Against the Gods (Web Novel)

The morning of the second day, Yun Che followed Lan Xueruo to the Blue Wind Imperial Palace.

This was the first time he entered the imperial palace in this life. Yun Che, more or less, had a feeling of being overwhelmed by the luxurious surroundings. The imperial palace’s architecture was naturally luxurious; golden colored tiles glittered under the sunshine in every direction and directly dazzled Yun Che’s eyes.

Lan Xueruo was still plainly dressed. She wouldn’t be recognized by others outside, but within the imperial palace, who wouldn’t be familiar with the only princess of the imperial family. Everywhere they went, every bodyguard and palace maid would all hurriedly bow down as soon as they saw Lan Xueruo, respectfully calling her “Princess Cang Yue”. When following alongside Lan Xueruo, Yun Che did not have to disguise himself or dress up at all. The crown prince and third prince had many eyes within the imperial palace; this incident of him following Lan Xueruo to enter the imperial palace would definitely would be known by the crown prince and third prince before long, but Yun Che didn’t care about this matter. Contrarily, if he disguised himself, and news got out that Princess Cang Yue brought an unfamiliar person to the imperial palace to see the emperor, and the crown prince and third prince could not investigate this person, it could potentially inconvenience Lan Xueruo.

The imperial palace was huge. As Lan Xueruo walked, she also introduced the important structures of the imperial palace to Yun Che. Unintentionally, they had already arrived in front of a grand and imposing palace.

“Here’s my father’s chambers.” Lan Xueruo said with a slightly nervous expression. It was as if she was a normal girl bringing her sweetheart to her parents, and was nervous that she might not gain her parents’ approval.

The passage leading to the palace had a large pond on either side; the lotus flowers in the ponds just happened to be in bloom as its clear water rippled in waves. The green willows brushed alongside the water and the lotus leaves slightly drooped as their flowers faced the wind, permeating the air with a faint sweetness.

“Mn, let’s go in.” Compared to Lan Xueruo, Yun Che was unexpectedly very calm.

With Lan Xueruo at the front, she brought Yun Che towards the emperor’s chambers. As soon as they stepped through the door, they saw an elderly man in a gray robe, who had a beard that hung down to his chest, walk toward them. Although this elderly man was clearly very old, his hair and beard were pitch black; it was evident that he was an expert in maintaining good health. Although far away from him, Yun Che was able to faintly smell the scent of medicine.

Behind the elderly man followed two attendants; although they were only attendants, within the deepest parts of their eyes, their arrogance was clearly visible —— even though they were in the imperial palace.

Seeing this elderly person, Lan Xueruo’s footsteps paused, hurriedly moved forward to meet them, and humbly greeted with respect, “Master Gu, you came. How is my father’s condition?”

Lan Xueruo’s actions caused Yun Che to burst into astonishment. From the way this elderly man dressed, he clearly wasn’t a person of the imperial family, but with her grand identity as the princess, she unexpectedly took the initiative to greet him, and even made a simple salutation… As soon as Lan Xueruo said the two words “Master Gu”, Yun Che’s brows moved slightly; he immediately remembered someone.

“So it was your highness the princess.” The elderly man in turn with a chuckle and very amiable face, “This morning, I received the emperor’s summons so I came to take a look. Last night, the night air was cold and caused the emperor to suffer a little wind chill; it already isn’t an issue. As for the matter of the emperor’s life veins… Sigh, please forgive this old one for his incompetence, I still have not found a way to deal with it.

“Master Gu, please don’t speak in that way, my father’s life veins were already damaged beyond repair, and there is no cure in this world. If my father wasn’t under Master Gu’s care these years, I fear… In short, Master Gu must not blame himself. Cang Yue once again thanks Master Gu for this kindness.” Lan Xueruo said gratefully.

“When Princess Cang Yue says it in that way, it really is overpraising this old one. Your highness, please be at ease, this old one will definitely do his best to ensure the emperor’s health… The emperor is about to retire to bed now, so if your highness wishes to see the emperor, then quickly enter, this old one shall take his leave.”

“Take care, Master Gu.”

The elderly man carried a medicine chest and strolled away with his attendants. Lan Xueruo followed him with her eyes until he left; one could see the respect she had towards this elderly person. It was only when the elderly man was very far away did she turn her gaze back to Yun Che. She explained. “He is the Master Gu that I mentioned before; in these couple of years, my father’s illness was being treated by him. It was only because of Master Gu that my father had been able to struggle with death until now.”

“Is his medical expertise that strong?” Holding his chin on his hand, Yun Che casually asked.

“Master Gu Qiuhong is already one hundred and sixty years old this year. Possessing the title ‘Medical Saint’, his medical expertise is the absolute best in the Blue Wind Empire. He is the publicly recognized as the number one genius doctor. Moreover, not only is Master Gu’s medical expertise very high, he also knows the art of opening profound entrances; he is able to help profound practitioners posteriorly open the three profound entrances of the Sunflower Dew, Vacant Seed and Heart Gate. , Having Master Gu open one’s profound entrances is practically the dream of every single profound practitioner in the Blue Wind Empire. Even the four major sects have always treated Master Gu as a prestigious guest because of that. Every year, they would respectfully request Master Gu to open profound entrances for the core disciples of their sect. Therefore, Master Gu is extremely renowned in the Blue Wind Imperial City. The number of people who request him, owe their lives to him, and owe him favors, is uncountable. Thus, there was never anyone who would dare to offend Master Gu. Otherwise, there would be an uncountable amount of people who would take the initiative to stick up for Master Gu… Including the four major sects: Heavenly Sword Villa, Frozen Cloud Asgard, Xiao Sect, and the Burning Heaven Clan.

While saying this, Lan Xueruo’s had a face full of reverence; she clearly had some admiration within the respect she had towards this Master Gu.

“Medical Saint?” The corners of Yun Che’s mouth drew back, revealing a slightly disdainful frown… Medical saint, was his master’s title. And in his heart, since his master was a medical saint, there was no one else in the world that fits the title of Medical Saint!

“How is this Master Gu like?” Yun Che asked intentionally.

Lan Xueruo said, “Not only are Master Gu’s healing arts high, he also has a benevolent compassionate nature. He never used his status of the number one genius doctor to be haughty, never treated anyone based on their status, and gave medical treatment to impoverished families without receiving payment most of the time. So the public opinion of Master Gu within the Blue Wind Imperial Family is very good; everyone praises and admires him. But, it has been said that he has a bad temper at times; anyone who offends him, or any patient he doesn’t like for any other reason, even if one were to give ten thousand pieces of gold, he would definitely not treat.”

“Oh, is that so… “ Yun Che nodded, “Let’s go, let’s enter and take a look at your father.”

When comparing the ability to observe people, ten Lan Xueruos still could not compare to Yun Che. The first instant Yun Che saw Gu Qiuhong, he could immediately conclude that… this old geezer, was definitely not a good person!

There wasn’t any sort of special reason, and was simply because of a type of feeling; the type of feeling that was nurtured after experiencing an innumerable amount of people trying to kill him, knowledge of every type of evil, and being on the brink of death an unknown amount of times.

Upon entering the chambers, the emperor’s middle aged eunuch immediately went ahead to report.

“Since three years ago when Father suddenly fell ill, he began to spend large portion of his time within his chambers and seldom went out. Because Father’s health was simply too poor, he was unable to bear the slightest bit of wind chill. Even if he were to catch some minor illness, it would still be possible for it to be a danger to his life.” Lan Xueruo said sadly, “With the condition that Father was in, he was no longer capable of managing the affairs of the nation, but my eldest imperial brother and third imperial brother began to act imprudently and had to lead wolves into the household. Afterwards, not only were they disrespectful to Father, they also occasionally tried to coerce Father, which made it impossible for Father to pass on the throne to either of them; he had no other choice but to use his life to stall day by day…”

“Don’t worry.” Yun Che lightly grasped Lan Xueruo’s hand and comforted her, “I’ve already said this before, no matter what illness, as long as it is an illness, I will definitely have a way to cure it.”

These words weren’t Yun Che’s crazy talk. He was the successor of the medical saint; he definitely wouldn’t allow himself to sully his master’s name!

“I believe you.” Lan Xueruo softly replied.

“Your highness, as well as this young fellow, the emperor is waiting for you inside. Please enter.” The middle aged eunuch standing at the door bent at the waist and respectfully saluted.

After entering the emperor’s chambers, Yun Che saw an elderly person leaning on an imperial bed at first glance. Lan Xueruo was nineteen years old, the crown prince would be thirty three in eight days. Logically, the emperor should be around fifty or sixty years old. Having lived in the lap of luxury with countless elixirs and legendary fruits, the emperor shouldn’t look old at that age, but the person on the bed looked withered with a wax yellowed complexion, grizzled white hair, and lifeless expression. He looked like an eighty year old elder past his prime.

Yun Che’s eyebrows abruptly raised. This is…

“Father!” Seeing how bad Cang Wanhe looked, Lan Xueruo’s heart ached. She hurriedly rushed toward the bed and asked worriedly “Just a moment ago, in front of the chamber’s doors, we bumped into Master Gu. He said you caught another cold last night… How do you feel now? Is it a little better?”

“Heh heh,” Cang Wanhe looked towards Lan Xueruo affectionately. Nowadays, he could only feel the warmth of being a parent from this daughter, “It isn’t an issue anymore. We were afraid that you would be overly worried again, so We didn’t tell you. Yue’er, the person you brought with you, shouldn’t you introduce him?”

Yun Che walked forward and cupped his hands: “Blue Wind Profound Palace Inner Palace disciple Yun Che, pays his respects to Your Majesty.”

“Oh? You’re Yun Che?” Cang Wanhe revealed an astounded look, and then started laughing, “Although We have resided in this chamber for a long time, We too, have heard that a youngster with an incomparably shocking talent had emerged from the Blue Wind Profound Palace. He defeated an Inner Palace disciple seven levels above him at such a young age and also successfully wielded the Overlord’s Colossal Sword that no one had been able to use for several hundred years. Simply astonishing.”

Yun Che slightly smiled and said modestly, “Your Majesty is flattering me. This one is just an ordinary disciple of the profound palace who is unworthy of your highness’ praise.”

Yun Che’s words made Lan Xueruo incapable of withstraining her laughter: “Pfft. Junior brother Yun, normally you are overbearing and always have an air of arrogance wherever you go. Why are you suddenly so modest in front of my father today?”

When Cang Wanhe heard the name Yun Che earlier, he only had a slight admiration for him. However, as soon as Lan Xueruo’s words left her mouth, the way Cang Wanhe looked at Yun Che immediately changed; he knew his daughter extremely well, it was the first time he had ever seen his own daughter tease a young male this naturally.

As the Blue Wind Emperor, his eyes were extremely keen. When Lan Xueruo spoke, from the way she looked at Yun Che, Cang Wanhe could see that something wasn’t the quite the same…

Cang Wanhe’s expression did not waver as he kindly asked, “Yue’er, this ‘Junior Brother Yun’ of yours, should be the person you spent two years looking for?”

Last night, she had completely revealed all her secrets and untied the knots in her heart. Lan Xueruo no longer needed to avoid the topic of the Blue Wind Ranking Tournament in front of Yun Che. She calmly nodded and replied, “Yes. In regards to Junior brother Yun’s talent, Father should have already heard about it; I believe that after three years, Junior brother Yun can reach a very high level. He definitely has the possibility of entering the top one hundred… But the reason I brought Junior brother Yun here today, is not just to introduce him to you. Actually, Junior brother Yun is not only very talented in the profound cultivation. He is also versed in the medical arts and even has frequently claimed to be a genius doctor.”

“Oh?” Cang Wanhe’s face revealed his growing interest, “You’re also versed in the medical arts? Could it be that you intend to treat our illness?

“I will try my best.” Yun Che replied somewhat conservatively… From the moment he entered the door, he had been observing Cang Wanhe’s complexion, and gradually began to have a bad premonition.

“Heh heh, good.”

Even Gu Qiuhong couldn’t do anything, so it was impossible for anyone else in the Blue Wind Empire to be able to treat him, let alone a seventeen year old youngster. But Cang Wanhe did not refuse and gently replied, “It's rare for someone to have such compassion, and since you are also the person Yue’er brought over, We naturally do not have any reason to refuse. Only, We have to tell you first, that according to Master Gu, what We have isn’t an illness, but rather permanent damage to our life veins due to accumulated labor; therefore, there is no need to force yourself if you don’t know what to do.”