Grace hurried over and said, "Let me take a look."
But Vivian Xiao shoved her away. "You still dare to come? You killed Mother! Tell me, what happened here? Mother wasn't due for her Tribulation yet—why did the Tribulation Lightning strike right after she took your pill?"
Grace replied, "I don't know either! Let me check on the Celestial Empress first!"
"Stay away from my mother!" Vivian Xiao cried out, her emotions running high. "Someone, hurry and call Young Master Drake and the Immortal Physician!"
Immortals don’t experience the ordinary cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and death.
But in Drake Abyss, there are plenty of Medicine Immortals.
And then there’s Li Zan, a god who went to the mortal realm just to study medicine.
The dragon attendants quickly went to deliver the message.
That thunderbolt didn’t just alarm everyone in Tianque Palace—the gods outside saw it too, and rushed over to check out the situation.
All the Dragon Lords, as well as the Shangyang father and daughter, arrived too.
Soon, the dragon attendants returned and reported, "Young Master Drake has gone to the mortal realm and isn't in Drake Abyss, but the Immortal Physician is here."
The Immortal Physician was an ancient, white-haired elder, rumored to be a ginseng spirit.
He went over to examine the Celestial Empress, then knelt down in sorrow. "Your Majesty, please accept my condolences. The Celestial Empress... has passed away!"
The Celestial Emperor asked in confusion, "It wasn't yet time for the Empress's Tribulation—why did the Tribulation Lightning strike?"
The Immortal Physician pondered for a moment, then replied, "I've only ever seen this happen in one situation, but I'm not sure if that's the case for the Empress."
"What situation? Speak," commanded the Celestial Emperor.
The Immortal Physician nodded and said, "She took the Celestial Meridian Pill!"
"Celestial Meridian Pill? What's that?" the Celestial Emperor asked.
"It's a secret medicine. Most people have never heard of it," said the Immortal Physician.
"Some elder immortals, when their lifespan is up, take the Celestial Meridian Pill—one pill a day, ten pills in total. It summons the Tribulation Lightning early! If they survive, their life is extended and their cultivation improves!"
"But how could my mother possibly have taken the Celestial Meridian Pill?" Vivian Xiao shook her head, baffled. "Her lightning spirit root is damaged—she can't even handle ordinary lightning, let alone Tribulation Lightning! There's no way she would've taken that pill!"
"If the Empress didn’t take it herself, then someone must have harmed her!" Shang Zhi said, frowning.
The Celestial Emperor, hearing this, looked at Yun Xi with an imposing air. "Yun Xi, you serve closely beside the Empress. Has she taken anything suspicious lately?"
Yun Xi thought for a moment and said, "The Empress likes to take some Iceheart Dew every day, and also, Miss Grace gave her a bottle of pills and told her to take one a day. Other than that, the Empress rarely takes anything else."
"Pills? What kind of pills?" the Celestial Emperor asked.
Yun Xi took a small pill bottle from the drawer by the Empress's bedside and handed it to the Immortal Physician. "This is the bottle the pills came in. She finished the last one today."
The Immortal Physician opened it and sniffed, then said to the Celestial Emperor, "Your Majesty, this is the scent of the Celestial Meridian Pill!"
The Celestial Emperor frowned deeply, took the bottle and sniffed it too. "Did you give this to the Empress?" he asked.
Grace replied, "Your Majesty, I have never given the Empress any medicine! Every time I visited, Princess Vivian Xiao was present—she can vouch for me."
The Celestial Emperor looked at Vivian Xiao.
Vivian Xiao said, "I never saw her give my mother any pills like that, nor did my mother ever mention it."
"Princess, whenever the Empress didn’t need acupuncture, you always left after Grace Zhu.
But when the Empress needed acupuncture, you left before her!
That bottle of pills was handed to the Empress about ten days ago, right after you left!