The infiltration 1

Huo Ying has always hated bitter foods so it was easier to make her drink the tonic when she is unconscious compared to when she is conscious, instead of drinking the tonic she dropped it on the tray Huo Mei was holding.

"young mistress…you have to drink that or you wouldn't be able to survive until they get the herbs," Huo Lian said, then Huo Mei also added her own plea, Huo Ying had no choice but to reluctantly drink the tonic, she pinched her nose and poured the tonic down her throat, after drinking the whole tonic, she squeezed her face and returned the bowl back to Huo Lian.

"If you can maintain your current condition, you should be able to last for one more day, I am sure that they would have returned with the herbs by then," Huo Mei said, Huo Ying expression turned downcast, she was once again reminded that she might die after tomorrow, she was not afraid of dying but she still hadn't seen her sister and she just couldn't bear the thought of having to leave her loved ones, the disciples and her parent. When they saw that the change in her expression, they knew that she was sad that tomorrow would decide whether she lived or died.

"young mistress, you don't have to be unhappy, you need to trust Huo Qiang and Bingchen, they will surely come back in time with the herbs," Huo Lian said to comfort her but Huo Ying knew that unless they robbed the vitality sect, they would never be able to get the herbs.

"you don't need to comfort me I…I…." she wanted to say something but she couldn't because of the metallic taste in her mouth, the both of them became alarmed when they saw her squeezing her face, she held her abdomen in pain then she realized what was happening. She was about to…...

Just as they were about to ask her anything, she opened her mouth and vomited a mouthful of blood, they were all alarmed at the sight of blood on her plain white dress, what alarmed them was that this time it wasn't coagulated blood, she just vomited a mouthful of fresh red blood.

"Huo Lian quickly brew Bai Jiao Xiang for the young mistress" Huo Mei shouted then Huo Lian quickly ran out of the room, just as Huo Mei soaked the piece of cloth on the table in the bowl of water and squeezed it, Huo Ying vomited another mouthful of blood, then she slumped on the bed.

Huo Mei quickly wiped the blood off her lips and her cloth but the plain white dress was still dyed red by the blood, seeing how much blood she had vomited, Huo Mei was even more convinced that Huo Ying wouldn't be able to last for long if they don't return with the herbs soon, she was about to return the bowl of water to the table when she saw that Huo Ying was about to vomit blood again, this time she quickly picked another piece of cloth from the table and covered her mouth with it, when she removed it the cloth from her mouth, it was now soaked with deep red coloured blood.

Huo Ying began to cough, but this cough wasn't ordinary, the cough was so bad that with every cough she felt like her throat as about to cut, a sharp pain ran through her throat every time she coughed, Huo Mei quickly gave her another cloth to cover her mouth with when she coughed, she removed them from her mouth then she saw blood on the piece of cloth.

Huo Lian soon came in with a bowl of tonic, the tonic had a deeper brown colour than the others so of course, it was more bitter than the ones Huo Ying drank before, she was stupefied when she saw about three pieces of cloth soaked with blood and the young mistress coughing out blood. She quickly passed the bowl to Huo Mei, then Huo Mei fed the tonic to Huo Ying with a spoon, this time she couldn't resist, she had lost the strength to talk. After drinking the tonic, she vomited another mouthful of blood, then Huo Lian dabbed her lips gently and her cloth with another piece of cloth, then she laid Huo Ying on the bed. By now, all handkerchiefs that were on the table were already soaked with blood so Huo Lian went out to get more and another bowl of water. Huo Ying told Huo Mei to make sure that her parent didn't have to see her in that condition so Huo Mei made up excuses in order to make sure that the sect leader didn't enter the room, by then all the disciples were already fully aware of the young mistress condition, few elite disciples were training the junior ones but neither of them was concentrating on the training, all they could think of was Huo Ying, even the elders were also the same. Even though this was perfect opportunity to get rid of Huo Ying, the first and the second elder were still concerned about her, after Huo Bingchen was promoted to a managerial guardian, he had suspended his thoughts on making him the future sect leader, for now, they just wanted the young mistress of the flame sect to be alive and well even though she was a pain in the ass at times.

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It was already midnight, by the time Huo Li, Huo Bingchen and Huo Qiang arrived at the forest where the vitality sect was located in. All the trees and plants in the forest were grown by them so they didn't allow anyone to enter into the forest, inside the forest there Is a cloud of poisonous fog that is rumoured to not have any antidote and guard to protect anyone from intruding. After riding day and night without stopping, they had already used all of their strength, they only drank from the bottle of water that one of the disciples left on the horse. By the time they arrived at the forest they were already weak, they also needed to make a plan before they could even think of entering the forest. They came down from the horse then they took all looked around for anything to eat, they didn't dare enter the forest yet without any plans and they needed the energy to enter the forest, the forest is not just known for the poisonous fog but it also weaken whoever enters so they wouldn't even near the sect before the faint so unless they were escorted by someone from the vitality sect, they would eventually be captured, so they just went to look for food in the nearby forests that were close to the energy-sucking forest. After searching to no avail, Huo Qiang and Bingchen returned to where they tied their horses but they didn't see Huo Li, a few minutes later, she came back. They saw her smiling innocently from afar then they noticed that she was smiling but they didn't feel the same way so they just frowned their face. When she came closer, they were surprised to see her with many blackberries in her cloth. She shared the blackberries among them then when they were done with eating, they didn't bother to rest, they started making their plans to infiltrate the vitality sect, since they once had a member of the sect in the flame sect, they knew the security measures that the vitality sect had.

"if we go into the forest without any precaution, we would be poisoned to death," Huo Li said

"We can only go in if we are escorted by a disciple," Huo Qiang said

"there must be something special about the disciples if we need them to enter the forest" Huo Bingchen added

"People don't know that the key to entering the forest is the poison immune sachet that the disciples have, once they bring in a guest to the sect, they will make them sniff the poison immune sachet without them knowing, if not for one of the elders who was hunted, we wouldn't be able to know this" Huo Li said

"seems like the only way to enter this forest now is to get the poison immune sachet from the disciples but the problem if how we are going to get it," Huo Qiang said

"We would have to lure them out," Huo Li said, then they all stopped to think of how they were going to make the disciples come out of the sect, then Huo Qiang suddenly raised his hand…

"have you found a way," Bingchen asked with an anxious expression

"yes, I say that we cut down some venerable trees in the opposite forest, then we light them on fire and throw them into the forest, when they see it, they might come to the front of the forest to check then Huo Li will use her whip to drag them out of the forest," Huo Qiang said, he looked at their expressions to see if they were okay with it.

"But we can't be sure that they will come to the front of the forest" Huo Li said

"This is the only plan I can come up with, if you guys have anything better then you can say it, the young mistress life is at stake, we can't spend the whole day thinking of how to enter the forest," Huo Qiang said, then the other two nodded their head in approval, the three of them entered into the opposite forest, then they cut down some trees that were without strong root. They stretched their palms towards the fire then red and blue flames engulfed the trees which the had cut down, after they pushed the tress into the forest with their inner force, they just stood outside hoping that at least one of the disciples will come out. After some minutes of waiting without any disciple coming, Huo Qiang covered his nose with his black handkerchief then he moved closer to the energy-sucking forest, he concentrated all his energy on his palms then he brought out fire from his hands and directed it to the woods they threw into the forest and some trees in front of the forest, when he couldn't hold his breath anymore, he quickly moved away from the forest.

"I think the fire in the forest is intensifying" one of the disciples guarding the forest from inside said.

"I have noticed it before but it seems to have gotten bigger," another disciple said

"I will go and check it out," one of them said

"Just make sure that you don't step out of the forest in case if it is a trap" one of them ordered. The disciples then left, when he arrived at the forest entrance, he realized that is was just an ordinary fire and there was no one inside the sect but he still looked around.

"I think someone is here" Huo Li whispered

"use your whip now," Huo Qiang said, then Huo Li extended her whip into the forest, the whip had the ability to follow the target until it has caught it, so it moved like a snake and entered into the forest, suddenly the disciple who was about to leave felt like there was something on his waist, before he knew what was happening, he was dragged out of the forest, the disciple was wearing a mask so Huo Li removed the mask from his face.

"Who are you people, how dare you attack a disciple of the vitality sect," the disciple said, he examined them to find traces of their identity but they didn't have anything on them that could tell who they were.

"We don't want to harm you; all we need is the poison immune sachet," Huo Qiang said

"In your dreams" the disciples said he stood up from the ground and was about to him but Bingchen quickly stroked the back of his neck to knock him out. The other two looked at him in surprise….

"We don't have time to waste with him," Bingchen said, then he bent down to search his body and alas he found the poison immune sachet, in the disciple's chest space.

The other two were astonished at how simple it was to find the poison immune sachet, Bingchen noticed this then he said "they are not very smart", then the other nodded in agreement. They all sniffed the poison immune then they proceeded to enter the forest but Huo Qiang stopped them.

"How are we going to get past the guards in the mountain, even one of us can defeat them without weapons but if we attack them, the others will be alarmed and this will cause us to waste time," He said

"then how about one of us change into this guy's cloth and pretend to be a disciple, after all, he was wearing a mask, then if we are found, it will be easier for us to leave," Bingchen said

"I will stay behind," Huo Li said