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It seemed like Su Yu didn’t hear Hou Jiaqin’s words as she whispered something to Xiao Bao in a low voice.
Hou Jiaqin looked at Su Yu, about to stand up from the ground, “Your Highness…”
Yuan Bao suddenly appeared behind Hou Jiaqin, kicking him in the back of his knee before he could react, “My young master didn’t ask you to get up, so you better kneel properly.”
Hou Jiaqin glared viciously at Yuan Bao. It had been a long time since anyone dared to speak to him like this.
Yuan Bao glanced back indifferently, completely ignoring Hou Jiaqin’s gaze.
“Hou Jiaqin, you all have quite the audacity,” Su Yu finally spoke calmly and casually, as if just noticing Hou Jiaqin’s presence.
“Spies from the Lu Empire, thriving to this extent in the Xuan Empire, I should really applaud you,” Su Yu clapped her hands, remarking.
If there was any lingering hope in Hou Jiaqin when he arrived, it’s all gone now.
“How much do you know?”
“There’s nothing Your Highness wishes to investigate that cannot be found.”
“If you hadn’t poisoned my son, I would have truly ignored you. But you didn’t know any better, and you dared to lay hands on my son,” Su Yu’s eyes gleamed with hostility.
Xiao Bao was a very special presence to him.
Anyone who dared to harm Xiao Bao would have to pay the price.
“Yuan Bao, spread the word. The Hou family is no longer needed. Find evidence of their treason, send the relevant individuals to the capital, and hand them over to the Emperor for punishment. As for the Hou family’s wealth, confiscate it and send it to the capital,” with just a few simple sentences, Su Yu had already decided the fate of the Hou family.
“Su Yu, you…”
Looking up at Hou Jiaqin, “I’ve never claimed to be a good person. The Xuan Empire is the place I must protect. Anyone who causes trouble in Xuan will not escape my wrath.”
The Xuan Empire was the place he vowed to protect. Whether it was the previous Qi Ming or the current Lu Empire, anyone who dared to cause trouble for Xuan would not escape his wrath.
He couldn’t move against the Lu Empire for now. Naturally, he wouldn’t disrupt the peace of the continent at this time. But as for the spies they had planted in Xuan, he would root them all out and eliminate them.
“Inform Lou Manqing to investigate the spies from the Lu Empire in Xuan. Then give me the list.” He hadn’t planned to act so soon, but these people truly thought too highly of themselves.
They dared to trouble him.
“If you don’t want to save your son, you can continue,” suddenly, Hou Jiaqin spoke up.
“Just two kinds of poison, yet you think I, as a prince, am powerless?” Su Yu sneered disdainfully.
“Curing the cold poison isn’t as easy as you think, Prince Yu. It’s better not to be arrogant, lest your precious son ends up losing his life,” Hou Jiaqin said, a smile playing on his lips as he looked at Su Yu.
“Summon Bai Qi and the others.”
Soon, Bai Qi and his two companions arrived. Hou Jiaqin couldn’t help but feel a sense of familiarity with two of them, as if he had seen them somewhere before.
“Who are you two?”
“Prince Yu, did you call us here for something?” Nan Qiao asked Su Yu curiously.
“Some suspect your abilities.”
“They doubt your ability to cure Xiao Bao’s cold poison and want to use this to threaten me,” Su Yu explained.
The others remained composed, but Nan Qiao was thoroughly angered by such words.
“Daring to poison Xiao Bao and then threaten my brother Yu, you’re asking for death,” Nan Qiao went straight for him.
Hou Jiaqin never expected the people Su Yu called would act so swiftly.
“I can provide you with the antidote. As long as Prince Yu agrees to a request, I can hand over the antidote,” gritting his teeth against the pain, Hou Jiaqin looked at Su Yu and spoke.
Su Yu raised an eyebrow, suddenly intrigued by Hou Jiaqin’s proposal. “Oh? Let’s hear it then, what’s your request?”
“I don’t have any extravagant demands. I just want one million kilograms of high-yield grain seeds,” Hou Jiaqin said boldly, looking at Su Yu.
Nan Qiao’s face darkened instantly. “A million kilograms of high-yield grain seeds isn’t a big request?”
“Nan Qiao, why don’t you give some of your little toys to Hou Jiaqin to play with? I’m sure he’ll appreciate them,” Su Yu suggested.
Nan Qiao looked at Hou Jiaqin with a sinister smile. “That’s a good idea. I have plenty of interesting things in my possession. What kind of toy are you interested in?”
“Do you have anything that can make someone feel like they’re in the midst of ice and fire?” Wan Gu suddenly asked.
Nan Qiao chuckled. “Don’t you worry, I have just the thing. It’s a gu insect I recently cultivated. I didn’t expect to use it so soon, but using it on someone like him leaves me feeling a bit displeased.”
Although she said that, Nan Qiao moved very quickly.
In the blink of an eye, Nan Qiao had placed the gu insect on Hou Jiaqin’s body.
Once the insect had completely burrowed inside, Nan Qiao gently shook a small bell.
Hou Jiaqin screamed in agony. In that moment, his body felt like it was burning in a raging fire while also being plunged into icy wilderness.
Wan Gu watched with some curiosity as Hou Jiaqin writhed in pain. “Quite interesting.”
“Do you want to learn? I can teach you. After Brother Yu and I return from Nanjiang, I can teach you how to cultivate gu insects,” Nan Qiao’s eyes gleamed as she looked at Wan Gu and asked.
Wan Gu nodded. “Alright, I’ll trouble you with that.”
“No problem, leave it to me.”
He really wanted to see if Wan Gu, with his dual talents in medicine and poison, had the aptitude for this.
“I originally wanted to teach Bai Qi, but he’s just hopeless,” Nan Qiao remarked, disdain evident in his tone s she thought of Bai Qi’s lack of talent in handling gu insects.
Bai Qi coughed lightly. Although he was somewhat displeased, he couldn’t deny that Nan Qiao was right.
He indeed lacked talent in this area.
“You’ll know once you give it a try,” he said, showing some interest in the matter.
He had been intrigued by this ever since he watched Nan Qiao teach his two apprentices. Now that Nan Qiao offered to teach him himself, he was naturally pleased.
Su Yu looked at the group chatting as if nothing had happened, feeling somewhat helpless. “He’s in agony here, and you’re all just chatting away. Is that appropriate?”
Nan Qiao nodded. “He brought this upon himself. He could have picked a fight with anyone else, but he chose to mess with Xiao Bao. If I didn’t deal with him, it would be too lenient.”
Just giving him a gu insect was already letting him off lightly.
Su Yu felt helpless. Nan Qiao was one of the few people who doted on Xiao Bao the most. Seeing Xiao Bao poisoned naturally made him the angriest. The fact that the culprit was still alive and only suffering mildly showed considerable restraint.
Watching the person rolling on the ground, Luo Hou observed that wherever he rolled, either it was scorched or a thin layer of ice formed.
“How long will Nan Qiao’s poison affect him?”
“I intend for it to last as long as I want. Didn’t his son express a desire to see Xiao Bao frozen to death? Since that’s not possible for Xiao Bao, let his own father experience it instead. Perhaps afterwards, we can have people bring him over to see how much his father is suffering.”
“Or we could have Wan Gu and Bai Qi concoct a cold poison and make Hou Shijie take it.”