People who drank the South Lake water half a month ago began to successively rot all over and die!
As soon as this news came out, it caused an uproar!
This was because it meant the strangeness of the South Lake water had shifted from "metaphysical" to "malignant." It was possible that what seemed like a mysterious and esoteric "birth of a treasure" or "miracle of heaven and earth" was turning into a malicious poisoning incident. Terrifyingly, prior to this, not a single one of the many practitioners had discovered that the lake water possessed lethality.
This place fell under the jurisdiction of Liangzhou, which was called Hanchuan Commandery during the Sui Dynasty and Hanzhong Commandery in earlier times. In the Early Tang, it was renamed Liangzhou again, with its administrative seat still in Nanzheng—roughly corresponding to the later Hanzhong City and Nanzheng County.
This place was very close to the Imperial Capital Chang'an, so presumably the imperial court would soon cast its gaze here and dispatch specialists to investigate!
At this time, South Lake had four major ferry crossings in the southeast, northwest, and west. Inbound and outbound boats all docked at these four places, and ordinary people also drew water and washed clothes here.
Yet after this business broke out, no boats dared to venture onto the water anymore, and no one dared to draw water or wash clothes here either.
An Yang walked to the East Ferry. A patch of the lake was entirely tranquil, the green and clear water still rippling with slight waves, but all the boats were quietly moored by the shore. The aqueducts were sealed off, and the waterwheels were jammed tight with stones by people, as if they already regarded the lake water as a demon.
Still, people remained by the ferry,