Fragments, Luck Is Also a Kind of Strength

All things mutually generate and restrain one another...

Serena Feng treats Divine Doctor Guile's words as gospel. Since she found no breakthrough with Jason Lan, Serena decides to inspect the ancient artifacts herself, hoping for new discoveries.

The soldiers assigned to protect Serena turned pale at her words and shook their heads repeatedly: "No, no, Miss Feng, this—this is far too dangerous. If Ninth Royal Uncle finds out, he'll kill us all."

Seriously, if anything happened to Serena Feng, Ninth Royal Uncle would have them flayed alive.

"I'll be careful, nothing will happen. There's no need to inform Ninth Royal Uncle." Even if something did happen, she wasn't afraid—she could cure this illness, just not on a wide scale.

"That won't do, Miss Feng, please don't make things difficult for us. How could we possibly hide this from Ninth Royal Uncle? If he finds out afterwards, we'll be in even deeper trouble." The guard wore a miserable expression, pleading earnestly.

"I'll speak to Ninth Royal Uncle myself. This has nothing to do with you—he won't blame you." Serena believed Ninth Royal Uncle would support her work.

The soldiers looked even more distressed. Unable to persuade Serena, they finally said, "How about this, Miss Feng—let us report to Ninth Royal Uncle first. If he agrees, we'll open the door."

Serena was exasperated, pointing at the sky: "Right now Ninth Royal Uncle is in the palace. By the time you go in and out of the gates, do you think I'll still have time to check? Enough—I can't waste any more time. Open the door, now."

"But..." The soldier was on the verge of tears.

Good grief, this was just bullying—putting them in an impossible spot.

"No more buts. Open the door. I'll take full responsibility for whatever happens—none of you will be scapegoated," Serena promised again, making the soldiers' faces grow even darker.

These soldiers had followed Ninth Royal Uncle for years and knew all too well what he was capable of. If something really happened to Serena, her guarantees would be useless. But...

If they refused Serena, their fate might be even worse.

Just think of those shadow guards who got sent back for retraining—that says it all.

With no other choice, and under Serena's repeated insistence, the soldiers could only let her in—and even risked accompanying her, terrified something might happen to her inside.

Sigh... Serena let out a soft breath, unsure whether to be glad people cared about her or just frustrated at losing her freedom.

After having the soldiers suit up in full gear, Serena also donned her protective clothing, leaving only her eyes exposed before stepping into the room where the funerary goods were stored.

Because of the corpse poison, these funerary goods hadn't been touched. They were exactly as they'd been when brought from the coffin shop. Wearing gloves, Serena examined each item, and whenever she spotted a bit of green moss or yellow earth, she carefully scraped it off with a scalpel and sealed it in a test tube.

The soldiers who came to protect Serena had no idea what she was doing; they just stood obediently behind her, terrified something might go wrong.

Serena sorted through everything one by one. An entire hour passed, and by the time she stood up to stretch her numb legs, she spotted a pile of porcelain shards in the corner.

Seeing those fragments, Serena suddenly remembered: Feng Jin had touched some of these funerary goods but never contracted corpse poison. Could that be the reason?

Serena's eyes lit up. Forgetting her numb legs, she hurried to the corner and dug out the pile of shards. Sure enough, she found something different.

"What's this?" Serena found a thin layer of milky-white ointment at the base and inner wall of a broken vessel.

Carefully, Serena scraped the substance off the shard. She then asked a soldier for a clean cloth and had the porcelain fragment wrapped up to take out.

"Let's go." Serena's cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkled—she was practically bursting with excitement.

Back at the temporary lab, Serena dripped the ointment into a sample of the toxin. Before their eyes, the black poison turned red, returning to the color of healthy blood.

"Amazing." Serena gripped the test tube tight, wrapped in a wave of accomplishment as powerful as snatching a patient from Death itself.

Overjoyed, her cheeks flushed and her eyes shining, Serena quickly activated the Smart Med-Pack to test the detoxified blood. The results came back normal.

"This is incredible!" Serena nearly jumped for joy, tears streaming down her face.

She did it. She really did it. She could save those suffering from Ancient Corpse Poison now.

"I found the guiding catalyst!" Serena shouted, clutching the test tube as she ran outside.

In the reception hall, several senior imperial physicians were drinking tea. Serena didn't mind, waving the test tube and shouting joyfully, "I've found the final ingredient—the cure for Ancient Corpse Poison is here!"

Crash—teacups shattered on the floor. A few senior physicians stood up in disbelief, repeating, "You found the last ingredient?" How could that be? Just a few hours—her luck was unreal.

Serena nodded excitedly. "Yes, I found it. I just tested it—the black poisoned blood is back to normal. See for yourselves."

"Quick, let me see!" Several senior physicians crowded around, asking questions and inspecting closely.

Serena still felt uneasy about last time, but with tens of thousands of lives at stake, she held nothing back and explained the formula in detail.

"You actually found it on a few shards—Miss Feng, your luck is something else," one of them said sourly, unable to hide his envy and jealousy.

Serena refused to let anyone spoil her mood. She addressed the most respected physicians: "This substance is extremely potent—it can't be used directly on people. The ingredients and dosages in the prescription need to be adjusted. We have about an hour left; right now, we need to focus on refining the formula."

"Yes, yes, let's get the formula ready—this is what matters most." The white-bearded senior physician disliked the sour remarks and cut them off.

Serena truly was lucky, but luck itself is a kind of skill. Out of all these people, how many would dare to risk corpse poison and inspect those funerary goods like she did?

Not a single one!

The imperial physicians were all highly skilled, with solid theoretical knowledge. In less than half an hour, they revised the prescription and collected the ointment from the porcelain shards.

A few imperial physicians personally brewed a bowl of medicine. Serena administered it to Jason Lan, and for the next half hour, everyone watched him like he was a zoo animal. Jason was mortified, but powerless to resist—he could only shut his eyes and pretend nothing was happening.

"Look, look! It's working—the black spots on his chest are fading!" someone exclaimed, poking at Jason's exposed skin.

All the imperial physicians were thrilled, not caring about Jason's feelings. They only knew they'd found the antidote and achieved a major breakthrough.

"Here, and here—his face too, the spots are fading!" Not only was it working, the effect was remarkable. The physicians shouted with joy like children.

"Let me check his pulse for side effects," the white-bearded physician said, stepping forward with a serious expression.

Everyone instinctively made way for him, holding their breath and watching as he finished. The moment he withdrew his hand, they all rushed to ask, "Well? Well? Is the prescription safe?"

If there was a problem, they wouldn't have time to come up with a second prescription...