The Eastern Palace.
Cao Fo'er cradled his fly whisk and pushed open the doors to the bedchamber.
The Pill King led the party inside. Two imperial physicians were taking pulses beside the couch. Crown Prince Zhao Jing Huan, dressed in mourning, sat blankly beside it, holding a carved wooden tiger. His eyes were empty, and he showed no reaction to their arrival.
The Pill King and Emperor Qian were brothers born of the same mother. Twenty years ago, he should have died in the coup. Only Emperor Qian's desperate gamble, burning his boats behind him, had allowed him to live to see this day.
He had thought life would improve after that ordeal of blood and fire, that he could spend the rest of his days peacefully as an idle prince. Never had he imagined that the roots of all this calamity had already been planted when the brothers were still imperial princes, growing into today's catastrophe, leaving this one simple-minded orphan as the sole survivor of his elder brother's family.
The Pill King approached and called to him several times. Receiving no answer from the Crown Prince, he turned to ask:
"Can no miraculous medicine cure him?"
Behind the Pill King stood Princess Consort Xu, Commandery Princess Changning, and advisers including Huangfu Qi and Ji Shiqing. The heir had been strung up and confined, so he was not among them.
Ji Shiqing had traveled through the Southern Border in his earlier years and had long served as the Prince's Manor's adviser on demons and supernatural matters. He answered:
"Miraculous medicines can only heal the body. With one soul and one spirit missing, neither Resurrection Herb nor Human Origin Pills will work. We can only find a way to retrieve his soul and spirit."
Huangfu Qi shook his head. "We