Chapter 121 - 113: The Sect Leader’s Secret
Chapter 121: Chapter 113: The Sect Leader’s Secret
The Sect Leader had never encountered a situation like this. While he’d had treatments fail before, this was the first time he couldn’t even complete the first step—infusing his spiritual power into the patient’s body.
"Sect Leader, am I cured?"
Feeling the foreign spiritual power get ejected, Tang Mo looked up at him with a pitiful expression and asked.
’Just as I thought. Xiao Tao was right. The secret to the treatment isn’t the Medicinal Insects at all, but the Sect Leader’s healing with spiritual power.’
Now that she had a clearer picture, Tang Mo knew she couldn’t act rashly. She was on his turf, after all. She wasn’t afraid of the Sect Leader by himself.
But if she tipped her hand and the entire Wuxi Village turned on her, things would get truly troublesome.
As for how to pry the secret from the Sect Leader, she would have to play the long game.
The Sect Leader’s mind was still reeling from the backlash of his spiritual power, and a dull ache throbbed in his head.
"I have a better understanding of your illness now. But we don’t have the right Medicinal Insects for it at the moment. In a few days, we’ll go to the place you mentioned and capture a new batch. I’ll prepare the medicine for you then."
"Alright. Thank you, Sect Leader."
The two of them, each harboring their own secret thoughts, put on faces of perfect sincerity.
Tang Mo’s spirits lifted considerably on her way back from the Sect Leader’s place. At the very least, she now knew about the healing with spiritual power. It confirmed that Wuxi Village held something she was looking for.
She wouldn’t leave until she had this secret. Tang Mo wasn’t in the habit of leaving empty-handed.
On her second day in Wuxi Village, the houses no longer seemed as shocking, mysterious, or daunting as they had when she first laid eyes on them.
’But what about these strange paintings on the walls? Did the Sect Leader create them himself to mislead people?’
Tang Mo picked a house at random and walked up to its wall. The wooden planks were smeared with some kind of unidentifiable dye.
The patterns were fragmented, like a mess of crooked, twisted lines tangled together, making it impossible to discern any clear image.
Tang Mo stared intently at the lines. She couldn’t understand them, but she felt a mysterious force drawing her in.
Perhaps she had been staring for too long. Just as Tang Mo tried to trace the lines and make sense of them, a wave of dizziness washed over her, and she stumbled back involuntarily.
"Are you okay?"
Xiao Hu, who happened to be passing by, saw her swaying as if about to fall and rushed over to steady her.
"I’m fine."
Tang Mo took a step back, blinking hard.
’I must have been too tired yesterday. I stayed up half the night waiting for everyone to fall asleep so I could check on the half-finished Medicinal Insects. I probably just didn’t get enough rest.’
"Where are you headed?"
Xiao Hu was holding a weapon, his gear tidy and well-kept.
"Going hunting. We only get to eat if we bring back loot to turn in."
Xiao Hu gave Tang Mo a brief overview of the situation in Wuxi Village.
It turned out Wuxi Village wasn’t as reclusive as the rumors claimed. The villagers had to go out and hunt every day.
But they didn’t venture far. They had to be back every night to turn over all their spoils, then wait for the Sect Leader to dole out a pitifully small portion of food—just enough to survive.
You couldn’t hide even a tiny bit of the loot. If you were found out, the Sect Leader wouldn’t treat you if you got sick, and you could forget about ever getting any Medicinal Insects.
Many of the village’s lonely and elderly had no able-bodied members in their family, so they naturally didn’t receive any food.
Too many of the elderly hadn’t survived the past year. Now, most of the people left in Wuxi Village were "useful."
’Now *this* is true exploitation. He’s squeezing the entire village dry.’
Tang Mo was inwardly speechless.
’This Sect Leader is truly ruthless, but with the Medicinal Insects as his trump card, the villagers have no choice but to respect him.’
’No wonder he’s gotten so fat doing nothing in an age like this.’
’We’re both Spiritual Ability Users, but look at how well he’s living.’
’So he’s basically a living god, worshipped by all the villagers of Wuxi Village.’
But the people here wouldn’t even listen to Xiao Tao, so Tang Mo certainly wasn’t going to waste her breath. She said goodbye to Xiao Hu and headed home.
Xiao Hu’s parents weren’t home either. While they couldn’t kill mutant beasts, they might be able to scrounge up a bit of food by doing odd jobs at the Sect Leader’s house.
Xiao Tao’s door was open, and Tang Mo glanced inside as she passed.
Xiao Tao was still propped up against the headboard, engrossed in a book.
Tang Mo saw the cover—it was about Zhou Yi and the Eight Diagrams. The pattern on it immediately caught her attention.
She had a vague feeling the pattern was familiar. On impulse, she knocked and entered Xiao Tao’s room.
"You’re back, big sister?"
Xiao Tao was happy to have someone in the house who could understand her and was willing to listen.
"What’s that you’re reading?" Tang Mo asked, pointing to the book in Xiao Tao’s hands.
"The Eight Diagrams. I’m just looking at it for fun. Do you like this stuff too, big sister?"
In truth, Xiao Tao didn’t understand it either. She had already read every other book she owned and, out of boredom, had resorted to digging up her grandfather’s old books from the bottom of a chest.
Tang Mo took the book from Xiao Tao and idly flipped through its pages.
"Those paintings on the houses in the village—have they always been here?"
"Mhm. Grandpa said that when he was a boy, people in Wuxi Village were very knowledgeable about Zhou Yi and the Eight Diagrams. But that tradition died out with the younger generations."
Tang Mo held the book, a sense of pity washing over her. She actually had a fondness for such things, but it was a shame all the elders who understood them were now gone.
"Xiao Tao, are you a superpower user?" Tang Mo asked suddenly.
"Yes, Spiritual System. It’s strange, actually. Most of the superpower users in our village are from the Spiritual System."
"Then why don’t you use your own spiritual power to heal yourself?"
There was no official precedent for using spiritual power to treat others, but its effectiveness in healing oneself had already been documented in research papers.
"I am from the Spiritual System, but my illness is too severe and my spiritual power attribute value is too low. It’s useless."
Of course Xiao Tao had tried.
No one wants to die; you only start to give up hope when you’ve truly run out of options.
"Can I borrow this book?"
A book like this, on Zhou Yi and the Eight Diagrams, couldn’t be understood with a cursory read. One could only hope to grasp a little by reading slowly and contemplating its meaning.
Seeing Tang Mo’s interest, Xiao Tao didn’t just give her the one book. She pulled out an entire stack of similar books and handed them all to her.
Most of these books had been compiled by the elders of Wuxi Village from generations past. They were hundreds of years old, containing the life’s work of many people.
"If Grandpa and the others knew someone was interested in carrying on this legacy, they’d be so happy, wherever they are!"