Feng Xiyun stared at An Ning in disbelief.

She couldn’t believe it, couldn’t believe An Ning was this formidable.

She couldn’t believe that An Ning really relied just on her sense of smell to tell what every single drug was!

But at this moment, she no longer had the luxury of disbelief.

An Ning hadn’t gotten a single poison wrong; she had even reported the dosage of each one with absolute precision.

Feng Xiyun’s eyes bulged, her whole body went rigid, as if her soul had suddenly flown out of her body, leaving only an empty shell.

She was so stunned she could no longer think.

And it wasn’t just Feng Xiyun.

The military doctor, Xie Ruotong, and Yuan Wenkang were all dumbstruck by the Empress’s astonishing ability, their jaws hanging open.

The Empress’s medical skills were no longer just a "Hua Tuo reborn."

They were that of a living immortal.

Only an immortal could reach such a terrifying level!

"Now that I know the components of the poison, do you think creating an antidote will still be hard?" An Ning asked Feng Xiyun.

Feng Xiyun’s eyes seemed to flicker.

She simply couldn’t accept anything An Ning had just said.

She couldn’t accept it.

She was being trampled and crushed under An Ning’s heel!

She had always thought she was smart enough, that her medical skills were brilliant enough, had always thought she wasn’t much worse than An Ning.

Only now did she realize—

The gap between them was actually this vast!

She even began to doubt whether the woman standing in front of her, An Ning, was even human at all!

She broke down completely.

In that instant, it was as if all strength left her body; she went limp, and only by being propped up by two guards could she just barely avoid collapsing face-first onto the ground in utter disgrace.

"I’d originally intended to let you die earlier to end this once and for all; I could scarcely be bothered to waste time on you. But you, Feng Xiyun, truly don’t know what’s good for you! Since you’re so stubborn, then I’ll let you see with your own eyes exactly how I cure Gao Ziyue, and how you are driven onto a dead end by your own so-called cleverness!"

"No, no..." Feng Xiyun shook her head.

She didn’t want to see it.

She didn’t want to see An Ning get everything she wanted.

She didn’t want to see herself lose so utterly and completely.

"Kill me, kill me!" Feng Xiyun screamed.

This time she truly didn’t want to go on living.

She didn’t want to exist as nothing but a disgrace, a joke.

She had thought she could take revenge, could scheme against all under heaven.

Yet instead she had been humiliated by An Ning to the very extreme!

She couldn’t accept seeing herself collapse like this.

She couldn’t accept such a miserable, crushing defeat in life.

An Ning turned a deaf ear to Feng Xiyun’s breakdown.

She calmed herself, took up the brush and ink on the inkstone, and began writing out the antidote prescription, meticulous and utterly focused.

Not even the time of one stick of incense passed.

An Ning set the brush down.

She picked up the prescription and walked over to Feng Xiyun.

Feng Xiyun didn’t want to see An Ning anymore.

She didn’t even want a single glance.

She couldn’t accept seeing herself in such a wretched, degraded state.

She couldn’t accept An Ning parading her triumph in front of her like this.

An Ning placed the prescription in front of Feng Xiyun. "Is this how the antidote is compounded?"

Feng Xiyun kept her eyes tightly shut.

She didn’t want to look.

She didn’t want to witness her own disgrace.

She would rather deceive herself.

But An Ning had no intention of giving Feng Xiyun the chance to lie to herself.

In her pleasant voice, she read out the prescription slowly, enunciating every word, neither hurried nor dragging it out.

Feng Xiyun tried to cover her ears, but the guards restrained her brutally.

Just like that, she was forced to hear every word of An Ning’s prescription, crystal clear.

It was identical to her own antidote formula.

Feng Xiyun crumbled completely.

In the end, she had still failed to outwit An Ning.

In the end, she was nothing but a joke before An Ning, utterly vulnerable, unable to withstand a single blow.

Back when Bai Mowan fell from power, she had once scoffed at her.

She had wondered just how stupid Bai Mowan had to be to fall into An Ning’s hands while holding such great military power. If she herself had possessed Bai Mowan’s strength, the Empress’s seat would have long been hers with absolute stability—how could anyone else have had a chance, how could it have ended up in An Ning’s hands?

Now she knew she had been the one overestimating herself.

She had never been a match for An Ning.

She could only end up with a fate so tragic it could hardly be looked at.

Feng Xiyun started laughing again.

This time, her laughter was vacant, hysterical...

A total collapse of the mind was the greatest torment a person could suffer.

An Ning felt it was enough.

She had never had a hobby of tormenting people.

Nor did she have any desire to kill.

Of course, Feng Xiyun was an exception.

She handed the prescription to the military doctor. "Decoct this immediately."

"Yes." The military doctor hurriedly took it.

Although he was somewhat frightened by how violent and ruthless Her Ladyship was today compared to usual, once he understood the ins and outs, his fright turned into admiration.

Her Ladyship was not only brilliant in medical skills but also incredibly shrewd.

They never would have imagined that the Crown Prince of Cang Kingdom had been poisoned by Doctor Feng.

The military doctor left in haste.

An Ning took the dagger from Xie Ruotong’s hand.

Xie Ruotong was slightly stunned.

Then in a flash, she understood.

An Ning wanted to personally end Feng Xiyun’s life.

For someone as vicious and cruel as Feng Xiyun, if An Ning didn’t kill her with her own hands, it would be hard to vent her hatred!

Yet in the next instant—

An Ning handed the dagger straight to Feng Xiyun instead.

She said, "Settle it yourself."

In the end, she didn’t want Feng Xiyun to dirty her hands—Feng Xiyun wasn’t worthy!

Feng Xiyun’s eyes moved slightly.

Her eye sockets were filled with blood.

She could almost no longer see the person in front of her clearly.

She held the dagger in her hand.

Under An Ning’s gaze, the guards released Feng Xiyun.

Feng Xiyun collapsed straight onto the ground.

Even though her whole body was in unbearable agony at this moment, it was as if she could no longer feel it.

Her eyes stared fixedly at the dagger in her hand.

At the blood on it.

In her crazed state, she began to giggle foolishly again.

She had never imagined that one day—

She, Feng Xiyun, would one day fall to this point.

That she would personally end her own life.

That she would lose this horribly.

She raised the hand holding the dagger.

She aimed it at her own heart.

But at the very instant she was about to plunge it into her body, Feng Xiyun suddenly sprang up from the ground like a madwoman, and without a thought lunged to stab An Ning instead.

If she was going to die—

She would drag An Ning down with her!

If she was going to die, they would die together!

Feng Xiyun fiercely drove the dagger toward An Ning’s heart.

But before the dagger could so much as brush An Ning, her body was violently restrained by someone and she couldn’t move at all.

"Let go of me, let go of me! I’m going to kill An Ning, I’m going to kill that woman..." Feng Xiyun screamed wildly.

Her body twisted incessantly.

A clearly delicate woman, at this moment she was twisted and feral like a cruel beast.

An Ning’s throat moved slightly. "Feng Xiyun, you really did end up dirtying my hands after all."

As her words fell—

An Ning suddenly seized Feng Xiyun’s arm and drove the dagger she was holding tightly in her grasp straight into Feng Xiyun’s heart with a single thrust.

"Ugh!" Feng Xiyun’s pupils contracted violently.

The heart-tearing, lung-rending pain, so intense it was suffocating, left her unable to make any further response.

Her eyes could only stare wide at An Ning.

At the unchanged expression on her face.

And she could no longer harm An Ning in the slightest.

She died in An Ning’s hands just like that.

She died unwillingly, with her eyes open and her soul unappeased...

In the next moment—

Feng Xiyun’s head drooped.

Her eyes were still wide open, pupils already unfocused.

When Bai Mowan died, at least she had attained enlightenment in the end, at least she had let everything go.

Feng Xiyun... even in death, she could only become a vengeful ghost, never to find rebirth!

An Ning calmly released her grip from Feng Xiyun’s arm.

Not a single drop of blood stained her hand.

Her cold voice gave the order, "Throw her corpse beyond the Mobei Border. Let the hungry wolves devour it. There is no need for her to ever return to Xun City."

Even in death,

she was only fit to remain in this desolate land as a lonely, wandering ghost!