"Certainly, come right this way!".
Shu He was guided to the mayor's manor and without any trouble the moment he presented the city lord's writ he was guided towards a warehouse not too far away from the manor.
"I must say, this disease or whatever it is has been getting to me, it hasn't been long since my family took over, so I'd rather not have such troubles festering on my doorstep". The middle-aged man with black hair that was thinning at the top complained, he had a tailored suit that somehow fit his thickening figure as he rubbed the sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief.
"You only just took over? You seem to be doing quite well for yourself though?" Shu He said with a fake smile plastered on his face.
"Sunnyside has a great business in exporting its sea food, it's hard not to" He laughed.
"What happened to the previous mayor?" Shu He asked, only having heard the outlines of it in his briefing.
"…I'd rather not talk about that unsavoury fellow… but if you insist, he got on the city lords bad side, he was collaborating with criminals and taking orphaned kids and selling them for horrid reasons…".
"Is that so?..."
'Human trafficking… just like those bandits… using human lives like materials, disgusting.' Shu He thought as he felt a sour taste grow on the tip of his tongue.
"Here we are, they're all in here, are you sure you don't need to borrow any protective clothing?" The mayor asked with concern as they stood in front of the warehouse.
"It's fine, just be prepared to fetch whatever I need". She He said as he opened the smaller wooden door and walked inside.
"Of course! Anything to rid us of this plague!" He heard from behind him as the mayor trotted off, leaving a couple servants behind to be at his beck and call.
They stood outside though, none of them wanted to enter the warehouse, and it was evident why.
As Shu He stepped inside his nasal passages were assaulted with pure filth, the smell of vomit, faeces and urine blasted him as he held him breath, creating a layer of Qi around him in order to stave away anything harmful, he could only reduce the stench by so much unfortunately.
There were just over 30 make shift cloth beds filled with men of all sizes, they were all pale and weak, barely moving with the occasional shudder.
And at the back of the warehouse was a large crate, peeking from the top of them was some pure white bones, it seemed to be the remains of the sea creature they had slew.
First of all, Shu He walked around to observe the patients, there were wet nurses covered with thick cloth that were tending to them so he asked some questions.
"Have they been able to drink water?".
"Tiny amounts, too much and they throw up".
"Food?"
"No"
"Has there been blood in the vomit, urine or faeces?"
"None in the vomit, but traces amount in the urine and large amounts in the faeces".
"…How long has it been? Any fatalities?".
"Just over a week now… Yes, one of them has passed from dehydration".
"Hmm…" Shu He looked around and pondered on the cause.
"Excuse me… may I ask who you are?" The nurse asked, confused as to why a young boy had come in and started asking questions.
"Just a simple apothecary" He replied with a smile before asking "Are any of them able to talk? Just for a bit".
"Yes, the man over there is the least affected".
One man was laid against the wall wrapped in cloth, there was a small cup of water next to him as he stared at his crewmates with dull eyes, so Shu He strolled up to him and crouched down.
"Can I ask you some questions?".
The man slowly looked over to Shu He, there wasn't much of a reaction but he weakly nodded.
"Tell me the exact events of your return, starting from when you caught that" He said, pointing at the large skeleton.
The man looked over at the skeleton, a slightly harrowing expression became plastered on his face as he looked down and began to talk.
"T'was a dangerous ride, the creature attacked us by slinking up the side of our ship and on board, its powerful jaws almost broke our mast in twine… if not for the captain and a few others bringing out their swords and taking it head on we'd all be dead…"
He looked over to the distant side of the warehouse, a large man was writhing in pain, his sheets stained with blood and sweat.
"That trip took us longer than usual because of some storms, so our rations wouldn't have lasted till we returned, so the captain said we should eat the monster we killed; As sailors we know not to eat things we don't know about, but the captain said he'd seen one before and assured us it was fine to eat."
"None of us agreed with him for days though, jus' the horrid slimy skin and bright green colouring put us off, the meat smelled foul as well, but the captain ate it for days and was completely fine, so the others eventually gave in and chowed down on it".
"I was the lookout, so I didn't partake until the very last day before the whole thing was gone; Then after we made land it wasn't even a day before the entire crew came down with the sickness and it's only gotten worse since".
Shu He listened quietly as the retold their tale, as soon as it was over though there was something that struck him as odd.
"You say that you all got sick at the same time, when you landed?" He asked.
"Yeah" The sailor nodded weakly.
'Something isn't quite right…'
Shu He didn't doubt the sailor, he just felt he was missing a piece of information.
"What exactly was it the sailors were doing on the trip back?"
"Huh? Running the ship".
"Other than that."
"Other…? Eating… drinking and sleeping".
'Ah… right!' Shu He's eyes gleamed.
"Were you drinking water?".
"Of course not, it was a celebration, so we were drinking grog".
Shu He stood up suddenly.
"What's wrong?" The sailor asked, confused.
"Nothing, thanks for the information" Shu He clasped his hands as he walked off towards the giant remains of the creature, leaving the sailor stunned and lost.
He hopped up on the edge of the container and got a good look at the creature, it was more than 10 meters in length from head to tailfin and had a snake like body, all that remained here were the bones and thin bits of flesh that weren't edible.
'So such a big creature exists in the ocean here…' Shu He was stunned slightly, and was even more impressed that mortals had slain it before he jumped in the large container to get a closer look.
'Smells foul…' It had been sitting for days, so it had begun to rot, but that didn't matter.
He looked at the bones closely, seeing nothing particularly out of the ordinary, so he looked at the rotting flesh, he took out the Enduring Edge and began slicing away at the thick remains, spewing an even fouler stench.
Eventually he stopped and reached his hand in to the flesh.
'Gotcha'
And pulled out a long, white string like object.
And then dropped it, flicking his sword to rid it of the sticking flesh and sheathed it, hopping out of the box again before heading back to the sailor, staring at him.
"…Is there something I can do?" The sailor asked, feeling uncomfortable from his stare.
But Shu He didn't respond, instead focusing deeply.
His golden eyes flickered as he used his 'sight', he was currently digging through the man's body with it, normally seeing through someone wasn't easy, it was even harder for cultivators unless there was an obvious source of Qi to sense.
But Shu He knew what he was looking for now, every living thing had a unique trace of Qi, as long as he memorised it, he could find it among other things.
'I knew it…' In his sight, amid the shape of the sailor, was a small number of squirming objects in his lower half.
He then stood up and began inspecting the sailors one by one, drawing the attention of the wet nurses, he kept nodding and murmuring like something was going to happen, but then he reached the captain of the ship and his expression turned dark.
He felt like he was looking at a small hive of insects when observing the man, it was obvious why he was feeling so bad, rather Shu He was surprised he was still alive.
Afterwards, he walked right out of the warehouse and gathered the servants.
"I want this… and this… and this…" He listed out tens of different materials in large amounts before "And, as much beer as you can get, the stronger the better".
The servants looked confused, but then they ran off since they had been ordered to bring whatever he wanted.
Before long the mayor ran over to him "Sir emissary, what do you need all this stuff for?!" He was red in the face, clearly not expecting the number of resources he was requesting "Did you find out what's wrong with them?"
"Yeah" Shu He nodded.
"They've contracted parasites".