Chapter 17: Night Attack

Mistress Li smiled happily as she looked at the deflated Yin Shi, she then got up and retired. Yin Shi’s chest was rising and falling from sheer anger but could not do anything or say anything as she watched the unruly Mistress Li leave.

All of these have nothing to do with Gu Lian. To be honest, she hopes that someone else would inherit the Gu family. Gu Zi Shu was like mud that could not support the wall. As a dandy playboy, one day he would hollow out the entire family inheritance. Although Yin Shi has mistreated the original owner, it has little to do with the Gu Family. So even though she was suspected of sitting on the side-lines, it was impossible to erase the fact that Gu family was part of the original owner’s family. ‘If one does well, it would be glorious. If one fails, everything is lost’.

 It was impossible for Gu Lian to sever her relationship with the Gu family. If this were the case, the original owner would be backbite by others. Yet, if she does not sever this relationship, she could not escape if anything would happen to the Gu Family.

Now that she has transmigrated, she must protect things that the original owner cared about and more importantly the original owner’s reputation.

Taking advantage of Yin Shi’s slow reaction, Gu Lian quickly mentioned that she was about to retire. Yin Shi could not be bothered about her as she waved her hand and no longer cared.

“Miss.” Zhu Xiang was waiting outside when Gu Lian opened the curtain and stepped out.

In the past, when she did not know if the servants beside her were trustable or not, Gu Lian would only bring Mei Xiang out with her. Now, she does want to trouble Mei Xiang as she happens to stay in the courtyard to handle affairs and at the same time taking care of the house.

“Today you have sat for a few hours longer, could it be that the lady has made things difficult?” Zhu Xiang looked at Gu Lian worriedly.

Gu Lian shook her head slightly: “Madam and Mistress Li are at odds, so I can’t mention about leaving.”

The weather was extremely hot, so Yin Shi showed kindness and allowed the ladies to not pay respect every day. However, Gu Wan followed Gu Qing as she wanted to please Yin Shi, so she would accompany Gu Qing every day to visit. Gu Lian did not want to come, but her 2 younger sisters came every day so as the eldest sister, it would not be nice if she did not come and paid her respect. She would purposely avoid them, so they would rarely meet one another.

Usually, Gu Qing would often bump into Mistress Li. Today, Gu Lian was unlucky as Mistress Li sat for a while longer.

“Madam has allowed those mistresses to not come and paid respect, how come Mistress Li still comes every day?”

Upon hearing this, Mei Xiang complained that Mistress Li was meddlesome, and this had almost gotten her lady into trouble.

Gu Lian picked up the teacup and took a sip: “Mistress Li will not let go of the opportunity to overture Madam’s abilities.”

Knowing one’s situation and that of the enemy, one would not lose a hundred battles. Mistress Li was prepared to face Yin Shi head-on, however, she was a careful person. She would not do anything without thoroughly finding out her opponent’s situation. For example, when she met Gu Zhi Mo years ago, she was not in a hurry. It was only after investigating for some time and gathered a lot of information before choosing this path. Now, she was scheming to reimplement and find out Yin Shi’s ability.

Mistress Li has bad intention, but Gu Zhi Mo does not understand these inner house schemes. He only saw that she was paying respect to the main wife and was well-behaved and well-mannered. This movement added points in his heart. Relatively speaking, Yin Shi who often spoke with sarcasm to discredit Mistress Li made him unhappy.

No matter how unhappy he was, he would still go to Yin Shi’s room every first and fifteen of every month, because after all, she was still the main wife.

Today happens to be the fifteen.

Gu Lian woke up feeling thirsty in the middle of the night. There was no one serving in the room, so she got out of the bed and felt around to pour herself a cup of tea to drink. She then heard some slight movement outside.

Gu Lian stopped her movement vigilantly and reduced the sound produced by her to almost nothing.

However, Gu Lian did not make any sound, until she frowned as she put down the empty teacup on the table, making a slight noise as she does. But there was no more movement from the outside.

Gu Lian was a bold person. She put on her clothes and walked over to the windows quietly.

The system endowed her a pair of eyes that could see in the night. She walked over to the windows and stuck to the wall cautiously, without leaning against the windows as she listened quietly for a while.

About a quarter of an hour later, the person outside heaved a sigh of relief and panted a few breaths as they reached out to push the window. They could not push open, after which, a small stick came in through the window seam, moved upwards to prod, and the simple wooden latch was prodded open and the window creaked open.

Gu Lian hid behind the inwardly opened wooden window as she waited for the other party landed lightly after entering. She used the system to throw out Obsessed poison mixed with scorpion heart.

The other party fainted.

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In the game, the effect of obsessed poison together with scorpion heart was dizziness after 2seconds. When used it for real, it naturally did not take just 2seconds and was not simply dizziness but fainting completely.

Without cultivating the corresponding poisonous insects and although using obsessed poison technique could produce the effect of the poison insect, the duration was not long.

Obsessed poison effects could only last for about a day, after which, she would need to use it again. Because the duration of the effect of syncope was unknown, it needs to be tested again.

Gu Lian felt a little pity in her heart. If she had the mother poison, she could expedite long-lasting effective little poison. When it was injected into a human body, it would remain dormant and could attack at any time. If it were not removed, it would attack continuously.

She walked over to take a look. The person was wearing tight clothing, cuffs were fastened and was not wearing a mask. Gu Lian pinched his chin and take a look, but do not recognize the person.

After thinking about it, Gu Lian threw another toad whistle. This along with obsessed poison can produce the effect of sealing internal force.

Wu Du Mind skill was not like Sky Patching Technique. Each Sky Patching Technique corresponds to 1 poison while Mind Technique uses poisonous worms with added conditions. The several independent conditions cooperated with one another. Different combination has different results making it difficult to remember but was very practical.

Death poison was much better, they were all additional damage, while the other 2 were a bit troublesome.

Gu Lian was unsure when this person would wake up, it would be very troublesome if she could not inject new syncope effect. Fortunately, the ice silkworm she raised have short growth cycle. These few days, it has already spewed several silks and Gu Lian have already woven it into a rope, it was so strong and sturdy, that one could not escape from it.

Organism like ice silkworms rarely morphed into butterflies, so it was almost impossible to give birth to young silkworms. But fortunately, they could spew silks. These silks could be used to make impenetrable soft armour. It was a good item that even with money, one would find it hard to buy it. Yet WuDu disciples would rather use it as belt than to sell it to Qi Xiu’s Residence to make it into soft armour.

For this reason, Qi Xiu was criticised. It was only when he returned and became the leader of WuDu sect, did WuDu sell the abundant silk. The real reason was that the people from Wu Du likes to use ice silk to weave a fishing net…… Even if they could not use all the silk, they could simply weave another!

Ice silkworm was rarely seen in the outside world and there is only 1 in the WuDu sect. It was just that the WuDu was a female ice silkworm and a pure silkworm. Others could not take it away and it was no problem even it was taken away, because, without learning the WuDu sky patching internal strength(!), it was not possible to raise the worm. Those ice silkworm poison in outsider’s hand would melt into ice water until there was nothing left, not even dregs.

(!) 内功 NeiGong: Internal strength, refers to any of a set of Chinese breathing, meditation and spiritual practice disciplines associated with Taoism and especially the Chinese martial arts.

Kicking the fainted man in black, Gu Lian could probably guess where he came from.

She had accompanied the princess to the polo competition and had caught some attentions. Previously, those people did not think that she was of any use and was not concerned about it. But now that the situation outside was getting more tense, so they took a dead horse as a living horse to treat(!) and they turned to Gu Lian.

(!)死马当活马医 dead horse as a living horse to treat: for an incurable disease/unsolvable problem and even if it were hopeless, they would do their best and does not matter if they were to fail.

Regardless if Gu Lian were useful or not, they would kidnap her back. It would be the best if they could use Gu Lian to lure Qiao MingYu out. Even if she was not useful, there was no loss. To them, it would simply be a waste of energy. As for Gu Lian, they could kill her as the dead would not expose them.

It was a pity that they have miscalculated Gu Lian’s skill and ability, assuming they would be successful.

Gu Lian was someone who had been lingering on the edge of death for many years, hence, her 5 senses have been trained to be very acute.

Years ago, the map of the country’s military defence layout record of the Tang Dynasty was divided into 8parts. Except for the few copies left in the hands of the custodians, the remaining ones were either lost or the rebels have taken the opportunity to gift to the thieves. Gu Lian had killed 1 of the thieves and took the copy and gave to TianCe residence owner: Commander Li for safekeeping. And the experience on the road as she was escorting the layout copy was vastly different from today’s small battle.

To prevent the man from waking up and making noise, Gu Lian tied him up tightly and gagged his mouth with a cloth. After confirming that it was not possible to spit out the cloth, she went back to the bed and continued sleeping. But her body was still alert so any noise would wake her up immediately.

Fortunately, nothing happened for the entire night and even after waking up, the man had yet to wake up.

Gu Lian summoned the steady Ju Xiang. When Ju Xiang saw the man, she was shocked.

“Miss?” Ju Xiang asked in a quiet voice, “this?”

Gu Lian’s eyebrows furrowed slightly: “Probably was targeting the princess.”

Ju Xiang understood immediately and said: “This servant will let Zhu Xiang send a letter to the princess.”

“Go ahead, let Zhu Xiang’s mouth be stricter.” Gu Lian instructed but was not concerned that Zhu Xiang would say unnecessary things.

If Zhu Xiang could not keep her mouth shut, she would not train her.

She had Mei Xiang took a leave of absence from Yin Shi while Gu Lian concentrated on watching the man in the room.

Mei Xiang went out and did not see Yin Shi. Yu Lan’s expression was not good as she forced herself to smile at Mei Xiang.: “Madam is sick, so there is no need to pay respect today.”

Mei Xiang could not figure out any abnormality. Seeing that Yu Lan was not lying, she figured that she was really sick. After a customary inquiry about the sickness, she hurried back to the courtyard.

“Miss, are you uncomfortable too?” Mei Xiang did not enter the inner room and was not aware of the man in black inside. She had only heard Gu Lian saying that she was unwell and asked her to take a leave of absence. Now that she had heard that Yin Shi was also unwell, Mei Xiang was very worried.

Could it be an infectious disease?

Gu Lian glanced at her: “too? Madam was unwell?”

“Yes.” Mei Xiang was taken aback, “Yu Lan said Madam was sick.”

Gu Lian lowered her eyes and contemplate, she was fine, how could she have gotten sick again?

Yesterday, Yin Shi was angry. Her tolerance was not high, maybe she really had gotten sick from anger. And Gu Zhi Mo had went to Yin Shi’s place for the night and she was ill today. Seems like it might be because she overestimated her capabilities and was prepared to embarrassed Mistress Li, but instead was reprimanded by Gu Zhi Mo.

Since getting married, things have been going well for Yin Shi. Other than those inner house’s concubines that has been an eyesore to her and that year whereby the oldest concubine gave birth to a son, she had never been wronged. The mother-in-law had never cared much. Yet, Mistress Li’s son birthday celebration was the very first time she intervened after delegating the household management power to her. At that time, she had to lift her spirits to welcome the challenge or else she would be ill from anger.

To put it bluntly, Yin Shi’s glass heart has taken form as she had been protected at home for a long time and had become a small unofficial princess.

“I see.” Gu Lian got up and walked towards the inner room. She had heard a little movement and guess that the person inside had woken up.

Mei Xiang followed, and the moment she entered the inner room, she was baffled.

“This…this……this……”

“Hush.” Gu Lian turned her head and placed her index finger on her lips, “Mei Xiang, you should learn from Ju Xiang. You are the leader and you must be very calm.”

Mei Xiang hung her head in shame and nodded repeatedly.

The man in black struggled for a while but did not break free from the rope made of ice silk. Instead, the more he struggled, the tighter it comes. Hence, he did not dare to struggle anymore as annoyance flashed in his eyes.

He did not expect to have fallen into the hands of this young girl.

Gu Lian listens to his various “WuWuWu” and “MmMmMm” and was frustrated, she raised her and shot out the scorpion heart that made him fainted.

The man in black eyes turned dark and knows nothing anymore.

Due to the angle, he could not see the faint green light flashed out from the bamboo flute hidden in the cuffs when Gu Lian made a move. So, he was aggrieved when he fainted. He did not even see his opponent’s movement, what a failure.

After Mei Xiang was actuated by the poison, she was extremely loyal and was already familiar with it. She stepped forward to confirmed that the person had fainted before feeling a sense of relieved.

“Miss, what do we do now?” Mei Xiang asked.

Gu Lian spun the bamboo flute in her hand: “wait.”

She had to think of a way to change to a coloured glaze flute. The usage of WuDu technique would glow which was very troublesome. In this world, this would definitely be classified as witchcraft. Now, it was an emerald coloured bamboo flute, so when using scorpion heart, one could not tell. However, when using other skills which were not green, they could not be concealed.

The coloured glazed flute can be inlaid with some fine coloured gems. By then, the flute would be colourful and would not be easy to see it.

Of course, the most important matter was to raise the poison quickly. The usage of dazzling effect of Mind Poison went through weakened experiment and was only glowing slightly. However, no matter how weak the effect of Sky patching technique was, it was still a marvel. For example, the ice silkworm technique, ice silkworm silk-pulling could really pull out a crystal white glow silk and connect to the person who was being treated! This was the system’s effect and there was no way of changing it. However, she could only use the real ice silkworm to cover it up. After all, the real ice silkworm could be controlled by the mother poison silently to release ice dew to treat the wounded and there would be no “Silk-pulling” special effect.

In short, these cool effects which was loved by the players was like a pit to Gu Lian. Why did she not transmigrate into the realm of cultivation? That way, it would not be eye-catching, and she could be as cool as she wants to.

Gu Lian sighed. Forget it. Since she was here, might as well stay and make the best of it. She does not know if Zhu Xiang had managed to send the letter or not. If the princess was not in the princess estate, the letter might take some time reached the palace. So now, she could only wait.

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[T/L Note]: Too…..much…..poison……..my brain cannot take it…..Anyway, I’m not sure if y’all knows how ancient Chinese residence looks like, so I’ve added some images. This kind of residence are for the rich/nobles.

So in the morning, when the mistresses, daughters paid their respect to the main wife. the room looks like this

Each person lives in their own courtyard. it has a tiny open space/garden with their own privacy.

This is a simple inner room. I can’t find a glamorous inner room befitting for an aristocrat. so you have to add imagination to this image.

This is a version of there room, whereby the owner of the courtyard will entertain their own guest. FYI, the folding screen on the left should have been in the inner room instead. because that is where they would dressed/undressed.

So a courtyard is like a mini living room with bedroom.

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