After breaking through the restraints of the Sleeping Palace’s ward, Ling Muxue’s nimble fingers swiftly formed a hand seal.
In an instant, a nearly transparent Hidden Traces Talisman melted into her body, blurring her aura and form as though she was shrouded in a veil of flowing silk.
Like a bird in flight, Ling Muxue sped between the dark shadows cast by the palace walls beneath the pale moonlight.
Suddenly, a strange feeling lingered in her heart. The palace, which ought to be tightly guarded on such a deep night, felt unusually slack at this moment.
The usual patrols, both obvious and hidden, seemed to have vanished into thin air.
The entire royal palace was submerged in a bizarre and profound silence, with only her own heartbeat drumming loudly in her ears.
Ling Muxue forcefully suppressed the turmoil of stray thoughts within her. The urgency to save someone devoured all doubts like a raging fire.
Gritting her teeth, she darted through the deep palace corridors, finally coming to a sudden halt before a secluded, unremarkable Old Side Palace, its surface even covered in a thin layer of dust.
She took a deep breath. Without hesitation, the sharp nails of her right claw slashed harshly across the palm of her left hand.
“Drip.”
A drop of scorching blood, faintly tinged with a golden royal glow, fell onto the cold, black stone before the hall, leaving behind a small, dark red stain.
“Buzz—!”
Almost the moment the blood touched the ground, the surface of the heavy palace doors lit up with a web-like network of intricate, nearly invisible gray runes.
Immediately after, the doors slid silently inward, revealing a deep, shadowy corridor beyond.
Without hesitation, Ling Muxue shot inside like a bolt of lightning.
She didn’t spare a glance for the mountains of rare treasures piled within the hall; her gaze, sharp as the keenest falcon, swept wildly around.
Her eyes quickly skimmed over the dazzling brilliance and fixed on a shelf in the corner, thick with accumulated dust.
There, a small jade bottle, lustrous white and smooth as mutton-fat jade, stood quietly—precisely the Nirvana Elixir.
“Found it!”
A surge of wild joy gripped Ling Muxue’s heart.
She lunged forward, snatching the jade bottle into her grasp, the cool, fine texture making it feel as though she was clutching her last hope.
Forcing down the excitement that almost escaped her throat, she hurriedly restored everything to its original state, turned without a backward glance, and dashed out of the treasury, her figure quickly dissolving into the night as she sped toward the dreaded Palace Dungeon deep within the royal palace.
Just as Ling Muxue’s figure disappeared at the end of the corridor leading to the dungeon, a tall, imposing figure, weary yet dignified, slowly stepped out from the shadows beside the Old Side Palace.
Ling Ze stood with hands clasped behind his back, his gaze as deep and cold as a winter pool, silently watching in the direction his daughter had vanished, saying nothing for a long time.
The night cast a deep shadow across his sharply defined face.
After a long while, a heavy sigh slipped quietly from between his lips and teeth: “Ah… Just as Lu Qiancha predicted…”
His daughter, in the end, had still stepped into the forbidden grounds of the royal clan for that demon, personally stealing the last remaining Nirvana Elixir.
He swept away the tumultuous emotions from his eyes, the mask of an emperor settling once more over his face. Turning, he strode with heavy yet resolute steps toward the brightly lit Sleeping Palace.
Tomorrow, a carefully prepared grand performance awaited her. He needed to rest and recover his strength.
***
As dawn broke, the horizon grew pale and the golden rooster’s crow roused the sleeping royal palace.
Ling Muxue awoke in the Sleeping Palace, clear-headed and refreshed.
However, this brief tranquility was shattered in an instant by a frantic knocking at the door.
“Knock knock knock!”
Ling Muxue: “?!”
Ling Muxue’s heart dropped suddenly, startled by the knocking. Had her theft of the medicine last night been discovered?
With a heavy heart, she walked to the door and slowly opened it. Outside, a maid’s face was full of anxiety, her voice tinged with tears: “Your Highness! Please, save Sun Nian!”
“Sun Nian? What happened to Sun Nian?!”
Realizing it was about Sun Nian and not her own crime being exposed, Ling Muxue’s heart relaxed for a moment, only to be seized again by that familiar name, her voice rising sharply.
“This morning, Sun Nian went to pick berries in the forest outside the city to brew your favorite sweet wine, but she was bitten by a venomous snake.”
“Although the guards accompanying her killed the snake, the poison had spread too deeply. By the time they returned, it had already circulated through her body.”
The maid’s hurried words made the situation clear.
The news struck like a bolt from the blue. Ling Muxue’s already tense face turned instantly pale as paper, her voice trembling: “How could this happen?! Hurry! Take me to her!”
The guards at the door, hearing it was about Sun Nian, did not stop her, only insisting on accompanying as escorts.
“Fine, whatever! Just lead the way!”
Ling Muxue was desperate with worry, tears nearly overflowing. She had lost her mother at a young age, and it was Sun Nian who had raised her single-handedly.
In Ling Muxue’s heart, Sun Nian was her mother in all but blood. Her loss of composure at this moment was understandable.
The maid dared not delay, immediately leading Ling Muxue and the guards in haste toward Sun Nian’s small courtyard.
***
Moments later.
Ling Muxue stepped into a bedroom thick with the scent of medicinal herbs.
On the sickbed, a wolf-tribe elder with a kind face but ashen complexion lay with her eyes half-closed, her breath weak and shallow, uncertain if she was resting or in the throes of her final agony.
“Sun Nian!”
Ling Muxue could no longer contain herself, crying out in grief as she rushed to the bedside, tears streaming down her face.
Hearing the call, Sun Nian struggled to open her clouded eyes. Seeing who it was, she forced a loving smile: “It’s Xiaoxue…”
Her voice was frail, broken and intermittent. “Xiaoxue… I’m leaving. Who will make sweet wine for you in the future? I so wanted to see you grow up… get married… but it seems… I won’t live to see it…”
Her rough hand trembled as she tried to wipe away Ling Muxue’s tears, but she was almost too weak.
“Sun Nian! No! You can’t die! I won’t let you go!”
Ling Muxue clung tightly to that aged hand, crying and begging in anguish.
Suddenly, she whipped her head around, her gaze like a blade toward the physician standing respectfully to the side: “Doctor! Why are you just standing there! Save her, hurry!”
The physician bowed even lower, his voice heavy but clear: “Your Highness, forgive me! Sun Nian’s poisoning is too severe, it has reached her organs. Ordinary antidotes are useless now.
“She could see Your Highness now only because of medicine barely holding her life, and… because Sun Nian’s concern for you sustains her last bit of consciousness.”
That decisive declaration instantly plunged Ling Muxue into the abyss of despair.
“No, there must be a way! There must be a way to save Sun Nian! Doctor, tell me, there’s a way, isn’t there?!”
Ling Muxue, nearly mad with desperation, stared at the physician, her eyes filled with a final, crazed hope.
The physician was silent for a moment, finally murmuring, “There… is one way left.”
“What way? Tell me!”
Hope flared instantly in Ling Muxue’s eyes.
“All that’s needed is a bottle of Nirvana Elixir.”
The physician spoke calmly, then added, “Nirvana Elixir can bring back the dead and restore flesh to bones. Lifting the serpent’s venom is a trivial matter.”
“What’s more, after taking the elixir, Sun Nian would not only recover but could also be reborn, advance further on the path of cultivation, and extend her life.”
“Nirvana Elixir?!”
Ling Muxue’s breath caught, her heart squeezed as if by an iron fist. Clenching her fists, she rose abruptly and said to the guards behind her with fierce resolve, “I’ll go ask Father for it!”