Evangeline’s hands froze. But, after a while, she only sighed. “How did you know?”
“Is it really so difficult? Did I not show off my knowledge of herbs when we last had tea?” Dyon shrugged, still lightly grasping the teacup.
“Nice try,” Evangeline giggled, completely unlike someone who tried to pull an underhanded trick. “The poison I chose is completely odorless. It’s undetectable.”
“If you really believe so, why are you laughing? According to your logic, I just lured you out by pretending to know something I didn’t.”
Evangeline’s light and airy laughter didn’t stop. “Obviously because whether you know or not doesn’t matter.”
“Oh? If I’m correct, this particular poison needs to be consumed. Why is it that you believe you’ve already won?” Dyon’s smile didn’t fade either.
“Because power decides everything. If I so wanted, you’d have to drink that poison whether you wished to or not. This is the difference between those who have power and those that don’t.”
“I assume that this power trip you’re on is the reason you deployed such an easily detectable concealment and defensive array?”
Evangeline lightly giggled. “Only you would be so arrogant so as to label these arrays as easily detectable. Your soul should still be sealed right now, and even if it wasn’t, someone with your soul strength has no business seeing through arrays designed by me. Clearly someone or something helped you.”
For the first time, Dyon’s playfulness disappeared. He couldn’t understand why this woman knew so much about him. The individuals who knew about his soul being sealed were restricted to his closest confidants. Did someone betray him?
“Aw. Don’t be like that. Even with that big head of yours it’s impossible for you to guess what happened. Why don’t you stop worrying about it?
“Come. Satisfy this old lady’s curiosity. How did you see through an odorless poison?”
Dyon sighed. This Evangeline was correct about one thing, worrying about it wouldn’t do him any good.
When Evangeline saw Dyon calm himself down so quickly, her smile became brighter. At that point, even Dyon who had suddenly become her enemy couldn’t help but feel his heart seize.
She was truly beautiful. Her glistening opal eyes, swirling with greens, pinks and blues. Her cascading golden hair, waving gently in the night’s wind. Her body… Perfectly proportioned, exuding a mature aura that could grasp the heart of any man.
“Am I beautiful?” Evangeline asked coquettishly.
Dyon nodded honestly, a bit of seriousness in his eyes.
“Believe it or not,” Evangeline giggled. “I’ve altered my appearance slightly to make me less so. Maybe if I showed you my true appearance, you’d drink that poison simply because it was my will.”
Dyon’s eyes widened slightly. She made herself less beautiful? On purpose? What the hell was going on?
Evangeline was already world-shattering. In fact, she lost out to Dyon’s own wives in no way. If Dyon was forced to tell the truth, he’d have to admit that she was even slightly better in terms of looks simply because she had an aged elegance that could only be achieved with a time living his wives hadn’t reached just yet.
Now this very same beauty was telling him that she made herself look worse on purpose. Was that even possible?
Evangeline adorably pouted. “You shouldn’t leave a woman waiting, especially a beautiful woman.”
Dyon shook his head, finally answering her question. “It’s impossible to add substances to water without there being discernible changes, even if those changes are impossibly small. The simple answer to your question is viscosity.”
Evangeline’s eyes brightened. “Viscosity?”
“The thickness of a liquid is dependant on many variables. The thousand-year Calming Wisp Petals you like so much decreases viscosity, making water flow better and decreasing internal friction. The poison you used, though, increased viscosity, making the tea thicker than when you last served it to me.”
“Really? This is what you based it on? Couldn’t I have simply changed the concentration of Calming Wisp Petals I used? If I decreased the concentration, it would have had the same effect.”
“That’s even simpler. While the poison you used is odorless, Calming Wisp Petals are not. The strength of an odor is dependant on its concentration. Simply comparing the odor profile is enough to know you didn’t change the concentration of your Calming Wisp Petals.”
“Hm.” Evangeline responded with a pensive look. “Then how could you know the type of poison I used? Without knowing the concentration, it would be impossible to judge. Since you were so sure that this poison could only take affect by being consumed, you must have had a reason for believing so, no?”
“Calming Wisp Grasp is a Grandmaster level plant. Practitioner Plants are aged to the decade, Master Plants to the century, and Grandmaster Plants to the millennium. Even a single leaf of Calming Wisp Grasp could be sold for as much as 100 celestial stones. It must also be diluted down to parts of a thousand in order to be used safely by the likes of me.
“It isn’t named as it is on a whim. Its calming effect isn’t restricted to the humans who benefit from its abilities, it can also have this secondary effect on poisons its bound to.
“Even when paired with a poison far exceeding its capability to calm, the Calm Wisp Leaf still has the ability to emit a pungent smell to warn cultivators that it’s been compromised. There are only three poisons in existence that can stop this pungent smell from emitting. And only one of them increases the viscosity of water.”