Chapter 124 — Heaven-Sent Masterstroke

The imperial physicians hastily took the prescription Shen Mu had written and fetched the ingredients. Before long the herbs were brought, but the physicians stood there without making a move, faces full of expectation, waiting to watch Shen Mu refine the medicine. Shen Mu's vital aura burst forth as he lifted each ingredient into the air; with no elixir furnace, he refined them directly in midair.

He displayed one extraction technique after another, drawing out the medicinal potency without boiling in water, baking and fusing it with his vital aura, his fingers leaping like notes and runes. The white-haired Imperial Physician Yu watched with tears in his eyes. "To see such a refining technique even once in my lifetime is more than enough! " Yu exclaimed. Shen Mu, wholly absorbed, did not hear them; had he heard, the youth would have curled his lips.

His technique had barely passed muster.

Under Grandfather Alchemist in Hidden Remnant Village, he had only managed a passing grade. Before long the spirit medicine was finished, and the imperial physicians looked on entranced. Imperial Physician Qu said, "Young Divine Physician, just now you used that technique to stir ripples in the water and draw out the potency through water—why did you suddenly turn to fire? " Shen Mu placed the refined elixir in a jade cup on the tray and said, "That particular ingredient needs both water and fire, so water first, then fire, to fully release its potency.

" Imperial Physician Yu changed his own handwork, manipulating his vital aura to roast herbs, and asked hastily, "Young Divine Physician, does my technique look like a proper imitation? " Shen Mu looked him over and said, "Your vital aura runs a little sluggishly. The beauty of my technique is not in the handwork but in the subtle use of vital aura.

The aura must wind through twelve circuits before the furnace fire reaches its perfected blue. " Imperial Physician Yu suddenly saw the point and said eagerly, "I was only looking at the surface. Also, when you refined the Five Fortune seeds, was there some special rule to the technique you used?

" The imperial physicians crowded around Shen Mu, discussing with great excitement, while Lord Yan frowned deeply and said in a low voice, "Gentlemen, you can discuss this later—Her Majesty the Empress Dowager is still here! " The physicians came to themselves, and Imperial Physician Qu said hurriedly, "Young Divine Physician, Her Majesty's medicine must come first.

" Shen Mu said, "I still need one thousand and twenty-three three-legged blue-eyed toads. " Imperial Physician Qu and the others' eyes lit up. They clapped their hands and laughed, praising, "A stroke of genius!

A stroke of genius! This old man is thoroughly convinced!

Quick, quick—go buy three-legged blue-eyed toads! " The maids and eunuchs in the hall rushed to the market to buy the toads. After much bustle, the toads were brought in, each the size of a fist, with three legs.

Shen Mu had them place the toads inside the hall, ordered all the maids and eunuchs to withdraw, and presented the spirit elixir to the Empress Dowager.

"In a moment," he said, "when the sovereign poison of the Thousand Mechanisms is replaced by the venom in this medicine, the other toxins will collapse, and the poison will turn violent in the blink of an eye.

Those poisons have been in Your Majesty's body and combined with your vital aura, so they have grown a kind of cunning. Blue-eyed toads feed on poison. They will take the chance to eat the poison out of Your Majesty's body, and then Your Majesty will be cured.

" The Empress Dowager waved her hand. "Withdraw, all of you, so the poison does not strike you.

" Shen Mu, the imperial physicians, and Lord Yan withdrew from the hall. Inside, the Empress Dowager took the spirit medicine. At first she felt nothing unusual, but the next moment the potency burst forth. A strange venom surged out of the elixir and in an instant displaced the sovereign poison within the Thousand Mechanisms. With a cry, the Empress Dowager spat out a mouthful of blood, black as ink, splattering the jade couch and curtains everywhere. Immediately she felt the mass of poisons erupt through her limbs and bones, even through hair and skin. With the sovereign poison replaced, the remaining one thousand and twenty-two strange toxins exploded at once, clashing and colliding until it seemed her liver and intestines were being torn apart, and the pain was unbearable.

As these great poisons erupted and merged with her vital aura, the Empress Dowager panted, her face turning black, her skin blackening, on the verge of rotting away and dying.

Her vital aura had been seized by the one thousand and twenty-two toxins; it raced through her body, carrying them to every part of her, until she lost all control and was about to die of the venom. Then, suddenly, another surge of potency rushed out of the spirit elixir she had swallowed. It passed through every part of her body in an instant, even plunging deep into layer after layer of her spirit vaults, and blazing with force, it drove all her vital aura out of her—even the aura within the spirit vaults was expelled by that surge. A loud boom resounded through the hall.

Though the poison had ravaged her for decades and her cultivation was not what it had once been, her vital aura was still immense and deep. As it left her body, it transformed into more than a thousand venomous creatures—venomous scorpions, venomous serpents, venomous insects, venomous ants, venomous beetles, and every kind of poison thing—all born from the union of that vital aura with the strange toxins.

They swirled in the air around the jade couch, ceaselessly swimming. Croak, croak, croak. The hall filled with toad calls.

The three-legged blue-eyed toads suddenly croaked in unison, opened their mouths, and lashed out their long tongues, curling them around the creatures formed from vital aura and strange venom to swallow them down. In an instant the hall became clear again. One blue-eyed toad that had not caught a poison creature hopped onto the jade couch, opened its mouth, and sucked toward the Empress Dowager. She could not help vomiting blood, and spat out a poison insect, which was the poison creature formed from the strange venom Shen Mu had hidden in the elixir to replace the sovereign poison. The toad ate the insect and hopped away from the couch.

The Empress Dowager felt her mind clear and her body light. She hurriedly rose from the couch and found that the affliction which had bound her for decades had been swept clean away, and joy filled her heart. "Attendants! " The hall doors opened, and a crowd of maids and eunuchs hurried in. They were startled to see poison blood spattered across the jade couch and curtains, and the room full of hopping toads was also rather alarming.

Shen Mu, the imperial physicians, and Lord Yan hurried in as well. The Empress Dowager looked at Shen Mu and smiled. "You truly are a divine physician. Take these blue-eyed toads to Clear Wave Pond and keep them there. They have done me a kindness; let them live in Clear Wave Pond.

" The eunuchs and maids hurriedly acknowledged.

Lord Yan, startled and delighted, ran outside, saying, "This old minister will report this good news to His Majesty! " The Empress Dowager walked outside, smiling. "Divine Physician, it is unclean here.

Let us speak out there. " Shen Mu acknowledged and followed her out, the imperial physicians hurrying after. The Empress Dowager looked at the sunlight, raised a hand to shade her eyes, and smiled. "It has been so long since I set foot outside this palace.

Was the Thousand Mechanisms Poison created by the Jade-Faced Poison King? " Imperial Physician Qu nodded. "The Jade-Faced Poison King is said to have vanished more than two hundred years ago.

He was ruthless and merciless, poisoning no one knows how many masters.