Zhong Li only remembered the innkeeper saying that the Divine Maiden's Church would be distributing wooden tokens at the county entrance, but she never expected to encounter the Divine Maiden here.
As she watched the members of the Divine Maiden's Church approach inch by inch, a primal fear she had never known before surged within her.
"Lin Jin." She turned to look at the man behind her.
Seeing his equally solemn expression, she knew he must be feeling the same as her.
"Clang." The crisp sound of a bell rang out again. The slowly advancing members of the Divine Maiden's Church suddenly halted. A slender hand, incredibly delicate, emerged from beneath the red gauze of a palanquin. The hand gently raised and pointed at someone kneeling among the crowd.
Two followers, a man and a woman, standing beside the palanquin reacted, and from somewhere, produced a bowl which they handed to the person pointed at.
That person, snapping out of their daze, quickly knelt and accepted it. Eagerly, without a second thought, they downed it in one gulp. Immediately after, a wooden token was placed into their hand.
"Thank you, Divine Maiden, thank you, Divine Maiden!" The person, clutching the token with excitement, guarded it tightly as if it were a priceless treasure.
Lin Jin sneered at the sight, "A charlatan."
Suddenly, it seemed as though the person within the palanquin had heard, and a chilling gaze swept towards them.
Before Lin Jin could react, she felt a sharp pain in her chest, her knees weakened, and with a 'thump', she collapsed to the ground.
"Lin Jin!" Zhong Li cried out, quickly crouching beside him to inquire.
Lin Jin, clutching his chest, sweat beading on his forehead and trickling down his cheeks.
Zhong Li quickly took his pulse. She found that apart from his rapid heartbeat, Lin Jin showed no other physical abnormalities, which surprised her. Did this Divine Maiden truly possess immortal arts, capable of harming people from afar and unseen?
"Clang!" Another bell sound.
Zhong Li looked up. The red palanquin had already continued its procession through the streets, with people kneeling and paying homage.
She averted her gaze, lowering her head in thought. Just as she was racking her brain, unable to comprehend anything.
"Clang!"
Zhong Li's heart jolted. The sound seemed to be right by her ear.
She slowly raised her eyes. A red fingertip was pointing directly at her.
In the next moment, before she could react, two people appeared on either side of her. The woman held a bowl, and the man held a wooden token.
The bowl was slowly placed before her. Mustering her courage, she peered into it. The bowl contained water, impossibly clear.
Were those people drinking water?
The moment this question surfaced in Zhong Li's mind, it was swiftly interrupted.
For she smelled a peculiar fragrance, the very same scent emanating from the corpses in the inn's backyard.
Zhong Li's lips parted, wanting to refuse, but her peripheral vision caught the gazes of all the citizens of Yuxian County, all focused on her.
She closed her eyes, picked up the bowl, and slowly brought it to her lips.
As the bowl became empty, a wooden token was placed in her palm.
"Clang!"
With the ringing of the bell, the palanquin led the crowd and moved away into the distance once more.
While everyone was kneeling and kowtowing, Zhong Li stole a glance at the retreating back of the Divine Maiden in the palanquin. She stood up, withdrew from the crowd, and headed straight back to the inn.
"Ugh..."
Zhong Li knelt before the basin, retching continuously.
Lu Wuxie stood beside her, gently patting her back as she caught her breath, and then handed her a cup of clear tea to rinse her mouth.
After a while, Zhong Li, her legs weak, shakily sat back on the stool, supported by Lu Wuxie.
"Are you feeling better?" he asked, frowning with concern as he looked at her. Had he known that obtaining a wooden token required drinking an unknown liquid, he would never have let her go.
Zhong Li waved her hand and reached into her sleeve, pulling out a small pouch.
"What is this..." Lu Wuxie asked, puzzled.
Zhong Li replied, "To deceive the Divine Maiden, I pretended to drink, holding it in my mouth. The rest I poured into this."
Lin Jin also returned. Seeing what Zhong Li held in her hand, he asked, "When did Miss Zhong acquire this skill?"
Zhong Li said, "Earlier, when I saw the citizens who received wooden tokens being asked to drink, I took out the sheep intestine gloves I carried with me and tucked them into my sleeve cuff. I didn't expect this precaution to be so useful."
As she spoke, she poured all the liquid from the pouch into an empty cup on the table.
She first removed her hairpin and dipped it into the cup to confirm it wasn't poisoned. Then, she stated, "I find this water problematic, yet it's not poisonous. What is the Divine Maiden's Church trying to achieve by having these people drink it?"
Hearing this, Lu Wuxie picked up the cup and sniffed it carefully. After a long while, his expression darkened. "You say this is the holy water bestowed by the Divine Maiden?"
"Yes!" Zhong Li nodded.
Lu Wuxie, enraged, slammed the cup onto the table. "Do you remember when I told you that Governor Chang of Liaocheng had invited me to his residence?"
Zhong Li nodded, her gaze falling on the cup before her. "Could it be that what he gave you to drink..."
"Yes. Though what he gave me was wine, and the aroma of the wine masked most of the taste, I am certain this substance was mixed into it," Lu Wuxie said.
Upon hearing this, Zhong Li felt a chill crawl from her feet to the top of her head. At the time, when she and Lin Jin were examining the corpses, Lu Wuxie was still in a daze. He didn't know the full extent of the situation. Now, hearing him say this, if he hadn't been mostly detoxified and then arrived in Yuxian County, perhaps Lu Wuxie might have rushed out of the room in a trance that night and fought those people.
"What exactly is this substance? Its smell is so strange. You say it's fragrant, yet it's not a scent commonly encountered. You say it's foul, yet it's not entirely so." Lin Jin picked it up and sniffed it.
Zhong Li looked at him. Seeing his normal complexion, she shook her head and replied, "I find this scent familiar, yet I can't quite place it."
"Familiar? What do you suspect it is?" Lu Wuxie asked.
Zhong Li remained silent, walking to the window. She pushed it open and looked at the sun-drenched ground in the backyard.
"Right, tonight we are to meet the Divine Maiden with the others. Miss Zhong, give me the wooden token, and let me go," Lin Jin said, walking up to her.
Zhong Li slowly drew the wooden token from her sleeve. The token was a bit old, inscribed with a set of numbers, and had a faint oily sheen on its surface. It reminded her of the excited man she had seen earlier, repeatedly examining the token he had received. This oily sheen, she surmised, was from the oil on the fingertips of the recipient who had rubbed it repeatedly, indicating the token was quite old.
"No," she shook her head, gripping the token tightly in her hand. "You cannot go."
"Why?"
"Why?"
Two voices echoed in the room.
Zhong Li glanced at Lin Jin, then at Lu Wuxie, who looked at her with concern. "I have a feeling that Divine Maiden is not simple. She seems to be able to read people's thoughts. This token was pointed out to me by her. If Lin Jin goes, and there's any slip-up, we will have failed."
"But Miss Zhong," Lin Jin furrowed his brow upon hearing this. "Tonight, only one of us can go. If something goes wrong..."
"Still, we cannot choose to avoid it when we know it will lead to trouble for you," Zhong Li interrupted Lin Jin.
Lin Jin appeared troubled.
Lu Wuxie, seeing this, mused for a moment. He then stood up and slowly walked to Zhong Li's side.
He took her hands, which hung limply at her sides, and leaned in to whisper a sentence in her ear.