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Chapter 346 Delivering Hot Soup

Lu Qing did not respond to Lu Yan's words, and her face showed no emotion. She looked very calm, as if she was thinking about something.

Seeing that he didn't react, Lu Yan urged again, "Brother, don't you have anything to say?"

Lu Qing looked up at him and nodded calmly: "You have to eat one bite at a time and do one thing at a time."

We're now facing this eerie fairy castle. Our priority is to unravel its mysteries. We can explore the rest later, after we leave."

His reaction wasn't what Lu Yan wanted most, but it made perfect sense. He was suppressing his anger because he wanted to find the missing tax collectors, so bringing up the Duke of Yan at this point was really meaningless.

It wasn't convenient for Zhu Yu to speak at this time, but she stood aside and thought about what Lu Yan was saying. She recalled that she had been in close proximity to the Duke of Yan because of the matter of General Cao's nephew.

The old steward had brought over the fragrance from that dress earlier, and she had indeed smelled something similar on the Duke of Yan.

At that time, she thought of the fragrance emanating from the Emperor's study and the eunuch in the palace, and she didn't know that there was a famous shoe store in the capital.

From this perspective, it's hard for outsiders to say whether the owner of the Tze-Lush Shop had any private relationship with Lu Zhang, but there was definitely some connection between the Tze-Lush Shop and the Duke of Yan's Mansion.

However... is the fragrance on the dresses from the Tze Lü Fang solely to please the tastes of the nobility? If so, it doesn't necessarily mean anything else.

If that fragrance is indeed not pure... Duke Yan also carries that scent, could it be that he has entered the game himself?

Zhu Yu felt that getting involved was a last resort. The Duke of Yan was extremely powerful and had many followers. He had many other options, so why would he choose this desperate path?
However, her thoughts soon wandered, and her gaze gradually shifted from the people in the living room to the courtyard, landing on the small pond.

It was just past noon, only the time of Wei (1-3 PM), and the weather was fine with plenty of sunshine outside.

The pond wasn't very deep to begin with, and now dragonflies and butterflies were fluttering their wings around it, landing on the large, dark green leaves to rest.

The white flowers that bloomed at night earlier now seem to be hiding shyly beneath the leaves, with only faint traces visible.

Fragrance... Night...

Zhu Yu's brows twitched. While Lu Yan was talking to Lu Qing and the others, he touched his leather tool bag in his arms and found it was still there. He then quietly got up and went to the courtyard.

She walked to the edge of the pond, squatted down, and reached out to part the large, dark green leaves to look at the flowers below.

During the day, the petals of these little flowers are all closed, tightly wrapping the flower's heart inside, not revealing a single bit. Even if you get this close, you can't smell any fragrance.

These flowers only bloom at night, and their cool, delicate fragrance floats in the courtyard.

All of them would succumb to an inexplicable drowsiness at night, and would inadvertently fall into a deep, unconscious sleep, which even waking pills couldn't help.

The night before, apart from Lu Zhang and Yan Shu who couldn't hold on, Lu Qing, Yan Daoxin, and Lu Yan were all able to maintain their spirits without external assistance. This was because the three of them had solid martial arts skills and were physically stronger than ordinary people.

Even Zhu Yu himself could stay awake by relying on external force such as needling the Ten Xuan acupoints.

But since both Fu Wen and Fu Lu are skilled in martial arts, why did they fall for the attack?
Now that I think about it, the reason seems quite obvious—the two brothers were guarding the porch outside, where the air circulation was much better.

So... Zhu Yu's gaze fell once again on the flower bud in front of her.

Plucking these flowers is definitely not an option. The old steward comes by every now and then to check on things, and if he finds out that they've plucked the flower buds, it would be equivalent to revealing that they've become suspicious of this place.

Zhu Yu took out his tool bag from his pocket, took out a long-handled, pointed knife, carefully squatted down by the pond, lifted the leaves, gathered the flower stem towards himself, and then used the knife to pierce a relatively hidden place under the flower calyx, carefully cutting off a small part of the straight flower stem.

After finishing, she let go and looked at it. The remaining half of the flower stem could still support the flowers falling continuously, while the cut half could, to some extent, block the roots from transporting nutrients.

In this way, the flowers won't wither and die immediately, but they certainly won't bloom as wildly as they did the previous two nights.

She looked left and right and felt that this method was the best solution she could think of at the moment. Moreover, from a distance, the place where she made the cut was not conspicuous and would be difficult to detect.

So Zhu Yu went all out and busied herself around the pond, working on it for a long time until she actually messed with all the flowers in the pond.

After finishing all that, Zhu Yu let out a long sigh of relief, straightened up, and rubbed his aching lower back.

Fortunately, the pond wasn't very big. If the pond were bigger and there were more flowers, she really wouldn't have been able to manage it.

In just one afternoon, the flower buds looked no different from before. Zhu Yu went to check on them again and found that the cut ends of the flower stems she had cut off were dry and withered, showing no magical healing effect. This reassured her a lot, and she felt that her plan should work.

By evening, not long after dinner was taken away, it was completely dark. Rune finally returned, his eyes bloodshot, as if the word "exhaustion" was written all over his body.

Perhaps because he had been lying in ambush in the tree for too long, even his walking posture was a little uncoordinated, but his spirits were very high.

Fu Lu hurriedly took out the food that they had specially saved for Fu Wen at dinner time, but Fu Wen didn't care about that. He put the food aside and excitedly said to Lu Qing, "Master, you are right. This Immortal Fortress is really strange in every way!"

Last night I followed the direction you suggested and found the tree, hiding in the dense foliage at the top.

It was late at night, and all around was truly silent. Looking down from the treetop, I couldn't help but feel as if I were in a remote, uninhabited forest.

The row of houses below looked like abandoned homes, without a trace of activity.

As a result, just as dawn broke, I saw rows of servants carrying huge jugs, delivering hot soup to each household. Then the people woke up, and in twos and threes, they went out to work, beaming with joy!