Chapter 123 — Grand as Poetry

Lord Yan stroked his beard and smiled. "If it were not so grave a matter, I would not have come in person to summon a divine physician. Scholar Shen, do you know whose merit it is that the Emperor did not pursue the matter of your being an outcast?"

Shen Mu was taken aback. That day, Emperor Yanfeng had spoken with such impassioned eloquence before the Grand Academy hall, so stirring and fervent, that Shen Mu had assumed the Emperor meant to use his identity as a wasteland outcast to strike at his ministers. Yet from what this Lord Yan implied, it seemed there was merit of his own involved as well.

"I would hear the details."

"At the time, I told the Emperor that you were the very divine physician who could cure that person's illness. That is why the Emperor did not pursue how you, an outcast, evaded the Mirror of Vision and entered Jingping."

Lord Yan smiled faintly. "Were it not for those words of mine, did you think you could have become a Grand Academy scholar? A Grand Academy scholar holds at least a rank-eight office. How could such a post be casually granted to a divine outcast who slipped into our Jingping from the wasteland? That is a crime of blasphemy against the gods!"

Shen Mu's eyes flickered, and he sighed. "If I fail to cure that person, my head..."

Lord Yan laughed. "Will not stay on your shoulders."

Shen Mu's face darkened.

The official sedan set down. A strongman drew back the curtain. Lord Yan gestured with a smile, and Shen Mu drew a long breath, stepped out of the sedan. Lord Yan also alighted and led the way ahead, lowering his voice. "That person's origins are exceedingly lofty. You must not be impertinent. Understand?"

Shen Mu followed close behind and smiled. "My life and Lord Yan's prospects both hang on this. Naturally I will not be impertinent."

Lord Yan smiled faintly and said leisurely, "So long as you know. My grandson is also at the Grand Academy, enrolled two years before you. If you cure that person, I can have my grandson look after you. That grandson of mine is exceptionally gifted as well; he entered at the Five Luminaries realm."

Shen Mu's expression turned peculiar. "Among those scholars I beat today, I wonder if any was his grandson..."

This was the inner palace, seemingly the quarters of the rear harem. Palace gates layered upon gates, courtyards deep within courtyards. Along the way, Shen Mu saw only palace maids and pale-faced, beardless men.

"Could these be the legendary eunuchs?" Shen Mu wondered inwardly.

Lord Yan led him to a deep palace courtyard. Though it was resplendent with gold and jade, it felt cold and desolate, lacking a touch of mortal warmth.

At this moment, there were twenty or thirty people within the hall, most of them palace maids and eunuchs, along with several imperial physicians attending beside a jade couch. The couch was screened by curtains, and upon it lay a person, faintly discernible as a woman.

"The divine physician of Flower Lane has arrived?"

An imperial physician's gaze swept toward Shen Mu, and he sneered. "Lord Yan, you have lost your senses, daring to bring a man who treats courtesans to treat the Empress Dowager. What audacity!"

Lord Yan said calmly, "Physician Xiao said the same thing once. Then Physician Xiao died. By the way, young Master Shen, I forgot to tell you: Physician Xiao and these several physicians are all instructors from the Imperial Physician Office of the Grand Academy's Imperial Physician Hall. In the future, they are to teach you the art of medicine."

Shen Mu bowed in salute to the physicians. They all sneered coldly, hands clasped behind their backs, and did not return the courtesy. Physician Qu sneered. "So young, yet already out to swindle and deceive. You have not even fully learned the art of pill refinement, have you?"

Shen Mu revealed a sunny smile, like a bright and innocent young man. "Esteemed teachers, Physician Xiao said the same thing once. Then he died."

The physicians' faces turned ashen.

Shen Mu stepped forward to the jade couch, sat upon a jade chair, and said, "Empress Dowager."

A hand extended from behind the curtain and rested on the edge of the couch. Shen Mu took the pulse. After a moment, he turned and said, "Do any of you have silver needles?"

An elderly physician stepped forward and handed him his silver needles. Shen Mu took one and pricked the Empress Dowager's fingertip. Lord Yan coughed and whispered, "A capital offense..."

"Lord Yan, we shall bear it together."

Shen Mu's yuanqi surged forth, suspending the drop of blood in midair. He gazed at it intently.

"Open!"

He gave a low shout, and the Lingxiao Heavenly Eye opened. He looked into the blood, and at the same time his five fingers clenched tight, then suddenly splayed outward. The drop of blood instantly swelled, becoming a large, vivid crimson sphere.

Shen Mu hesitated a moment, then gave another low shout. "Open!"

Within his pupils, countless formation patterns rotated, forming a second heaven—the Qingxiao Heavenly Eye!

Shen Mu felt his yuanqi was somewhat insufficient, difficult to sustain. He turned and said, "Lord Yan, might I borrow your yuanqi cultivation for a moment?"

Lord Yan stepped forward, his yuanqi surging into Shen Mu's body, and whispered, "Young divine physician, are you certain..."

Shen Mu's body trembled violently. Borrowing Lord Yan's yuanqi to pour into his eyes—hum, hum, hum—layer upon layer of sage pupils opened, allowing him to see the drop of blood with absolute clarity, every hidden thing within it unable to escape his eyes. The Blind Elder had fully transmitted the Nine Heavens Gazing Art to him, but Shen Mu's current cultivation was insufficient to open all nine heavens at once; he could only borrow Lord Yan's cultivation.

Shen Mu's eyes blazed with divine light. Two beams of sacred radiance shot from his eyes, a full foot in length. Suddenly, Shen Mu flung open the curtain, the divine light in his eyes surging explosively, and shone it upon the Empress Dowager on the couch.

The Empress Dowager had not expected him to be so audacious as to dare throw open the curtain. Her eyes immediately turned toward him, her gaze like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, imposing without anger.

Shen Mu met her gaze, and the divine light in his eyes dispersed. "I have already discerned the Empress Dowager's illness. The Empress Dowager has been poisoned."

Though the Empress Dowager lay on a sickbed, her countenance aged, one could still see the bearing of one who had once been mother to the realm—a rare beauty. She closed her eyes and said, "This哀家's body grows weaker by the day. Some physicians of the Imperial Physician Office say it is illness, others say poison. There is no consensus. How can you be certain I have been poisoned?"

"The poison within Your Highness is called the Thousand Mechanisms Poison."

Shen Mu said, "This poison is a rare toxin refined from a thousand poisonous substances, each linked to the next. Once the Thousand Mechanisms Poison is refined, its toxicity transforms endlessly, and there is almost no antidote. Any antidote will cause the toxicity to undergo yet another transformation, rendering the antidote useless. The more treatments are attempted, the deeper the toxicity, the crueler the torment. Your Highness has been poisoned for a long time. Fortunately, Your Highness's cultivation is profound, and some physicians did not treat Your Highness's illness but instead used efficacious elixirs to prolong Your Highness's life. Otherwise, the consequences would be unimaginable."

The several physicians of the Imperial Physician Office were all greatly shaken. They exchanged glances and said nothing.

The Empress Dowager said breathlessly, "Physicians, does such a poison exist?"

Physician Yu bowed and said, "Replying to the Empress Dowager, such a poison does exist. It is said to have been refined by the Jade-Faced Poison King, but no one has ever seen it, and therefore..."