Inside a dark cave, a short figure with eerie green light in his eyes cheered at several cauldrons.
"It worked!"
As streams of plague aura gathered, the little fellow's entire appearance began to change.
The old man, who had looked seventy or eighty and on the verge of breathing his last, saw his skin regain its luster. His waxen-yellow complexion recovered a healthy flush, his slightly hunched back straightened, and his disheveled, withered hair became glossy once more.
Just as his transformation began, a wisp of blue smoke rushed inside.
"What?"
Before the old man could react, several streaks of sword light slashed down from the direction the blue smoke had drifted from.
At that moment, the old man was at the critical point of his transformation and could barely move. Seeing this, his face twisted viciously. He reluctantly raised a hand and knocked over the cauldrons before him.
At once, the vast reserves of plague miasma within poured out. They mingled and shifted, giving rise to all manner of indescribably disgusting stenches that blotted out the sky and filled the cave within and without.
Qiong Xiao, who had just pursued him inside, went deathly pale at the sight. Not to mention the foul stench and corresponding filthy aura, enough to kill someone on the spot—the plague miasma within those cauldrons had clearly been refined and compressed into a liquefied state.
Now that it had lost the cauldrons' restraints, one eruption would be enough to contaminate land for hundreds of li around and aggravate the already uncontrollable plague.
One misstep could create a great disaster that spread across several provinces and poisoned millions, even tens of millions, of living beings.
This must never be allowed to get out!
Suppressing her nausea, Qiong Xiao prayed to the heavens. "Praise Blessed Life,