Ouyang Zhixia is born into the world as Ning Yuanzhou of the Liudaotang’s little tagalong sister. She carries a hidden space containing a miraculous spring that can bring the dead back to life and restore flesh to bone, along with an immense collection of medical and poison texts from ancient and modern times. She knows what the future holds: the seven-member team will be stained with blood at Guanshan, and Yuanlu’s premature, frail heart harbors a fatal weakness.
To defy fate, she pours all her strength into training, bathing in the spring and devouring medical texts. She forces herself to become a master physician capable of raising the dead, and hones her martial skills until she can protect everyone.
The Emperor of Wu is captured, and An sets its trap. When her brother leads the Liudaotang’s elite into danger, Zhixia stubbornly follows. “This time, I have to save everyone!”
The An Emperor’s schemes are tightly interwoven, and a ten-day poison gnaws at Ning Yuanzhou’s meridians like a bone-deep parasite. With a rare, long-lost medicine hidden in her space and acupuncture to ward off disaster, Zhixia drags him back from death’s door just as the poison threatens to kill him.
Most heartbreaking of all is Yuanlu. The heart condition he was born with is on the verge of collapse after one battle after another. With bloodshot eyes, Zhixia searches every ancient book in her space. In the faint light on the eve of the bloody battle at Hexian, she finally slips a Nine-Turn Heart-Protecting Pill into his mouth.
When the smoke clears, seven pairs of hands are safely holding their own moonlight, and smoke rises from the little courtyard in the mountains. Yuanlu holds a charred sweet potato, his ears bright red. “Zhixia, you’ve saved my life seven times… Can I spend the rest of my life repaying you?” She smiles and bites into the fragrant, slightly burnt potato. After two lifetimes of protecting one another, her heart is finally at peace. This time, the winds and snow at Guanshan are cold, but her healing hands bring the warmth of spring.
