Minister Yates stroked his beard and smiled, "If this weren't a matter of utmost importance, I wouldn't have come personally to invite the divine physician. Quinn, do you know whose merit it is that the emperor didn't pursue your status as an abandoned person?"
Quinn Shepherd was taken aback. On the day Emperor Evan spoke passionately before the Grand Academy Hall, Quinn had thought the emperor was using his identity as a Great Ruins abandoned person to warn the ministers. But from Minister Yates’s words, it seemed he himself had played a role in it.
"I’d like to hear the details."
"At the time, I told the emperor that you were the only divine physician who could treat that person’s illness. That’s why he didn’t pursue why an abandoned person from the Great Ruins could slip past the Viewing Mirror and enter Everpeace."
Minister Yates smiled faintly: "If I hadn’t said that, do you think you could have become an Imperial Academy scholar? Even an academy scholar holds an eighth-rank official post—how could that be given so casually to a divine physician from the Great Ruins, a god-abandoned person who snuck into Everpeace? That would be a crime against the gods!"
Quinn’s eyes flickered. He sighed, "If I can’t cure that person, my head…"
Minister Yates laughed, "It won’t be saved."
Quinn’s face darkened.
The official sedan landed. The attendants lifted the curtain, and Minister Yates smiled and gestured for Quinn to follow. Quinn took a deep breath and stepped out of the sedan. Minister Yates also disembarked, leading the way and whispering, "That person’s background is immense. You must not act recklessly, understand?"
Quinn followed closely, smiling, "Since both my life and Minister Yates’s career are at stake, I wouldn’t dare act recklessly."
Minister Yates smiled faintly, his tone relaxed: "Good that you know. My grandson is also at the Imperial Academy—he entered two years before you. If you cure that person, I can have him look after you. My grandson is exceptionally talented; he entered at the Five Luminaries stage."
Quinn’s expression turned odd. "I wonder if any of the scholars I beat up today included his grandson…"
This was the inner palace, apparently the harem’s domain. The halls were layered and the courtyards deep; along the way, Quinn saw only palace maids and pale, beardless men.
Are those the legendary eunuchs? Quinn wondered to himself.
Minister Yates led him into a secluded palace courtyard. Though the place glittered with gold and jade, it felt cold and empty, lacking any trace of human warmth.
Inside the hall were twenty or thirty people, mostly palace maids and eunuchs, with several imperial physicians attending outside a jade bed. The bed was shrouded by curtains, and a figure—apparently a woman—lay within.
"Has the Flower Lane Divine Physician arrived?"
One physician cast Quinn a cold glance, sneering, "Minister Yates, you must be out of your mind—letting someone who treats brothel women see Her Majesty the Dowager Empress? That’s reckless beyond measure."
Minister Yates replied calmly, "Dr. Shaw once said the same—and then Dr. Shaw died. By the way, Quinn, I forgot to mention: Dr. Shaw and these gentlemen are all instructors at the Imperial Academy’s Medical Hall. They’ll be teaching you medicine in the future."
Quinn bowed to the physicians, but they merely smirked coldly, hands clasped behind their backs, refusing to return the courtesy. Dr. Qu sneered, "So young and already out here swindling people. You haven’t even learned proper pill refining yet, have you?"
Quinn flashed a bright, sunny grin, looking every bit the cheerful young man. "Gentlemen, that’s exactly what Dr. Shaw said back then. Then he died."
The physicians’ faces turned ashen.
Quinn stepped forward to the jade couch, sat on a jade chair, and said, "Your Majesty, the Dowager Empress."
From behind the curtain, a hand extended and rested on the edge of the couch. Quinn felt her pulse. After a moment, he turned and asked, "Does anyone have silver needles?"
An elderly physician stepped forward, handing over his own set of silver needles. Quinn took one and pricked the Dowager Empress’s fingertip. Minister Yates coughed quietly and whispered, "That’s a capital offense…"
"Minister Yates, we’ll shoulder it together."
Quinn’s yuanqi burst forth, suspending the drop of blood in midair as he focused his gaze.
"Open!"
He called out in a low voice. The Divine Firmament Heaven Eye activated, peering into the blood. At the same time, he clenched his fingers, then suddenly splayed them—at once, the droplet swelled into a large, crimson sphere.
Quinn hesitated, then called out again: "Open!"
Countless formation patterns spun within his pupils, forming a second layer of heaven—the Green Firmament Heaven Eye!
Quinn felt his yuanqi flagging, unable to sustain the technique. He turned back and said, "Minister Yates, could I borrow your cultivation for a moment?"
Minister Yates stepped forward, channeling his yuanqi into Quinn’s body. In a low voice he asked, "Young Divine Physician, are you confident…?"
Quinn’s body trembled as Minister Yates’s yuanqi surged into his eyes. Buzzing, layer after layer of divine eyes opened, allowing him to see every detail within the drop of blood—nothing inside could escape his gaze. Grandpa Blind had taught him the full Ninefold Heaven Eye Art, but Quinn’s current cultivation was lacking; he could not open all nine layers and had to rely on Minister Yates’s support.
Divine light flashed in Quinn’s eyes, shooting out in twin beams over a foot long. Suddenly, Quinn lifted the curtain, his gaze blazing as he shone the light directly onto the Dowager Empress lying on the couch.
The Dowager Empress was caught completely off guard—he had dared to lift the curtain so boldly! Her eyes snapped to him, her gaze like thunder in a clear sky—commanding, awe-inspiring, without anger yet full of power.
Quinn met her eyes, letting the divine light fade. "I have identified Your Majesty’s illness. You are poisoned."
Though the Dowager Empress lay upon her sickbed, her face aged, Quinn could still see traces of the regal bearing she once held as mother of the realm—a rare and remarkable woman. She closed her eyes and said, "Day by day my body grows weaker. Some physicians say it’s an illness, others claim it’s poison, but there’s no consensus. How can you be certain I am poisoned?"
"Your Majesty is afflicted with Thousand-Mechanism Poison."
Quinn explained, "This poison is forged from a thousand toxins, each interlocking with the next. Once refined, its nature becomes endlessly mutable—almost no medicine can cure it. Any antidote only triggers a new transformation, rendering the cure useless. The more treatments applied, the deeper and crueler the poison grows. Your Majesty has endured this for years; only your profound cultivation, and the fact that some physicians used spirit pills to prolong your life instead of blindly treating you, have kept disaster at bay."
The imperial physicians were all deeply shaken, exchanging glances in silence.
The Dowager Empress struggled for breath. "Physicians, do you know of such a poison?"
Dr. Yu bowed and replied, "Your Majesty, such a poison exists. It’s said to be refined by the Jade-Faced Poison King, but none of us have ever seen it, so…"
The Dowager Empress sighed. "You are all helpless before it, then?"
The physicians bowed their heads in shame, silent.
The Dowager Empress caught her breath and turned her gaze to Quinn. "Young Divine Physician, what about you?"
"I have a way to cure it."
Quinn smiled. "But I need to know every medicine Your Majesty has taken since being poisoned, and all the prescriptions—bring them to me quickly. Also, I require 1,023 palace maids, and prepare ink, brushes, and 1,023 placards."
The Dowager Empress waved a weak hand. "Go, hurry and prepare."
Soon, ink, brushes, and paper were readied. The harem’s palaces bustled as maids were summoned from every courtyard, and the Medical Bureau compiled records of every medicine the Dowager Empress had taken over the years.
Quinn picked up a brush and began writing the names and numbers of each toxin on the placards, working late into the night. Only then did he finish. Outside the hall, lanterns blazed as over a thousand palace maids stood in silence.
Quinn had the placards distributed; each maid held one labeled with a toxin’s name. He arranged them in a complex formation composed of multiple patterns: the first pattern had one maid standing alone, the second two maids, the third four, then eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, 128, 256, and finally 512.
Once the maids were in position, Quinn reviewed the Dowager Empress’s prescriptions, starting from the first. After each, he called out numbers, prompting the corresponding maids to swap places.
The thousand-person formation shifted instantly. Quinn read the second prescription, called out more numbers, and the maids again swapped positions, altering the formation.
Prescription after prescription, the formation changed again and again, the maids’ positions constantly rearranged.
The physicians watched, utterly astonished. A white-haired elder trembled and said, "To witness such a method in my lifetime—now I could die content!"
The other three physicians nodded repeatedly, sighing, "We underestimated him. Not only did he recognize Thousand-Mechanism Poison, he’s calculated its current state with this miraculous technique!"
The physicians were full of admiration. Quinn had the thousand-plus palace maids hold their placards in formation, representing the intricate structure of toxins restraining each other within Thousand-Mechanism Poison. Then, based on the medicinal properties of the prescriptions, he adjusted their positions to reflect the changes in the poison’s structure.
The thousand-plus maids formed a massive, complex living abacus—each maid a bead—allowing Quinn to calculate precisely how Thousand-Mechanism Poison had mutated inside the Dowager Empress’s body.
Such a method was nothing short of miraculous, earning the physicians’ sincere respect.
Quinn calculated until dawn, finally working through every prescription. The palace maids stood all night, exhausted. Quinn studied their final positions, the placards in their hands, and the configuration of the toxins. He pondered for a long while, then closed his eyes.
After a long silence, Quinn opened his eyes and wrote out the pill formula.
The physicians crowded around, reading the formula, nodding enthusiastically, their excitement barely contained.
Minister Yates craned his neck to look, but couldn’t understand. He asked in a low voice, "Doctors, what do you think of this prescription?"
Dr. Qu gazed at Quinn with admiration, exclaiming, "The formula is magnificent, as grand as a song! The young divine physician used a substitution method—one toxin to replace the central ‘one’ in Thousand-Mechanism Poison. See? That ‘one’—once replaced, the other 1,022 toxins restrain each other, neutralizing the poison! Magnificent, truly magnificent!"
Dr. You added, "Dr. Shaw died without injustice—anyone who dies before such a physician dies well!"
Minister Yates shook his head, thinking, "All doctors are mad—what’s so magnificent about this? The only thing that matters is whether it works. If it doesn’t, my career and his head are both forfeit!"