"Forward! You will always move forward! You will never retreat!"
"But I'm so tired, Master, so tired. I'm too tired! I... don't want to keep going anymore!"
"Did you forget? Did you forget? Have you forgotten everything?"
"Forward! Forward! Forward!"
Xiang Qian suddenly jolted awake.
Looking around, he was stunned for a moment before remembering he was in the town hall of Green Goat Town.
The cold sweat crawling down his spine reminded him that he hadn't dreamed in a long time. Hadn't... remembered in a long time.
Every day, he deliberately dispersed his Dao essence, fell into a drunken sleep, and woke up with a splitting headache, unable to remember anything—that was the best state.
How rare is peace of mind.
When peace cannot be found, one seeks chaos.
When liberation cannot be found, one seeks to let oneself go.
Let go...
At this moment, the sky was just beginning to lighten. The town hall was filled with constables sleeping in disarray.
Xiang Qian stood up and walked out of the town hall, wearing only a light shirt, and randomly chose a direction to patrol the small town—this was the work he had been doing recently.
In the current outbreak of plague, only transcendent cultivators could ensure their own safety.
Where people needed supplies, where people were infected and needed to be moved, where people were causing trouble... all required his attention.
Whether it was the innocent and naive Zhu Biqiong, or Zhang Hai, who couldn't bear to leave the pill furnace for a moment, it was the same for them. Always busy, not resting for a moment. Only now had they gotten a chance to rest.
Jiacheng had already announced the truth about the plague and begun comprehensive response measures. Support from all sides had arrived. The path was tortuous, but things were finally seeing a glimmer of light.
All of this was brought by that young man—the confident and determined young man who said that the Inner Fane realm was definitely not the end...
But Xiang Qian couldn't stop.
He had to keep throwing himself into busy work to fight against the dream that had just startled him awake—yes, during this period he had discovered a new way to fight against pain. Besides alcohol, work that kept him too busy to stop was another method.
After patrolling a circle, he sent the two newly discovered plague victims to the western district that had been cleared for isolating the infected. Those who had been in contact with them had also been marked and would receive focused observation.
The number of plague victims gathered in the western district had risen from the previous 130 to the current 247.
But it could be seen that after the implementation of strong measures, the number of newly infected patients had significantly decreased.
Two medical cultivators sent by the Chongxuan family were here working with all their might to treat the plague victims.
Creating a medicine that could cure or at least delay the disease would be the best choice, because from the onset of symptoms to death, plague victims only had three to five days. With just two medical cultivators treating patients one by one, many people might not survive long enough for their turn.
Such medicine wasn't unavailable, but those that could be found currently were too expensive and unrealistic, with no practical value.
For example, a single Meridian-Opening Pill could solve the problem of plague infection, but who could afford to spend 247 Meridian-Opening Pills for the 247 patients in Green Goat Town?
What about the entire city region? The entire State of You? No faction could afford it or was willing to afford it.
The reason transcendent cultivators weren't affected by the plague wasn't because they had specific methods against it, but because they had extraordinary bodies.
In fact, the two medical cultivators treating patients day and night was already an extremely expensive investment. The Dao Essence Stones they consumed and the consultation fees they required were beyond what ordinary people could imagine.
Only someone as wealthy as Chongxuan Sheng would be willing to send them over for Jiang Wang.
After sending the plague victims into isolation rooms, personally distributing identification tokens to them, registering their names for unified supply allocation...
After finishing all this, Xiang Qian finally turned to leave.
There was a pair of eyes following him, following closely, chasing tightly.
Xiang Qian suddenly turned his head and saw the owner of the gaze, leaning out from a small window on the right side of the building upstairs.
Bang!
Seeing him turn, the window slammed shut.
Probably bumped his forehead.
"Ah!"
A scream.
Probably fell down.
Although it was only a brief glance, Xiang Qian, with his transcendent cultivator's sharp eyesight, saw the scene inside the small window.
It was a child.
A child so thin he had lost all semblance of his former self.
Xiang Qian was thinking about whether to go up and check when the small window creaked open again.
The little boy was probably standing on a stool, leaning close to the small window, looking at Xiang Qian with some curiosity and some fear.
Xiang Qian tried hard to force out a smile.
Although his smile wasn't particularly bright, it seemed to give the little boy courage.
"Today." His lips were pale and bluish, and his voice was weak: "It's my seventh birthday!"
This innocent, childish voice suddenly shattered many dusty fragments.
In a daze, Xiang Qian remembered that he was still somewhat young.
Counting on his fingers, it had been five years since his coming-of-age ceremony. He should be a young man in his prime.
But his long-unattended appearance and somewhat rough stubble made him look much older.
The pity was... how could Xiang Qian not see that this little boy's life force was like a candle flickering in the wind?
"Ah!" Xiang Qian said: "Congratulations on growing another year older!"
"Thank you!" The little boy first nodded to express his thanks, then asked with some curiosity: "Mister, are you the Bodhisattva who helps us? Mother said... you are Bodhisattvas."
The Suspended Temple, one of the sacred sites of the Buddhist faith, was in the Eastern Domain. Here, Buddhist teachings were widely spread.
Bodhisattva was a rank in the Buddhist faith, and sometimes could also refer to someone with great merit.
"We don't rely on Bodhisattvas. When facing hardship, we rely on our own efforts!"
Xiang Qian instinctively wanted to say this, but he felt he really wasn't worthy of saying such high-sounding words.
How could he be considered a hardworking person?
So he just asked: "Do you have any wishes?"
The little boy thought for a moment, somewhat shy, somewhat hesitant, yet unable to suppress his expectation: "Every year on my birthday, Mother would give me two eggs to eat..."
This should be easy to solve.
Xiang Qian thought.
"Where are your parents?" he asked the little boy upstairs.
The little boy said with some sadness: "Father told me they went out to earn tuition fees for me. Otherwise, when the plague ghost leaves, I won't be able to go to school."
Xiang Qian fell silent.
At this time, in this place, where could they go to earn money?
The parents of this little boy had only two ways out: recover, or die.
If they recovered, they wouldn't fail to come back to see their child. So the outcome was obvious.
Earning tuition was just a gentle lie.
"On birthdays, you must eat eggs!" Xiang Qian said.
"Wait for me!"
He turned and ran out.
He bumped into the constables guarding the checkpoint, preventing people from coming and going.
"Do you have eggs?" Xiang Qian asked.
"Huh?" The two constables looked at each other, not understanding what this transcendent master meant.
Xiang Qian leaped away from there.
"Anyone have eggs?"
"Whose family has eggs?"
Xiang Qian couldn't care too much anymore, asking loudly as he walked.
An old woman trembled as she took down a piece of cured meat from the beam: "Do you want cured meat?"
"No need, thank you!"
After asking many people, Xiang Qian discovered that in the current Green Goat Town, finding eggs was actually very difficult.
Not to mention eggs, even the chickens had all been eaten.
As a transcendent cultivator, he had never cared about such small matters, so he didn't know that living supplies were so insufficient.
Finally, he rushed back to the town hall and shouted at Xiao Xiao, who was buried in official documents: "Why are supplies in Green Goat Town so scarce? Can't Jiang Wang even afford this bit of wealth?"
Xiao Xiao looked up in confusion: "Don't you know? The entire State of You has been hit by plague. Now it's not a matter of wealth—it's a matter of money being unable to buy supplies!"
"Then should we just ignore this kind of thing? Because we can't buy supplies, we just give up?"
Xiang Qian couldn't explain his sudden anger either. He just felt there was a fire in his heart, burning uncomfortably.