Chapter 124 — Heaven-Sent Masterstroke
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
" Shen Mu, the imperial physicians, and Lord Yan withdrew from the hall. Inside, the Empress Dowager took the spirit medicine. At first she felt nothing unusual, but the next moment the potency burst forth. A strange venom surged out of the elixir and in an instant displaced the sovereign poison within the Thousand Mechanisms. With a cry, the Empress Dowager spat out a mouthful of blood, black as ink, splattering the jade couch and curtains everywhere. Immediately she felt the mass of poisons erupt through her limbs and bones, even through hair and skin. With the sovereign poison replaced, the remaining one thousand and twenty-two strange toxins exploded at once, clashing and colliding until it seemed her liver and intestines were being torn apart, and the pain was unbearable.
As these great poisons erupted and merged with her vital aura, the Empress Dowager panted, her face turning black, her skin blackening, on the verge of rotting away and dying.
Her vital aura had been seized by the one thousand and twenty-two toxins; it raced through her body, carrying them to every part of her, until she lost all control and was about to die of the venom. Then, suddenly, another surge of potency rushed out of the spirit elixir she had swallowed. It passed through every part of her body in an instant, even plunging deep into layer after layer of her spirit vaults, and blazing with force, it drove all her vital aura out of her—even the aura within the spirit vaults was expelled by that surge. A loud boom resounded through the hall.
Though the poison had ravaged her for decades and her cultivation was not what it had once been, her vital aura was still immense and deep. As it left her body, it transformed into more than a thousand venomous creatures—venomous scorpions, venomous serpents, venomous insects, venomous ants, venomous beetles, and every kind of poison thing—all born from the union of that vital aura with the strange toxins.
They swirled in the air around the jade couch, ceaselessly swimming. Croak, croak, croak. The hall filled with toad calls.
The three-legged blue-eyed toads suddenly croaked in unison, opened their mouths, and lashed out their long tongues, curling them around the creatures formed from vital aura and strange venom to swallow them down. In an instant the hall became clear again. One blue-eyed toad that had not caught a poison creature hopped onto the jade couch, opened its mouth, and sucked toward the Empress Dowager. She could not help vomiting blood, and spat out a poison insect, which was the poison creature formed from the strange venom Shen Mu had hidden in the elixir to replace the sovereign poison. The toad ate the insect and hopped away from the couch.
The Empress Dowager felt her mind clear and her body light. She hurriedly rose from the couch and found that the affliction which had bound her for decades had been swept clean away, and joy filled her heart. "Attendants! " The hall doors opened, and a crowd of maids and eunuchs hurried in. They were startled to see poison blood spattered across the jade couch and curtains, and the room full of hopping toads was also rather alarming.
Shen Mu, the imperial physicians, and Lord Yan hurried in as well. The Empress Dowager looked at Shen Mu and smiled. "You truly are a divine physician. Take these blue-eyed toads to Clear Wave Pond and keep them there. They have done me a kindness; let them live in Clear Wave Pond.
" The eunuchs and maids hurriedly acknowledged.
Lord Yan, startled and delighted, ran outside, saying, "This old minister will report this good news to His Majesty! " The Empress Dowager walked outside, smiling. "Divine Physician, it is unclean here.
Let us speak out there. " Shen Mu acknowledged and followed her out, the imperial physicians hurrying after. The Empress Dowager looked at the sunlight, raised a hand to shade her eyes, and smiled. "It has been so long since I set foot outside this palace.