Story 7 - To Kill Demonic Vines (10?)
“I have a whole mine filled with precious gems!”
Master Yan added, “I have rare herbs that can help cultivators in your realm!”
Okay, that was doubtful.
What I needed were those kiwis and the other ingredients for body cultivation. Which I would get from curing the plague.
Master Jiang glared at the other two. “I have a jade bracelet that an immortal gave my family.” He brought it out from his sleeve. It was a normal piece of jewelry. Expensive for a mortal, but not useful for a cultivator.
Nothing they offered was anything I needed. Even if they did have sothing helpful, I wasn’t the protagonist of this dumb Xianxia universe. I wasn’t soone who would con them out of their family treasures because I could.
“Listen up! Taking dicine they don’t need can hurt your sons.”
That shut them up.
“Wait for the symptoms of the plague to show up. If you don’t confirm their diagnosis before giving them a pill, it will harm their body. Do you want that?”
Master Xu tightened his jaw. “Excuse little Fairy, but we’re talking to Master Alchemist Lin.”
I nearly coughed up blood.
This! This was why I hated hiding my identity. And I would reveal it, except I didn’t want these dumb fuckers to know who I was.
I walked up to the kneeling n, wrapped my spiritual energy around them, and threw them out of the clinic’s front doors.
I stood in the doorway, arms cross and glared at all three of them. “Only co back if your sons show signs of having the plague and are willing to beco test subjects where they’ll put their lives on the line.”
Their faces paled.
Good, they finally got it into their thick skulls. I used my spiritual energy to slam the door shut.
“Master Alchemist Lin! We’re ready to try your pill,” the Head Physician was a goddamn professional, even if his clinic wasn’t as clean as I preferred.
I walked over to the patient. She was a young woman who did not look like she had a lot of ti left.
“Okay, administer the prescription.”
He poured a golden pill into a small porcelain bowl. This was the adjusted prototype I created first.
The Head Physician opened the woman’s mouth and placed the dicine inside.
I extended my divine sense to watch her. The energy spread through her body. Pink curling vines that stuck out of her pasty skin shriveled up and visibly retracted.
According to my calculations, this was around twice as fast as the previous prescription.
And there didn’t appear to be any undue stress on her body.
I tightened my jaw and decided that I wouldn’t go find Violet right then and there just to go kick her ass.
Two fewer leaves were used, and the ti was halved without any complications. And yet, that bitch forced these patients to go through all that pain and bullshit for an extra month!
“Have soone continue to observe. She should be given the sa pill every day at the sa ti.”
“Yes, Master Alchemist Lin!”
They set up the next patient. This was a man with a nasty looking pink vine crawling out of his neck and wrapping around his chin. Fortunately, they’d kept him asleep or he might go crazy with pain.
The Head Physician poured out a pill from the other bottle and fed it to the poor guy.
I began counting as I observed with my divine sense. Though, with how quickly the vines shriveled, even the mortals could see how fast it cured the plague.
One of the physicians released a shocked gasp. Then he looked sheepish when everyone stared at him.
I turned back to the patient.
There were still vines inside him, but at the rate they were dying, I estimated that it would take only two weeks to fully recover.
The Head Physician looked at with glittering eyes. “M-master Alchemist Lin! This!”
Clear Eye Mad Tongue grabbed my shoulder and shook it. “You realize that you improved a pill in a few hours, right?”
No shit.
“Clear Eyes Mad Tongue!” Salamander warned.
Little Spring removed his hand from my shoulder and said, “Of course my sister did! She’s amazing. And didn’t you agree how you would address her from now on?”
The teen held up both hands and looked sheepish. Then he rubbed his nose. The tips of his ears turned pink.
“Best-Alchemist-Under-the-Heavens Lin.”
If he actually ended up calling that for the rest of his life, I might kick him. It’s too long.
Salamander smiled down at . “You did well, Little Senior Lin.”
It was funny how everyone around praising didn’t even phase , but one ager sentence from my past-life’s ntor caused my old monster heart to squeeze with a little happiness.
“Thank you, Sword Master Salamander.”
“Have you thought of a better na than Violet Plague—whatever?” Clear Eyes asked.
“I told you that the other pill was only a prototype.”
“Then can I recomnd that you na this one sothing easy to rember?”
I clasped my hands behind my back. “I’ll call it Fairy Lin’s Demonic Vine Killer Dan!”
Head Physician Xiang You excitedly stood up from where he was checking on the patient. “Master Alchemist Lin, I believe this cure calls for a celebration!”
“We have too much work for that!”
Thinking about it made want to rub my temples in annoyance.
“Also, it technically hasn’t cured anyone, only lessened their symptoms. But I’m positive that it will eventually cure the plague.” The worse version worked in my past life, so it only made sense that this one would as well.
If I didn’t already have that reassurance — and if people weren’t dying left and right — I’d want to ensure my prescription worked completely before handing it out. But we didn’t have ti for that.
Everyone except Little Spring looked confused and worried.
“We’ll have to continue testing. But first, I’ll need to patent it at the Guild so we can spread the formula to other alchemists.”
A little kid that had been hovering at the edge of the room ran over to , then stopped five feet away as if troubled that he was doing sothing wrong. Then he bowed then said, “Hu Huan greets the immortals!”
That maid’s son?
“Little Fairy, did you really create a cure?”
I grinned. “Of course I did.”
His eyes grew wide. “That’s amazing.” He whispered. Then he looked like he realized he was bothering us and ran off.
I glanced at the Head Physician. “What’s an uninfected kid doing in this clinic?”
“That’s my fault. I’ve had him get check-ups here to make sure his condition doesn’t relapse. It was... very bad before.” He leaned in and whispered. “We all thought he was going to die, but he made it through.”
“It’s good that he survived.”
I clasped my hands behind my back and turned to my fellow sect mbers. “Inform the guild that we’ll need all the Golden Goat Tailed Wheat they have, and tell all our alchemists to wrap their investigations up. It’s ti to start concocting pills!”
***
Since I wanted to ensure Violet earned nothing from this plague, I rushed to the guild. Very quickly, I patented all three of the formulas. I also included step-by-step directions so other alchemists didn’t pointlessly waste our limited ingredients.
Although I patented the prototypes, I did not want to see them in circulation.
Like fuck would I let Violet’s stupidly slow healing pills gain any traction.
To that end, I made it so that no one could earn a lot of money off the prototype versions. 80% of all their profits would go to .
The clerk even comnted that I could only ask for this because the guild loved alchemists who provided step-by-step instructions.
For my Fairy Lin’s Demonic Vine Killer Dan, I did things a little differently.
Basically, I’d let the alchemists increase the price of the pills by 10% past the cost of ingredients before they needed to pay anything.
Which ant they could stiff if they were willing to sell their pills for cheap... Which was what I wanted.
If they made a profit after that, I would take 50% of it.
Well, I’d have to see if this was effective. I was a genius, but that didn’t an I was good at finances. I was an alchemist, not an economist.
***
Once I returned to the clinic, I checked up on the patients. Everything appeared to be going as I predicted.
And that was when Master Xu ca in with his son.
The young man moaned while his father signed him up for the trial right away.
Since this was the first patient I’d seen who had just contracted the Demonic Vine Plague, I scanned him with my divine sense.
This early-stage was fairly interesting. The vines didn’t seem to start at a single point. Instead, microscopic vines had spread throughout the bloodstream and made their way to the heart first. That was where they began to gather.
While I was observing the Young Master Xu, my teams of Alchemists started reporting in.
Incapacitating Wind who had visited the graveyard, sent a telepathic transmission, ::Senior Lin, the infected bodies refused to burn, so they’ve all been buried.:: She paused. ::They didn’t have enough hands so they were digging shallow graves. I’ve since instructed them to request help and dig to the correct depth.::
::Good work. What about the groundwater?::
::There was so near the cetery, but it was deep enough to not beco contaminated.::
::Okay. Return and start concocting the cure.::
::Sword Master Salamander inford us. We’re on our way.::
Fairy Elegant Sky Tar sent a secret sound transmission. “Senior Lin! We’ve searched the entire city and spoken to as many people as we could. There isn’t anything suspicious going on. At least nothing that wasn’t strange mortals being strange.”
“You did what you could in the ti you were given. Return. We’re going to start concocting the cure.”
“We’re already setting up our cauldrons! We’ll be ready to start soon.”
Then Alchemist Burning Hands cautiously reported in, “Um, Senior Lin... we couldn’t figure out how the plague was spread. There’s just too much traffic moving through this city.”
“I understand. But you had to have discovered sothing, right?”
He did investigate for several hours.
“Well... The first cases all had one thing in common. They all stopped at a specific inn right inside of the city. Each of them had sothing to eat there at the sa ti.”
“You’re suspecting that a rchant brought it in?”
If that was the case, then they must have spread it to the other people eating with them.
That ant that there was a possibility of those who were infected but showed no signs of it.
“That’s our only guess. But it still doesn’t explain how it spreads.”
“Inform the City Lord that he should limit all traffic. If possible, keep everyone in the city for at least two weeks while we deal with the plague.”
“Yes, Senior!”
Since I’d already patented the pills, I gave out the instructions to my fellow Sect Alchemists.
It was about ti to get down to the business of mass production.
I sent a telepathic ssage to every mber of the team. ::Now that a cure has been developed. It’s ti to start producing this dicine quickly. Get doses into the hands of those who need it.::
::Yes, Senior Lin!::
“Yes, Senior!”
Clear Eyes Mad Tongue stroked his chin beside as if he had a beard. “Best-Alchemist-Under-the-Heavens Lin!”
Yep, I was going to have to kick this guy the next ti he called that.
“I know that the cure is working, but what if sothing goes wrong? What happens if it suddenly starts backfiring?”
I lifted my chin up and said, “That won’t happen.”
***
Mother fucker!
Where was that goddamn crow’s mouth, Clear Eyes Mad Tongue, so I could beat his ass?
No, focus.
Violet’s dicine clearly worked in my past-life. So, if it wasn’t the pills, then it had to be the work of whatever or whoever was controlling the Demonic Vine plague.
I an, I’d had my suspicions about this disease being designed by soone from the mont I heard about it. Unfortunately, I’d been so focused on combating it that I didn’t consider that they had a way to control it like this.
Besides, the treatnt worked in my past-life. I had no reason to think it wouldn’t work in this one.
This fact made the situation even more suspicious.
It also made suspect sothing about Violet. But I could deal with those suspicions later.
I had bigger things to take care of.
Master Xu stomped up to Salamander and practically scread in his face. “Look, not only is your cure not working, my son is even worse off! I demand compensation!”
Yeah, I knew that guy was upset and all, but trying to pick a fight with the best Sword Master in his generation was not a smart thing to do.
My old ntor looked like he was about to throw this mortal out of the clinic. Gently, of course.
And if he didn’t, I certainly would. But I wouldn’t be gentle about it.
The guy had been coming and going from here for three days and still hadn’t picked up on the fact that I was Master Alchemist Lin. Fuckin’ idiot.
Little Spring walked up to him. “Master Xu. Calm down. Master Alchemist Lin’s prescription works fine.”
Everyone looked at him with skepticism. Even .
I an, I knew why it wasn’t working, but no one else seed to realize it. So how did this brat figure it out?
“Then how do you explain this?!” He gestured to every patient in the clinic. Not one of them didn’t have a relapse.
I used my divine sense to add pressure to him so he’d calm the fuck down and listen properly. “I’ll explain it! However, I need to find evidence first.”
Master Xu glowered at . Which was fine. I really didn’t care about this asshole’s opinion.
“And where, and how, is a little kid like you going to find evidence?”
I smirked and pressured him even more. He paled.
“Excuse , but do I answer to you?”
He swallowed.
“We’re leaving!”
“But what about the patients?” The Head Physician asked.
“If what I suspect is true, then we’re going to have more urgent problems to take care of.”
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