The Great Song Dynasty's Soul-Forging in Progress

The embroidered pavilion in the back garden of the Chen family mansion was unusually quiet and deserted after the New Year.

Chen Nianyao was just a little girl not yet ten years old, as thin as a reed in the wind, leaning against the headboard with a pale face. When she saw Liu Xinyi, her eyes lit up, and she timidly stretched out her slender, almost transparent wrist.

Liu Xinyi lightly touched the ground with her fingertips, concentrating intently to discern the details.

Three breaths, five breaths, ten breaths—her brows gradually furrowed.

The pulse... when felt superficially, it is thin and rapid, seemingly indicating yin deficiency and fatigue. However, when felt deeply at the cun position, there is a faint, cold, and stagnant qi lingering within, like a current flowing beneath ice, completely opposite to the apparent heat symptoms. Even more strangely, that cold qi seems to have a life of its own, slowly wriggling under her fingertips.

"What does Miss usually eat?" Liu Xinyi withdrew her hand and asked calmly.

"I...I don't have much of an appetite." Nianyao's voice was weak, and her eyes darted around. "I only have half a bowl of white fungus soup in the morning and evening, with pearl powder and rock sugar added...Father specially ordered the kitchen to make it, saying it can nourish the skin and calm the mind."

Liu Xinyi felt a chill run down her spine.

White fungus soup is neutral in nature, and pearl powder is slightly cooling; neither is inherently harmful. However, if combined with a cold and damp pulse…

After pondering for a long time, she picked up her pen and wrote a prescription for "Artemisia annua and turtle shell soup," intending to nourish yin, clear heat, and reduce deficiency fire. After a moment of contemplation, she added a small line: "Add half a cup of children's urine as a guide, taking advantage of the unexploded qi to guide the medicine directly to the yin level." This method is ancient and profound, intended to utilize the unique activity of children's urine to help the medicine penetrate.

"This medicinal ingredient..." Qiu Banxian, who was waiting to the side, took the prescription. His goatee twitched slightly, and a faint, sly smile flashed in his eyes. "Coincidentally, there is a three-year-old child in the household of the servants. It is just right to use this."

Liu Xinyi glanced at him but didn't say anything more.

The aroma of medicine filled the air inside the medicine preparation room.

Liu Xinyi personally tended the medicine stove, watching the medicinal liquid reduce from boiling to thickening until the heat was just right. This was always her way of doing things—if she did something, she wouldn't do it at all, but if she did, she would do it to the extreme.

Qiu Banxian personally brought over the half-bowl of "children's excrement." The liquid in the white porcelain bowl was slightly warm, and its color and smell were normal. Liu Xinyi took it, brought it close to her nose to smell it, and then dipped her fingertip in it, rubbing it carefully.

Absolutely no difference.

She added the ingredients to the medicine according to ancient methods, stirred it well, and personally carried it to the embroidered tower.

Nianyao took a small sip of the medicine, a weak smile appearing on her face: "Thank you, Sister Liu... You're so kind."

Liu Xinyi gently patted her hand: "Get some rest."

However, in less than a quarter of an hour, something unexpected happened!

Suddenly, Nianyao on the bed opened her eyes wide, her face turning from white to green! She gripped her throat tightly with both hands, making a strange "hoarse" sound, and spat out a mouthful of foul-smelling black blood! The blood splattered on the bedding, making a "sizzling" sound and etching several small holes!

"Oh! What's wrong, miss?!"

The maid's screams were shrill and piercing.

Nianyao's body convulsed violently a few times, then fell silent.

Liu Xinyi was stunned for a moment, then rushed forward to check her breath, but there was no sound; she then checked her pulse, but there was no movement; she looked at her eyelids and found that her pupils were already dilated!

Chen Nianyao is dead.

He died right in front of himself.

Heartbroken, Chen Shimei practically stormed into the room.

He rushed to the bedside, picked up his daughter's still-warm body, and his eyes instantly reddened—the redness came at just the right time, neither too early nor too late, neither too intense nor too faint, exactly the appearance of a grief-stricken father.

"Nianyao... Nianyao!" His voice trembled genuinely as he held his daughter's body and shook her. "My daughter, wake up, look at Daddy... Daddy's here..."

Liu Xinyi stood to the side, her mind racing.

Impossible. She's prescribed Artemisia annua and turtle shell decoction countless times; there's absolutely no way it could cause death. She's also tested the child's urine, and it was clearly normal. So where's the problem?

Her gaze swept across the room—Nianyao's corpse, the bloodstains on the bedding, the remaining medicine in the bowl…

wrong.

How could bloodstains be corrosive?

Just as she was about to speak, Qiu Banxian rushed forward in a panic, lost his footing, and accidentally kicked over the white porcelain bowl that had contained "children's excrement".

The residual liquid spilled onto the floor tiles, making a soft "hissing" sound and etching out several small pits!

"Poison! There's poison in the bowl!" Qiu Banxian screamed hoarsely, his goatee trembling wildly, his face contorted as if he'd seen a ghost. "The child's urine is poisoned! Guards! Seize this vixen who poisoned the young lady!"

The constables looked at each other, hesitant to step forward.

"How dare you!" Chen Shimei abruptly looked up and shouted sternly, "The Liu family, grandfather and granddaughter, are renowned for their benevolent physicians and have an excellent reputation. I believe Miss Liu is by no means a malevolent witch! Who dares to lay a hand on her?"

He paused, then looked at Liu Xinyi, his eyes filled with grief and pleading: "Miss Liu, I know your medical skills are superb, and you would never harm anyone. But... what exactly happened? Nianyao is still so young..."

That acting was superb; it would be a real shame if he didn't win an Oscar.

Looking at his grief-stricken face, Liu Xinyi suddenly recalled a saying Wang Zhonghua had once said: "The most terrifying thing in this world is not a true villain, but a hypocrite. A true villain is evil in the open, so you can guard against him; a hypocrite is evil in his heart, and you won't even know how you died."

At that moment, she believed it.

"Your Excellency, I request that my grandfather come and examine the body," she said calmly. "The truth will be revealed upon examination."

Chen Shimei hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "Granted."

When Liu Jueming was urgently summoned inside, he staggered.

When he saw his granddaughter surrounded by the yamen runners, and saw that familiar, unyielding stubbornness on her face, his heart sank to the bottom.

"Let...let this old man examine it!"

Chen Nianyao's body was still warm.

Liu Jueming inserted a silver needle into Nian Yao's throat—the needle tip instantly turned black.

The old physician's expression changed drastically. He slid a silver spoon with a jade handle from his sleeve. The spoon was only three inches long, with a hollowed-out tip. He used his internal energy to protect the remaining warmth of Nianyao's heart meridian. He inserted the silver spoon into her mouth and gently twisted it to remove the residual liquid from her stomach—this method was a secret passed down from Hua Tuo's lineage and was not something that ordinary coroners would know.

A small amount of undissolved medicinal liquid and a small amount of white fungus soup residue were taken out and tested. The soup contained pearl powder, rock sugar, and goji berries, all of which were common ingredients.

Everything seemed normal.

But he didn't stop.

He used an extremely fine silver thread to probe deep into Nianyao's Ren meridian Qihai acupoint—an ancient technique he had learned from itinerant doctors in the Western Regions during his early years of traveling the world, and which he rarely showed to others. The silver thread reached a depth of three inches, and he felt a barely perceptible resistance at his fingertips.

He slowly pulled it out.

At the tip of the silver thread clung to a strand of barely perceptible, bright green viscous liquid! The viscous liquid had a pungent, fishy odor and was wriggling slightly in the air, as if it were alive!

Liu Jueming's hands trembled violently.

The Jade Silkworm Gu!

This is the remnant of the hatched eggs of the long-lost "Azure Silkworm Gu" from the Western Regions! This Gu is extremely insidious. The eggs are colorless and odorless, and can lie dormant in the human body for months, mimicking the pulse of a feverish patient, making it difficult for even the most skilled physicians to detect. Once it encounters a specific trigger—such as so-called "children's urine" mixed with the Gu mother's saliva—it will hatch instantly, spitting silk to block the heart meridian, creating the illusion of sudden death.

The old doctor instantly realized: this was a meticulously planned trap.

The person who cast the poison had calculated the timing perfectly. Chen Nianyao's death, from her pulse to her symptoms, was all within their calculations. Even that bowl of "silver ear fungus soup" was probably a smokescreen to mask the poison's aura.

But can he tell the truth?

If the "poison" is pointed out, it would confirm that the granddaughter's skills were inadequate—she couldn't even recognize such a strange pulse, making her a quack doctor who harmed people, a crime compounded. Moreover, since Chen Shimei dared to use this poison, he must have prepared a backup plan. The moment he reveals the truth may very well be the moment his granddaughter is labeled as "spreading heresy and misleading the public."

If I don't say...

He looked up at his granddaughter.

Surrounded by the yamen runners, Liu Xinyi's face showed no fear, only the humiliation of being falsely accused and a resolute determination. She looked at her grandfather, her eyes filled with expectation—she believed that her grandfather would surely clear her name.

Liu Jueming felt as if his heart was being torn apart.

He took a deep breath, faced Chen Shimei, and his voice was hoarse and heavy:

"Your Excellency... the 'Artemisia annua and turtle shell decoction' prescribed by Linlang was indeed the right treatment. However... the medicine's ingredient, child's urine, is extremely cold in nature, which clashes with the young lady's inherently weak and cold constitution, causing the cold evil to directly attack the Lesser Yin, resulting in a sudden collapse of the Heart Yang and her death..."

He paused, each word feeling like it was cutting into his own flesh, tearing out his own heart:

"It's all my fault for not disciplining her properly and for failing to teach her effectively; my granddaughter... misused the medication!"

He chose to protect his granddaughter's reputation as a doctor and took the blame for the "oversight" alone.

He knew that only in this way would Chen Shimei prosecute the case as "causing death through medical malpractice." Only in this way could his granddaughter possibly survive. Only in this way could they buy time for Wang Zhonghua, Ouyang Xiu, and the others who were supposed to save her.

As for the truth...

He had already secretly hidden that wisp of emerald green slime in his sleeve.

"Your Excellency, please see the truth!" Qiu the fortune teller immediately knelt down, tears streaming down his face. "Dr. Liu is of noble character and integrity, even turning down his own family for the greater good! He personally identified his granddaughter's wrongdoing! Please, Your Excellency, do justice for your young lady!"

Chen Shimei closed his eyes, two lines of "grief" tears sliding down his cheeks, his voice hoarse and broken: "I...I don't believe Miss Liu would intentionally harm anyone...but Nianyao...my daughter is still so young...a life is at stake...how can I explain this to the princess?"

He suddenly opened his eyes, as if he had made a great decision: "Guards! Take Miss Liu... to the prefectural jail for now! I will submit a memorial to the court, requesting the Imperial Medical Academy to send personnel to review the case... We must... get to the bottom of this!"

Liu Xinyi was surrounded by yamen runners.