85: Chapter 85 Clear Mind

The change occurred among those residents of Donglai Prefecture who had initially claimed their conditions had improved significantly after taking the medicine.

Initially, there were a few patients with severe conditions who, after taking the "special medicine" distributed by the government, saw their symptoms improve rapidly; the scales on their bodies receded, and they became energetic.

But only a few days after their families had rejoiced and felt grateful to the Prefectural Governor and the Immortal Sect, these people's conditions deteriorated sharply.

Scales grew back on their bodies, thicker and darker in color than before.

Some even began to lose their senses, babbling incoherently and attacking others.

In just a few days, several people died suddenly, their deaths tragic and gruesome.

Some families whose relatives' conditions worsened after taking the medicine chose to report it to the authorities.

But after reporting it, the new Prefectural Governor and the disciples of the Penglai Sect took the patients away directly without the families' consent.

They neither reported the treatment progress nor did anyone truly recover and return home.

As for those who didn't report it, they couldn't escape either.

Some critically ill people who were originally lying quietly in bed would simply vanish into thin air, bed and all, by the next day.

Some said it was the work of human traffickers, but if traffickers had the ability to whisk away people along with their beds without a sound, why would they bother being human traffickers?

Panic spread rapidly like a plague.

"What is going on? Wasn't the medicine effective?"

"Is there something wrong with the medicine?!"

"I told you it wasn't that simple! It must be the work of those sea demons! How could their poison be so easily cured?"

"Bullshit! It's clearly the Penglai Immortal Sect's medicine that's useless! Maybe they never intended to save us at all!"

"What about the government? Let the Prefectural Governor come out and give us an explanation!"

"It's all lies! They are in league with the demon race!"

"Don't talk nonsense. If it weren't for the government and the Immortal Lords, you would have already died a few days ago."

"Exactly, it's clearly the demon race and human traffickers colluding to harm people, yet you insist on blaming the government that is protecting you!"

For a time, public opinion in the city boiled over, and curses could be heard everywhere.

The order and trust that had just been established between the people, and between the people and the government, collapsed in an instant.

The commoners gathered in front of the Prefectural Governors Residence and the City God Temple, crying, cursing, and shoving; the situation was nearly out of control.

Some began to storm the medicine sheds, smashing, looting, and burning, adding more casualties to the chaos.

The new Prefectural Governor and the elders of the Penglai Sect were overwhelmed; on one hand, they tried their best to pacify the public, claiming it was due to "individual differences" or "relapse of the illness," while on the other hand, they announced that they had begun investigating the "human traffickers," but progress was slow.

Furthermore, those patients who had been taken away could not meet with their families for the time being because their "conditions had not yet stabilized."

Amidst all this chaos, one person's behavior was the most bizarre.

Ye Yuan.

Having reached the seventh rank, he should have been one of the top combatants in East Lai Prefecture.

But he did not, as Su Chen had anticipated, take advantage of the chaos to investigate the truth or do anything.

Instead, every night when it was quiet, he would put on night-traveling clothes, hide his aura like a ghost, and repeatedly pace and peer around the heavily guarded Prefectural Governors Residence.

The look of conflict on his face grew increasingly intense; sometimes he would crouch on the eaves for hours without moving, as if trying his best to perceive or confirm something.

At other times, he seemed to have made up his mind, his hand pressed against the hilt of his sword, veins bulging.

But in the end, he would let go dejectedly and retreat silently.

He seemed to be confirming something extremely important, or perhaps undergoing an incredibly difficult internal struggle.

In stark contrast to Ye Yuan's hesitation was Ye Jingjun.

Under Su Chen's guidance and the impetus of entering the sword path with obsession, her martial arts cultivation had broken through to the fourth rank.

Over these past few days, whether it was what she had actually seen and heard in East Lai City, or what Su Chen and Ye Yuan had told her, all of it was constantly shaking her heart and mind.

What exactly should she do?

She needed an answer.

Su Chen often noticed that during the day, she was frequently alone.

She began to conduct investigations within East Lai Prefecture.

The targets of her investigation were those households where patients infected with the plague had gone missing.

Under Su Chen's guidance, she began to try using her own sword intent to perceive her surroundings.

That was not a simple search for killing intent, but a more profound, almost intuitive resonance.

Gradually, she caught some unusual residual auras.

Near the houses of several families who had not reported to the authorities, yet whose sick family members had mysteriously disappeared, there was a very faint, distinctly non-human, fishy stench in the air.

Vaguely, it was mixed with some fluctuations of demonic power.

This aura was completely different from the ferocious demonic beasts she and Ye Yuan had slain in the past.

It was colder and more deliberate.

It had undergone some kind of disguise.

"What does this mean?"

Ye Jingjun recalled what Ye Yuan had once said.

"When evaluating a person or a demon, don't look at what it is; look at what it has done..."

At this point, the young girl even felt that everything she did was not just to seek the truth or to seek justice for those missing commoners.

She only sought to clear her mind.

Ye Jingjun even had a premonition that if she could not overcome this hurdle, her future cultivation would be affected.

Also feeling troubled was Cang Mingyue.

Ever since the information that "there was a faint demonic aura at the places where the disappearances occurred" spread, the previously balanced public opinion within the prefecture city was completely shattered.

The portion of the residents who had originally blamed the government turned completely, firing all their anger at the demon race.

Seeing the shift in public opinion, the government and the Penglai Sect were naturally happy to see it happen.

They immediately announced that they would thoroughly investigate the incident.

As for those critically ill patients who had been taken away by the government and had not yet returned, no one seemed to care about them anymore.

This shift even affected Cang Mingyue.

She was temporarily staying in a deserted, dilapidated temple near the shore.

But one day, while she was sleeping, two low-level female martial artists suddenly burst in through the main door, shouting that they wanted to exterminate her, this "demon."

Although these two female cultivators posed no threat to her, and Cang Mingyue scared them away with just a small trick, it still made her feel increasingly troubled.

Su Chen naturally noticed the gloom in her singing.

He sighed and asked.

"Miss Yue, do you truly want to improve the human impression of the demon race?"

Cang Mingyue was stunned, then nodded gently.

"If that is the case, perhaps you can use your own ability... to change some things."

After speaking, Su Chen waved his robe, and the two of them arrived at a field on the edge of the prefecture city.

Under the moonlight, two ragged children were sobbing around a dying little mouse.

The little mouse was grey-black all over, with white foam at the corners of its mouth, obviously poisoned by something potent.

It must have been poisoned by rat poison laid out by humans.

This was not strange.

Rats, as one of the universally acknowledged four pests, were, in the eyes of humans, objects that absolutely had to be completely exterminated.

The little mouse before them was longer than a human forearm; it was clearly a large rat, a little mouse demon with some small cultivation.

But it wasn't that strong.

At least, it certainly couldn't withstand the rat poison meticulously developed by humans.

"A-Hui... A-Hui is a good mouse. It only eats the pests in the field and never steals grain."