Chapter 39 Attendant Qi: Only two people remained at the dinner table.
Only two people remained at the dinner table.
"It would be too much trouble to have Xie Chuanshan come over. Let me taste the dishes for Your Majesty instead," said Shinju, picking up his chopsticks.
Unexpectedly, the King of Zhen stopped him, glanced at the table full of dishes, and said seriously, "I will eat first."
Shinju was completely bewildered, wondering if the King of Zhen was not afraid of being poisoned. How could the emperor eat first? But then he thought that the King of Zhen was a cultivator and might have a way to neutralize the poison.
In any case, he had already checked with his divine sense and there were indeed no ink spots in the dish. Therefore, Zhen Su did not argue, and Zhen Wang picked up his jade chopsticks and slowly began to taste it.
Then Shinjuku noticed that King Zashiki took a small bite of each dish, which was quite unusual. Normally, King Zashiki wouldn't try everything, but would only eat what interested him.
Before Shinju could figure it out, the King of Poison suddenly said, "Let's start eating."
Shinjuku's attention was drawn back to the delicacies on the table: clear soup with osmanthus blossoms floating on the surface, slices of tender red mutton served in a bowl with ice flowers, and steamed dishes made with minced chicken, fresh mushrooms and pork kidneys, all of which were delicious in color and aroma.
Shinjuku tasted each dish, but he didn't know exactly what ingredients were used. So he looked at the King of Poison with a curious eye, and then at the dishes.
Following Zhen Su's gaze, Zhen Wang slowly said, "Tianxiang Soup is considered a medicinal dish. It should contain licorice powder and rock honey, which cannot be tasted by other ingredients. Osmanthus flowers can be seen on the surface of the water."
"Hmm, this one is..."
The King of Zhen could even taste the ingredients in each dish, which made Zhen Su feel inferior. He thought to himself that his tongue wasn't that sensitive; he could only taste the saltiness. He looked at the King of Zhen with admiration.
After a meal, the King of Zhen buried himself in his memorials again. This time, he didn't make Zhen Su wait outside the door, nor did he make him practice calligraphy; he simply sent him back to the Scorpion Shadow Palace.
"Then Your Majesty should rest early and not stay up too late," Shinju said with admiration.
The King of Zhen nodded slightly and turned to enter the Imperial Study.
Shinju returned to his room, thinking that he finally had time to refine the essence. The toxins refined from the diaphragm needed to be refined again, but the most important thing right now was to repair his dantian; everything else could be postponed.
This time, I absolutely cannot let the Poison King see me suffering from the poison again. If he mistakenly thinks I've secretly taken Five-Stone Powder, that would be terrible.
So Shinju went and bolted the doors and windows. As soon as he lay down and opened his spiritual sense, he discovered a conspicuous crimson-purple color hidden behind the crab lantern.
Shinjuku sat up abruptly, walked toward that spot, and caught a giant scorpion.
"What are you doing here?" Shinju was glad he hadn't started cultivating yet, wondering if this guy would betray him to the Poison King. This giant scorpion from Tongshan also had a purplish-red color. Now that he thought about it, it didn't seem like a puppet or a soul. Perhaps it was the Poison King's spirit pet? However, the small world lacked spiritual energy and was bound by restrictive rules, so its appearance was that of an ordinary scorpion, making it difficult for him to draw a conclusion.
Could the Poison King be a cultivator from the Beast Taming Sect? But his demeanor doesn't seem quite right. Rather, when he first met Physician Zhao, the latter's attire and demeanor were more like those of a Beast Taming Sect member. The Beast Taming Sect cultivators he had seen especially liked to use feathers as headdresses, dressing up in flamboyant attire, and often carrying spirit-binding ropes or spirit whistles.
Perhaps he was a poison cultivator, or a cultivator from the Ghost Control Sect? But the Poison King did not give off a sinister feeling; every move he made was quite grand, possessing the majesty of a true dragon.
The giant scorpion twitched, and Shinju placed it on his arm.
Instead of climbing onto his shoulder, the giant scorpion retreated, seemingly wanting to return to the stand with the crab lamps.
Shinjuku couldn't help but ask, "Do you like this lamp?"
"Oh, could it be that you mistook a crab for a scorpion? This isn't a scorpion." Mayuki looked at the giant scorpion with the eyes of someone looking at an idiot.
The giant scorpion, somewhat annoyed, curled its tail, jumped onto the windowsill, and tapped the window frame with its massive pincers.
Shinju was somewhat puzzled. He opened the window for it, and then saw the giant scorpion slip away through the crack in the window without looking back.
Shinju closed the window and officially began his cultivation.
His dantian was currently in a fragmented state. Although the fragments were in a free-floating state, they were still largely within the original framework. However, there was no connection between the fragments or between the fragments and the core of the dantian. He had to use poison as a thread to connect the fragments one by one, and then use poison to glue them together. After the dantian was reformed, he would remove the fragments and extend and transform the poison until it covered the entire dantian, thus truly forming a poison pill.
To perfectly remove the fragments from the dantian framework requires extremely high skill in threading the needle. A slight mistake could cause resonance or collapse. Pain is a minor issue; the important thing is that if the fragments are removed and the connecting links are broken or lost, then subsequent repairs must rely on reasoning to complete the process, increasing the computational difficulty a thousandfold.
Fortunately, he had the assistance of the Purple Mansion, which allowed him to see ten or even dozens of steps ahead, making threading a needle a relatively easy task.
Before that, he needed to refine the poison in the Nourishing Heart Pill. However, the amount of poison was considerable, indicating that tonight was destined to be a long and arduous battle.
Shinjuku's golden eyes revealed a resolute determination.
At midnight, the King of Zhen finally finished dealing with the day's official documents and did not attend court, but things actually got even busier.
When the Prince of Zhen returned to his bedroom, his gaze fell upon the chaise longue beside the dragon bed. He stopped in his tracks, pondered for a moment, and then called in Zhixi, who was working nearby.
"My lord," Zhixi bowed respectfully.
"Have the Imperial Stud Bureau sew two goose down pillows, and then fetch my sable blanket to lay on the couch."
Zhixi accepted the order and took her leave for the time being. As she closed the bedroom door, her eyes flickered, and a helpless smile appeared in her eyes before she turned and left.
.
The following day, at the Zhao residence.
A tall man wearing a scholar's cap and an official robe with a qilin pattern barged into the bedroom and stopped the young man who was braiding his three-strand braid in front of the mirror. "Kelin, how can you disobey your parents' orders and the matchmaker's words? What's wrong with the eldest daughter of the Yan family? Why do you look down on her?"
Zhao Kelin's hands did not stop moving at all, continuing to weave strands of black hair with ribbons.
His elder brother, Zhao Qianheng, became furious at his brother's unyielding attitude and immediately retorted angrily, "Are you really going to abandon this family for a eunuch?! Even if Father doesn't deal with him, aren't you afraid that I will?"
Zhao Kelin curled the corners of his lips, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. "Did you consult with me before choosing sides?"
"When Yun Guang presented me with problematic pills, you summoned me back and then, under the pretext of seeing a doctor, arranged for me to meet with Yan Qingxuan privately. You made it so obvious, did you think His Majesty wouldn't notice?"
Zhao Qianheng was speechless for a moment, but then he said, "Our Zhao family and the Yan family have been cooperating for many years. The friendship between our families is not something that can be easily changed..."
"Heh." Zhao Kelin finished braiding his hair, swept it to his shoulders, looked at himself in the bronze mirror, then stood up and was about to walk out.
Zhao Qianheng said quietly from behind him, "Your surname is Zhao, so you can never escape our family in this lifetime."
“Yes.” Zhao Kelin’s eyes held a deep, unfathomable resentment, but he slowly covered them with his long eyelashes and walked straight out.
Zhao Qianheng followed him out, straightened his official hat, boarded his carriage outside the gate, and left.
.
After the morning court session ended, many officials slowly descended the stone steps in front of the Golden Palace. Zhao Qianheng and the others from the Privy Council were discussing matters briefly outside the palace when he suddenly noticed that at the side door, where Eunuch Bao usually stood, an extremely young attendant was now standing.
Even from a distance, one could see that the other person was beautiful and delicate. Even though she was shrouded in the shadow cast by the eaves, her face, exposed neck and hands seemed to glow slightly, as white as a snow doll.
Zhao Qianheng was slightly lost in thought, which attracted the attention of the other officials beside him, who also couldn't help but look towards the eaves of the side gate.
Just then, the King of Zhen, wearing a magnificent imperial crown and dressed in black robes and crimson skirts, stepped across the threshold and strode to the young attendant. The two exchanged a few words, the tassels of his robes obscuring the King of Zhen's expression, but it was clear that the young attendant's expression had changed from listless to lively.
When Zhao Qianheng saw the attendant alone, he thought he was tall and slender. But when he stood next to the broad-shouldered and long-legged King Zhen, Zhao Qianheng realized that he was actually quite short.
Zhao Qianheng inexplicably thought that if his brother's favorite was half as beautiful as this young eunuch, it wouldn't be incomprehensible. However, for scions of powerful families like theirs, their fate was intertwined with that of their families; they never had a choice.
Zhao Qianheng sensed that the King of Zhen seemed to be glancing in their direction, so he immediately looked away and respectfully bowed in the King of Zhen's direction.
However, the King of Zhen's gaze passed through the Privy Council members, and at the same instant, Shinju also looked towards the main gate of the palace.
Before long, a messenger, covered in blood, mustered all his strength and rushed up the long stone steps in front of the Golden Palace. But after climbing only a few steps, he was exhausted, and his hand, clutching the secret letter, was about to fall to the ground—
At this moment, Shinju, who had rushed over, immediately helped the man up, while the King of Poison reached out and took the blood-stained, crumpled letter.
The messenger breathed a sigh of relief, but his eyes were filled with despair. He stammered, "Your Majesty... the two great cities of Yuncheng and Tianhe on the frontier have fallen one after another. General Xi, his entire family of ten—"
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Author's Note: Happy Lantern Festival, everyone! There will be random red envelopes dropping in the comments section of this chapter!
Celebrating the Lantern Festival and the fact that this book's collection count surpassed the number of my first book when it was just finished, whew!
Thank you for your support, everyone!
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