Chapter 152: Tiger Head Tattoo
“Hey, hey, you can’t eat that.” Shang Wan waved her hands to shoo away the wolf pack.
There were likely clues on the corpse, so she couldn’t let the wolves destroy it.
Unexpectedly, the wolf pack obeyed Shang Wan, obediently retreating. The injured wolves lay far away, silently licking their wounds.
Chu Xu watched in stunned amazement. With such a heavy smell of blood, the wolves surprisingly didn’t go berserk.
He sidled up to Shang Wan and asked curiously, “Why do the wolves listen to you so well?”
Shang Wan indicated that beating them into submission was enough.
She looked up at the child beside her, slightly surprised. “You’re not hurt at all.”
“Of course, I’m the best at dodging.” Chu Xu proudly lifted his little chin. “You don’t know, but when Father and Elder Brother hit people, it hurts a lot. I practiced to get this good.”
Shang Wan: “…”
Was this something to be proud of?
She handed Chu Xu a small bottle and told him to drip one drop on each wolf’s wound, no more.
Chu Xu sniffed the thing in the bottle. It had no smell.
Though puzzled about what was in the bottle, he didn’t dawdle. Boldly approaching the injured wolves, he did as Shang Wan said.
The injured wolves were all gathered together. Chu Xu quickly finished the task and ran back to stay by Shang Wan’s side. This spot was still the safest.
Shang Wan found him in the way, so she pointed at the black-clothed man leaning against the rock. “That one’s still alive. Go watch him and don’t let him kill himself.”
“Oh.” Chu Xu obediently went over. He originally wanted to tie up the black-clothed man, but upon closer inspection, there was no need.
All the black-clothed man’s joints had been dislocated. Saliva mixed with blood drooled from his mouth, which couldn’t close, and his throat emitted painful “heh heh” sounds.
Chu Xu immediately gained a new understanding of Shang Wan’s ruthlessness. He rubbed the goosebumps rising on his arms and secretly decided never to anger Shang Wan in the future.
Yuan Yuan was still sleeping soundly. The earlier chaos hadn’t affected her sleep at all.
Shang Wan checked Yuan Yuan’s condition and found it was excessive use of her ability. To avoid affecting the little one’s growth, she pinched open Yuan Yuan’s little mouth and fed her a drop of spiritual spring water to aid recovery.
Only after handling everything did she have time to check on Lu Chengjing and Shi Tou.
Compared to Xiao Huan, the wounds on the two were considered light. At least they weren’t fatally injured.
Though Shi Tou had many knife wounds, most were just skin and flesh wounds, none harming muscles or bones. Once home, eating more bok choy would fix it.
Lu Chengjing had two people protecting him, so his condition was even better.
Shang Wan breathed a light sigh of relief, took over applying medicine packets and bandaging for the two, then let them rest while she went to examine the black-clothed men’s corpses.
She removed the black-clothed men’s face masks one by one and looked at each face.
Chu Xu, guarding the unconscious black-clothed man, felt bored. Seeing this, he curiously came over to look. Upon seeing the black-clothed man’s face clearly, his little brows furrowed. “Aren’t these Western Xia people?”
Shang Wan turned to look at him. “You recognize them?”
Chu Xu pointed at the black-clothed man’s face. “There are Western Xia captives in the military camp, and they all look like this. High noses, deep eye sockets, different from us Great Zhou people. You’d know if you saw a few more Western Xia people.”
Shang Wan told him to check the other black-clothed men.
After checking them one by one, Chu Xu muttered a curse under his breath.
“Damn Western Xia people, they want to use my head to disrupt our army’s morale. The last assassins were definitely sent by them too.”
“No,” Shang Wan said, “the last assassins weren’t Western Xia people.”
Chu Xu insisted, “Then they were hired by Western Xia people.”
Shang Wan neither confirmed nor denied it and asked him, “Is there any way to confirm these black-clothed men’s identities?”
Chu Xu looked at the sky and thought for a moment before saying, “I only know one way. Check their backs, the right shoulder blade area for a tiger head tattoo.”
Shang Wan turned the black-clothed man over as instructed, picked up the dagger from the ground, slit the clothes on his right shoulder, tore along the seam to expose his entire back.
There was indeed a tiger head tattoo with mouth open at the right shoulder blade position. About the size of a copper coin, it was striking on the fair skin.
“That’s it.” Chu Xu said excitedly. “Elder Brother told me that those with this tattoo on the right shoulder blade are personal guards of the Western Xia Tiger Might General.”
Hearing this, Shang Wan cut open the backs of the other black-clothed men one by one. Only three had tattoos on their right shoulder blades.
She stared at the tattoo for a moment, then turned to Chu Xu. “Does that Tiger General from Western Xia know you?”
Chu Xu shook his head. “Father and Elder Brother never let me go to the battlefield. They only let me wait in the military camp, so he probably hasn’t seen me.”
Shang Wan said, “He hasn’t seen you but sent personal guards to kill you. Don’t you find that strange?”
Chu Xu blinked. “What strange?”
Shang Wan sighed. “Of course there’s a Western Xia spy in the Chu Family Army.”
Otherwise, how could it be so coincidental?
“What?!” Chu Xu’s mouth fell open in shock, instinctively retorting, “There can’t be Western Xia spies in the military camp!”
Shang Wan didn’t argue with him. She patted his little head. “You have a head for a reason. Use your little head to think about it properly.”
Chu Xu: “…”
“Sis, come quick, this guy’s about to die.” Shi Tou noticed the only surviving black-clothed man with black blood flowing from the corner of his mouth.
Shang Wan hurried over, but it was too late. The black-clothed man had already stopped breathing.
She withdrew her hand from his pulse and couldn’t help frowning. She had clearly knocked out the black-clothed man’s poison tooth, so how did he still get poisoned?
“They must have taken poison beforehand.”
Chu Xu set aside the spy issue for now and followed Shang Wan around conscientiously.
“Western Xia spies all do this. They take poison before a mission. If successful, they get the antidote upon return. If they fail, death is the only path. Spies use internal energy to trigger the poison early.”
Shang Wan looked at him. “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Chu Xu blinked innocently. “You didn’t ask.”
Shang Wan narrowed her almond eyes menacingly. Chu Xu felt aggrieved and muttered with a pout, “I forgot for a moment. It won’t happen next time.”
Humph! So fierce, not likable at all.
Shang Wan stared at him. “Are you hoping for another assassination?”
Chu Xu: “…”
No, he didn’t want that.
Shang Wan didn’t want the child trailing her, so she gave him something to do.
“Right now only the two of us can move. Collect all the assassins’ weapons, and search their bodies for anything else useful. I’ll dig the pit so we can bury the corpses later.”
Chu Xu agreed and ran off to get busy.
Shang Wan noticed from the corner of her eye that her fox’s complexion was off. Instead of digging, she went to Lu Chengjing’s side and grabbed his right hand to check.
His hand was trembling uncontrollably.
Shang Wan frowned and pressed a few spots, asking, “Were you injured just now?”
“No, just a bit sore.” His tone was casual, but cold sweat soaked his forehead hair.
His right hand was already in recovery. From overusing it just now, all the aftereffects had surged back.
The entire arm was sore, numb, and painful. The previously injured areas felt like a million ants biting, an indescribable sensation.
