The little civet nodded. "Of course. It's winter, and there's no extra food for it. It's so fat that if the villagers found it, it wouldn't be able to run fast enough to escape. It wouldn't be alive now."
Shen Yijin thought so too, but this made her even more certain that the plague was man-made.
At this time, the civet cat leader also came back, holding a dead dog in his mouth.
The leader of the spirit cat tribe put down the dead dog and said to Chen Yijin, "The last few pills were eaten by these dogs. There are no low-grade longevity pills left. Is our mission accomplished?"
"You did a great job." There was no joy on Shen Yijin's face, and his brows were full of sadness.
The leader of the civet cat tribe felt strange. They had solved the source of the plague and would be able to get merit soon, so why was Shen Yijin still not happy?
The patriarch looked at the little civet cat and asked it with his eyes what had just happened.
The little civet just shook its head in confusion, it knew nothing.
The Civet Chief didn't say anything, so Bei Shitao asked for him, "Yijin, why are you unhappy? Didn't we stop the plague outbreak?"
Chen Yijin laid out her speculations: "All clues now indicate that this plague was not a natural disaster but a man-made disaster. Since it was man-made, if they found that the plague did not break out as expected, they would definitely plan another plague..."
The spirit cat leader's face suddenly fell: "In other words, we won't get any merit this time?"
Shen Yijin was not sure: "I think I can still get a little bit..."
Except for the leader of the civet cats, most of the civet cats didn't take the merit too seriously. When they noticed the leader's unhappy face, they consoled him by saying, "It's okay, boss. At least we had some meat!"
It’s hard for the civet cat leader to put it into words. These civet cats have no idea what they have lost!
At this moment, a civet cat that had secretly gone to the river to fetch water came running back in a panic, its eyes full of fear: "Boss, boss, it's too dangerous here, let's hurry back to the mountain!"
The river near the village was frozen, and the civet cat took a long time to break it open by hitting it with stones.
Just as it was about to scoop up some water to drink, it smelled a strange odor.
"There's something wrong with the river water near the village. I saw dozens of dead rats at the bottom!" the civet cat said anxiously. "The plague is about to break out. Let's go back to the mountains for shelter!"
Hearing this, Shen Yijin's hanging heart finally died.
The Civet Cat Chief was shocked. The plague outbreak was not something they could handle. Good deeds were not as important as lives. "Hurry, hurry, everyone, get back to the mountain!"
When the civet cats heard the order from their leader, they all ran up the mountain with their caught prey in their mouths.
In the blink of an eye, Shen Yijin and the others couldn't even see the shadow of the spirit cat.
"What should we do now?" Bei Shitao looked at the direction where the civet cats left and felt that they were extremely helpless.
Shen Yijin sighed: "What else can I do? I can only try my best to save people."
Bei Shitao had never practiced cultivation and her body was still that of a mortal. Shen Yijin asked her to go up the mountain, but Bei Shitao insisted on staying.
She couldn't help much if she stayed, but she couldn't go up the mountain at this time and leave Chen Yijin to fight the epidemic at the foot of the mountain.
Chen Yijin couldn't persuade Bei Shitao, so she had to let her go.
A few days after the plague broke out, Shen Yijin and Bei Lanshan went around buying medicinal herbs and making antidotes for the villagers.
But they are not monks specializing in medicine, and all they can do is delay the onset of the disease, not cure it.
The fox returned with its head drooping. Seeing this, Bei Shitao knew it hadn't gained anything. "Are the doctors from other places still unwilling to come and help?"
Fox shook his head. "The doctors heard about this and are afraid of offending others, so they don't dare to come here to help. There are a few doctors who are willing to help, but their medical skills are really not good enough. I'm afraid they will lose their lives before they can help."
"This won't do..." Bei Shitao sighed.
Without a doctor willing to help, the villagers wouldn't be able to hold out for long relying solely on Shen Yijin and Bei Lanshan.
Many villagers have died from the plague now. If no antidote is found, they may also be infected with the disease.
The fox ran into the house and suddenly kicked Bei Lanshan.
Bei Lanshan was sorting medicinal herbs, and was almost knocked over by the beast's kick.
He turned back angrily: "Fox, what are you doing?"
"You've been writing to the sect for so long, but they haven't replied yet. They must be feeling guilty! I've already heard from the doctor that the cooperation between the wandering merchants and the Meteorite Sect is to spread the plague in Qianfang Village under the guise of wandering merchants! Your sect is coveting the fox fairy's bones!" said the fox angrily.
The Meteorite Sect had long understood Hu Yunrong's character and knew that it would not ignore the lives of the villagers, so it allowed the traveling merchants to attack the villagers.
The new immortal from the next door village is also one of them. His existence has diverted the villagers' faith.
Bei Lanshan's eyes widened in disbelief: "Are you telling the truth? No, I don't believe it..."
If the fox fairy loses the incense and offerings, it will just turn into an ordinary fox.
What use would the sect have for the skeleton of an ordinary fox?
Bei Lanshan didn't believe it, he thought the fox was lying to him.
"I don't believe what you said. I want to find out the truth myself!" Bei Lanshan rushed out of the house and went to find a doctor to find out the truth.
Bei Lanshan didn't believe it, but Shen Yijin had already guessed it.
Knowing that his work was mostly in vain, Shen Yijin continued to develop an antidote for the villagers: "It seems that we can't change what happened a thousand years ago. Fox, go tell Fox Yunrong what's happening at the foot of the mountain."
Bei Shitao couldn't bear it and stopped the fox from going: "Isn't this too cruel for Hu Yunrong?"
"Whether to save the villagers is Hu Yunrong's own choice. You've seen that we can't prevent the plague outbreak, nor can we save the villagers." Chen Yijin analyzed calmly, "If we can't stop the fox fairy from dissipating, we must at least obtain her bones and prevent the Meteorite Sect from getting what they want."
"But can we really do it?" Bei Shitao was still hesitant. If they couldn't change what happened a thousand years ago, how could they rewrite the ending where the fox fairy's skeleton was taken away by the Meteorite Sect?
Shen Yijin's eyes darkened: "Perhaps, this is how history was a thousand years ago?"
They can now travel back a thousand years ago because of a photo, so why couldn't someone from later generations appear a thousand years ago and help rewrite the ending?
Bei Lanshan placed the photo in the Fox Fairy Temple, perhaps to allow history to repeat itself.
The fox finally went up the mountain to find Hu Yunrong.
Hu Yunrong wasn't surprised to hear about the plague at the foot of the mountain. "I thought you would come to see me a few days later."
Hu Yunrong had long heard people praying to her, asking her to quell the plague at the foot of the mountain.
It wanted to fulfill the wishes of the villagers at the foot of the mountain and had already prepared for death.
But before she died, Hu Yunrong wanted to take another look at Bei Lanshan and her new friends.
"Bei Lanshan has left? What a pity..." Hu Yunrong hid sadness in her eyes. It seemed that she would not be able to see Bei Lanshan again before she died.
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