This Place Is Toxic

In the fields, the millet is withered and thin, and the ridges are crooked and twisted.

In the village, dogs barked and ducks quacked, and villagers gathered at the village entrance.

Chu Tianshu suddenly appeared in mid-air, about two or three feet above the roof, and landed lightly on the thatched roof.

There was no one in the house. Beside the house stood a large mulberry tree, its branches and leaves so thick that they shaded most of the house.

Chu Tianshu looked up at the sun, then noticed the dew still clinging to the branches and leaves of the mulberry tree beside him.

It should be morning now.

He heard the villagers gathering in the same direction, so he reached out and bent some branches of the mulberry tree, peering through the gaps in the branches.

The village is not large; even with all the able-bodied men and old men in the village, there are only about a hundred people.

Everyone was dressed in ancient attire, with their hair tied up with straw and hemp rope. Most of them had patches on their clothes, and were covered in dirt and dust, making it impossible to see the original color of the fabric.

At the entrance of the village, there is a specially leveled piece of land surrounded by some haystacks. It seems that the area is mostly used as a threshing ground during the busy farming season.

Now the villagers are all standing there with their farm tools, but they are speaking harshly and angrily, denouncing the two Daoist priests.

A young and strong Daoist priest, with a square face and big eyes, but only a few hairs on his upper lip, looked to be under twenty years old. He was wrapped in a patched gray Daoist robe.

Another Daoist priest, in his forties or fifties, used a bamboo branch as a hairpin. His hair and beard were gray, his face was thin and long, and he looked sickly. His long, sparse beard hung down in front of his chest. He sat on a bamboo chair, and his limbs were weak.

Next to the bamboo chair was a bamboo basket, covered with coarse cloth.

Before Chu Tianshu arrived, the old Daoist priest seemed to be explaining something, but the villagers didn't believe him.

"You, surnamed Lu, stop lying! Grandma has seen through your deception. The medicine you've given us is nothing but rotten grass roots and broken tree bark—it's completely useless!"

A big, burly man, holding a pitchfork, pointed it at the old Daoist priest and kept cursing.

"You son of a bitch, you secretly poisoned the village and lied to us, saying it was a deadly plague, forcing us to sell our livestock and pawn our clothes to get medicine for your apprentice in town."

"Actually, that poison only gave us stomach upset for a few days, and then we'll be fine on our own!"

Several other burly men standing in the front row also joined in the shouting.

"Give us back all our money and all our belongings."

"Otherwise, we'll beat you to death today, you swindler, and the authorities won't care."

The old Daoist priest lowered his eyes and took a couple of breaths.

"If what your mother-in-law said is true, why didn't she say it when the epidemic first broke out in the village?"

Where did she hide then?

An old man in the crowd responded.

"My mother-in-law was a capable woman; she had connections with the head monk in town. At that time, she had just been invited by the temple to discuss Buddhist scriptures."

The old Daoist priest smiled and looked at the crowd, "I know a thing or two about all the Daoist and Buddhist scriptures circulating among the people."

"Granny is so learned, why not invite her out to confront this humble Daoist priest and ask her which passage of scripture she is reciting and which text she is discussing?"

The villagers started making a fuss, and some even wanted to call the old woman out so that the despicable Daoist priest wouldn't be able to spout his nonsense.

Someone in the crowd shouted.

"Why waste time arguing with this evil Daoist priest?"

"How can we, honest people, argue with a liar?! Let's strip him naked and soak him in a latrine first!"

Immediately, about half of the crowd, wielding farm tools, rushed towards the two Daoist priests.

The young Daoist priest glared at the old Daoist priest and stood in front of him.

"Get out of the way."

The old Daoist priest gave a soft shout and exhaled a thick purple qi just as the young Daoist priest stepped aside.

The purple qi spewed out like a piece of silk that kept trembling.

The airflow also contained a few silvery specks of light, which were beautiful and dazzling.

When the purple qi reached three or four feet away, it suddenly split into dozens of small fireworks, shooting out in all directions.

All the villagers who rushed over were hit in the chest by a wisp of purple smoke, and their bodies fell to the ground.

For a moment, screams of agony filled the air.

The remaining villagers, who had been so aggressive before, now trembled and turned ashen-faced when they actually witnessed the harmful purple qi aura.

"What a monster!"

Some people took off running.

"Don't move."

The two words uttered by the old Daoist priest were like the sound of a drumbeat, causing everyone's hearts to tremble twice, and none of them dared to move.

hiss--

The old Daoist priest let out a long inhale, and the smoke that had just hit everyone actually gathered in mid-air and was inhaled back into his body.

The dozens of people who had just fallen were all lying on their sides or prone on the ground, their limbs stiff and tense, afraid to move, but their breathing was very noticeable.

Chu Tianshu saw it clearly: when the purple qi flew out, it had no killing intent whatsoever. When it hit people, it was merely like giving them an unexpected push, causing them to fall down on their own.

These people are perfectly capable of getting back on their feet, they just don't dare.

"Although I am weak and frail, unable to even kill a chicken, why would I need to go through so much trouble to plunder your village?"

"I only stayed to diagnose you because I couldn't bear to see your entire village wiped out by the epidemic. I never imagined that such a small act of kindness could provoke someone to kill me."

The old Daoist priest's voice remained calm and clear as he said to the person beside him, "Shitou, go and invite that sorceress here. I have something to say to her."

The villagers are now trembling with fear; as soon as they see the Daoist boy taking a step, they hurriedly detour.

Even those lying on the ground quickly rolled over to avoid being stepped on.

Others quickly pointed out the sorceress's residence to the young Daoist.

It was a house with a tiled roof, unlike the other thatched houses in the village.

Although the walls are also made of mud, it is obvious that they are thicker and more robust than those of other houses in the village.

When the Daoist Child Shitou barged into the house, the sound of the sturdy iron lock on the door being broken could be heard, followed by a series of screams and howls.

Two strong men and a healthy woman fell out of the door and couldn't get up.

The young Daoist priest carried out an elderly woman who was dressed in clean clothes.

He lifted the woman with his right arm outstretched. The old woman was a rare, plump woman in the village; although she was rather short, she probably weighed around 140 or 150 pounds.

The young Daoist priest lifted the person over by the arm, his arm surprisingly steady, as if he were grasping a blade of grass.

The villagers were all used to farm work, and just seeing that strength sent chills down their spines.

Who would have thought that this young Daoist priest, who usually only knew how to boil bitter soup and do odd jobs, would have such strength?

The young Daoist priest put the old woman down on the ground, and she knelt down on her own, tears streaming down her face.

"Old Immortal, I was bewitched and said a few bad things about you. I never expected that these people would spread rumors so badly that they would actually try to beat me up."

"Please, old sage, spare me this time! I have two sons and a daughter-in-law to support."

The old Daoist priest sighed softly, "It's rare to find someone of your age living in a mountain village and still maintaining such a healthy complexion. But what means do you possess to be able to support a young person with your old body?"

Someone in the crowd chimed in, "She can draw talismans to catch ghosts and even exorcise evil spirits for children..."

The old sorceress just kept crying and refused to answer.

"Very well, considering your advanced age, I will not punish you further."

No sooner had the old Daoist priest finished speaking than the sorceress showed a delighted expression. But then the old priest gave instructions to the young Daoist boy.

"Bring out the teapot."

The young Daoist lifted the coarse cloth, revealing a bamboo basket Central Plains with everyday items, including a teapot placed neatly inside.

The sorceress's expression changed slightly, and she quickly lowered her head.

"Last night, you sneaked into my humble abode and poisoned my teapot."

The old Daoist priest said softly, "Just please drink this pot of tea."

When the sorceress heard him reveal the truth, she was shocked and turned to run away, but the young Daoist grabbed her by the back of the collar and forced cold water from the teapot down her throat.

Most of the water in the pot leaked out, but some was still swallowed.

The sorceress clutched her stomach and collapsed to the ground, her face gradually turning blue. She couldn't speak and foamed at the mouth.

The young Daoist priest plucked a handful of grass from the haystack, wiped the teapot, and put it back into the bamboo basket.

"It needs to be washed several times with boiling water before it can be used again."

The old Daoist priest gave a brief instruction and then said, "Let's go."

The Daoist Child Shitou said, "She also has two sons and a daughter-in-law."

"After she returned home with the poison, I listened carefully. My family only knew that she wanted to incite the villagers to drive us away; they didn't know she would dare to poison us."

The old Daoist priest shook his head and repeated, "Let's go."

The Daoist Child Shitou took a straw rope, tied the old Daoist to the bamboo chair, turned around, went behind the chair, carried the bamboo chair on his back, and picked up the bamboo basket in one hand.

He walked through the crowd without looking to the side, but as he was leaving, he suddenly reached out and slapped a villager across the face.

That man was a lazy bum from the village, the one who had previously used his smooth talk to get the two Daoist priests arrested and thrown into a latrine.

The villagers were terrified. After the two Daoist priests had walked two or three miles out of the village, their figures on the dirt road had become much smaller.

The villagers then looked at each other in bewilderment and began to discuss among themselves.

Chu Tianshu could see the plague energy in their bodies. It had only been a short time since it cleared up. Even if they stopped taking medicine, they should have done some basic physical exercises to recover.

Judging by that Daoist priest's skills, he'll surely be able to take good care of them.

Now that they've driven the people away themselves, I'm afraid they'll still have some aches and pains in their bodies for the next two or three months.

Chu Tianshu shook his head inwardly, ignoring them, and floated into the air to follow the two Daoists.

He reached the dirt road outside the village, his feet touching the ground several times, at a speed of only fifty or sixty meters per second.

But he left without a sound, and the villagers couldn't catch a glimpse of him at all.

The mountains outside the village are continuous and the forests are lush.

After the Daoist boy left the ravine along the dirt road, he could only walk on the rugged mountain path and began to climb the slope.

The old Daoist priest sat on a bamboo chair, his eyes closed in meditation.

He didn't even realize that Chu Tianshu had followed him, relying solely on his hearing.

Chu Tianshu easily caught up to the bottom of the hillside and was about to go up and strike up a conversation to find out about this world when he suddenly sensed something was wrong.

As he caught up, he subconsciously mobilized some of the essence of heaven and earth.

At this moment, I actually felt a strange aura trying to penetrate my internal organs and brain while I was refining the essence of heaven and earth, affecting my emotions.

The "Drifting Tumbleweed Sun-Chasing True Art" is incredibly profound. This strange aura has been diluted and purified after being tempered and refined by the True Form of Tianshan within the body.

But this was just a normal state of travel.

If it's for combat, the advantage of the Sun-Chasing True Art lies in its ability to mobilize a larger amount of vital energy.

This foreign aura mixed in with the essence of heaven and earth will eventually cause trouble, just like swallowing sand when you're drinking water in a frenzy—it's unpleasant.

Prolonged exposure to this will inevitably damage your health.

Chu Tianshu hid behind a large pine tree by the roadside, quietly stopped, and gently flicked his right hand, causing a few wisps of green and yellow light to float up from the grass.

When he used his lightness skill, he drew upon the essence of heaven and earth of the water attribute. But now, he used the Nanhua Origin Canon to refine the essence of grass, trees, earth, and stones, and carefully observed them.

Both have an unusual aura.

Could it be that this situation exists in all aspects of this world, in all the essence of heaven and earth?

In this way, ordinary people are not so affected, but the more skilled the person, the more obvious the impact will be.

If Chu Tianshu stays here for too long, it might cause some obstacles and prevent him from cultivating to his heart's content.

I wonder if any local experts have a corresponding solution.

(End of this chapter)