The Long Journey to Immortality

It's unclear whether the smell, reminiscent of decay and death, arose from the house being empty for decades or emanated from the little girl's grandfather.

Hearing the door open, the elderly woman, who was lying on the bed and barely alive, only moved her arm slightly. She was unable to sit up or ask her granddaughter why she was wandering around in the middle of the night.

Compared to the little girl, the old man's symptoms were more obvious.

Light purple blisters appeared on the knuckles of his hands, and his face had become ulcerated.

Judging from the old man's sleeping posture, his back must have been covered with sores, which is why he was lying on his side against the wall, barely managing to maintain his position.

Although Han Lu could only see half of the old man's face, she was still able to identify him.

Feng Bailu did indeed meet this old man more than 30 years ago.

They were merely nodding acquaintances, mainly because the old man was a woodcutter from the village, making a living by chopping wood, and often frequented the mountains and forests where Fengbai Road and his mother lived in seclusion.

It was precisely because of this that the old man knew the exact location of this long-abandoned courtyard, and chose to come here before his death to find a place for himself and his granddaughter to shelter from the wind and rain, waiting for death to come with despair.

Seeing her seriously ill grandfather, the little girl couldn't stop her tears from flowing. With a sob in her voice, she came to the bedside and said, "Grandpa, Grandpa, wake up! A beautiful nun said she would help you get better."

The old man was terminally ill and had fallen into a semi-comatose state in the winter.

Although he knew that his granddaughter was calling him, he could neither speak nor move; only his trembling arms told those around him that he was still alive.

Seeing her grandfather like this, the little girl cried even harder.

"Grandpa, it's all my fault. I shouldn't have gone into the mountains. I caught the disease and then passed it on to you..."

After apologizing to Han Lu, the little girl quickly looked at Han Lu and asked, "Sister, my grandfather is so sick, can he be saved?"

"I think so."

At this point, Han Lu would not utter any more ambiguous words.

Upon hearing Han Lu's answer, the little girl immediately stopped crying and smiled, moved aside from the bedside, and looked at Han Lu with expectant eyes, hoping that this beautiful older sister who had appeared out of nowhere could cure her and her grandfather's illnesses.

Han Lu took a few steps forward, looked at the old man covered in festering sores and blisters, pondered for a moment, and then began to chant incantations to cast her spell.

Although she didn't pay much attention to the plague within the sect, she had still heard some rumors.

Rumors circulate that the healing techniques used by cultivators can be effective against plagues.

Therefore, at this point, Han Lu decided to first try to treat the patient with magic. If that didn't work, she would then try using pills or other methods.

A light blue light emanated from Han Lu.

These scattered rays of light gathered in the air, eventually coalescing into a ball that completely enveloped the old man on the bed.

Under the influence of spiritual magic, the old man's exposed skin underwent visible changes.

The purple color in the blisters gradually faded, the ulcers on the skin began to heal slowly, and the originally withered and lifeless skin was infused with a touch of color.

Seeing this, the little girl next to Han Lu's eyes lit up, as if she could already see her grandfather and she fully recovered and able to return to the village to live with their family.

However, it is clear that the viruses or bacteria that spread the plague cannot be easily and quickly eliminated by magic, especially in elderly patients whose illnesses have reached the point of being incurable and deeply ingrained.

Han Lu cast two healing spells in succession, but failed to completely eliminate the old man's illness.

The elderly man still had residual toxins in his body, and the blisters on his face had not yet subsided.

Seeing this, Han Lu frowned, feeling that the stubborn plague virus had made her lose face in front of the little girl.

Without hesitation, she took out two healing pills prepared for Qi Refining cultivators from her storage bag.

One was stuffed directly into the old man's mouth for him to hold, while the other was given to the little girl who was also infected with the disease.

"Eat this, and you'll be better soon."

Upon hearing this, the little girl swallowed the pill whole without hesitation or drinking water.

Perhaps only a cultivator of Han Lu's wealth and personality would choose to use elixirs to solve the problem of curing the plague among mortals.

Chapter 480 Repaying Kindness

He swallowed the pill.

Because the little girl's illness was not too serious, she could clearly feel the medicinal effects spreading in her body within ten breaths after swallowing the pill, and her pain was gradually subsiding.

"Sister, did you give Grandpa and me some very precious elixir?"

"I feel warm all over, my headache is gone, and the blisters on my body are no longer itchy."

As she spoke, the little girl carefully touched the blister on her forehead with her hand.

Touching the blisters, she felt the nasty things that had ruined her appearance due to the plague gradually shrinking, and her smile grew even brighter.

"Thank you, sister, thank you, sister."

The plague that spread throughout the Southern Dynasty did not infect cultivators. Naturally, these elixirs, which were particularly effective in treating cultivators' internal and external injuries, were far more effective at curing those afflicted with the plague than spells.

Unfortunately, using elixirs to treat illnesses is far more expensive than performing magic. Otherwise, if the Zhengyi Sect had distributed 500,000 to 600,000 elixirs to each patient, giving them two, this plague that had swept across half of the Southern Dynasty could have been controlled or even resolved in just a few days.

Seeing the little girl so happy and thanking her repeatedly, Han Lu felt an indescribable sense of satisfaction.

"It's just a regular pill," Han Lu explained casually, so as not to make the little girl feel like she owed her a huge favor. "It's just that the medicine was prescribed according to the symptoms."

"Your illness is milder, which is why you were able to recover so quickly."

“Your grandfather will probably need another half a day to recover,” Han Lu said, not being a professional herself, and could only give a rough estimate. “In the next few hours, I will perform some more spells to help your grandfather regain his health.”

"If everything goes smoothly, you and Grandpa will be able to return to the village by noon today."

Upon hearing this good news, the little girl truly didn't know how to thank Han Lu for her kindness.

Seeing the little girl's expression of unexpressed emotions, as if she wanted to sell herself to Han Lu to repay her kindness, Han Lu simply took the initiative to suggest, "Since you want to thank me... then..."

"From now on, every year on this day, come here, place a few offerings on the tombstone outside the courtyard gate, and simply sweep the snow in front of the tomb."

The little girl nodded her head repeatedly, saying, "I'm willing to serve you, sister."

After saying that, she asked curiously, "Sister, is this your home? In the cemetery outside the gate..."

Realizing that the question was somewhat inappropriate, the little girl quickly shut her mouth.

Han Lu nodded and said, "You guessed right."

"My sister is too busy outside and doesn't have time to take care of this place, so I asked you for help."

Hearing Han Lu say this, the little girl took this small matter very seriously and earnestly assured Han Lu, "Sister, I'll take care of this."

"When I get old, I'll have my son do things for my sister."

"If the son dies, the grandson will take his place."

Hearing a little girl of no more than seven or eight years old utter words like "grandson" and "son" felt rather incongruous to Han Lu, and she couldn't help but tease her, "Hey, you're so young and you're already thinking about sons and grandsons?"

Do you know how sons and grandsons come about?

The little girl scratched her head and said, "I don't know, but my parents always say that I should have a son in the future, so I've been listening and learning to say it. Do you know, sister? Can you teach me?"

These childish words left Han Lu speechless for a moment.

She had no interest in giving this little girl, whom she had only known for less than half an hour, a lesson on physiology in this place.

After giving a perfunctory answer, she took out two pieces of warm clothing from her storage bag.

One piece of clothing was handed to the little girl so she could change into it, while the other was barely used as a blanket to cover the old man.

Han Lu didn't want the two patients she had saved with a pill and a lot of time to contract other diseases because of the cold weather.

Han Lu was still in the Qi Refining stage when she wore winter clothes that were clearly only for the upper body. However, because of her figure, when the little girl wore them, it looked like she was wearing a thick cotton dress.

Wearing new clothes and looking at her grandfather lying in bed whose complexion had improved, the little girl's guilt about bringing back the plague and infecting her grandfather vanished.

She felt that this night, which was originally filled with utter despair, had become incredibly blissful.

She felt that her courage to step out of the courtyard was the best decision she had ever made.

Everything was alright, and Han Lu offered a few more words of comfort before the little girl was persuaded to go to the room that originally belonged to Han Lu's mother to catch up on her sleep.

Han Lu, on the other hand, stayed in the room that originally belonged to him, and every now and then he would cast a healing spell on the old man on the bed to save his life, which was already as fragile as a candle in the wind.

In addition to the plague he had contracted, the old man also suffered from many other ailments.

Driven by a desire to do good to the end, Han Lu did everything she could to cure these life-threatening illnesses, so that the old man could spend more time with his granddaughter in this world.

This is not difficult; it just takes a little time.

When the sun rose, Han Lu fed the old man another pill and some water.

Based on the elderly man's physical condition after her careful treatment, Han Lu felt that this man, who was only in his early sixties, should have no problem living to eighty.

The elderly man recovered and regained consciousness around noon.

After learning from his granddaughter what had happened the night before, he immediately knelt down three times to Han Lu to express his gratitude.

Han Lu didn't mince words and repeated to the old man the way she had told the little girl about "repaying kindness."

He regarded Han Lu as a distant relative of the mother and son from Fengbai Road who originally lived here. In addition, since the matter was not difficult, the elderly woman who had been given a new lease on life naturally agreed without hesitation.

Around noon, the purple blisters on the girl's and the old man's bodies finally subsided completely.

At this point, neither his appearance nor his inner self had any connection to the plague that had swept across half of the Southern Dynasty.

Out of kindness, Han Lu took out some food from her storage bag and treated the grandfather and grandson to lunch.

The little girl asked Han Lu for another favor while she was eating.

"Sister," the little girl said, not knowing Han Lu's real name, so she could only address her by that name, "Could you take me and Grandpa back to the village later?"

“No problem.” It was a small matter, and Han Lu agreed without even thinking about it.

"Sister, please speak to the village chief again and tell him that my grandfather and I are cured. Otherwise, I'm afraid we'll be kicked out of the village again."

The only solution was to simply and cleanly drive the old man and the young man out of the village.

In that small village of fewer than a hundred people, there was only one butcher who worked part-time as a doctor, and he had no way to deal with this troublesome plague.

To prevent the plague from spreading in the village, driving the two infected people out to fend for themselves was the best way to save the majority of the population.

"Row."

Since she wanted to see the Buddha through to the West, Han Lu also thought she should take this opportunity to learn more about the epidemic and see what the origin of this plague that had ravaged half of the Southern Dynasty was.

[Author's Note] Bayern Munich is back in first place, and Fazeiro has won two consecutive games. These past few days have been really exciting.