"Who would have thought this strange illness could even spread through ordinary livestock?"
Chen Duan's gaze was icy as he looked at the corpses of several livestock that had just been dealt with on the ground before him.
Their eyeballs were deathly white, and they looked extremely strange.
"From what we can tell, that is indeed the case."
Kong Yuanhong's voice was filled with remorse.
"I thought it was only a minor matter and didn't dare trouble the Devil Master during his meditation. I never imagined it would lead to such consequences. I deserve ten thousand deaths..."
"That's enough, that's enough. Stop your racket."
Chen Duan rebuked him impatiently.
Kong Yuanhong immediately fell silent.
"Kong Second, how is the follow-up handling going?"
Chen Duan knew Kong Yuanhong inside out. He was greedy for power and fond of playing clever little tricks.
When it came to handling matters steadily, Kong Mingcheng was the one they could truly rely on.
Kong Mingcheng did not dare conceal anything:
"Reporting to the Devil Master, everything nearby has been cleared out. But one infected chicken fled into the mountain forest and has disappeared..."
His voice grew lower and lower.
This time, the Kong Family Three Brothers had truly stirred up a hornet's nest, causing considerable losses and panic.
But the truth was simply too strange and bizarre. And yet, it had happened to them.
All they could say was that their luck had been rotten to the core.
It turned out that the hunter who had escaped that day was discovered not long afterward, unconscious inside a farmer's chicken coop.
He had still retained a sliver of reason at the time. Unwilling to hurt anyone while the illness flared, he had rushed into the livestock pen by instinct and frantically gnawed on the poultry.
He had tried to suppress the urge to attack living people in his body this way.
Amid the chaos, many of the poultry he had bitten or clawed had scattered and fled.
No one had expected that this bizarre illness could spread to livestock in such a manner.
By the time they realized there was a problem, it was already too late.
Although the Kong Family Three Brothers had immediately led people to clear everything out through the night,
quite a few people were still attacked by infected livestock and unfortunately contracted the strange illness.
Chen Duan stepped into the enormous wooden house used to quarantine the patients.
A mixture of herbal medicine and rot rushed toward him.
Inside, everyone had been bound tightly and was moaning helplessly.
Some of the more severe patients already had skin that had turned black, biting madly at empty air like wild beasts.
Seeing this, Kong Mingcheng hurriedly gave a signal with his eyes to a subordinate beside him.
The subordinate immediately stepped forward, grabbed a large handful of grayish-white medicinal powder from a medicine pouch, circulated his strength, and scattered it through the air.
The powder spread everywhere. After inhaling it, those patients in the throes of the illness gradually sank into a dazed state.
Kong Mingcheng carefully observed Chen Duan's expression.
"Devil Master, we've already had several renowned physicians examine them. Although their minds are deranged and their bodies have developed abnormalities, they are ultimately still alive, and their pulses have not ceased. There may still be hope of treating them."
"Tianpeng, can your methods work?" Chen Duan did not respond. Instead, he turned to ask Kong Tianpeng.
Kong Tianpeng shook his head solemnly.
"Reporting to the Devil Master, I am powerless."
His cultivation technique was not some miraculous method capable of bringing the dead back to life. Last time, he had merely happened to hit the nail on the head—the illness had been caused by a parasite from some creature.
Hearing this, Chen Duan asked no further questions.
He slowly paced over to the bedside of a middle-aged man whose condition was the most severe.
He raised his left hand, spread his five fingers slightly, and pressed it against the man's chest.
A subtle stream of internal energy flowed from Chen Duan's palm into his body, moving through his meridians and internal organs as it probed and examined him.
After a moment,
Chen Duan withdrew his hand, a glint of light flashing through his eyes.
It seemed he had discovered something.
Without a word, he walked to the other patients one by one.
He repeated the same process, pressing his palm against them and sending his internal energy inside to carefully sense and investigate.
When he reached the last patient, who appeared to be the youngest,
he had just extended his hand
when a sudden change occurred!
The young man, whose breathing had been calm, suddenly went berserk.
The chains binding him abruptly came loose. He opened his mouth to reveal snow-white teeth and lunged straight at Chen Duan.
"Devil Master, watch out!"
Kong Yuanhong and Kong Tianpeng, standing some distance away, turned pale with fright and cried out as they prepared to rush over.
However, their feet had only just begun to move
when the patient had already sunk his teeth firmly into Chen Duan's forearm.
"It's fine."
Chen Duan raised a hand, signaling for the two brothers not to come over.
His voice was terrifyingly calm.
It held not the slightest trace of any other emotion.
He extended his other hand and clamped his five fingers around the man's head.
With a little force, he pulled the man's head off his arm.
Yet despite the strength of the bite, it failed to leave the slightest mark on Chen Duan's arm.
Apart from some saliva,
it had not even scraped his skin.
Chen Duan did not look at his own arm. His gaze remained fixed on the young man.
After the brief bout of madness, the young man regained his senses.
He was bewildered at first. Then, after taking in the scene before him, his heart jolted, and he stammered in a trembling voice:
"My lord, spare me! I... I didn't do it on purpose! I truly couldn't control myself..."
As he spoke, he noticed Chen Duan's eyes narrowing slightly. Those pupils, like those of a fierce tiger, seemed intent on piercing through his flesh and staring straight into the depths of his soul.
Only when Chen Duan spoke calmly and asked a single question did the young man's voice abruptly cut off:
"Oh? You couldn't control yourself? Are you sure you truly 'couldn't control yourself'?"
The moment these words left his mouth,
Kong Mingcheng, who had also been about to step forward, halted.
His thoughts were the most meticulous. He immediately sensed that something was wrong, and his brows furrowed slightly.
Unlike his two brothers, he did not go check Chen Duan's condition. Instead, he quickly circled behind the young man and picked up the chain.
After examining it closely, his heart sank.
There were hardly any signs of struggling or wear around the lock.
The chain had been loose from the start. It had never been locked!
"You bastard!"
Kong Mingcheng's expression changed dramatically. He turned and swept his gaze over the Martial Masters responsible for guarding the place, then shouted furiously:
"Speak! Who opened this lock for him?"
Kong Yuanhong and Kong Tianpeng were stunned at first. Then they understood, and their expressions turned ugly.
This was no accident. Someone had tried to murder the Devil Master!
Everyone fell silent as if facing a cicada in winter, looking at one another in dismay.
Yet no one dared step forward and admit it.
"None of you are talking, are you? Then all of you will be thrown into the dungeon and tortured until you confess!"
The scene immediately erupted into commotion and descended into panic.
Finally,
a haggard-looking middle-aged Martial Master gritted his teeth and pushed through the crowd.
With a thump, he knelt heavily before Chen Duan.
"Devil Master! I alone was responsible for this. It has nothing to do with anyone else. I only beg that you do not take your anger out on my innocent brothers!"
"Go to hell!"
Kong Yuanhong kicked him to the ground and pointed at him as he cursed:
"The Devil Master has treated you well! How dare you do this! How could you do this!"
The middle-aged Martial Master struggled and used his arms to push his upper body up.
Enduring the pain, he rasped out the reason.
It turned out that both of his biological brothers had contracted the illness.
Watching their condition worsen by the day while even the physicians were helpless, he had been filled with despair and fear.
He was afraid that Chen Duan would gather all the infected people together and dispose of them to prevent future trouble, so he had devised a plan to infect Chen Duan as well.
If Chen Duan also contracted the strange illness, the sect would spare no expense to find a way to cure him. Then perhaps his sick brothers might have a sliver more hope of survival.
"No! This has nothing to do with my brother! It was me! I was the one who begged my brother to do it!"
Seeing this, the young man held in Chen Duan's hand hurriedly shouted.
"I was just too afraid! I was afraid I'd be abandoned! Afraid I'd be killed just like that!"
This speculation was not without basis. Similar situations had occurred throughout the history of every dynasty and era.
Before you continue