Guanjiang Village. Following Lang Jiuchuan’s instructions, a medical tent was erected outside the talisman formation.

Eunuch Yu had transported several cartloads of medicinal herbs back, along with some yellow ceremonial paper and exceptionally high-quality cinnabar and other implements used in Daoist practice.

He stared in something of a daze at the supplies sorted and stored by category, experiencing for the very first time in his life that treating a plague and suppressing a disaster was something that required Daoist ritual implements.

General Ma walked over. “The Holy One has sent an oral decree through a messenger — ordering us all to fully cooperate with Daoist Lang in treating the plague.”

Eunuch Yu was somewhat taken aback. “Why so suddenly?”

“Wu Jing has also begun developing an antidote, and the Sacred Woman is in the Bureau of Surveillance assisting.” General Ma was heavy with worry. “Wu Jing is likely about to become the second to fall.”

His youngest daughter had only been married into Wu Jing two months ago — he wondered if she was all right.

Eunuch Yu’s complexion went pale. “No — the corpse poison has spread there this quickly?”

General Ma said gravely, “At the beginning, no one knew the severity of the matter, and no one could have imagined this corpse poison would be so terrifying. By the time the gravity of it set in, it had long since spread.”

Who could guarantee that the corpse specter had only bitten Dazhu alone? Where had it gone afterward, and who else had it bitten? There was simply no way to trace it.

Moreover, the corpse specter moved in ways that were uncannily elusive. It was said she appeared indistinguishable from an ordinary person — utterly impossible to identify. Those bitten by her did not know she could transmit the corpse poison, and by the time it manifested, it was already too late.

Take Xiaoyu’s husband — after biting her, he had fled beyond the village. Would that source of corpse poison in him not have been transmitted to others as well, spreading from one to ten, ten to a hundred?

So Lang Jiuchuan had been right — even if every last person in Guanjiang Village were burned and killed, there was simply no way to kill all those outside.

General Ma felt shame and embarrassment for his earlier cold-hearted ignorance.

Eunuch Yu felt the same.

If the nest is overturned, can the eggs remain unbroken? As long as the source was not found, this would continue to spread. Without a proven remedy to treat the plague and eliminate the poison, Da Dan would become a living hell.

“Eunuch Yu, the report is all written up — should we transmit it back to the palace now?” A young eunuch walked over with a fawning bow, hunched at the waist. “I’ve written every embellishment in, accusing her of disrespecting imperial authority — she’ll get what’s coming to her.”

“Write, write, write — who told you to write? Acting clever on your own, go burn it at once. This is a human catastrophe — can’t you see that?” Eunuch Yu dealt the young eunuch a flick on the head. “How are you so blind to what’s happening around you? Swallow every word you wrote back into your belly, don’t mention it ever again. Go tend to things over there, be alert to whatever Daoist Lang needs, and stay sharp!”

Young eunuch: “?”

Was it not you who cursed the whole journey here, saying you would report back to the Holy One?

How can a person’s heart change so fast!

Lang Jiuchuan, unaware of what Eunuch Yu and his companions were thinking, was busy directing the Daoist priests still stationed here in preparing and simmering the medicinal decoction. The primary herb was mugwort, which drives out evil and dispels cold. Cinnabar could anchor the soul, while realgar could repel malevolent forces. The supplementary herbs targeted bodily function — red peony root to invigorate blood, fresh rehmannia to cool the blood and nourish yin, and licorice root to serve as a harmonizing and regulating agent.

The water used for simmering was pure rainwater. Given the cold of the season, there was no rain — yet this posed no obstacle for Lang Jiuchuan. She formed a thunder seal and channeled clouds into water, storing a large quantity of it. First it was brought to a boil three times over a fierce flame, then slowly simmered over a gentle flame for six hours. At the end, a Taiyin Purification Talisman was infused into it, producing a deep brown medicinal liquid.

A bucket of medicinal liquid — unpleasant in smell, one might generously say, or rather, thoroughly foul — was produced. Lang Jiuchuan first administered a bowl to Xiaoyu. Her symptoms were mild, marking her as someone in the early stage of corpse-poison infection. If it took effect, it would be able to suppress the further spread of the corpse poison within her body, cleanse the filth-qi from her blood, and stabilize the qi mechanism within her.

Lang Jiuchuan looked at the decoction, tapping lightly with a fingertip on the Dizhong bell at her waist. An inspired thought surged through her mind. Among the soldiers General Ma had brought, she identified one man, had someone bring a bowl of the decoction in preparation for him to drink it, then seized a living-dead person and waited for the man to drink the medicine and be pushed forward to face it.

That man let out a cry of terror. General Ma hurried over, frowning. “Young Daoist, what is the meaning of this?”

The other Daoist priests all looked over at one another in bewilderment.

“A test,” Lang Jiuchuan explained. “To see whether, after he drinks this decoction, those infected with the corpse poison will still attack and bite him. He is laden with guilt — serving as a test subject is precisely the right way to accumulate hidden virtue.”

What? Laden with guilt?

Everyone looked at the soldier, who appeared perfectly honest and decent. Why was he apparently steeped in guilt?

“There is no use protesting. How many lives you carry on your back cannot be hidden from my divine sight.” Lang Jiuchuan watched the man as he seemed about to make a fuss, and curled her lips in a cool smile. “This decoction contains realgar, mugwort, and cinnabar — just the thing to repel malevolent spirits, so you won’t be plagued by nightmares every night, haunted by resentful energy. Consider yourself fortunate.”

The honest-looking man stiffened, his eyes darting about with faint evasion.

General Ma, seeing this, needed no further explanation — Lang Jiuchuan had seen through to the man’s true nature. This He Er — he had been planning to promote him to centurion. And it turned out the man was a murderer?

“General, I am not — I have done nothing!” He Er, seeing General Ma’s expression shift, knew something was wrong and immediately began to protest. But in the next instant, it was as if something had seized him by the throat — he let out a guttural, hoarse growl, his eyes bulging out, as though a pair of invisible hands had hoisted him into the air.

Everyone was greatly alarmed.

Lang Jiuchuan gave a cold laugh. “If you are unwilling, never mind. Let grudges be settled with grudges, let wrongs be settled with wrongs — a life taken must be repaid with a life. Why should I interfere with that?” She then addressed the crowd: “Who will volunteer to be the test subject?”

He Er was released once more, and lunged forward, snatching up the bowl of decoction and draining it. “Me — I’ll do it, I’ll do it.”

He looked about in fear, even touching his own neck. He had just felt a pair of hands clutching his throat and lifting him.

Everyone understood at once — this was an admission of guilt without even being pressed.

Lang Jiuchuan gave a look to the young Daoist priest and pushed the living-dead person toward He Er.

He Er’s legs shook like a sieve rattling grain. As the living-dead person drew near, the familiar stench of rotting corpse wafted over him — the very same smell from when he had buried that woman, the stench that clung to him no matter how many times he washed, through ten entire baths.

His stomach lurched, something surging upward, and he forced it back down with all his might, terrified of vomiting up the decoction he had just swallowed.

The living-dead person drew close to his neck. He Er’s eyes went wide with terror, and he let out a shrill, agonized scream before fainting dead away — and in the instant he fell, a sharp smell spread through the air.

Everyone drew back, covering their noses in disgust.

Lang Jiuchuan kept her eyes fixed on the scene, her fingertips curling slightly, tense.

No one dared to breathe.

Then, all watched as the living-dead person opened its mouth, and the moment its teeth grazed that man’s skin, it seemed to catch an unbearable scent — and recoiled, pulling back, no longer biting.

“It works!” Everyone was overjoyed, and instinctively looked toward the bucket of medicinal decoction. Whether it could purge the poison was another matter, but if drinking it could prevent the living-dead corpse-poison carriers from attacking and biting, that alone could halt the spread of the corpse poison.

“Bring another one.” Lang Jiuchuan pointed to a living-dead person with clearly more severe symptoms, drew him over, and pushed He Er before him. “Go ahead and bite — he has blood, plenty of it.”

Filthy blood, but blood nonetheless.

Everyone looked at the unconscious, thoroughly aggrieved He Er: “…”

Sympathy? There was some. Not much, though.