Versatile mage c1 2021, p.168
Versatile Mage c1-2021, page 168
Tangyue raised her head and glanced at the shameless Mo Fan before saying in an amused yet annoyed tone, "Do you think I would believe it when the town is so deserted?"
"It's easier for us to look after one another when we stay together," said Mo Fan.
"Off you go, get yourself another room. Do you think I have no idea what you're thinking!"
"Miss Tangyue..."
The door slammed closed with a loud bang. Mo Fan could even hear a click from the lock. It seemed like his attempt of following the scene in ancient television dramas was not working.
Mo Fan helplessly went to get himself another room. He dropped heavily onto the bed and fell asleep without being concerned about his hygiene.
------
In the room next door, Tangyue moved the chair to the balcony.
The place was renovated into an inn from an apartment, thus every room had its own balcony.
The day was getting brighter. The usually-prosperous town was now riven with fear. Several figures could be seen moving on the streets, but they were all wearing masks and seemed to be in a rush.
There were sanitary stations, Red Cross, medical personnel wrapped in tightly sealed suits, and ambulances whistling past...
Tangyue had been occupied with the incident regarding the Skyscraping Snake lately, thus she was unaware of the plague around Hangzhou...
"Mo Fan, are you asleep?" Tangyue called out at the room beside the balcony after a prolonged hesitation.
"No, not at all!" Mo Fan quickly sprang up from the bed.
"What are you trying to do, jumping over here!" Tangyue glared at Mo Fan, who had jumped over from his balcony to hers.
"Aren't you worried that someone would eavesdrop on our conservation?" Mo Fan replied
"I don't want to lie to you."
"So the plague has something to do with your god?" asked Mo Fan.
"I...I don't know," answered Tangyue.
"But you told me that he's not poisonous during the ecdysis..."
"That is the truth. He is indeed not poisonous during this time."
"He's not poisonous, but he could be spreading a plague. Your chief has asked you to bring him away not only to run away from Zhu Meng, but to prevent the plague from spreading to the people in the city?" Mo Fan made his inference with a wry smile.
Tangyue bit her lips even more. After a few moments, she finally raised her head and said firmly, "I believe he has nothing to do with the plague."
"But that's from you, Miss Tangyue..." Mo Fan uttered a sigh, not knowing what to say.
"Mo Fan, I...I don't know what I shall do." Tangyue totally lost her mind.
"Be rational, maybe it's better to hand him over to the Councilman. Just as the owner had mentioned, people might start dying in the next few days. You've seen the situation of the town, too. If the plague were actually deadly, hundreds or even thousands of people would die. Miss Tangyue, I don't think you could bear the consequences."
Chapter 365 - Victims
Unfortunately, Mo Fan and Tangyue were trapped in White Town.
The town was in full lockdown shortly after they arrived. No one was allowed to leave the town to avoid the plague from spreading.
Mo Fan and Tangyue suddenly found themselves in an awkward position. They were planning to rest briefly at White Town before bringing the Skyscraping Snake to White Mountain.
Regardless if the Skyscraping Snake were responsible for the plague, they could not let the snake stay in the town. Sending him away was the best thing to do now.
Who knew the town would be in lockdown so soon? With the established barrier, anyone who tried to leave without permission would be detected instantly, making the two of them very anxious.
"Screw it, we have to barge our way out. If our god is the cause of the plague, him staying here any further would only make the situation worse!" said Tangyue firmly.
"Mm, we'll move once it gets dark, but we would surely startle the Battlemages in the town, and even expose our locations," Mo Fan agreed.
"It's fine. The big guy will tell us the location of the Royal Guards and the people of the Magic Court. They won't be able to catch up to us," said Tangyue.
------
That night, Mo Fan and Tangyue made their move.
The town was surrounded by walls and a magical barrier. Anything going in and out of the barrier would alert the Battlemages on patrol.
Mo Fan did not care too much. He summoned the Swift Star Wolf to carry him and Tangyue as they broke through the barrier.
The moon was bright, but there were few stars. The streets of White Town were mostly deserted. Everyone was too scared to go outside due to the plague. Meanwhile, Hangzhou City was fairly normal during the day, but at night, an outbreak took place as hundreds of people fell ill to the plague. The news spread rapidly, leaving the people in total panic.
The pace of the spread was a lot faster than anyone could have imagined. Every pharmacist was dumbfounded, as they had never seen such an aggressive disease. Healing Magic was completely useless against it, while the usual prescription against similar diseases somehow sped up the virus penetrating the recipient's body instead!
Most plagues would have a period of concealment before breaking out. The plague would then worsen slowly and spread, before resulting in a massive death count.
However, this particular plague did not have a period of concealment at all. It went straight to an outbreak.
A plague that spread rapidly would take a longer time for the condition to worsen. Therefore, they should have had enough time to find the right antibody. Yet, not only was the plague spreading rapidly, the condition of the patients also worsened at a crazy pace. A patient who had only contracted the plague a week ago now had blue blisters all across their body, resulting in an extraordinarily eerie sight. They would not be able to see the sunlight the next day if they did not receive treatment in time.
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An hour after Mo Fan and Tangyue brought the biggest suspect of the plague away from White Town, the first three patients who had caught the plague died on their hospital beds.
The deaths had triggered an uproar in the medical circles. Many experts were summoned to the Magic Association's hospital. They gathered around the corpses with gas masks. They were staring at the totally corroded corpses on the beds.
The bodies began to corrode when the blisters burst open. They still looked human in the day, and now their appearance had changed beyond recognition!
"Mr. Lu, what do you think?" asked Zhu Meng in a deep tone.
Mr. Lu waved his hand, signaling the nurses to cover up the corpses. Even he, who had seen many weird diseases before, found the sight unbearable.
"The plague is one of the scariest I've seen in the past few decades. We've calculated the facts. It only took seven days for a person to catch the disease, fall ill and end up like this. Seven days...it's too short for us to react!" Mr. Lu was the representative of the pharmacists. As an expert of Healing Magic, he was dumbfounded by the plague!
"Head of the Magic Court, I'm sure that you're aware that more than a thousand people are affected by the plague?" Zhu Meng glanced at Tang Zhong.
"I know," Tang Zhong nodded.
"Look at the three corpses, do you think I, Zhu Meng would use three lives just to frame your god?" Zhu Meng pointed at the three corpses covered in white blankets and snapped, "I'm not low enough to use such a petty method. If you think your god is innocent, then you should be able to come up with an explanation for these corpses!"
The Head of the Magic Court fell silent.
The outcome was totally unacceptable to Tang Zhong. Their tribe had assumed that the two corpses that were discovered a week later were something that Zhu Meng had set up, but when he saw the people affected by the plague died similar deaths to the first two corpses, he was dumbfounded too!
Zhu Meng isn't responsible for it...
Could it really be the Black Totem Snake?
Had the Black Totem Snake lost control of his savagery during the ecdysis?
The news had already spread wildly across the media. Everyone had their eyes on Hangzhou. The people that had died to the plague was sharing the same symptoms as those who were said to be killed by the Black Totem Snake. The terror would surely initiate a protest among the people to hunt down the Black Totem Snake!
When that happened, even if the Totem Tribe were to make public the truth about the Totem Beast, the Black Totem Snake would still be in grave danger. Even if the government and the Enforcement Union were against it, the pressure from the people would still force them to eliminate the Black Totem Snake.
"The Black Totem Snake has stayed in the West Lake for a very long time, but a plague like this has never happened... I think I'll have to further investigate it," said Tang Zhong with a stern voice.
"Tang Zhong!" yelled Zhu Meng furiously. The beard on his face shook. He pointed his finger at the Head of the Magic Court and roared, "Even now you're still trying to protect the Black Totem Snake, are you seriously aware of the situation? There are 1,324 people affected by the plague, and in a week's time, they will end up like these corpses. As the Head of the Magic Court, are you really going to blindly follow the ridiculous teachings of your ancestors and watch them die!?
"Maybe it looks like the Black Totem Snake is staying in our city, but the truth is he had long existed for God knows how many centuries before humans were here. Our ancestors were only able to survive in the demon beasts' territories under his protection, which allowed them to build a city here to live and work in peace. The history might not have this recorded, but our tribe has made sure that it gets passed down to every generation. I do agree that the Black Totem Snake is the greatest suspect for the plague, but please give me some time. I'll let Tangyue bring you some of his fluid during the ecdysis. We could possibly prevent the plague from spreading if we could produce some kind of antibody from it, but please don't eradicate it!" said Tang Zhong.
Chapter 366 - I'm Your Yi Zhiping
{TL Note: Yi Zhiping is a noble, high-achieving Taoist in the history who has helped lots of people in the chaos of war and victims of natural disasters, but he somehow becomes a bad guy in Jin Yong's wuxia novels. FYI, the reference will only appear in the next chapter.}
After everything that had happened, Tang Zhong, as the chief of the Totem Tribe, could at best protect the Black Totem Snake's life.
Even if it were responsible for the plague, he would still not allow them to kill the Black Totem Snake. His existence was extremely important to Hangzhou. Without the Black Totem Snake, the city would have suffered greatly from the wars that had taken place, or would even have been wiped out of existence.
Tang Zhong only had one request, to keep him alive. If he had to be driven away, so be it. Anything was better than being killed by humans.
"Head of the Magic Court, you think I am too generous. The Threat-Elimination Strategy simply means uprooting all potential threats. How are you sure that the Black Totem Snake will not return and avenge himself? How will you guarantee that he wouldn't unleash his wrath on us for driving him away? Once he's done with the ecdysis, the Black Totem Snake's strength is unmatchable. Do you think you can still comfort him with your worship? I'm sorry, I don't treat the lives of people as a joke! I will kill the Black Totem Snake at all costs!" declared Zhu Meng firmly.
"Then please forgive me for not telling you where the Black Totem Snake is. Arrest me or let me take full responsibility for the plague if you need to, but I still won't tell you his location." The Head of the Magic Court was determined, too.
He knew the history of the city better than anyone else. Their god was the grace of the city, not a plague, and he was extremely confident about it!
Even if he had done something harmful, as long as it was not a great calamity, humans had no right to exterminate him!
"Humph, so you think I won't know if you don't tell me? My informers have just told me that your niece Tangyue and a man were spotted at White Town. By tomorrow, I will display his head right here at the busiest district where he appeared previously, to show people the truth, and the peace they have asked for!" snapped Zhu Meng in a righteous tone.
Tang Zhong immediately frowned. White Town...
It turned out that Tangyue and Mo Fan's locations were exposed. Hopefully, they could escape from Zhu Meng's Royal Guards with the Black Totem Snake's sharp senses.
------
White Town, a man wearing the outfit of the Head of the Royal Guards stood on the lookout post of the town and stared at the mountains in the distance.
"Captain, shall we pursue them?" asked a guard.
"Hold your ground, the interns and the people on probation are already chasing after them. We'll wait for their updates here," said Wu Pingjing, the Head of the Royal Guards.
"Captain, I heard that the Black Totem Snake is rather powerful. Even with all of us attacking him, we wouldn't be able to pin him down, without Councilman Zhu Meng's help..." the guard said in a soft voice.
"Don't you worry, the Black Totem Snake is fairly weak during its ecdysis, the same as an ordinary demon beast. The snake has been around for a very long time. He has defied the laws of nature, thus he will have to bear the consequences. The ecdysis serves as a punishment to him," said Wu Pingjing.
"What a relief… so we just have to deal with that girl called Tangyue and the man with her. What is his strength like?" asked the guard.
"He's just an Intermediate Magician," Wu Pingjing smiled.
"Oh, so an intern of the Magic Court could easily handle him."
------
White Mountain mainly consisted of dried rocks. There were not many plants. The rugged terrain served as a natural boundary between the territories of the humans and the demon beasts.
In the foothills of the mountain was a valley with tall grass without a single tree. As the night breeze swept past, the grass swayed slightly like a tide, resulting in a spectacular view.
A wolf emitting a faint blue glow sprinted across the grassy field. His speed swept across the dark land like a meteor.
"Quick, faster!" Tangyue took a glance at the shadowy figures chasing behind them and blurted out in panic.
"This is the fastest he can run... watch out ahead!" yelled Mo Fan.
Following his words, an unexpected occurrence suddenly took place in the grass ahead. Several vines grew rapidly into a giant cage, waiting for Mo Fan and his crew to run right into the trap themselves.
Meanwhile, more vines were growing from the ground. Some turned into chains wrapping around the Swift Star Wolf's limbs, while the others hardened and slapped in the Swift Star Wolf's direction with great strength.
The Swift Star Wolf rapidly dodged aside. To his surprise, more vines began to appear. Each slash was strong enough to leave a deep ravine on the ground.
There were too many vines for the Swift Star Wolf to handle. A hardened vine struck the beast's head, leaving a bloody cut on his face.
The Swift Star Wolf tumbled sideways after being knocked off-balance by the force. Mo Fan and Tangyue fell off and rolled on the ground.
The flexible vines extended toward the Swift Star Wolf and rapidly tied him down, totally hindering his movement!
Tangyue rose to her feet and said to Mo Fan alertly, "Careful, there's a rather powerful Plant Element Magician!"
Mo Fan nodded and quickly unleashed his will to sense where the Magician was hiding.
Suddenly, two other vines sprang in their direction. The vines were as sharp as spears as they thrust at them.
Mo Fan was startled. The intern of the Magic Court was being rather ruthless by attacking murderously!
"We should burn the field," said Mo Fan.
The grass had significantly restricted their vision, while the Plant Element Magician had the upper hand in the current environment by taking control of the plants nearby.
"No, there are others trying to track us down. The fire would expose us," said Tangyue.
"Is there any way to bait him out?" Mo Fan glanced at his surroundings alertedly.
The grassland was too ideal for a Plant Element Magician. Furthermore, the Magician was not trying to take them down, but rather stalling them so they could not make their way to the mountain.
"Why would I know even if you asked me… Look out behind you!" yelled Tangyue.
Mo Fan turned around and saw several vines crawling toward him.
Mo Fan quickly turned into a black shadow, dissolving under the tall grass. The vines quickly disappeared after missing their target, making it impossible for Tangyue and Mo Fan to interpret where the attacks were coming from.
Tangyue glanced at Mo Fan who slowly appeared from the shadows on the other side and complimented him,"Nice move, someone has become an expert at using the Fleeing Shadow,"
"Thanks to your teaching..." said Mo Fan humbly.
"I'll give cover you while you use the Fleeing Shadow to find his location. Don't harm him, just use the Soul Shadow to root him to the ground," ordered Tangyue.
"Got it!"
Chapter 367 - The Chase
Mo Fan and Tangyue were both Magicians with the Shadow Element.
They exchanged glances with one another, and quickly disappeared into the shadows as their enemy executed their next attack. They quickly moved toward the Swift Star Wolf, whose movements were restricted.
The enemy was clearly aware that the two were planning to rescue the Swift Star Wolf, and no longer conserved their energy. They immediately cast an Intermediate Plant Element Spell, summoning the Forest of Kun to surround the Swift Star Wolf, not giving it any chance to escape.
The enemy was very smart, trying to keep them occupied with the Plant Element without showing themselves. It was obvious that they were waiting for backup.
He had made the right decision, since Tangyue was an Advanced Magician. He would be defeated instantly if Tangyue knew his position.
Tangyue continued to move around using the Fleeing Shadow. She was clearly more adept than Mo Fan at using the spell. Her shadow could even split into two mirror images due to her outstanding speed.
