Empress Dowager Xiang led Jiang Che and the three others through layers of white mourning cloth, her heart caught between anxiety and excitement, until they reached the innermost chamber of Funing Hall.
They stopped before the imperial bed draped in bright yellow.
Empress Dowager Xiang turned to Jiang Che once more and gave him a Wanfu greeting.
"I beg you, Immortal Master... please save the Emperor's life!"
Jiang Che nodded slightly and wasted no more words.
He stepped calmly to the edge of the broad bed and studied the Great Song emperor, who had already breathed his last.
The nimble palace maids had dressed Zhao Xu in ceremonial burial robes of the highest grade.
His bright-yellow imperial robe was made from the finest gold-threaded Shu brocade, with a lifelike nine-clawed golden dragon embroidered across it in pure gold thread.
But even such finery could not conceal the heavy death energy clinging to his body.
Zhao Xu's eyes were shut, his face sallow. His once-handsome features had grown gaunt and sunken under the torment of his lung disease.
Not the faintest trace of life could be sensed anywhere in him.
He had become a rigid corpse.
Jiang Che took in Zhao Xu's condition without a moment's hesitation.
He simply extended a long, fair-skinned hand and opened his palm.
Hum—
A faint light flashed.
A crystal-clear golden pill appeared in his palm, its surface shimmering with wisps of medicinal radiance!
In an instant,
a strange fragrance that seemed capable of cleansing the soul filled all of Funing Hall!
Everyone who smelled it felt their mind clear and their body ease, as though even their old ailments had grown lighter.
The pill in Jiang Che's hand was called the Soul-Returning Pill.
It was no common item casually exchanged from the System Mall.
He