Chapter 50: A Frenzied Dance of Demons (43)

The valley was abundant with medicinal herbs. Shen Xiao led Shi Xianyu and Lin Yuan in gathering them, taking the opportunity to teach them some knowledge about identifying herbs.

Shen Xiao had been cultivating the Dao since the age of fifteen, and now, seventy years had passed. The experience he had accumulated over seven decades of wandering the world had made his learning exceptionally profound. In addition to his mastery of swordsmanship and talismans, he also possessed a fair understanding of herbs.

“All things in nature generate and restrain one another. Where there is poison, an antidote often grows nearby—sometimes within the poisonous plant itself, for the properties of different parts can be entirely opposite. For example, the stalk of ephedra induces sweating and promotes urination, yet its root arrests sweat. Or take ginkgo: if one is poisoned by its seeds, a decoction of the shell can alleviate the effects...”

Lin Yuan studied earnestly, committing the features of each herb to memory as he listened. Shi Xianyu, however, was somewhat distracted, her mind filled with thoughts of Shen Xiao’s unrequited love—so pitiable, so tragic.

“Your hand is injured, Little Fish. This herb will do—crush the leaves and apply them as a poultice,” Shen Xiao said, pointing out a plant in the undergrowth. “Only the leaves are needed. Lin Yuan, gather some more.”

Lin Yuan nodded and carefully picked the leaves, with Shi Xianyu following suit.

Shen Xiao, noticing, chuckled and stopped her. “Little Fish, were you listening at all? You picked the wrong leaves.”

“Ah?” Her cheeks flushed. She hurriedly glanced at the leaves Lin Yuan had gathered, then corrected her own.

Shen Xiao laughed. “Little Fish, you don’t need to worry about me. See? I’m perfectly fine.”

She thought to herself: That’s exactly why I worry. You look so well, as if nothing’s wrong at all...

It was as if Shen Xiao sensed her thoughts. Smiling, he said, “Little Fish, I’m not merely putting on a brave face.”

Shi Xianyu couldn’t help but ask, “Brother Shen, aren’t you sad?”

“Why should I be sad?” he replied.

Shi Xianyu hesitated, frowning as she considered her words. “You wanted to go to Spirit Mountain for Miss An’s sake. You spent all these years searching for her, pouring in your time and effort, facing dangers... Now you’ve finally seen her, only to find her heart belongs elsewhere. All these years…”

She faltered, thinking that however gently she put it, these words must sting.

Putting herself in his place, she knew she could never be so open-hearted.

But Shen Xiao only smiled serenely. “Whether or not I had met Miss An, I would have walked the path of cultivation. She merely gave me a push at a crucial moment, helping me resolve to continue. For that, I thank her, and I remember her fondly. Little Fish, I understand your concern—you fear I’ll think all my efforts were wasted, that everything has come to naught. But I’ve lived well these years. My cultivation has grown, each ordeal has honed my skills. Perhaps I once had hopes for her, but in the end, one’s life is one’s own. Whatever I gain or lose, it is still my life.”

Shi Xianyu blushed deeply. Look at him, she thought. Such breadth of heart, such a lofty state of mind—surely Shen Xiao was more fit for immortality than she.

“Brother Shen, I was being narrow-minded.” She touched her face in embarrassment, murmuring, “I just felt sad that you’ve always cherished Miss An in your heart, but couldn’t be with her.”

Shen Xiao gazed out over the endless sea of flowers, his expression open and calm. “There are many kinds of love in this world: the love of parents, teachers and disciples, siblings, friends, lovers... none of them require an outcome. If one obsesses over results, pain inevitably follows.”

Shi Xianyu felt she still had much to learn.

In the future, she resolved, she would not only help others fulfill their wishes, but also strive to elevate her own state of mind.

Not far away, An Yao suddenly descended from the sky, her blue-green gown trailing a luminous arc through the air.

She looked slightly anxious as she landed before Shen Xiao, Shi Xianyu, and Lin Yuan. “Forgive me. I meant to introduce you to Prince Jing, but an urgent message has just arrived. A village has been found covered in strange white filaments. Of the scouts sent to investigate, only one survived. I must go at once to deal with it.”

“White filaments?” Shen Xiao was taken aback and asked instinctively, “Is it near the Black Abyss Forest?”

An Yao paused as well, surprised. “You know about it?”

Shen Xiao looked to Shi Xianyu and Lin Yuan. “Could it be the village belonging to the Wang family?”

Shi Xianyu exclaimed, “When we left, the village was just fine! Could someone have brought spores of those white fungi into the village?”

An Yao quickly asked, “You know what those filaments are?”

Shen Xiao explained, “They’re a toxic kind of fungus native to the depths of Black Abyss Forest. Once touched, they cause numbness and weakness. We burned them all when passing through that village, but I hadn’t expected them to spread there. Perhaps some animal carried the spores in, which led to disaster.”

He paused, frowning. “No, that’s not right... White fungus dies in sunlight. It shouldn’t be able to proliferate so extensively in a village.”

An Yao earnestly asked, “Since you understand this fungus so well, would you come with me?”

“Of course,” Shen Xiao replied gravely. “There’s no time to lose. Let’s go now.”

An Yao’s face showed gratitude. “My thanks to you all!”

Though she appeared delicate and pure, she was well over a hundred years old. Having long served at Prince Jing’s side, she acted with decisive authority. She quickly assembled twenty light cavalrymen and two cultivators, setting off for the stricken village.

One of the two cultivators accompanying An Yao was the dwarf whom Shi Xianyu had met before. Gifted in traversing great distances with a single stride, he cast his spells along the way, and what should have taken days was covered in no time.

On the way, Shi Xianyu still clung to a faint hope, guessing that perhaps it was another village plagued by the white filaments. But as the scenery grew more and more familiar, anxiety tightened in her chest.

An Yao told them, “The surviving scout reported that the village suffered a massacre—every inhabitant was killed. If your guess is correct, and the spores were brought in from outside, it’s likely the culprits were those marauders.”

Shi Xianyu’s face went pale. “The village was far from the fighting—how could it get caught up in this?”

An Yao sighed heavily. “True, its location was remote. But even so, if fleeing soldiers or bandits passed through, disaster could still strike. It’s not unheard of elsewhere.”

Shi Xianyu pressed her lips together, a sudden dread rising within her. She was afraid—afraid to face the horror that must now haunt the village.

They soon reached the outskirts.

Everywhere, black, sticky residue stained the ground.

An Yao might not have known it, but Shi Xianyu recognized it instantly: this was what the white fungus became after exposure to sunlight. It would gradually dry out, eventually becoming part of the dust of the earth.

As they pressed on, the black residue thickened, and soon the first bloodstains and corpses came into view.

Among the dead were innocent villagers as well as the marauders who’d attacked them. Their clothes and weapons made it clear: they were indeed roaming deserters, just as An Yao had said.

Not long ago, these streets had been filled with festival cheers, song, and dance. Now, it was a vision of hell on earth. Shi Xianyu turned her gaze away; she could not bear to look.

Suddenly, up ahead, a soldier cried out in alarm: “There’s a monster in the house!”