0p0 Chapter 177 A Clever Solution to the Pre-Match Crisis
Chapter 177 A Clever Solution to the Pre-Match Crisis
A brilliant breakthrough in the pre-match crisis
As dusk settled on the edge of the celadon teacup, forming dark purple bruises, Su Yunlan used a silver needle to remove the last piece of tallow tree ash. Suddenly, the map floating in the spiritual spring space emitted a buzzing sound.
The frosty pharmacopoeia, stained with the blood of Gu worms, moved without wind, projecting the script of the southern border into the rising tea smoke.
"Madam Wu is going to set up the Five Poisons Formation on the judges' panel." Xiao Yuhan's sword scabbard traced starlight trails on the bluestone bricks, the dark patterns perfectly overlapping with the ash totem. "The winding corridor of tomorrow's tea competition corresponds to the Miao Nine Insect Plate."
When the third watch gong sounded, Su Yunlan poured the spiritual spring water into the ice-crack patterned plum vase.
The azure tea tree rustled in the space, and the fallen new leaves, when immersed in water, transformed into emerald ribbons that entangled the lingering shadows of the Gu worms that were trying to break free of the seal.
She touched the Mingmen acupoint on her wrist, which Xiao Yuhan had pressed, where a circle of pale gold patterns lingered—a protective barrier formed from the bloodline of the God of War.
As the morning light pierced through the clouds, the servant boy, carrying a sandalwood box containing camphor, stumbled into the inn.
The boy's sleeves were stained with dark fingerprints, clearly indicating he had been dragged from the kitchen: "They changed the snow water for the judges' seats!"
"They've mixed bone-rotting herbs into the bronze cauldron in the Azure Dragon position!"
Su Yunlan dipped the jade teaspoon into the bronze cauldron, and the toad carved on the handle suddenly opened its mouth, sucking in all the dark green poison.
She watched the elderly man surnamed Zhao on the judges' panel stroke his beard and smile, and tapped out a secret code of three short and two long fingers under the tea table.
The hidden guards concealed in the beams immediately transformed into a gentle breeze, switching the poisoned copper cauldron with the cold pool water in the spiritual spring space.
"This tea, Madam Su..." Judge Zhao was the first to challenge during the tea tasting, his cloudy eyes fixed on the celadon teacup in her hand, "It smells refreshing, but the color of the tea is far too eerie."
Thirty-eight gazes focused on Su Yunlan's wrist.
There, ice silkworm threads taken from the space were wrapped around, slowly seeping the spiritual spring tea tree sap into the tea soup.
The originally clear blue tea soup transformed into a seven-colored rainbow in the seven rabbit-hair teacups as she flipped her wrist to serve the tea, startling the tea maid who was holding the incense burner into accidentally knocking over the golden charcoal.
"This tea is called 'Nine Turns Rainbow'." Su Yunlan gently tapped the tea whisk three times on the rim of the cup, and the seven-colored tea foam suddenly condensed into glistening tea dewdrops. "It's made from the morning dew of a hundred-year-old wild tea tree on a cliff, seasoned with..."
She suddenly stopped talking, her gaze sweeping over the faint gold thread visible on Judge Zhao's cuff—the very thread that had peeled off from Master Wu's gilded invitation.
The azure tea tree in the spiritual spring space suddenly grew rapidly, its roots piercing through the void and entangling the Five Poisons Array Eye beneath the judges' seats, turning the Gu worms that were gnawing on the tea cake into dust.
"Add the marrow-cleansing spiritual spring." Su Yunlan said, suddenly lifting the lid of the tea stove, and clear spring water gushed out from the normally dark furnace.
As the twenty-eight lotus-petal silver spoons simultaneously scooped up spring water, the Gu insect hairpin hidden in Wu's hair bun suddenly exploded, splashing dark green liquid onto Judge Zhao's scoring book.
Gasps of amazement rose and fell from the sidelines.
The cinnabar ink, which was originally going to receive a low score, blossomed into red plum blossoms on the rice paper the moment it touched the venom.
Su Yunlan concealed her cold smile by pouring tea. This morning, she had specially applied madder juice extracted from her space to the scoring book—it would bloom when exposed to poison, making it a magic weapon against underhanded dealings.
"Look at this 'Snow Waves Overturning Clouds'!" She suddenly splashed boiling hot tea into the air, and the totem of the tallow tree leaves that had been burned the night before appeared in the steam.
The moment the sunlight pierced through the cryptic script of southern Xinjiang formed by the tea smoke, the talisman hidden in Wu's skirt suddenly burst into flames, startling her so much that she knocked over the entire set of sacrificial red glazed tea utensils.
Xiao Yuhan's sword energy quietly seeped into the arena at that moment.
No one noticed the bamboo curtain behind the judges' table swaying slightly. Where the corner of his black robe brushed past, the centipede gu, the final key of the Five Poisons Formation, was being nailed to the crack in the blue brick by the roots of the spatial tea tree.
"This taste..." The white-haired judge surnamed Lu tremblingly raised his teacup, the bottom of which clearly reflected the star map from the spiritual spring space, "The first sip is like spring snow melting, the second like autumn frost condensing into dew, and the aftertaste even has the resounding sound of metal and stone!"
Su Yunlan lowered her eyes, concealing the sharpness in them.
Of course, she wouldn't say that the "sound of metal and stone" came from Xiao Yuhan's sword intent that struck the cliff last night, nor would she reveal that each tea leaf was soaked in the sap of the phoenix tree, which can cure all poisons.
When the seventh judge couldn't resist asking for a second cup, she caught a glimpse of Judge Zhao secretly wiping his cuffs, which were corroded by the venom.
As dusk fell, Su Yunlan "accidentally" knocked over the Yue kiln celadon urn containing tea dregs while tidying up the tea set.
The corpses of the Gu worms mixed in with the withered leaves dissolved upon contact with air, leaving only a few specks of gold dust on the silk she had laid out beforehand—these were the gold fragments that Master Wu had bribed the judges with.
"The finals are tomorrow..." She tied the silk ribbon to the copper bell by the window, watching her guards swoop across the sky like hawks. "It's time for the real Phoenix Tea to appear."
As the last rays of sunlight disappeared behind the mountains, the azure tea trees in the Spirit Spring space suddenly blossomed with icy, crystal-like buds.
Su Yunlan ran her hand over the fingertip that had been grazed by Xiao Yuhan's sword energy, where the blood droplets that had congealed were reflecting the Southern Frontier coded messages onto the tea stains remaining on the judges' table.
On the ancient banyan tree outside the stadium, the black iron sword sheath reflected half of a sharply defined profile.
As the night breeze dispersed the tea smoke, the man pressed his hand on the humming sword at his waist, his eyes reflecting the lingering rainbow of colors across the scene.
Xiao Yuhan stood behind the carved lattice fan, his black robes damp with night dew, while the cloud pattern on his sword hilt scorched hot.
He gazed at the woman calmly serving tea at the tea table, his Adam's apple bobbing as he suppressed the surging emotions in his throat with a soft sigh.
The colorful tea mist that Su Yunlan splashed with his hand spread across the beam, and the fine spots of light fell on the side of her neck, exactly coinciding with the golden mark he had pressed on her Mingmen acupoint the night before.
"Be careful, it's hot." A large hand suddenly covered her wrist holding the pot, the calloused thumb brushing against the silken icicle.
A warm pulse of blood flowed through the back of Su Yunlan's hand, resonating with the surging roots of the tea trees in the spiritual spring space, creating invisible ripples on the blue brick floor.
A gasp suddenly rose from the sidelines, for it turned out that the Gu worm egg that had fallen from Wu's hair had turned into a snake upon contact with water.
Xiao Yuhan's sword sheath remained unmoved, yet the sword energy had already severed seven inches of it.
Before the venomous snake even hit the ground, it turned into wisps of smoke, mixing into the tea that Su Yunlan had deliberately spilled, and corroding the gold thread on Judge Zhao's sleeve into a phoenix spreading its wings totem.
"Look at this tea froth, Fourth Brother." Su Yunlan pushed the rabbit-hair teacup in front of him. The remaining tea in the cup suddenly froze into ice crystals, reflecting the entire Five Poisons Formation that had been burned down the night before. "Doesn't it look like the twin tea trees on the cliff?"
Xiao Yuhan's breath brushed against the crimson coral pendant beside her ear, startling the remnant soul of the Gu worm sealed within the pendant, causing it to writhe violently.
He dipped his fingertip in tea and drew a talisman on the table, dark red blood seeping into the tea from the sword wound: "The Azure Dragon position in tomorrow's final arena should be moved three inches."
Beneath their overlapping sleeves, the star map projected by the spiritual spring space was interlocking with the Southern Frontier cryptic script manifested by the tea smoke.
Su Yunlan suddenly felt the gold pattern on her wrist burning hot, and when she looked up, she met Xiao Yuhan's eyes, which reflected a rainbow of colors.
The tiger tally mark from the Temple of War on his palm, transmitted through the ice silk, made the phoenix totem on her vital point even more vibrant.
At the very moment when the hour of Zi and Chou (1-3 AM) intersected, the blue tea tree in the space suddenly burst out with a crisp sound.
Su Yunlan parted the stained glass window and saw the servant boy kneeling on the veranda, holding a cracked sandalwood box.
The boy, with a silver chain studded with barbs around his neck, vomited out half a poisoned tea leaf as he spoke: "They...switched the Heavenly Spring water for the finals..."
Xiao Yuhan's sword swept across the silver chain, and the barbs he cut off spelled out Miao characters on the bluestone slab.
Su Yunlan dipped her finger in the poisoned blood and drew talismans on the window frame. Suddenly, the ice-cracked plum vase tipped over on its own, and the spiritual spring water poured onto the silver chain, causing indigo flames to rise and burn the evil curse to ashes.
"Phoenix wood." She crushed a crimson leaf she had taken from her spatial storage, and the sap dripped onto Sun Xiaosi's wound, emitting a phoenix-like cry. "Mixed with Si Lang's sword energy, it's actually more effective than cinnabar."
As the fifth watch clapper shattered the remaining night, Su Yunlan leaned on Xiao Yuhan's shoulder for a short rest.
His black iron wrist guard popped open, revealing half of a jade pendant soaked in blood—this thing had suddenly flown out from the core of the Five Poisons Formation last night when he severed it.
The teeth marks on the edge of the jade pendant perfectly matched the faint birthmark on the back of Su Yunlan's neck.
As the morning light pierced through the clouds, the ice crystal camellias in the spiritual spring space suddenly withered.
Su Yunlan stroked the bulging gold patterns on her wrist, looking at the layout of the final arena reflected in the bronze mirror.
The star chart that Xiao Yuhan carved on the bottom of her dressing case with his sword energy last night is now overlapping with the poisonous miasma mark on the spatial map.
“It’s time to go.” Xiao Yuhan held the sword scabbard wrapped in silk gauze in front of her. The undried bloodstains on the gauze turned into gold dust in the wind. “Remember to thoroughly soak the third bronze sparrow lantern in the judges’ panel with water from the icy pool.”
As Su Yunlan stepped onto the stone steps of the venue, the dark pattern on her embroidered shoes suddenly stung the soles of her feet.
The Gu worm eggs hidden in the interlayer seemed to sense something and thrashed wildly, but were burned into blue smoke by the phoenix wood sap she had smeared on the toes of her shoes beforehand.
Sparks burst from thirty-six charcoal braziers simultaneously, forming half of a southern border incantation on the blue brick path she walked on.
Suddenly, the ancient banyan tree by the field moved without wind, and Xiao Yuhan's palm, which was pressed against the tree trunk, spread out in pale golden ripples.
He watched as Su Yunlan's straight back disappeared into the rising tea smoke in the arena, and suddenly the fangs of the Gu worms strung on the sword tassel cracked.
Su Yunlan stood in the center of thirty-six scrutinizing gazes, her fingertips brushing against the tea whisk soaked in spiritual spring water.
The purple smoke rising from the gilded incense burner on the judges' table suddenly twisted, reflecting in her pupils the rapidly growing root system of the tea tree in the space.
As the last rays of sunlight swept across the gilded plaque, she heard a soft clanging sound from the birthmark on the back of her neck, like jade striking each other.