The Human Emperor

Chapter 708: The Peril of the Lunar Eclipse (IV)

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

“Don’t panic. I have no relationship with Elder Wu, so why would I harm him? Moreover… given Elder Wu’s current condition, would I even need to harm him?”

Wang Chong put his hands behind his back and swiftly retreated, a smile on his lips.

Before the other elders present could say anything, a Wushang Protector angrily roared, “Our Wushang Village doesn’t need your interference. Speak! What medicine did you make the elder eat?” His hands clenched into fists and his body trembled, a clear sign that he was at his breaking point.

Although the village had already ordered that this youth was a marquis of the court and could not be recklessly attacked, these repeated incidents were truly too much.

“If anything happens to the elder, don’t blame us for getting rough!” the other Protector growled.

“Relax; nothing will happen,” Wang Chong indifferently replied, his face calm and relaxed, unperturbed even in the face of these enraged Wushang Protectors. However, those shaking fingers at his back, where no one else could see, revealed his true state of mind.

There was clearly something strange. Wang Chong clearly remembered that Wu Jiumei had only been injured in this incident, but right now, Wu Jiumei’s feeble breathing and the black blood leaking out of his lips and the corners of his eyes portended something far worse.

This definitely not something as simple as a heavy injury. A poor treatment would lead to death.

I hope that the pill works as normal! Wang Chong anxiously thought.

He could sense that the Wushang Village incident in this life was a little different from the one in his last life. While Wu Jiumei came away from that incident with severe injuries, he now seemed about to die in it.

With things having changed, he could no longer be so certain about many things.

“Ahhhhh!”

Just when he was beginning to get concerned, an elderly voice suddenly gave out a long sigh. This voice caused everyone to shudder and turn to the bed.

On the bed, Wu Jiumei’s eyes, which had been showing their whites, had suddenly rolled back, revealing those slightly turbid yet pitch-black pupils.

And with this long sigh, the blackish hue on his skin slowly began to retreat, first from his face, then his neck, his arms, and then down through the rest of his body to his legs. A rosy hue began to emerge on his body.

Not only that, Wu Jiumei’s eyes were moving, quickly falling on the Wushang Protectors and elders at his bed.

“Chongli! Yunwen!”

Wu Jiumei called out the names of two elders. Although his voice was a little weak, he could still be heard loud and clear.

“Elder!”

In the room, those villagers who had been attending upon him, ferrying around water and towels, were ecstatic and immediately rushed over.

“Wonderful, Elder is awake! Elder is awake!”

And this wasn’t all. Shortly after, Wu Jiumei rubbed his head and, under everyone else’s flabbergasted gazes, slowly sat up on the bed.

“!!!”

Shock!

Endless shock!

As they watched Wu Jiumei sit on the bed like nothing had ever happened to him, all the villagers turned to Wang Chong, the astonishment in their eyes difficult to describe. Those Protectors who had viewed Wang Chong with so much hostility had particularly complicated expressions.

“Impossible! No medicine can be this formidable!”

The elder that Wu Jiumei had called ‘Yunwen’ quickly stepped forward and gripped one of Wu Jiumei’s arms. Wu Jiumei’s pulse was stable and was gradually improving, his heart beating faster and more steadily.

This was not merely a complete recovery, as the pulse was growing even steadier than it normally was.

Instantly, Elder Yunwen turned to Wang Chong standing by the door, his expression one of shock, astonishment, and an indescribable excitement.

Wang Chong merely smiled.

Elder He Yunwen quickly turned back his head and tightly grasped Wu Jiumei’s hand, his voice fraught with worry as he asked, “Brother Jiu, how do you feel? How do your neck and shoulder, right leg, back, and organs feel? Do they hurt?”

“Very good. It doesn’t hurt. What’s wrong…”

Wu Jiumei slowly moved his body as he replied confusedly to the questions. Though he did not know why He Yunwen was asking these questions at the start, as he inadvertently gave his answer, he immediately noticed something. His entire body froze, his face flabbergasted.

For a moment, the room was deathly still, everyone looking in a single direction in extreme excitement.

“Impossible! We people of Wushang Village might be powerful, but starting from the age of three, everyone begins to suffer from a faint ache. At the end of every month or when the stars dim, when Yin energy is at its strongest, our entire body will begin to convulse. Many people even die before the age of fifty. A sorcerer that the village invited said that it was a problem of fengshui.

“Elder Wu is seventy or eighty, and his condition is more serious than that of anyone else in the village. How could he suddenly get better?”

The mutterings of some person in the room voiced the questions on everyone’s mind.

People who arrived at Wushang Village for the first time would sigh in praise at the immense strength trained through living in this harsh environment, but very few people knew of the price of this strength. For all of their lives, every Wushang would have to endure an internal ache that only grew worse with age.

Generation after generation, cohort after cohort—none were excluded.

Elder Wu had suffered from such a severe breakout, with even black blood dribbling from his lips, because of his advanced age and the increasing severity of the condition. In that moment, many people believed that he would die. But no one had expected him to suddenly recover, and not merely recover. Even his ragged pulse had steadied.

Elder Wu’s condition would not recover for no reason. The only possibility was the pill that Wang Chong had made him swallow!

Shock, disbelief, and a deep excitement and craving… all sorts of emotions were running through the minds of the villagers in the room. If Wang Chong’s pill was useful even for someone of Elder Wu’s age, wouldn’t that mean that everyone could use the pill?

Even the most hostile of villagers began to relax their stance toward Wang Chong, and they looked toward him like he was some sort of wishing star.

He Yunwen suppressed his excitement and asked, “Lord Marquis… if you do not mind, can you tell me what sort of pill you had Elder consume?”

Wang Chong only smiled and opened his palm, offering yet another one of the pills.

Wang Chong’s efforts had not been wasted. He could clearly sense that the Wushang’s attitude toward him had undergone a complete reversal, and all this was because of the pills he had brought.

Slap!

Before He Yunwen could take the pill, a palm slapped it out of Wang Chong’s hand and onto the ground.

“Elder, have you gone crazy? He’s an outsider! How could he be so kindhearted, and how could he have a method of resolving our Wushang’s hidden disease? We Wushang have tried for centuries and still haven’t solved this problem, so how could an outsider do it? This must be coincidence—it must be because Elder consumed so much wujian grass that its medicinal effects built up in his body, the accumulated effect bursting out at this moment to cure Elder’s illness.”

A stocky Wushang villager of around thirty years, with a bright red cut on his left cheek, harshly shouted. His eyes were staring at Wang Chong with deep malice, and his loathing seemed greater than anyone else’s.

It’s him.

Wang Chong had initially not cared, but when he saw the cut, he remembered. When he was fighting with Qin Qicheng, there was one villager who fought more fiercely than the rest, so aggressive that even Qin Qicheng found it hard to control him.

When Wang Chong sent him flying, a rock had brushed past this villager’s cheek, leaving a wound from which blood bubbled out. But that villager’s gaze toward Wang Chong seemed to only grow even more ferocious. This had left a very deep impression on Wang Chong.

It seems like he’s holding a grudge over that incident.

Wang Chong suddenly understood.

“I’ve said what I wanted to say and done what I wanted to do. Since you don’t believe, then forget it. I just don’t know if all the other people tonight will be like Elder Wu, able to rely on their accumulated stores of wujian grass in their bodies to spontaneously heal,” Wang Chong said. He tilted his head and listened for a moment, then turned and left.

Outside the stone house, screams were rising and falling, more and more adding to the din. This night of the lunar eclipse was to be a sleepless night for Wushang Village.

“Wait a moment!”

Seeing that Wang Chong was about to leave and hearing all the screams, Wu Jiumei hurriedly raised an arm and called Wang Chong back.

But at this moment, there was an unexpected event.

Bang!

Like a block of wood dropping to the floor, the middle-aged villager who had been yelling at Wang Chong just a few moments ago suddenly fell to the floor.

His teeth were clenched, his complexion wan, and his body was unmoving.

“Wanshi, Wanshi… what’s wrong?”

Everyone was stunned and hurried over, squatting down and gathering around him.

“Not good—his illness is breaking out!”

“The condition is serious. His entire body is convulsing.”

“Bring a towel and separate his teeth. Don’t let him bite his own tongue.”

“Not good! Elder, his pulse is getting weaker and weaker, and his temperature is rapidly falling. If this continues, I’m afraid…”

……

The quick and unexpected onset left everyone panicked. He Wanshi had collapsed too suddenly and his illness was advancing too quickly. In a few moments, his body temperature had plunged and a blackish hue was beginning to spread over his body.

None of the villagers were a stranger to this condition. This was a sign that the Wushang’s ailment was breaking out, and this was a symptom of the most serious form of the condition. Any Wushang villager who was about to die showed these signs.

If this continued, He Wanshi… His chances of survival were slim.