All physicians of Jianyu Sect tried their very best to save cursed patients villagers came to send and plead to rescue. They toiled over it day in, day out, using every possible mean. But, none of their expected results came out. Not even a single one was alive, not even a single one was able to be saved.... well.....except for Li Zian of course.
To explain how the curse worked, it was exactly the same as the curse name given by elder Yang : the soul consuming curse. Like the name said, once someone was used against this curse, his soul would become a part of nutrition or food for the demon behind the dark.
But there were a few differences. Some of the patients died just in a day or two after they got cursed whereas some were still alive even after a month or so. Elders calculated it might depend on the demon. If he wished to consume the soul immediately, then the owner of that soul would die immediately. The faint patient would screamed and yelled out loud at times because of the pain coming from his soul getting devoured by someone else. Of course, if the demon didn't plan on eating the soul immediately, then the cursed soul would survived for a bit more period of time until his soul was chosen to be consumed.
Amongst the four disciples, two were to build magical barriers around the villages whereas another two were to notify family members of deceased villagers about their death and to investigate every strange phenomenon recently happened in nearby villages.
Li Qing and Zhao Xiuying who had high cultivations were to take the first mission while the second one was for Zhang Long wei and Huang Guiren. The first mission seemed to be tiring and exhausting but in reality, it was far much better compared to the second because, at least, they would not be in a dilemma which Zhang Long wei and his senior were currently in.
"Our masters and physicians all worked hard and tried their best to save these patients, but the curse was too strong and impossible to break. We truly apologized for letting you down."
Huang Guiren attempted to explain practical conditions of patients to fuming villagers, but it was absolutely useless as deafening noises of people's cussings and criticizings went on, in fact, things had even gone from bad to worse.
" What do you mean that your physicians tried their best?" From the crowd came this indignant voice of a woman who seemed to be in her thirties. Tears came rolling down her cheeks as she spoke woefully to the two youths who were standing right in the middle of the crowd.
" My daughter.... My Fen Fen.... She..... She only had a light fever and...and other than that I couldn't wake her up... She was all fine. She was just fine.... but you cultivators came and took her saying she was cursed...telling your masters would save her.... But now....Now... You took her back to me... as a..... as a corpse?.....Is this what you called saving?! Hmm.... Tell me is this what you, great cultivators, called saving?! "
Her emotional words infected the whole crowd of villagers, arousing their anger and grievance even more. Another man, who just knew he had lost his beloved wife for this life time, also could not take it anymore and hurled insults at the two.
"You cultivators were just a bunch of hypocrites, you were all making excuses. Do you think we all didn't know that young cultivator of your sect who got cursed was saved? You were simply rescuing your own member and didn't care about any other patients...didn't care about our lowly villagers... admit that you liars! "
The man who was not in his right frame of mind under the influence of anger and resentment picked up a small stone near his feet and flung it at the two's direction.
Zhang Long wei avoided it with little effort but another problem rose when many other stones were thrown in their ways by irritated villagers . Huang Guiren instantly formed a light blue shield around them as he struggled to clarify the situation.
"Please don't misunderstand us sirs and madams. That's right he was the sole survivor among the cursed but.... he was a cultivator.. of course he'd got more chances to survive... sirs, madams.... could you please stop throwing these things and listened to us? "
But the noises of villagers were ear-splitting and no one seemed like they wanted to hear his explanation as well.
"No need to clear things up. Those stinky mouths of you evil cultivators will never utter any truth."
" You called yourselves immortals and couldn't even save these small lives? Who are you trying to fool? "
"These vile cultivators just saved their own men and still dare to say they're misunderstood."
"Such hypocrites, get out of our village...shoo.. shoo...get out! "
Huang Guiren looked at rowdy villagers who were surrounding them on all sides with helpnessness and anxiety, being at a loss on what to do. He subconsciously glanced at the youth beside who had not even voiced a word this whole time. The youth was lowering his head with his fists clenched tightly on both sides, his brows a bit furrowed. His hunch was that the youth might be feeling a bit guilty or disheartened because they were all blaming their sect based on the fact that this youth, a member of their sect, was saved.
How can they casually say it like that? A saved life.... isn't it a good thing that at least a life was saved? Why are they even making it seem like being alive was some crime? And this youth..... how can he had such a terrible luck too?.... sigh...
In fact, Huang Guiren had heard about this youth's past from his masters. His impression of the youth was neither good nor bad. He sometimes pitied the youth who was quiet and humble towards others, this youth had been painstakingly cultivating, yet his cultivational stage never got advanced.
But, at times, he envied the youth. Despite his low cultivation, his swords skills were superb and he'd got many praises from masters too, not to mention, he'd got many cares from every master. It was one of human's natures to get jealous when you see someone doing better than you, so it couldn't be said he was at fault, right?
Huang Guiren patted the youth's shoulder a bit as an act to soothe him. But, Zhang Long Wei didn't even realize it. Of course, the probability of him feeling guilty like Huang Guiren guessed was totally impossible. How would the lord of demons regret over such a thing? It was only a brainless thing only a fool would do.
It was just that this situation brought back memories of his unpleasant past. People were such kinds who would only cared about results. Nobody seemed to care about how someone worked hard.
Zhang Long Wei knew how their masters and physicians worked like hell to rescue the villagers. These days, their sect's physicians had been staying at a vacant hall near the infirmary and working with all of their might. Their masters also had very little time to rest. After every class of training and guiding their disciples, they would have to head to the hall where physicians were temporarily staying, asked about patients' conditions, and again held meetings and discussed racking their brains for new solutions to break the curse.
Every human was just like his mom, so disgusting and loathsome that he would sometimes had this urge to wipe out the whole human race, this contemptible existence, this disgusting world, he wanted to destroy everything.... every, every single being.
He shifted his line of vision towards the swearing villagers, but he couldn't see any of their faces. His vision was full of his mom's faces, the very face he imagined how it would look like that day. The day his eyes had gone blind, the day he changed into a totally useless brat, the day a mute kid advanced to the next level of uselessness, becoming a blind and mute kid...a fuckin useless piece of shit.