After arriving in the Green province, Li Qingshan did not proceed to the Clear River prefecture immediately. Instead, he searched for Ru Xin’s whereabouts first, planning to persuade her to return to the south. He even got Xiao An to divine for this.
When he found Ru Xin after quite some effort, she was strolling through an abandoned village with her hands behind her back, thinking about something. She ignored Li Qingshan as he descended from above.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” Only when Li Qingshan called out to her did she turn around and say, “What’s it got to do with you?”
“Why aren’t you cultivating in the south? Why have you come back to the Green province?” Li Qingshan asked.
“I’ve said, what’s it got to do with you?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t wish to see me go?” Li Qingshan grinned and approached her.
“I knew it. Someone is having an excessively high opinion of themselves again.” Ru Xin shook her head helplessly.
“I don’t understand. The Green province isn’t a good place right now, not to mention your dwelling in the Chain mountains can’t even compare to the Myriad Poison cult. It’s not beneficial to your cultivation at all. I’d say you best return to the Mist province!” Li Qingshan cut right to the chase.
“Then why have you returned to the Green province?” Ru Xin answered with a question.
“Don’t you know? Obviously because I have some matters I need to resolve!”
“I’m the same. My master is still in the Clear River prefecture!”
Ru Xin thought of the quiet, dark-skinned old man. If it were not for him, she would have died in the jungles of the Mist province a long time ago. Although they did not seem particularly close in the eyes of others, it was no exaggeration to describe them like father and daughter. He had given her several decades of guidance and her very name, Ru Xin, was the greatest expectation he had placed on her.
However, she was unable to let go of her hatred, so she still went down south to the Mist province stubbornly. However, the result was reasonably fine. Now that she had settled this, it was time for her to pay him back, so she returned to the Green province resolutely. As for whether Li Qingshan played a factor in this, only she herself knew the answer to this question best.
“That dark old man!” Li Qingshan was taken aback, earning himself a vicious glance from Ru Xin, so he corrected himself with a smile. “Senior Hua Ci! I really have been having too high of an opinion of myself! I don’t have to worry then.”
“Feel free to stop worrying for the rest of your life,” said Ru Xin.
“Then why haven’t you returned to the Clear River prefecture? Why’re you idling around here?” Li Qingshan then asked.
“I’m currently considering how to deal with this locust plague.”
“What can you do about him? That’s the Soaring Locust King. Even several thousand years ago, he already became one of the Seventy-two Daemon Kings. Even I can’t say I can deal with him.”
“The Soaring Locust King is just the source of the locust plague. Even if you kill him right now, the locust plague will last for a very long time.”
“Really?” Li Qingshan did not believe that. As long as the Soaring Locust King was dead, only regular locusts would remain. What threat could they pose?
“Look.” Ru Xin waved her hand, and a strip of soil flew up from the ground. She tossed it towards Li Qingshan casually. “This is a cluster of locust eggs. There’s several dozen eggs inside. Just the tiny area under my feet has two or three thousands of these clusters.”
Li QIngshan crushed the cluster of eggs in his hand and made some estimates, which left him stunned. This tiny area could actually produce a hundred thousand locusts. If the entire Green province was taken into perspective, that would be an astronomical number.
“I investigated all the way here. The situation is the same everywhere. Probably even this is a part of the Soaring Locust King’s plan. As long as he continues to hide and doesn’t get found, the locust plague will continue. All of the cultivators in the Green province can only rush around and stamp out trouble everywhere, and that’ll definitely result in assaults from the Soaring Locust King’s clones. Even if you ignore that, the population of mortals is rapidly falling. The entire cultivation community of the Green province will be in decline.”
“No wonder he would be suppressed under the Demon Suppression hall!” Li Qingshan shook his head. He was basically a superterrorist, taking on the entire cultivation community of the Green province alone. If his methods were not so insane, Li Qingshan might have even admired this Soaring Locust King.
“I might be powerless against the Soaring Locust King, but I do have some confidence in dealing with the ordinary locusts and the weaker clones. Without these lackeys, we’ll be able to contain the locust plague.” Ru Xin’s eyes flashed with confidence.
“You’re going to use a plague again?” Li Qingshan guessed immediately.
“That’s correct.” Ru Xin collected the egg clusters as she moved along, picking through them carefully according to some unknown standard.
“Locusts can fall ill too?” Li Qingshan kept up with her.
“Of all the living creatures in the world, which of them don’t fall ill?”
“Cultivators don’t fall ill.”
“All states of harm are illnesses. You just haven’t realised they’re illnesses. When you’re not careful while cultivating, not only will you fail to lengthen your lifespan, but you might even go insane or blow up on the spot. That’s more harmful than any illness.” Ru Xin gently poked Li Qingshan’s chest. “For example, there’s also inner demons. That’s a form of mental illness!”
“That does make sense if you put it like that.” Li Qingshan grabbed her hand. It was as gentle and soft as jade.
“What else do you think those imperial physicians of the imperial hospital are trying to treat? Common colds? Infertility? Though, you do need to treat infertility. After all, cultivators struggle to give birth to children. Anyway, what you’re trying to treat are cultivators that don’t fall ill.” Ru Xin allowed him to hold her hand, walking leisurely beside him.
“Alright then. You want to treat the Soaring Locust King’s illness right now and save the entire Green province, don’t you?”
“At least your brain still works a little,” Ru Xin said in praise.
“You’re an otherfolk, yet you’ve travelled thousands of kilometers to the Green province to do good for others without any self-regard, saving the lives of humans. What kind of mental illness is that?” Li Qingshan smiled.
“Have you ever heard of the benevolence of doctors?”
“I haven’t.”
“What kind of reward do you think the King of Chu would give me if I create this plague?” Ru Xin smiled resplendently, revealing her pearly-white teeth.
“I think there’s going to be quite a lot of rewards on offer!” Li Qingshan laughed aloud. He could not help but admire her cleverness. “Then you better hurry up, just in case someone beats you to it.”
“Regular disciples of the school of Medicine won’t spend their efforts on this.”
Ru Xin was not worried at all. The fundamentals of the school of Medicine was about curing illnesses, not creating plagues. Even the “plague ghost” was technically a method of treatment when viewed from the fundamentals. Killing and harming enemies was secondary, so they would never go out of their way to create plagues.
The effects of a plague were terrifying, but plagues were actually of very little use. Ru Xin would have never devoted so much time and energy into this aspect if it were not for her grievances, and in normal combat, anything was stronger than using plagues. On top of that, she only managed to create a proper disease after several decades of research, together with a great cultivator’s assistance and after undergoing the second heavenly tribulation. In the end, it was only enough to deal with enemies on par with Qi Practitioners.
If it were not for these unique circumstances where downright killing the enemy was impossible, why would she do something so unnecessary? She had actually only applied her plagues practically once. Dealing with the locust plague could only be considered as a second time at most, and she was still in a planning stage.
