jdhmnovel Chapter 573
Chapter 573
The morning mist had not yet dissipated from the northwest city gate when the sound of horses' hooves shattered the rare tranquility. On the crimson letter, delivered with urgent messages over eight hundred li, the two characters "fire wax" printed in vermilion ink seemed to drip blood. Dongfang Wan'er's fingers trembled slightly as she unfolded the secret report. The densely packed, tiny characters on the parchment outlined a scene more terrifying than war itself—a bizarre plague had suddenly broken out in the southern prefectures. Those infected first developed bluish spots under their skin, followed by skin that ulcerated and peeled off like molten wax. Most horrifyingly, the breath of the infected could infect healthy people within three days. In just ten months, seven cities had already become ghost towns.
“We must head south immediately.” Yingyi stared at the expanding red dot on the map, his bronze fingertip striking the words “Jiangzhou” heavily. The candlelight cast flickering shadows on his face, and the scars that had healed half a month ago began to throb again. Dongfang Wan’er fastened her Xuan Tie sword to her waist, her peripheral vision glancing at the dusty medicine chest in the corner of the wall—it contained the Nine-Turn Life-Extending Pill and the Ice Heart Jade Dew left behind by the white-robed old man, now gleaming faintly in the darkness.
Three days later, the hooves of horses trampled the frost and snow outside Jiangzhou City. Dongfang Wan'er lifted the carriage curtain, and a stench mixed with herbs assaulted her senses. On the once bustling official road, lay scattered, diseased refugees, their skin like worm-eaten rotten wood, maggots crawling in festering sores. At the foot of the city walls, piles of unburied corpses lay, and tattered rags wrapped around pieces of flesh fluttered among the ruins in the cold wind.
"Set up tents! Get the medicine kit!" Dongfang Wan'er tore off her cloak to cover her mouth and nose, her voice trembling as she gave the orders. Yingyi led the soldiers to isolate the sick in an abandoned granary, but the wound medicine and heat-clearing powder they carried were ineffective against this strange disease. Late on the seventh night, a soldier suddenly convulsed, and blue spots under his skin spread like a spider web to his neck. Dongfang Wan'er trembled as she tried to administer acupuncture, but the silver needles turned black as soon as they pierced his skin.
“Perhaps…” Ying Yi suddenly ripped open his clothes, revealing a scar on his chest that had not yet fully healed. “The old man in white said that the Nine-Turn Life-Extending Pill can extend life by seven days. If…” His voice was drowned out by the rising and falling wails. Dongfang Wan’er abruptly opened her medicine box, and the Ice Heart Jade Dew sealed in the jade bottle rippled in the moonlight, reflecting her resolute eyes.
As the first rays of dawn pierced the clouds, a miracle quietly unfolded within the makeshift medical tent. The festering skin of the patients who had taken the elixirs began to scab over. Ying Yi mixed jade dew into the medicinal soup, and the bluish-gray liquid transformed into starlight, seeping into the patients' mouths. Dongfang Wan'er stood guard by the most critically ill patient's bedside, holding the patient's gradually warming hand, watching the horrifying bluish spots recede like a receding tide.
For nine whole days and nights, the lights in the medical tent never went out. When the last patient coughed up black blood, Dongfang Wan'er and Ying Yi slumped against the mottled city wall. In the distance, the laughter of children could be heard, and the refugees spontaneously lit bonfires, throwing the mountain of patients' clothes into them. Ying Yi handed over warm medicinal soup, and as Dongfang Wan'er took it, her fingertips brushed against the back of his hand, which was covered in needle marks—he had tested the medicine on himself with thirty-three different herbs to test its effectiveness.
“There will be even greater challenges.” Dongfang Wan’er gazed at the churning dark clouds on the horizon. Although the red dot representing Jiangzhou had been erased from the plague map, the markings for other prefectures and counties remained a stark, bright red. Ying Yi gently draped his cloak over her shoulders, their shadows overlapping in the firelight, like twin swords fighting side by side. The distant sound of the night watchman's clapper echoed; new challenges might be on their way at the next dawn.
The drizzle of late spring, carrying the scent of rust, pattered on the bluestone slabs. Dongfang Wan'er had just received the bowl of medicine from Ying Yi when she heard the sound of galloping hooves coming from outside the city. White mist billowed from the nostrils of the Akhal-Teke horse, and the soldier on its back, with three broken arrows embedded in his chest, still clutched the blood-stained secret report with his last ounce of strength: "Yu... Yuzhou... bleeding from all seven orifices..." Before he could finish speaking, he had already fallen into the mud, his fingers still tightly gripping the curled corners of the yellow silk.
Ying Yi tore down the secret report; the words "bleeding from all seven orifices, sudden death within three days" circled in vermilion ink were piercing to the eye. Dongfang Wan'er felt the soldier's pulse at the side of his neck, her fingertips stained with bluish-black blood—a color drastically different from the early stages of the Jiangzhou plague. "Pack the Ice Jade Box, take all the life-extending pills," she said hoarsely, deliberately leaving the mugwort rope Ying Yi had braided for her exposed as she fastened her breastplate. "This time, we may have to venture deep into the heart of the territory."
The carriage bumped along in the mud for three days, the scenery outside the window transforming from scattered grave mounds to a continuous "mountain of corpses." The moat outside the city walls of Yuzhou was filled with bodies; swollen, floating corpses crashed against the sluice gates with the current, and the putrid water splashed onto the city bricks, hissing and emitting blue smoke. Ying frowned and sprinkled sulfur powder, only to see the corpses that touched the powder suddenly convulse, black blood gushing from their seven orifices and flowing into a winding, poisonous river on the ground.