"So that was it. If the Great Qian troops here in Yue Province wanted to enter the mountains and eradicate the demons, they had to overcome the miasma lurking in the forests. To do that, they needed all manner of spirit materials and counteracting cultivation techniques, none of which could be deployed on a large scale."
"Exactly. It wasn't as though their existing forces had no means whatsoever, but whether they used spiritual medicines or called up registered cultivators serving the court, the expenditure of manpower and resources would be enormous.
"For now, they could only protect the important people. More than ten years ago, a Great Qian Dynasty army stationed near the mountain forests was struck by poisonous miasma. Within three days, an epidemic spread, leaving over ten thousand dead or injured. Only the accompanying cultivators and a few commanding officers survived.
"Afterward, the authorities investigated responsibility but failed to secure a conviction. The commander's excuse was that they hadn't had enough spirit pills on hand, so the losses were not a failure in battle.
"That actually met with unanimous approval throughout the court and beyond. Everyone considered him wronged. It was enough to show that the Great Qian Dynasty truly had no answer to these poisonous miasmas. Spirit pills and cultivators were limited, and the number of people who could survive was fixed. As long as the losses didn't exceed that limit, it wasn't considered dereliction of duty.
"Clearly, they urgently needed something inexpensive yet genuinely effective at dispelling miasma, something that could substantially reduce the army's noncombat losses.
"To that end, the Great Qian Dynasty had recruited renowned physicians far and wide and combined their methods with immortal alchemy to test various medicines. Most attempts failed because the poisonous miasma contained spirit resonance. Some people also proposed