FID – Chapter 1075

Chapter 1075 — As Cunning as His Medical Skills

“Should we turn back and check? What if we’re wrong? Maybe it’s still possible to save her.” Xue Qinglian couldn’t help but worry.

“They’re at the temporary palace.”

“How do you know? Are you sure?”

“Shengsheng did leave the palace. She stopped at the temporary palace along the way. At that time, we couldn’t get close. That must be when they switched her. The sacrifice to the River God was a trap set specifically for us from the start.”

“How do you know? Are you sure?” Xue Qinglian felt both confused and a little foolish.

The man glanced at him. “During the palace sacrificial rites, did you hear rumors about the River God offering?”

“…” From now on, he would never provoke Feng Qingbai again. Really.

He wasn’t a match. Admitting that was not shameful.

He’d rather lose face than lose his life.

Besides, they still had Qian Wanjin as their vanguard.

He could let Qian Wanjin do the things he wanted to do but didn’t dare.

The three of them split up at the fork leading to the temporary palace, snapping their whips.

Qian Yi had fallen behind.

Xue Qinglian was blunt, treating her as if she were nothing but a burden. He practically suggested that she quietly slip out of the capital on her own and return to her Saintess Village.

What happened afterward was none of her concern.

Anger flamed in Qian Yi’s cheeks. How am I a burden? I’m useful!

He had clearly seen her skills before—how could he say she was useless?

She was just temporarily unable to help!

If he dared underestimate her, she would prove to him that she was not only useful, but extremely useful!

At this moment, a standoff was happening inside the temporary palace.

The main hall was tense and oppressive.

“Do you think this will intimidate me?” The old Emperor stood opposite the woman, hands clasped behind his back, surrounded by guards armed with melee weapons and bows.

Liu Yusheng stood deeper inside the hall. Behind her was a dark opening, revealing a tunnel.

Several palace maids and eunuchs lay unconscious at her feet, having been knocked out.

Just as Feng Qingbai had guessed, those who left the palace after resting at the temporary palace were not her and the old Emperor. They had already been switched.

When she had been forcibly restrained, she had already suspected that the next leg of the journey would be full of traps, set to capture Feng Qingbai and Xue Qinglian.

The fake Liu Yusheng was just bait, meant to lure Feng Qingbai and Xue Qinglian into appearing.

Meanwhile, the old Emperor intended to lock her in the tunnel, wait until everything was settled, and then take her back to the palace as his prisoner.

“You can’t scare me. Why don’t you dare come closer?” Liu Yusheng said calmly, her hands empty. Yet the man opposite dared not advance.

The people lying on the floor were a warning.

Her skill with poison was flawless; no one knew when or how she had struck. When the palace maids and eunuchs tried to drag her into the tunnel, they fell silently, unconscious.

The old Emperor’s expression gradually darkened, terribly unsightly.

If he didn’t fear her poison, how could he have stood off against her for so long?

“Your life is precious, Your Majesty. You’ve longed for immortality, and you’ve managed to live to ninety by carefully cultivating yin and yang. If you’re taken down by a single dose of poison here, it won’t be worth it. Your throne would have to be handed over to your descendants.” Liu Yusheng smiled and stepped forward slowly, forcing the man opposite to retreat a step.

And she didn’t stop there.

“Do you know what it feels like to sleep underground forever? Lying in a cramped coffin, buried under yellow earth, everything around you black and cold. You can no longer breathe. Your body develops corpse spots over time, rotting bit by bit, until you turn to water—leaving only a pile of white bones…”

“Shut up!” The old Emperor, whose face was usually unreadable, finally cracked and twisted under Liu Yusheng’s words, fear welling in his eyes.

Those who seek immortality fear death above all.

He was afraid—giving her the perfect opportunity. “Your Majesty, after all that effort, has the Imperial Medical Bureau figured out what poison you’re suffering from?”

The question made the old Emperor’s facial muscles twist again, trembling slightly. “Liu Yusheng!”

“I don’t know what Shan Lai told Your Majesty to make you think I could help you live forever. Don’t you think she’s really just pushing you to your death? Your Majesty, you’ve blocked too many people’s paths, and countless people want you dead. You’re obsessed with immortality, but can you truly trust everyone around you?”

One side pressed forward relentlessly with words; the other side staggered back, emotions in turmoil.

Liu Yusheng stepped out of the temporary palace doors.

The old Emperor watched as the people around him, armed with swords, blades, and bows, fell one by one—and finally, it was his turn.

The woman before him towered over him, her gaze cold and cruel. From her sleeve slid a strange blade glinting with deadly light. She was walking toward him.

She was going to kill him!

Eyes wide, the old Emperor’s voice became harsh and commanding, “Kill her! Kill her for Me!”

If she didn’t die, he would.

As the Emperor shouted, the empty space before the palace suddenly erupted with countless guards, all rushing toward Liu Yusheng.

That bastard even set up an ambush!

She retracted her surgical knife. Liu Yusheng’s steps became eerily swift and light, dodging the guards’ assault as she streaked toward the royal temple.

Fortunately, she had the life-saving skills to escape.

The downside: she hadn’t managed to kill that disgusting bastard.

At the same time Liu Yusheng fled, another group arrived at the other side of the temporary palace—the vanguard led by Prince Shunyang and Shan Lai. However, they were just a step too late; all they saw was the back of the woman disappearing into the distance.

The old Emperor was helped to his feet, and the accompanying imperial physicians immediately began examining him. Even if they couldn’t find anything, they had to check. If they did nothing and he died, it would be the physicians’ heads on the line.

Shan Lai glanced over the scattered people on the ground, then at the old Emperor, and finally toward the direction Liu Yusheng had vanished. Her eyes darkened.

After a moment, she suddenly lifted her gaze. “We’ve been deceived!”

“What do you mean?” Prince Shunyang also looked in the direction Liu Yusheng had fled, but he didn’t react much to Shan Lai’s words.

“Liu Yusheng—she didn’t have any lethal poison! She was bluffing us!” If she truly had poison capable of killing, she wouldn’t have needed to wield a knife while escaping. She could have simply administered the poison. It was quicker and cleaner.

There had been no need for any theatrics.

They had been misled.

Because Liu Yusheng was a doctor, they instinctively assumed she was like the Ghost Doctor, able to poison people anywhere, anytime.

Liu Yusheng had exploited that misunderstanding: first scaring the Emperor, then giving Prince Shunyang a minor, harmless dose as a warning, making them think she actually had poison.

She didn’t, she never did! Even if she did, it could only be used to torment people!

No wonder the imperial doctors couldn’t detect any poison in her or the Emperor.

It wasn’t that they couldn’t find it, but they hadn’t been poisoned at all!

Liu Yusheng—her cunning was as brilliant as her medical skills, equally formidable!

If she hadn’t realized that they had set a trap to capture Feng Qingbai, she might not have risked fleeing.

After all, doing so recklessly would easily reveal that she had no real leverage. If that truth came out, she would truly be a fish on the chopping block!