286: Eliminate plague

Clang... clang clang... bang... bang bang! Listen closely, all soldiers and civilians of Chang'an, great and small! Today, the virtuous and high monk, Guangdu Xin Buddha Tang Sanzang, along with various immortals, have worked together to refine a Medicinal Pill to resolve this catastrophe and eliminate the plague. However, the Spirit Medicine is limited, and it cannot be administered in the usual way. The immortals have deliberated, and tonight at the Hour of the Rat, they will bestow a celestial mist. Anyone who inhales this substance—those suffering from the plague will be cured, and those not yet infected will be protected from infection. We hope you will all come out at the Hour of the Rat to inhale the celestial mist, so as to cure your illnesses and protect yourselves...

In the dead of night, the night watchmen of Chang'an City, along with the yamen runners and soldiers from various government offices, all carried wooden clappers and gongs, patrolling the streets and shouting this slogan over and over, just to ensure that everyone would come out at the Hour of the Rat to absorb the medicine refined by Sun Simiao.

On the rooftop platform of the Si Tian Jian, Xingyunzi was leading a group of his Junior Brothers in assembling a very strange machine. The machine looked like a huge cylindrical iron barrel. The top of the iron barrel had been drilled with countless holes using special tools, and the bottom was a device for igniting a flame. Connected to the top of the tank was a red box, and three metal legs supported a frame that held the whole thing up; altogether, it stood probably over three meters tall.

At this moment, Tang Ku was standing outside the pill room, looking anxious as he waited for Sun Simiao to come out. Honestly, although he knew Sun Simiao held the title of Medicine King and that many of his Pill Formulas had been obtained from the Dragon Palace back in the day, he still felt completely unsure of the outcome.

The firelight from the Pill Furnace shone through the windows, and waves of heat slowly seeped out through the cracks in the door. Wisps of medicinal fragrance, accompanied by faint mists, also drifted out from the door cracks, making one feel refreshed and relaxed.

Suddenly, the entire pill room trembled for an instant. Immediately after, a blast of hot air burst through the door and windows, rushing toward Tang Ku. At the same time, it was accompanied by a deafening thunderclap. Boom!

Tang Ku hurriedly waved his sleeves to fan away the heat, exclaiming, 'Daoist Sun, Mr. Sun, are you alright? Did the Pill Furnace explode? That Medicinal Pill... was it a failure?'

'Hehehe... Hahahaha... There is no pill that I cannot refine once I take action...'

From within the thick fog, a somewhat slovenly figure walked out, holding a palm-sized Pill Furnace in his hand. As he gave his hand a gentle shake, eighteen crystal-clear, beautiful Medicinal Pills, looking like amethysts, instantly sprayed out from the air vents on top of the Pill Furnace.

'Here are eighteen Anti-Poison Pills. The main ingredients are your Flat Peaches and my tianshan snow lotus... I'll keep these three for myself, and the remaining fifteen are for you... Hmm, Chang'an City is too large. Using eight should be enough, but to be safe, using ten will make the effect more obvious. The remaining five are a gift for you!'

Sun Simiao chuckled, packed fifteen Medicinal Pills into a small porcelain bottle, and handed it to Tang Ku with a smile.

Tang Ku said with surprise and delight, 'You're just giving them to me like that?'

Sun Simiao chuckled and said, 'Don't forget the Flat Peaches you promised!'

'Certainly, certainly. There is no time to lose. I'm going to the Si Tian Jian now; if I'm any later, I'm afraid more people will die!'

Saying this, Tang Ku stomped his foot hard and, like a cannonball, flew off toward the Si Tian Jian.

On this side, the device that needed to be assembled had already been completed. At this moment, waiting on the rooftop, besides the two old men, there was one other person: Nezha.

The others were fine, but little Nezha had long since become impatient. Seeing Tang Ku appear suddenly, he couldn't help but say with pleasant surprise, 'Holy Monk, you've finally appeared! I was almost bored to death waiting!'

'These are the Anti-Poison Pills. Ten are enough!'

Tang Ku hurriedly handed the Medicinal Pills in his hand to Yuan Tiangang and said solemnly, 'I'll have to trouble you!'

Yuan Tiangang nodded, then immediately opened the red box connected to the device above. He poured ten pills out from it and tossed them into the red box. Then, like pushing a drawer, he pushed it back into its original position. Afterward, he turned his head to look at Nezha and said, 'I'll have to trouble you, Third Prince... Hmm, the Samadhi True Fire is fierce; you need to control it to be a bit gentler...'

'Rest assured, rest assured, I have a sense of proportion when it comes to this!'

Saying this, Nezha had already taken out his two Wind Fire Wheels and placed them under the device. He immediately activated the Wind Fire Wheels and began to release fire.

Although both were Samadhi True Fire, the flames from the Wind Fire Wheels were indeed more gentle than those from the Fire Tipped Spear and the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover. After all, the main function of the Wind Fire Wheels was wind; it was meant for acceleration.

As soon as the fire started, the dark red box immediately emitted a blinding light, just like molten iron fresh from a steel furnace; the heat it appeared to generate was terrifying.

Immediately after, a stream of clear Qi first sprayed out from the air vent at the very top of the device, followed by purple mist that continuously spread out from the holes bit by bit.

This mist drifted extremely fast, rolling and spreading from the rooftop platform of the Si Tian Jian to the surroundings. From top to bottom, it took only about ten minutes to envelop the entire Chang'an City in a thick purple mist.

At this moment, it was exactly the Hour of the Rat. Chang'an City, which should have been under curfew, became lively in the midst of this thick fog. The streets were crowded with people; they had all walked out of their houses, looking at the purple mist filling the sky, their hearts full of confusion.

'Could this be the so-called celestial mist?'

Some people carried their family members out of their houses; some even knocked out their family members who had already turned into zombies and threw them outside. In short, Chang'an City became unprecedentedly lively.

Some were confused, some were afraid, some were helpless; a thousand different feelings that others could not understand.

However, the situation that followed made everyone instantly dispel all their doubts.

Those whose bodies were rotting and oozing pus, whose limbs were severed, or even those whose facial features had completely rotted away, miraculously began to grow new flesh. All the symptoms on their bodies were constantly disappearing... No, it wasn't just disappearing; the mist they inhaled into their bodies was also helping to transform them, making their bodies stronger and their skin fairer and more delicate. Moreover, their strength as well as their spirit and vitality had all changed.

At the same time, those who had turned into zombies and were biting people everywhere also calmed down. They stopped their hysterical roaring and stopped scrambling to snatch corpses for food. Instead, they stood quietly in place, looking up at the sky and then looking around; their eyes actually slowly recovered from their clouded state.

Suddenly, the thick purple mist began to dissipate... No, to be precise, it didn't dissipate, but rose upward, transforming into cumulonimbus clouds that almost covered the entire city. Under those huge clouds, a shower of purple raindrops suddenly fell, moistening the earth and the people once again.

The plague had finally passed just like that!