Chapter 63 -

Lei boiled the mixture over the simple stove, sweat trickling down his cheeks. Zhu Luli guided him at each step as he crushed the spiritual herbs and prepared the remedy. They weren’t sure if boiling the mixture would actually change the formula, but Lei knew they had no other choice but to try.

The Essence Enhancement skill only showed its real worth in a real dish, which meant that Lei had to put his cooking skills to use to bring out that spirituality. High heat also worked wonders for bringing out the juice from spiritual herbs and blending them with the other, more ordinary ingredients.

“Now, add the paleroot. A single pinch, not too much,” Zhu Luli said, her lips pressed down in focus. She had become their rock in the midst of chaos, lending them a confidence that made them believe this could work.

Lei plucked a single root and crushed it in a mortar before letting the bits sprinkle down into the boiling water. Slowly, the mixture turned a dark brown, thickening as Lei cleared the foam and bubbles on the surface.

“We can take it now,” the herbalist said. “This should be enough, right?”

Lei glanced at her. “Let’s hope so.”

He placed the pot on the counter, pouring the mixture into a bowl and leaving the lid off for it to cool. He didn’t want to force a dying man into drinking a simmering remedy.

Bringing the bowl with him, he returned to the main hall and locked eyes with Fatty Lou, who was busy wiping the old man’s forehead with a wet cloth.

Lei tried not to look into Old Ji’s eyes. He often liked to grumble, this old man, saying that this world wasn’t made for the weak-hearted. To him, feeding the kids and helping out the poor folk was good manners, but there had to be a balance. “Help them too much,” he’d say, “then they start depending on you rather than finding their own ways.”

I wish you’d come with me, but you’re too stubborn.

Lei shook his head. He didn’t know much about Old Ji, as he wasn’t the kind of man who liked to delve into the past. Whenever Lei asked, he would just wave him off and say that there was no merit in peering back into old graves.

You’ve got a story, and you will tell me… all of it when you’re healed.

A rattling cough shook Old Ji’s pale face, spattering yellowish blood all over his chest. He was burning, his body trying to fight off this foul sickness but failing in the most desperate way.

“We don’t have much time,” Zhu Luli said, looking up at Lei from beside the old man. She then urged him, “Bring the remedy.”

Lei nodded, taking the bowl and checking it one last time.

[Root Remedy: Mortal Grade, High-Quality]: A spiritual mix used against highly aggressive sicknesses, giving one’s own immune system an external boost.

High quality… Don’t you dare die on me, Old Ji.

Taking the bowl, Zhu Luli gently lifted Old Ji’s head and poured the mixture down his throat. The old man choked and rasped, his feeble body trying to fight back as Fatty Lou and Lei pinned him down. Thin strands of gray hair fell in sickly waves across his face, and Zhu Luli brushed them away, keeping his chin high.

She forced him to drink it all, refusing to give in to his weak pleas. Lei’s head throbbed with pain, and Fatty Lou was visibly trembling. But both of them kept the old man pinned on the couch, fingers tight around his body.

“We…” Zhu Luli breathed, her brows heavy with sweat. “We did our best. It’s now up to him. The Yellow River beckons him from the other side with its sweet and deathly call. He has to fight it and decide for himself.”

Old Ji went still. He seemed peaceful, as if resting in a deep sleep. A smile slowly blossomed over his lips. What did he see in the darkness behind his lids? Perhaps a final release, a closure to a life lived in years of solitude?

Or it could be that he remembered the good times. They were always there, but one had to search for them. Lei always found it odd how a man’s mind worked. Darkness and sorrow never required seeking; they were often there, waiting at your door, ready to slip in through a tiny crack.

The good things, on the other hand, demanded practice. You had to strive for them, to work for the light in your world. So then, Lei thought, could a man laid in his dying bed have the resolution to seek them out? Could he search for them in his final moments, wrenching his life back to see that the light at the end of the tunnel wasn’t the only light that beckoned him?

They waited, the wind whispering biting cold through the main hall. Old Ji’s breaths came out in faint waves, like a candle bearing the mighty storm. Lei rested a hand on his forehead and thought, remembering the good times they shared. He hoped Old Ji could feel them too. He hoped that he would decide what was best for him.

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“Check the kids, will you?” Lei said, looking over to Fatty Lou. He felt his chest tighten. “I want to make sure they are sleeping.”

Fatty Lou’s mouth opened, then closed as he gave a nod. Zhu Luli stared after him and breathed out a long sigh. Her fingers were covered in powdered herbs, her long hair tied loosely over her head.

They sat and waited in silence until Old Ji jerked awake, breath wheezing out through his lips. His eyes opened wide, staring around himself, fingers shaking, body heating up. His gaze finally settled on Lei, narrowing in suspicion.

Lei’s eyes snapped toward Zhu Luli, who nodded and eased near Old Ji, checking his pulse. Her mouth opened slightly. “He’s fighting back. I think the medicine is working.”

The yellowish spots around Old Ji’s arms and legs throbbed visibly, pus oozing from the skin. Lei wiped him clean with a cloth and felt a squirming inside his body as he watched the spots close on their own.

This… mana?

He blinked at the odd sensation. After reaching the boundary of his tier, he found he couldn’t gain mana, even when people devoured his dishes. His initial thought was that the System wanted him to reach the next stage before resupplying him with mana through his dishes, but this was different.

The stench of rot filled his nostrils. It was as if he were somehow sucking the rotten mana out of Old Ji’s spots, making it his own. Unlike spiritual energy, this mana refused to course through his meridians, instead welling in the pit of his stomach and blending into his body.

It didn’t seep away. It stayed there, a morbid curiosity that lost its way. Lei tried to squash it with all the control he could muster, pushing the Qi in his meridians slowly toward it. It was a painfully slow process for an untalented cultivator like him, but still, the spiritual energy moved.

When the two different energies met, Lei jolted back and trembled, tension slowly grabbing him with an inexplicable sensation. His instincts screamed in expectation of pain and left him baffled when it didn’t come. Instead, a sudden ease spread through his arms and legs, like wind flowing freely through his veins.

Then, all of a sudden, Lei lost the sensation, as if the delicate balance of the two energies had jammed into a boundary, one that forced them to dissolve.

“Brother Lei… Your eyes are glowing,” Zhu Luli’s voice brought him back to the present as Lei blinked to gather himself.

“I think I know what I must do,” Lei said, his heart thumping in his chest. “Before that, though, we need to give this remedy to Aunt Lifen.”

“What about the guards? If this is the Governor’s scheme, I don’t think they will take it kindly that we are trying to save people.”

“We have no choice,” Lei said, shaking his head. “This rot is different from spiritual energy. It’s full of mana. You remember the diary of Elder Huang? In one of the passages, he talked about cultivating blood-energy crystals through local beasts and the people of this world.”

Zhu Luli nodded with a solemn face. “You think that’s what they are doing here?”

“Yes,” Lei said. “They must’ve found a way to use this rot to their advantage. You’ve said it’s sucking the life essence from a person, and you’re right—only this rot somehow converts the life essence into mana. I can feel it seeping through those spots. If we follow the trail, we can find the source.”

There was no mistaking it. The Spiritual Sensitivity skill was responding to the oddity of this sickness. It didn’t see the rot itself as an abnormality; the real reason why it sent jolts of alarm into Lei’s mind was that the rot was doing something that went against the natural side of this world.

What troubled Lei was that he could use this mana as well.

The System… They share the same source.

But what would they do once they found this source? The fight against Elder Huang was still fresh in Lei’s mind. He suspected that the only reason they had managed to deal with that bastard was that he lacked mana to do anything to them. Even then, the old man refused to go down without a fight.

And now, they had thousands of people sick with rot, giving them a steady supply of mana.

It will only get worse. If we wait too long, that Master…

Lei felt a cold shiver down his spine. As far as he knew, that Master was sick and wounded, which was why he was trying to recuperate in that mountain. They couldn’t give him enough time to heal—not fully, at least.

“I’ll go wake Grannie Xu. She can take care of Old Ji,” Lei said, peering out into the cold night. Then he hesitated. “We’ll take Stone, Snake, and Mei with us.”

“The kids?” Zhu Luli blinked at him. “You’re serious?”

“What, you think I was going to joke around at a time like this?”

Zhu Luli shrugged. “I’m aware of that; just… we all know how you are with the kids. I guess I’d expected you to go all Big Brother on them and lock them with the old couple in the house. You know, the usual ‘Stay away from trouble’ sort of thing.”

“Wish I had the chance, but I’m afraid we’re past that point. They are strong now, aren’t they? If we are to do this, we need everything and everyone we can use against them.”

Zhu Luli gave him a long, searching look before nodding. “You’re right.”

The wind howled outside, the cold seeping through the wooden shutters. The night was thick with tension, but Lei had already made his choice. They would have to face this together, no matter what.

“I’ll get them ready,” he said, determination flaring in his chest as he turned toward the door. “We need to move quickly before the guards catch wind of what we’re doing.”

Zhu Luli nodded and quickly began gathering their supplies.

Lei stepped into the hallway, the flickering lantern light casting long shadows against the walls. He glanced at the kids’ room, where Fatty Lou was sweating against a dozen curious faces.

“Snake, Stone, and Mei, you’re coming with us,” Lei said with a strict voice, giving them a hard glance. Snake nearly jumped with glee, while Stone looked absentmindedly down at the bronze ring around his finger. Little Mei was still busy scratching Little Yao’s chin. It seemed she didn’t mind so long as she was near the squirrel.

Lei waved the other kids off when they tried to protest, making his way to the old couple’s room. Under the light, he found them sitting near the bed, their faces etched with apparent worry.

“We’re going to do this,” he said, staring at their faces. He tried to keep himself straight, hide the shaking fingers in the sleeves of his robe, and gave them a bright smile. “I’ll leave the kids and Old Ji to you.”

“Little Lei—”

“Don’t, Xu’er,” Master Li’s voice was thick and strong as he clasped a hand around Grannie Xu’s hands. He then turned slowly toward Lei and nodded at him. “Do what you must do, Lei, and don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to the kids.”

Lei set his jaw tight as they shared a look with Master Li. His wrinkled face carried a deep understanding, a heavy feeling that somehow gave Lei a sense of confidence.

He needed that. He needed every little thing that would make him believe that he could do this.

…….