Li Man'er seized the opportunity to step forward, grabbing the man's shoulder and simultaneously kicking at the back of his leg. Though her strength wasn't at its peak, the power of this kick was still not to be underestimated; if it had landed squarely, the man's leg would likely have been ruined.
The opponent reacted quickly, twisting his body and slipping from Li Man'er's grasp like a slippery loach. He easily evaded her attack and turned to flee again.
Li Man'er wouldn't let him succeed. She had to take down this entirely black-clad fellow. She pursued him rapidly, leaping high into the air and driving her knee towards the man's back.
She employed a knee strike, a common technique in Muay Thai, known for its speed, power, and extreme impact. As if sensing danger behind him, the man mustered his energy and leaped, narrowly avoiding Li Man'er's attack. However, as he landed, he felt something was wrong. He felt dizzy, and the surroundings blurred. Miss Li became two, then four, and then more and more.
Could it be...?
The man instinctively glanced at the wound on his arm, gritted his teeth, and cursed, "Despicable..." The next moment, his vision went black, and he collapsed to the ground, motionless.
"Hmph, trying to scheme against me!" She was a Xuan Doctor, skilled not only in healing but also in poisons. Not everyone could plot against her.
She had coated her dagger with a substance beforehand. It wasn't a potent poison, but it would certainly disorient anyone who was hit.
"Dressed all in black, with your face covered, did you think you were filming a TV drama?" Li Man'er walked up, tore off the man's face covering, and revealed an unfamiliar, ordinary face.
The face was utterly unremarkable, the kind that would disappear in a crowd. She surmised he was likely a guard or an assassin.
Li Man'er searched him, finding only a small porcelain bottle. She was certain that whatever was inside was no good medicine.
Anyone who dared to scheme against her had to be prepared to pay the price.
Li Man'er stored the porcelain bottle in her spatial dimension, donned a casual set of clothes, tied her hair into a bun, and then, from her spatial dimension, produced a mask and put it on.
She hoisted the man up, leaped out the window, and then reached the courtyard wall.
Carrying a living person, Li Man'er easily jumped onto the wall, her breathing steady, and disappeared into the darkness. She evaded the patrols in the Marquis's manor, carrying the man out of the residence. She took side streets, heading towards bustling areas.
The capital had a curfew. What kind of place would be bustling late at night?
A brothel or a pleasure house, of course!
Li Man'er, carrying a grown man and leaping about, felt no fatigue. She unceremoniously dumped the man in an alley behind a brothel, considering her task complete.
However, there was still another person lying in her spatial dimension – that Young Master Geng San...
"Fine, let the two of you keep each other company!"
Li Man'er scanned her surroundings, ensuring no one was watching. Then, she released Young Master Geng San and threw him in with the black-clad man.
"All set!" She clapped her hands as if dusting them, smiling at her creation. "You two can love each other here!" With that, she turned and streaked back towards the Marquis's manor.
After about fifteen minutes, Li Man'er returned to her chambers. She tidied the room slightly, retrieved the dagger from the window frame and put it away, changed her clothes, and lay in bed, ready to greet Duke of Dreams.
Perhaps her pleasant dreams had been disturbed, for she found herself unable to sleep. She tossed and turned like a pancake on a griddle, her eyes wide open, with no hint of drowsiness.
Xuan Doctors: the 'medical' aspect was secondary, 'Xuan' was primary.
The word 'Xuan' itself implied something unreal, something unreliable. 'Xuan zhi you xuan, zhong miao zhi men' – a proverb about profound mystery. Those who achieved the title of Xuan Doctor always possessed some peculiar trait incomprehensible to ordinary people.
In her past life, she had known many such unreliable colleagues.
Some could communicate with animals; some were born without the sensation of pain; some could unleash their physical potential in critical moments; some could breathe underwater, navigate by sound like bats at night, and never get lost in the rainforest.
These individuals were known as 'special ability users' by the common folk. However, among the ranks of Xuan Doctors, they were considered only low-level.
True Xuan Doctors had one hand touching the threshold of cultivation, known as 'practitioners' among Xuan Doctors. They were exceedingly rare, and she was one of them.
While the abilities of practitioners were not as earth-shattering as those in Xianxia novels, to ordinary people, they were indeed god-like.
They could scale walls and leap over eaves, traverse mountains and cross seas, and perceive things that ordinary people couldn't. For example, danger, opportunities, and so on.
Having transmigrated, Li Man'er's physical condition had not yet recovered. Her current abilities were not even a tenth of what they were in her past life. This was why she had not acted ostentatiously. She still had a long way to go. Therefore, caution was the best policy. She needed to understand the current world thoroughly before making any moves.
With this thought, Li Man'er could only sigh lightly and close her eyes, counting sheep.
"Ah, well, I'll take it one step at a time."
The next morning, Li Man'er woke up early as usual to practice her techniques. More and more silver needles appeared on her body, and a subtle fluctuation emanated from her dantian, filling Li Man'er with immense joy.
Her cultivation speed was significantly faster than in her previous life. She attributed this to the foundation of her past experience, which allowed her to bypass many detours and achieve twice the results with half the effort.
She finished her movements and removed the needles.
After washing away the day's grime, Li Man'er felt completely refreshed. Even Ziyan, who was helping her with her hair, commented that her skin seemed to have improved, becoming more radiant.
"Really? I don't feel any different." This was the benefit of 'Fa Jing Xi Sui' (cleansing the marrow and washing the bones). Anyone who successfully underwent this process was either handsome or beautiful; there were no ugly individuals.
"It's true!" Lüyī chimed in eagerly. "I think you're getting more and more beautiful." Everyone in the manor said that Consort Shu's beauty was unparalleled in the world, but she believed those people were just flattering her and not speaking the truth. In terms of beauty, their young lady was one in ten thousand.
Besides, when the former madam was alive, she was known as the most beautiful woman in Jiangnan. Who hadn't heard of Ning Ruying's name?
According to Madam Wu, their young lady was even more beautiful than the former madam. She possessed the gentle beauty of a woman from Jiangnan, along with a hint of heroic spirit, which made those cookie-cutter ladies of the boudoir look like dull geese in comparison.
"Young lady, please have your breakfast first. Should we pay respects to the Old Madam or go see the Marquis?"
"Let's see Father first," Li Man'er replied. "I imagine the Old Madam would be amenable to that."
"Yes!"
Li Man'er then instructed Lüyī, "Have someone go out and inquire if there are any interesting or new happenings outside."
Lüyī looked bewildered. "Why are you asking about this all of a sudden?"