0p0 Chapter 189 The Fragrance Product's Success Amazes All
Chapter 189 The Fragrance Product's Success Amazes All
Chapter 189 The Success of the Incense Product Amazes Everyone
The fragrance product's success astonished everyone present.
Thunder rumbled across the eaves, and Su Yunlan clenched the brocade pouch in her palm.
The twenty-third young master's scale-like birthmark was falling off in a flurry, and the fragments stuck to the star map on the silver toad's back, melting into a few drops of golden liquid.
She watched Zhao the collector's figure disappear into the rain, the dark patterns on his hem resembling the outstretched claws of a black bird.
&34; Go prepare the core of the Garan wood. &34; She placed the silver toad into Xiao Yuhan's palm. The toad emitted a faint buzzing sound when it touched the fragments of the birthmark. &34; This poison can even corrode birthmarks; it's probably from the same source as the corpse poison behind the bronze door. &34;
Xiao Yuhan frowned slightly, his fingertips tracing the indentation on the toad's back: "Songtao Pavilion is probably a trap."
Therefore, a two-pronged approach is needed. Su Yunlan, under the guise of tidying up the medicine box, concealed the black iron dagger from his spatial storage into his sleeve pocket.
The iron box that was taken from the bronze gate last night is now lying quietly in the corner of the space, with the same black bird bloodstains on the lid as those on the hem of Zhao's clothes.
Three days later at Songtao Pavilion in the west of the city, the copper bells hanging from the sandalwood beams jingled in the night wind.
As the collector Zhao pushed the parchment scroll across the table, the wooden beaded bracelet brushed against the candlestick, and the sparks that flew up burned a broken circle on the scroll: "Does Madam Xiao know this?"
The core of the kalanchoe wood will burn when it comes into contact with blood. &34;
Su Yunlan stared at the bloody handprint at the end of the scroll, and suddenly caught the smell of rust that was often found on Xiao Yuhan's armor.
She soaked the core of the Garan wood into tea mixed with spiritual spring water. The core blossomed with twin lotus patterns upon contact with the water: "Since you know that I took the iron box last night, you should understand—" Before she finished speaking, a dagger from her sleeve was already pressed against the other person's throat. The tip of the blade pried open his clothes, revealing a hideous arrow wound on his collarbone.
&34; Xiao Family Army's Cloud Piercing Arrow. &34; Zhao Collector's cloudy eyes gleamed with a strange light, his withered fingers crushed the teacup, and the porcelain shards cut his palm and dripped onto the parchment scroll.
The bloodstains snaked into a pattern, strikingly resembling the constellations on Su Yunlan's jade pendant: "To save the Xiao family, the old scabs must first be burned away."
In the dead of night, amidst a torrential downpour, Su Yunlan set up a three-legged bronze steamer in the medicine hut.
When Miss Sun burst in carrying a lantern, she saw her pressing the core of the Garan wood into the boiling spiritual spring water. The wood core unfurled into the shape of a sparrow's feathers as it was heated, and golden particles floated in the rising steam.
'Master sent me to peek at the recipe.' 'Miss Sun removed her silk cloak embroidered with honeysuckle patterns, revealing a waist sash filled with bamboo tubes.' 'But I'd rather learn Sister Su's method of extracting flower dew using icing.' '...'
The two worked tirelessly until dawn amidst the fragrant aroma of medicine.
As the amber liquid from the seventh distillation dripped into the celadon jar, Su Yunlan suddenly pressed down on Miss Sun's hand as she scooped water: "Wait!"
What about the ashes of the kalanchoe core? &34;
&34; As my sister instructed, I buried it under the peach tree in the backyard...&34; Miss Sun's words stopped abruptly as she looked out the window at the newly sprouted peach branches that had actually formed icy flower buds.
Su Yunlan stroked the frost-covered window frame, when suddenly the sound of an iron box opening came from inside the space—the torn pages inside the box perfectly matched the gap in the parchment scroll, revealing half of a border defense map.
Seven days later, at the incense-making gathering, Master Zhou, holding a gilded Boshan incense burner, sneered: "Is Madam Xiao perhaps going to use mosquito repellent incense to fill the gap?" The agarwood incense in the burner had just been lit when it was abruptly extinguished by the jade box that Su Yunlan had opened.
The incense balls in the box spontaneously combusted when exposed to the wind, and the blue smoke condensed into a black bird with outstretched wings that soared upwards, melting the snow and causing withered branches to sprout new buds wherever it passed.
"This is... the incense of the Nirvana of the Garan Temple?" Collector Zhao approached shakily, leaning on his snake-headed cane. The wooden beads on the cane reflected the star map in the fragrant mist. "Legend has it that it can cure all poisons..."
The gasps of surprise were drowned out by the gasps that rose and fell.
As the fragrant mist brushed past the rhinoceros horn hairpin in Zhou Xiangshi's hair, the malachite inlaid on the hairpin head suddenly shattered, and the scattered powder ignited into a ghostly blue flame in the air.
Su Yunlan caught a glimpse of the Xiao family's military emblem emerging from the flames, and heard Xiao Yuhan's whisper from the previous night: "Before my father passed away, he mentioned using the core of a garland jasmine to transmit secret messages..."
As dusk seeped through the window paper, Su Yunlan stroked the newly acquired tattered page in the brocade pouch.
The edges of the tattered page were charred, and the words "The 23rd brother is actually..." could be vaguely seen.
She sprinkled the prepared fragrance powder into the gilded incense ball. The sound of the mechanism turning inside the ball overlapped with the sound of Xiao Yuhan's returning horse hooves, startling the lingering shadows of black birds that had not yet dissipated throughout the courtyard.
As dusk cast an amber glow on the gilded incense ball, Xiao Yuhan gently tapped his black iron wrist guards against the bluestone bricks.
He passed through the lingering afterimages of the black bird, the ice crystals condensed on his armor falling with each step, melting into tiny galaxies at Su Yunlan's feet.
"Be careful, it's hot." Su Yunlan placed the gilded incense ball into Xiao Yuhan's palm. The ball was warm as if it were alive, and the rhythm of its rotating mechanism gradually overlapped with Xiao Yuhan's pulse.
As she gazed at the frost melting from her husband's brow, she suddenly recalled that night in front of the bronze door, when the iron box was opened and the old scabs fell off.
The cheers that erupted from the crowd startled the ice crystal flowers perched on the peach branches.
Incense Master Zhou stumbled back two steps, knocking over the Boshan incense burner. Ashes clung to his moon-white brocade robe, resembling the malachite powder burned away by the raging flames of the Black Bird a few days prior. "Sorcery!" he cried, his trembling finger pointing to a withered branch just beginning to sprout. "The art of incense making emphasizes the harmony of the five elements; how can such..."
&34; Master Zhou, you may wish to take a closer sniff. &34; Su Yunlan lightly flicked his fingertips, and the afterimage of the black bird swept past his lapel, and the originally charred black ash of the agarwood suddenly exuded a clear plum blossom fragrance.
The ice crystal buds bloomed in response, and the fine pollen condensed into a star map in the air, which happened to overlap with the old arrow marks on Xiao Yuhan's armor.
Xiao Yuhan suddenly grabbed her wrist, his calloused thumb rubbing the red marks on her wrist caused by the spiritual spring water.
This man, who had never flinched even after breaking seventeen ribs on the battlefield, now had tears welling up in the corners of his eyes: "When my father taught me to identify Kalanchoe wood, he said that truly good incense should have the sound of breaking free from its cocoon."
Suddenly, a crisp sound of tiles shattering came from the direction of Songtao Pavilion.
Collector Zhao's snake-headed cane held a glass lamp, the light casting his shadow long like the black bird totem on a bronze door.
The old man's withered fingers traced the budding peach branches, and the newly sprouted leaves immediately curled into tubes, oozing a golden liquid identical to the birthmark of the twenty-third young master.
&34;Has Madam Xiao heard of the old custom of burning incense and offering sacrifices to the deceased? &34;His hoarse voice startled the pollen of the Star Chart Flower. Where the dark red cloak swept, blood vines with the smell of rust sprouted from the cracks in the bluestone bricks. &34;Three days later, when the new moon hangs in the sky, it will be time for the flowers to bloom again...&34;
Xiao Yuhan's sword suddenly emitted a trembling sound like a dragon's roar, and the garland laurel core tied to the sword tassel instantly turned into azure flames.
Su Yunlan casually tossed the gilded incense ball into the air, and a black bird formed from the incense mist swooped down, its sharp beak precisely severing the blood vine that was about to wrap around Miss Sun's ankle.
The bamboo tube the girl was holding cracked with a sound, and the dew extracted from the ice shards poured onto the blood vine, burning out a starlight identical to the birthmark of the twenty-third young master.
"Look, everyone!" Miss Sun suddenly grabbed a handful of blood-stained incense ash and scattered it into the air. The ash transformed into hundreds of silver butterflies upon contact with the wind, each wing reflecting Su Yunlan's formula for blending incense powder. "This is the true way of incense making!"
The crowd surged toward the booth like a tidal wave.
Zhou Xiangshi retreated, clutching the broken rhinoceros horn hairpin. The eerie blue flame at the hairpin's tip burned the petition of boycott hidden in his sleeve to ashes.
Several veteran incense masters tried to deter customers with agarwood plaques, but sandalwood paled in comparison to the newly sprouted peach branches, which were instead eagerly sought after by young men and women as sachets and accessories.
"Lady Su! I need ten boxes of this hemostatic incense that can make wounds frosty!"
&34; Our pharmacy will take care of all the sprouting incense! &34;
&34; Please accept me as your apprentice! I am willing to offer you my ancestral borneol recipe! &34;
Xiao Yuhan chuckled softly, his breath, tinged with the scent of blood, brushing against Su Yunlan's ear: "Does my lady still remember when you applied medicine to my wounds on the way to exile, you said that one day..." His words were interrupted by the sudden fragrance of plum blossoms—Su Yunlan pressed a newly made incense pill onto his old wound, and the once hideous arrow scar had grown a translucent crystalline membrane, reflecting the moonlight like a flowing Milky Way.
When the third watch gong sounded, Miss Sun, carrying a honeysuckle-patterned lantern, chased after them to the ferry.
The river washed away the remaining star map into fragments of gold. Su Yunlan looked at the thirty-six sky lanterns that flickered on and off on the opposite bank, and suddenly pressed his hand on the jade pendant at his waist: "Keep these purchase requests. Remember, the core of the garland jasmine wood needs to be ground with morning dew. If it is exposed to midday sunlight, then..."
"Sister, look!" Miss Sun suddenly pointed to the river.
Among the floating river lanterns was a black iron lotus lantern, its wick burning with the corpse oil from the bronze gate. The starlight floating in the flames was exactly the same as the remaining Garan fire on Xiao Yuhan's sword tassel.
As Xiao Yuhan took off his cloak and wrapped it around Su Yunlan, a guard brought over a brocade box stained with blood.
The torn pages in the box fit together perfectly with the secret letter in the iron box, forming half of a map of the imperial tomb marked with the words "Twenty-Three".
He picked up a drifting ice crystal flower with the tip of his sword, and the frost patterns on the petals perfectly matched the patterns on Su Yunlan's newly made incense pills.
"It's time to close the net." Su Yunlan crushed the incense pills and scattered them into the river. The rich fragrance of garland jasmine spread along the water ripples, and the river lanterns that reached them burst into golden flames one after another, illuminating the night sky as if it were daytime.
She leaned against Xiao Yuhan's blood-stained shoulder armor, watching the flickering sky lanterns on the opposite bank transform into a sky full of fireflies. Suddenly, she remembered the twin lotus in her space, nourished with incense ash, which should have budded its seventh pair of flower buds tonight.
The deeper darkness of night crept in from the direction of the imperial city, swallowing up the last wisp of incense.
The night watchman's clapper missed a beat, startling a flock of crows that flew over the tattered banners of the incense-making gathering. A half-finished black bird tail feather was visible through the tear in the banner, covered with gold dust identical to the birthmark of the twenty-third young master.