Chapter 168: The Messenger of the Divine

Pan Dehai appeared in midair and dropped bundles of prepared herbs at Li Banfeng's feet, all made according to the formula and weighing several hundred kilograms in total.

With that much herbs, how was he supposed to brew it all?

Pan Dehai had clearly thought of everything, and he brought Li Banfeng an enormous iron cauldron with a surface area comparable to a small farmhouse. The cauldron was already filled with water, and firewood had been stacked neatly beneath it.

Pan Dehai stared straight at Li Banfeng, clearly waiting for him to ask for something more. He did not dare speak himself, fearing that the moment he opened his mouth, he would catch Green Beggar's festering sores.

Why would a ghost be afraid of infection?

Li Banfeng thought. But as he thought of this, he realized it made sense.

Pan Dehai possessed flesh and blood. Not ordinary flesh and blood, either, but something rare and peculiar, enough to feed Li Banfeng's entire family for a very long time.

Having flesh and blood meant he was no ordinary ghost. As for how a spirit could possess such flesh, Li Banfeng could not figure it out.

Are all local land deities spirits with flesh and blood?

he wondered.

After thinking it over for a moment, Li Banfeng turned to Cedric. "What else do you need?"

The fact that so many items appeared all of a sudden filled Cedric with fear. He knew that Li Banfeng was negotiating with a high-level existence, yet he could not sense that being's presence at all.

Cedric did not dare look too closely. Watching Li Banfeng show not the slightest reverence only deepened his fear. Either this man was unimaginably powerful, or he was mad beyond comprehension.

Li Banfeng urged, "I AM ASKING. What else do you need?"

Cedric swallowed and answered cautiously, "When I perform my technique, I will become extremely vulnerable. I need someone to watch over me. Someone to protect me."

Cedric needed protection.

Li Banfeng looked toward Pan Dehai in midair, hoping he would step forward on his own. After all, this was his domain, and protecting Cedric should have been his responsibility.

Leaning on his walking stick, Pan Dehai quickly departed into the night. Layers of mist billowed behind him like drifting smoke.

Li Banfeng let out a soft sigh. He poured some liquor onto the firewood, lit the fire, and began dumping the prepared medicine into the cauldron, crate by crate.

Cedric came over to help as well. The sight of his body, covered head to toe in festering sores, made Li Banfeng feel itchy all over.

The wind was fierce that night. Once the water began to boil, the fragrance of the herbs was carried far and wide, drawing mosquitoes from dozens of kilometers away.

Soon, dense black swarms of mosquitos wrapped around the two of them. Though they stood less than five meters apart, neither could make out the other's outline.

Cedric tilted his head upward for a moment, then shook it. "The numbers still aren't enough. We may need to change locations tomorrow."

"Let's try first," Li Banfeng said.

Cedric sat in silence beside the cauldron. The pus on his body began to seep out faster and faster, until his entire form was coated in a layer of green fluid. He looked less like a person now and more like a statue glazed in sickly green.

He had not lied. At this moment, he was extremely fragile. Li Banfeng could have killed him with no effort at all.

The mosquitoes continued to circle the cauldron. Many of them died. A small number survived. Yet the survivors avoided Cedric, keeping their distance.

"I'm a bit cold," Cedric said, still managing a joke in that condition. "Could you splash some of the broth on me?"

Li Banfeng scooped up a ladle of broth and asked, "This is boiling water. Can you take it?"

"I have a fever," Cedric replied. "I probably won't feel the heat."

Li Banfeng poured the boiling broth over Cedric's body. Whether from the cold or the heat, Cedric began to shiver.

As the broth gradually cooled on his body, the mosquitoes were drawn to it and began circling him in slow, lazy loops.

Li Banfeng had seen dragonflies skim across water before, but this was the first time he had ever seen mosquitoes do the same.

Many of them brushed against Cedric for only an instant before darting away. Others, utterly unaware of life or death, blundered straight into the pus and stuck fast.

"The virus you're spreading is in the pus?" Li Banfeng asked.

Cedric nodded.

"Then why not collect it and turn it into poison?" Li Banfeng asked. "Why do you have to use yourself to lure the mosquitoes?"

"One of my fellow disciples tried that," Cedric said. "He turned his self-created virus into a lure, but it could only transmit a single virus. His cultivation is higher than mine, and even he could only go that far. However, I need to spread several viruses together. Although my founding cultivator granted me that power, I can only use it within a limited range. Under these conditions, I can't let the pathogens leave my body."

After two hours, Cedric was completely exhausted. The pus on his body slowly receded, swelling back into plump, festering sores.

𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Sitting alone in the pitch-black farmland, Cedric could just make out faint lights in the distance. Only on a night like this would lamps still be burning so late.

"New Year," Cedric said with a bitter smile. "Tonight is New Year. I don't know how much longer I will live. If we fail, the Peddler won't save me either. This may be my last New Year, and I have to spend it here with you."

Li Banfeng spat lightly. "You think I want to spend the New Year with you? Besides, the New Year in your country isn't today, is it?"

Cedric shook his head. "It doesn't matter anymore. I love Puluo Province. I may be destined to stay here." He paused, then added, "Put out the fire. I want to sleep for a while. We will continue tomorrow."

Li Banfeng extinguished the fire. "I need to find a place to rest as well. I probably can't watch over you the entire time."

He still had to return to his Pocket Dwelling. It wasn't only for cultivation. He also needed to strengthen his body's resistance, or he might end up infected by Green Beggar's sores himself.

Cedric shook his head again. "I'm not that fragile right now. As long as I don't run into a powerful enemy, I should be fine."

Li Banfeng walked to a secluded spot and entered his Pocket Dwelling.

Before long, he came out again.

He brought Cedric a blanket and a few cans of food. Seeing that Cedric was still shivering in the cold wind, he poured a bowl of liquor into Cedric's battered begging bowl.

"It's the New Year."

We should get through the New Year the way it's meant to be,

Li Banfeng thought as he slung the liquor gourd over his shoulder and walked away.

Cedric lifted the cracked bowl and took a long gulp. Warmth spread slowly through his body, and he let out a satisfied sigh. "That's really good."

He wanted to drink it all, but after a moment's hesitation, he left a single mouthful behind.

"It's the New Year," he murmured softly to the bowl. "You should have a sip too."

***

At daybreak the next morning, Li Banfeng stoked the fire, boiled the broth, and continued luring mosquitoes.

They worked on and off until dusk. By the time the light began to fade, not a single mosquito could be seen nearby. Cedric looked at Li Banfeng and said quietly, "It's time to change locations."

Li Banfeng lifted his head and glanced at the sky. "It is indeed time to change locations."

With a cauldron this large and so much herbs, he couldn't possibly carry everything himself. He would have to rely on Pan Dehai.

A voice drifted down faintly from the air above them. "Leave everything behind. I'll choose a suitable place. When you arrive, I'll bring you new supplies."

Pan Dehai could sense it. Cedric's method was working. That knowledge, however, did nothing to lessen his revulsion. Anything Cedric had touched was something he no longer wished to lay hands on.

Before long, Pan Dehai appeared in midair and placed a map of the Ridges of Bottomless Stomachs into Li Banfeng's hands. Marked clearly upon it were the areas where mosquitoes gathered most densely.

Li Banfeng glanced at Cedric. "Let's go. It's time to set out."

"I can't walk. Walking uses up too much energy." Cedric said. He glanced at the pus covering his body and smiled awkwardly before saying, "Could you carry me on your back? I know it's a terrible thing to ask."

Without another word, Li Banfeng bent down, lifted Cedric onto his back, and pressed forward through the wind and falling snow.

Cedric's voice drifted faintly through the wind. "In my country, there's a story about a divine being who sends messengers to save those who suffer. I never believed it. But now... it feels as though we might be those messengers."

Li Banfeng gave a bitter smile. "Don't make yourself sound so great. You didn't choose this."

"But you did," Cedric said. "I might die tonight. Can you tell me why? Why are you staying in the Ridges of Bottomless Stomachs?"

Li Banfeng was silent for a moment. Then he said, simply, "Because I starved before."

Cedric nodded in deep agreement. "I have starved before as well. I know exactly what that feels like. My younger brother and I were sick from childhood. Our bodies were covered in blisters. The villagers hated us. They stole our food. They beat us. We were hungry more often than not."

Li Banfeng asked, "What about your brother?"

"He died," Cedric said. "He starved to death. On the night it happened, I waited for a messenger of the gods to appear. I never saw one. That's why I always believed the story wasn't true."

"Tonight," Li Banfeng said, "I'll give you an extra can and another bowl of liquor. Drink it with your brother."

Cedric managed a small smile. "Will he be able to drink it?"

Li Banfeng nodded solemnly. "He will."

With the wind roaring and snow driving down around them, Li Banfeng carried Cedric on his back and pressed forward at full speed.

***

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Niu Fuzhi stood on patrol at the village entrance.

For two whole days, not a single mosquito had appeared.

Did Master Qi really wipe them all out?

And what did Master Qi look like again? Why can't I remember?

Niu Fuzhi wondered.

There was also a benefactor who brought us herbs... wasn't there? So why can't I remember that person either? What's wrong with my memory?

Am I really being this ungrateful?

The Agrarian Cultivator Niu Jingchuan arrived at Potsticker Village and arrived at Potsticker Village and left some Quick-Sprout Seeds with the village chief.

"These seeds can only be planted three times at most," he said seriously. "Don't use them more than that."

Village Chief Xiang Jichun thanked him profusely. "What can this lowly one even say? How is this lowly one supposed to repay a kindness like this?"

"What kindness?" Niu Jingchuan waved it off. "This was Master Qi's instruction. He told me to check which villages still had people left and bring them some seeds. Just take them."

"Master Qi..." Only then did Xiang Jichun remember Li Banfeng, the man who had wiped out the Annihilation Mosquitoes in their village. "Where did Master Qi go? Is he staying in your Flatbread Village?"

Niu Jingchuan scratched his scalp. "I don't know where he went either. To be honest... I can't even remember what he looked like."

Xiang Jichun scratched his head as well. "I can't remember either. There was a benefactor who delivered medicine before, and I can't remember what he looked like at all." He sighed. "How can we be like this, forgetting even the people who saved us?"

***

Deep within the new land, inside a mountain cave, a massive aberrant creature hammered at the stone walls with its hardened forelimbs.

Its head looked like that of a locust, sharp and alien, but its body was all wrong. There was no hard shell to protect it. Instead, its swollen torso dragged along the cave floor, writhing like a giant maggot with a rat's tail.

A coat of downy fuzz covered its back, and within that soft layer, hundreds of antennae stirred constantly, swaying and twitching as though listening to voices no one else could hear.

Beneath the creature rushed the Iron-thread River. This was where the river came to its end.

Iron-thread insects swarmed through the water and crawled in and out of the creature's flesh, carrying news with them. Through their movements, the creature learned what had happened beyond the cave.

The mosquitoes it had painstakingly cultivated had vanished completely from Puluo Province.

It was furious. New forelimbs burst from its writhing body, slamming down again and again until the cave walls crumbled, stone ground into fine powder beneath its rage.

The aberrant creature could create another kind of insect. One far more terrifying than mosquitoes. But such a thing required time and it was not given too much time by them!

Just as the enormous insect was busy plotting something horrid, a sound crept into the cave. A sound so cold it made even monsters pause.

Clatter clack, clatter clack.

The creature stiffened. It knew that sound. The Peddler's rattle drum. Then, it heard the Peddler's whisper.

"I suspected it was you long ago. Still, I didn't expect you to divert the Iron-thread River, or to hide so many channels along the way. Finding you has been truly exhausting." The voice paused. "Tell me, who made you do this? Someone from the Outer Provinces, or the Inner Provinces?"

Clatter clack, clatter clack.

The rattle drum crept closer.

The massive insect reared up and roared, "Come then! They gave me power. I am not afraid of you!"

"Oh, really?" the Peddler said lightly. "I do like seeing things for myself."

He pushed his cart with one hand, gave the rattle drum a shake with the other, and stepped straight into the cave.

Author's Note:

PS: Thank goodness Banfeng did not run along the river. Otherwise, he would have run straight into this enormous insect.

It's the first day of the New Year, and Salagus brings to you a new chapter. Thank you all for your support over the past year!