Page 575

Gu Xiaoxi patiently spent the entire night crouching in the high-end villa district.

She searched from one house to another, attempting to find Long Ji’s secretary, Qiao Bu’s residence.

Just as dawn was about to break, her efforts finally paid off, and she found Qiao Bu in the vast high-end villa village.

Inside Qiao Bu’s room, there were at least more than twenty people on tight guard.

Such a large-scale operation for a secretary’s house.

Gu Xiaoxi became even more certain that Long Ji was inside.

Gu Xiaoxi concealed her presence and took advantage of the darkness before dawn to leap onto the rooftop of Qiao Bu’s house.

Then, she quietly hung upside down from the rooftop to the windowsill and used her Inner Strength to lift a corner of the curtain inside, observing the situation in the room.

The first bedroom Gu Xiaoxi found belonged to Qiao Bu himself.

The people inside had already gotten up, and the quilt was neatly folded. Despite the large and luxurious room, the curtains were tightly closed.

Gu Xiaoxi then checked the second room.

It was still a bedroom, this time with someone sleeping inside.

Advanced medical equipment was placed beside the bed, and the person on the bed was tied up with medical equipment, with the vital signs on the silver screen showing extremely weak.

Just as Gu Xiaoxi was about to push open the window and take a look, the door to the room opened.

Qiao Bu entered with a doctor and looking at the man on the bed whose breath was becoming fainter and fainter, he said coldly, "His Majesty has been treated for so long, why is there still no improvement?"

"We’ve developed the antidote many times, and the testing process has always been good. But after giving him the infusion, there was no effect at all. We must redevelop the medication. So, please give us a little more time," said the doctor, trembling.

Qiao Bu clenched his fists, "You have a bit more time. Who gives us a bit more time? Aotai is covetously watching us, and if His Majesty does not wake up, Yi State will face a reform due to a political change. When that time comes, Aotai will take advantage of the vulnerability without His Majesty. The military’s morale is unstable, and the people are in panic.

We will have lost without even fighting. "

"Yes, yes! We will develop the antidote as quickly as possible!" the doctor hurriedly nodded, assuring him.

"Three days! We have no time left to wait. If His Majesty does not wake up, we can’t keep it from Aotai.

By then, he will definitely send troops to march southward, and Yi State will truly be finished," Qiao Bu knew in his heart. The more deeply the emperor is engraved in the people’s hearts, the more his existence can inspire morale.

It was precisely this point that Aotai seized; he made his move on Long Ji before the war even started.

If it weren’t for Long Ji making arrangements before the first battle by setting an ambush in the left-wing territory of Yi State, charging in from the left to contain Aotai, then Yi State wouldn’t be so stable at this moment. All cities would have already become battlefields.

And Aotai hasn’t dared to make a move because Long Ji’s clandestine whereabouts prevented him from being certain that Long Ji was indeed incapacitated.

Gu Xiaoxi, listening to Qiao Bu and the doctor’s conversation, nodded her head understandingly; this secretary was indeed a remarkable character.

Being able to hide Long Ji without anyone discovering, he truly deserved to be the emperor’s favorite.

"Then let’s hurry up and get to it!" said the doctor, who then withdrew.

Afterward, another man, dressed in a suit, came out and respectfully said, "Brother, go and handle the affairs! Leave the matter of His Majesty to me. I will ensure His Majesty’s safety."

"Remember, you may die. But His Majesty must not have any mishaps. This concerns the survival of Yi State!" Qiao Bu said seriously.

"Yes, brother! It’s just..." Qiao Bu’s brother hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Why doesn’t the International Alliance intervene? We have already paid the insurance fee; they should be protecting the peace of our country!"

"Don’t forget, Dong State also bought peace insurance, and once fighting breaks out, the International Alliance can only mediate. If mediation fails, in history, how few are the incidents of reform through victory or defeat?" Qiao Bu said with a heavy tone.

He paused for a moment, then seriously added, "Remember, rely on yourself for everything, not on placing hope in others. In case the World Alliance cannot manage, our war with Dong State will unfold. It’s the law of the jungle; you’ve been a soldier for so many years, you should know this better than anyone. "

Gu Xiaoxi touched her chin and returned to the rooftop, finding a concealed spot to hide.

She had to wait for the room to empty before she could go in and take a look at Long Ji.

Since the International Alliance didn’t want them to fight, she would naturally help Long Ji wake up earlier.

Moreover, war would take away so many innocent lives.

She also hoped that peace would continue.

Only, up to now, she still hadn’t figured out what kind of person Aotai was.

But, through Qiao Bu’s words, Gu Xiaoxi deduced that both Aotai and Long Ji were the type of scheming and cunning characters with great imperial tactics.

Moreover, he was even more ambitious than Long Ji.

The military strength, national power, and wealth of Dong State and Yi State were comparable. If Long Ji died, Dong State would become scattered sand. Aotai, seizing the opportunity, would annex Yi State, expanding his territory by a large margin—Aotai’s ambition was truly not small.

Gu Xiaoxi waited for ten minutes, and then Qiao Bu left the villa in his car.

At this point, only George, about a dozen bodyguards, and the nursing doctor remained in the villa.

The nursing doctor administered a new IV drip to Long Ji, recorded his physical condition, and then everyone exited the room.

Gu Xiaoxi quietly used her Inner Strength to open the window and crawled in from the window.

It was then that she had a clear view of the man lying on the hospital bed.

He was around twenty-seven or twenty-eight, with golden curly hair, snow-white skin, a high nose bridge, and deep-set eyes. Perhaps because his skin was already overly pale, the sick man seemed even more pallid. If not for his faint breathing, Gu Xiaoxi would have thought he was dead.

Gu Xiaoxi walked around his bed, stretched out her hand, and prodded the back of the man’s hand.

Wasn’t he poisoned? Why couldn’t she see any trace of it on his body?

In Gu Xiaoxi’s experience, poisoning normally resulted in skin turning purple; generally, once the poison entered the internal organs, it meant certain death.

But looking at Long Ji, his skin was fair, without the slightest sign of poisoning.

Gu Xiaoxi used a dagger to cut Long Ji’s finger, and for a good long while, not a drop of blood came out.

This struck her as extremely odd, so she made a larger cut, and the blood, as if it had solidified, slowly began to ooze out. Moreover, this single drop of blood quickly coagulated.

"What kind of disease is this?" Gu Xiaoxi was thoroughly baffled. Was it a disease that made the blood coagulate rapidly until the heartbeat stopped, leading to death?

Aotai really had a ruthless method.

Gu Xiaoxi folded her arms, pondering for a moment. She felt that she needed to delve into Long Ji’s Sea of Consciousness to have a look.

Thus, she released a thread of Spiritual Energy into the center of his forehead, and in an instant, she had entered his Sea of Consciousness.

In Long Ji’s Sea of Consciousness, it was a world of ice and snow, and he was frozen solid inside a block of ice, lying on the snowy ground, unable to move.

Gu Xiaoxi walked forward, at which Long Ji immediately opened his eyes and noticed her.

"Who are you?" Long Ji asked coldly. Clearly, he couldn’t believe that someone could approach him, especially in this place, at this time.

After listening to him, Gu Xiaoxi touched her chin, then flew up and said smilingly, "I’m a Fairy! A messenger of the gods, come to save you!"

"A Fairy?" Long Ji was clearly incredulous.

Gu Xiaoxi twirled in the air and said with a laugh, "You are about to die. Don’t you know that?"

Long Ji was naturally aware; his body was immobile as though sealed in ice. Even though there was still a sliver of consciousness left, it was incredibly weak.

"Are you really sent by the gods?" Long Ji clearly didn’t believe in gods, so he asked tentatively.

Gu Xiaoxi lifted the corners of her mouth and smiled, her hands forming a seal as if embodying a deity, "If you believe, I will save you. If not, it doesn’t matter, since you’re about to die anyway. We can meet again in heaven."

"No... save me!" Long Ji pleaded almost without hesitation. He didn’t want to die because his life was intertwined with the happy lives of too many people.

Gu Xiaoxi knew it would be like this, and with a cough, she said, "Tell me, how were you poisoned?"

"Aotai invited me to meet with him, so I went. Since returning, I often felt irregular heartbeats and difficulty breathing. Later, I just collapsed. After that, I felt my body getting colder and then got frozen by ice."

After hearing Long Ji’s account, Gu Xiaoxi’s brows furrowed tightly; this must be a chemical concoction developed by Aotai, and it was the kind that acted slowly.

"Alright, I’ve got it. Hold on, I will surely save you," Gu Xiaoxi said and then left.

Long Ji called her anxiously for a long while, but Gu Xiaoxi was no longer there.

Back in the hospital room, Gu Xiaoxi’s consciousness returned to her body.

She attempted to use her Spiritual Energy to treat him, but the effect was not at all ideal. Even if she managed to treat a part of his blood, a second later, the rest of the blood would merge back in, and it would solidify once more.