Chapter 84

Within the Imperial Physician’s quarters, the scent of burning mugwort mingled with the bitter odor of herbal salves, hanging over the room like a heavy shroud. Wisps of blue smoke coiled around the rafters, twisting into eerie shapes in the dim candlelight, as if the wronged souls of the Nether Palace were silently crying out. As the dressing on Gu Jinghong’s back was changed, the movement pulled at the wound, causing fresh beads of blood to seep from where the bandage clung to raw flesh—each drop a silent testimony to the carnage of the battlefield. Shen Mingyue’s hand, holding the tweezers, faltered. The dim light deepened the dark circles beneath her eyes, and faint, bloodshot veins traced their corners—the obvious toll of days spent keeping vigil over him. Watching those droplets of blood, she felt a sharp, stabbing pain in her heart, as if the wound were her own. "Bear it a moment longer; this Seven-Leaf Lotus will draw out the toxin." Her voice was soft but raspy, filled with a tenderness and concern like a mother soothing an injured child. Before she could finish, a faint clatter of roof tiles sounded outside the window—a noise unnervingly sharp in the quiet night, like the footfalls of Death itself.