Chapter 7: Turned Into Poop

This troublesome woman, is she ever going to stop! Lao Ba, you brat, after you've finished your business, you actually expect me to wipe your ass for you!

The man in black knit his thick brows tightly, his impatience reaching its peak.

Liu Ruoshui had no idea that in the man's heart, she had already become a pile of excrement. She was currently looking at the person before her with a beaming smile, running her own little calculations in her head.

She was about to return to the Prime Minister's Manor to face layers of crises. The person who had poisoned her might strike again; if the opponent used martial force, her current body was extremely frail and possessed no power of self-defense. Her current priority was to find someone with high martial arts skills and trustworthy character to protect her closely.

She had just tested him twice in a row, and the results satisfied her greatly.

This man in black possessed a noble temperament, helped the weak, had excellent skills, was not greedy for wealth, and did not seek credit. According to her judgment, he should be a chivalrous man wandering the martial world—exactly the kind of person she needed most right now!

No matter what, she had to keep him!

But how to move him was a massive problem.

After thinking it over, Ruoshui decided to get straight to the point. People of the martial world lived lives of licking blood from the tips of blades and seeking quick retribution; they detested pettiness and loved directness.

"Benefactor, Ruoshui has a matter to discuss. Please sit down and let Ruoshui explain it slowly." Ruoshui moved the only chair in the room to the man's front.

The man in black stood as straight as a javelin, arms crossed over his chest, looking for all the world like he was saying: *Speak if you have something to say, get it over with quickly, and the moment you're done, I'm leaving immediately.*

Ruoshui was undeterred. She smiled slightly and said, "Benefactor, the poison in your body..."

Before she could finish, she felt a sudden sharp pain in her throat, and a chillingly bright dagger was pressed against her windpipe.

"Who exactly are you? Who sent you?" The man in black suddenly closed in. His blade-like gaze was right before Ruoshui's eyes; she could clearly see the reflection of her own face in his pupils.

How rude!

Ruoshui's favorability toward the man instantly dropped a level. However, his movements were truly top-tier. Although her current body knew no martial arts, her eye for talent remained sharp.

"I am Liu Ruoshui, the eldest legitimate daughter of Chancellor Liu Chengyi. Even if you do not know me, you should have heard of this face—the number one most hideous woman in the Imperial Capital, one of a kind, no imitations." Ruoshui smiled calmly. She extended her orchid-like fingers, pinched the flat side of the dagger, and moved it away from her throat. "I do not know martial arts, so you don't need to scare me so fiercely."

A flash of embarrassment crossed the man in black's eyes. He naturally saw that Ruoshui had no martial arts. With a flick of his wrist, the dagger instantly vanished, hidden somewhere on his person.

Being afflicted by a deadly poison was his greatest secret; no more than five people in the world knew of it. Now, it had been called out by a strange young girl in a single breath, leaving him both shocked and enraged. This was why he had resorted to threatening a defenseless girl, losing his dignity.

He lowered his eyelids and took a few steps back, coughing softly to mask his inner unease.

Ruoshui pursed her lips in a smile and dropped a second bombshell.

"Don't you find it stifling to wear this damn human-skin mask all day?"

The man in black shuddered. He snapped his head up, his dark, deep pupils constricting into tiny black dots.

One had to know that the human-skin mask on his face was the life's work of the renowned "Miraculous Child" of the martial world. It was incredibly exquisite and worth a thousand gold pieces.

Even an ordinary person looking at him face-to-face would absolutely fail to find a single flaw. This girl... who exactly was she? To think she could see through his two biggest secrets at a single glance?

His gaze was filled with suspicion and uncertainty, yet Ruoshui remained composed, giving him a faint smile.

"When we ordinary people speak, our jaws move up and down, which pulls the facial muscles to move along with them. I noticed that when you were speaking just now, your facial muscles did not move at all. Therefore, I judged that you must be wearing a human-skin mask." Ruoshui spoke unhurriedly, resolving one of the man's doubts.

"Facial muscles?" The man's thick brows furrowed slightly. Just as one doubt was resolved, another arose.

"Correct, facial muscles." Ruoshui pointed to her own face. "From here to here, it all belongs to the facial muscles. They are located beneath the skin of the face, originating from the skull and ending at the face. When the facial muscles contract, they pull the skin of the face, producing various expressions like joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness. Having said it this way, do you understand?"

The man in black nodded. After a long hesitation, he spoke slowly, "You understand medicine?"

Ruoshui couldn't help but roll her eyes at him in her heart.

This man was so long-winded; he wasn't straightforward at all!

What he clearly wanted to ask was whether she knew how to detoxify, yet he insisted on pivoting to medical skills.

"Indeed." Ruoshui nodded readily and said, "I not only understand medicine, but I also understand toxicology. Just now when I fell, you reached out to help. I held your wrist and took your pulse in passing. I sensed an abnormality in your pulse, which should be a sign of being afflicted by a deadly poison. If you trust me, you might as well sit down and let me examine it carefully for you."

Ruoshui spoke eloquently without changing her expression. The man in black couldn't help but believe ninety percent of her words, though some doubt still lingered in his heart. His masked face remained wooden, but his ink-black eyes betrayed a hint of hesitation.

Ruoshui couldn't help but smile.

"Are you afraid of me?" she asked bluntly, her clear, bright eyes staring at him without blinking.