The single word hung in the dead, silent air of the apothecary, sharp as a shard of glass. Poison.
For a moment, no one moved. Then, the lead Yan Clan guard, a burly man with a scar across his brow, finally reacted. His face contorted with rage.
"Poison?" he roared, his hand flying to the hilt of the broadsword at his waist. "What nonsense is this beggar spouting?! Master Feng himself found no trace of it! Are you mocking the Yan Clan?"
Master Feng held up a trembling hand, stopping the guard. His own face was a mask of confusion and deep thought. He turned to Li Xuan, his eyes sharp. "Boy, that is a heavy accusation. I have spent my life studying alchemy and medicine. I personally examined the children. There are no toxins in their blood, no disturbance in their Qi. What proof do you have?"
Li Xuan met the master's gaze. He could see the man's professional pride warring with the memory of the perfect pill he had just witnessed.
'He is looking for a hammer blow when the killer used a needle,' Li Xuan thought, his internal voice laced with the weariness of a master explaining a simple concept to a child. 'These mortals. They look at the flesh, but they never think to look at the soul.'
Instead of answering, Li Xuan walked calmly towards the examination table. The guards tensed, but the Master Alchemist nodded for them to stand down. Li Xuan didn't touch the children. He simply pointed with a small, grimy finger.
"Look at the nail bed of their left ring finger," he said, his voice quiet but carrying an authority that made everyone lean in. "You will see a black line, as thin as a strand of hair."
Master Feng quickly grabbed the girl's hand. He squinted, his eyes widening in shock as he found it. An impossibly thin, almost invisible black line, just as the boy had said. He checked the grandson, Yan Feng. It was there too.
"Now," Li Xuan continued, his voice unwavering. "Press the acupoint three inches below the earlobe. The victim will not react, but if your spiritual sense is keen enough, you will feel the poison's energy flicker in response."
His heart pounding, Master Feng did as he was told, gently pressing the spot on the girl's neck. He closed his eyes, extending his own Qi. At first, there was nothing. Then, he felt it. A flicker of sinister, dormant energy, cold and malevolent, hidden deep within the child's life force.
He stumbled back, his face as pale as the children's. He looked at the beggar boy, no longer with skepticism, but with pure, unadulterated terror. The boy was right.
"It's Silent Ghost venom," Li Xuan stated simply, giving a name to their fear. "It doesn't attack the body. It puts the soul to sleep. That's why you couldn't detect it. You were looking in the wrong place."
The lead guard stared, his tough-guy facade crumbling into raw desperation. He fell to one knee before the small, ragged boy. "Can you cure them?" he pleaded, his voice cracking. "The Patriarch will give you anything. Anything!"
This was the moment. The moment of absolute leverage. Li Xuan let the silence hang in the air, letting their desperation ripen.
'Anything is a very generous offer,' he thought, the cold smile returning to his mind. 'Let's see how much their heirs are worth.'
"Cures are not free," Li Xuan said, his voice suddenly as cold and hard as steel. "My knowledge has a price."
He began to list his demands.
"First, the herbs on my original list. All of them. Free of charge."
"Done!" the guard said instantly.
"Second, one hundred gold coins. Not silver. Gold."
The guard hesitated for a fraction of a second at the outrageous sum, but a weak moan from one of the children sealed the deal. "Done!"
"Third, I require a private residence. A courtyard with a workshop, somewhere quiet. I am tired of living in alleys."
"It will be arranged!"
"And fourth," Li Xuan said, his blurry eyes locking onto the guard's. "The absolute protection of the Yan Clan within this city. No one is to disturb me. No one is to question me. I am to be left completely alone. Am I understood?"
The guard, now completely under his spell, nodded vigorously. "You have the Patriarch's word!"
Just as the deal was struck, the boy, Yan Feng, suddenly convulsed on the table, a pained gasp escaping his blue-tinged lips. The thin black line on his fingernail visibly darkened.
Li Xuan's calm expression didn't change, but his internal monologue was sharp with a new urgency. 'The venom is accelerating. They don't have days. They have hours.'
He spun around to face the stunned Master Alchemist.
"Your workshop," he commanded, his voice leaving no room for argument. "I need it now. And I will give you a new list of ingredients for the antidote."
He paused, letting his final words land with the weight of a death sentence.
"Some of them… you will not have."