The carriage ride was quiet. Hou Jingshu didn’t speak the entire time. She just leaned into Wu Jian’s side as though seeking comfort, and he returned her embrace. He was glad she didn’t feel like talking. There was a lot on his mind as well.

No words were spoken even after reaching the academy. Several people whispered when they walked by, but none of them spoke. Even Ding Hong, who saw them as they walked through the Outer Courtyard, was tactful enough to realize something had happened and didn’t say anything.

They reached Hou Jingshu’s building, unlocked her front door, and entered. After removing their shoes, they made their way into the living room.

“I’ll make us some tea,” Hou Jingshu said as she slowly unwound the headdress she had been wearing, allowing her long locks to spill out.

“Okay. I’ll just… sit down then.”

Wu Jian wanted to ask if she needed help, but he recognized her offer as something she was doing for herself. She wanted something to do. He understood. He would have loved to have something he could do to occupy himself right now, lest he get more lost in his thoughts.

Hou Jingshu smiled at him before she went off into the kitchen. He sat down on the couch, leaned back, and closed his eyes.

While his thoughts were racing a mile a minute, they weren’t on Yin Wuhan. He did feel guilty about letting the man die. He felt like he could have prevented it if he had just been stronger. However, he did not know Yin Wuhan enough to truly feel anything over his death. His thoughts were mostly on Hou Jingshu’s father.

The man was slowly dying of poison. That was the entire reason Hou Jingshu had gone to the White Tiger Sect Ruins. She wanted to find the ingredients for the Nirvana Soothing Pill, a panacea said to cure all poisons.

They technically had every ingredient needed for the pill’s refinement. However, they had agreed to not create the pill yet because they had agreed to exchange the Fifteen Thousand Year Spirit Spring Water.

The Nirvana Soothing Pill only called for Ten Thousand Year Spirit Spring Water, and the age of the water wouldn’t make the pill stronger. Since it didn’t make a difference if the spring water was ten thousand years or fifteen thousand years, they had decided to wait, but Wu Jian was now worried. This funeral had reminded him about how unexpected death could be. They didn’t know how long Emperor Hou Jun had to live. What if they came back from the tournament to discover that he was already dead?

Hou Jingshu came out from the kitchen with a tea set in hand while Wu Jian was thinking. She gracefully set about making the tea before him. She placed a small cup in front of him, and Wu Jian drank the tea in a single gulp. The bitter flavor served to bring him focus. He couldn’t afford to get so lost in thought like this. Cultivators who were unable to push forward in the face of death would never grow stronger.

“Thank you,” he said to Hou Jingshu as he placed the cup back down.

“You’re welcome.” Her small smile was not brimming with joy like normal, but he was glad to see she could still smile at all.

She sat down beside him, a cup of tea held in both hands, sitting on her lap. She stared into the green liquid for several moments before gulping it down.

“It looks like you’re thinking about something,” she said.

He recognized an invitation when he heard one. “Do you remember when we fought the Giant Stinger? You got poisoned and I managed to remove it using the Dao of Space to filter out and remove the poison. I was wondering if I could do something like that with your father.”

Hou Jingshu looked shocked for a moment, but then her expression turned thoughtful. She tapped her lip with her index finger. Wu Jian watched and waited. The expression on her face soon went from thoughtful to hopeful.

“Do you think it’s possible?” asked Hou Jingshu.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I was able to remove the poison from your body because it hadn’t progressed very far. Your father has been poisoned for a long time. I don’t know how bad it is. That’s the whole reason I never brought this up, but… well, I guess attending Yin Wuhan’s funeral made me feel like we should at least try. It couldn’t hurt.”

In truth, Wu Jian did not want to get Hou Jingshu’s hopes up only to disappoint her. He had been able to remove the poison from her body only because the poison didn’t have time to travel through her bloodstream for very long. He didn’t think he could do the same thing to her father, and he was worried about failing her.

“I agree with you. It can’t hurt to at least try,” she said. “We can go visit him tomorrow. I have to introduce you two anyway.”

Hou Jingshu leaned into him, pushing Wu Jian onto his back so she could rest with her hand on his chest. The feel of her body pressed against his would have set his heart racing any other day. The sobering events of the day put a damper on his libido. Even with the feeling of her chest on his stomach, he couldn’t work up the desire to do anything.

He ran his fingers through her long hair. Her hair had tangles in it because of the headdress she’d been wearing, but it was still beautiful. Each strand shimmered like threads of honey reflecting sunlight.

“Just… don’t get your hopes up too high, okay?” he murmured.

“Mmm. Don’t worry. I won’t blame you if you can’t remove the poison,” she assured him. As if to further reassure him, Hou Jingshu tilted her head to kiss his chest through his clothes.

He lowered his hand until it rested on her neck and began massaging her acupoints. There were several within the neck.

He briefly considered creating a tiny needle with his chi and inserting it into the accupoint to help release the tension, but that felt too much like a violation of her privacy. There also wasn’t much need for it. Pinning needles into acupoints was mostly done to remove impurities within the chi. She didn’t really need that right now.

Wu Jian stuck to gently rubbing the area around her meridian and acupoint until the sound of her breathing evened out. Then he closed his eyes and decided to meditate on the Dao of Space.

***

Wu Jian and Hou Jingshu woke up early the next morning.

Because they were going to the royal palace, they did not wear their normal attire. Wu Jian had tried to put on his normal martial gi. Hou Jingshu, however, was having none of it.

“You’re going to see my father. Even if he’s not conscious for the meeting, it’s very rude to wear something so shabby in front of the emperor.”

He didn’t deny there was truth to her words, and his martial artist gi was getting shabby. There were tears and several threads near the hem were coming undone. This gi had been through a lot. Thinking about it now, this was the same outfit that Xing Zhenya had bought him almost a year ago.

Has it really been a year? Feels like much longer.

So much had happened that it felt like several years had gone by. His clan had been slaughtered, Wu Meiying had been forced to flee, he’d met Xing Zhenya, fought against the Raging Boars Sect, befriended Huǒ Shuchang, and journeyed with him to the White Tiger Sect Ruins where he’d been reunited with Hou Jingshu. So many events had occurred that it boggled his mind to think only a single year had passed.

Those thoughts kept him occupied as he slid his arms through the sleeves of his black, red, and gold imperial hanfu. The fabric was soft and clearly expensive. The deep red of his long-sleeved undershirt complimented the pitch black of his vest. Both shirt and vest were long, creating a tail that trailed down to his ankles. It was held together by a red sash with a gold wrap. Black pants and boots completed the outfit.

Of course, he also wore his mask.

Hou JIngshu was similarly dressed in a hanfu fit for a princess. It looked more like a gown than standard hanfu. Made from pink and peach colored fabric, the no-shoulder dress was drawn tight against her bust. There was a window around her chest that showed off her cleavage. The sleeves were not attached to her normally. A neck-piece that covered her collarbone was attached to the sleeves, keeping them from sliding off. It was an extremely complicated outfit that she would normally never wear.

“You look amazing,” Wu Jian said.

Just a hint of red colored Hou Jingshu’s cheeks, but her smile was wry. “Thank you, but I prefer my normal clothes.”

“They’re much easier to move in.” She looked down at her dress. “I won’t be able to do anything if a fight breaks out.”

“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that,” said Wu Jian.

A carriage was waiting for them when they emerged from the academy grounds. Hou Jingshu had sent a messenger bird the other day, letting the palace know she would be coming to visit.

Hawks and falcons were used to trade messages long-distance, but carrier pigeons were used for shorter distances. The Shang Kingdom Imperial Academy had a coop for both pigeons and falcons. Students with families who didn’t live in Imperial Shang City would often send messages using the academy’s hawks, though Wu Jian heard that clans often had their own dedicated messenger hawks.

The ride to the palace was made with only sparse conversation. They didn’t have any plans for today after this, so they agreed to spend the rest of it sparring. Hou Jingshu cultivated by reveling in combat against strong opponents, and Wu Jian was the strongest opponent she could hope to face right now.

“I want you to go all out this time,” she said.

“All right,” Wu Jian agreed.

Several maidservants were present when they reached the palace. They bowed as Wu Jian and Hou Jingshu stepped out of the carriage, but they did not speak. Hou Jingshu ignored them. She had grown up surrounded by this level of poshness. Wu Jian still wasn’t used to it. He was from a small clan in the countryside.

They wandered through the main house, then entered the courtyard. Wu Jian followed Hou Jingshu down a shaded path lined by gardens. They entered the main building and soon found themselves standing before the door that led into Emperor Hou Jun’s bedroom.

The guards had already been informed of their arrival. They bowed and let the two enter without a fuss. Wu Jian waited until the doors closed behind them to look inside.

The emperor’s bedchamber was large and spacious, and it didn’t have nearly as much decoration as he would have assumed. It seemed Emperor Hou Jun preferred austerity over extravagance. In the middle of this room was a bed, and within the bed lay a single person.

Hou Jingshu silently walked over to the bed and sat down on a chair that was there for this express purpose. She reached out to pick up and hold her father’s hand, putting it to her forehead.

Wu Jian walked up behind her. He stared down at the unconscious figure. Emperor Hou Jun looked much more decrepit than the last time Wu Jian had seen him. This man looked nothing like the one he remembered all those years ago. The one who visited back then had seemed strong but weathered. This man was a shell of that one.

He pondered for a moment, then removed his mask. It was rude to wear a mask when standing before the emperor, and the man was unconscious, so it wasn’t like the man would learn he was present.

“Father… I’ve brought the man I told you about. I can’t tell you who he is, nor can I let you see him, but you know him. He might be able to help you,” Hou Jingshu said.

Her father said nothing, of course, but that was expected.

“I’ll start now,” said Wu Jian.

“Please do.”

Hou Jingshu vacated the seat and Wu Jian replaced her. He reached out and touched the emperor’s wrist, placing two fingers over the meridians. He closed his eyes and sent his chi into the emperor. His eyes flickered behind closed lids as he “saw” the inside of the emperor through his own perceptions, and what he saw made him recoil. Black. Everything was black. His meridians, organs, and muscles were all rotting and decrepit, foul in ways that made him wonder how this man was still alive. Only a single part of him was not rotting away.

His heart remained pristine. The reason Emperor Hou Jun was in a coma was clear to him now. The man was spending all of his energy to keep the poison at bay, to prevent it from reaching his heart. To keep himself alive, he had sacrificed everything else. This also went to show him just how insidious this poison was. Through his observations, he learned something else that was just as important.

The poison had already soaked into every part of this man’s body.

There was nothing he could do.