On New Year's Eve, Li Banfeng sat at the entrance of Guotie Village, brewing medicine.
The fragrance of the decoction drifted far and wide, drawing swarms of mosquitoes. As soon as they touched the rising steam, more than ninety percent died.
Ninety percent.
Less than ten percent did not die immediately.
Yet that remaining ten percent alone was enough to ruin an entire village's harvest.
And it was not just one village; the entire Haichiling was suffering the same fate.
Just like every other medicine before it, Old Yao's concoction had been remarkably effective at first, but after a while, the same problem recurred.
Xiang Jichun, the village head of Guotie Village, sat down beside Li Banfeng and chuckled. "It's the New Year. Why not come to my place for a bowl of dumplings and a drink?"
Li Banfeng shook his head. "Go ahead and drink. I'm not hungry."
"Seventh Master, you've done everything humanly possible for our village. We won't ever forget your kindness."
"Cut the crap. There's no kindness here—I'm just a freeloader looking for a meal. You'd better hurry along. Another freeloader will be showing up in a moment."
"Another...?" Xiang Jichun did not understand what Li Banfeng meant, and Li Banfeng refused to elaborate. Helpless, the old village head sighed and walked away.
Before long, Pan Dehai appeared.
"Virtue is the foundation of standing tall; virtue is the cornerstone of cultivating the self. Do you know what constitutes supreme virtue?
"Taking the long view and deliberating with thorough care—that is supreme virtue.
"Acting in haste and planning carelessly—how could that be the conduct of a virtuous person?
"Harboring a restless mind and ignoring the distant future—how could that be the conduct of a virtuous person?
"Disrespecting elders and refusing sound counsel—how could that be a virtuous person?
"Speaking with wild arrogance and behaving with unruly perversity—how could that be a virtuous person..."
"Nag, nag, nag. Are you ever going to shut up?" Pushed past his limit, Li Banfeng glared furiously at Pan Dehai.
Pan Dehai jabbed his cane into the ground, just as furious. "The prescription Old Yao had you deliver doesn't work at all! Do you know how much effort I spent procuring those medicinal herbs? How much money I expended? How many local spirits I had to beg? How are we going to settle that account? You two utterly lack any shred of virtue!"
Being accused of lacking virtue made Li Banfeng's temper flare.
Pan Dehai barked, "Where is the fan I gave you?"
"Threw it away."
"You dare?! That is a supreme treasure of the mortal realm!"
"I found a place to hide it."
Pan Dehai let out a string of long sighs. "I should have taken my magical artifact back! You haven't been of the slightest help!"
Li Banfeng had no reply to that.
That even the Medicine King's remedy failed was something Li Banfeng had genuinely not anticipated.
After a long silence, Pan Dehai let out another deep sigh. "The Lu family's methods didn't work either."
*Lu Dongjun failed too?*
Looking up at the mosquitoes dancing through the air, Li Banfeng felt a chill of despair rise from the depths of his heart.
Pan Dehai shook his head. "I never should have put my faith in you people. In the end, we must do things my way. Only if all of Puluo Province unites against this common enemy can we ward off this catastrophe."
Li Banfeng looked at him. "Are you planning to divert the insects to another territory again? Even the Medicine King's medicine doesn't work. Where else could you send them?"
"I will drive the insects into Lüshuiwan. Lüshuiwan has the most capable people. If Lu Dongjun couldn't manage it, others will, and they are bound to find a way to eradicate the pests."
"Send them to Lüshuiwan? Can you beat Lü Huazi?"
Pan Dehai declared with righteous indignation, "Even if it costs me my life, what harm is there in trying? This is the firmness of virtue, the courage of virtue, the very heart of virtue!"
Li Banfeng shook his head. "Lü Huazi won't help you."
From the Orange Grove Master's description, it was easy to deduce that Lü Huazi intended to spread a pestilence across his own territory.
If the man did not even cherish his own domain, how could he possibly help Pan Dehai?
Pan Dehai shook his head. "This old man refuses to believe he cannot be moved!"
Li Banfeng gave a bitter smile. "You're just running your mouth."
"Insolence! How can youth be so devoid of respect for elders?" Pan Dehai scolded him sharply, then softened his tone. "From what you said just now, you seem acquainted with the Lüshui Beggar. Since you possess the heart to aid in disaster relief, why don't you go..."
Li Banfeng snapped, "You want me to seek out Lü Huazi?"
No wonder Old Yao had said that every fine word out of Pan Dehai's mouth should be treated like a passing fart.
"This old man isn't asking you to fight Lü Huazi. I merely want you to meet with him first."
Li Banfeng looked at Pan Dehai with undisguised contempt. "You're terrified of him yourself, so you want me to go die in your place."
"When have I ever feared him!" Pan Dehai declared with utter righteousness. "A righteous spirit forever sustains this old man! What is a mere Lüshui Beggar to fear? Even if he were standing right in front of me now, I would still... What is that smell?"
Pan Dehai abruptly stepped behind Li Banfeng.
Li Banfeng was startled. *What's going on?*
In the distance, a beggar was shambling over, dressed in tattered rags and covered in festering sores oozing greenish pus.
*Lü Huazi!*
Li Banfeng was alarmed as well, but then heard Pan Dehai whisper, "How did Lü Huazi turn blond? That isn't the Lüshui Beggar, yet the stench on him is identical."
The person walking over was indeed not Lü Huazi, but the Disease Cultivator, Critick.
Critick stumbled toward Li Banfeng and squeezed out a faint smile on his sore-covered face. "I finally found you."
Li Banfeng took a step back. "What do you want with me?"
"I came to help you. I came to help Haichiling eradicate the pests. I love Haichiling."
Li Banfeng glanced back at Pan Dehai. "He says he loves Haichiling."
Pan Dehai's cheek twitched, but he said nothing; the sight of that green pus made his skin crawl.
Critick lacked the skill of Golden Eyes Discerning the Minutest Detail. Though he had a sixth-tier cultivation, he could not see Pan Dehai.
"Who were you talking to just now?" Critick asked, bewildered.
Li Banfeng turned back toward Pan Dehai, expecting him to reveal himself, only to discover that the old man had already sprinted far into the distance.
"Pass word to the Lüshui Beggar! If he dares bring a plague into Haichiling, this old man will never let the matter rest!"
Pan Dehai had fled—he was terrified of catching an infection.
Who would have guessed the old man could run so fast with a walking stick?
Li Banfeng turned back to Critick. "Do we know each other?"
"We do. You saw me in Yaowanggou. I'm the foreign devil—not a fake one, the real thing."
Li Banfeng remembered him now.
The foreigner covered in herpes.
*Did he evolve? How did the herpes turn into festering sores?*
The moment he remembered, Li Banfeng quickly stepped back, clutching his key and preparing to make a run for it.
Critick waved his hands. "Don't run. I really did come to help you eliminate the pests."
He glanced down at the pot of medicine on the ground and shook his head. "This decoction doesn't work, though it isn't completely useless either. It can kill the pests—out of a hundred mosquitoes, it might kill ninety-five.
"Yet the remaining five won't die. They will survive, and they will continue to breed, and their offspring won't die from it either. That is the evolution of life.
"Individual anomalies drive the overall evolution of a species. In the Outer States, this is called mutation; this is called resistance. You come from the Outer States, so you should understand what I mean."
Li Banfeng certainly understood Critick's point; he had already considered this possibility.
"Do you have a better method?"
"I do. Poison cannot wipe out a species, but disease can. I can transmit my diseases into the mosquitoes, letting them infect one another. One infects ten, ten infect hundreds—that is the proper way to exterminate them."
It sounded effective, but Li Banfeng sensed a flaw.
"Won't mosquitoes develop resistance to diseases as well?"
"They will!" Critick nodded. "Relying on a single disease alone can hardly drive these mosquitoes to extinction either. If a hundred mosquitoes fall ill, perhaps one might survive, and that survivor's offspring would be immune to that disease.
"A fellow disciple of mine tried a similar method and failed. I improved upon his approach by infecting the mosquitoes with multiple diseases simultaneously.
"Among those hundred mosquitoes, the sole survivor will be left sterile by the infections."
Li Banfeng asked, "Could there not be anomalous individuals capable of reproducing?"
"There will be!" Critick had already accounted for that. "The individuals capable of reproducing will have their habits altered by another disease. Their lifespan will lengthen, and their diet will shift from crops to blood.
"They will evolve into another successfully adapted species—the most common, ordinary mosquitoes we see every day. That is the result of cross-elimination and screening through disease."
"You can infect mosquitoes with so many diseases at once?"
Critick nodded. "Originally I couldn't, but now I can. I received a special power, a power from our patriarch. It is immensely powerful, though it nearly killed me."
Li Banfeng had no further doubts.
Based on the biological knowledge he possessed, Critick's method was indeed viable.
In fact, it might be the only viable method.
*Yet why is he doing this?*
"Why do you want to help Haichiling manage this pestilence? Don't tell me it's out of love for Puluo Province." Li Banfeng worried that the man harbored ulterior motives. If he intended to use this as an excuse to spread a plague, things would turn disastrous.
Critick looked at Li Banfeng. "I am doing it to save myself. This is an agreement between me and the peddler. As long as I save Haichiling, he will save my life. Here is the proof."
He pulled out a feather duster. "The peddler gave me this. He said you would recognize it, and that you would definitely help me."
Using a feather duster as proof of identity?
Only the peddler would think of such a thing.
With the peddler's guarantee, Critick was trustworthy—at least in this matter.
"Why didn't the peddler come himself?"
"He said he still had many things to attend to. He said Haichiling wasn't the only place in trouble."
Li Banfeng remained silent.
Critick asked him, "What about you? Why are you here? Is Haichiling special to you, or do you have some special arrangement with the peddler as well?"
Li Banfeng did not answer.
He had no arrangement with the peddler.
By delivering the prescription, he had already fulfilled his promise to Old Yao. Relieving the disaster was certainly not his responsibility.
"Tell me what you need to do first."
Critick looked at the pot. "I need to gather mosquitoes—a vast swarm of them. For a disease to spread rapidly, there must be a sufficiently large baseline population. What we have here isn't enough, not nearly enough."
...
Late at night, Li Banfeng stood beside the farmland amidst heavy falling snow, waiting for Pan Dehai's response.
After waiting for over an hour, he finally heard Pan Dehai's voice.
"Make that foreigner leave at once! Haichiling is already reduced to this state—we cannot allow him to bring a plague here on top of it!"
Li Banfeng shouted back, "Give me more medicinal herbs! Let's at least try it once!"
Critick sat in the distance, having no idea who Li Banfeng was talking to. The man often spoke to empty air.
*Is he a lunatic?*
Yet right now, this lunatic was the only person he could rely on.
Chapter 167