Chapter 16: Why Come to This, Why Come to This?

It was August in the two thousand three hundred and thirty-ninth year of the Demon Qing Calendar.

The raging floods had only recently receded, yet the common folk received no relief from the imperial court, nor any mercy from the heavens, as the corpses of humans and livestock lay abandoned along rural pathways, rotting away and subsequently giving rise to a pestilence.

In the beginning, the plague was confined to a small-scale outbreak across a few counties along the lower reaches of the Sanhuang River.

However, because the Demon Qing court was corrupt and its officials utterly incompetent, they were entirely unable to contain the rampaging sickness, and it was not long before the pestilence spread throughout the entirety of Sanhuang County.

Countless citizens fell ill, their skin festering and their high fevers refusing to break.

Those of weak constitution rarely survived a week before bleeding from their seven orifices and dying in agony, while even the strong could endure ten days at most before succumbing to organ failure.

In the villages swept through by the plague, barely one in ten survived, leaving a thousand miles of land completely desolate.

The descriptions in the history books of 'living souls reduced to charcoal and wails of grief echoing across the wild' were precisely like this scene.

Li Chang'an was no saint, but neither was he cold-blooded, and witnessing such a tragic, inhuman sight filled his heart with profound grief.

Yet his current capabilities were limited, and the only place he could protect was his own village.

Li Chang'an had known the flood would occur.

But due to the limitations of the Reincarnation Mark's displayed timeframe, he did not know the exact moment the waters would rise, only that it would highly likely coincide with the annual plum rains.

Consequently, in order to receive the news at the earliest possible moment, Li Chang'an had previously ordered the 'cheap disciples' practicing under his command to stand watch upon the river embankments day and night.

It was precisely because of this foresight that he received word the instant the flood erupted, allowing him to lead the residents of the Li Family Village to high ground with the utmost speed, successfully saving hundreds of households!

Without a doubt, this act elevated Li Chang'an’s status and reputation within the village even further, to the point where his authority now surpassed that of Li Xiao, the village chief.

Of course, in truth, Li Xiao had already been quite willing to trust Li Chang'an’s judgment.

Even when Li Chang'an first predicted the flood during the rainy season, though Li Xiao found it incredible, he still chose to take precautions against the hidden danger and made numerous preparations for it.

Now, the villagers affectionately referred to Li Chang'an as the 'Little Teacher'!

'Teacher' was how those disciples recruited by Li Chang'an addressed him, but now the title was equally recognized by the adults of the village, becoming an honorific exclusive to Li Chang'an alone.

After the flood subsided, based on the simple premise that 'a great disaster is invariably followed by a great plague,' Li Chang'an dispatched the residents of the Li Family Village to organize themselves, burying and burning the animal and human carcasses washed into the village by the flood waters, while instructing everyone that no raw water was to be consumed and all water sources had to undergo strict disinfection.

With a few orders handed down, Li Chang'an’s logic proved methodical.

He successfully minimized the losses of the Li Family Village to the absolute lowest degree.

This also made the Li Family Village one of the few settlements along the lower reaches of the Sanhuang River that still maintained rules and order, standing out uniquely amidst a disaster zone of total ruin and widespread pestilence.

...

While Li Chang'an was still busy managing the village's affairs.

On this day, the young Taoist Lyu Changning suddenly arrived at his door, his eyes bloodshot and covered in the dust of travel, bearing a medicine chest nearly half the height of a man upon his back.

Upon entering the Li Family Village, before he could even catch his breath, Lyu Changning asked straight away, "Little Chang'an, how is the situation in your village? Are there any sick in need of my treatment?"

Looking at the utterly exhausted young man before him, the expression on Li Chang'an’s face was filled with astonishment.

Strictly speaking, Lyu Changning could be considered his half-senior brother.

And in Li Chang'an’s impression, this fellow had always possessed a lazy disposition of 'never standing if he could sit, and never sitting if he could lie down.'

The old Taoist had scolded Lyu Changning over this matter more than once, but Lyu Changning usually let it go in one ear and out the other, acting as a master of forgetting worldly cares.

He frequently angered the old Taoist so much that the elder would glare with a bristling beard, clutching his chest and sighing repeatedly