Li Banfeng stood at the doorway of the ward, watching Critick and the other man.
Who was this stranger?
Li Banfeng had never seen him before, and his present condition made him difficult to recognize.
Wan Jinxian's situation was extremely precarious. Patches of green pustules already blanketed his body, and now he found himself cornered by both Critick and Li Banfeng.
This was Critick's hospital, and Wan Jinxian couldn't find a single way out.
Fortunately, Critick hadn't delivered a fatal blow.
He certainly wanted to kill Wan Jinxian, but at this moment, other matters interested him far more.
Critick looked at Li Banfeng and said, "This gentleman is my senior fellow apprentice. Though it's our first time meeting, we hit it off wonderfully. Please, head back inside and look after your friend. Senior Brother and I will find somewhere else to chat so we don't disturb you."
Li Banfeng returned to the ward, feeling uneasy.
Critick had helped him—that was true.
He and Critick could be considered friends—that was also true.
Yet getting Li Banfeng to trust Critick completely was a very tall order.
In Yaowanggou, Critick had nearly killed Li Banfeng.
In Lanyang Village, Critick had also come looking for him.
And now, his senior brother had arrived.
The two had just clashed in the hallway; Li Banfeng had heard it clearly.
This senior brother had come after Ma the Fifth and was almost certainly the one who had made Ma the Fifth ill.
Critick was hostile to his senior brother for now, but given his temperament, he might well turn around and become friends with him the next second.
Right now, Zuo Wugang and Huo Ling were in the room. If it truly came down to a fight, they wouldn't necessarily be at a disadvantage.
Still, Li Banfeng needed to know what they were talking about.
Li Banfeng touched his earring. The Thread-Hook Earring traced Critick and Wan Jinxian's voices.
Critick invited Wan Jinxian into the emergency room. Wan Jinxian hesitated for a moment before following him inside.
Critick took off his white lab coat and hung it over the door.
The Thread-Hook Earring whispered to Li Banfeng, "Master, he has a spiritual artifact that blocks Scrying Cultivators."
"Can you bypass it?"
In the past, the earring naturally lacked such capability. Zhou Yujuan, whose flesh and blood had been used to craft the earring, had merely been a first-tier Scrying Cultivator.
Now, however, the earring's tier was entirely different. Li Banfeng had nurtured her bit by bit with the flesh and blood of others.
The earring's pendant swayed back and forth, and Li Banfeng gradually began to pick up some sounds.
Inside the emergency room, Critick asked Wan Jinxian, "You just said you had to kill your master to finish your apprenticeship. What did you mean by that?"
Wan Jinxian stared at Critick without uttering a word.
Critick offered a reminder: "I know you're trying with all your might to neutralize the pathogens in your body, but you won't succeed. Your situation is exceedingly grim. If you want to live, answer all my questions truthfully. Some answers I already know, and I might well be testing you on purpose, so whatever you do, don't lie to me."
Wan Jinxian nodded and asked, "At Yuezhou Third Hospital, the one who moved against Jiaqing was you, wasn't it?"
Critick looked at Wan Jinxian. "Don't get the order mixed up. I am the one asking the questions."
Wan Jinxian fell silent for a while before saying to Critick, "Orthodox Disease Cultivators have an established lineage and a fixed sect called the Pestilence Sect."
Critick shook his head. "I have stayed in Puluo Province for a long time, yet I've never heard of such a sect."
"Hardly anyone in this world has heard of the Pestilence Sect, because for most of the time, the Pestilence Sect consists of only a single person."
Critick asked, "How can a single person constitute a sect?"
Wan Jinxian looked at Critick, suspicion swirling in his mind.
This man was a Disease Cultivator, there was no denying that.
Yet he knew nothing about the rules of Disease Cultivators, leaving Wan Jinxian utterly baffled as to where Critick's cultivation came from.
*Is he truly testing me?*
"How did you enter the pathway?" Wan Jinxian asked.
Critick smiled. "The process by which I entered the pathway is rather peculiar. If I were to tell you, it would take a long time, and looking at your current condition, you hardly have the time to listen. So please, make haste and answer my questions."
There was another half of the sentence that Critick left unsaid:
*Your life is in my hands. What right do you have to question me?*
Wan Jinxian recognized reality and asked no further. "The Pestilence Sect doesn't normally recruit disciples. Only when a Disease Cultivator feels his lamp is running out of oil does he set up his doors and take on three disciples—and strictly three. These three disciples follow the master and learn the craft for a year. After one year, the three disciples must use the craft they learned to slaughter one another over the span of a month until only one survives. The surviving disciple must sign a covenant deed with the master: from then on, he may not take extra disciples, nor may he allow the pathway's incense and lineage to die out, and he must continue the pathway according to these very rules. After that, only one thing remains. Once the master dies, the disciple must eat the master's corpse to successfully enter the pathway."
"The master's corpse serves as the medicine for entry?"
Wan Jinxian nodded.
Critick fell silent for a moment before asking, "Who established this rule?"
Wan Jinxian shook his head. "I don't know. That was already the rule when I entered."
"You ate your master?"
"Otherwise I couldn't have entered the pathway."
"So that's how it is. That's what you meant by saying that for most of the time, there is only one Disease Cultivator in the world?"
Wan Jinxian nodded. "That's why I can't understand how another fellow sect member like you appeared in this world—and even less can I fathom how this fellow sect member turns out to be a foreign devil."
Critick smiled and said, "There is something else I would like to ask you about. We Disease Cultivators are very long-lived because we can neutralize illnesses. As long as we don't suffer fatal injuries, the only thing that can take us away is time. If a Disease Cultivator has a particularly resilient life, takes on disciples, and still hasn't died many years later, would he choose to end his own life to complete the succession, or would he make his disciple wait indefinitely?"
Wan Jinxian scratched at the pustules on his body. "I don't know how it was handled before my time. My master's master was an exceptionally long-lived man. He thought his lamp was running out of oil, so he took on disciples, but my master had to stay by his side for nearly fifty years before he finally passed away. That was why my master only entered the pathway at the age of sixty-five, and until the day he died, he remained merely a second-tier cultivator."
Critick smiled. "It seems you were rather fortunate; your master wasn't quite so long-lived."
Wan Jinxian shook his head. "My master was a long-lived man as well. It was just that back then, he was simply too old."
"So you killed him?"
Wan Jinxian scratched open another pustule and countered, "What's the use of asking so much about me and my master?"
Critick shrugged. "My apologies. It seems I stirred up some unpleasant memories. Let's talk about something useful, then. Why did you make a move against Ma Junyang?"
Wan Jinxian said, "You should be able to guess. Ma the Fifth has a friend named Li Seven."
"You targeted Li Seven because you wanted the Xuansheng Red Lotus in his hands?"
Wan Jinxian did not deny it. "Didn't you save Ma the Fifth for the sake of the Xuansheng Red Lotus as well?"
Critick shook his head. "Not at all. I have no interest in the Xuansheng Red Lotus."
Wan Jinxian sneered.
Critick said, "It doesn't matter if you don't believe me, but I'm telling the truth. Li Seven and I are friends, but I genuinely have no interest in the Red Lotus. What truly interests me is you. You, the Ling family brothers, and several others—people with status, position, and power in Puluo Province—all seem to be taking orders from an outsider from the Outer States, correct?"
Wan Jinxian did not answer.
Critick asked again, "That outsider is named He Jiaqing, isn't he?"
Wan Jinxian still remained silent.
Critick licked his lips.
The pustules on Wan Jinxian's left hand receded considerably.
"Senior Brother, do you see? I can cure the pustules on your body, but you cannot cure them yourself. Your life is in my hands."
Wan Jinxian let out a long sigh. "You once moved against He Jiaqing yourself. Could it be you don't know the inside story?"
The moment the words left his mouth, the pustules on Wan Jinxian's body began to multiply once more.
Critick frowned slightly. "Senior Brother, do not counter with questions, or you will pay the price. Since He Jiaqing is your leader, does this organization of yours have a sect name?"
"You could say so. Jiaqing gave it the name: the Brotherhood Alliance. We address one another as brothers."
"What is the purpose of establishing this sect? He Jiaqing is the heir to the He family. He lacks neither money nor status. What exactly is he trying to do?"
Wan Jinxian looked at Critick and said slowly, "He wants to rebuild a different Puluo Province."
"A different one? What is wrong with Puluo Province? What kind of Puluo Province does he want?"
Wan Jinxian pondered the right way to put it. "I don't mean to counter your question, but there's something I want to know. Have you ever been to the Inner States?"
Critick nodded. "I have, using a travel permit. It is an unpleasant place, but the people there treated me very well. In the Inner States, they called me a friend from an allied nation, treating me even better than the people from the Outer States did. The ones who treated me worst are the people of Puluo Province. They always call me a damned foreign devil. In truth, I am a good foreign devil, and I love Puluo Province deeply."
Wan Jinxian said, "Since you've been to the Inner States, you should know certain things. You should know how much suffering those cultivators who crossed the tenth tier endured there."
Critick nodded. "I know that."
Wan Jinxian continued, "As for the Outer States, that goes without saying. Anyone who has had dealings with the Garrison Commissioner ought to understand how terribly Puluo Province is squeezed by the Outer States."
Critick nodded again. "I know a bit of that as well."
"Puluo Province has suffered too many losses, ruined beyond recognition by both the Inner and Outer States. He Jiaqing told me that he wants to reclaim Puluo Province's dignity, to let everyone in Puluo Province live with dignity. I trust this young brother, so I follow him. Have I made myself clear this time?"
Critick nodded. "He is a remarkable man. I respect him greatly."
Wan Jinxian looked down at the pustules covering his body. "Junior Brother, I lost to you, and I concede wholeheartedly. In this lifetime, I have seen countless ailments, but never a rash so difficult to deal with."
Critick smiled. "Is it more difficult to deal with than the rash you placed on He Haiqin?"
Wan Jinxian blinked and gave a helpless smile. "You were the one who saved He Haiqin, too? I truly concede defeat to you. You really are my bane. Since I've already lost, if you want to kill me, do it swiftly. If you're willing to let me live, name your conditions. Don't leave things hanging like this and make it agonizing for both of us."
Critick deliberated for a brief moment, then took a deep breath.
The rash on Wan Jinxian's body swiftly vanished.
"Junior Brother, you're letting me off just like that without naming any conditions?"
Critick shook his head. "Of course there are conditions. I am very interested in your Brotherhood Alliance and would like to hear more about your affairs. Can you tell me?"
*He already took back the affliction, yet he still wants to hear me talk? Does this foreign devil truly treat me as his senior brother?*
Wan Jinxian asked, "What kind of things do you want to hear?"
"I want to hear about future things."
Wan Jinxian was taken aback. "How would I know about things in the future?"
Critick smiled. "Then tell me once you find out."
The phrasing was slightly roundabout, but Wan Jinxian understood.
He reached around to feel his back and touched a crystal-clear pustule.
Critick stood up and said, "Senior Brother, there will always be one pustule on your body that will never disappear. Exactly which one it is, even I cannot say for sure. If I want news of the Brotherhood Alliance in the future, be sure to tell me."
P.S. No need to worry about Jiaqing. The Brotherhood Alliance is vast, and he still has plenty of brothers.
Chapter 324