Chapter 328

"Yes, what are your thoughts?"

"Your Majesty may not know, but this poison truly has no cure. It’s not just that there’s no known antidote; it’s that this poison is fundamentally incurable."

"What do you mean?"

"The poison has a very balanced yin and yang nature. To treat it, one must gradually reduce both yin and yang simultaneously. However, the yin and yang are accompanied by other elemental energies."

"If you try to reduce both yin and yang together, in the end, the fire or water elements will intervene, causing immediate death. There are also earth, wind, and dark elements involved. The poison resides within the dark element. If you try to reduce the dark element, it will destabilize the other elements, causing the body to explode and resulting in death."

"In the medical field, it is said that the demon who created this poison knew more about using herbs than even divine doctors. Additionally, they might be an expert in setting up arrays. Otherwise, they couldn’t have combined such different elements into one perfect poison."

"The name ’Seven-Pronged Necklace’ is quite fitting because the seven prongs represent yin, yang, fire, wind, water, earth, and darkness, with wood, meaning herbs, as the medium. Without any one of these prongs, it would become an unstable bomb, causing the immediate death of the poisoned individual."

"To truly cure this poison, it would require a collaboration between a divine doctor and a formation expert," the royal physician said knowledgeably.

Nevertheless, the emperor had heard about this infamous poison before; surely, he must have heard about it already! Every region knew about it. How could the royal physicians of the Hu Region not know?

But were they just going to give up so easily? If he wanted to surrender, he wouldn’t have called everyone here!

"It is true that this poison has no known cure. Even other regions haven’t found a way. However, we of the Hu Region will not give up on this. The reason I called you all together is to find a solution to this problem. Each of you knows something. If you work together and support the Hu Region’s medical team, I will not forget your help."

But just because His Majesty said this didn’t mean they would find a cure. Cooperation and brainstorming? Impossible! If it were that simple, this problem wouldn’t have persisted for so long. There wouldn’t be a poison known as "incurable"!

Seeing their expressions, the emperor understood what they were thinking, so he delivered his final statement.

“You can give up on this matter. If you, the only hope to prevent a war, think there’s no need to try, then prepare for war and disaster.” As soon as he finished speaking, the others felt like crying.

How could he say that! It was as if they were the culprits! If war were to break out, it would be because someone deliberately caused it, right? So why did it seem like they are the ones who want war!

“W-Well, that...” The royal physicians exchanged glances. The emperor wasn’t in a hurry, merely waiting for them to make a decision. After all, there was no choice but to fight, was there?

However, after listening to the entire story, Yueqian sensed something was amiss!

Who would know more about the Seven-Pronged Necklace poison than she did?! She had invented this poison herself, and it had been entirely used up, meaning no one else could die from it. It was a deadly poison she had created to deal with a group of bandits in her youth. Unfortunately for them, they had made her very angry.

One day, while visiting her master, she happened upon them assaulting women. At that time, she was still young and felt compassion and sympathy. The bandits treated the women as less than human, so Yueqian used her poison to exact revenge. She later discovered that one of the poisoned was a noble’s son.

Originally, she wanted those men to suffer for a long time, with no cure available to help them. Thus, this poison was born, and the name "Necklace" came from her otherworldly knowledge!

Eventually, this poison became very infamous. Yueqian liked it, but her master severely reprimanded her. He taught her to be a doctor, both for healing and poisoning. He said creating an incurable poison was easy, but that was also their mistake.

There should never be an incurable poison, because one day, if that poison turned against its creator, doctors like them wouldn’t be able to treat it and would have to surrender to it! This was true. While others might hope to fight, the creator of the poison would be the only one who truly understood its terror and couldn’t overcome their own creation, effectively surrendering halfway.

After that, Yueqian never created another poison. Instead, she took responsibility by studying antidotes as much as possible. She knew that the divine doctor taught her this from his own experience.

He had once created poison, which was then sold widely. Eventually, that poison was used against his own family, and the divine doctor at that time couldn’t find a cure. If it had been someone else’s poison, the guilt might not have been so overwhelming. It was so great that he nearly gave up being a doctor. Fortunately, to find a cure for his own poison, he continued his studies and eventually met Yueqian.

Back to the present situation.

Knowing what the poison was and how difficult it was to create, even part of its complete ingredients came from her department store’s interdimensional space. Back then, Yueqian had mischievously sourced perfectly extracted compounds from a pharmacy and ground them into the poison mixture. Without that, the Seven-Pronged Necklace poison couldn’t have been created!

This showed that the poison the other person suffered from couldn’t be the Seven-Pronged Necklace. But why did everyone believe it was?

“Are you sure it’s really the Seven-Pronged Necklace poison, Your Majesty?” Yueqian asked amidst the oppressive silence.

“Yes, the royal physicians have confirmed it,” the emperor replied, looking at Yueqian with hope.

Since the other party had won the competition, she should have more knowledge than the others, right?

“Is that so?”

“Why? Do you not believe it’s the Seven-Pronged Necklace poison?” Hearing this question, Yueqian knew the emperor was displeased. However, she was confident that it wasn’t the Seven-Pronged Necklace poison.

"Because the Seven-Pronged Necklace poison has been gone for many years, I am suspicious, Your Majesty," Yueqian was not afraid. She still dared to continue to express her doubts, causing the emperor to chuckle.

"Royal physician, explain it to her," he said this. The royal physician responsible for examining the poison stepped forward.

"Physician Mu from the Bai Region, I will describe the symptoms of the princess from the Wang Region for your consideration," the royal physician was slightly displeased that Yueqian doubted his findings. He stepped forward and read from the document in his hand.

"Starting from the first day, the princess was found injured. Though treated, it was not noticed that she had been poisoned. That night, she fainted in her chambers, with blood coming from her nose and ears. She later vomited blood, couldn’t eat, and couldn’t sleep. She was in constant agony with every breath, had persistent coughing, and multiple green bruises on her chest."

"She frequently experienced hallucinations and self-harmed. Now, she doesn’t recognize anyone. The symptoms of the Seven-Pronged Necklace poison match this exactly, and there are no inconsistencies. Especially since it has been several months since the poisoning, other poisons would have killed her by now. The Seven-Pronged Necklace was designed to torment people, which is why she is still in this state."

"The Wang Region is aware of this and is furious with the Hu Region because they know how much their princess is suffering. So, Physician Mu, do you have any suggestions?"

Upon hearing the explanation, everything did indeed seem to match the effects of the Seven-Pronged Necklace poison. But how was this possible? She was the only one who knew the recipe for this poison. Even her master had no interest in learning about it to prevent him from creating such a dangerous poison out of anger.

She fell silent in thought. The others interpreted her silence as embarrassment for doubting the Hu Region’s royal physician. Many looked at her with disdain.

"Physician Mu is too young and only confident in herself."

"Indeed, all these symptoms point to the Seven-Pronged Necklace poison."

"Does this mean there’s really no cure? Perhaps she’s just scared and hoping it’s not the Seven-Pronged Necklace."

"Sigh, a poison balanced within itself is truly difficult to counteract. It’s as if the creator was a demon."

"Those afflicted with this poison can live indefinitely if they can endure its torment, but many who are poisoned end up committing suicide to escape its cruelty."

"The princess is likely in such a state, suffering greatly," the royal physicians whispered among themselves. They had given up on this issue but didn’t dare to say it aloud, fearing they would be blamed for allowing a war to happen, as the emperor had earlier accused.

While they were exchanging thoughts, Yueqian seemed to recall something important. Her eyes sparkled with a bit of excitement.

"Royal Physician, have you completed all the blood tests?"

"Do you still not believe? Yes, we tested the blood. It is indeed poisoned and has a coagulated appearance," he replied wearily, but Yueqian shook her head.

"No, that’s not enough. Did you boil the blood in hot water?"

"What do you mean? Why would we boil it? There is no such test!" He rebuked. What was the blood test in boiling water? Was there such a test?

"You don’t understand. Boiling the blood in hot water is crucial. As you know, this poison is balanced in terms of the five elements and yin-yang energy. It means that if you add fire to this poison or disturb its balance, it will break apart."

"And what of it?" The royal physician still didn’t understand. Yueqian continued to explain patiently.

"Normally, when you boil blood, it coagulates, right? But the blood of someone poisoned with this won’t behave that way. Because it has inherent balance, if you introduce another element, such as fire, the poison won’t remain stable, right? So the blood won’t coagulate completely!" Yueqian explained her reasoning. The royal physician shook his head.

"That test is unnecessary. We already know from other signs that it’s the Seven-Pronged Necklace poison. Why are you trying to deny it?" The royal physician said, implying that Yueqian’s idea was too far-fetched.

However, Yueqian laughed.

"Royal Physician, didn’t you just say that the only incurable poison in the world is the Seven-Pronged Necklace poison? If it isn’t the Seven-Pronged Necklace poison, then there must be a weak point, right? There must be a cure."

Hearing her confident assertion, the people were immediately astonished. Even the emperor stood up.

"Good. In that case, follow me and test what you want to know for yourself," he said, walking ahead immediately. This left the royal physician clenching his fists in anger, feeling deeply insulted!While he had stated without doubt that it was the Seven-Pronged Necklace poison, others dared to say he was wrong?!