I am the sacred tree, evergreen for eternity.

The wounded soldiers' camp of the Eastern tribes was located in the northwest corner, forming a separate compound.

The courtyard is surrounded by high walls, separating it from the residential buildings. The ground is paved with smooth bluestone slabs, and several medicinal herbs that ward off miasma are planted in the corners of the walls.

When Xuan stepped into the courtyard, the doctor on night duty was decocting medicine in the corridor.

The earthenware pot was bubbling and steaming, the aroma of medicine mixed with the smell of charcoal filling the air. Unlike the bitter smell of ordinary clinics, it had a warm and comforting quality.

"How are they doing?"

"Why……"

The doctor shook his head with a bitter expression and led Xuan into the inner camp.

The camp was divided into more than ten rooms, each with a neat wooden bed, clean bedding, and new quilts.

But the wounded lying on top no longer looked like normal people.

Their skin had an abnormal bluish-gray hue, like frost-bitten vegetable leaves.

The purplish-black lines spread outwards from the wound, covering his arms, chest, and even neck.

Those lines are alive, visibly wriggling under the light, like earthworms crawling under the skin.

Just as Xuan was about to approach the wounded man at the head of the bed, a sudden change occurred.

The burly man with the injured arm suddenly opened his eyes, his pupils now completely purplish-black, and thick, purplish-black liquid spilled from the corner of his mouth, hissing and steaming as it dripped onto the pillow.

His body sprang from the bed, the soft cloth on his wrist snapped, and his ten fingers curled like claws, lunging towards Xuan's face.

Xuan didn't dodge; instead, he reached out and placed his palm firmly on the man's forehead.

A burst of spiritual light emanated from his palm, and with a hiss, purplish-black turbid energy rose from his seven orifices, twisted a few times in the air, and then dissipated without a trace.

The man's body stiffened, and he slumped back onto the bed, his eyes closing again. The purplish-black lines had mostly faded, but his bluish-gray skin had not recovered.

The doctor rushed forward and used hemp rope to tie the big man's limbs.

"My lord, please forgive me. He went berserk three times last night, and I forgot to put a soft rope on him..."

"Is there anything that can be done about their situation?"

Xuan waved his hand, his eyes fixed on the strange symptoms of his clansmen, his voice filled with barely suppressed anxiety.

"Boss, this is tricky..." the doctor sighed.

"These wounded soldiers were brought in from various border areas, and their injuries varied, but—"

"The turbid energy within their bodies is very similar, equally eerie and ferocious."

Xuan frowned. "Strange, foul air?"

The doctor nodded: "I've examined it repeatedly."

"This turbid energy will continuously erode a person's blood and bone marrow until it transforms them into a monster that is neither alive nor dead."

"That monster has absolutely no human reason, only a wild, bloodthirsty desire to devour flesh, and—"

"Those bitten by them will also be corrupted by the monster and turn into the same kind of monster."

"Like a... plague."

The doctor straightened up, his voice tinged with difficulty.

"I've tried acupuncture, herbal neutralization, and acupuncture to guide the expulsion... but the effects were minimal."

"This strange, turbid energy takes root in the flesh; the only way to fight it is through sheer cultivation..."

"At least one needs to reach the Body Refinement stage of the Body Forging Realm to rely on strong blood and qi and condensed spiritual energy to slowly remove this evil and turbid energy."

Body Refinement Stage?!

Xuan rubbed his temples. Even though the Xia Clan now had tens of thousands of totem walkers, less than 30% of them were at the Body Refinement stage or above.

Not to mention the ordinary clansmen...

Xuan knelt and sat for a day and a night under the branch of the tree spirit.

A ray of light fell from the branches, sprinkling onto his gray hair like a thin layer of frost.

Looking up at the tree spirit's avatar bathed in spiritual light, Xuan's lips moved slightly, but he still didn't open his mouth.

He ultimately did not kneel at the foot of the tree god and cry out, "Save us!" as he had done in his youth.

Humanity has grown up, like a sapling, and must learn to face the wind and rain on its own.

Xuan silently turned around, dragging his stiff legs, and walked back to the council hall step by step.

Behind me, a vibrant green leaf drifted down.

The snow drifted gently and landed precisely on the stone slab he had stepped on.

the next day.

News about the "turbid dead" spread like pebbles thrown into a deep pool, rippling outwards and quickly reaching every corner of the Xia clan's territory.

Every village, town, and outpost in the four divisions received orders to be on high alert immediately.

For a time, people panic.

Those ordinary tribesmen who had never experienced blood and fire realized for the first time—

The power of the demon race can be so bizarre, and death can come so silently.

After nightfall, every household closed their doors and windows tightly.

The warning bells were hung high, the patrol frequency of the totem walkers tripled, and every team was on high alert.

Fear, endless fear, surged toward the sacred mountain along the intricate network of spiritual energy.

Yu Su's tree spirit swayed gently atop the sacred mountain, its spiritual light flowing through the tree's veins, smoothing and calming the torrent of fearful and chaotic emotions.

Under his spiritual perception, he saw that terrifying and eerie peculiar turbid energy—

It contains a spell related to "death," which is the opposite of the earth's spiritual energy that represents "life."

Perhaps, this is the true nature of turbidity.

Yu Su's inspiration condensed into a ball in the void, evolving, deliberating, and verifying.

A moment later, a spell was separated from his spiritual consciousness, like a shooting star streaking across the sky, falling along the spiritual field network towards his four clones.

……

On a desolate plain thousands of miles away.

Riding proudly on the back of a four-legged lizard, its lips were cracked and bleeding, and its eyes were bloodshot.

He hasn't slept for three days.

"team leader……"

The old traveler, riding a lizard, rushed to Ao's side, his eyes brimming with weariness.

"We've traveled over 300 li (150 kilometers) in a row, and the four-legged lizard is about to give up."

"If we keep running, we'll collapse before we catch up with those beasts."

Ao reined in his horse and glanced back at the group.

The weathered faces were etched with exhaustion, and several had already dozed off on the lizards' backs, only managing to stay upright by instinct and gripping the reins.

The four-legged lizard was breathing heavily like a bellows, its tongue dangling out, and white foam at the corners of its mouth.

Ao nodded silently and jumped off the lizard's back.

"Rest in place for two hours."

Before the words were even finished, several travelers slid off their mounts and collapsed onto the ground, too lazy to even remove their armor.

Ao found a sheltered rock, sat down against it, took the water bag from his waist, and took two gulps.

Then, he reached into his pocket and took out something the size of a fist.

A heart.

The petrified heart is grayish-white and dull, its surface covered with cracks, as if it had been weathered for thousands of years.

But it is not dead—through the cracks, a dark red light can be faintly seen flowing, like magma surging beneath the rock layers.

That foul air—a malevolent air capable of turning people into walking corpses—emanated from the heart of this stone.

When they were leaving the spider's lair, Ao found it in the deepest part of the cave.

The stone heart was enshrined on a stone platform, surrounded by piles of human and animal bones, and entwined with layers of spider silk.

Ao used an iron knife to cut through the spider silk and took out the stone heart.

The mutations of those demonic spiders and the infection of those villagers likely originated from this...