Song Qing Shi was mentally drained. He had fallen asleep, sprawled in Yue Wu Huan's arms like an octopus, clutching tightly as if fearful that Yue Wu Huan would disappear, refusing to let go.
Once more immobilized, Yue Wu Huan was relieved that the medication was effective and not overly uncomfortable. He wanted to shift to a more comfortable position for Song Qing Shi, but found himself entangled in such a way that any movement would disturb the other's arm. Left with no choice, he remained as he was, using the Blood King Vines to pull a blanket over them.
The Sovereign, when affectionate, is simply irresistible...
Yue Wu Huan gently untied the hair ribbon of the person in his arms, letting the long hair cascade down. The soft, green strands mingled with his own already unbound hair, making it hard to tell whose was whose.
A playful idea struck him. Taking advantage of Song Qing Shi's lack of awareness, he discreetly picked up a strand of long hair and braided it with his own. He then tied a loose knot, admired it for a moment, and tucked it back amongst the locks, planning to untangle it the next morning.
The luminescent pearl dimmed, and the gauzy curtain was drawn closed.
Yue Wu Huan wrapped his arms around the utterly defenseless person beside him, inhaling the comforting scent of medicinal herbs. He relished the memories of those wildly sweet kisses, basking in an almost surreal sense of happiness.
This was precisely the intimacy he craved.
Close companionship where eyes saw only each other, yet boundaries remained unbreached.
The Sovereign's heart of detachment was stable, indicating that no matter what happened, there was no emotional stirring of that kind.
Yue Wu Huan chuckled self-deprecatingly. Raised in a hedonistic environment, he was well aware that his beauty could easily incite desire. He had seen all sorts of disgraceful behaviors and understood others' intentions with a mere glance. Trained as he was, his kisses reflexively incorporated seductive techniques. By the time he realized it, it was too late. Fortunately, Song Qing Shi remained unmoved, and no inappropriate physical sensations were aroused.
Song Qing Shi's kiss was the purest of all, like a child asking for candy.
Even someone like him could feel the intrinsic sweetness in it...
What if the Sovereign's detached heart was moved?
Yue Wu Huan pondered; he realized he had an inadequate understanding of the path of detachment and needed to gather relevant information for a thorough study.
...
The next morning, Song Qing Shi woke up and realized he had pinned someone down all night. Somewhat embarrassed, he planted a good morning kiss before hurrying to wash up and head to his lab. Filled with renewed vigor, he started a new round of toxicological research.
The Black Death Butterfly had contact toxicity, and Nie Du Zun had not been able to better purify the toxic spirit stone while extracting it. Now, with improved purification techniques, Song Qing Shi could increase the toxicity of the spirit stone fivefold and, by adjusting the supplemental materials affected by impurities, possibly create a poison potent enough to kill a Divided Soul cultivator.
The refinement of the toxic spirit stone was highly hazardous.
Song Qing Shi didn't dare let his assistants handle it. He conducted experiment after experiment alone in the lab, also preparing various versions of culture dishes to cultivate the floral insect fungi that helped disperse the toxin. Only by perfectly combining these fungi with the toxic spirit stone would the Black Death Butterfly be deemed a success.
Yue Wu Huan sent the Blood King Vines to check on him several times. Seeing Song Qing Shi engrossed in his work and paying him no mind, he eventually gave up.
He still had a mountain of tasks to complete. In addition to internal affairs and bookkeeping, he also needed to strengthen the poisonous fog formations, create more poison effigies, and make Yao Wang Gu (the Medicine King Valley) as impenetrable as a fortress.
All attempts to combine the materials in the culture dishes failed—either the floral insect fungi lost their effectiveness, or the toxicity of the toxic spirit stone diminished...
Song Qing Shi noted down the failures and felt dejected for a quarter of an hour.
By the time he left the laboratory, it was already dusk. Rubbing his tired eyes, he headed to the academy and saw Qing Luan instructing apprentices in alchemy research, seemingly experimenting with a new formula.
Unfortunately, her experiment also failed. Black smoke rose from the alchemy furnace, accompanied by a foul smell.
Qing Luan paused for a moment before asking Rong Ye to record the process and results of the failure.
Glancing at the sky, Rong Ye complained, "Sister Qing Luan, everyone is hungry. Shouldn't we eat first?"
Qing Luan declined: "Make the record first."
Confused, Rong Ye questioned, "The results are all wrong anyway, so why bother recording them? Look at this notebook; it's filled with 'errors, errors, errors,' at least seventy or eighty times. What's the point?"
Ming Hong interjected: "This is something the Sovereign has commanded us to do. Each experiment, whether successful or not, must be documented."
"The Sovereign must be amazing," Rong Ye, realizing that it was Song Qing Shi's directive, dared not argue further. Despondently, he continued writing while lamenting, "We're so incompetent, always failing. Sister Qing Luan says Yao Wang Gu will be taking in more apprentices in the future. I'd better hide this notebook, so our juniors won't laugh at us."
Just as Qing Luan was about to speak, Song Qing Shi walked in through the door. She quickly bowed in greeting.
The children stopped their playful antics and stood in an orderly manner.
Smiling, Song Qing Shi took the notebook from Rong Ye and flipped through it, "Mistakes shouldn't be hidden; they should be preserved in the lab indefinitely. That way, future research on this medication can benefit from ruling out erroneous approaches. All the data from your previous experiments should be saved as well. We need to understand why we fail."
Rong Ye's face flushed as he muttered, "Does that include the time I blew up the furnace?"
"Yes," Song Qing Shi smiled, "So everyone will know not to add Dan Huang when making the Rejuvenation Pill, otherwise the furnace will explode."
Rong Ye started to grasp the idea, though not entirely.
"Don't be afraid of failure," Song Qing Shi glanced at Qing Luan's experiment chart to confirm there were no procedural errors, "In medical research, failure is a common occurrence. Many, many people fail hundreds or thousands of times before they finally succeed."
Carefully, Rong Ye asked, "Sovereign, do you also experience failure?"
Song Qing Shi couldn't help but smile, "Are you familiar with the Heart-Protection Pill?"
"Yes!" The children eagerly replied, their faces full of admiration, "It's a pill that you developed years ago, Sovereign! It has miraculous effects on damaged heart meridians! People say the pill revolutionized the cultivation world and changed the treatment methods for heart meridian injuries. You've been hailed as a genius alchemist because of it."
Adoration filled Rong Ye's peach blossom eyes, "The Sovereign is indeed a genius; we are far from it."
"You're mistaken," Song Qing Shi said with a smile, "It took me 3,672 failures to successfully create the Heart-Protection Pill."
Rong Ye was stunned.
"On the twenty-ninth row of the library, the top shelf holds over six hundred notebooks. Those are records of my failures back in the day. I've blown up the alchemy furnace multiple times," Song Qing Shi fondly reminisced, unable to hold back a smile. "In the end, I succeeded by accidentally dropping caustic soda into the formula while dozing off."
He knew his own intellect. Though clever, he was far from a genius. His success was born from continuous effort and repeated trials.
"Don't fear failure," Song Qing Shi's eyes softened as he saw Yue Wu Huan approaching from the peach grove, "Each failure helps eliminate one wrong path. As long as you don't give up, you'll eventually find the correct answer."
As he prepared to leave, Rong Ye couldn't resist asking, "Sovereign, do you still fail?"
Medicine King Immortal Sovereign was already a Nascent Soul cultivator and the foremost doctor in the realm. Everyone said there wasn't a pill he couldn't craft or a patient he couldn't cure.
Standing at the doorway, Song Qing Shi turned back, "I'm always failing."
In the golden glow of twilight, the tenderness on his face, intended for someone else, was witnessed by everyone, as though they had caught a glimpse of the most beautiful emotion—something to be yearned for and envied.
Song Qing Shi walked over to Yue Wu Huan, and the two chatted and laughed as they departed.
Rong Ye looked at Yue Wu Huan and thought back to the beautiful mermaid pearl that was now affixed to a new jade pendant on Yue Wu Huan's waist. The pendant was made of top-grade dragon jade, milky white with a golden streak running through it, like a gold dragon concealed among clouds. It even emitted a faint water elemental aura that nourished wood elemental meridians.
Had Lord Wu Huan stayed in the Fu Ling Palace last night? And now, he had a new jade pendant?
Sister Qing Luan always insisted that the relationship between Lord Wu Huan and the Sovereign was not intimate, urging everyone not to gossip. Ming Hong and Qing Yun believed her, thinking the two simply discussed academics, solved math problems, and researched formations in the bedchamber. Sometimes they'd sleep together merely because it got too late to change rooms.
He had subtly voiced objections before.
Ming Hong was clueless: "What could two grown men possibly do?"
Rong Ye nearly fainted, "Have you forgotten how you were almost sold?"
"Where on earth are so many shameless men? Yao Wang Gu doesn't have any of that nonsense," Ming Hong, clearly a case of a 'healed wound forgotten', staunchly defended the integrity of their benefactor, "Our Sovereign is not that kind of person! He would never do anything disgusting to Brother Wu Huan!"
Listening to this, the corner of Rong Ye's mouth twitched uncontrollably...
There were actually several same-sex couples in Yao Wang Gu. Yet, Ming Hong was blind to it all, even to his friend Rong Ye's own orientation, which leaned towards men. It's why Rong Ye didn't like using the communal baths; he didn't want his body to be ogled. Ming Hong was oblivious to his friend's orientation, unbothered by using the public baths and even inviting Rong Ye several times, praising the comfort of the hot springs...
Had he not known that Ming Hong, despite his aloof appearance, was emotionally obtuse, he might have misunderstood.
He Qing Yun once said that someone had tried to take advantage of Ming Hong in the bathhouse. Ming Hong mistook it for provocation and, in addition to the person's disrespectful words about Qing Luan, beat him so severely that he was bedridden for half a month. After that, no man seemed interested in Ming Hong, while among the female servants, many secretly held a torch for him.
Why were all his friends such fools?
Rong Ye felt a series of heartaches.
He decided to rely on himself after all.
During the seclusion of the Medicine King Celestial Master, Yue Wuhuan managed all the resources. The man noticed Yue Wuhuan's disinterest in women and considered seducing him for some cultivation elixirs. However, Yue Wuhuan's fearsome expression intimidated him. Coupled with Sister Qingluan piling on extra assignments during that period, he felt overwhelmed and eventually abandoned the idea.
He knew that Yue Wuhuan was incredibly intelligent and competent, and deeply trusted; he didn't expect to receive the same level of treatment.
He just wanted to trade his good looks for some advantages to complete his Foundation Building stage.
If he could become a true cultivator, perhaps his mother would no longer condemn him as worthless.
Rong Ye was restless and indecisive.