The Empress Dowager sighed. "You have no antidote, is that it?"

The physicians wore expressions of shame and lowered their heads in silence.

The Empress Dowager caught her breath, her gaze falling upon Shen Mu. "Young divine physician, and you?"

"This subject has a way to cure it."

Shen Mu smiled faintly. "But this subject needs to know what medicines the Empress Dowager has taken since being poisoned, and what the prescriptions were. Give them to me as quickly as possible. Also, I need one thousand and twenty-three palace maids, along with writing brushes, ink, and one thousand and twenty-three placards."

The Empress Dowager waved a hand and said weakly, "Go and see it done at once."

Before long, brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones were prepared. The various palaces of the rear harem bustled about, summoning palace maids from every palace and courtyard. The Imperial Physician Office was also compiling which medicines the Empress Dowager had taken over the years of her illness.

Shen Mu took up his brush and wrote on each placard the name of a poison and a number. He worked until midnight before finishing. Outside the hall, lanterns blazed brightly, and over a thousand palace maids stood in silence.

Shen Mu ordered the placards distributed. Each palace maid held a placard bearing the name of a poison. Shen Mu had them arrange themselves in sequence into a peculiar formation—a highly complex formation composed of multiple patterns. The first pattern had only one palace maid standing with her placard; the second pattern had two maids; the third, four; then a pattern of eight maids, then sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, one hundred twenty-eight, two hundred fifty-six, five hundred twelve.

After the maids were arranged, Shen Mu examined the prescriptions the Empress Dowager had taken over the years. Starting from the first prescription, after reading it, he immediately called out numbers one by one, having the maids swap positions upon hearing their numbers.

The formation of a thousand people shifted at once. Then Shen Mu read the second prescription, again called out numbers, had the maids whose numbers were called swap positions, and the formation changed again.

Shen Mu read through the prescriptions one by one, and the formation changed again and again, the maids' positions shifting again and again.

The several physicians wore expressions of utter shock. A white-haired elderly physician said tremulously, "To think I would see such a method in my lifetime—truly, I could die content!"

The other three physicians nodded repeatedly and sighed. "We had somewhat underestimated him at first, never imagining he could recognize the Thousand Mechanisms Poison and use such a wondrous method to calculate how far the poison has progressed!"

The physicians sighed in admiration repeatedly. Shen Mu had these thousand-plus palace maids stand holding placards to form the structure of mutual restraint among the various toxins after the Thousand Mechanisms Poison had matured, and then, based on the effects of the medicines the Empress Dowager had taken upon the structure of the Thousand Mechanisms Poison, he changed the maids' positions.

These thousand-plus palace maids formed a massive, complex heterogeneous abacus, the maids themselves being the abacus beads, allowing him to calculate to what stage the Thousand Mechanisms Poison had now progressed within the Empress Dowager's body.

Such a method was divinely ingenious, leaving even these physicians in admiration.

Shen Mu calculated until dawn, finally finishing all the prescriptions. The palace maids, having stood holding placards all night, were exhausted. Shen Mu looked at their final positions, the placards in their hands, and the final formation of the thousand poisons. He pondered for a long while, then closed his eyes.

After another long while, Shen Mu opened his eyes and took up his brush to write a pill formula.

The physicians crowded forward and looked down. One after another they nodded repeatedly, so stirred they nearly danced with excitement.

Lord Yan also leaned in to look, but could not understand it. He lowered his voice. "Physicians, how is this formula?"

Physician Qu gazed at Shen Mu with worship and praised, "The pill formula is wondrously beautiful, magnificent as a song! The young divine physician has used the method of substitution, replacing the central great poison within the Thousand Mechanisms Poison with another poison. Do you see? That one! Once this one is replaced, the other one thousand and twenty-two poisons counteract one another, and the toxicity dissolves of itself! Magnificent, truly magnificent!"

Another physician, You, praised, "Physician Xiao did not die unjustly. To die before the young divine physician—he died in the right place!"

Lord Yan shook his head and thought, "Physicians are all madmen. What is so magnificent about this? The key is whether it works. If it does not, neither my office nor his head will stay on!"