Chapter 503 Siblings Take Action (Second Update)

That night, Gu Chengfeng didn't see his older brother and fell asleep feeling aggrieved.

Hmph, my older brother will definitely come to see him tomorrow!

The next day, Gu Changqing left the city...

Gu Changqing left the city with Gu Jiao.

The crisis in Moon City has been resolved, but two more crises await them in the upcoming battles: Gu Changqing's legs being severed and the annihilation of the Gu family army.

These two events are actually related, and the cause lies in Lingguan City, which was guarded by remnants of the previous dynasty.

The remnants of the previous dynasty went to great lengths to deal with the Gu family army. They somehow obtained a plague patient who infected the people in the city. After the Gu family army recaptured Lingguan City, they were unaware that a plague had quietly spread throughout the city.

By the time the doctors confirmed it was a plague, Gu Jiajun had already been infected.

This plague is most likely bubonic plague, with a short incubation period, extremely rapid onset, severe symptoms, and a very high mortality rate.

Gu Jiajun took swift action, but it was too late; a large number of his troops were infected.

Because they did not receive proper medical treatment, hundreds of Gu family soldiers died of illness in their quarantined tents every day.

In order to completely stop the plague, their bodies could only be cremated, and even their ashes could not be brought back.

Gu Changqing was ambushed while searching for medicine for them. The assailant was a very skilled assassin, whose skills were no less than those of the Dragon Shadow Guard of Zhao Kingdom. However, the assassin did not kill Gu Changqing, but only cut off his legs.

The other party's goal seemed to be to make Gu Changqing live a conscious and painful life, losing the Gu family army, his grandfather and his biological brother, but still leaving him with Gu Chenglin in the mansion, causing him to suffer a fate worse than death, wanting to die but unable to die.

He lived forever in the abyss of suffering.

Gu Jiao had thought it over carefully. To save the Gu family army, she had to eliminate the plague at its source and prevent it from spreading.

To avoid Gu Changqing's tragedy, preventing him from leaving the army to find medicine is secondary; the most effective way is to find that powerful assassin and kill him!

Gu Jiao doesn't know where the assassin is for the time being, so she'll deal with the plague first.

On the way to Lingguan City, the two rode through the snow. Gu Changqing suddenly turned to look at her and said, "Your horsemanship has improved."

When Gu Jiao was in the capital, she didn't know how to ride a horse very well.

Gu Jiao said, "We rode horses all the way from the capital to here, so we learned how."

To be honest, her horsemanship isn't particularly good, but the horses are good; she doesn't need to use much skill to control them, and the horses run happily on their own.

But even the smallest progress made by my younger sister is significant.

Gu Changqing was very pleased, and his eyes shone as he looked at Gu Jiao.

"By the way," he said, remembering the purpose of his trip to Lingguan City, "how did you know there were plague patients in Lingguan City?"

Gu Jiao said without changing her expression, "I went to Lingguan City last time, and I also went to the former dynasty's headquarters, the Prefect's Mansion."

But I know this news has nothing to do with my going to Lingguan City.

Gu Jiao added a sentence in her mind.

Gu Changqing, however, naturally filled in the gaps in her information—Gu Jiao went to the prefect's mansion and overheard the plans of the remnants of the previous dynasty.

It has to be said that the Gu family father and son have mastered the skill of "imagining things out".

News of the Gu family army's annihilation of Chen's 20,000-strong army spread quickly, and the defenses of Lingguan City became more stringent than before. However, unlike the capital city, the border city was not surrounded by walls. Lingguan City only had a few checkpoints set up on the main roads.

Passing this checkpoint was not difficult for the two of them. They hid the horses in the nearby forest, and then Gu Changqing used his lightness skill to lead Gu Jiao around from the side.

Such a terrible danger was naturally not placed in the governor's mansion; the remnants of the previous dynasty imprisoned the plague patients in a small village northwest of Lingguan City.

After entering the city, the two headed straight for the small village.

The small village is situated at the foot of a mountain, surrounded by mountains on three sides and water on one side.

To enter the village, you need to cross a wooden bridge over the river.

The two crouched down behind a bush and carefully observed the movements in the village.

The village was very small, with only a dozen or so small houses made of mud and grass. The doors and windows of the small houses were all tightly closed, and occasionally a few suppressed coughs could be heard from inside.

After observing for a long time, Gu Changqing whispered, "Strange, there's no one guarding it."

"The door wasn't locked either," Gu Jiao said.

Gu Changqing nodded.

This is a very big point of contention.

The people imprisoned here are plague patients. Although they are meant to be used against the Gu family army, the Gu family army has not yet reached Lingguan City. The troops stationed here are the remnants of the previous dynasty.

The streets were filled with soldiers from the previous dynasty.

Aren't they afraid that these patients might accidentally infect their own people if they go out?

Gu Jiao also found it strange. In her dream, she only saw the result, not the process, so she couldn't figure out what the remnants of the previous dynasty were up to before releasing these patients.

But now that they're here, they should be able to find out the truth.

"Someone's coming!" Gu Changqing covered Gu Jiao's head with his hands and together they pressed their bodies down into the bushes.

Two soldiers, remnants of the previous dynasty, arrived, each carrying a large food box as they walked through the crunching snow.

When Gu Changqing brought Gu Jiao over, he used his lightness skill, so he did not leave any footprints in the snow. The soldiers walked past Gu Changqing and Gu Jiao.

Two soldiers came into the village, placed the food box on the open ground in front of them, and then left.

"Is this food delivery?" Gu Jiao asked.

"It looks like it. It's lunchtime now. Are you hungry?" Gu Changqing's focus suddenly veered off course.

Gu Jiao was about to say she wasn't hungry when she saw Gu Changqing take out something wrapped in brown paper from his bosom. When he opened it, it turned out to be a package of dried meat.

Gu Jiao: "..."

Before Gu Jiao could even eat, there was movement coming from one of the small wooden houses in the village.

With a creak, the wooden door was pulled open from the inside, and a tall, robust man slowly walked out.

He was wrapped in a thick quilt, carrying an empty bowl, his steps heavy and resolute.

His scent felt familiar to Gu Jiao, and she wrote two words in the snow with her index finger: "Death Warrior".

Gu Changqing frowned.

He took her cold fingertips and warmed them in his own hands.

The two continued to observe the activity inside the house.

The soldier's complexion and condition were not right; he was clearly a plague patient as well.

He came to the open space in the village, opened the food box on the left, and slowly took out a flatbread and a steamed bun. Then he opened the food box on the right and scooped out a bowl of dark, medicinal soup.

After doing all that, he turned and went back into the house.

He walked with some difficulty, and it was clear that the lesions had taken root and sprouted in his body.

After he closed the door, the doors of the other small houses began to open one after another. Those who came out were villagers without martial arts skills, aged between twenty and forty, which is the age when a person is in good physical condition.

As if he had been carefully selected, Gu Changqing's heart sank.

Each house had two villagers, making a total of fourteen people. Like the assassin from before, these people also took their own dry rations and medicine.

"Can you smell what kind of medicine it is?" Gu Changqing took out a dagger, wrote a line of words in the snow with the scabbard, and then handed the dagger to Gu Jiao.

Gu Jiao wrote: "A medicine to treat the plague."

"Can it be cured?" Gu Changqing asked, taking the dagger.

Gu Jiao shook her head.

It's incurable.

If it really is plague, then streptomycin, or tetracycline, chloramphenicol, or sulfonamides would be needed. This kind of decoction can only relieve the symptoms to some extent and let the patient live a few more days, but in the end, he will still lose his life.

Gu Changqing fell into deep thought.

The two men waited behind the bushes for a while longer. Suddenly, the door of the easternmost house opened, and a young man in his early twenties sneaked out.

Gu Jiao noticed him when he was getting his food.

Gu Jiao is a doctor and can tell who has the most severe symptoms, but this young man has the mildest symptoms, so Gu Jiao paid more attention to him.

The young man was probably trying to escape; he tiptoed across the open space and headed towards the wooden bridge.

However, before he could even step onto the bridge, he was thrown to the ground by a strong force, and his nose bled profusely in the snow.

"If there's a next time, I'll chop you into pieces and feed you to the dogs!"

It was the voice of that assassin.

At this point, Gu Jiao and Gu Changqing finally understood why there was no one guarding this place.

With that formidable assassin around, not a single villager could escape.

Moreover, it can reduce the risk of soldiers getting infected.

The young man covered his bleeding nose and resignedly crawled back to his cabin.

Gu Changqing's gaze suddenly turned cold.

He understood what the remnants of the previous dynasty were planning.

There will eventually be a battle at Lingguan City. If the Gu family army is defeated and Lingguan City remains the remnant of the previous dynasty, then these plague patients will be executed on the spot.

If the Gu family army wins, these plague patients will be released to infect the city's residents and the Gu family army.

The saying "if you can't have it, destroy it" is roughly like this.

As for why these patients weren't driven directly to Moon City, firstly, they were ill and couldn't travel that far; secondly, accidents could easily happen during the journey.

If one of them escapes or accidentally comes into contact with the soldiers, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Gu Changqing's eyes turned icy cold. He didn't even bother with his dagger; he simply stood up and said, "I'm going to kill that assassin."

Gu Jiao pressed down on his hand: "I'll go kill him."

Today is another day I want monthly votes!

(End of this chapter)