Chapter 366: Recovery

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From the first blow to the last, the battle between Emperors takes a little over a minute.

Words cannot describe the silence that falls over the Empire during that one minute. Even as earthquakes rock the nation and day turns to night, the people hold their tongues in awe. Soldiers drop their weapons, and the puppets they are fighting fall over. Enemies and allies alike all understand that they will never forgive themselves if they give a battle between Emperors anything less than their full attention.

Even in Storm Dragon Palace’s war room, no one dares utter a word. The reports have stopped coming. The strong quakes knock over the figurines on the war map one after another, but no one tries to pick them up. Grizzled soldiers and dignified nobles strain their senses to their utmost, trying to follow the battle as best as they can and flinching with every hit.

When General Nie Dan emerges victorious, the relief is palpable. A man jumps and lets out a whoop of joy. Another one praises the Heavens. People hug each other and laugh. Some have tears in their eyes. More than one person collapses, finding their legs have lost all strength.

Emperor Qing Jin remembers to breathe.

He brings his hands together and leans back into his seat. The support of the fine wood is the only thing that keeps his back straight. Liu Jin is more tired than he remembers being in a long time. Just sensing the battle might have advanced his cultivation in ways he cannot quite grasp yet.

They won.

A grin tugs on his face, but he fights it. The Emperor must be calm and collected at all times so that his subjects may take comfort in his unshakable demeanor. Or so General Nie Dan claimed. Listening to his advice seems fitting at the moment.

“Status report,” he says.

His words, which he somehow delivers without stuttering or sounding breathless, break the haze that had taken over the war room. His advisors remember themselves. Figurines are picked up, the war map is reorganized, and everyone’s seats are put back into place. Reports soon resume as the country emerges from its stupor.

“The enemy is retreating, Your Majesty! The puppets are disappearing from all battlefields! Many are being left abandoned!”

“We must hunt down the puppeteers!”

“Belay that,” Liu Jin says. “Let them flee. They will act as our messengers. The Temple of the Thousand Shadows needs to know they have been beaten tonight.”

As amusing as keeping the Temple of the Thousand Shadows in the dark would be, Liu Jin needs them to learn the role the Death Fashioning Scripture played tonight. Letting their men go is the best way to accomplish that.

“I-Of course, Your Majesty,” the soldier says, nodding nervously.

“The damage caused by General Nie Dan’s battle with the Emperor of the Temple of Thousand Shadows is still hard to estimate, but no populated areas were caught in the final blast!”

The men cheer once more, but Liu Jin feels uneasy. General Nie Dan deliberately took that fight several miles into the sky to avoid collateral damage. Despite that, the entire country trembled under his power. He wouldn’t be surprised if more than a few houses collapsed because of the quakes.

What is going to happen when more Emperors step into the field?

“Casualties are still being estimated,” a soldier says as more information arrives. “We are looking at several thousand injured. The medical corps are already mobilizing. However, deaths seem to be minimal.”

Minimal but not zero. That was always the best outcome he could have hoped for. Liu Jin came to terms with that a long time ago.

He still cannot feel good about it.

“Early reports indicate that General Peng and his men suffered no casualties. The same seems to be true for the members of the Eternal Flame Clan and Divine Frozen Palace! They led the charge against the Temple of the Thousand Shadows and prevented much damage!”

Liu Jin visibly relaxes. His trust in Huang Shing and the others runs deep. Even so, against those from the other side of the Dead Plains, one can never be certain of anything. Had any of them fallen tonight…

No, he’d rather not think about it.

“Your Majesty! Urgent message from your Imperial Uncle!” A man shouts as he bursts into the room. “He has made contact with General Nie Dan and his lordship the Duke! He is bringing them back as we speak! Lord Feng Zhuo has already left to help speed up their retrieval!”

So that’s why he felt his Qi leaving the palace. Liu Jin breathes a sigh of relief and stands up.

“Your Majesty?” Minister Chu asks, confused as Liu Jin heads for the door. “The meeting is still-”

“We have two Emperors in dire need of medical treatment, and I’m the best doctor in the Empire,” Liu Jin says. “If we want to keep having two Emperors, you will understand why this meeting must continue without me. I trust you to make a full report later. Does anyone have any objections?”

No one does.

~~~

The possibility of General Nie Dan encountering a fellow emperor on the battlefield has always existed. Liu Jin might not have expected it to happen during the first night of the war, but he always knew it would happen. As such, he has already procured countless ointments, remedies, and miraculous pills with which to treat the Heavenly General.

Liu Jin still feels woefully unprepared when Feng Zhuo places the charred body of General Nie Dan before him. If it weren’t for the Qi radiating from him, Liu Jin would mistake him for a corpse.

The Duke is in a far better state. Severe burns, broken ribs, and a slowly healing hole in his stomach all fall within what can be expected from a clash of high-level cultivators. Liu Jin only needs to give a few instructions to the palace doctors before taking General Nie Dan into a specially prepared room.

As an Emperor, General Nie Dan represents a significant fraction of their fighting force. They cannot allow him to remain wounded for long. However, it is because he is an Emperor that treating him is such a daunting proposition. An Emperor Qi’s will naturally lash out to protect him, destroying lesser cultivators. It is only because they are in the Storm Dragon Palace that Liu Jin dares to try.

There is nothing that can be done to heal skin that’s already charred, meaning Liu Jin needs to cut an Emperor’s flesh before anything can be done. It might not be as inherently dangerous as modifying the general’s meridians would be, but it is nerve-wracking from the first cut and takes hours of work. General Nie Dan somehow regains consciousness during the procedure. It gives Liu Jin quite a fright, but it also allows the general to help by purposefully lowering his physical toughness.

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After all the dead flesh has been removed, Liu Jin gives pills to the general and applies ointment to his injuries. One needle after another appears in Liu Jin’s hand, always softly glowing with Qi as he targets the general’s acupoints with unerring precision, stimulating and guiding the flow of his Qi to speed up his recovery. The general’s body almost looks like a pincushion by the time Liu Jin is halfway done.

By the end of it all, General Nie Dan is completely covered in bandages, but his physical injuries should be healed in about a week. It is not ideal, but it is the best Liu Jin can do for now. If he became the Storm Dragon once more, he would be able to do better, but…

Liu Jin wipes the sweat from his forehead as he leaves General Nie Dan alone so he might heal in peace. His whole body hurts, and his Qi has been pushed to the limit. Even with all his advantages, healing an Emperor is not an easy thing to do. It’s a reminder of how much more he needs to climb, but right now, he just wants to lay his head down and rest.

The Duke has other ideas.

“It is time we talked,” the Duke says, looking down at him. Liu Jin is not sure how long he has been waiting outside the treatment room, but it can’t have been from the beginning. His injuries have been bandaged, and he has received new robes.