The distance a Flying Sword Art could reach was related to the caster's Soul Power.
The current range of Ye Yunfei's Soul Power was one thousand meters.
Therefore, the distance he could control a Flying Sword was also one thousand meters.
'My current Soul Power is far too weak,' Ye Yunfei thought bitterly.
'I must find a way to raise my Soul Power level as soon as possible.'
He had to remind himself that during his tenure as a Heavenly Emperor, a mere thought from him could have his Soul Power envelop an entire continent as easily as studying the lines on his own palm.
A measly thousand-meter range was pathetically weak, enough to make Ye Yunfei want to cry.
'Ye Yunfei, the Spirit Pills are finished,' Huang Shang suddenly informed him.
Then,
over a dozen Spirit Pills flew out from within the Pill Cauldron.
Some were Fifth-Grade Spirit Pills, others were Sixth-Grade.
'Good. Take them for the Empress Dowager to consume,' Ye Yunfei said.
'That will settle this matter.'
He took the pills and walked out of his palace.
'Master Ye Yunfei, have you refined the Spirit Pills yet?'
To Ye Yunfei's surprise, the Emperor, Chen Xuan, and a group of high officials were already waiting outside. The moment he emerged, the Emperor rushed forward, his face alight with hope.
Over the past few days, Ye Yunfei had been wholeheartedly cultivating the Flying Sword Art and hadn't spared any attention to what was happening outside his chambers, so he hadn't realized the Emperor and Chen Xuan had been waiting there the whole time.
'Indeed,' Ye Yunfei nodded.
'I have completed the pills.
We should go administer them to the Empress Dowager now.'
'Excellent!' the Emperor exclaimed in delight.
'Master Ye Yunfei, let us proceed to the Kunning Palace at once!'
In his eagerness, the Emperor personally led the way, striding hastily toward the Kunning Palace where the Empress Dowager resided.
A short while later,
they arrived at the Kunning Palace.
Upon entering the Empress Dowager's chambers,
Ye Yunfei found her condition had worsened significantly compared to a few days prior.
The Empress Dowager was now truly in a comatose state, and the vitality emanating from her body was incredibly faint.
She was holding onto the barest thread of vitality, truly teetering on the brink of death!
'Master Ye Yunfei, my mother... she will be alright, won't she?' the Emperor asked, gazing at the dying Empress Dowager with deep worry.
'First, have her consume this Vitality Pill,' Ye Yunfei said, handing a Spirit Pill to the Emperor.
'Good!'
The Emperor took the pill and immediately fed it to the Empress Dowager himself, placing it gently into her mouth.
'That... that's a Fifth-Grade Spirit Pill!' Chen Xuan's gaze suddenly fixed on the Vitality Pill in the Emperor's hand. He stared at it intently, unable to look away.
'Could it be... that Young Friend Ye Yunfei is a Fifth-Grade Alchemist?'
An incredible thought arose in his mind.
Right at that moment,
a low rumble echoed.
The Empress Dowager's body trembled.
Then, under the stunned gazes of everyone present, the aura of life emanating from her began to grow richer and more potent.
Even her emaciated, skeletal flesh began to slowly replenish, her muscles and blood gradually swelling and filling out.
'How miraculous!'
Everyone present was dumbstruck, utterly shocked to the core.
In their eyes, such a method was nothing short of divine!
But then again, to these people of the Great Qin Empire, a Heavenly Emperor was practically a deity.
Although the pills Ye Yunfei had Huang Shang refine were merely Fifth and Sixth-Grade Spirit Pills,
every single one of those pill recipes was exceedingly rare, seldom seen in the world. They were among Ye Yunfei's personal collection.
One could well imagine how extraordinary pill formulas worthy of being collected by a Heavenly Emperor must be!
'Restoring the dying and regrowing flesh on bone!' a minister suddenly blurted out in a hushed yet awed voice, unable to contain himself any longer.
'That's the legendary art of restoring the dying and regrowing flesh on bone!'
'The Empress Dowager is saved!' the Emperor cried out, tears of joy streaming down his face in his excitement.
'Good. Now, have her take a Consolidation Pill,' Ye Yunfei said, handing a yellow Spirit Pill to the Emperor.
The Emperor quickly fed the pill to the Empress Dowager.
'Next, a Replenishment Pill.'
A moment later,
Ye Yunfei passed a white Spirit Pill to the Emperor.
As the Empress Dowager consumed one miraculous pill after another, astonishing changes took place in her body.
Her originally withered, fleshless form began to fill out.
Muscle and blood swelled, her skin regained its elasticity, and her head full of white hair began to darken.
A head of snow-white transformed into a cascade of raven-black tresses!
Even more astonishingly, the Empress Dowager's facial features grew increasingly youthful until, in the end, she appeared as a middle-aged woman!
And a beautiful, graceful middle-aged woman at that!
'How is this possible... how?'
Witnessing this scene, everyone in the room was collectively petrified, feeling a profound sense of disbelief.
A clearly elderly woman had directly become a beautiful middle-aged matron.
'Reverse aging!'
someone exclaimed.
'This is the legendary art of reverse aging!'
'These are the methods of gods!'
Right then,
the Empress Dowager, who had been lying on the bed all this time, suddenly opened her eyes. She surveyed the people in the room, then sat straight up.
'What has happened?' she asked.
'All of a sudden, I feel brimming with energy.'
The Empress Dowager moved her limbs, speaking with pleasant surprise.
It was only then that everyone noticed her voice had also become much younger.
Where before she had spoken with an old woman's tone, she now possessed the voice of a middle-aged noblewoman.
'It seems Master Ye Yunfei is the one who intervened to heal me,' the Empress Dowager quickly deduced, casting a grateful look in Ye Yunfei's direction.
'Mother, you've grown younger! And more beautiful!' the Emperor rushed forward, telling her in a voice trembling with emotion.
'Nonsense!' the Empress Dowager chided, giving the Emperor a sidelong glance.
'I'm a woman over ninety years old. What is all this talk about beauty?'
'Fetch a bronze mirror! Quickly!' the Emperor barked at a nearby palace maid.
The maid stumbled off and quickly returned with a bronze mirror.
'Mother, see for yourself,' the Emperor said excitedly, holding the mirror up before the Empress Dowager.
The Empress Dowager peered intently into the mirror.
The face of a beautiful middle-aged woman stared back at her from the polished surface.
Instantly, she was utterly stunned, her face filled with disbelief.
Her gaze remained fixed on the youthful reflection in the mirror, unable to look away.
Then,
her tears began to flow uncontrollably.
After all, which woman in the world did not love beauty?
Suddenly gaining decades of youth back, her feelings of excitement were simply indescribable.
'Master Ye Yunfei, you have given Yue Su the grace of a second life,' the Empress Dowager said, rising from the bed and making a graceful bow of respect towards him.
'Please accept this bow from Yue Su.'
Ye Yunfei stood with his hands clasped behind his back and accepted her bow with perfect composure.
For he had indeed bestowed the grace of a second life upon this Empress Dowager.
'Well then. Here are three more Spirit Pills. Consume them one by one. The damaged meridians within your body will then be repaired.' Ye Yunfei said, handing the remaining three pills to the Empress Dowager.
'In about a day's time, you should have recovered your strength.
However, you will not be able to fully return to your former cultivation level all at once.
You will likely only recover to around the middle of the Profound Realm.
After that, you will need to rely on your own cultivation efforts to truly make a full recovery.'