The Mirror of Startling Beauty: Her courtiers are everywhere

Si Xing sat cross-legged.

He immersed himself entirely in the stone wall and in the obscure medicinal texts that resembled celestial script.

The words unfolded one by one before his eyes.

Like a scroll sealed by time for thousands of years, it has finally found someone who can understand it.

Those profound medical principles that we previously only knew the facts of but not the reasons behind were now being peeled away layer by layer.

Revealing the core truth is like a pearl hidden in an oyster, finally seeing the light of day.

He read very quickly.

It was as fast as chasing a promise that was a thousand years overdue.

"I see."

He murmured to himself, as if he had realized something.

"It turns out that when the art of medicine reaches its peak, it is able to transform the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into one's own."

The writing on the stone wall is not a prescription or an elixir formula.

He was a pioneer who had walked a long medical path, and as his life's work came to an end, he transformed his life's work into a glimmer of light.

It is a heartfelt entrustment left to those who come after.

He didn't know how long he had been reading.

There is no time in the darkness.

Only the glowing words flickered before his eyes.

Like the female medicine goddess from a thousand years ago, she whispered to him, word by word, across the vast expanse of time.

In every corner of Liulitian, many more physicians were devoutly bowing before the statues of gods.

Within this hidden realm, temples are hidden everywhere.

Some temples are hidden deep within ancient vines, with the vines hanging down like curtains, completely covering the entrances.

If it weren't for a sliver of light peeking through the vines, no one would have guessed that behind those layers of emerald green lay a complete palace.

Some temples are hidden beneath cliffs, requiring one to climb down slippery rock faces.

Below was a bottomless abyss, and above were inverted stalactites.

Every step I took was on the line between life and death.

But some people always make it.

There are always people who never look back.

Someone picked up half a scroll of elixir recipe from the broken altar.

The paper is yellowish and thin, like butterfly wings, and would crumble into powder at the slightest touch.

Yet the writing on it remains clearly legible, unfaded despite a thousand years of weathering.

He took out the specially made spiritual liquid, dipped his fingertip in it, and gently smeared it on the back of the prescription.

The words that had almost disappeared lit up again, like a candle flame reignited in the wind.

"Nine Transformations Rejuvenating Pill... I see, I see!"

His voice trembled slightly.

But those eyes were incredibly bright, like flames that had been lit.

A middle-aged doctor in a dark green robe leaned against a stone pillar.

He was toying with a jet-black pill in his hand when he heard this, and raised an eyebrow.

"The Nine-Transformation Rebirth Pill? Something lost for seven hundred years, and you actually found it here?"

"It wasn't found."

The physician carefully tucked the prescription into his sleeve, as if it were a rare treasure.

"It was left to me by my seniors."

The physician in the dark green robe remained silent for a moment.

He tossed the black pill in his hand into the air and caught it steadily.

The black pill landed in my palm, heavy, like a solidified piece of night.

"What a coincidence, this Yama's Decree of Death of mine was also left by a senior. It contains a deadly poison that no one has been able to cure for seven hundred years, and the antidote is engraved in the spiritual runes on the bottom of the pill."

He carefully put away the elixir, bowed respectfully to the statue, and smiled slightly.

"Thank you so much, senior."

Someone found a jade slip in the palm of the overturned statue.

The jade slip contained a fragment of the divine thought of a certain god of medicine. That divine thought was so weak that it was like a wisp of silk about to break, almost inaudible.

But she pressed the jade slip to her forehead and listened to it over and over again.

Until every single word was etched into the depths of his consciousness.

"The solution to the Nine Nether Cold Meridians... is not through medicine, but through acupuncture to guide the Qi..."

She suddenly opened her eyes, her pupils contracting slightly, as if she had seen something incredible.

"This is exactly the direction my master predicted before he passed away! Master, you didn't make a mistake, you were just missing the last step..."

Her voice choked.

He pressed the jade slip tightly against his chest, closed his eyes, and did not open them for a long time.

She was a young female doctor with her hair tied in a neat ponytail and a newly added abrasion on her forehead.

She probably fell while rock climbing; the blood had already dried, but she was completely unaware of it.

On the stone steps not far away, an elderly man with white hair sat cross-legged.

A three-legged alchemy furnace hangs in front of them.

There was no open flame in the furnace, but a spiritual light flickered and flowed within it.

The fragrance of herbs, like silk threads, seeped out from the gaps in the stove lid, lingering and never dissipating.

He did not search for anything, nor did he touch any idols.

He simply sat there quietly, closed his eyes and concentrated, probing his spiritual sense inch by inch into the alchemy furnace.

Someone passing by couldn't help but stop and watch, whispering to their companion, "What is that senior doing?"

His companion shook his head, also looking bewildered.

The white-haired old man suddenly opened his eyes.

A glint of light flashed in his cloudy eyes.

"Found it."

His voice wasn't loud, but it silenced the entire palace.

"The alchemy insights left by the Medicine God are not in the formulas or the jade slips, but in the walls of this alchemy furnace."

"Every fire mark is a lesson learned. A thousand-year-old fire mark is a thousand-year-old lesson learned, layer upon layer engraved on the furnace wall, waiting for someone to read it."

He put the alchemy furnace into his sleeve, stood up, and bowed deeply in the direction of the statue.

His white hair fell down, obscuring his slightly reddened eyes.

"I will never forget your great kindness, senior."

Someone found a line of inscriptions on the stone wall.

The handwriting was blurred by wind and rain, and moss grew between the strokes.

But the words were still faintly legible: "Doctors should have a benevolent heart and never forget their original intentions."

Liu Fengchun squatted in the corner of a half-collapsed temple.

He held a tattered, handwritten prescription book in his hands, and was covered in dust from head to toe, even the tip of his nose was smudged black.

He didn't seem to care at all; his eyes were frighteningly bright.

"This...this is a fragment of the Tai Su Pulse Technique! My great-grandmother searched for forty years but couldn't find it!"

His voice trembled with excitement.

My hands were shaking so badly I could barely hold the thin sheet of paper.

A young doctor, equally disheveled, leaned over and glanced at him enviously.

"Brother Liu, your luck is just too good!"

"Of course!"

Liu Fengchun carefully put the prescription away from his body, patted his chest, and proudly raised his chin.

"Don't you even know who I am?!"

He started to feel guilty halfway through his sentence, chuckled twice, and then squatted back down to continue searching.

He flipped through the pages while talking to himself.

"This trip was worthwhile, really worthwhile... Grandma will be so happy when we get back... Ah, if only I could find that one of those lost medicinal herbs..."

The young doctor in the moon-white robe chuckled softly.

He took out a radiant spirit pearl from his sleeve and twirled it between his fingers.

The spirit pearl, reflecting the dim light in the hall, shimmered with rainbow-like colors.

"I just found this under the base of a toppled statue. It's the active seed of the ancient spiritual plant, the Nine-Colored Glazed Fruit. If planted in a spiritual field, it will mature in three hundred years."

Liu Fengchun paused for a moment, opened his mouth, then closed it again.

After a long pause, he finally managed to utter, "...You people, each one of you has incredibly good luck."

The young physician in the moon-white robe carefully put away the spirit pearl, a slight smile playing on his lips.

His tone carried a hint of pride, yet also a hint of seriousness.

"Everyone who comes to Liuli Heaven is here for the inheritance. It's all about who has the ability."

Liu Fengchun rolled his eyes and buried himself in searching again.

"Okay, okay, you're amazing. I'll look around some more; maybe I'll find some treasure..."

That is inheritance.

A thousand years ago, the dark road that the Flowing Cloud Medicine God walked alone has finally been followed by others.

One lamp lights another.

The lamp is passed on from generation to generation.

In the long night, those faint lights lit up one after another, forming a winding road.

No one knows that, deep in the sky, in that silver-blue crystal palace, the brightest lamp is being slowly lit.

Outside Yaoguang City, the sky finally darkened completely.

It wasn't the darkness of a sunset, it was a darkness that swallowed everything.

It was as if a huge black cloth was simultaneously closing in from all directions, crushing and extinguishing the last ray of light in the sky, swallowing it into a bottomless abyss.

What surged beneath the clouds was not clouds, nor rain, but a thick, impenetrable black fog.

They are like prisoners who have been confined for thousands of years, finally waiting for the moment when the prison gates are opened.

Countless tiny, filamentous insects took flight.

The rustling of wings mingled into a low hum, like a funeral dirge without lyrics.

They are coming.

As he passed by, the glass lamps under the eaves went out one by one.

The last eerie blue flame in the wick struggled for a moment in the darkness before fading away forever.

In Yaoguang City, people added the last bit of spiritual essence to the lamps.

The glass lamp lit up.

But the light was too weak.

So weak that it can only illuminate a small area, so weak that every face is shrouded in an uncertain shadow.

At the alley entrance, a woman wearing a headscarf poured the last half bowl of her family's spiritual essence into the glass lamp by the door.

They moved the light closer to their neighbor's door.

"Auntie, your lights aren't bright enough. Put two lights together, and the light will be brighter."

The older woman next door had tears in her eyes, her voice choked with emotion: "But what about your family?"

"I still have an oil lamp at home, it can last for a while."

Her lips trembled slightly as she spoke.

But she still pushed the light over.

Two lamps were placed close together, their halos blending together, creating a small patch of warmth in the thick darkness.