When the imperial physician arrived at Funing Palace as usual, Su Wen was practicing calligraphy.
"Your Majesty's hand is truly lovely."
Li Fei offered the praise, then casually set a flower she had just picked from the imperial garden down on the desk. "I thought it a pretty thing, so I picked it as a gift for Her Majesty."
Su Wen did not lift her head. "If you truly liked the flower, why not leave it on the branch? You picked it, and so it died."
"When the bloom is ripe for plucking, pluck it; wait not till the blossoms are gone and you grasp at bare branches."
Li Fei drew out the words, weighting each one with meaning.
The tip of Su Wen's brush paused. Then, feigning indifference, she went on writing. "And which man of letters in the immortal realm wrote that?"
"? I wrote it myself, obviously."
Li Fei puffed out her cheeks. "If you don't believe me, come to the immortal realm with me. One question and you'll have the truth."
— Come, come away with her?
The Dragon-Whisker Brush trembled, and a bead of ink bloomed across the paper.
Su Wen's face did not change. She swept the ruined sheet aside, gathered herself, wrote out two more lines, and only then sighed. "You have some small literary talent. It is your eye for calligraphy that is shallow."
— So that's why she suddenly took up calligraphy practice.
Miss Top Courtesan read Su Wen's meaning at once, and laughed. "Set beside Your Majesty's hand, His Majesty's calligraphy is admittedly a bit clumsy… but we physicians have to eat too. One must understand a little of how the world works."
The answer, faintly mercenary and utterly frank, tugged the corner of Her Majesty the Empress's mouth upward, though her voice remained still as an old well. "Yet I have heard you say that a physician should treat all alike, that patients know no rich or poor, noble or base."
"That is my ideal."
Li Fei showed not a trace of fluster, and answered with perfect confidence. "But in reality, when I flatter one rich man, the silver I earn buys medicine that relieves hundreds, thousands of poor people who cannot afford treatment."
"So long as more lives are saved, I'll take on the stink of copper coin with a clear conscience, and gladly."
"Oh? And when you flatter me, is that also for the sake of those patients?"
Su Wen asked it in the most offhand tone.
"…"
Li Fei froze, seemingly astonished that Su Wen would ask her such a thing. Then the light in her eyes dimmed, wounded and aggrieved, and something wet glimmered faintly there.
Su Wen's heart clenched, and she regretted the words the moment they left her.
"What wicked designs could the imperial physician possibly have?"
"You've broken her heart clean through."
"Quick, quick, put your arms around her!"
The demon in the mirror kept murmuring its temptations through her skull.
Su Wen turned her face away, not daring to look at the imperial physician biting her lip in silence, and lifted the sheet she had just written. "Since you are fond of calligraphy, I shall bestow this piece upon you."
"Th-then… thank you, Your Majesty."
Li Fei stole a few glances upward and mumbled her thanks, still sounding a little sulky, though both hands received the scroll with the greatest care.
Only when she caught the smile spreading helplessly across the imperial physician's face did the weight lift slowly from Su Wen's chest.
"Then, Your Majesty, may today's treatment begin?"
The imperial physician asked it out of nowhere.
— The illness is cured now. As the model for all women under heaven, would it not be too low of me to conceal my condition on purpose, to be alone with her under the pretense of treatment?
— And besides, during the treatment there are always those shameful reactions. Will she think that I am…
Faced with the question, Su Wen's thoughts churned, and no answer came.
"Your Majesty, the treatment… shall we still do it?"
When she got no reply, Li Fei could not keep from asking again.
"We shall."
Su Wen turned and walked straight toward the bathing pool.
Water surged and churned, and then came a soft knocking at the door.
"Mistress, His Majesty has come."
The palace maid called from outside.
No one answered. From within came only a burst of frantic splashing, and after a moment she heard a broken, halting voice.
"T-tell… tell him… mm, I, hss… I am, am undergoing treatment, no, ngh… cannot be distracted…"
Beneath the panting tremor of that voice, the sloshing of water never once subsided.
"This…"
The maid's face twisted with difficulty. She hesitated a while before going to report to the emperor waiting not far off.
"The Empress's health comes first. Do not disturb Minister Li; I shall wait."
Zhao Bing was in no hurry. A eunuch behind him produced a chair from somewhere and settled him into it, while a maid hurried off to prepare tea.
A long while passed before the door swung slowly open.
Su Wen appeared to have spent no small amount of strength. Her face was flushed peach-blossom pink, the bosom that mothered the realm rose and fell, and her steps were soft and strengthless, her long legs trembling faintly beneath her.
Zhao Bing rose at the sight of her, smiling. "The Empress's color is far better than before — she positively glows. Minister Li, you have gone to great trouble."
"No trouble at all, no trouble. Serving Her Majesty is only my duty," said Li Fei, stepping out a pace behind her and shaking the water from her hands, all modesty.
Her gaze passed over the pair of them, and no matter how she looked, the two standing side by side struck her as wrong, mismatched — no affection of husband and wife, no pairing of talent and beauty; if anything, the arrangement only made the emperor look short and unremarkable.
— The dog emperor isn't worthy. I am!
While Li Fei preened over that thought, the emperor was still going on.
"Minister, do not be so modest. To cure so stubborn an ailment — I must thank you properly… The other honored ladies of the palace also hold the immortal realm's medicine in the deepest admiration. I shall have to trouble you often from now on."
Zhao Bing's praise was heartfelt.
The imperial physician found it all quite gratifying and pleasant, but Su Wen's expression grew steadily more strained.
Here in this palace, the imperial physician got to cuddle up to the emperor's own wife, collect the emperor's reward money, and afterward be thanked by the emperor himself — who then went on to recommend other consorts to her, unprompted. It was… strange.
At last Su Wen could listen to no more, and cut in. "Your Majesty, I must leave the palace to see an old acquaintance—"
"Then the Empress may go as she pleases. Minister Li, come along with me."
Zhao Bing waved a hand, wholly unconcerned.
In that much, at least, Zhao Bing truly was generous by nature: Su Wen's heart might be locked inside these palace walls, but her body could pass through the great gates whenever she wished.
"What service may I render Your Majesty?"
Li Fei followed Zhao Bing out of Funing Palace and asked it without so much as a flicker of expression.
With the wronged party right in front of her and a squad of imperial guards at her back, the imperial physician's pulse thumped a little — surely no palace maid had been eavesdropping at the wall, misunderstood something, and denounced her for defiling the imperial household?
To be hunted down over that would be a terrible injustice!
After all, Miss Top Courtesan might have no morals, but she had a very strong professional ethic!
Which was why, while conducting Her Majesty's treatment, Li Fei had not employed the slightest extraordinary means — she had not even switched on her Sensitivity Aura. Pure handcraft, no adulteration whatsoever! Otherwise, one dose of [Bliss] plus [Charm Humanoid Creature] and Su Wen, however cold her temperament and however profound her attainment in the Meditation Method, would have lost her last line of defense long ago.
In truth, she only resorted to tricks from outside the board when dealing with the female ghosts, who were defeated captives and subordinates. In the courtship phase she disdained to lean on extraordinary power — like a swordsman who still keeps faith with the blade in his hand in the age of firearms, pursuing the utmost of the way with his whole heart rather than relying on outside implements.
What? Grace? She poured a defective potion down her own throat. What does that have to do with one Li Fei? Hands on hips.
Just as Li Fei's mind was wandering, Zhao Bing spoke up with a chuckle and dispelled her worries.
"I've come to find you with good news, naturally."
"Did I not promise last night that you might choose three items from the Inner Treasury?"
"No day is better than today. Let the minister see for herself what the Great Song has hoarded across a thousand years."
"Your servant thanks Your Majesty for this great favor!"
Li Fei's eyes lit up, and her step turned noticeably lighter.
Even a wrecked ship keeps three parts of its nails. However far gone the Great Song's sickness was, it remained an extraordinary dynasty a thousand years old; at its height it had produced more than one Saint Realm power. It must have accumulated quite a store, and Li Fei looked forward to it keenly.
Before long the party arrived before a heavily guarded vault. Incantation-sigils painted in cinnabar covered the ground, radiating a pressure that set the heart shuddering.
Zhao Bing stepped forward, produced a token, and intoned a string of syllables.
Seconds later the token blazed with light, and the heavy iron doors, breathing cold vapor, boomed open.
"Come in and have a look."
"Yes."
Li Fei followed Zhao Bing as bidden into a long corridor, treasure-pearls set along both walls giving off a soft blue glow.
Fifty paces on, the space opened wide. Zhao Bing touched a mechanism in the wall, and light flared across the vaulted ceiling, illuminating the treasury.
Antique wooden racks lined the walls, displaying several dozen items: a longsword still shining, a shattered suit of armor mottled with rust, a gourd of celestial blue, ancient books gone yellow with age, and even a single skull with black qi coiling faintly about it — clearly refined into some sort of talismanic implement.
Li Fei swept her gaze around and found that this so-called Inner Treasury, spacious as it was, held very little on display. Only a few dozen pieces. Every one of them, presumably, a rarity.
"Choose three. But once chosen, there is no going back on it," Zhao Bing said mildly.
"Then I shall obey rather than stand on ceremony."
Li Fei walked straight up and let her fingertips brush across every item in turn. With the inhuman memory granted by her extreme Intelligence, a single glance was enough; Miss System's readouts settled clear as day in her mind.
Then she fell to thinking.
This Inner Treasury did indeed hold extraordinary items that touched the Saint Realm — that is, the Sequence 4 tier.
However, the very best of them had either been hidden away or already claimed by other meritorious officials. Even appraising each piece one by one, Li Fei failed to find a single complete [Blazing Sun] grade item; she could only glimpse, through fragments of description, the connections between certain extraordinary items and the great powers of the Saint Realm.
For instance…
Li Fei glanced at a book bound in dark red, then looked back at the emperor. "Your Majesty, I have made my choices."
So soon?
Zhao Bing was rather taken aback.
He had deliberately declined to introduce any of the collection, holding a certain testing intent, curious how sharp an immortal maiden's eye might be. He had not expected Li Fei to skim the circuit like a dragonfly grazing water, muse for a moment, and be done.
"Your servant was born with the Heavenly Eye, and can discern the essence of things," Li Fei said with a light smile.
"In the immortal realm, Minister Li must be counted a prodigy of heaven's own making," Zhao Bing said in admiration. "Then Minister Li may help herself."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Li Fei turned and without hesitation picked up the gourd first.
The gourd looked to have been carved and polished from fine jade, beautiful in a way that seemed born rather than made.
Yet it lacked jade's warmth in the hand. It felt instead like porcelain steeped in well water, threads of chill seeping through her skin into her palm.
[Myriad Ghost Gourd]
Description: Can contain ghost entities. Contained ghosts recover energy rapidly; possesses a considerable nourishing effect upon ghost qi. Capacity 0/10000.
As things stood, the Myriad Ghost Gourd was more than roomy enough to hold both the [Qian] and [Kun] divisions. But given the limits of the [Soul Gathering] secret art, the female ghosts would have to number at least a thousand before the fused Ghost Giant could threaten a Middle Sequence expert — and until that threshold was reached, the female ghosts could serve only as maids and sentries, no different in essence from a Sequence 9 sprite.
Li Fei had already worked out where to get more female ghosts, which made a larger ghost-storage vessel indispensable.
She paused a moment and glanced at her Wealth Points. The total had not budged.
Just as expected. Items exchanged for with system lottery prizes do not count toward Wealth Points.
Li Fei sighed soundlessly to herself.
Prizes won from the lottery added nothing to Wealth Points, and so Li Fei had long since guessed that even if she resold a prize or bartered it away, she would gain no Wealth Points from it.
The unmoved figure before her now confirmed that guess — after all, this chance to pick from the Inner Treasury's holdings had, in the end, been bought with the [Fountain of Nature].
Faced with a theory freshly verified, Li Fei felt no surprise, but a certain disappointment was unavoidable. If prizes could be cashed out into Wealth Points, she would genuinely have considered selling that mythic-grade necklace; an unawakened divine artifact was useful, true, but set against a colossal sum of Wealth Points it still paled in comparison.
With her answer settled, Li Fei decisively gave up the ancient suit of armor — probably the most valuable piece here, and of little use to her — and picked up a bronze ring instead. If Wealth Points were coming in, then naturally one picked the most expensive thing; but since Wealth Points would not rise, Li Fei simply swung her aim around and chose what suited her.
She hefted the ring twice, then laid it flat on her palm and lowered her eyes to study it.
Seen from above, the ring's outer edge was a smooth, regular dodecagon with a circular hollow at the center, its inner diameter wide enough to encircle her index and middle fingers held together — like an oversized nut.
The texture resembled brass, though glossier, and it was cold; colder than the Myriad Ghost Gourd. The Inner Treasury was only a few degrees cooler than the outside air, yet gripped in her hand this bronze ring was like a block of ice that would never melt, chill pressing steadily into her palm.
If an ordinary person held it, their hand would likely be frozen stiff within minutes.
"Minister Li, that is a fox spirit's—"
Seeing her choice, Zhao Bing could not stop himself from offering a warning.
"Didn't Hero Nie tell you that I have a tail too?" Li Fei smiled. "This one it is."
[Binding Love]
Equipment Grade: Dawnlight
Attributes: Tail binding force +100%; tail sensitivity, attack speed +50%; tail fluid-ejection speed, flexibility +30%; tail nerve reflex speed, perception +20%; tail physical penetration, burst force +10%… tail Strength, Stamina, Agility +30, tail Charm +50; can increase the sensitivity of any target the tail touches; targets bound by the tail are randomly afflicted with [Weakness], [Charm Creature], [Blind Obedience], [Enslavement], [High-Concentration Dopamine], [High-Concentration Pheromones]… and other statuses, stackable.
Description: Indescribable.
Clearly, a lewd and powerful tail deserved lewd and powerful equipment.
This Dawnlight-grade tail ring boosted formidable attributes, and its other aspects were no less lavish — very much to Li Fei's taste. If the ring's [High-Concentration Dopamine] and similar statuses could stack with the [High-Concentration Dopamine] and similar statuses native to the succubus tail, achieving a doubled [High-Concentration Dopamine]… Li Fei would be willing to call it a divine artifact.
More than that, the tail ring fully demonstrated the advantages of hanging plenty of accessories on oneself: not only did it make things easier when a girlfriend put her back into it, it also let her stack extra gear in a fight. Even the added cost could not curb Li Fei's growing fondness for the spell-like ability [Partial Transformation: Succubus Empress].
Of course, given the item's name and its ice-like temperature, Miss Tail might need some time to adjust…
"Phew."
Stowing the tail ring away with care, Li Fei finally reached for the last item.
"Minister Li, not that one."
The moment he saw what she had chosen, Zhao Bing's face changed utterly, and his hand shot out to stop her.
____
________________________________________
💖 Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 50 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter to warm your hearts.
🚀 Community Reward: If we reach 20 supporting members, we'll have a +5 chapter marathon across all stories! The romance won't stop.
👻 Come to our secret corner: Search for GirlsLove on (P). You know that's where the magic happens... 😉