Chapter 81 The Divine Fire of Healing Changes Temperament and Brings Miraculous Recovery
As the filthy blood splattered from the sword pierced through them, the creatures clinging to the abandoned courtyard trembled and tried to crawl away as if they were ghosts seeing the light.
Shen Lixia took out a talisman and infused it with spiritual power. Instantly, the yellow paper dispersed, revealing a talismanic array that enclosed the area as a cage. The group of people before her had a maximum cultivation level of only early Foundation Establishment, and were already in such a withered state, so she was not worried about the depletion of her spiritual power.
After dealing with the two who had completely gone mad, Shen Lixia walked towards the three who were slightly more conscious. Their condition seemed very wrong; although they were not insane, their bodies were covered in festering sores, and even when they crawled, they left a trail of putrid, watery rot.
She hesitated for a moment, then simply drew her sword and severed their limbs, which were barely hanging from their torsos and were already festering with pus. One of them tried to resist, struggling to get up, but its arms were too weak, so it opened its mouth to bite.
Before it could even get close, a flash of sword light sealed its throat. With a splash, blood and pus hit the ground together. The boy kicked its corpse aside and then pressed the tip of his sword against the throat of another man.
"Isn't it enough that you've gotten yourself tainted? Why do you have to come and harm others?" Shen Lixia looked down and saw a face she had almost forgotten. The eyes were unfocused, and the corners of the mouth twitched uncontrollably; the person looked like they were terminally ill.
Where did they go, bringing back such a vicious disease? Those who can still speak in complete sentences have slightly higher cultivation levels, and the demonic energy is less pronounced on them, but it is still something that can erode cultivators, and shouldn't be something easily seen in the mortal world.
Moreover, this demonic energy has not diminished over time; on the contrary, it seems to have a life of its own and can be transmitted to others.
Shen Lixia need not worry about this. Since leaving Shen Yuan, she had a long dream in which someone told her that the divine fire had begun to merge with her, giving her some resistance to demonic energy. This pathogenic energy dared not approach her, but only lingered around her, warily swirling around her.
But the situation is less certain for the others. Ji Yun was the first to suffer, and there's no guarantee that the children haven't been tainted by this demonic energy. Furthermore, with the boys returning, they might have encountered other disciples...
"Give me...spiritual power..." the young man said weakly, "I can tell you...how to heal her..."
Shen Lixia raised an eyebrow, pierced the sword a little into its throat, and transferred some spiritual power to it. "If you can bear it, I can give it all to you."
The scorching spiritual energy, imbued with righteousness, flowed in and encountered the meridians within the young man's body, which were covered by demonic energy. Instantly, it felt as if his internal organs were being immersed in magma, forcing him to scream in agony. Shen Lixia was annoyed by the sound and barely suppressed the urge to pierce through it.
She sheathed her sword, and the young man collapsed to the ground like a rag doll, panting heavily. As if sensing that Shen Lixia had no intention of letting him go, it suddenly laughed a few times, hoarsely crying out, "You killed me! You killed me... then that old woman has no hope of being saved! We've already..."
Before it could finish speaking, a sword flash slashed down, adding another wound. This sword strike had been delivered with restraint, not out of mercy, but to create an opening for spiritual energy to flow in. Immediately afterward, a searing pain shot through every part of its body.
The fading screams startled another person nearby, who looked up in terror, their eyes filled with panic. The boy soon fell silent, dying from the excruciating pain.
"How about it?" Shen Lixia turned around and faced the last person. "Tell me what you know, and you can get a quick death."
She twirled the sword in her hand and added with a smile, "I didn't control it well just now, and it died a little too quickly. This time it should be slower."
The young man spoke, his voice trembling: "We were returning from a mission, passing through a village, resting for the night before continuing on our way... Unexpectedly, we contracted this disease and began seeking spiritual power, which is why we came to that supervisor..."
It spoke indistinctly, pausing for a moment before continuing.
"There's something strange about that village..."
"No, that's not right. The reason you're still able to stay here is because someone is protecting you. Who led you on this mission?"
The young man suddenly stopped, and after a long while he said, "It's...it's a senior brother from the inner sect."
It seemed terrified, so it simply revealed the person's residence and even mentioned the places it had visited on its return from the sect. After finishing, the young man closed his eyes, waiting for Shen Lixia's promised "satisfaction."
Shen Lixia sighed, and flames surged from her fingertips, rising with her raised palm and incinerating her opponent inch by inch into ashes. This time, she would start by burning his throat and tongue, to avoid disturbing his ears.
“You didn’t tell me the truth,” she said with a half-smile. “It doesn’t matter. It seems you yourselves don’t know how to resolve this.”
Otherwise, how could they have fallen into such a state, neither human nor ghost?
She burned the corpses on the ground, then walked out of the courtyard after dispelling the curse.
He should go find that senior brother. What a coincidence, he also lives near Jingzhe Peak—he wonders if he'll run into Lin Yuxian. But at this time, she should be at Yingyue Hall. Shen Lixia sheathed his Flowing Fire sword, his brow furrowing more and more as he thought about it.
Why is this peak so eerie? It's like a demon-locking tower. There are all sorts of people living on it and around it. We should advise Lin Yuxian to move out, and then clean it thoroughly before considering letting anyone live there.
As she walked towards the town's exit, Shen Lixia suddenly spotted a familiar figure. Overjoyed, she called out, "Senior Sister Tang!"
The woman in the green dress stopped in her tracks, turned around and looked at Shen Lixia in surprise, replying, "Wait a moment!"
After the pharmacy owner finished packing the herbs, Tang Huairou put them away and walked towards Shen Lixia. Her aura was even more unpredictable, her cultivation was extremely profound, and she was more composed than when they last met.
"When did you come back, Li Xia?" She smiled and reached out to touch the boy's head. "Not long after you left, I also went to the secret realm with my master."
After saying that, Tang Huairou lightly tapped the ring on her other hand. Something appeared in her hand—a small jade box.
She handed the small box to Shen Lixia and said, "This is exotic flower tea. We didn't have much there, so we only brought you this."
Shen Lixia took the box and carefully put it away. "Thank you, Senior Sister Tang. I only returned yesterday."
Thinking of them constantly was already a precious gesture. Shen Lixia considered it for a moment and decided to choose some suitable return gifts from the miscellaneous southern specialties she had bought. Everything in Shen Yuanli had vanished after the secret realm collapsed, as for the sea fish in the fishing village...
She didn't want all her clothes to be marinated in fishy odor.
"Senior Sister Tang, are you going back to Guyu Peak?" Shen Lixia asked.
Tang Huairou shook her head, then frowned slightly as if remembering something. "There are students around here who have contracted a strange disease. I happened to hear people discussing it when I came back, so I went to check it out."
It's better to be lucky than early. Shen Lixia nodded, her expression becoming serious: "Senior Sister Tang, are you going to take care of the patient? Please take me with you. I just discovered something that seems to be related to this."
The two then hurried together towards a certain part of the town. On the way, Shen Lixia roughly explained the source of the illness, and then asked Tang Huairou, "Senior Sister, this demonic energy has a corrosive effect on cultivators, why weren't you infected?"
Although she couldn't rule out the possibility that it only infected low-level cultivators, she always felt that things were not simple.
Tang Huairou said, "My master once gave me a magical artifact that can purify demonic energy and calm the mind."
Shen Lixia glanced at the string of new leaf-shaped hair ornaments in her hair and immediately understood, nodding. Upon reaching the patient's room, the two heard a low, painful groan coming from inside, and their expressions tightened. The student inside was only at the early stage of Qi Refining, his body no different from an ordinary person's; he was probably in great pain right now.
Pushing open the door, the scene inside was exactly as Shen Lixia had imagined: the boy was lying on the bed, black energy eroding from one fingertip to the entire arm, and the flesh and blood were vaguely showing signs of decay.
Seeing this, Tang Huairou paced anxiously back and forth in front of the bed and whispered, "How could this be... I clearly used my spiritual power to regulate her breathing last night and saw with my own eyes that her condition had improved a lot."
That's why she went to buy medicinal herbs, thinking that all she needed to do was rest. Hearing her mention regulating her breathing, Shen Lixia's eyes widened instantly, and she cautiously asked, "Senior Sister, you didn't somehow draw the illness from her body to yourself, did you?"
Tang Huairou sighed and said helplessly, "At the time, I didn't know it was demonic energy. Medical books had recorded similar symptoms, so I treated it as a special kind of illness."
Shen Lixia quickly reached out and checked her over before letting out a sigh of relief. She thought to herself that Aunt Ruan was indeed kind to her senior sister, giving her such a magical artifact. Perhaps Tang Huairou could go to the plague-stricken village that the young man had mentioned without any problems. But then again, the immortals valued their personal disciples very much; otherwise, how could she have so readily resorted to private punishment?
She thought that while using divine fire to cleanse the other person's meridians was risky, since she had a senior sister who was a medical cultivator by her side, it was worth a try.
"Senior sister, I can now use a small portion of the divine fire's power." The divine fire is a fire that wards off evil and can purify all evil in the world. As Shen Lixia spoke, she sat on the edge of the bed, took the boy's corroded hand, and held her wrist.
Sensing the overwhelming demonic energy within the boy, she frowned. "I want to risk trying to expel that strange demonic energy from her. I wonder if Senior Sister could help me out and keep an eye on other situations?"
For example, the divine fire went too far, or she was trying to cure it but it went out of control again, and she ended up slapping her twice.
Tang Huairou nodded and sat down on the other side. At this moment, the boy had begun to speak incoherently, completely unconscious. Shen Lixia closed her eyes, calmed her mind, and slowly guided her spiritual energy into the boy's body.
This force no longer causes her pain, or rather, even if there is a slight stinging sensation, she has become accustomed to it and no longer takes it seriously.
The exorcism went surprisingly smoothly. However, when the divine fire burned through the area where the demonic energy was particularly dense, Shen Lixia suddenly heard a small scream. She couldn't help but think of a possibility, and her expression worsened.
Seeing this, Tang Huairou, who was standing nearby, asked after she let go of her hand, "What's wrong?"
Shen Lixia lowered the boy's hand and pulled the blanket down further. The summer heat was intense again; she had covered him tightly earlier because he was cold due to the loss of his cultivation, but now, if he remained like this, he might faint from heatstroke before even waking up. After doing this, she gestured for Tang Huairou to wait until they were outside.
After Tang Huairou channeled a gentle spiritual energy into the boy and left behind medicinal herbs and a prescription, the two of them left the hut.
Shen Lixia tapped her temples, recalling the scene repeatedly, and only after confirming that she was not hallucinating did she slowly say, "This demonic energy seems to be alive."
-----------------------
Author's Note: Xia: (A lot of rubbish...)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com