Chapter 10 – Reverse Interview (5)

As the girl regained consciousness, Cheol-san first checked her condition.

Then he immediately asked the village chief to gather the patients again.

“The effect is better than expected, considering it’s a minor creature. Could you gather the patients again, please?”

“Ah, understood!”

As the village chief was about to run outside upon receiving Cheol-san’s request, he was stopped with a shout.

“Wait a moment!”

Chagas disease has an incubation period, and even if infected, only about 20-30 percent develop severe symptoms.

That meant everyone in the village had to take the medicine, not just those who were visibly ill.

It was clear there would be far more carriers than those who showed symptoms.

“What’s the matter, Young Hero?”

“Elder, if it’s possible to give the medicine to everyone in the village, then everyone must take it. It’s not something that shows immediate symptoms after being bitten. It’s impossible to know who is sick or when they will become sick.”

Upon hearing my words, Cheol-san rechecked the girl’s condition and nodded his head.

“Hmm… Then we’ll have to dilute it in water and distribute it. It seems like it was a bit too strong for the girl.”

It seemed he concluded that dissolving the parasites didn’t require as potent ingredients as dissolving the Gu, based on his recent assessment of the girl.

Following the village chief’s instructions, people gathered in front of his house in the middle of the night.

Cheol-san, the Tang family head, distributed the Wugu Melting Pill, diluted in water, one spoonful to each villager.

This was to treat both the patients and the carriers.

“Oh! She’s coming to her senses!”

“The fever is going down, and the mind is clearing up!”

“We’re saved! Truly the savior of our village!”

“Sob sob…”

Despite the medicine being diluted in water, as Cheol-san said, many people regained consciousness or recovered their condition.

It might be a bit excessive to say it was thanks to the power of Tang family, but it was impressive enough to feel it justified.

As people gathered to praise Cheol-san’s medical skills, he shook his head and said.

“I only distributed the medicine. It’s all thanks to this Young Hero. If he hadn’t identified the cause, it would have been a difficult task. The true savior of you all is not me but this Young Hero.”

“Young Hero, thank you!”

“Young Hero, we appreciate it!”

“The Young Hero is the savior of our village!”

In a typical black company, a superior stealing the achievements of an intern is common, but Cheol-san, despite using his own medicine for treatment, credited me.

I revised my opinion of Sachuan’s Tang Family upward.

Giving credit to a subordinate indicates noble character.

It meant he would be a fine leader to serve under.

‘+100 points. Cheol-san seems like a good person. Though he did slap my cheek.’

Thus, the dying village was revitalized once again.

Of course, while many people regained consciousness, it didn’t mean everyone was completely cured.

Chagas disease, caused by parasitic invasion, leads to abnormalities and enlargement of organs and central nervous system issues, so those who had collapsed were likely to have permanent problems with their heart or other organs.

Even if the parasites causing Chagas disease were eliminated, the enlarged hearts and organs couldn’t be reversed.

In my previous life, if the heart enlarged for various reasons, the only treatment was a heart transplant.

But in such an era, a heart transplant was out of the question, so most people would have to live with disabilities.

The village chief’s granddaughter was one of the luckier cases.

Her weakness was due to her frail physical condition, not severe heart issues, as she collapsed before significant heart damage occurred. After taking the Wugu Melting Pill, her irregular pulse disappeared.

Cheol-san repeatedly checked her pulse and concluded there were no issues with her heart, which was somewhat reassuring.

After administering a spoonful of medicine to every villager, Cheol-san spoke to the village chief with a look of sympathy.

“Those who already have advanced heart conditions seem beyond help. When I return to Sichuan, I will mention this to Medicine Immortal and Herb Immortal. Since it’s a disease caused by parasites living in the human body, they might be interested and come to have a look.”

According to Cheol-san, there are two famous doctors in the Central Plains, Medicine Immortal and Herb Immortal.

The Immortal of Medicine and the Immortal of Herbs, perhaps?

He meant to ask them to take a look at the villagers. The village chief responded with an apologetic expression.

“Ah, no need. We’re already grateful for this much. I thought everyone in the village would… eventually die… It’s fortunate that we’re still alive.”

The atmosphere warmed up.

Even though the villagers who regained consciousness and those who recovered filled the night with joyful voices, they were reminded that their task was not yet complete.

There was still the most important task to do.

“Elders, don’t be too happy yet. The job isn’t finished.”

“What do you mean, Young Hero?”

“Oh, right. It’s not over yet.”

The village chief tilted his head, puzzled by my words.

Cheol-san seemed to understand the meaning of my words immediately and first checked how long the effect of the Wugu Melting Pill would last.

Hoping it had a lasting effect.

“Yes, Elder. How long does the effect of the Wugu Melting Pill last?”

“Originally, once taken, not only does it dissolve the Gu, but it also prevents Gu from settling in the body for about three months. But since we’ve diluted it in water, perhaps it will last for about fifteen days?”

Thankfully, the medicine’s effect would last for about fifteen days.

I asked the village chief.

“This disease is transmitted through insect bites. What will happen if they are bitten again after fifteen days?”

“Ah, right. We need to get rid of all the insects! Young Hero.”

Yes, the kissing bug hides in places like the roofs or cracks in the walls of houses, coming out at night to bite people.

In Haenam Island, the Lei clan used materials like palm leaves for their roofs, so it was likely that many kissing bugs were living in those crevices.

They look like stink bugs but belong to the bedbug family, so the main habitats are roof crevices or stones near houses.

I asked Cheol-san, who prides himself on being an expert in poisons.

“Yes, Elder, do you have any poison that can kill these insects?”

Thinking he might handle insecticides as well, given his extensive knowledge of poisons.

We needed to make insecticides.

And also something to keep insects away.

Cheol-san smiled at my question.

“Is that what you mean? Back home, we have Pyrethrum brought from the Western Regions, but it’s not available here. Let’s boil cinnamon, the bark of the Katsura tree, and Szechuan pepper fruits in water and spray it around.

They are very effective against insects. Perhaps it’s poison to them? If they come into direct contact, they die, and even just the smell will keep them away. That should be sufficient.”

‘Ah, right. I remember they used cinnamon and Szechuan pepper as insecticides in the past.’

A memory from my past life, studying insects and poisonous creatures.

Cheol-san’s words reminded me of eugenol in cinnamon and sanshol in Szechuan pepper, both known for their excellent insecticidal properties.

“Ah, I remember hearing about that too. Village chief, could you gather cinnamon and Szechuan pepper? As the Elder suggested, let’s boil them in water and spray them around the houses, roofs, and in the crevices around the village.

And hang cinnamon and Szechuan pepper around the bed to prevent the kissing bugs from approaching during sleep.”

“Understood, Young Hero. I’ll tell them to gather cinnamon and Szechuan pepper!”

The village chief rushed out, and a large-scale disinfection operation began throughout the village.

“Gather cinnamon and Szechuan pepper! Today! We will catch and kill all these vile insects!”

The excited villagers embarked on a kissing bug eradication campaign.

As the campaign against the sinister kissing bugs, which sneak up in the middle of the night to leave their wicked kiss, began, the entire village soon became enveloped in the subtle fragrance of cinnamon and Szechuan pepper.

***

After the noisy insect eradication operation the night before, one would expect the village to be tired in the morning, but it was completely in a festive mood.

Actually, it was a festival.

As if yesterday’s cold reception never happened, a village festival was being held.

Despite being tired from staying up late, we were invited to something like a village hall as soon as dawn broke.

A long dining table with bamboo trays on it.

On those trays were various foods like meat, fish, fruits, and vegetables, prepared for a feast.

“This is our Lei clan’s welcoming feast, long table banquet. Please eat a lot, our benefactors. We are truly sorry about yesterday!”

“““We are sorry!”””

The long table banquet, known for its deep history and tradition.

Literally sitting at a long table and eating the food served, it tasted heavenly to me, who had been surviving on lizard and snake meat, rice from the village, or radishes grown behind the Taoist temple.

I had been reluctant to spend money on meat, even from selling snake skins, and could only afford rice.

So, was this my first home-cooked meal after my past life?

‘It’s good. I didn’t expect home-cooked food to make me this happy.’

As I eagerly ate the served food, just like when I had deer meat, village women gathered around, serving more food and smiling.

“Young Hero, would you like more meat?”

“Yes? Yes. Thank you!”

“Try some more fish too. It’s also cute.”

“My goodness, even fish!”

As the Lei clan’s songs filled the air, and Cheol-san and the warriors were treated to alcohol, their mood improved.

Then, the village chief, who was sitting at our table, asked with a cautious voice and a very apologetic expression.

“Elder, about what you said yesterday at the village entrance…”

“What I said at the village entrance?”

“About people looking for a village where residents have gone missing.”

“Ah, right. But why do you ask?”

Our original goal, pushed aside for a moment while curing the Lei clan’s disease, was to find the hideout of a major demon, Tak Wun-yang, known as the Blood-Hand Rakshasa. To learn his martial art, Blood Water Poisonous Claws, he needed human blood and bone marrow, so we were looking for a village with many missing people.

Thus, when Cheol-san nodded his head to the chief’s question, the chief responded with a brightened face.

“I felt I had no way to repay your kindness, so I inquired about it, thinking it might help. I heard a strange story.”

“A strange story?”

“Yes, one of the women who regained consciousness last night was from another village. She said that a few years ago, her native village experienced a strange incident where people started disappearing one by one…”

At the chief’s words, we all looked at each other.

It seemed we all had the same thought.

‘There it is!’

“Yes, where is that!?”

“It’s over there, in that direction…”

As Cheol-san asked urgently, the chief pointed westward.

***

Ghost Village.

The village in the southwestern mountains of Haenam Island, discovered with the help of the village chief, was a ghost village.

There wasn’t a single living person in sight.

“There’s no one to be seen?”

“It feels like they hurriedly left the village. Although it seems old, the belongings are still in the houses.”

“But if there was a strange incident where people disappeared, wouldn’t the villagers have fled and informed the nearby areas? It’s strange.”

Considering the size of the village, it seemed at least a hundred or two hundred people lived there. Everyone had disappeared, leaving an eerie feeling. We continued our search uphill.

As we neared the mountain peak, a foul stench wafted over.

Cheol-san, with a darkened expression, muttered to himself.

“The stench of a corpse…”

Then, he swiftly used his lightness skill to dart into the forest.

A stench of a corpse meant the smell of decaying bodies.

I, along with the other warriors of the Tang Family, ran through the bushes in the direction where Cheol-san disappeared.

What appeared before us was a large cave.

A large cave entrance, blocked with bamboo bars, was revealed.

“What’s this?”

“Ugh. What, what is this!?”

In the clearing next to the cave were piles of bones – some reduced to skeletons, others fresher corpses.

Numerous bodies were stacked, forming heaps.

Insects entangled in the decay, maggots being picked apart, and a multitude of other insects and poisonous creatures drawn to feast on the maggots.

Even snakes that came to eat those insects.

And then, dead snakes and poisonous creatures, with insects laying eggs on them.

A cycle of life and death, a hellish sight.

A ghastly hellish scene was unfolding before us.

“Even the smell of death is in the air…”

“Horrible. Young Hero, don’t look!”

‘Well, it’s a bit late to cover it up now…’

The Tang warriors shielded me, but I had already seen the horrific scene.

It felt like watching a live scene of a massacre that I would’ve seen in documentaries in my past life.

It felt so unreal that I could hardly believe those were real corpses.

Shortly after regaining our senses, we broke the bars and checked inside the cave for any survivors, but found none amidst the filth-stained cave.

According to Cheol-san, considering there were corpses not long dead, it seemed that until recently, the last survivors were alive, but it looked like the demon had perfected his martial art and killed everyone.

He suggested that the demon might have attacked Cheol-san, thinking he wouldn’t fear even Cheol-san’s father, a terribly fearsome person.

‘The bastard got what he deserved.’

The dreadful scene and the absence of survivors were depressing, but only for a moment.

A cottage, seemingly the dwelling of the demon, was discovered right next to the cave. Cheol-san and the Tang warriors were continuing their search, presumably to recover secret manuals.

While I was crouching, watching the poisonous creatures and snakes crawling towards the cave entrance.

Suddenly, the sound of a bird’s wings flapping was heard.

-Flap flap.

Turning my head at the loud noise, a rather large bird had landed on the pile of corpses, accompanied by a significant sound.

“Huh? Was there such a bird?”

I knew quite a lot of birds, though not an expert, but I had never seen this one before.

The bird, as large as a giant eagle, had long legs and purple feathers, which shimmered with a dark glow as they reflected light. Its golden feathers on the head looked almost like a king’s crown.

What was even more peculiar was that, at first, I thought it came to feed on the corpses, but the bird was walking among the bodies, selectively beheading snakes and swallowing their heads.

I was staring blankly at this scene when suddenly one of the warriors, having finished the search, approached.

“Young Hero, what are you doing? Huh!? That bird? We can’t let it desecrate the bodies further.”

One of the warriors, thinking the bird was scavenging the bodies like a crow, stepped forward, picked up a stone, and threw it towards the bird.

-Thunk!

-Kiruru!

Instead of fleeing in alarm as one might expect, the bird cried out loudly and looked at the warrior with its red eyes.

It seemed to be glaring menacingly.

The warrior picked up another stone and threw it at the bird again.

“Stupid animal, so unlucky!”

-Flap flap!

Finally, the bird began to fly away, evading the stone.

Simultaneously, a strange phenomenon began to occur.

As if a shadow was descending upon the land, the place where the bird had taken flight started to darken ominously with its wing beats.

As the wind from the wingbeats spread, the snakes and poisonous insects on the ground began to flip over on their backs.

No, they didn’t just flip over; they started to dissolve almost immediately.

The corpses, insects, and snakes all began to melt away like heated butter.

-Sssss!

And from the Tang warrior who had approached the bird to throw the stone, a cloudy white smoke began to billow out.

It was as if he had dry ice in his pocket, reacting violently with water.

“Ah, Realgar!”

The startled Tang warrior pulled out the Realgar from his pocket, but its volume was rapidly decreasing.

From what I had learned during the past few days living together, Realgar is used to detect and temporarily neutralize poisons. Such a reaction indicated a tremendously potent poison.

The Realgar was vaporizing wildly.

That’s when it happened.

A hand grabbed my nape.

“Choke!”

As my body was dragged towards the cave, Cheol-san shouted at the Tang warriors.

“Take cover in the cave! That’s definitely a Zhen, a Zhen Bird!” (TL: Also known as poison-feather bird)

‘A Zhen Bird?’

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – 에르훗]

[Translator – Roshi]