Plague Rat squatted on a raised rock, a piece of dry grass he'd picked up from who-knows-where dangling from his mouth, directing the little demons to gather the herbs.
Su Xue also squatted down to sort the herbs.
“This one is for fever, this one is for detoxification, this one is for dispelling filth...”
She picked out a few medicinal ingredients and handed them to Chan Yi: “Decoct these, and make them drink it. Boil three bowls of water down to one, three times a day.”
Chan Yi took the medicine, nodding repeatedly: “Yes, yes, yes, I’ll go right away.”
He turned to leave, but Su Xue called out to him again: “Wait.”
Chan Yi turned his head.
Su Xue said: “Come here, let me see your injury.”
Chan Yi walked over and extended a forelimb.
Su Xue placed her hand on it, sensed for a moment, and nodded: “The filth energy is mostly cleared, but there’s still some residue. I’ll prescribe you a formula; take it for three days, and you should be fine.”
Chan Yi felt a warmth in his heart and bowed deeply again: “Thank you for your hard work, many thanks, Adult.”
Su Xue waved her hand and began writing the formula.
She had indeed been on many business trips, from the Southern Region to the Northern Region, from the Northern Region to the provincial capital, and then from the provincial capital to the Western Region. Her seat hadn't even warmed up before she was dispatched to Tianchi Province again.
However, Su Xue had no complaints. After all, she was a Heavenly Doctor, and it was good enough to follow Adult’s footsteps and save more people.
Wherever she was needed, that’s where she should be.
Lian was on her first business trip. At this moment, she was squatting beside a withered shrub, carefully poking its dry leaves with her finger.
“They’re all withered,” she whispered, a hint of regret in her voice.
A little demon, who had just carried some medicinal ingredients out of the stone cave, happened to approach and explained: “This dry Adult… this thing is naturally withered.”
“Tianchi Province is just like this; everything is withered everywhere. We’ve long gotten used to it.”
Lian looked up and gazed into the distance. The sky above Tianchi Province was hazy, as if covered by a dirty veil.
There was a sun, but its light was stark white, devoid of any warmth.
Not a blade of grass grew on the ground; it was all pale green sandy soil. Occasionally, a few black-brown rocks could be seen, their surfaces pitted and uneven, as if corroded by something.
Lian blinked her shattered eyes. She had spent a thousand years in the Western Region, believing it to be the most desolate place in the world.
Endless yellow sand, dried riverbeds, hazy sand jujube trees, and those strangely shaped yardangs eroded by wind, as well as the stubbornly surviving sandland cypress and saxaul.
But this place was far worse than the Western Region.
Lian extended her hand, catching a handful of falling sand and soil.
The soil landed in her shriveled palm, emitting a faint, lingering putrid smell.
“You all…” Lian looked at the little demon and softly asked, “You’ve been living in a place like this all this time?”
The little demon nodded, grinning to reveal a mouthful of small white teeth: “Yeah, we’ve lived here since birth.”
“Don’t you feel uncomfortable?”
The little demon tilted its head, thought for a moment: “Uncomfortable? I don’t know, it’s just been like this since I was little, and I haven’t been anywhere else.”
He pointed to the little demons carrying things in the distance: “Everyone’s the same. Some have lived longer than me. Just being alive is already very, very good.”
Lian fell silent. She looked at the little demons, who were skin and bones, dirty, and some even bore injuries.
Yet, smiles graced every face. They chattered while working, occasionally play-fighting and rolling into a ball.
“My great-great-great-grandmother said Tianchi Province wasn’t like this before,” the little demon said. “She said it wasn’t so desolate back then; there were still many living beings.”
“What happened then?” Lian asked.
The little demon shrugged: “Then it just became like this, I don’t know why.”
After speaking, he leaned closer to Lian, lowering his voice: “Dry Adult, is your skin natural? Can you teach me how to get it?”
“I want to be like that too; it looks really cool. Skin like that probably wouldn’t fear the plague, right?”
Lian: “...”
Are you serious?
Seeing her lack of reaction, the little demon thought she was unwilling and quickly waved his hand: “It’s fine, it’s fine, I was just asking. Please don’t mind me, Adult.”
After that, he ran off, continuing to carry things.
Not far away, Nie Chaoxi squatted behind a rock, shrinking herself into a tiny ball.
Nie Chaoxi buried her head in her knees, the tips of her ears so red they looked like blood would drip. It was her first time leaving the City of the Wrongfully Dead, her first business trip, and she understood nothing.
Before coming, she had been nervous for several days, always afraid she wouldn’t do well. It was Adult’s first time assigning her a task, and if she messed it up, how embarrassing would that be?
The whole way, she kept wondering: What was Tianchi Province like? Would it be terrifying? Could she handle it?
Now that she was here, she realized Tianchi Province was far more terrifying than she had imagined.
The air was filled with a putrid stench, so thick it made her want to vomit. The ground was covered everywhere with gray-green moss; stepping on it felt soft and squishy, like treading on rotten flesh.
She could even feel countless tiny plague poisons permeating the air, constantly corroding her body.
From the moment she entered Tianchi Province, she had felt unwell.
First came dizziness, then nausea, followed by festering sores breaking out on her body.
At first, they were just a few small red spots, but then they grew more numerous, larger, and more rotten, some even the size of a fingernail, oozing pus.
Fortunately, Su Xue had accompanied her the whole way, treating her whenever she felt unwell.
But they healed only to reappear, and were treated only to grow again, a cycle repeating endlessly.
Nie Chaoxi felt extremely distressed.
Why am I so useless?
Adult had finally given her a task, yet she couldn't even adapt to the environment and was burdening Su Xue with constant care.
As she was thinking this, she suddenly felt something approaching.
She looked up and was startled.
Without realizing it, she was surrounded by a large group of little demons—rats, beetles, cicadas, and bats—big and small, densely packed, encircling her.
They all had their eyes closed, inhaling deeply and oddly.
“So fragrant.”
“It smells so good!”
“I feel like my lungs have been cleansed.”
The little demons sighed contentedly as they inhaled, their faces filled with enraptured expressions. A few bolder ones even leaned close to her, pressing their noses against her clothes and sniffing hard.
“Older Sister, you smell so good! We’ve never smelled such clean air before!”
“Yes, yes, yes, it’s stinky everywhere here, even breathing stinks, but it’s not stinky at all around you, Older Sister!”
“Older Sister, do you know magic?”
“Older Sister, can you teach us?”
The little demons asked all at once, moving even closer.
Nie Chaoxi’s face grew even redder, and her entire body almost shrunk into a ball.
She instinctively wanted to escape, but she was surrounded by little demons, with nowhere to run.
Moreover, they didn’t seem to have any malice; they simply found her pleasant-smelling and wanted to stay longer.
If she ran away, would she hurt their feelings?
Nie Chaoxi was conflicted, so she could only remain squatting, letting the little demons continue to gather around her and inhale.
Rate on N.U.
