A faint moonlight!
Nan Shiying remembered him. He was quite handsome. Back then, many people mistook him for a girl disguised as a boy. Later, as he grew, he shot up to six to seven feet tall, and his Adam's apple became more prominent. Those whispers and gossip gradually subsided.
The young heir of the Marquis of Yuyang had been quite fond of Yueming. After learning he was indeed a man, he cried for several days before resolutely joining the army.
She had heard about it at the time and had laughed for a long time.
Yao Wang Gu was founded by Yueming? He didn't stay in the palace after her death? He was already the head of the Imperial Hospital then. How could he resign and establish Yao Wang Gu?
"The Empress did not actually pass away."
"Great Yuan Fengli Year Twenty-Eight..."
...
Fengli Year Twenty-Eight, Fengyang Palace.
After Yueming Si Nan passed away, Yueming remained in the imperial palace and joined the Imperial Hospital, becoming its head. Today was the bi-monthly pulse-taking day.
"Imperial Physician Yue, please wait a moment!"
Lü Rao, the head maidservant by Nan Fengluan's side, bowed to Yueming before entering the inner chambers. She bypassed the screens and stood outside the bedchamber, knocking on the door. "Your Majesty, Imperial Physician Yue is waiting outside. Shall I summon him to take your pulse?"
After she spoke, she waited for several breaths, but there was no response.
"Your Majesty?"
Lü Rao knocked on the door again.
Seeing that there was no response from within for a long time, she became uneasy. She quickly pushed the door open and hurried to the bedside, gently calling out to Nan Fengluan, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty..."
As she called, she nudged Nan Fengluan's arm and then placed her hand near her nose.
"Imperial Physician Yue, Imperial Physician Yue!"
She cried out urgently.
"Your Majesty's pulse is weak, and her breath is like a丝. Hurry to the Imperial Hospital and have them prepare ginseng, Sichuan angelica..." Yueming listed dozens of medicinal ingredients in one breath. "Boil five bowls of water down to one. Be quick!"
"Yes!"
The palace maids ran towards the Imperial Hospital.
Yueming took out a pill from his chest and placed it into Nan Fengluan's mouth. He said to Lü Rao, "I will use the Longevity Pill from the Longevity Sect to keep Her Majesty's breath stable for now. Whether this battle is won or lost will ultimately depend on Her Majesty's will."
Lü Rao clutched her handkerchief and nodded forcefully.
Yueming suddenly smacked his head, saying anxiously, "Right, I remember! My master gave me a pill before she died, one that can heal bone, and revive the dead. Go quickly, go to my residence and retrieve it! Be fast!"
After speaking, he added, "The pill is in the secret chamber behind the partition of the bookshelf in the study. I don't trust anyone else to go. You go, take Her Majesty's token and leave the palace immediately!"
"Alright, I'll be back soon. Imperial Physician Yue, please do everything you can to save His Majesty's life." Lü Rao took the token and solemnly implored Yueming. Before Yueming could reply, she hurried out of the bedchamber and rushed out of the palace.
"All of you, leave. Close the doors and windows tightly, and do not let a wisp of cold wind blow into the room."
"Yes!"
The palace maids heard this and filed out, leaving the bedchamber to guard the door.
Yueming then stood up, walked to the wardrobe in the bedchamber, opened it, and ran his fingers over the wooden board behind it. His fingertips touched a recess. With a firm press, a sound like rolling gears came from under Nan Fengluan's bed.
After hearing a "click," Yueming closed the wardrobe door and walked back to Nan Fengluan's bedside. He braced himself on the edge of the bed and pressed his hands against the white wall inside.
The white wall was easily pushed open.
Yueming bowed respectfully to Nan Fengluan, then carried her into his arms and walked in.
After they entered, the wall closed. Apart from the somewhat messy bed, everything was exactly as it had been before. Only two people were missing from the bedchamber.
The Great Yuan Empress Nan Fengluan, and the Head of the Great Yuan Imperial Hospital, Yueming.
...
"You mean, I..."
Nan Shiying blurted out. The thread of her reason instantly tightened, and she managed to stop herself from finishing the sentence. She paused, pretending to have choked on her saliva, and after catching her breath, she continued, "You mean, Nan Fengluan didn't die in the palace?"
Gui Lao nodded and continued, "Patriarch Yueming brought the Great Yuan Empress, who was barely alive, to Lingnan and placed her into a jade coffin."
"The last pill Patriarch fed the Empress was not the Longevity Pill he mentioned, but the pill he later tricked Her Majesty's personal maidservant Lü Rao into retrieving."
"That pill which can heal bones and revive the dead."
"So the Empress did not die, but disappeared. However, because this matter concerned royal dignity, Great Yuan never announced to the public that the Empress had disappeared rather than died. What was eventually buried in the imperial mausoleum was merely a cenotaph."
Nan Shiying was speechless for a long time. Was this why the successor to Great Yuan after her death was not her preferred Nan Yicheng, but Nan Yishi? Because she had disappeared and not died, her hidden guards and forces had gone to search for her, neglecting the struggle for the Great Yuan throne, allowing Nan Yishi to ascend the throne by stepping over Nan Yicheng?
Nan Shiying laughed in extreme anger. If that was the case, was Yueming the ultimate culprit for the eventual downfall of Great Yuan?
No, it should be herself!
"I don't understand. Why would Yueming do this?"
Gui Lao said, "I asked my senior brother the same question. My senior brother said that Patriarch Yueming was always the National Teacher's medicine boy, always obeying the National Teacher. Even death could not sever his worship and reverence for the National Teacher."
"Yueming Si Nan!"
Nan Shiying couldn't help but recall that moon-white figure. So, Yueming Si Nan had ordered Yueming to do this? But why?
Gui Lao nodded. "It was Yueming Si Nan!"
Poison Elder didn't care who ordered his ancestor to do this. He only wanted to know what happened next, he wanted to know about the rejuvenation of youth that his junior brother mentioned, and how all of this was related to his master's desire for immortality and his attempts to refine medicine boys!
"I don't care why the Patriarch did this. I care about rejuvenation, and how all of this is related to my master!"
Gui Lao did not keep him in suspense. "The pill Patriarch fed the Empress back then was named Nirvana, meaning rebirth. The Empress, barely clinging to life, took the pill. Over these hundreds of years, she was nourished by large amounts of medicinal herbs by successive valley masters of Yao Wang Gu. The Nirvana within her body gradually dissolved and infused her entire being."
"My senior brother said that in a few decades, the Empress will complete her Nirvana, her body will transform into an infant, and she will live her life anew."
Nan Shiying opened her mouth, feeling as if something was stuck in her throat, unable to be expelled. This was Yueming Si Nan's purpose, to let her live another life?
But why didn't she return to the human world in the form of an infant, but instead...
"Your senior brother coveted Nan Fengluan's physical body? Or rather... the Longevity Sect?"
"My senior brother said that a lifetime is too short, too little. He wants to live forever, never to die."
"He said that the Empress had already passed away in historical records. Rather than letting her complete Nirvana and live again, it would be better for him to research a true divine medicine that grants eternal youth."
"This is called, making use of waste!"