Doctor Zhang sighed, his expression growing graver. “There’s little hope along this path. General, you must make other plans soon. I’ll go prepare a prescription and medicine now to stabilize His Highness’s injuries first.”
With that, he quickly wrote a prescription for medicine to be taken by mouth, then carefully explained how hot the decoction should be, when to change the external dressing, and all the details of His Highness’s care.
Only after Achou and Lin Yue’s wounds had also been properly bandaged did he withdraw, his face full of worry.
At last, the room fell quiet.
Only then did Achou feel the sharp, throbbing pain in her shoulder. She walked silently to the little stool beside the bed and sat down, her eyes never leaving the Crown Prince’s pale face.
“Your injury…”
“Your Highness, I’m fine. It’s only a surface wound. Doctor Zhang has already treated it.” Achou quickly shook her head.
The Crown Prince fell silent for a moment, then turned his gaze to Han Zheng, who had been standing guard at the foot of the bed.
“Han Zheng.”
“Your subordinate is here.” Han Zheng immediately stepped forward and bowed, awaiting orders.
“Is this place… secluded enough?”
Han Zheng understood at once. “Your Highness, rest assured. This is the heart of my personal guard camp. It’s heavily guarded and cut off from the outside. I stake my life on it: no outsider can spy on this place, and no lowlife will dare come within a step of you again!”
He paused, then continued, “As for Qingzhou, Prefect Liu Qingyuan is indeed one of their people, and his reach is rather long. But he wouldn’t dare cause trouble so brazenly in my camp, right under my nose! I’ve ordered a thorough investigation into today’s attack, and the whole camp will be strictly disciplined. Your Highness can rest here without worry.”
After a brief pause, he added, “Your Highness, rest assured. I’ll offer the old divine physician a handsome reward and make sure he comes. If all else fails, I’ll have him brought here by force!”
The Crown Prince hastily raised a hand to stop him. “Don’t be rash. A reclusive master cares nothing for worldly fame or wealth; to him, they’re no better than filth. Forcing the matter will only offend him. You mustn’t rush it. Leave me now and let me think before deciding what to do.”
Han Zheng answered, “Yes,” clasped his fists, and withdrew.
Once the nerves that had been taut for so long finally relaxed, overwhelming exhaustion and the dull ache of his wounds swept over the Crown Prince like a tide.
After taking his medicine, he gradually sank into a deep sleep.
Achou and Lin Yue’s nerves eased as well. They each closed their eyes to rest, making the most of this rare chance to catch their breath.
How much time passed, no one knew. Outside the window, the sky began to darken.
A rapid, labored breath sounded beside her.
Achou opened her eyes and saw that the Crown Prince’s cheeks were flushed, his forehead beaded with fine sweat.
“Your Highness?” She hurriedly felt his forehead.
His skin was frighteningly hot.
“Your Highness, wake up! You have a fever—it’s burning hot!”
The Crown Prince didn’t respond. His brows were drawn tight.
Achou’s cry woke Lin Yue too. He rushed to the bed in a single stride. “What happened?”
“His Highness has a fever!”
Without another word, Lin Yue turned and dashed outside.
By the time Han Zheng arrived with Doctor Zhang, Achou was repeatedly wiping the Crown Prince’s forehead with a cool towel.
Doctor Zhang examined the wound, his brow furrowing. “The wound has become infected, and his fever won’t come down. His Highness’s condition is critical; he now meets two of my master’s three conditions: ‘near death’ and ‘a difficult, incurable illness.’ No matter what, I’ll do everything I can to try. Even if I have to beg at the valley entrance, I’ll report His Highness’s condition to my master. General, please allow me to set out at once!”
Han Zheng felt somewhat reassured. “Good! Doctor Zhang, you have the compassion of a true physician. I’ll send an elite escort to take you there.”
“Absolutely not!” Doctor Zhang hurriedly interrupted him. “General, my master detests the pomp of government troops and any attempt to intimidate him. If a large force goes, it will only enrage him and destroy any hope of persuading him. This can only be done through a sincere plea that moves him.”
“Then, in your opinion, who would be best suited to go?”
“We must travel light, climb mountains, and brave dangerous terrain. Only someone fit and sincere can manage it. This young lady and this young man have protected His Highness all along the way, and their loyalty is beyond question. They’re also not members of the military, so perhaps they could accompany me. If we had a token in His Highness’s own hand, it would show our sincerity even more.”
“But the Crown Prince is unconscious. He can’t write anything or give instructions,” Han Zheng said, frowning deeply.
“A token?” Achou suddenly remembered the copper seal. “His Highness has a copper seal on him. Would that work?”
“Where is it? Take it out, quickly!” Han Zheng said.
Achou hesitated, but in such an emergency, there was no time to worry about propriety. She opened the Crown Prince’s robe and searched inside, finding two hard objects beneath his inner garment.
When she took them out, one was indeed the thumb-sized copper seal.
The other was a crescent-shaped piece of white jade, warm and smooth to the touch. Yet at its center was a tiny blood-red spot, like a drop of cinnabar between a beauty’s brows.
The jade pendant was strung with golden tassels and remained pristine despite the jolting journey. Its owner clearly treasured it.
Achou handed the copper seal to Han Zheng.
Han Zheng took it and examined it closely. The two characters “Eastern Palace” were engraved on it in seal script.
“This is indeed the imperial Eastern Palace Seal. Please accompany Doctor Zhang on this journey and present this token and His Highness’s perilous condition in person to Divine Physician Liu. His Highness’s life rests entirely in your three hands!”
Achou took the seal back.
“General, rest assured. We’ll do everything we can!” the two answered in unison.
The jade pendant might also serve as a token from the Crown Prince. To be safe, Achou slipped it into her sleeve pouch and kept it with her.
The three left the military camp under cover of night.
The road to Wangyou Valley was even more perilous than Doctor Zhang had described.
At first, it was a rough mountain path, just barely passable.
By the second half of the night, the mountains rose abruptly, and the trail disappeared beneath thorny vines and brambles.
Doctor Zhang was advanced in years and struggled to climb. Lin Yue had to hack a path ahead with his knife while Achou supported the older man from behind with all her strength.
Just before dawn, they reached a cliff.
Far below lay a bottomless ravine, shrouded in gray-white mist—the poisonous miasma Doctor Zhang had mentioned.
“This is it.” Panting heavily, Doctor Zhang pointed toward the taller peaks barely visible across the ravine, wrapped in clouds and mist. “Wangyou Valley lies beyond them. To get there, we have to climb down this cliff, cross the miasma zone at the bottom, then climb the even steeper precipice on the other side. There are some old vine ladders and footholds cut into the rock, but they’ve fallen into disrepair and are extremely dangerous. If you breathe in too much of the miasma, you’ll hallucinate, lose consciousness, or even die.”
He took out several pills wrapped in oil paper and handed them to Achou and Lin Yue, then produced three face coverings. “Keep the pills under your tongue and wear these over your mouths. They’ll help counter the miasma, but not for long. We have to get through as quickly as possible!”
The three placed the pills beneath their tongues and put on the coverings. Lin Yue went ahead to scout for a way down.
He found several thick vines and tugged hard on them to test how firmly they were anchored.
Achou took off her belt and tied herself to Doctor Zhang at the waist, just in case.
The descent was terrifying.
The rocks were slick, the vine ladders rotten; one wrong move would mean certain death.
The thick miasma seemed alive as it curled around them. Even with the pills beneath her tongue and the face covering on, Achou felt waves of dizziness and nausea. The scene before her blurred, then warped.
Doctor Zhang’s face had turned livid, and he was holding on through sheer force of will.
Lin Yue gritted his teeth and climbed with hands and feet, searching for safe footholds while constantly looking back to check on the two behind him.
By the time they crossed the miasma-filled ravine, they were nearly out of strength.
The almost vertical cliff opposite looked hopelessly daunting.
Lin Yue used his knife to carve shallow notches in the cracks between the rocks, making footholds. Achou and Doctor Zhang followed close behind, inching upward.
Achou’s fingernails cut into her skin. The wound in Lin Yue’s palm split open again, and blood stained the bandages and rocks.
Just as they were about to reach the top of the cliff, disaster struck.
A rock beneath Doctor Zhang’s foot suddenly came loose and fell away.
He cried out as his body plummeted.
The belt tied around his waist and Achou’s snapped taut, and the tremendous downward pull dragged Achou sharply after him.
“Grab on!” At the last possible moment, Lin Yue reacted swiftly and seized Achou’s arm.
With her other hand, Achou clung to a crack in the rock, her finger bones nearly breaking.
All three hung from the sheer cliff, their lives hanging by a thread.
Lin Yue used all his strength to haul Achou and Doctor Zhang upward, little by little.
Achou also braced her feet against the cliff and struggled upward with him.
At last, before their strength gave out completely, the three of them scrambled onto the platform at the top and collapsed, gasping for breath, shaken by how close they had come to death.
The view opened out before them. A tranquil valley appeared amid the swirling clouds and mist.
Exotic flowers and plants dotted the landscape. A few simple but tidy thatched huts stood against the mountainside, and a clear stream burbled past.
This was the secluded home of the worldly master known as Rejuvenating Hands, Liu Buyan.
Wangyou Valley.
But before they could catch their breath, a cold, aged voice rang out behind them, like a temple bell in winter. “Who dares trespass in Wangyou Valley and disturb my cultivation?”