"In truth, I have a premonition."
"Even if our fellow cultivators do nothing at all, this immortal-mortal miasma will never wipe out cultivators entirely."
"At most, it will reduce the total number of cultivators to a certain level. One could say killing intent and mercy coexist within it."
After a long silence, Master Yin ended the transmission with those words.
"Cough, cough."
After some thought, Li Fan inquired further about the situation and experiences of mortals amid this mutated immortal-mortal miasma outbreak.
Perhaps because the world's mortals still carried the immortal-mortal miasma within their bodies, this disaster—a terrifying catastrophe for cultivators—had only a limited impact on mortals.
Its lethality was not even comparable to an ordinary flu.
"Fortunately, these mortals today can also be considered subjects under the Alliance's rule. Otherwise, there is no telling whether something like ancient times would recur, where cultivators in desperate death throes slaughtered mortals en masse."
"I wonder how the Alliance will clean up the aftermath this time. Will this mutated immortal-mortal miasma be absorbed into mortal bodies again, lingering and inescapable, leading to another Great Migration?"
Li Fan's thoughts surged.
Though his body suffered, it did not impair the sharpness of his mind in the slightest.
"It seems that for mortals, this immortal-mortal miasma is practically an amulet of protection. However, if one insists on seeking immortality and embarks on the path of Dao, they stand in opposition to mortals and must cast this protection aside."
"Immortal and mortal cannot coexist, can they..."
In today's Xuanhuang Realm, there were still only the two conventional methods to dispel the miasma within the body:
The Purifying Spirit Pool created by Heavenly Venerable Dongji,
and the Xuanhuang Mind-Clearing Incantation.
These two methods were only effective at dispelling the innate miasma born within mortals.
Against the secondary infection contracted by cultivators, they were useless.
"Though both bear the name of immortal-mortal miasma, their manifestations are different."
Li Fan could not help but frown slightly.
After a moment, he gave up pondering it.
"Forget it. Specialized matters are best left to professionals."
"With the immortal-mortal miasma spreading pandemic-wide again in this life, I believe it will aid Master Yin's research. He should be able to unravel the secrets of the miasma ahead of the original timeline."
"No rush. I just have to wait."
Now that the provinces were on lockdown and every cultivator feared for their life, everything ground to a halt.
Li Fan took advantage of this downtime to focus on cultivating.
He would devour the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven and re-enter the Nascent Soul realm.
Even without relying on the feedback cultivation from the Immortal-Sitting Art, cultivating on his own with his prior cultivation experience was far faster than starting from scratch back then.
With zero shortage of resources, though his progress was not advancing by leaps and bounds overnight, it advanced steadily day by day.
He was not far from Golden Core perfection.
Seeing Li Fan persevere in cultivating despite his illness, Lin Ling, Tianyang, and Shang Tianci inside the Spirit Wood Realm were deeply moved.
Shame soon followed.
They cut down on their daily leisure time and strove to be diligent.
Time flowed by. Half a year after the outbreak of the mutated immortal-mortal miasma, things finally took a turn for the better.
The Alliance developed a targeted medicinal pill. When cultivators took it, their painful symptoms were greatly alleviated.
Even uninfected cultivators could take it in advance; though it did not grant complete immunity to the effects of the immortal-mortal miasma, it drastically reduced the chance of a cultivator dying from the illness.
It could be called a veritable miracle medicine.
Moreover, the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals was uncharacteristically generous this time.
Not only could all Alliance cultivators receive it free of charge,
even itinerant cultivators outside the Alliance enjoyed this privilege.
For a time, cultivators overflowed with gratitude, praising the Alliance's benevolence.
Many cultivators who previously harbored prejudices against the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals chose to join on the spot after receiving treatment.
Once cultivators gradually recovered with the aid of the targeted pill, the Alliance dispatched cultivators to purify heaven and earth anew, dispelling the immortal-mortal miasma blanketing the world.
At this moment, Li Fan, who had long since fully recovered, stared at the so-called "targeted pill" in his hand, his eyes narrowing.
He had already taken one earlier.
Aside from a slight return of mild infection symptoms, it produced an airy, euphoric sensation, as if his soul were soaking in a warm hot spring.
"Is this..."
"The Mind-Ascending Immortality Pill?"
Li Fan's expression grew somewhat strange.
Back in his 115th life, he had taken this pill that had been banned by the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Though heavily weakened, the sensation of taking this targeted medicine was undeniably similar to that of the Mind-Ascending Immortality Pill.
Having served as Sect Master of the Medicine King Sect, even though Li Fan was no master of pharmacology, he could still discern how this targeted pill worked.
Namely, it accelerated the process of the immortal-mortal miasma flaring up inside a cultivator's body while using potent stimulant effects to suppress the pain caused by the infection.
"No wonder the Alliance stipulated that each cultivator can only take one pill at most."
"If they took more, there is no telling what would happen."
Li Fan carefully screened his thoughts while looking back down at the pill in his palm.
He confirmed that there was no intense craving to swallow another.
"Just one is of no great concern."
Li Fan nodded slightly.
"It seems the cultivator death toll may have been somewhat high."
"This is clearly an emergency measure the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals brought out only when forced by circumstance."
"Still, if it can stabilize the situation first, it can be counted as a sound remedy."
Crushing the targeted pill in his palm to powder, Li Fan closed his eyes, his divine sense enveloping the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven below.
After half a year of bitter cultivation, he was infinitely close to Golden Core perfection.
He was just one step away from embarking on the path of devouring the grotto-heaven.
Moreover, he had a premonition.
This time, the Heavenly Calamity would still not appear!
All he had to do was wait patiently.
"The Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven is vast; it will take at least two or three years."
"With Tianyang and Lin Ling looking after the Myriad Realms Association's affairs, things will not grind to a halt."
So Li Fan pondered, perfectly mapping every scene of the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens swept by his divine sense into his mind.
One year after the outbreak of the mutated immortal-mortal miasma, cultivators had grown accustomed to its existence.
After all, virtually all cultivators had already gone through a round of infection.
Those who truly could not hold out had already returned their Dao to heaven.
Those who remained had developed sufficient immunity against it.
Though occasional cases of reinfection occurred, they were only a minority after all.
They could not affect the overall situation!
Furthermore, the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals had successfully developed the second batch of targeted pills and distributed them one after another to cultivators.
The dark cloud of the immortal-mortal miasma was gradually clearing.
Congyun Sea, Haixuan Island.
"It truly feels like another lifetime!"
The island, sealed for a year, opened once more.
After taking two rounds of the targeted medicine, the effects brought by the immortal-mortal miasma receded in less than half a day.
Breathing the fresh spiritual energy, He Zhenghao and the others could not help but sigh with emotion.
Chapter 842