The crown prince of the Zhou Dynasty, who was near his forties looked at his favorite son and answered, “It’s merely a poem.”
Zhao Xiang was surprised. Although there were prescriptions that were written in the form of a song, but by the look and tone of his father, it did not seem like so.
He wanted to probe further but his father had rested his eyes, obviously, he was not too keen to talk much about it.
His father held the prescription tightly in his palm to the point where his veins were bulging out. That showed how deeply the father was bothered by the illness.
******
The Imperial City was also known as the Daming Palace. It was renamed during the time when the Empress took over the administration. The rationale behind the new name was to show that anything under the sun and moon, be it millions of mountains or thousands of rivers were under her rule.
It was not just plain wits and trickeries that made her the Empress. She was far more broad-minded compared to previous emperors. But being broad-minded was not equivalent to being tolerant.
She could be as cruel and cold as winter when it comes to dealing with her enemies as conversed to the warmth and affection she displayed to people who supported her.
The Empress was at the Shui Liang Hall of the Daming Palace. It was the best place to admire the view of the city. From here, one could see the lotus flowers and be enchanted by their faint lingering fragrances.
She was sixty years old but she looked like she was in her thirties. In fact, she looked much younger compared to the Crown Prince, Zhao Xun.
No one would believe that she gave birth to five sons and two daughters.
A light breeze came by, one could really feel and see the moonlight reflected on the lotus pond from the tower.
As an Empress, she owns millions of mountain and rivers. But what she could see, was just this small fraction of the world.
And that was why she had placed people all over the world to help her watch over her million miles of territory.
She stood with her hands at her back and looked up, the moon in the sky shone into her eyes. An indifferent voice could be heard from the tower, “Master Kuhui, I came across an interesting poem earlier today. Shall I share it with you?”
The Empress did not have her dragon robe on and was dressed casually. However, she was stern and unforgiving with her tone, giving out commanding vibes where people would not even think about turning her down.
Although there were usually not many bodyguards by her side, there was no successful assassination so far. People who attempted to do so were captured and killed deliberately. No one including their extended family was spared.
Kuhui was standing ten feet away from the Empress as his monk robe swayed by the wind. The moonlight shined the wrinkles on his forehead and the white beard on his face. He put both palms together and said, “Your Majesty/Highness, please, enlighten me.”
“Earlier today, Zhao Xun went out of the city to get his illness treated. He looked much better after returning. He also brought the prescription to nurse the root cause of his illness. I took a look at it and it was pretty interesting.” The Empress let out a small chuckle but she didn’t have the intention to laugh. Her eyes were as cold as the moonlight, unattainable yet showed no signs of mixed emotions.
Kuhui did not interrupt the conversation. Instead, he silently waited for the Empress to talk about the prescription.
“Melons planted under the yellow terrace, the melons ripe and the vine looks full. Picking one melon promotes growth, picking two makes it sparse. Maybe there will still be left after picking three, but picking them all will leave you with only vines.” The Empress read it out without a hint of emotions.
The yellow terrace refers to a high tower located within the palace. That tower does not have any fruit plantation.
She added on, “Don’t you think this poem is really interesting?”
“I dare not make any assumptions,” Kuhui said bitterly. This Empress was not an ordinary empress. One needs to be extremely careful with their actions and words said to her.
The Empress looked down and paused her glance at one of the lotus leaves as if she was observing the little water droplet on the leaf. Her facial appearance was not considered to be the best-looking one as she possesses one-third of a man’s fortitude. But she had a charm that absorbed people’s attention.
“Is it not telling me to stop killing ruthlessly? No matter how villainous a tiger is, it wouldn’t eat its own children. Do you too think I would kill my own children?”
A light breeze swept by the lotus pond, giving distinct layers to the reflection of the moonlight on the water, creating a dreamy scene.
Kuhui replied, “When Your Majesty/Highness starts caring about outsider’s opinions, Your Highness was no longer the Empress you were.”
The Empress was not moved by Kuhui’s wise words, “Tomorrow, I will announce the abolishment of Qi Wang’s Prime Minister position. Zhao Xun would be at ease by that. Also, I would like to meet the person who wrote the prescription in three days. Please make the necessary arrangements.”
A piece of paper landed in front of Kuhui as he held his hand out to catch it. It was the paper with the poem the Empress recited earlier. Once he touched the paper, his blissfully zen heart was shaken. Just like the movements of the moonlight reflection in the pond, he had a vigorous flashback of the past.
He thought to himself, “I see that you’re back in the mortal world.”
During the flashback, he felt that the Empress was probing into him as if she could see through his thoughts.
However, he wasn’t fearful of that as the Empress too was a practitioner. It was beyond imagination how deep she had gone in her practice and cultivation.
He lowers his head and responded, “I accept the orders of Your Highness/Majesty”
Every single stroke of the characters on the paper felt like it was turning back time. Among them, the most dazzling characters were “Shen Lian”. It was as if you could imagine a handsome young lad standing in a corner somewhere, overcoming every obstacle that came to him.
******
At the Walking Dead Clinic, Ruoxi was lying on the bed by the corner as she tightly held on to the blanket. You could see terror and fear across her face.
She wanted to cry out loud but she knew that Shen Lian cannot be interrupted when he was practicing Qi; he made that point clear.
She was not sure what type of martial exercises was her brother practicing but after all these days, she had adopted the concept of cultivating. From an hour ago where Shen Lian was releasing a strong sense of energy to finally hear his voice, she was trained to not make unnecessary movements.
Unlike the shapeless breath produced by heaven and earth, this sense of energy comes in eight color – red, orange, yellow, white, green, blue, purple and black.
Rays of light shined in a dark room; it looked similar to picture of Buddha in a temple with lights piercing out around his body.
The eight colors twisted and moved in a non-uniformed order.
Shen Lian looked like he was in great pain. His facial expression was twisted and he was dripping with/in sweat.
He was floating in mid-air as if there was a strong force supporting him and preventing him from falling.
The last eight energy spun around slowly to form a swirl that eventually drilled into the ground. Shen Lian too descended down from mid-air.
The moonlight shined in; Ruoxi asked in a low voice, “Brother, are you ok?”
Shen Lian took a while to stand up and sat next to the bed. He held her hand and replied, “I’m fine, please continue your sleep.”
Did he underestimate the Taixu Strategy? He had been practicing it for years and unknowingly it had planted a seed in his body. He tried to remove it but to no avail.
The seed combined with his vitality and grew hand in hand.
He was still able to repress it currently, but as this weird mana consumed him daily, he might not be able to return to heaven twenty years down the road.
Ruoxi managed to catch her breath but she held his hands tightly, refusing to let go.