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Chapter 385: Leave It to Me
🕑 Added 2024-10-23 06:55:01 +0000 UTCWith that thought, Lin Xiao transformed into the image of the village doctor he had encountered earlier, replicating the man’s appearance down to the medicine box slung over his shoulder.
Fang Tuantu wriggled out of his arms, jumping onto the medicine box, and perched there comfortably. With the little cat on his shoulder, Lin Xiao walked into Huyang Village.
As they entered, the atmosphere of the village became even more oppressive. Despite the bright daylight, not a single person was visible on the village paths. Occasionally, faint sounds could be heard from the earthen houses, but the village seemed eerily deserted.
Lin Xiao quickly located the house of one of the two young men who had brought the doctor to the village. The gate, made of rough wooden stakes, stood wide open, and the young man was by a cracked water tank, scooping water into a basin.
Lin Xiao stood at the gate and gave two forceful coughs.
The young man raised his head in confusion. Upon seeing the "doctor" had returned, his face lit up with joy. Dropping the basin, he ran toward Lin Xiao.
"Doctor Wang! Have you decided to treat my father?" he asked, his voice filled with hope.
Lin Xiao, pretending to be Doctor Wang, cleared his throat and mimicked the old doctor’s mannerisms. He said, "I can’t cure your father’s illness at the moment, but let me give you some advice. There’s an evil presence in your village. If you want to stop your father’s condition from worsening, move him out of the village, at least a mile away."
The young man was shocked. "So, my father’s illness is because of the evil in the village…"
He quickly composed himself and nodded. "I’ll move him right away!"
Without wasting a second, he fetched a cart from the corner of the yard and went inside to carry out his bedridden father, blanket and all. He laid the frail old man on the cart and began to push him out of the village.
Lin Xiao followed behind them. The elderly man lying on the cart was in a terrible state—his hair was completely gone, and his bulging eyes seemed ready to pop out at any moment. His shriveled face had patches of peeling skin, and deep cracks lined his body, though not a drop of blood seeped from them. His entire body was shrouded in an eerie black mist.
Seeing this in person, Lin Xiao was shaken. Though Qin Jianghe had warned him, the reality was much worse than what he had imagined.
As they made their way through the village, the young man called out to his neighbors, repeating what the "doctor" had told him. His shouts caught the attention of several other young men, who emerged from their homes, their eyes wide as they saw the "doctor" and their neighbor moving his father.
Without questioning, they followed suit, fetching carts and carrying their ailing relatives out of the village. These young men had only recently returned from the nearby town where they worked. Due to the recent war, they had been trapped in the town, unable to return until now, only to find their village in such a dire state.
Soon, carts began rolling out of several households, and where carts were unavailable, the strongest of the group carried their family members on their backs. The sick were transported beyond the village, to a point over a mile away.
Two of the young men stayed behind to build temporary shelters while the others continued transporting the remaining sick villagers. By dusk, everyone had been moved. The villagers had constructed makeshift beds of straw, wood, and stone for their ill loved ones.
The patients varied in age—there were elderly, middle-aged people, and even children. Their symptoms varied in severity, with the older patients being in much worse condition.
After spending an afternoon outside the village, one of the young men grasped his mother’s hand and gasped in surprise. "My mother’s hand… it’s warm!"
Upon hearing this, the others quickly rushed to check the hands of their own relatives. For days, they had watched helplessly as their family members' body temperatures dropped, no matter how many blankets or fires they used to keep them warm. In the past two days, their temperatures had fallen so low that they were almost indistinguishable from corpses.
The group moved from one patient to another, their hands trembling as they checked their loved ones. While their temperatures hadn’t fully returned to normal, the icy coldness had lessened.
One man, holding the hand of his two-year-old daughter, began to sob quietly in relief.
With their relatives' conditions stabilizing, the young men finally allowed themselves to relax, collapsing into the grass with tired but relieved smiles. As night fell, they lit fires and began preparing food. No matter what, they needed to eat. They were the only ones in the village who were still healthy, and if they fell ill too, the village would be doomed.
The first bowl of steaming gruel was brought to Lin Xiao.
"Doctor Wang, thank you so much… We don’t know how to repay you, but we will never forget your kindness!"
Lin Xiao sighed inwardly. Just as he was about to accept the bowl of food, he suddenly sensed something. His expression darkened as he stood abruptly, his brows furrowed as he looked into the distance.
The defensive formation he had placed near the Destruction Stone cave was being disturbed!
Sensing the shift in energy, Fang Tuantu, who had been wandering among the sick, called out, "Meow!"
The cat assured Lin Xiao that it could handle keeping the patients stable.
The man offering the bowl of food looked up at Lin Xiao in confusion, as did the others gathered around the fire. Then, before their eyes, the appearance of the "doctor" began to change. His face and body shifted, and soon, the old village doctor was gone, replaced by a young man no more than seventeen.
The group was stunned.
"Wh-what…?"
Lin Xiao turned to them, his voice serious. "I apologize for deceiving you, but time was of the essence. I didn’t want to waste time trying to convince you, so I had to resort to this disguise. As you can see, I am a cultivator."
Pointing to Fang Tuantu, who was sitting among the patients, Lin Xiao added, "This cat is the senior disciple of our sect's Alchemy Elder, and is well-versed in medicine. It will take care of your family members. I have urgent matters to attend to and must leave."
One of the men, the same one who had been holding his daughter’s hand earlier, looked at Lin Xiao, awe-struck by the revelation of his identity. Under the dim light of the fire, Lin Xiao seemed like an immortal descending to the mortal realm.
"A real immortal…"
Lin Xiao had no time for further explanations. He waved his hand, setting up several protective and warming formations around the group before pulling out a storage pouch and placing it around Fang Tuantu’s neck.
"Tuantu, I’m leaving it to you."
"Meow!" Fang Tuantu, now wearing three storage pouches around its neck, confidently meowed back.
"Leave it to me!"
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