Chapter 1454 — The Divine Physician Blunders into the Den of Ecstasy

Fang Ziyan watched the battle on the God-Slaying Platform no more. She hurried off and sought out a divine city; this city lay within Consort Qiang's domain, and when the defending general saw that Fang Ziyan was wounded, he was greatly startled, and rushed at once to fetch a famed physician to heal her. Her other wounds were nothing much; it was only her eyes that were the trouble.

Her eyes had been destroyed, and even the divine physician could not cure them. "Lady Fang must wait some days," he said. "I have heard that in Jingping there are famed physicians who have mastered the Dao of Creation, and they may be invited here to treat you, my lady. " Fang Ziyan flew into a rage.

"The people of Jingping are all rebels! " she cried. "To invite them here to heal me, would that not shame Her Highness?

Can it be that in all the Heavenly Court there is not one famed physician who has mastered Creation?

" "There is none. " That divine physician was rather blunt. "Jingping possesses the arts of Creation and the profound art of Creation, arts of Imperial Throne level, and outsiders are not forbidden to learn them. But Jingping's Creation Profound Art is founded upon the Heavenly River Divine Treasury.

Unless a man of the Heavenly Court abolishes his Divine Bridge Divine Treasury and recultivates the Heavenly River in its place, who could ever master it? " Fang Ziyan could not help but grow suspicious, and thought, "I have seen Her Highness perform the Creation Profound Art with my own eyes, and it plainly came from Jingping.

Why, then, are we unable to cultivate Jingping's Creation Profound Art?

" "Your servant has one other method by which you may be healed, Lady Fang," said the divine physician. "Only fetch a pair of another's sacred eyes, and I can dig out the ruined eyes and fit the new ones in. Only, the new eyes will not be the eyes of an Imperial Throne expert; I fear Your Highness would have to refine them anew before you could recover your full prime.

" Fang Ziyan shook her head. "My eyes have been tempered through a thousand refinements and a hundred trials. To refine a fresh pair up to their peak would likely cost decades.

Better that we send for the famed physicians of Jingping.

" The divine physician assented. Fang Ziyan waited in silence for more than ten days, and felt the pulsations that came from the God-Slaying Platform grow ever more violent. Often she sent her primal spirit out of her body to observe the platform, and saw that the clash between the Saber Dao and the two blood-malice divine sabers of the God-Slaying Platform grew fiercer by the day.

As time passed, the Saber Dao's power grew ever stronger, and even here she could clearly sense the might of the saber. "Jingping is a truly strange place.

A mere pellet of land, and yet its daos, arts, and divine powers flourish. This Saber Dao is plainly an acquired Dao, yet it can stand against the blood malice.

" She was deeply puzzled. Even an existence of the Imperial Throne realm, one versed in the innate great Dao, could not possibly hold out so long upon the God-Slaying Platform. Take herself: she was an Imperial Throne powerhouse versed in the innate great Dao, and she reckoned that if she stepped onto that platform she could withstand at most a single strike; the second would see her body perish and her Dao dissolve. Consort Qiang had once let fall a hint to her, saying that the baleful aura gathered on the God-Slaying Platform was so immense that it was already on the verge of transforming into two divine sabers.

When those two sabers came into the world, they would be supreme treasures, the most vicious weapons beneath heaven, their might surpassing the Lapis Lazuli Azure Heaven Banner. Once those two divine sabers ripened, it was likely they could slay even a Celestial Venerable. Consort Qiang's aim was to subdue the two divine sabers and use them to rid herself of her powerful foes.

Though the two divine sabers had not yet ripened, possessing form but not substance, the fact that Qin Mu and the others could hold out under their might until now was truly an anomaly.

Fang Ziyan waited several more days, and suddenly something stirred in her heart: "The might of the two divine sabers on the God-Slaying Platform seems much diminished.

. .

" She did not know whether it was an illusion, and at once sent her primal spirit out of her body to observe carefully. All at once, the Saber Dao of the twenty-fifth layer of heaven had actually added yet another layer of heaven!

"Could this be an illusion caused by Celestial Venerable Mu and the others raising their Dao realms, their cultivation and strength swelling greatly? " Fang Ziyan examined the matter in fine detail, reckoning whether the might of the two divine sabers of the God-Slaying Platform had waned, and recorded it.

Several more days passed, and her heart could not help but tighten.

"The might of those two sabers has indeed weakened! Celestial Venerable Mu and his four companions are seizing the chance to rob the sabers of their power, refining that baleful aura and claiming it for themselves! " She rose abruptly, murderous intent boiling from her. She thought, "I must report this to Her Highness the Consort, or those two divine sabers will be even farther from ripening.

Who knows what year or month they can be brought to maturity! " She was just about to set out for the Great Spirit-Energy Transfer Bridge to report to Consort Qiang when the divine physician suddenly came to announce, "Lady Fang, the famed physicians of Jingping have been invited here!

" Fang Ziyan was somewhat impatient. "Bring them in, and have them diagnose me this instant.

If they can cure my eyes, they shall be richly rewarded; if not, off with their heads! I have urgent business with Her Highness and cannot delay! " At that moment a gentle voice reached her, bearing the magnetic timbre that belongs only to men, and her heart could not help but grow calm.

"Lady Fang, there is no injury in this world that I cannot cure. Rest easy, my lady; your wounds are to me as good as gone at a touch of the hand. " Fang Ziyan's heart thumped violently twice.

She found that voice most pleasing and delightful, and quietly sent her primal spirit out of her body to look upon the famed physician. He was tall and powerfully built, his heroic spirit overflowing, clad in robes of blue.

Yet his face was covered by a bronze mask, and beneath that mask were a pair of heart-stirring eyes that seemed able to speak, and all they spoke were intimate words of love. "Famed physician of Jingping, why do you wear a mask, not daring to show your true face? " The fretfulness in Fang Ziyan's heart melted away; she asked this with a smile.

The bronze-masked man made no secret of it. "I report to you, my lady: this one's countenance is hideous, and I feared to frighten my patients, and so I cover my ugliness with a mask.

" Fang Ziyan laughed. "You lie.

Your eyes are so beautiful, surely you cannot be ugly. Before me you need not wear a mask. I do not trust men who wear masks, least of all a famed physician who comes to heal me.

" The bronze-masked man hesitated a moment. "My lady's discerning eye is matchless. In truth, it is because this one is handsome of face and feared to bring on needless trouble, and so I often hide behind a mask.

" He smiled bitterly.

"I practice medicine in all quarters, and have piled up debts of love, a rather sorry state. " Fang Ziyan grew all the more curious, and insisted that he take off the mask. The bronze-masked man had no choice but to remove it, saying, "My lady, a physician's heart is the heart of a parent.

I beg you to regard me only as a physician. " When the mask came away, Fang Ziyan's primal spirit felt as though struck by lightning; all the beauty of the world, it seemed to her, was nothing more than this, gathered wholly upon the man before her.

"My lady, I had best put the mask back on," said the man.