Volume One: The Youngest Among Three Hundred Chapter 90: Entering the Village

Chen Chang'an stood upright on his horse, pondering for a moment. "It's not that I can't get in, but... could you tear off a piece of your clothing for me?"

"A... a piece of my clothing?"

"Yes!" Chen Chang'an replied, giving her a peculiar look.

Ruan Jingchu seemed lost in thought, her beautiful face tilting slightly. "What... what do you want to do with it?"

"Oh, nothing much, don't worry. After all, we'll still be housemates in the future—I'm not the type to take advantage of you." As he spoke, he leaned forward without ceremony and ripped a piece of white gauze from her dress.

Rubbing it lightly between his fingers, Chen Chang'an nodded with satisfaction. "Hmm, as expected, a young lady's clothes are light and breathable. Wait here for me!"

With those words, he turned his horse and headed into the woods outside the village.

A quarter of an hour passed...

Then two...

Then three...

Not until the fourth quarter did Chen Chang'an return on horseback, now sporting a piece of airy white gauze over his face, reminiscent of the masked heroines in martial arts dramas—if only in spirit, for he was clearly a man.

"Here, for you!"

Approaching, Chen Chang'an handed another piece of white gauze, torn from her skirt, to Ruan Jingchu.

Her large, beautiful eyes widened in confusion, and she caught a faint scent of herbs drifting from the cloth.

Chen Chang'an explained, "There's a strong virus in the village air—well, it's a plague. I just went to the woods and picked some medicinal herbs, crushed them with a stone, soaked the gauze in the juice. Cover your mouth and nose with this, and you won't be affected."

"So that's it!"

Enlightened, Ruan Jingchu obediently took and donned the gauze. "I didn't know you were skilled in medicine?"

Because of Sister Peach Blossom... No, he couldn't reveal his cheat; Chen Chang'an simply grinned and spun a tale. "I had an eye disease as a child, so my father invited many famous doctors. Over time, while my eyes weren't cured, I did pick up some medical skills."

"In that case, you must be quite gifted," Ruan Jingchu said in a conversational tone.

"Mhm!" Chen Chang'an replied in a deliberately soft, almost unmanly way.

Ruan Jingchu shivered at his tone, goosebumps rising. "Let's just go in and find Ye Lin. That's what's important."

With Song Jiu's recent fate fresh in their minds, both remained cautious despite their makeshift masks.

They reined their horses into Ganquan Village, glancing around at the desolate, mournful scene that tugged at the heart.

"What a good village. How did it suddenly fall into plague?" Ruan Jingchu's eyes sparkled with pity.

Chen Chang'an shook his head. "No idea!"

"Wait—where's Song Jiu?" Ruan Jingchu cried out, pointing ahead.

Hearing this, Chen Chang'an looked towards where the cries had first arisen. Only the corpse of a black horse remained; Song Jiu himself was nowhere to be found.

"Well..." Chen picked his nose, gloating. "All the better. People like that are just a waste of air!"

Ruan Jingchu showed no reaction. Her own principles made her dislike Song Jiu as well, and she was already being charitable by not cursing him.

"Mmm..."

"Mmm! Mmm! Mmm!"

Suddenly, a scream rang out. The horses beneath Chen Chang'an and Ruan Jingchu reared and fell, throwing them more than ten meters, landing them hard on the ground.

"Ouch, my poor back!"

Chen Chang'an staggered to his feet, dusting himself off and looking at the two cold, stiff horse corpses nearby. He pressed his forehead in exasperation. "Awkward... I should've made them masks too!"

"Masks?" Ruan Jingchu frowned slightly.

Chen Chang'an pointed at the herb-soaked gauze. "This!"

"Ah..." Feeling their conversation was on different wavelengths, Ruan Jingchu decided to let it drop. She walked over to her horse, pausing with a look of pity, then crouched at the spot where Song Jiu had fallen, examining it closely.

Chen Chang'an followed.

Ruan Jingchu's hand instinctively went to her sword hilt. "Something's wrong here—there are drag marks on the ground. Song Jiu was probably taken away."

"Agreed!" Chen Chang'an observed the splayed footprints leading away, supporting her conclusion.

"But... isn't Ganquan Village overrun by plague? Who else would be here besides us, and why take Song Jiu?"

Chen Chang'an shook his head, mystified. Suddenly, he snatched the silver-plated hairpin from Ruan Jingchu's bun without asking and stabbed it into the stiff horse's back.

"What are you doing?" Ruan Jingchu flushed with anger.

Chen Chang'an withdrew the hairpin and wiped the black residue off on his sleeve. "Nothing, just trying acupuncture to see if I could save it. Life is precious, after all!"

"Here, take it back."

"Hmph, I don't want it anymore!" Ruan Jingchu pouted, clearly disgusted.

Whoosh!

At that moment, Chen Chang'an's keen ears caught a faint whistling from the side. He spun around and, in one fluid motion, hurled the hairpin.

Clang!

In midair, the hairpin collided with a flying needle, sparks flying. The needle ricocheted into a wooden plank, while the hairpin smashed through a second-story window.

"Someone's there!"

Realizing this, Ruan Jingchu drew her pink-and-white sword and dashed for the second floor.

Chen Chang'an stayed put, judging from the force and trajectory of the needle that the attacker lacked martial skills—it must have been some mechanical trick. Ruan Jingchu was more than capable of handling it. After all, her aunt was Lady Jade Sword, her uncle the leader of the Martial Alliance, and her master...

While he was musing, Ruan Jingchu poked her head out the window, looking embarrassed. "They got away—I couldn't catch them!"

Damn... Surprised, Chen Chang'an leapt up. The room was cluttered with junk, and another window stood wide open, its frame still swinging.

"Escaped out the window?" he muttered, searching the room but finding nothing suspicious. "Looks like this plague in Ganquan Village isn't simple."

"Artificial, perhaps."

"People can create plagues?" Ruan Jingchu asked in disbelief.

"Not plagues themselves, but it's easy enough to kill people in the same way," Chen Chang'an explained.

"You're being deliberately vague!"

She complained, then asked, "So what do we do now?"

"Next?" Chen Chang'an pushed his glasses up in a distinctly modern gesture. "We look for any survivors in the village and ask about what happened after Ye Lin arrived."

"Sounds good."

They made their way downstairs—no longer flying this time—and found themselves in what used to be a general store. In one corner behind the counter lay the long-dead bodies of a husband and wife, their flesh rotted and reeking, but their hands still clasped together.

"How terrible," Ruan Jingchu sighed.

Chen Chang'an gazed at the couple, noting the blackened bones jutting out, and cursed under his breath, "Truly ruthless!"

"Wu wu wu... Great Emperor Lü, have mercy and forgive our sins. Drive away the plague demon, spare the people of Ganquan Village!"

"Emperor Lü, forgive us!"

"Great Emperor, forgive us!"

At that moment, heart-wrenching wails drifted in from outside. Through a crack in the door, Chen Chang'an and Ruan Jingchu glimpsed nearly eighty emaciated, haggard villagers—men, women, old, and young—hunched and shuffling in a long procession down the street.

"Emperor Lü... forgive us? What on earth is going on?"

Muttering, Chen Chang'an and Ruan Jingchu slipped out and quietly followed, hoping to discover the villagers' purpose.

At last, they arrived at a small hillside on the village's northern edge. The entire group knelt, each holding offerings of rotting fruit and spoiled food, bowing toward the summit and crying out in despair, "Great Emperor Lü, have mercy, drive away the plague demon, spare Ganquan Village!"

"Great Emperor Lü, show mercy!"

"Mercy, Great Emperor Lü!"

Behind them, Chen Chang'an's eyes grew grave and puzzled. "Strange... The air here is thick with poison—even a fourth-rank cultivator like Song Jiu died instantly upon entry. How are these villagers unharmed?"

"And look—it's midsummer; everywhere else is lush and green, yet this hillside is barren, not a single blade of grass!"

Glancing around, he noticed patches of fresh earth, clearly dug up and left to dry, scattered haphazardly. The nearby trees were all withered and sallow.

Flowers and grass were brittle, almost desiccated.

"So strange," Chen Chang'an muttered, growing more confused. He stepped forward and tapped the shoulder of a young man at the back of the worshipping crowd, flashing his Black Cloak Guards badge. "Sent by the court. What's going on here? What are you all doing?"

The young man shrank back in fear, avoiding his gaze. Realizing he was a Black Cloak Guard, he glanced nervously at the village elder leading the prayers, then slipped away and whispered, "Sir, we are worshipping the Plague Emperor, the Great Heavenly Emperor Haotian!"

"Plague Emperor Haotian... that sounds familiar." Chen Chang'an thought back—ah, yes, he'd watched the old Investiture of the Gods for the sake of that seductive Daji. "Oh, you mean Lü Yue!"

"Shh!" The young man broke into a cold sweat. "Don't say the Great Emperor's name aloud!"

What a superstitious fellow, Chen Chang'an thought, but remembering the feudal times they lived in, he let it go and changed the topic. "What's happened here? Tell me everything, from the beginning."

"And, has a colleague of mine from the Black Cloak Guards named Ye Lin been here? If so, what did he do?"