Tales of Herding Gods

Lord Yan brushed his mustache and smiled, “If it’s not important, I wouldn’t come here personally to invite you, the divine physician. Scholar Qin, the emperor didn’t look into the fact that you were an abandoned person. Do you know who made that happen?”

Qin Mu was startled. When Emperor Yan Feng had given a fervent speech at Imperial College and became worked up, he had thought that Emperor Yan Feng was trying to take the chance to use his identity as an abandoned person of Great Ruins to knock the senses into his ministers. From the meaning of Lord Yan’s words, it seemed like it was part of his efforts.

“I’d like to hear the details.”

“At that time I told the emperor that you were the divine physician that could treat that person, therefore the emperor didn’t look into why an abandoned person like you could avoid the Inspection Mirrors and enter Eternal Peace.”

Lord Yan gave a slight smile, “If I hadn’t said that, you thought you could become an imperial scholar? An imperial scholar is an eight ranking official position after all, how can it be anyhow granted to a person abandoned by gods that had sneaked into our Eternal Peace Empire? This is a crime of disrespecting gods!”

Qin Mu’s gaze wavered and he sighed, “If I can’t cure that person, my head…”

Lord Yan smiled, “Will be gone.”

Qin Mu’s face turned black.

When the sedan landed on the ground, the strong workers lifted the curtains and Lord Yan gave a smile as an indication. Qin Mu took in a long breath and stepped out of the sedan. Lord Yan also got down and led the way while warning in a low voice, “That person has an extremely big influence so you can’t be impudent, do you understand?”

Qin Mu followed closely and smiled, “Of course I won’t be impudent in regards to my life and Lord Yan’s future.”

Lord Yan gave a smile and said unhurriedly, “Good that you know. My grandson is also in Imperial College and he entered there two years earlier than you. If you can cure that person, I can let my grandson take care of you. My grandson is also talented and entered Imperial College at Five Elements Realm.”

Qin Mu had a weird expression, “I wonder if his grandson is among the scholars I beat today…”

This was the inner courtyard of the Imperial Palace and it looks like where the chambers of imperial concubines were located at. With gates to palaces one after another and the deep courtyard, Qin Mu could see some palace maids and white face men without a mustache.

“Are these the said eunuchs?” Qin Mu thought to himself.

Lord Yan led him to a huge palace with a deep courtyard and despite this place being

At this moment, there were twenty to thirty people in the palace hall and most of them were palace maids and court eunuchs. There were also a few imperial physicians waiting upon beside the jade bed and the jade bed had a veiled curtain separating it. A person laid inside and it was very likely a woman.

“Flower Alley’s divine physician is here?”

An imperial physician swept his gaze across Qin Mu and sneered, “Lord Yan, you’re getting muddleheaded. You actually dare to let someone who treats cathouse’s girls come to treat Emperor Dowager, you’re getting extremely daring.”

Lord Yan said indifferently, “Imperial Physician Xiao had also said so then and then he died. That’s right, Little Brother Qin, I’ve forgotten to tell you. Imperial Physician Xiao and these imperial physicians are all physicians of Imperial College’s Hall of Supreme Healing. They will be the ones to teach you medical knowledge in the future.”

Qin Mu bowed to these imperial physicians and they all sneered, kept their hands behind their backs without returning the greeting. Imperial Physician Qu sneered, “Roaming around to cheat at such a young age, your Pill Refinement Technique is probably still half-baked right?”

Qin Mu let out a radiant smile and was like a sunshine boy, “Teachers, Imperial Physician Xiao had also said that, then he died.”

The faces of the few imperial physicians turned black.

Qin Mu went forward and came to the jade couch. As he sat on the jade chair, he greeted, “Empress Dowager.”

A hand stretched over from the veiled curtain and leaned on the side of the couch. Qin Mu checked her pulse and turned around, “Does anyone here have a silver needle?”

An old imperial physician passed his silver needles to him and Qin Mu took out a silver needle, poking it on Empress Dowager’s fingertips. Lord Yan coughed and said softly, “Mortal crime…”

“Lord Yan, we’ll carry it together.”

Qin Mu’s vital qi burst forth and lifted this drop of blood in the air as he concentrated his gaze on it.

“Open!”

He gave a low shout and his Heaven’s Eyes awakened as he looked towards the blood. At the same time, his five fingers which gripped tightly suddenly opened up and that drop of blood instantly expanded and turned into a huge bright red ball.

Qin Mu hesitated for a moment before shouting in a low voice again, “Open!”

Countless of formation markings revolved around his pupil and he formed the second heaven, Green Heaven’s Eyes!

Qin Mu only felt that his vital qi was lacking and it was hard to maintain for long. He turned his head back and asked, “Lord Yan, can you lend me your vital qi cultivation?”

Lord Yan went forward and his vital qi surged through his body as he asked softly, “Little divine physician, are you confident…”

Qin Mu’s body trembled violently. As Lord Yan’s vital qi surged into his eyes, layers of his god eyes awakened and allowed him to see this blood clearly and everything that was hidden inside couldn’t escape from his sight. Blind had completely imparted Nine Heavens Eye Awakening Skill to him, but due to Qin Mu’s current cultivation, he was still unable to open all nine heavens and could only borrow Lord Yan’s cultivation.

Two rays of divine lights about a foot long shot out from Qin Mu’s eyes. Suddenly Qin Mu lifted the veiled curtain and the divine lights from his eyes increased sharply as he shone it on Empress Dowager who was on her bed.

That Emperor Dowager absolutely didn’t expect him to be so daring to actually lift her veil curtain. She immediately looked at him and her gaze was like thunder from a clear sky, showing her power without anger.

Qin Mu locked his gaze with her and the divine lights from his eyes dispersed, “I’ve made out Empress Dowager’s illness. Empress Dowager is poisoned.”

Even though Emperor Dowager was lying on her bed and her beauty had aged, it could still be seen from her manner that she was the motherly model of the empire then, a figurine that’s rarely seen. She shut her eyes and asked, “My body has been getting weaker day by day. Some of the imperial physicians of the Imperial Physician Bureau had said it was an illness and others had said I’m poisoned but there was no final conclusion. How are you sure I’m poisoned.”

“The poison Empress is suffering from is called Thousand Opportunity Poison.

Qin Mu continued, “It is a refined unusual poison which ingredients are thousand of poisonous substances closely linked with one another. Once Thousand Opportunity Poison is refined, the toxicity will have will have constant permutation and there is practically no antidote to detoxify it. Any antidote would just create another change in the toxicity and cause the antidote to be useless. The more times you treat it, the toxicity will grow and the torture would be fiercer. Empress had been poisoned for a long time but luckily Empress has a dense cultivation and these imperial physicians had not treat Empress and had instead use spirit pills and miraculous medicines to extend Empress’s life, otherwise, it would be inconceivable.”

The minds of the few imperial physicians from the Imperial Physician Bureau trembled violently as they looked at each other in silence.

Empress Dowager panted and asked, “Imperial physicians, is there such a poison?”

Imperial Physician Yu bowed and said, “To answer Empress Dowager, there is such a poison. I’ve heard this poison was refined by Jade Face Poison King; however, no one has ever seen it, therefore…”

Empress Dowager sighed, “You can’t cure it?”

The few imperial physicians all looked ashamed as they lowered their heads in silence.

Empress Dowager gasped for her breath and her gaze fell on Qin Mu, “How about you, little divine physician?”

“I have a solution.”

Qin Mu smiled slightly, “However, I need to know what medicines Empress Dowager had consumed since you were poisoned and their prescriptions as soon as possible. Also, I need one thousand and twenty-three palace maids as well as brush, ink, and one thousand and twenty-three tablets.”

Empress Dowager waved her hand weakly, “Go see to it.”

Not long later, the brush, ink, and paper were prepped. All the palaces of the imperial concubines were busy summoning all the palace maids from each and every courtyard over. The Imperial Physician Bureau was also sorting out what medicine Empress Dowager had taken after getting ill.

Qin Mu raised his brush and wrote down the name of every poisonous substance and a number on each tablet. He got busy until midnight when he had finally finished writing. Meanwhile, the lights were brightly lit outside the palace hall and more than a thousand palace maids stood outside in silence.

Qin Mu ordered men to distribute out the tablets and every palace maid held one tablet with the name of a poisonous substance. The palace maids followed Qin Mu’s instruction and formed themselves in a strange formation. This formation was very complicated and was formed by multiple patterns. The first pattern only had a palace maid raising her tablet as she stood straight. The second pattern had two palace maids, the third pattern had four palace maids, followed by a pattern formed by eight palace maids, and next was sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, hundred and twenty-eight, two hundred and fifty-six, and five hundred and twelve.

When the palace maids were arranged properly, Qin Mu looked at the prescriptions of the medicine Empress Dowager had consumed over these years. He started looking from the first medicine and when he was finished, he immediately called a few numbers and made these palace maids swap their locations once they heard the numbers.

The formation formed by a thousand people immediately changed. After that, Qin Mu looked at the second prescription and shouted numbers out again, making the palace maids that were called out swap their positions and changing the formation again.

Qin Mu looked at prescriptions after prescriptions and the formation changed and changed again, along with the positions of the palace maids.

The few imperial physicians revealed incomparably shocked expressions. A white-haired old imperial physician said in a trembling voice, “Never would I thought I could see this kind of method in my lifetime. I’ve no more regrets even if I die now!”

The other three imperial physicians nodded their heads and sighed, “We had originally looked down on him, never would we expect him to recognize Thousand Opportunity Poison and to use such a marvelous method to calculate which step the Thousand Opportunity Poison has changed into!”

The imperial physicians were deeply moved. Qin Mu making the thousand palace maids stand in positions while holding tablets was to form the structure of poisons that were mutually checked after Thousand Opportunity Poison was formed. He then changed the palace maids’ positions according to the effect of the medicines Empress Dowager consumed on the structure of Thousand Opportunity Poison.

These about thousand palace maids had formed a huge and complicated abacus and the palace maids were the abacus beads which helped him calculate which step Thousand Opportunity Poison had now transformed to in Empress Dowager’s body.

This kind of method was brilliant and these imperial physicians were admiring endlessly.

Qin Mu calculated all the way until daybreak and he finally finished calculating all the prescriptions. Meanwhile, the palace maids raising the tablets and stood all night were also exhausted. Qin Mu took a look at the final positions of these maids and the tablets on their hands, as well as the final formation formed by the thousand poisons. He calculated for some time and shut his eyes.

Some more time later, Qin Mu opened his eyes and raised his brush to write down his prescription.

The few imperial physicians came forward and lowered their heads as they looked at it. They all nodded their heads and flailed their limbs in excitement.

Lord Yan also moved closer to look but he didn’t understand any of it. He then asked in a low voice, “Imperial physicians, how is this prescription?”

That Imperial Physician Qu looked at Qin Mu in adoration and exclaimed in admiration, “The prescription is beautiful and is glorious as a song! Little divine physician uses a substitute technique to use a poison to replace the great poison in the center on Thousand Opportunity Poison. Do you see that? That’s the one! Once that is replaced, the toxicity of the other one thousand and twenty-two poison substances would subdue each other and their poisons would be dissolved by themselves! Magnificent, truly magnificent!”

The other Imperial Physician You exclaimed, “Imperial Physician Xiao didn’t die for naught, for him to die in front of little divine physician, he had died at his appointed place!”

Lord Yan shook his head as he thought to himself, “Those that learned the art of healing are all lunatics, what so magnificent about this? The crucial point is it is effective, if it’s not, my official position and his head would both be gone!”