Several imperial physicians hurriedly grabbed the medicines listed in Quinn Shepherd's prescription. Soon, the ingredients were ready, but instead of preparing the remedy themselves, the physicians stood aside, eagerly waiting to watch Quinn refine the medicine.
Quinn's yuanqi erupted, lifting each medicinal ingredient into the air. He didn't use a furnace—instead, he refined the medicine directly in midair, employing a variety of extraction techniques. No water was used for decoction; he directly drew out the medicinal power, roasting and fusing it with yuanqi. His fingers danced like musical runes, moving so beautifully that the white-haired Doctor Yu was moved to tears.
"To witness such a refining technique once in my life is enough!" Doctor Yu exclaimed with deep feeling.
Quinn remained completely focused, refining the medicine without distraction, and didn't hear their comments. If he had, the youth would surely have scoffed. To him, these techniques were barely passable; in Oldridge Village, under Apothecary's tutelage, he was considered only just adequate.
Before long, the spirit medicine was finished. The imperial physicians watched, utterly entranced. Doctor Qu asked, "Little divine physician, when you used this technique to ripple the water and extract the medicinal power, why did you suddenly switch to fire?"
Quinn placed the finished spirit pill into a jade bowl on the tray and said, "That particular ingredient requires both water and fire. You must use water first, then fire, to fully extract its medicinal power."
Doctor Yu changed his technique, using yuanqi to roast the medicine, and quickly asked, "Little divine physician, does my technique resemble yours?"
Quinn examined him for a moment and said, "Your yuanqi circulation is a bit sluggish. The key to my refining technique isn't in the hand movements, but in the subtle use of yuanqi. The yuanqi must circle twelve times to reach true mastery."
Doctor Yu suddenly understood and said eagerly, "I've been stuck on the surface. Also, when you refined the Five-Fu Seed, is there any special technique involved?"
The imperial physicians crowded around Quinn, enthusiastically discussing his methods. Minister Yates frowned deeply and whispered, "Gentlemen, you can discuss this later. Her Majesty the Dowager Empress is still here!"
The imperial physicians snapped back to attention. Doctor Qu quickly said, "Little divine physician, the Dowager must take her medicine urgently."
Quinn said, "We still need 1,023 three-legged green-eyed toads."
Doctor Qu and the others' eyes lit up. They clapped and laughed, praising, "A stroke of genius! A stroke of genius! I am completely convinced! Quick, quick, go and buy the three-legged green-eyed toads!"
The palace maids and eunuchs hurried to the market to buy the green-eyed toads. After a while, the toads were brought in, each about the size of a fist, with three legs.
Quinn had them place the green-eyed toads inside the hall, then ordered all the maids and eunuchs to withdraw. He presented the spirit pill to Her Majesty the Dowager Empress and explained, "When the monarch poison of the Thousand-Mechanism Poison is replaced by the new toxin in the spirit medicine, the other poisons will collapse and erupt violently. These toxins have merged with your yuanqi and gained a kind of spiritual life. The green-eyed toads are poison-eaters; they will seize the opportunity to devour the poison from your body, and you will be cured."
The Dowager Empress waved her hand and said, "You should all withdraw, lest the poison harm you."
Quinn, the imperial physicians, and Minister Yates withdrew from the hall. Inside, the Dowager Empress took the spirit medicine. At first, she felt no change, but in the next moment, the medicine erupted. A strange poison surged from the pill, instantly replacing the monarch toxin in the Thousand-Mechanism Poison.
The Dowager Empress suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, pitch-black and splattering the jade bed and curtains everywhere.
Immediately, the Dowager Empress felt all the toxins in her limbs, bones, and even skin erupting. The monarch toxin was replaced, and the remaining 1,022 strange poisons exploded, clashing and colliding, causing her excruciating pain as if her organs were being torn apart.
As these strange and powerful poisons erupted, they fused with her yuanqi. The Dowager Empress gasped for breath, her face and skin turning pitch-black, on the verge of rotting away. Her yuanqi was now occupied by 1,022 toxins, rushing through her body and spreading the poison everywhere, causing her to lose control of her yuanqi and face imminent death by poisoning.
Suddenly, the spirit pill she had taken released another surge of medicinal power, which instantly coursed through her entire body, penetrating even layer after layer of divine treasuries. The medicinal power blazed fiercely, driving all her yuanqi out of her body—even the yuanqi within her divine treasuries!
A thunderous crash echoed from within the hall. Although the Dowager Empress had been poisoned for decades and her cultivation was not what it once was, her yuanqi was still incredibly vast. As her yuanqi left her body, it transformed into more than a thousand types of poisonous creatures—scorpions, snakes, insects, ants, and toads—all swirling in the air around the jade bed, each formed from her yuanqi merged with various toxins.
Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit.
Suddenly, the hall was filled with croaking. Each three-legged green-eyed toad opened its mouth, flicked out a long tongue, and snatched up the poisonous creatures formed from yuanqi and strange toxins, swallowing them whole.
In an instant, the hall was clear again. One green-eyed toad, having missed out on the poisonous creatures, hopped onto the jade bed and inhaled towards the Dowager Empress, causing her to cough up blood and spit out a poisonous insect. This insect was the special toxin Quinn had hidden in the spirit pill to replace the monarch poison.
The green-eyed toad ate the poisonous insect, then hopped away from the jade bed. The Dowager Empress immediately felt refreshed, her body light and her long-standing illness swept away. She rose from the bed, joyful beyond measure.
"Attendants!"
The doors opened and the palace maids and eunuchs hurried in, startled by the sight of black blood everywhere and frogs hopping about the palace.
Quinn, the imperial physicians, and Minister Yates also hurried in. The Dowager Empress looked at Quinn and smiled, "You truly are a divine physician. Let these green-eyed toads be released into Clearwave Pool; they have done me a great service, so let them live there."
The palace maids and eunuchs quickly agreed. Minister Yates, both astonished and delighted, rushed out, saying, "I must report this great news to His Majesty!"