in the sunlight.

Huo Luan only had to look once before her expression changed: "This is Lead Mercury Ash. When refining Mysterious Iron, the ore must first be calcined and purified, and a large amount of Lead Mercury Ash is produced during the calcination process.

This stuff has always been handled by the Zhennan Army during the cleanup phase.

This substance is toxic and must be buried deep for disposal; it absolutely must not appear in the warehouse of an Ordinary merchant firm."

"Exactly." Gu Niangzi used the silver hairpin to scrape the Lead Mercury Ash onto her handkerchief and wrapped it up carefully. "The Wen Family Firm's warehouse doesn't just have this; there are many other armaments. They aren't doing any legitimate business at all."

"Lead Mercury Ash, plus armaments." Liu Yu's expression darkened, and he said, word by word, "The Wen Family Firm is privately refining Mysterious Iron."

Once these words were spoken, the air in the Martial Arts Arena seemed to freeze.

Huo Luan's fists were already clenched, her knuckles cracking audibly.

Although Cheng Feng didn't know much about the Imperial Court's prohibitions, he could weigh the gravity of the four words "privately refining Mysterious Iron"—Mysterious Iron was a military material strictly controlled by the Great Zhao Imperial Court.

All Mysterious Iron mines were mined directly by the Imperial Court, and the refining techniques were mastered only by the Imperial Armory and the Zhennan Army. For civilians to privately refine Mysterious Iron,

the punishment was the confiscation of property at best, and the execution of the entire clan at worst.

"Have you found out who is backing the Wen Family Firm?" Liu Yu looked at Gu Niangzi.

Gu Niangzi shook her head, the red armored beetle on her bun swaying slightly with her movement. She took another small bamboo tube from her sleeve, thinner than the previous one and pitch black.

She pulled out the stopper and tipped out a silver-gray moth, only the size of a fingernail, its wings covered in fine, dense scales.

"This is a Soul Chasing Moth that I have fed for three days with the Lead Mercury Ash from the Wen Family Firm's warehouse," Gu Niangzi explained, balancing the moth on her fingertip.

"It now only recognizes the scent of that Lead Mercury Ash; within a radius of ten miles, as long as there is the same scent, it can find the source. I let it fly a circle last night, and guess where it finally stopped?"

No one answered.

Gu Niangzi did not keep them in suspense any longer and lowered her voice, saying: "City South Twelve Districts, the back street of Jinxiu District, an inconspicuous civilian residence. On the surface, it looks like a cloth-dyeing workshop, but there is running water passing beneath that courtyard; it is a tributary of the underground canal."