Chapter 109: The Vial of Poison
Chapter 109: The Vial of Poison
The journey was longer than Xiang Ling thought. It took them an entire day and half of the next day before they finally reached the Lin Family’s Village. They only stopped twice throughout their journey and that too to either eat or to allow the horse to rest. By the time their carriage walked through the entrance of the village, it was already in the afternoon.
The terrible state of the village was evident from the moment they arrived there. The narrow streets that should have been bustling with activities on usual days, were now eerily quiet, with only the occasional sounds of coughing echoing through the air.
Houses were marked with red symbols, indicating they were quarantined, their occupants isolated from the rest of the community. The few people who were seen on the streets had covered their mouths with veils. They moved quickly through the village to fetch supplies while trying to avoid contact with others.
Despite efforts to contain the disease, there was fear and desperation filled in the air. Sorrow hung over the village as families mourned the loss of their loved ones and hoped for an end to the suffering.
"Where are we going to stay?" Li Xian asked as he finished observing the state of the village through the carriage’s window. Before Xiang Ling could have answered, they heard a knock on the carriage’s side wall. As Zhe Yuan removed the curtain from the window to look outside, a familiar face appeared in front of Xiang Ling.
"Fai-" Xiang Ling stopped before she could have made the mistake. Realizing that both the men were looking at her, she cleared her throat and spoke, "Liying, you are here."
"En! We promised to meet here today. I have already found a decent place for our stay. Let me guide the carriage there." Fairy Liying spoke with a warm smile and once Xiang Ling gave a slight nod of her head in approval, she headed to the front of the carriage and took a seat with the coachman to direct him toward the destination.
"Who is she?" Zhe Yuan asked as he fixed his gaze on Xiang Ling. There was a certain kind of look in his eyes that almost made Xiang Ling feel that he was questioning Liying’s true identity. But that look disappeared way too quickly that she almost believed she was mistaken.
"She’s also a volunteer who has come here to help the villagers. We met the day I decided to come here as a volunteer too. Since she’s already familiar with the place and everything that has been going on here, I asked for her guidance." Xiang Ling offered them the best story she could come up with to explain Liying’s sudden appearance. When she allowed these two men to accompany her, she literally forgot about Fairy Liying.
While Li Xian accepted the story and nodded his head in understanding, Zhe Yuan didn’t give any reaction at all, he just remained silent throughout their little journey to a small Inn located in the very center of the village. Unlike usual Inns, this one was completely lifeless without the presence of any human inside. Yet, the place was nicely cleaned and decent-looking. Xiang Ling was even able to smell the faint fragrance of herbs that were used to disinfect the entire place along with a spell.
"How well is my performance?" Fairy Liying asked in a whisper, making sure the two men wouldn’t hear her.
"Not too bad." Xiang Ling replied and left behind a very dissatisfied Fairy. She headed toward the two men who were busy inspecting every corner of the ground floor of the Inn.
"Where is the owner of this place?" Li Xian asked Liying as he finished making sure that the place was clean. He too had picked on the faint smells of herbs in the air and if he was correct in his guess, the herbs were used to disinfect the building. This made him a little bit less suspicious of Liying who was a stranger to them.
"Dead."
Liying’s reply left everyone shocked, including Xiang Ling. Noticing their expressions, the Fairy quickly explained. "A very old couple owned this small Inn. Both of them ended up dying because of the plague. Now, this place is left with no owner."
Silence took over for the next several moments as no one spoke, it was finally Xiang Ling who broke the silence. "Let’s get settled down in our rooms first. We will head out within an hour to take a look around the village."
Everyone agreed and they all headed upstairs. While Li Xian and Zhe Yuan were in their own rooms, Xiang Ling secretly pulled Liying inside her room. "Have you found out the cause of the plague?" She asked.
Liying gave a quick nod of her head before answering, "I asked around in the village and they said that the first group of victims were seven children who suddenly fell ill one evening. Before the villagers could have realized what was happening, the disease spread to the family members of those children. After realizing that something was off about the disease, the village head decided to quarantine the infected families. Yet, more people kept turning up ill every single day, and within two weeks, half of the village was overtaken by the plague. It has been nearly a month since the first case happened, almost the entire village is overtaken by this plague by now."
Xiang Ling processed the information and was almost baffled to find out that an entire village was under the attack of such a ferocious disease. "You said, victims. Why?"
Liying’s gaze turned almost cold when she heard Xiang Ling’s question. Letting out a long sigh, she explained - "After acquiring information from the villagers, I conducted a personal investigation to find out what could have caused them to come in contact with the source of the disease, and look what I found."
The Fairy took out a vial from her Spatial Ring and showed it to Xiang Ling. The vial was filled with a black colored liquid and surrounding it was one of the most poisonous energy she had ever seen in her life of ten thousand years.