Within days, thousands had died. The death toll climbed relentlessly, and in less than a hundred days, more than a million had died from these symptoms. The deaths showed no sign of stopping.
Many people of the Human Race sought treatment from powerful cultivators. The treatment worked, just as everyone had expected. But after one cultivator used his arts to save more than a thousand people, he felt the bottleneck he had been about to break through turn solid. He could no longer sense any chance of advancing.
After this happened dozens of times, even the cultivators grew afraid. Only those who had never used spells to treat the symptoms remained unaffected. They even felt noticeably lighter.
When everyone compared their methods, they discovered that these unaffected cultivators had used no spells. Instead, they had treated the symptoms with grasses from the mountains. Fascinated, Lieshan hurried to question them.
But their answers yielded nothing conclusive, so Lieshan decided to taste the herbs himself and identify their properties.
He began at once, tasting herb after herb and recording each one's medicinal effects, toxicity, and appearance. When he encountered a poisonous herb, he waited until he had documented its symptoms before circulating his power to expel the poison.
Lieshan appeared in mountain ranges, beside great rivers, and across fields and wilderness. Countless people of the Human Race were moved by him. Many cultivators followed to protect him, using their power to save him whenever a poison took hold.
Countless others, moved by Lieshan's character, followed him as well. For a thousand years he traveled through every region of the Human Race, leaving traces of Shennong wherever he went. His standing soared.
As Lieshan's standing grew, the Shennong Tribe became renowned.
After a thousand years of tasting herbs without pause, Lieshan had come