Chapter 211: Disease

Two sturdy men, carrying a stretcher, rushed into Ma Xinghua's yard like a charge, splashing puddles of water and rushing in, calling out urgently, "Doctor Ma! Brother Chang has a sudden cough and is dying!"

A chaotic commotion erupted in the courtyard. The roar seemed to stir the clouds into tears again, and a gentle drizzle began to fall. Before Du Que'er could lift her skirt and run to inform Ma Xinghua, the enormous figure of Ma Jiaju immediately approached Chang Liang's stretcher, shouldered it with one hand, and rushed into the second courtyard. Everyone followed anxiously.

Luo Xuanyi walked through the door slowly and followed in without any hesitation. After turning a few corridors, she smelled a medicinal fragrance.

They were all low-grade spiritual herbs, with black moss as the main ingredient, Xuanmi flower as the supplement, and a few common herbs added. This medicine was used to promote qi and replenish the spirit. Luo Xuanyi took a casual sniff, identifying the ingredients.

Ma Xinghua, who is half immortal and half mortal in the art of pharmacy, is quite interesting.

Following the smell of medicine, Luo Xuanyi walked into one of the rooms and saw everyone squatting nervously by the wall, watching Ma Xinghua give an emergency acupuncture to Chang Liang on the stretcher. No one noticed Luo Xuanyi leaning against the door.

Ma Xinghua's acupuncture technique was unwavering. The golden needles in her hands were as slender as strands of hair, and her wrists flew with each movement. Aside from Chang Liang, whose face was purple and whose throat was hoarse, she was a picture. Just by looking at her, one could imagine how many lives she had saved with these hands.

After several needles were inserted into Chang Liang's chest, Ma Xinghua turned and picked up a bamboo tube. He pried Chang Liang's mouth open with one hand and poured the dark green liquid down his throat without spilling a drop. After ensuring he had swallowed it, Ma Xinghua quickly removed the needles and calmly stepped back.

"Cough! Ugh!"

Chang Liang on the stretcher suddenly sat up and coughed, his veins popping out of his fists, and a greasy and disgusting feeling suddenly arose in his mouth. Before he could open his mouth to speak, a ball of white shadow shot out of his mouth, barely flying past Luo Xuanyi's side, shooting through the door for dozens of steps before landing on the ground.

Luo Xuanyi glanced over and saw that the white shadow on the ground was actually a ball of cotton, snow-white and flexible.

After coughing up the cotton wool, Chang Liang's face finally lost its purple hue, though it remained pale. Extremely weak, he lay back on the stretcher, mumbling something as if he wanted to say thank you, but he was too weak to fall asleep.

The two sturdy men who had carried him took in Ma Xinghua's expression and finally breathed a sigh of relief as they stood up. The two men looked very similar, and the younger one asked, "Doctor Ma, does Brother Chang have the same illness as Father?"

The old man he was referring to was the coughing old man, Mr. He, who Luo Xuanyi had heard coughing inside the flower wall. Ma Xinghua sighed, "He coughs up something like cotton wool, which fills his lungs and makes it difficult to breathe. It's exactly the same symptoms as Mr. He."

The two men exchanged a gloomy glance. Seeing this, Ma Xinghua quickly offered comfort: "Although I haven't found a cure for this disease, medication can still keep them alive. Give me enough time, and I'll definitely cure Mr. He and Chang Liang."

"I'm afraid that there will be more and more patients suffering from this disease." The smaller man thought further ahead.

Ma Xinghua put away the golden needles. She looked at Chang Liang, who was breathing weakly on the stretcher, and said firmly, "I will definitely find the root cause of the catarrh."

"Then Asong and I will stay here and help you take care of Dad and Brother Chang." The big man suddenly said, "Just leave these trivial matters to us two brothers."

Ma Xinghua shook his head, but his expression relaxed a little. "With Jiaju and Que'er helping us, we have enough manpower. And let's not talk about Ah Song for now. Ah Zhen, besides hunting, you can hardly cook without burning the rice."

He Zhen scratched his head. His features looked honest, but a hideous scar ran across his nose and the corner of his lip, adding a touch of hostility. He Song, who was more scholarly than him, laughed and said, "Before Big Brother became a sergeant, he had to eat rice crust when he cooked. He even broke a tooth. Let's forget about caring for people. Let's focus on collecting more medicinal herbs for treating catarrh."

"Yes." Ma Xinghua nodded, found a piece of paper, wrote a few lines, and handed the paper to He Song. "Before, it was enough for only Mr. He to use the medicine, but now I'm afraid I have to organize a special team to collect herbs."

"The specific deployment and selection of troops on the mountain is under the charge of you two brothers. Take a look."

He Song was literate and had been a minor clerk before being selected as a drummer. He took a few glances and breathed a sigh of relief. "Luckily, these are all first-grade spiritual herbs, so collecting them isn't dangerous. The range of these herbs has long been marked on the map, but they're quite widespread, so I'm afraid we'll have to split into two teams to collect them. I'll arrange for them to go right away."

Ma Xinghua instructed, "These two teams must register their names and household registration. They won't be able to earn money collecting spiritual herbs, so they can come to me to collect their wages. Don't let the villagers suffer."

He Song agreed and left with He Zhen. Ma Jiaju carried Chang Liang on a stretcher and moved him to the room next to the flower wall.

Ma Xinghua finally relaxed, his body swaying a bit. Suddenly realizing Luo Xuanyi was still there, he immediately put his hand on the low cabinet beside him and gave Luo Xuanyi a forced smile: "I'm sorry to have embarrassed you."

"Nothing," Luo Xuanyi said, her expression showing her concern. With a flick of her finger, the ball of white fluff on the ground floated up and landed in front of Ma Xinghua. "This is... something the patient coughed up. Aren't you going to keep it?"

Staring at the ball of white fluff, Ma Xinghua took a deep breath, took out a wooden box and opened the lid. Luo Xuanyi put the white fluff into the wooden box. Seeing Ma Xinghua put away the wooden box, she immediately started to think.

She used the death energy to examine the white cotton wool. It looked like ordinary cotton wool, but its roots contained a large amount of life energy, ready to move. There was also a strange aura surging faintly within.

There must be something strange about this disease.

"...Xuanyi?" Ma Xinghua's voice brought Luo Xuanyi back to her senses. There was a hint of hope in her eyes. "You are an alchemist, have you figured out anything?"

This wasn't within Luo Xuanyi's area of expertise. She looked regretful, "I've never seen this kind of illness before. Besides, we cultivators are blessed by heaven and free from all illnesses. I really don't know how to treat it."

Ma Xinghua couldn't find a single flaw in these words. Even if Luo Xuanyi noticed something was amiss, as long as it didn't hinder her from gathering materials to refine the formation flags, it would be fine. Even if the situation escalated, she could still intervene later; there was nothing to gain by taking action now.

There was nothing much for the two of them to talk about if they continued like this, so Ma Xinghua went back to his room to continue studying the medical classics, but Luo Xuanyi turned around and left the yard, returning to the street.

The main street was wide, and she looked up at the twelve towering mountains shrouded in clouds and mist.

Could this strange disease be related to these twelve mysterious mountains?

Regardless of whether they were related or not, Luo Xuanyi still had an interest in them. Previously, she couldn't find a way to explore the situation in the mountains, but now, she had a servant.

She took a casual step towards the green mountain. The rain stopped for a moment and then fell over, as if nothing had happened, and Luo Xuanyi was already standing in front of the green mountain.

There is one more~