Chapter 7110
Traitor and Framing
Chapter 7110 Traitor and Framing
The scorching sun baked the earth, and the air was filled with the smell of various plants and the mingled smell of sweat.
A long queue formed in front of the juice stall, with more than thirty servants and guards in uniform waiting anxiously.
On this sweltering afternoon, a bowl of sweet fruit juice becomes the greatest luxury.
The girl smiled, wearing faded coarse cloth clothes, her loose hair unable to conceal her bright, star-like eyes.
She deftly cut the fruit, squeezing the juice into the bamboo tube, not even bothering to wipe the beads of sweat from her forehead.
"Girl, hurry up, we're in a rush!" a burly guard urged, already slapping a copper coin onto the wooden board.
"Coming, coming!" the girl replied, her hands moving even faster.
Among the crowd, another servant with a sinister face took the juice but did not drink it immediately. Instead, he took the opportunity to straighten his clothes and quietly retreated a few steps, disappearing into the shadows of a nearby vendor.
His gaze, like that of a lurking viper, darted through the crowd before finally settling on his companions who were tilting their heads back to drink their juice.
The girl was extremely busy, but the smile on her face never faded.
These guests are generous spenders; if they can earn more tips, they'll have a better chance of buying a house in the city.
With that thought in mind, she worked even faster with her hands.
A servant hidden in the shadows curled his lips into a barely perceptible smile.
He turned slightly to the side, and under the cover of his wide sleeves, took out a bamboo tube as thin as a little finger from his bosom. The bamboo tube was entirely emerald green, with strange patterns carved on its surface, and a dark red stopper could be vaguely seen sealing one end.
He cautiously scanned his surroundings to make sure no one was watching before using his fingernail to pry open the stopper.
Inside the bamboo tube, a tiny, emerald-green snake, no longer than a finger, slowly poked its head out. The snake was translucent, with a pair of wings as thin as cicada wings growing from its back. Its triangular head was slightly raised, and its forked tongue flicked in and out rapidly, as if sensing the surrounding atmosphere.
The servant's lips moved silently, as if chanting something. A glint of light flashed in the little snake's eyes, its wings trembled slightly, emitting a faint buzzing sound, and then it took to the air, like a green streak of light, weaving through the crowd and disappearing into the distance in the blink of an eye.
Under the golden sand tree, Tang Zhen saw everything.
He held a glass of juice in his hand, his gaze fixed on the servant who had disappeared into the shadows. From the moment the servant intentionally or unintentionally lagged behind the crowd and disappeared into the shadows, his every move had not escaped his eyes.
He didn't move, just watched quietly, as if nothing had happened.
Time slowly passed in anxious waiting.
The first to notice something amiss was a thin guard. He had been drinking the juice for about half a cup of tea's time, and at first he only felt unbearably hot all over, thinking it was due to the sweltering weather. But gradually, the heat turned into a strange, limp feeling, as if something was slowly draining the strength from his limbs.
"I... how could I..." he murmured, trying to stand up, but found that his legs were as heavy as lead and went limp, and he slumped down on the bench, the bamboo tube in his hand rolling to the ground, spilling the remaining juice all over the ground.
"What's wrong with you?" His companion turned to ask, but before he could finish speaking, he also felt a dizzying sensation, his vision blurred and overlapped, and his body fell backward uncontrollably.
"Oh no! The juice is poisoned!"
The servant, who had been hiding in the shadows, then rushed out of the shadows in a panic, letting out a sharp cry.
This exclamation was like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, instantly creating ripples.
The servants and guards who were originally waiting in line or resting in the shade were first stunned, and then looked at their own situation in alarm.
This discovery was alarming; everyone was horrified to find that their limbs were weak and their senses were dulled—clear signs of poisoning!
"You damned vendor, how dare you poison me! I'll kill you!"
The roar, as loud as thunder, came from the head of the guards.
This man was burly and broad-shouldered, with eyes as wide as saucers, and he was currently glaring angrily at the girl behind the juice stand.
While everyone was scrambling to buy juice, he only drank the water from his own water pouch. A servant brought him a large glass of juice, but he shook his head and refused.
Years of life on the edge of danger had instilled in him a habit of never letting anyone else touch him, and unexpectedly, he escaped a calamity because of it.
Seeing more than ten of his brothers lying on the ground, some of them foaming at the mouth and unconscious, the guard leader felt a surge of blood rush to his head.
He slammed his palm into the ground, and his figure shot up amidst a cloud of dust.
As the leader of the guards, this person's cultivation level is naturally quite high.
He reached into his waist and pulled out a short stick, no more than half a foot long. The stick was jet black, its surface engraved with dense, silvery-white runes that gleamed eerily in the sunlight. The guard leader chanted incantations, his voice rapid and deep, like the tolling of an ancient temple bell or the drums of a battlefield.
As the incantation was chanted, the runes on the surface of the short stick began to flicker, and the silvery-white light grew brighter and brighter, as if it had come alive and was moving around the stick.
The size of the short stick also began to change, from half a foot to two feet, three feet, and finally more than four feet, shaped like a black iron ruler without a blade, but its sharp and fierce momentum was no less than that of divine weapons.
"Go to hell!"
The guard leader roared and hurled the rune-inscribed short stick with all his might. It flew out of his hand, turning into a streak of black light, accompanied by a piercing whistling sound, heading straight for the trembling girl behind the juice stand.
This strike was as fast as lightning and as fierce as thunder.
The girl was completely dumbfounded.
From the moment someone cried out in alarm about poisoning, to the guards staggering, to the burly man smashing the wooden table and lunging at her, only a few breaths had passed. She had no time to react; she simply stared blankly at everything unfolding before her, her mind a complete void.
It wasn't until the runic short rod pierced through the air and the chilling killing intent rushed towards her that she suddenly awoke and realized what had happened.
"It wasn't me! It really wasn't me!"
The girl screamed with all her might, her voice so sharp it almost tore her throat apart.
She tried to dodge, but her legs seemed rooted to the spot, and she couldn't take a single step.
He tried to explain, but found that the guards lying on the ground were staring at him with eyes that looked like they wanted to tear him apart. No one was going to listen to him anymore.
Despair overwhelmed her like a tidal wave.
She was just an honest merchant who only wanted to earn a few more coins. When did she ever think she would get involved in such a mess? And how could she have known that the juice was poisoned?
Tears welled up in her eyes and rolled down her pale, paper-white cheeks.
She closed her eyes in despair, awaiting death.
At this moment, everyone present had different expressions.
Some of the guards lying on the ground gritted their teeth, staring intently at the girl, hoping she would bleed on the spot; some looked reluctant but were powerless to stop it; some had already fallen into a coma, completely unaware of what was about to happen.
The poisoner, hidden in the shadows, watched everything with a sinister smile and a mocking gaze.
He was the true culprit, yet also the safest spectator. Those who were poisoned, including the enraged head of the guards, were merely pawns on his chessboard.
Only he knew that the girl was innocent.
But he would never tell the truth.
He even wished the girl would die a horrible death on the spot.
In this way, all the clues would be cut off, all suspicion would point to the poor fruit-selling girl, and he could continue to hide in the shadows, waiting for the news brought back by the little green snake.
However, just when everyone thought the girl was doomed—
A dark shadow flew across the sky like a ghost!
The dark figure moved with such speed that it was even faster than the rune-inscribed short stick, leaving only a blurry afterimage in everyone's eyes.
Immediately afterwards, a crisp "clang" rang out, and the dark shadow collided with the rune-inscribed short stick with perfect precision!
The two items landed at the same time, sending sparks flying across the bluestone slab.
Everyone stared in astonishment, only to discover with horror that the black shadow that had knocked away the rune artifact was actually an ordinary bamboo cup!
Half a cup of cloudy juice remained in the bamboo tube, slowly flowing through the cracks in the bluestone slab.
The entire venue was deathly silent.
The guard leader stood frozen in place, staring incredulously at the ordinary bamboo tube on the ground. He knew all too well the power of his strike—enough to pierce even an iron plate—how could a mere bamboo tube possibly intercept it?
The girl opened her eyes and saw the bamboo tube and rune-inscribed short stick rolling on the ground, and then she saw her own unharmed body. For a moment, she didn't know how to react, but her tears flowed even more fiercely.
The poisoner, hidden in the shadows, froze in a sneer, his pupils shrinking to pinpoints. His gaze swept past the crowd, fixed intently on the direction from which the bamboo tube had flown—
Under the golden sand tree, a man in a blue robe shook his head slightly and slowly lowered his hand that was holding a teacup.
It was Tang Zhen.