Chapter 14

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Doctor Cheng replied stiffly, “Sir, I am a doctor. I save lives; I do not take them.”

Si Hai curled his lips into a cold, meaningful smile. “This matter will benefit your country as well,” he said. “This is a message from our Wangye to be conveyed to your nation.”

Doctor Cheng pressed his lips together tightly, his mind swirling with uncertainty. It was well known that the First Prince, Chu Yi, had not been granted a princely title. Could the Wangye Si Hai mentioned be…

Kang Wang?!

Could this be someone Kang Wang of Dajing had planted close to Chu Yi?

The more Doctor Cheng thought about it, the more likely it seemed. What shocked him even more was that Kang Wang apparently knew about their Yue Kingdom’s outpost in Dan Yang City.

Doctor Cheng’s hands clenched tightly into fists within his wide sleeves, his eyes darkening. He was not a citizen of Dajing but of Yue, having been undercover in Dan Yang City for more than ten years.

Now, the sovereign of Yue intended to form an alliance with Kang Wang of Dajing. Once the alliance was established, Yue would fully support Kang Wang’s ascension to the throne. In return, Kang Wang had promised that once he succeeded, he would send troops to aid Yue in conquering the southwestern Qiang Kingdom.

This cooperation between the two countries was of utmost importance, leaving no room for error. Doctor Cheng had to be extra cautious and was skeptical of Si Hai’s words. How could he be sure this man was truly a subordinate of Kang Wang without any concrete evidence?

Si Hai seemed to notice Doctor Cheng’s hesitation and added, “The First Prince has always been frail, and this long journey north, covering thousands of miles, has taken a toll on him. It’s only natural that his condition would worsen. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Once he returns to the capital, there won’t be another chance like this. Can you afford to bear the consequences of delaying this ‘great matter’?!”

Si Hai applied pressure with every word he spoke.

Doctor Cheng clenched his fists tighter, his expression wavering with uncertainty. After a moment, he gritted his teeth and agreed, “I’ll deliver it tomorrow.”

Si Hai gestured for him to go but did not continue to escort him. Instead, he stood in place, watching Doctor Cheng leave.

The surroundings were so quiet it felt like a graveyard. From afar, the sound of Chu Yi’s continuous coughing could be heard from the hall:

“Cough, cough…”

“Cough, cough, cough…”

Doctor Cheng walked briskly out of the prefecture office. As soon as he left, he headed straight back to Cheng’s Medical Clinic and closed up early. He carefully bolted the door, then peered through the crack to check outside before finally relaxing and heading inside. He walked through the front hall and courtyard, making his way to an elegant room in the back.

A bamboo curtain hung down, obscuring the figure behind it. Through the gaps in the curtain, one could faintly see a man dressed in blue sitting on the other side.

“Sixth Master,” Doctor Cheng respectfully bowed, performing the traditional gesture with crossed hands. He didn’t dare to raise his head to look at the man behind the curtain. Methodically, he recounted what had just transpired at the Dan Yang prefecture office, finally saying, “Sixth Master, Biyue Grass is colorless and tasteless. It will gradually weaken the body of the one who ingests it, leading to a slow death. Should we add it to Chu Yi’s medicine?”

Biyue Grass was a secret herb unique to Yue Kingdom, acting as a slow-acting poison. Those who consumed it would show no outward signs or pulse changes indicating poisoning. Others would simply believe the person was suffering from a prolonged illness, gradually wasting away.

The man in blue, known as Sixth Master, idly tapped the lid of his teacup, the crisp sound of porcelain clinking echoing in the room. The air in the room was dry and oppressive, making it feel as though one might suffocate at any moment.

Doctor Cheng remained perfectly still in his bowing posture. After a moment, he heard Sixth Master slowly ask, “Was there anything unusual about Chu Yi’s pulse?”

The doctor carefully recalled, “Today, when I took Chu Yi’s pulse again, it felt as if cotton was floating in water—his yang energy is weak, and his vital essence and blood are deficient. It is a weak pulse.”

“Chu Yi has always been frail…” Sixth Master seemed to be speaking to himself, his expression dark and somber.

As a hostage in Yue for eight years, Chu Yi had been restricted from leaving the capital but was otherwise free to move about the city. He often interacted with Yue’s royal family and nobility, becoming well-known for his refined and gentle demeanor, often described as “a gentleman as gentle as jade.”

At the beginning of the year, when Emperor Mingde ascended the throne, he negotiated with the Yue sovereign to allow Chu Yi to return to his homeland.

Kang Wang planned to silently eliminate Chu Yi once he entered the borders of Dajing. This was no secret, and the Yue sovereign’s stance was to sit back and watch the internal strife within Dajing. However, Kang Wang’s repeated attempts to assassinate Chu Yi had all failed, and Chu Yi had astonishingly made it safely to Dan Yang City.

Sixth Master furrowed his brows tightly and posed another question, “Could this pulse be faked?”

Doctor Cheng thought for a moment and then asserted, “With my decades of medical experience, I can confidently say that Chu Yi’s condition is congenital, a deficiency from birth. This pulse would be difficult to fake.”

Sixth Master lowered his eyes slightly, a mocking smile tugging at his lips as he thought to himself: Kang Wang must be getting desperate, so fearful of Chu Yi’s return to the capital that he sought their help to take him down quietly. Since the sovereign had expressed a desire to ally with Kang Wang, this matter posed no harm to Yue Kingdom…

Sixth Master weighed the pros and cons in his mind, then suddenly opened his eyes, which gleamed with fierce ambition, and uttered a single word: “Give.”

“I’ll prepare it immediately,” Doctor Cheng bowed his head in obedience, his eyes flashing with a strange light.

The sun gradually set, but there was no sign of the weather cooling down; it remained unbearably hot and oppressive. The city was deathly still, with no sound of wind or even the chirping of insects.

Gu Yan Fei lifted her gaze to the sunset outside, the afterglow of the setting sun turning half the sky a deep blood-red. A suffocating feeling welled up in her chest, and Gu Yan Fei narrowed her eyes slightly, her dark pupils seeming to glimmer with a hint of blood as she murmured to herself, “There’s not much time left.”

“Meow meow~”

The little kitten perched on the desk let out a soft, sugary meow, with a cute, coquettish lilt that tugged at the heartstrings. The kitten, less than two months old and at its most playful age, extended a fluffy paw to bat at the cinnabar in a porcelain bowl. But in the next moment, it felt the flesh on the back of its neck being pinched by slender, jade-like fingers and was promptly lifted into the air.

The once-rowdy kitten went limp, as if an acupoint had been pressed, and obediently curled its body slightly, remaining still as Gu Yan Fei tossed it into the nearby cat bed.

Qing Guang, now bored, sat in the cat bed, licking its paws and washing its face.

Gu Yan Fei picked up a wolf-hair brush, dipped it into the bright red cinnabar, and began to paint with her arm suspended in the air. Infusing the brush tip with spiritual energy, she carefully traced a wavy, worm-like line onto the pale yellow talisman paper. But her strokes grew slower and slower…

These past few days, she had been drawing talismans, but the spiritual energy in this small world was so weak that every talisman she made had failed. Only the two she drew with her own blood on the day of her rebirth had succeeded.

She couldn’t keep using her own blood to draw talismans every time—it would lead to an early death!

Gu Yan Fei focused intently on the cinnabar-covered brush tip, her eyes stinging with strain, yet she didn’t blink. Her hand holding the brush was as light as a feather, yet carried the weight of a mountain. Through repeated failures, she gradually learned how to harmonize her mind with the faint traces of spiritual energy in this world, converting it into spiritual power and linking it to the cinnabar on the brush tip…

At first, she couldn’t even complete a third of a talisman, but now she was just one small step away from finishing it.

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