Li Luo stepped into the brightly lit room and found himself face-to-face with the boy he had met before.
This time he was dressed in plain robes, although his youthful features still exuded a casual confidence.
The foremost power in the Xia Kingdom's royal court was something different.
Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e bowed slightly in greeting.
He nodded gravely, eyes on Li Luo. He still remembered the guy who had deceived him at the Golden Dragon Bank.
The little emperor was sitting on the edge of the divan, a grey-cloaked old man with a sallow face beside him. The old man's eyes seemed almost shut, and he rocked back and forth weakly.
Yet Li Luo could sense a tremendous aura from this person. This had to be one of the strongest experts within the royal palace.
Clearly, the First Princess had made preparations for his visit and also... precautions.
If during the healing process he did anything untoward, the grey-cloaked old man would probably sense it and intervene.
The First Princess grasped the little emperor's hand briefly. She turned to Li Luo, wasting no words. "Can we start?"
There was a carelessness to her attitude, despite her friendliness. Li Luo could sense that she held no hope at all regarding this healing.
If not for the fact that the First Princess wanted to coat this courting of Jiang Qing'e with some subtlety, she might have even skipped these motions entirely.
Still, Li Luo said nothing about it. He understood that he was a tool, but House Luolan would be helped by this connection, so he did not mind.
"Junior Li Luo, please remember that nothing that happens here today should leave these walls."
She warned him, then she had the little emperor remove his shirt and face his back to them.
His back was scrawny, the bones of his shoulder blades and spine clearly visible behind his sallow skin. No one paid much attention to this because they saw a lotus flower etched onto his back in a faint hue of dark green.
However, half the "green lotus" was stained black.
It gave him an ominous feeling. Li Luo could not tell if he was imagining things, but the black half almost seemed alive and moving.
The sinister blackness was eating away at the green lotus on the little emperor's back.
Changing it into a black lotus.
Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e stared at it with sick fascination, riveted by the ghastly sight.
"This..." Li Luo hesitated.
"This is His Majesty's illness... The green lotus has been on his back since birth. It is a rare trait called the Yin Yang Green Lotus. It is considered a benign, even blessed, sign.
"But for some reason, it mutated, invaded by the blackness, as you can see. Our sources say that once the green lotus turns completely black, His Majesty's flesh will decay. The odds of survival are ten percent," the First Princess said, her voice hoarse as she ran her polished nails tenderly across the lotus design.
"In all these years, we have found many water, wood, and light resonance experts to treat him. There were even Dukes of uncommon talent, but none of them could work any change to this. We can only mitigate the black invasion with medicine.
"There are not many Dukes in the Xia Kingdom, and dual resonance Dukes with dual healing elements are even rarer. Wood and water—Junior Li Luo, you give me hope. Perhaps if one day you can become a Duke, perhaps you could truly heal His Majesty."
Li Luo sighed inwardly. This seemed hopeless.
Still, he had to follow through; otherwise, things would get really awkward.
He sat down on the edge of the divan and smiled at the boy. "Hello, Your Majesty. We meet again."
The little emperor looked at him disdainfully from the corner of his eye. "Liar."
Well, that was a little embarrassing. He had indeed incited the fight between the little emperor and Duze Beixuan. How was he supposed to know that the kid was actually the little emperor himself...
But then again, his deception must have been all too clear to the emperor, who must have just been playing along.
Li Luo squirmed a little. This boy was still a child, but he was not to be messed with.
Li Luo coughed. "Well, er, Your Majesty, I'll begin, then."
The little emperor ignored him, completely uninterested.
Li Luo did not mind his attitude. He was fully focused now, bringing forth his dual resonances. Blue and green power concentrated on his palm.
Although everyone was just going through the motions, Li Luo was going to take this seriously. His best healing power glowed, warming his palm.
The First Princess was interested in his dual resonances, so she was watching closely. The reticent man in grey nodded from under hooded lids. This was indeed dual resonance power.
And yet somehow the water and wood elements seemed especially bright.
Of course, this brightness was due to the light resonant energy imbued within, although it was well-hidden under the stronger primary resonances.
Sapphire-blue and jade-green orbs met in his palm, condensing against each other until Li Luo created a single drop of liquid energy, which he carefully placed on the lotus tattoo.
The drop of liquid energy was sucked into the lotus like a drop of rain on parched soil.
Everyone looked on with a faint glimmer of hope, despite themselves.