Over the course of a few days, Anton siphoned off enough knowledge to figure out a few different things that were able to combat the virulent mold, to different extents. Extreme temperatures were the simplet, but not necessarily reliable. For example, gradual declines in temperature might send the spores into hibernation instead of properly killing them. Rapid shifts were best, damaging what made them functional.

As far as infected humans went, there were a number of medicines that were somewhat effective at fending off or eliminating the mold. As most medicines, however, there were side effects- or additional harms that came from the primary thing suppressing the strands of mold trying to worm their way into vital organs. Things that significantly changed the acidity of the blood- either making it significantly acidic or significantly alkaline- were among the most effective, but these were hard on the body. Then again, nothing was harder on the body than being digested by a parasitic mold.

Anton had to consider how he could contribute to the survival of the people. One problem was that information was not easily shared around the globe. Mazlerth was a rather large moon, and it didn’t have reliable communication methods across its whole surface. Instead, there were disparate communities, mainly for farming or the like, where pockets of people had remained in relative isolation.

And yet… the mold had reached almost every populated location. Was it because of small amounts of trade, before the mold spores were obvious? Unfortunately, Anton had no answers.

For the moment, all he could do was spread the news of what worked, which ironically most often involved selling the information to desperate people. He didn’t like to do that, but people didn’t always believe him when he gave information away for free, assuming it was worthless. He could also try to aid the production of the few medicines that worked, but for the most part people needed to manage that themselves. However, Anton did find several isolated locations where he began crops of the various plants that were critical to the medicines. He could help sate the appetites of the markets.

Other than that, Anton’s main intention was to help test various sorts of energy. Natural energy in an attributeless form was easily devoured by the mold, sending it into a rapid period of growth where it devoured whatever organic material it was growing out of. It didn’t seem to care if it was alive or dead at the time.

Fire was effective, as previously determined, directly eliminating the spores. But that wasn’t something that could safely be spread about. Of the options he had access to himself, light was… extremely lacking in effectiveness. He could destroy the spores with it, but only indirectly as the light dissipated into heat as a secondary effect. That might have been useful if he was dealing with a fast moving target that he needed to focus a tight beam of energy, but in this case it was just inefficient.

He moved on to more esoteric options, as he had little experience with most other elements. The spores were almost completely unperturbed by electromagnetic energy, but they managed to absorb some portion of it. Gravitational energy unsurprisingly was able to move them about, but that too could be absorbed. Anything that didn’t directly destroy the spores tended to be consumed at differing rates depending on how close it was to pure energy.

Very carefully in an isolated location, Anton released a drop of ascension energy onto a fallen log covered in fibers of the white mold. A few moments later, the entire log had disintegrated into nothing, and bursts of spores tried to escape into the air. Anton scorched the whole area with fire, leaving no trace of it behind. He wasn’t terribly surprised- ascension energy was in some ways just a more ‘pure’ form of natural energy. Or he could say upper and lower energy from some perspectives. These were the states things settled into.

Finally, he tried spectral energy. He had little hope for it. Certainly, it was the energy of death, but it was most strongly connected to souls and the like. This was just a horrible fungus. It certainly had no soul.

And yet, applying a small amount of spectral energy to a patch of the mold produced a most disturbing reaction. The area shriveled and blackened- but that wasn’t all. The effect spread out from there in a wave, far beyond the area Anton directly affected. He was almost worried that rather than killing it he’d simply transformed it into a more foul variant… but it did not react to anything, and appeared for all purposes truly dead. A small disturbance in the air made the shriveled mold crumble to dust, and even on the smallest scales Anton could see no signs of the spores being functional and able to spread.

It should have been a good sign. This was something he could use. Not on people, unfortunately, but at least to clear crops. Very few plants would react to spectral energy, and those that did wouldn’t react so strongly. Anton made sure to test a few more times, but each time it produced a chain reaction, destroying entire patches.

He had at least a partial solution. So why wasn’t he happy? Anton’s Insight said something was unnatural. More than the mere presence of the mold itself. He didn’t know. But he could send the information to those who were still on their way, hoping that differing perspectives would provide some ideas.

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The farm of the Pokorny family still had no crops, but what it did have was all of its family members… and most of them healthy. The son Izaak had received some medicine obtained by his father, and it was helping. Along with Anton’s destruction of some amount of the mold, he expected the boy to recover. It would be hard on his body, but Anton wasn’t certain his own methods of removal could have been any better. The fibers of mold liked to grow into vital organs, where he would find it much more difficult to burn them away. And spectral energy was too risky on a living human, especially a non-cultivating child.

“You have done very well,” Anton said to the father Nikodem. “There are many ineffective medicines being sold, and you chose wisely. Now I know more about this plague as well. Truly a fruitful endeavor.”

“And we appreciate your assistance to our family while you studied this sickness,” Nikodem replied.

Anton understood that his presence had been strange to begin with as a cultivator, but ingratiating himself with labor and food had helped significantly. Marianna had even been willing to ask if he was able to purify the fields. Perhaps before she had worried at what his price might be- but it was simply the knowledge he gained. He wished it could have come with less suffering for the youngest of them, but another week or two of sickness was something he could bear for the sake of the family and their neighbors.

Specifically, this family now knew a few things they could spread to help others. And having impassioned individuals share stories of what personally worked for them would be much more effective than Anton going around declaring what people should do.

“My business here has now concluded,” Anton said. “I will be departing soon.”

“... but you can’t go,” Izaak said. “You promised to teach me cultivation.”

Anton most certainly had not done so. And yet, it wasn’t like Anton had any reason to refuse. “You need to be in better health first,” Anton said honestly. Specifically, if there were any traces of the mold or its spores inside of him… Anton knew the risks of beginning cultivation would be extremely high. “I will return later when your health is better. Then I can teach you. But you must eat well to recover, and listen to your parents and take the medicine.”

“It’s gross,” Izaak said. “And makes me feel bad.”

“That’s because it is fighting the sickness in your body,” Anton said. “In a way, taking medicines that are necessary is a form of training. You have to be able to withstand the trials to grow stronger.” These things were all true… but half of it was just to placate the young fellow. Still, Anton would make sure to keep an eye on things here, and the young man in particular.

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Anton was tempted to simply run all over the planet, tossing spectral energy at every field he saw. But it was much too risky to do so. He didn’t know the longer term effects. What if he only made things worse? Perhaps the fields would never be able to grow anything again due to lingering spectral energy. He didn’t think that likely, but for the most part Anton had only used spectral energy in battles or even more extreme circumstances. Like the destruction of the souls of Twin Soul Sect members so that they would not reincarnate in the upper realms and share their knowledge. And it was also to deprive them of the promised rewards for living as traitors.

His connection to spectral energy began long ago, with the technique known as Fleeing Youth. One of Everheart’s, and it just so happened to be suited for him. After all, he was both old and yet capable of cultivating to a higher level at a quick pace. Fleeting Youth did little for those who had many years of life left, nor for those who remained stagnant in their cultivation.

The ascension energy Anton understood as stolen from the upper realms- and some theoretical version of himself that ascended, locking off that path. The spectral energy, meanwhile, was less clear cut. It wasn’t necessarily the case that after death he would be involved in spectral energy in any way. He was aware that it could be used to influence the cycle of reincarnation, such as the Twin Soul Sect did for their dead members. But for the most part they hadn’t cultivated it as a weapon here in the lower realms.

Unlike the ascension energy of the upper realms which rejected him, Anton had a different understanding of why the spectral energy would cut off his theoretical reincarnation- at least as something resembling himself. It had mainly been speculation on Everheart’s part, but Anton had confirmed some of it. Simply put, his practice of the energy would increase its draw to him while he was dead- and without protection it would most likely grind his soul down to a pure form. So while some of his soul bits might in the far future go into a new body, it wouldn’t ever be him. And Anton was fine with that.

But that didn’t mean he wanted to put spectral energy in food people were going to eat. Or even risk the lingering remnants of it. Not without taking some time to carefully watch for side effects, to make sure he wasn’t damaging the food in some way while he also purged the mold. Though he also didn’t want anyone to eat the bits of desiccated mold dust. Whether or not it was actually unhealthy, it was disgusting. So the plants it was growing into might be suspect- though much less suspect than eating one with white fibers of mold growing out of it like his own wisps of hair.

Even if Anton determined spectral energy to be the ultimate method to eradicate the mold from plants and surfaces, he still didn’t want to do it all himself. It would be better to come up with some method for others to cultivate the same energy. Which was where he hit a snag, because such methods were rare. He knew a few, at least in theory, but they tended towards the less acceptable side of cultivation.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t come up with something. And the simpler it was, the better. Hardly anyone would gain benefits from Fleeting Youth, after all- and even if they did, it wouldn’t be on a short enough time frame to matter.