Chapter 3: The Antidote

Xiao Jue chuckled, his movements swift as the wind as he closed in on the two men, subduing them with ease in a single motion.

"What did Prime Minister Qiu send you here for? To see if this Prince is truly dead?" Xiao Jue looked down at them from his towering height, his voice chillingly cold.

The first reaction of the two men upon being captured was to bite down on the poison sacs hidden under their tongues. Seeing this, Xiao Jue violently gripped one man’s throat, delaying the onset of the toxin.

"Speak, what did Prime Minister Qiu send you here to do?" Xiao Jue leaned down, slightly loosening his grip.

"To, to save the Third Miss," the man replied with a weak breath.

Xiao Jue was slightly stunned. "Which Third Miss?"

"The one buried with you, Your Highness... the Prime Minister's third, third mis—" Before the man could finish his sentence, he swallowed his last breath and collapsed to the ground.

"Damn it." Xiao Jue cursed under his breath. The Third Miss? The person in the coffin was the Prime Minister's daughter? And Chang Feng had captured the Prime Minister's daughter to detoxify him?

Xiao Jue was deeply puzzled. When he led his troops to attack Cangyi, he had been accidentally struck by an arrow, but the arrow had been coated in a deadly poison. Fortunately, he had the Jade-Faced Divine Physician Mu Liufei by his side to save his life, but the poison in his body had remained impossible to cure.

It wasn't until he conquered the stronghold of Cangyi that he learned the poison he had been struck with actually originated from Qiu Gongjin, the current Prime Minister of his own Zhao Yue Kingdom.

That old scoundrel actually wanted him dead!

Hurried footsteps interrupted Xiao Jue’s contemplation. He looked up to see his trusted guard, Chang Feng, approaching with the hidden guards.

Seeing the two men in black lying on the ground, Chang Feng’s expression shifted in alarm. He hurriedly knelt on one knee and cupped his hands. "This subordinate is late in coming to save you, please punish me, Your Highness."

Xiao Jue’s gaze fell inadvertently on the sack behind Chang Feng, and he frowned. "What is inside that bag?"

Hearing Xiao Jue’s inquiry, Chang Feng quickly replied, "Reporting to Your Highness, this is the woman I found to cure your poison." As he spoke, Chang Feng opened the bag, revealing the woman’s delicate features.

Xiao Jue’s expression turned icy. He flicked his sleeves violently and turned away, a hint of anger appearing on his face. "Take this woman away. Chang Feng, stay; everyone else, get out," Xiao Jue commanded coldly.

The hidden guards cleared away the sack and the corpses on the ground. Chang Feng knelt on the floor, his heart pounding. "Your Highness, the poison in your body..."

Xiao Jue turned around, his chest heaving slightly, his voice stern and laced with suppressed rage. "What exactly is going on? If the woman in the coffin wasn't the one you found for me, then why was she lying in my sarcophagus? And why is she the daughter of that old scoundrel, Prime Minister Qiu?"

"Your Highness, everything was originally proceeding according to the plan. However, for some reason, the Emperor suddenly decided to bestow a marriage upon you, ordering the Imperial Preceptor to select a woman whose birth date was compatible with yours. The Imperial Preceptor chose the Prime Minister’s third daughter, Qiu Shuiman, to be wed to you in a ghost marriage."

Chang Feng replied in a low voice. They had devised the plan for a fake death that day, intending to detoxify Xiao Jue within the underground palace. They never expected the Emperor to suddenly bestow a marriage.

A ghost marriage? Xiao Jue suddenly understood. He strode to the sarcophagus. The air inside was still thick with a lingering, seductive scent. The woman lying inside was disheveled, her long ink-black hair spread out, her chest partially exposed, and her fair skin covered in red and purple bruises.

Her exquisite, curvaceous body was wrapped in a bright red wedding gown—a bewitching beauty that left him somewhat stunned.

Xiao Jue’s throat moved; his mind was filled with the images of their intimacy from just moments ago. "Damn it." Xiao Jue cursed angrily and stopped looking at her. He turned slightly and asked, "Since it was a ghost marriage with me, why is she alive?"

Chang Feng was stunned. He was shocked and immediately denied it. "That is absolutely impossible. The eunuchs from the palace were the ones who sent the Princess Consort on her way, and the matrons had already verified it. This subordinate also checked; the Princess Consort was indeed dead before she was placed in the coffin to be buried with you, Your Highness."

The matter was of great importance. Because Xiao Jue was in a state of feigned death at the time, Chang Feng could not pass the news to him and had to handle it carefully, fearing any slip-up.

He dared not be the least bit negligent; he had personally confirmed that Qiu Shuiman was dead before he felt at ease letting them seal the coffin and send it to the mausoleum.

Xiao Jue’s voice suddenly deepened with a reprimand: "What, do you think I wouldn't know whether she is dead or alive? If she were a corpse, how was my poison cured?"