The Immortal of Plague begins by establishing the root of lung fire.

Dark red blood gushed from the cut. Jiang Yangge probed deep into the flesh with his fingers, gently twisted them, and pulled out a jade fruit the size of a longan, its entire body gleaming with a warm, jade-like color.

As the jade fruit left his body, the flesh on Gong Ba's back contracted, and the black blood at the wound quickly congealed.

"Good technique." Song You watched quietly from behind. With the help of the blood and qi of the living person and the warmth of the lesions in the body, the medicinal power of this jade fruit must be far better than before.

Just as Jiang Yangge wrapped the jade fruit in velvet and stuffed it into his bosom, a tall, thin disciple in a gray robe suddenly reached out and pried at the largest tumor on Gong Ba's back.

"Now that we've opened for business, I'll take a look at some goods too!" The tall, thin disciple moved extremely quickly, his fingertips already touching the surface of the tumor.

Gong Ba, who was lying on the cowhide, rolled his eyes back and arched his back upwards.

An extremely intense gray-white flame erupted from every pore of his body. The flame did not dissipate, but transformed into a solid wave of lung fire, which struck the gray-robed disciple squarely in the chest.

During the mid-stage of the firewood season, they were still among the strongest.

A cracking sound of bones breaking echoed in the closed cave. The gray-robed disciple was thrown off the ground and sent flying seven or eight steps back, crashing directly into the stone wall at the cave entrance. He spat out a mouthful of black blood with a burnt smell onto the ground.

The people inside the cave retreated, clearing a large open space.

Gong Ba slowly climbed up from the cowhide, the fleshy tumor on his back writhing wildly with his movements, and the heat wave from the mid-stage firewood made the light of the surrounding torches dim.

The gray-robed disciple, who had been struck hard, clutched his dented chest and leaned against the stone wall to keep his balance. Unable to swallow his anger, he spat a mouthful of blood onto the ground.

"What's with the arrogance!" the gray-robed disciple's voice was hoarse. "The neighboring Yinshi Temple produced a prodigy with extraordinary talent a couple of days ago! Why don't you send your terminally ill brother to the Yinshi Temple and let those bastards who specialize in low-level practices teach him a lesson? Maybe he'll become a genius too!"

Gong Ba's eyes were bloodshot as he stepped over the cowhide on the ground.

"Get out!" Gong Ba's voice boomed like a bell. "My brother suffers from lower kidney deficiency, not from those rotten-ass bastards at the Female Orthodox Temple! If it weren't for my inner brother keeping order on the back mountain today, I would have torn your mouth apart right now!"

Seeing that Gong Ba's murderous intent had been aroused, the gray-robed disciple dared not continue his verbal sparring and slipped out through the cave entrance.

The cave was deathly silent. Gong Ba glanced around, and the grayish-white flames surging within him slowly receded beneath his skin. He lay back down on the black cowhide, turning his back to the ground.

"Having lost my temper today, I'm raising the price of all the remaining ingredients by 10%."

The disciples watching had mixed expressions; some cursed and turned away, while others gritted their teeth and squatted down to negotiate the price again.

At this moment, the stone door at the deepest part of the cave was pushed open, and two outer disciples dressed in fine Taoist robes came out. They seemed to be the same two who had been outside the inner disciples' door earlier. They glanced coldly at the pool of black blood on the ground, but did not meddle in other people's business. They just leaned against the stone wall and kept watch.

Song You's gaze fell on the tumors on Gong Ba's back. This was using the body as a reaction vessel and the lesions as a source of fire. Although this cultivation method could produce good medicine, it was extremely dangerous to overdraw one's own lifespan and should never be adopted.

Moreover, the requirements for meeting these standards are not low. The other party seems to have a solid foundation. If it weren't for his younger brother, he probably wouldn't have done such a thing. However, Song You felt that something was wrong with the conversation just now.

"Let's go." Jiang Yangge had exchanged for the jade fruit he desperately needed and no longer lingered over the rest. "Today's gathering is almost over."

Song You, carrying the bundle of snake-shaped grass, followed Jiang Yangge out of the cave.

As soon as I stepped out of the cave, the cold wind from the canyon outside rushed into my collar, dispelling the hot, bloody smell from my body.

Song You stopped. On the blue stone to the left of the cave, sat a short figure.

Qing San was picking up a pebble from the ground and tossing it between his fingers when he saw Song You come out, and he stopped what he was doing.

He jumped off the bluestone and walked with small, quick steps to within three feet of Song You, his clear black and white eyes darting around the snake-shaped grass in Song You's hand.

Qing San grinned, revealing two rows of sharp teeth: "Senior Brother Song, are you free now?"

"What do you want?" Song You stopped and asked.

Qing loosened his fingers, and the diamond-shaped pebble in his palm fell to the ground. He looked up at Qing.

"I need your help," Qing San said calmly, his voice devoid of any childlike inflection. "Did you see Gong Ba lying on the cowhide in the back cave just now?"

"I saw it."

"Do you feel sorry for those two brothers?" Qing San asked.

Song You looked down at Qing San's face, feeling that the word "pity" was too demeaning in the context of the Soul Treasury Temple. More than three hundred of the immortal seedlings who went into the mountain died, and those who survived suffered from sleepless nights due to the burning sensation in their internal organs. Outer disciples would kneel and kowtow for a packet of lung-clearing powder, while Li Chang of the inner chambers turned into a wild beast and was devoured by everyone.

Song You didn't even feel like he was being targeted, because everyone was being secretly plotted against by others, even the elders, who could lose their lives if they weren't careful.

Talking about pity in a world where everyone is evil is utterly useless.

"There's nothing to be pitied about," Song You said calmly. "Everyone is just trying to survive; they have no choice."

Upon hearing this, Qing San let out a soft chuckle. Before the chuckle had even faded, two streams of water rolled down his cheeks.

It's that same look again; why are you tearing up again?

Seeing the mixture of crying and laughing on the other person's face, Song You felt a sense of unease. Jia Chunfang was also alternating between crying and laughing on the wooden bed. People who had cultivated in the Soul Treasury Temple for a long time, or those who had stayed in the temple for a long time, all suffered from serious mental and emotional problems.

"They're not pitiful at all." Qing San raised the back of his hand and wiped the water droplets running down his chin. "They're just greedy, insatiable. In these mountains, we children are the ones who are truly pitiful."

Human desires are insatiable?

Song You caught those four words and went through what he had seen and heard in the cave. He finally realized something was wrong. How could Gong Ba's younger brother have contracted a kidney disease that had nothing to do with lung fire? It couldn't have been something he happened to encounter while stationed outside, could it?

"How did his brother develop kidney deficiency?" Song You asked directly, voicing his doubts.

Qing San braced himself against the edge of the bluestone with both hands, his legs dangling in mid-air: "That kid doesn't know the rules. I don't know where he heard about the method of melting the stove. Two months ago, he went with the people from the inner chamber to do odd jobs on the outskirts of the back mountain. He ran into a wandering cultivator who had died, grabbed the man's kidney disease root, and forced it into his own body."

Qing San spoke lightly, but the water droplets on his cheeks flowed even more profusely: "He thought that by adding another lesion, he could raise his cultivation level. As a result, the water and fire clashed, the root of the disease was not healed, and half of his body rotted away. He was lying in bed every day, urinating bloody water, and had to rely on his brother to cut off flesh and remove the tumor to change the medicine and keep him alive."

After saying that, Qing San stopped swaying his legs and stared straight at Song You: "Are you interested in the method of melting the stove?"

Song You thought that if he mastered another technique or remedy, he would have more options to deal with unexpected events in the future. Regardless of whether he used it or not, it was always good to understand the situation first.

"I am indeed somewhat interested," Song You nodded in acknowledgment.

Qing San jumped down from the bluestone, his feet landing on the sandy ground. He stretched out his hands, grabbed the hem of his gray Taoist robe, and lifted it up.

No undershirt.

As his robe was lifted, Qing San exposed his belly to the air. He used his index and middle fingers to grab a patch of old skin above his navel and pulled it forcefully to the left and right.

No blood flowed out. He tore a foot-long gash in the bluish belly skin. The edges of the belly skin were completely devoid of color, consisting entirely of dry, grayish-white, old flesh.

Song You's eyelids twitched, and his gaze fell on the gap that had been torn open.

Behind the abdomen, there were no mangled internal organs, no tangled intestines, no liver, spleen, or kidneys. Through the opening in the abdomen, there was only a dark, empty cavity, directly against the thin spine. The entire abdominal cavity was completely empty.

Qing San reached into his empty stomach with his right hand, rummaged around for a bit, and pulled out a thread-bound book that was half an inch thick with a blackened cover.

He handed the book forward, two streams of water streaming down his face, yet his voice betrayed no sobs: "You all know that we young disciples are relatives brought from the elders' hometowns at the foot of the mountain, raised in the temple from a young age. Do you know what we're here for?"

Song You stared at the dark abdominal cavity. The specimens he had seen in the hospital's autopsy room and the scenes on the operating table collided in his mind. There were no internal organs, yet it could still walk and talk.

These children were not any protected descendants at all.

Song You guessed what was going on, but didn't respond, only shaking his head slightly.

Qing San turned his head and glanced left and right at the canyon. After confirming that Jiang Yangge's back was still standing in the distance, he moved forward half a foot and stuffed the blackened book into Song You's hand.

"I know this doesn't make sense," Qing San said in a low voice, "but that day in the main hall, I could tell you were different from the others. Since you survived, no matter why, I'll tell you."

Qing San loosened his grip and let down the hem of his Taoist robe.

"The elder has been completely devoted to us." Qing San looked up at Song You. "The elder has been using the root of his illness to burn his internal organs for many years. When he reached a high level, many of his internal organs were damaged."

"If the internal organs rot away, they need to be replaced."

"We are their blood relatives, we share the same blood, and our flesh and organs, raised from childhood, are of the same origin as theirs. When their lungs rot, they cut out our lungs and put them in; when their kidneys fail, they take our kidneys to replace them. For every rotten piece, they remove a piece."

Qing San poked his stomach: "The things inside me were emptied out by Elder Zhongzao two years ago. We are supposed to be filthy people, but without our five internal organs, how can we take root for treatment, how can we cultivate?"

The cold air blew into his collar along with the wind from the valley. Song You had thought he had already witnessed the ruthlessness of the elders, but he never expected that these high and mighty elders would treat even their own grandchildren as living meat stores.

"What do you want me to do for you?" Song You sighed inwardly and looked at Qing Sanwen.