Chapter 11: Short on Money? Use a Kitchen Knife (Part 2)

Chang Ge Yue, with her veil drawn, walked along the bustling street of East Mo, as if stepping into another world entirely. After pawning off her golden-thread wood, she had commissioned a set of silver needles from a local ironworks, now idly twirling needles of various lengths and sizes between her fingers. A faint smile curved her lips—these were truly the finest instruments for killing.

“Shopkeeper, I want these herbs,” she said, entering the largest apothecary in Jin City and handing over a list. The items were ordinary medicinal herbs, yet they formed the essential base for her poison-making.

The shopkeeper shook his head awkwardly without taking the list. “Miss, my shelves are empty. If you want to buy herbs, please come back in three days.”

Chang Ge Yue paused, glancing at the bare shelves behind him—indeed, they were completely stripped.

“Very well,” she said, turning to a smaller pharmacy across the street, only to be told the same: their stock was depleted.

Frowning slightly, she asked, “Young man, has something serious happened? How could all the apothecaries be sold out?”

The young clerk sighed helplessly. “Last night, a band of thieves raided our entire stock. Today, the master went to report it to the authorities, only to find all the apothecary owners from the imperial city gathered at the Prefect of Jingzhao’s residence. No one knows who dares to be so bold under the emperor's very nose. It’s outrageous.”

A faint smile played on Chang Ge Yue’s lips. To have robbed every apothecary in the imperial city overnight—such a force could not be underestimated.

Moreover, their methods were undeniably brazen.

She wondered whether the current regent, Zongzheng Moyin, would find himself unable to eat upon learning someone dared challenge his authority so openly.

As night deepened, Chang Ge Yue skirted through narrow alleys and ascended the back mountain belonging to the Chang Ge estate. This mountain was under the estate’s jurisdiction, and no one dared trespass here, allowing wild medicinal herbs to flourish in abundance.

She casually stepped on some herbs she needed, but then paused, noticing a three-foot-long snake with a shimmering emerald body nearby.

A slight smile lifted her lips. Snake venom was hardly deadly in her eyes, but once refined by her hands, it would become something quite different.

She drew a silver needle to extract the venom but suddenly furrowed her brow and slipped behind a large tree just in time.

Within mere breaths, a group of black-clad figures appeared where she had been moments before.

Her brows knitted slightly. Though in her past life her martial skills were mediocre, a century spent at the Naihe Bridge had strengthened her spiritual power immensely.

For these men to arrive so swiftly after she noticed them meant they were no ordinary foes.

Her eyes flickered with keen insight—these men must be carrying artifacts that conceal their presence.

The dead of night was the perfect cover, yet they still appeared in black on the Chang Ge estate’s back mountain. Whatever trouble her so-called “stepfather” had invited was hardly benign.

A faint, wry smile crossed Chang Ge Yue’s lips, but there was no trace of fear in her gaze.

The black-clad men’s hurried footsteps came to an abrupt halt. The leader frowned, a sinister smile twisting his mouth. “Show yourself!”

Chang Ge Yue responded with a casual, almost indifferent smile—so she had been discovered.

It seemed she had underestimated them.

As she prepared to emerge, an oppressive stillness settled over the night.

Even the air seemed thinner, yet the weight of it suffocated all who breathed it.

A grave seriousness flickered in Chang Ge Yue’s eyes.