The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#161 - The truth comes out

"Are you saying that all of this was orchestrated by the old City Lord behind the scenes, and that the disaster now befalling Marasahr Khan is also because of him?"

The female shopkeeper could hardly believe her ears.

Even though she had clearly heard Lu Jing's previous words, she couldn't help but subconsciously ask again.

"That's right," Lu Jing nodded.

"Wait, how did this matter get tangled up with the old City Lord again? Didn't our previous investigations point to the Vulture and Yazdan? Now that the Vulture has been ruled out, that just leaves Yazdan, right?" The female shopkeeper frowned. "Didn't Sarah and Nikaar also try to coerce you into killing Yazdan before?"

"That's what makes him so formidable. He leaves no trace of anything he does, and he prepares scapegoats well in advance. Whether it's the Vulture or Yazdan… they were both deliberately thrown out to attract the attention of people like us who are interested in the matter," Lu Jing said.

"But wasn't it Yazdan's guards who captured Nikaar's drunken father?"

The female shopkeeper realized the answer herself as soon as she asked the question.

"Yazdan's guards not only obey Yazdan, but also the old City Lord. No, it should be said that they prioritize the old City Lord's orders over Yazdan's. After all, the latter is the true master of Marasahr Khan."

"Yes, and there's also when we went to see the registrar. You said the registrar himself is a very upright person who loves this city very much. He clearly knew something, yet he would rather watch his beloved city and the people he cares about be destroyed than tell us.

"At the time, I was wondering what kind of temptation could make such an upright person make such a terrible choice. Was it money, power, or beauty?

"Although these things are precious, they are not worth mentioning compared to one's own life and the lives of those one cares about. It wasn't until now that I thought of something—loyalty, the cheapest and most expensive thing in the world.

"It was loyalty to the old City Lord that made him shed tears and tell us to get lost, rather than help us save the city he lived in," Lu Jing said.

"The situation with Shrike is similar. She was chosen by the Vulture. According to the Vulture himself, he chose Shrike because Shrike had large breasts and didn't seem to fear him much.

"But these two points alone don't necessarily guarantee that Shrike would be chosen. How would her master control and monitor the Vulture then?"

The female shopkeeper understood at this point. "There is no Shrike at all, or rather, anyone can be Shrike, because these maids all obey the City Lord. As far as I know, the vast majority of them are orphans in the city whose parents died unexpectedly when they were young.

"The old City Lord adopted them, gave them food to eat and clothes to wear. When they grew up, he had them work as maids in the City Lord's mansion, so they are very loyal to the old City Lord."

"The life-sustaining medicine that Physician Jasmine took from the pharmacy, is it for him?"

"That's right," Lu Jing said. "We've met Yazdan. He looks quite healthy and doesn't seem like someone who would need this kind of medicine. As for the others, if they were sick, there would be no reason to hide it from the general public, so it's self-evident who the medicine is for."

"But according to your previous speculation, the old City Lord hasn't left the city during this time, and he hasn't been to that ancient tomb. Hasn't it always been Yazdan who's been leaving the city?"

"Yazdan left the city with Physician Jasmine. His purpose in leaving the city was not to find the ancient tomb, but to find herbs to sustain the old City Lord's life.

"As for that ancient tomb…" Lu Jing paused and then said something shocking, "I suspect the entrance is inside the city."

The female shopkeeper took a long time to digest this news, and Lu Jing took this time to go over the matter from beginning to end again.

First, the old City Lord discovered the surname on the mural and, through the registrar, found the descendants of the ancient family that originally built the city, that is, the drunkard, and learned the location of the ancient tomb from him.

After that, he should have organized people to go to that ancient tomb and discovered something inside. However, at the time, probably because he was concerned about the terrible consequences that might be caused, he didn't touch that thing.

But not long after, he realized that he was not long for this world. After trying conventional treatments and finding that they didn't work, he set his sights on that thing in the ancient tomb again.

However, he also knew that what he was doing might destroy Marasahr Khan, so in order to prevent anyone from disrupting his plan, he prepared two smoke screens.

The first one was naturally the Vulture. This black wizard was not welcome when he first arrived in Marasahr Khan. He was about to be driven out of this ancient oasis city, but the disaster he casually made up to scare people just happened to give the old City Lord a reason to keep him.

An evil wizard plus a昏庸老迈 City Lord, this classic Disney combination, anyone would think that the black wizard was the problem at first glance.

What's more, in order to further frame the Vulture, the old City Lord induced him to write down the pattern from the ancient tomb when the Vulture was high.

And the second smoke screen was naturally Yazdan.

The old City Lord was not polite to his son-in-law. Many key things were done through Yazdan's guards, making people mistakenly believe that it was Yazdan who gave the orders.

Even Shrike's last words before her death were still directing Lu Jing's attention to Yazdan, making him focus on Yazdan's ambition rather than the old City Lord's illness.

In fact, if Yazdan hadn't mentioned that the old City Lord had recently been feeling slightly unwell, even if Lu Jing had noticed Jasmine, he might not have thought to check what medicine he had taken recently.

At this time, the female shopkeeper finally digested Lu Jing's words, and then said, "I only have one question left now. I can understand the life-sustaining medicine, but what is the incense for?"

Lu Jing sighed, "It is said that the City Lord hasn't seen anyone for some time. The Vulture said that he was far away from the City Lord when he met him, so I hope it's not the kind of effect I'm imagining."