Chapter 205
Chapter 205
The instant Ji Yan’an saw Jiang Yunsui, he choked on his tea.
“Careful, Young Master.”
Nanshu hurried to wipe it away.
Jiang Yunsui began wriggling. “Put me down! Hurry and put me down!”
Lin Mu lowered her to the floor. The little girl immediately scampered toward Ji Yan’an, threw herself against his knees, and began complaining with tears in her eyes.
Naturally, she started with the bullying geese.
“There were so many huge geese pecking me all around! They pecked my arms and bottom until they bruised. Then those bad people caught me and tried to shove medicine in my mouth. But I was really smart and spat it out. I even had Little Pink bite the great big villain…”
Everyone in the room listened to her little mouth chatter without pause.
Lin Mu did not look well at all.
“You spat out the medicine?”
Even a child had managed to reject it. What did that make him, who had swallowed his dose?
Ji Yan’an sighed and rubbed Jiang Yunsui’s head.
“How can one person be this unlucky?”
How long had he been away? Jiang Yunsui had already toured a den of thieves and, through a bizarre chain of accidents, arrived at Qingxi Mountain.
The chief of Qingxi Stockade said, “No. We must spread word of the Human Gu immediately. Mountain people have been disappearing since last year. They were probably captured for the refinement. This must be taken seriously. We cannot allow the tragedy of three hundred years ago to happen again.”
Three hundred years earlier, when the Kingdom of Nanzhao still existed, its High Shaman had also captured people and refined them into Human Gu. Nanzhao became a living hell.
Great Liang’s founding emperor had suffered devastating losses before destroying Nanzhao and eradicating the Human Gu.
Ji Yan’an said, “Chief, you must act quickly, and everyone must be fully armed. Human Gu carry poison. Even a single scratch will infect a person. Your son and the subordinates with him have likely been poisoned as well. You should prepare yourselves.”
The chief knew. He could see the wounds on his outstanding son.
Human Gu poison was contagious.
He closed his eyes. “I… I’ll find a gu physician from Miao territory. Only they may be capable of developing an antidote.”
Lin Mu’s voice was strained. “But the records say no cure was found three hundred years ago. Every infected person had to be executed.”
“Then we’ll research one! Everything has something that counters it. There must be a way!”
He did not want to lose this son.
Jiang Yunsui said, “You can find Shen Qingzhu.”
A subtle gleam entered Ji Yan’an’s eyes. “You want a gu physician? What a coincidence. I happen to have such a capable man under me.”
“In fact, we discovered the Human Gu before you did.”
Everyone in the room turned toward the pale, sickly-looking youth.
He was young and wore blue brocade, appearing every inch a noble son raised in luxury. Yet his tone and bearing were those of a strategist with every piece already in place.
For the first time, the chief encountered such contradictory qualities in one person.
The boy looked frail, yet dangerous.
Ji Yan’an calmly allowed them to stare.
“You’ve seen Human Gu before, Young Master Ji?”
“Not me. My subordinates did.”
“I was afflicted with a deadly poison and needed a medicinal ingredient found deep in Ailao Mountain. My people clashed with Wushan Cavern while searching for it. I imagine you still remember the Nanzhao shamans. Wushan Cavern was formed by survivors of that lineage.”
Lin Mu’s face darkened. “No wonder Human Gu have reappeared. This is what comes of failing to pull a weed out by the roots. The shaman lineage is a plague!”
The chief looked equally grave. “It seems the shamans never accepted their defeat and intend to stir up another storm.”
“Father, we can’t let them survive,” Lin Mu said. “We must find a way to eradicate them. They may also possess the antidote to the Human Gu poison.”
Ji Yan’an shook his head. “Wrong.”
“They had no antidote, and the shaman lineage has already been killed.”
The information came from the old shaman they rescued. Naturally, to ensure he did not lie, they had fed him a Truth Pill before questioning him.
The hope in the chief’s eyes instantly died.
Wait!
“The entire shaman lineage is dead?!”
“To be precise,” Ji Yan’an said, “several children under eight remain.”
The chief stared. “Dead? Just… like that?”
It was like finally learning the identity of the great enemy, only to be told in the next breath that someone else had already killed him.
Those few children posed no threat.
“If you mean to seek a gu physician, there is no need,” Ji Yan’an continued. “My subordinate is one. Though he hasn’t produced an antidote yet, he can already suppress the spread of the poison.”
The chief instantly recovered from his daze, overjoyed.
“Truly?”
Ji Yan’an told him about the infected Little Beggars they had encountered in the city. The children were receiving treatment, and it was already working.
The chief looked ready to pack up his son and ship him there at once.
Lin Mu stared at his father in bewilderment.
“Wait, Father. Who is he?”
Was his father not worried this boy might be some kind of swindler? Why trust him so readily?
The chief immediately introduced Ji Yan’an.
“This is Young Master Ji. His family are merchants. He is interested in our mountain medicines, furs, and woven cloth, and came to discuss purchasing them. He’s offering five times the price of the previous merchants!”
That sounded like a scam, but Ji Yan’an had explained the numbers in detail. When their medicines and woven cloth were sold elsewhere, they fetched more than ten times what local merchants paid!
In short, isolated from information, the mountain people had been cheated by Dali’s clans, merchants, and officials. They deliberately forced prices down, then resold the goods for over ten times as much.
The local tribes distrusted outsiders and disliked communicating with them after years of conflict. They hardly interacted with outsiders even in Dali, much less beyond it.
Many also spoke only local minority languages and could not communicate with people elsewhere.
For all these reasons, they neither knew market prices in the outside world nor wished to investigate them. How could they avoid being exploited?
Lin Mu had led people from the stockade out to sell goods, but only in nearby prefectural cities. With those markets under the merchants’ control, they earned little more than they would have from merchants who came directly to buy.
Lin Mu clenched his fists. “They’ve gone too far. How treacherous!”
For years, the mountain people had risked their lives gathering medicinal herbs and labored to weave cloth, only to be cheated so viciously.
“If you don’t want to be deceived,” Ji Yan’an said, “you must stop clinging to old ways. Only by learning more can you control the information. Your mountain people stand united. You have no reason to fear those clans.”
The chief smiled bitterly. “Easy to say. Dali’s prices are entirely controlled by the clans and merchants, while the government favors them. We local mountain people receive no fair treatment in countless matters. Great Liang rules now. What can we do?”
Ji Yan’an’s lips curved slightly.
“Perhaps this is your opportunity.”
“Uprisings and princely rebellions are breaking out throughout Great Liang. No one will pay attention to a distant place like Dali. Dali itself will soon descend into chaos. Why not seize this chance and become masters of your own fate?”