Prophecy Of The Stars

30. REALIZE

Wan Huang dragged after the junior master, who led her to a remote area within the sect, covered in short bushes.

Descending a series of steps, they reached a hoary edifice, watched over by two strong concierges and many more guards hiding in shadows.

An ugly looking middle-aged man came out to receive them. He was the prison Warden in charge of the penalized disciples. He greeted the junior master enthusiastically and led them inside, while the latter explained the crux of things to him.

She was taken into a windowless room. Apart from the door and three small holes for air ventilation, the room lived up to its appellation as a confinement room. Chains as thick as tree trunks hung from ceilings and walls. The room was dark except for the faint flick of candlelight.

The deputy of the prison Warden pushed her to the circular platform and chained her hands and feet rendering her immobile. The chains were so heavy to grant her free movement.

The junior master took out a circular bead. Wan Huang recognized it as the demonic core that she got from her recent mission. He inserted the core in a strange looking instrument and did some adjustments. It let out a blindingly white glow. Satisfied, he exited the room followed by the prison Warden and his underlings, locking the room from outside.

Wan Huang laughed at her situation. The demonic core she got from her mission was used to punish her.

"You are already in this situation, yet you still have the mind to laugh?." Xiufeng's voice resonated in her mind.

"Then what should I do? Bawl my eyes out?. She rebutted.

"Don't you think it is strange?". She continued. "I felt like being controlled by someone. My every action was getting manipulated as if I was a puppet in someone's hand. I tried hard to resist it, but couldn't break out of it."

"It's the controlling potion."  Xiufeng answered indifferently.

"controlling potion?. Wan Huang thought. Yes! She remembered reading about it previously.

Controlling potion was a poison, refined in liquid form from medicinal herbs. Altering its properties and measurements, it can be refined into a potion which induces a hypnotic effect.

"But I never offended anyone to get framed like this. I changed my name, face and identity and have been keeping a low profile. Then how could I be poisoned?". Wan Huang asked Xiufeng.

"Think about what you did the day before the battle".

"I was practicing inside Red Jade Palace, talked a bit with Wan Fang and Ren Weilin, promised to have a friendly match with Weilin, then she gave me........"

Wan Huang's voice trailed off. Uncertainty filled her heart. She went through all events, once again in her mind, unwilling to face the final one.

"You figured it out". Xiufeng said.

A unique property of controlling poison was that it could be mixed in water without losing effects. And anything that is soaked or washed in the poisoned water, would absorb the poison.

So the tangerines that Ren Weilin gave her.............

But Wan Fang also ate it and she was fine. So it was possible that she was the target.