The three people entered the ominous tent.
The first thing they noticed was the strong stench in the tent. Su Yaling used her sleeve to cover her nose and mouth in disgust as she tried to suppress her urge to throw up. As someone who lived in isolated mountains most of the time, she was not used to unpleasant smells.
Mo Heng and Long Jingyi were also disgusted by the foul smell. However, they were both men who had been to the less savoury parts of the world and even smelt worse. They were not too fazed and could hold their breath to reduce their revulsion.
"Fairy Su Yaling, please check on Feng Yie." Mo Heng requested.
Feng Yie was lying still on the bed. She looked pale and sickly, but her life force seemed quite strong. It did not look like she was just asleep due to the stillness of her spiritual energy. It was likely that she was comatose.
Usually, a cultivator would have spiritual energy stirring around them, even when they were not actively cultivating. This phenomenon would occur after the initial opening of the pores was complete at the start of the cultivation journey.
In simple terms, the energy particles from nature would be drawn into the body through the pores and the breath of a cultivator. The cultivation process involved actively drawing in the energy, refining it, and building it up in the dantian.
When cultivators began the process, their bodies would attract all types of elemental energy particles. However, as they refined their spiritual roots, they would draw on their specific elements more naturally. This process would happen both actively and passively.
As a result, there was always some movement of spiritual energy around cultivators, making it possible to differentiate them from regular humans. It was also the reason that cultivators could more or less identify the strength of those in levels below them.
If a cultivator did not show fluctuations of spiritual energy, it could only mean that they were strong enough to prevent passive interaction with elemental particles. Some artefacts and potions could also be used to do the same or even make spiritual energy undetectable.
Unfortunately, in some cases, the stillness of spiritual energy could occur due to the damage of the spiritual sea. This was the case for Feng Yie. It was likely that her dantian was affected by the poison, making her spiritual sea incapable of taking in energy.
Mo Heng hoped the damage was not permanent.
Since he had failed to eliminate Feng Yie, he would have to take responsibility for her injuries. He could not help lamenting his failure to kill her because it would have made things easier. If she lost her cultivation, it would be much worse for him.
For a cultivator, death was better than losing their power.
Su Yaling went to the bed to check on the unconscious girl while the two men looked at the stinking body on the floor. Neither of them wanted to be near the corpse, but there was no alternative. They could not leave the body there.
"I have never seen anything like this." Long Jingyi squatted beside the body with a frown.
Before he became a student at Hallowflame, he was an experienced adventurer. He thought he had seen every type of death known on the Obsidian Continent. However, it looked like he was not as knowledgeable as he thought.
He could not help the spark of curiosity as he studied the corpse. The flesh on the corpse looked soft and rotten just like the junior sister had said. The face was still intact, but the open eyes were completely milky white like those of someone with advanced cataracts.
The mouth was also open with the teeth and tongue slightly exposed. A strange black colour covered the teeth, gums, and the surface of the tongue. The hair on the head of the corpse was stringy, and there were bald patches that exposed part of the bare skull.
All in all, the body did not look like it had died the night before. It looked like something that had been rotting for a few weeks.
"This corpse looks like it belongs to a zombie or a mummy. Is it possible for something like this to occur within a few hours?" Long Jingyi asked as he looked at the rest of the corpse, his eyes resting on the blackened nails falling from the fingers.
"It must be a devil cultivation technique." Mo Heng said as he looked at the decayed face of his junior.
Xiao Xun was a good kid, so he felt a twinge of guilt for sending him to his death. It was because he was trusting that Mo Heng could use him for his dirty work. But after a moment, he suppressed the guilt and focused on his annoyance.
The least the boy could have done was finish the job before dying. Now, all he left was a mess to clean up, and Mo Heng did not know how he would handle it.
Long Jingyi did not argue with Mo Heng because he also thought it was a devil technique.
"Do you know who this junior is?" Long Jingyi asked with a little empathy at the mottled face. "It must be someone from your school."
Mo Heng cleared his throat and looked appropriately remorseful. "His name is Xiao Xun. He is a reliable junior, and he is only in his second year at the academy. He was quite talented, but he spent too much time helping others instead of cultivating."
Long Jingyi shook his head at the loss, but it was not his place to comment about the deceased student. Just as he was about to stand up, he noticed something near the bed. He refrained from touching it, but he leaned closer to look at the item.
It was a small vial of a potion.
"There is something here." Long Jingyi stood and pointed.
Mo Heng leaned and found the spiked restoration potion he had given Xiao Xun to feed Feng Yie. His heart almost jumped out of his chest as he was faced with the evidence of his wrongdoing. However, he was not weakhearted, and it was not his first time being in a difficult position.
With a sigh, Mo Heng bent down, picked up the vial and looked at it as if he was seeing it for the first time. His face turned sorrowful when he traced the label.
"It is a restoration potion." Mo Heng said while shaking his head. "Xiao Xun must have remembered what you asked earlier and decided to give her a restoration potion. This kid..."
Long Jingyi could see the label indeed indicated that the vial had a restoration potion. It looked like Mo Heng was not lying about the young man being kindhearted. But his heart and mind could not settle because he felt like something did not add up.
He did not understand how someone ended up dead by entering a tent to give out a restoration potion. Moreover, the death was in such a gruesome way. If the person was indeed a devil cultivator, why would they not kill Feng Yie too?
Before he could think about it further, Su Yaling finished her examination.
"Feng Yie is alright just like the junior sister said. Her body and mind are stable." She explained looking up to Mo Heng and Long Jingyi. "She is just a little depleted from energy due to her body fighting against the poison. She will wake up soon enough."
"If it is a matter of energy, we can wake her using a restoration potion." Long Jingyi said, remembering Yuan Haoran's words. "Since your junior had good intentions, we can give Feng Yie the potion. That way, his kindness will reach her."
"That is a good idea." Su Yaling said, stretching her hand to Mo Heng. "Let me feed her the potion."
Mo Heng felt like he was struck by lightning.