I told the Ambassador about what I had discovered while meditating last night and what I had found inside of him. “I suggest that when we are done eating you return to your room and go through another round of Rebirth. Even if you don’t need to do so to advance, that should solve your issue with controlling your qi. As for the outside issues,” I pulled a pill out of my storage bag and gave it to him. “This is a core formation pill I got off the corpse of a demonic cultivator who was near the end of the third level. It helps compress your qi once you begin forming a seed. It should help make forming a seed a bit easier, though it is only a lower grade pill, so I’m not sure how well it will work.” While at the first level, no one is interested in buying pills below average quality, at fourth level the materials were so rare and the pills so expensive that petty and low grade pills often appeared on the market.
The Ambassador nodded and put the pill away. “I’m just wondering how we both became infected.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I assumed I had picked something up when I was in the hidden realm, but if that was the case, then you wouldn’t have it. Could we have picked up something in High River, or on the journey?” Only taking a few days to grow to that size wouldn’t be possible for any mortal parasite, but for one that could feed on qi it might be able to grow that large in hours.
The Ambassador shook his head. “I don’t know. If so, we should probably be quarantined.” He thought for a few seconds. “I want you to investigate and find a way to cure us. We can’t risk taking this parasite back to our homeland.”
I nodded. It was only then that I noticed that the people around me weren’t speaking. If I had to guess, they had heard our conversation and it made them uncomfortable. Were they worried that we might give them the parasite as well? I was about to ask one of them about it when another spoke up. “So, Ji Bo says you’re a merchant ambassador. What brings you here to our family? Hoping to sell us alchemical supplies or buy pills?”
“Actually, I’m hoping to buy alchemical supplies, if you can spare them.” the Ambassador responded. “Our homeland is currently experiencing a shortage of alchemical ingredients above the first level. The branch family in High River was able to mostly fill my demand for level two ingredients, but they lacked enough level three and four ingredients to sell us even a small fraction of what we need. I was hoping the main branch could sell us level three and four materials, though complete pills would be fine too. I would even be willing to take petty and lesser quality pills off of your hands, or buy any level five or above materials you can spare.”
The Ji family man shook his head. “We might be able to sell you level three materials. The hunting teams collect more than we can use from the mountains. But we also have a bit of a shortage of level four materials, and even the patriarch needs to spend years or decades gathering the materials for a level five pill, so we definitely can’t sell you those materials.”
“Actually, sir,” I said, “I heard that there will be an auction in a few days, where they will be auctioning several peach tree saplings that were regrown from the roots of a twenty thousand year old peach tree, making them level five. You might be able to buy a level five tree there, if you have the money.”
The man nodded. “That’s true. The auction does occasionally have level five ingredients or even plants. The sacred peach trees will like be the only level five plants, but they should have several level five ingredients and materials for sell.”
The Ambassador nodded. “In that case, how do I join the auction? Is there a sign up list? Do I need an invitation?”
They continued to discuss the auction as the servants brought the food to the table. When we were done eating I excused myself and got up. Ji Bo called me over and handed me the two thousand stones I was owed, and I thanked him, then left for the alchemist shop. I had been ordered to find a cure, so that should be my top priority.
I noticed Jiang standing outside, talking with some of the servants. As she was an alchemist there was a good chance her input would be useful in this investigation, so I asked if she wanted to go with me. She agreed and we left, quickly making our way to the shop. While we were walking I telepathically told her what I had found in myself and the Ambassador, so that she would have some idea why I needed to go there. While she couldn’t respond to me, she could think about the situation.
After entering the shop I walked up to the apprentice that was manning the counter, the same one from yesterday. “I want to know if you have any way to treat qi absorbing parasites.” I said, pulling the bottle of the creatures from my storage bag. The lack of qi flow within the bag had resulted in all of them dying, but just the bodies should be useful in identifying them.
I started to explain how both I and my boss had been infected, but upon seeing the parasites the assistant stood up. “I believe my master would like to discuss this with you.” she said, then bowed and went to fetch her master. Thirty seconds later the woman burst through the curtain which separated the front and rear of the shop. She quickly picked up the bottle and looked at the parasites, then sat it down. “About two weeks of growth on average. The largest around three. I assume you purged them by undergoing Rebirth, judging by the toxins in the bottle. When exactly did you first notice your symptoms?” She grabbed a note jade from beside the cash box.
“About four hours after sunset I noticed that my qi was acting unusual, but I didn’t actually notice the shadows in me until around seven, when I started attempting rebirth.”
She nodded. “Pretty accurate timing. What day did this happen?”
“Last night.” I said, a bit confused.
She returned the look. “Are you saying you didn’t notice any symptoms at all until last night?” I nodded. “And how long had it been before that since you actually tried any refinement?”
I scratched my head. “Just before we entered the Mortal Valley, so, maybe five days. I was training the other days, but not really refining myself. My last Rebirth, though, was almost two weeks ago, in a hidden realm.”
She shook her head. “That doesn’t fit with the other known data.” she said, thinking. “Something must be special in this case.” She looked at me. “I’m assuming you didn’t feel any drain in your qi before that?”
I shook my head. “No. Even in Mortal Valley it was just a shortage due to lack of qi in the environment. As soon as I left the valley, about two nights ago, I completely refilled my reserves. I didn’t have any issue with qi capacity or internal control.”
She nodded and thought for a few seconds. “Your parasite’s growth speed is comparable to that of a level five, yet you are still initial level three. That must mean that there is something special about you that is causing the parasite to have an almost limitless supply of qi. You don’t happen to be a demon, or have a special physique, do you? I promise not to tell anyone if you are.”
I shook my head. “Not that I know of. I certainly don’t have a demon core, but I haven’t really tested myself for physiques. I don’t even know how to do that. Could it have something to do with spirit beasts? I have several as pets, including two with legendary bloodlines.”
She looked surprised at this. “Not as far as I know, but that definitely isn’t something you should be telling people.”
“You said you’d cover it up if I was a demon. Having a special pet isn’t anywhere near as big of a secret as that.”
She shrugged. “Not to me, but such pets are worth a large number of stones and could make you the target of robbers. I and my apprentice will keep the secret, but you shouldn’t tell anyone else.” I nodded. “Now, can I see the two pets? I’d like to verify that they aren’t infected and make sure that they aren’t contributing to the greatly increased growth rate.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
I nodded and had Xiao come out and stand on the counter. Jiang also placed her hand on it and the flood dragon crawled off of her wrist. It had grown to peak level one, though I’m not sure what she had fed it to get it to that point. I would have to ask her later.
“Interesting.” said the alchemist, “A flood dragon and a lightning sparrow with, I assume, a Roc bloodline?” I nodded. She touched both of them and used Taking Pulse. The two of them seemed nervous, but I sent them calming thoughts through our link. “Well, they have far more qi that I would expect, given their level, but don’t seem to be able to send it to you fast enough to cause such an effect. Their meridians simply couldn’t handle it, even if the stories say that dragons, rocs, and phoenixes can store qi in their souls, the same way level five and above cultivators do.”
This was likely the only way the people outside the Heavenly Tribulation sect had of understanding the fact that they had soul seas and true meridians. The fact that I also had a soul sea and the fact that my true meridians were able to provide qi so quickly likely meant that the parasites could have a massive source of qi to feed on, and would be able to absorb it rapidly. Of course, I couldn’t tell the alchemist about my special circumstances, as it would reveal the book. That knowledge likely wasn’t needed to find a solution to the parasites, however, so I could afford to keep it a secret. If I had to tell her, I would probably make her promise not to tell anyone else and tell her in secret.
“I was hoping to find a way to stop the spread of these parasites should an outbreak occur, and a way to kill or remove them from someone before they reach level three.” I informed her, trying to change the subject.
“We’ve been hoping for the same thing for over a week.” she said. “Though you don’t have to worry about people under level three becoming infected. From what I’ve learned the parasites require liquid qi in order to survive. The eggs sometimes hatch in people in the late to peak level two range, but they always starve to death within a few hours to a day.”
“Then you’ve studied this parasite before?” I asked. The fact that it required liquid qi in order to survive meant that it wasn’t an infection risk for mortal, gathering, or condensation people, so the spread should be much slower than I thought. I would still need to find a cure, but it likely wouldn’t become a worldwide pandemic even if it was brought back to Earth. Instead, it would be a disease which only infected high ranked cultivators, less than one percent of the population.
She looked at me a bit confused. “You don’t know what’s been happening in this town, do you?” she asked.
“No,” I said, “I didn’t arrive in town until yesterday.” I then realized what she meant by that. “Are you saying that these parasites are some sort of pandemic that the city is experiencing, and that we managed to get infected yesterday?”
She nodded. “You’re intelligent. Good. Maybe you’ll be of some help, even if you aren’t an alchemist like your friend. You guessed correctly. The parasites showed up about two weeks ago in some of the level four and five cultivators. At first, the they didn’t take it seriously, and simply purged the parasites from them using Rebirth. We soon found out that the parasites like to leave behind eggs, which hatch within a few days, and which Rebirth can’t completely purge from the body. The parasites also grow quickly, roughly thirty times faster than a level three for a level four, and one thousand times as quickly for a level five. The further one is in their cultivation, the more qi they have, and the faster the faster the parasites can feed on it.”
“Then I assume that the qi array wasn’t broken in my room last night?” I asked, suspecting that it was effecting more than just the public health. “Rebirth requires a large amount of qi. With level fives needing to do it several times a day to function, and level fours at least once a week, as they need to work as well, plus all of the level threes doing it so that they can go to work, the people must be draining the city’s Dragon Vein dry. It also explains why you don’t have any qi restoration or gathering pills at level three or above in stock, as they have bought out your stock in order to help gather the qi they need. The regeneration pills can essentially trigger a weak rebirth if taken while a person isn’t injured, so you don’t have any of those either, as people are buying them to get around the shortage.”
She nodded. “That is indeed the case. I can’t make pills over level two using the pumped qi array in the back, either. Instead, I have to refill my own reserves and use them to refine level three and four pills. With the drain I’m experiencing from the parasites, being at late level four, I need to refill after every batch of level fours, too. That’s why I’m spending all of my time in the back. If the level within the dragon vein gets much lower the economy will greatly suffer.”
“If it’s so dangerous,” said Jiang, “why haven’t you quarantined the city? Sure, level three cultivators aren’t usually part of the trade caravans, but they are common enough that more people are becoming infected, and some of them are leaving the city and taking it to other cities with them.”
“They can’t actually infect another that easily,” the alchemist said. “It’s unlikely to spread outside of bodily fluids. We do have a few cases of sexual transmission, but as most of the people at level three and above in the city are already infected, we are having a tough time tracking how it is spread. We do, however, know that isn’t the only way of becoming infected, nor the primary, as even the monks at the Buddhist temple are infected, and they have mostly taken vows of celibacy which they haven’t violated. Still, we have tried to convince the counsel to put a quarantine into effect, but they refused to do so. Physician Ye, the level five adviser to the king and court physician, told them about the threat, and called for a vote to order a quarantine until the outbreak is over. Minister Tailon, in charge of outside trade, argued that doing so would cripple the economy. Most of the other ministers were persuaded by Tailon, and voted to not quarantine the city.”
I thought it was funny how ‘ye’ was the local word for ‘charity’, and ‘tailon’ was the local word for ‘wolf’, almost as if there names were chosen by a prophet, or their personalities had been influenced by their names. “So they have taken on the roles given to them by their surnames, and the city suffers for it.” I thought for a few seconds. “If the cure is that important, I can think of one way to treat this.”
“What would that be?” the alchemist master asked. “We’ve tried subsequent forced Rebirths. It helps to slow reinfection, but once they get it, the infection accelerates by more than normal. The parasites are most likely adapting to the use of Rebirth to treat them.”
“Are you saying that now that I have used Rebirth once, the next cycle will be faster?”
She nodded. “That is how it works for most, but with you being a special case, I’m not sure. It has been several hours since you purged them. Do you feel like they are rapidly reinfecting you? With as fast as they grew yesterday, you should be able to.”
I sat down and started searching my body. In three locations I did see a few tiny black dots, like they were there but not developed enough for me to detect the smaller ones. “They are about the width of a hair.” I said.
She nodded. “Strange. Assuming you couldn’t have gotten it before entering the city, if they can reach two to three centimeters in length in less than a day, and closer to half a day, then by now they should be millimeters in length, even given the hatching period.” That made me wonder if they were actually capable of absorbing tribulation lightning. If they could, then using it last night to cultivate would have given them more than enough qi to grow to that size. No wonder I was a ‘special case’. I’m probably one of only a handful of people on this planet that can absorb the tribulation so often without dying. A few second later she shook her head. “You were saying something about a means to purge the parasites?”
I nodded. “Yes. In fact, anyone can do it without needing much supplementary qi. Since level twos can’t be infected, all we need to do is drop our level to level two for a few hours. The parasites will starve, as we can’t provide them with liquid qi, and we can then break through to level three again by just raising our qi levels enough to make pure liquid qi in our dantians again.”
She shook her head. “Two reasons why that won’t work,” she said, holding up her fingers to count out the reasons. “One, not many will willingly lower their level. Maybe a few level threes can be convinced to do so in order to be cured, especially those at initial or early level three, but there is no way a level four or five can be convinced to lower their cultivation so far. Losing that much strength would make them a target for their political rivals, who would at least slow down or stop their return to a higher level once they were cured. Two, we don’t know how most of them became infected in the first place. Without stopping the source, they will just become reinfected.”
I nodded. “In that case, I will start investigating the original cause. It may be difficult without access to city records, but I might be able to interview the level threes that are infected about their actions a few days before catching the parasite, and offer them my solution. If they use it, then they can keep track of everything they eat and drink after that. That way, if they are reinfected, we will have possible causes.”
“You think it was ingested?” she asked.
I shrugged. “Likely isn’t airborne. The level fives likely have the best air quality in their homes and offices, and they were the first to be infected. We can also rule out bodily fluid means, as they would likely have the least exposure to others. I would guess some sort of luxury good, and an ingested substance would be able to infect them more easily than a dirty relic, and more likely for them to touch it. Ingested substances would also bypass much of their body’s defenses against infection, and level fives have extremely powerful immune systems.”
