Plague
“Sure. I will go anywhere. Let’s go right now,” enthused Mu Yu.
Mu Yu would rather go tackle a group of Primordial Infant Realm youths than bore himself for another day in the valley. Xiaoshuai and the dragon vine were no fun because they were two busy trying to aggravate the other.
“You have. To come. As my. Disciple, though.”
“Easy. I will even call you ‘Shifu’.”
Ku Mu wasn’t fazed. It wasn’t the second or third time Mu Yu tried to butter him up, after all. Moreover, for the half a year they had been together, Mu Yu cracked jokes daily and often forewent formalities. Letting Mu Yu get to him emotionally would equate to one tiresome life.
It was a luxury to breathe the fresh air beyond Ku Mu Valley. The sight of flying cultivators, small houses and picturesque scenery was the free lifestyle Mu Yu craved. The dragon vine didn’t join them, but there was no way Xiaoshuai was going to pass up a chance to reward his taste buds. Ku Mu, of course, brought food back when he went out, only for Xiaoshuai hoard it.
“I want chicken drumsticks. Lots and lots of chicken drumsticks!” Xiaoshuai voiced.
They arrived at a small remote village that gave off a spooky vibe.
“Plague,” remarked Ku Mu.
“Are we here to save them?” asked Mu Yu.
“Y-your job is to s-s-s-”
“Save them, got it.”
The villagers had black rings around their eyes and coughed profusely. Some of them were covered under sheets of hay and carried out on stretchers. Those working had ghastly pale faces. Evidently, the plague was an epidemic that took countless human lives once it hit.
Mu Yu was educated enough to be privy of the plague’s catalyst and how it triggered. One of the poison’s in “Poison Scripture” was concocted using the blood of patients diagnosed with the plague.
“Gramps, you aren’t the one who spread it, are you?” questioned Mu Yu, puzzled why Ku Mu would save someone.
Ku Mu glanced at Mu Yu out the corner of his eyes. “P-poison users. D-d-don’t necessarily. H-Harm people.”
“Are you telling me you save people using poison?”
“M-m-my poison c-can only save ordinary folks.”
Ku Mu ambled over to a child and ran his head across the child’s head. The girl curled up in her chair and quivered. Before long, her breathing calmed down, and vitality began to circulate in her body.
“You are a kind man at the end of the day, huh? Do you go around treating ordinary folks when you leave the valley?” Honestly, Mu Yu was relieved to learn Ku Mu was helping people.
Ku Mu signalled for Mu Yu to come over with his hand. “Help her.”
Mu Yu’s assumption hit the nail on the head. He finally understood why Ku Mu tested the poison on him just before. Yes, Ku Mu did research poison. That being said, his principle was to cure and treat people using poison. Basically, his approach was to fight fire with fire. People just arbitrarily labelled poison as something to hold in contempt as opposed to being another tool in the toolbox. For every poison listed in Poison Scripture, an antidote was provided. Needless to say, people weren’t privy of that. Thus, they abhorred it.
Though he liked the benevolent side of Ku Mu, Mu Yu refocused on recalling what he learnt about the plague. A rodent infected the young girl with the plague. Ku Mu taught him he could erase a poison using a more potent poison. There was a specific way to cure patients afflicted with the rodent plague, and it was important to follow the correct procedure meticulously as poison was poison at the end of the day.
Despite him groaning and carrying on, Mu Yu did memorise most of Poison Scripture already. He recited, “Three grams of zhiling herb. Fifteen grams of maier root, six grams of golden canal flower…”
Pleased, Ku Mu subtly nodded, then tossed Mu Yu a Cosmos Sack. The assortment of herbs within could be combined to concoct a fatal poison or one that could treat an illness. Tools didn’t have minds of their own. The key lied in how they were employed.
As ordinary people didn’t possess spiritual energy, nobody could treat them using spiritual energy.
“Gramps, sorry for impudently presuming you were baneful.”
“Call me. Shifu.”
“Haha, no. My apology and that are two separate matters.”
“Brat.”
While Ku Mu began formulating an antidote for the others, he’d occasionally watch Mu Yu and space out.
An uncanny gale suddenly blew. Mu Yu looked over to Ku Mu. Ku Mu looked up and then took off with Mu Yu. Two individuals oozing yin qi set foot into the village. Mu Yu identified the massive energy enveloping the village belonged to Ghost Gate!
“This is the fifth village overrun with the plague. We still don’t have enough spiritual souls,” said one of the individuals, shaking his head in disappointment.
“Elder Gui Jiuming ordered us to collect a thousand ordinary folks’ spiritual souls and roughly a hundred from this village.”
“Why must their spiritual souls only be pure if they die natural deaths? What a drag. Going through all that trouble to trigger a plague was so bothersome.”
Furious, Mu Yu turned to consult Ku Mu; however, the latter was already gone. He looked back to the duo from Ghost Gate, but he had to look further down because they were already out on the ground, bodies green. Ku Mu stood over them, exasperated. Ku Mu watched the two die and, in a deep voice, exclaimed, “So you lot were behind the recent string of break outs!”
“What shall we do?” inquired Mu Yu.
Ku Mu flipped a hand over, trapping an ashen corporeal soul in his hand. Ku Mu saved one of Ghost Gate’s disciples, but he killed the other disciple and their twins. He questioned, “Who are you?”
“You went behind Third Heaven Palace to kill innocent people?!” expostulated Mu Yu.
The Ghost Gate disciple showed a condescending expression. “Who cares about those weaklings? They only forbade us from killing cultivators indiscriminately. We have free reign to kill these ordinary folks.”
“What do you need so many spirit souls for?” Mu Yu queried, refusing to argue with someone who practiced crooked reasoning.
“You think I’d tell you? Release me now. Else, you know what’s coming.”
Ku Mu took out a white potion. “I don’t. Like. Questioning,” said Ku Mu, pouring the white liquid onto the Ghost Gate disciple’s spiritual soul.
“Aaargh!” The disciple looked as though he fell into a daze.
“Speech spirit potion?” remarked Mu Yu, blinking. “It works on spirit souls, too?”
According to Poison Scripture, speech spirit herb was found at the peak of Northern Mountain. Merely smelling it would befog one’s mind. Once afflicted, one could pry the truth out of the victim effortlessly. For that very reason, it was difficult to obtain.
“I specifically. Created it. To handle. Ghost Gate.” Ku Mu stored the vial away. “Ask away.”
Interrogating with a stutter would probably frustrate the daylights out of the suspect. Hence, Mu Yu shrugged and began. “What are you planning to do with ordinary people’s spirit soul?”
“Elder Gui Jiuming wants to use their spirit souls and fiend spirits to create Walk-in Nine Formation,” answered the Ghost Gate disciple, in a monotone voice.
“What’s that?”
“Elder Gui Jiuming intends to take the body of one of the fiend race’s Ten Great Archfiend’s – White Ape Archfiend. It is believed fiend kings’ bodies never decay. They are the result of fiend beasts cultivating human bodies. Thanks to the process, their bodies are impregnable and invulnerable to magic. It is an avenue to immortality.”
“Didn’t the ten of them go extinct millenniums ago?”
“Since they can’t be killed, humans sealed them as an alternative. E;der Gui Jiuming found out the White Ape Archfiend…”
The disciple abruptly stopped mid-speech. His eyes widened, and his soul was reduced to shards.
“What happened to him, Gramps? We didn’t find out anything useful.”
“The poison. Doesn’t. Last long.”
“Man, as if humanity doesn’t have enough on their hands since the elemental demons’ resurgence. Are the fiends joining the fray now, as well? Gramps, is there anything we can do?”
“No.”
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