"Cough cough cough cough cough..."
Uncontrollable coughing came from inside the dim carriage.
Unlike Tian Sanzhong's state of recovery from long illness, the person inside seemed more like being terminally ill, as if she could stop breathing at any moment.
Head Escort Zhao swallowed his saliva. The sky was already growing late; according to reason they should stop to rest, but Miss Sun's illness really could not afford any delay.
He looked troubledly toward an inconspicuous old man in the convoy.
The old man's surname was Liu, and it was said that he had once been a renowned martial artist who could easily snap an opponent's neck, his methods extremely ruthless.
However, once martial artists passed thirty, they would begin to decline. Elder Liu then followed Master Sun, mainly to train his household guards.
"It's fine, rest for three hours."
Elder Liu's sharp gaze swept once over Head Escort Zhao, and then he said to the maid beside him: "Qinghua, go and take a look at Miss."
"I...I..."
"Hurry up!!"
Qinghua was on the verge of tears, her legs weak, trembling as she walked unsteadily to the front of the carriage.
"Miss, y–your body, are you feeling any better?"
Sun Rong coughed again for a while, then calmed down and spoke gently: "Qinghua, it's fine, help me get something to eat."
"It's good that you're okay, I'll be right back."
Qinghua breathed a sigh of relief and quickly ran to the carriage behind to ask for some food, preparing to hand it to Sun Rong immediately.
But before she could approach Sun Rong, her arm was clamped like an iron vise by Elder Liu, and the porcelain bowl of food in her hands was snatched away in one motion.
"Qinghua, are you insane?!!"
"When stricken with heat sickness you can't touch the slightest bit of meat or fish, how did I tell you before?!!"
"It hurts...hurts..."
Elder Liu gave a cold snort, then flung Qinghua's arm away, and asked someone else for some dry rations to hand to her.
Qinghua's eyes were full of tears. She wanted to cry but dared not, so she could only hold the dry rations and walk toward Sun Rong, her steps slightly staggering.
Elder Liu shook his head, walked to the edge of the convoy, lit his tobacco pipe, and amidst the clouds of smoke his tightly furrowed brows gradually relaxed.
"Elder Liu, could you say more specifically, what is heat sickness?"
Hearing someone ask beside him, Elder Liu subconsciously turned his head, only to see a man with an unfamiliar face, and a child lying on his shoulder.
"You are..."
His expression grew serious as he reached toward his lower back, but very soon relaxed again.
The other had no weapon, and carried a child. He hadn't tried to attack upon meeting, so he shouldn't be much of a threat.
Of course, most importantly, for reasons even he didn't understand, Elder Liu felt an inexplicable trust toward Ren Qing.
"Young hero, such fine skill. To appear before this old man despite the watch of more than a dozen escorts, your ability surpasses even what I had in my youth."
After seeing the strange behavior within the convoy, Ren Qing had chosen without hesitation to follow along, the sense of wrongness in his heart growing stronger and stronger.
Since no large-scale deaths or injuries had appeared in Qingyan Town, could it be that the giant Rabbit-Toad had directly erased the existence of those mortals?
Ren Qing had a faint intuition that if he wanted to find something different within this seemingly ordinary Jingzhou, he could not let any anomaly pass.
The Double Pupils in his eyes turned.
He discovered that Elder Liu was only slightly stronger than an ordinary person, barely counting as having trained some external martial arts.
Could it be that the Blood Moon or the Heavenly Dao Worm was deliberately cutting mortals off from cultivation methods?
Ren Qing took the initiative to converse, and Elder Liu, who was usually silent, responded again and again. They seemed like old friends who hadn't seen each other for years.
The nearby escorts turned a blind eye.
Ren Qing looked at Sun Rong's arm reaching from the carriage, covered in scar-like marks, and from Elder Liu's mouth learned what heat sickness was.
The source of heat sickness was unknown. Every so often in Jingzhou, dozens of people would fall ill.
The patients' skin gradually became covered in scars, their temperament increasingly strange, and in the end they inevitably died without exception.
On the surface, Sun Rong was traveling to Jingzhou City to seek treatment, but in truth, the ancestral tombs of the Sun family were near Jingzhou City, eight or nine out of ten she was being sent alive to be buried.
"Only dozens, hmm..."
Ren Qing was somewhat puzzled. He activated Double Pupils, continuously observing Sun Rong inside the carriage. Her body didn't appear sick at all.
The so-called heat sickness seemed to appear out of thin air, somewhat like a bodily aberration out of control.
But if the heat sickness were related to the giant Rabbit-Toad, then according to Elder Liu's description, the number of cases didn't add up.
The number was simply too small.
Ren Qing couldn't help but ask a few more questions. After repeated confirmation, he learned that each town had only three or four people suffering from heat sickness at most.
Judging by the time when Sun Rong's sudden affliction occurred, it was on the second day after the giant Rabbit-Toad appeared. The two must be related.
Ren Qing pondered silently, and Sun Rong began coughing violently again.
Accompanied by rough breathing sounds, Qinghua couldn't help but look toward the inside of the carriage. Whatever she saw terrified her, and she backed away repeatedly.
A wolf's howl faintly echoed from not far away, and a faint bloody scent spread through the air.
Elder Liu paid no attention to Ren Qing, hurriedly directing the escorts to set up defenses, and drew a short flexible sword from his waist.
Ren Qing stood where he was.
The wolves were not coming for the convoy. After all, with over twenty well-trained escorts plus several of the Sun family's guards, wild beasts would not act rashly.
They had only just finished a hunt, carrying a deer carcass in their mouths, apparently returning to their den, uninterested in humans.
But precisely that bloody scent triggered Sun Rong's aberration.
Sun Rong wrapped her arms around her head, her fingernails deeply gouging into her scalp, blood dripping down her elbows beneath the carriage.
Soon she began to scratch harder, as if only that could bring relief.
Her expression grew more and more distorted, her face contorted to the extreme, like a wild beast long starved, no longer showing any of her former gentle-lady demeanor.
She howled in pain for a moment, then only after the wolves had gone did she recover a trace of consciousness, slowly stepping out of the carriage.
Everyone in the convoy looked at Sun Rong in astonishment; some even wiped away tears at the miserable sight of the Sun family's young lady.
Ren Qing silently covered Tian Ah's curious eyes, lest the little one suffer psychological shadowing.
The skin exposed on Sun Rong's body was shattered beyond recognition, even revealing the muscles beneath, white vapor rising from every part of her body.
The reason it was called heat sickness was because before death, the patient's body temperature would become ever higher, the skin dissolving and sloughing off as if melting.
Even if one wanted to end the patient's pain early, it was impossible. Before the skin peeled away it was as tough as cowhide, sharp blades could barely cut it.
Elder Liu knew that Sun Rong had little time left. He couldn't help letting out a long sigh, his once-straight back now a little hunched.
Though not related by blood, Elder Liu had watched Sun Rong grow up from childhood; seeing her die of heat sickness was truly unbearable.
Sun Rong lifted her head toward the sky, her twisted face gradually calming.
She spoke loudly, with a touch of madness: "Have you seen..."
"That Blood Moon, it's...it's Taiyin Star Lord, I am to let my soul return..."
"Taiyin Star Lord above!!!"
Silently, Ren Qing had already pushed his Double Pupils to their utmost, attaching even three Dream Seeds to his forehead, opening his eyes wide to look toward the sky.
But he could not see the Blood Moon at all, as if separated by a thick wall.
"Taiyin Star Lord above!!!"
Sun Rong spread her arms open, as if embracing that invisible Blood Moon.
Tian Ah seemed to be stimulated by something, trembling uncontrollably all over, until Ren Qing put him away inside the Prison Within the Abdomen, at which point he grew quiet.
Immediately afterward, something unbelievable happened before everyone's eyes, Sun Rong stepped out toward the air, as if walking upon invisible stairs.
A chill ran down Ren Qing's spine. Though his gaze was locked on Sun Rong, his feet unconsciously retreated, ready to flee at any moment.
When Sun Rong had walked about ten meters into the air, she made a gesture of worship toward the heavens, and suddenly, her figure vanished.
Without the slightest sign.
Sun Rong's clothes fell to the ground; inside them remained a single bloody heart.
Everyone else stood dumbfounded, the atmosphere turning utterly silent.
Ren Qing seemed to have understood a little, Sun Rong hadn't been erased, but had abruptly vanished from his sight.
Could it be that all things related to the Blood Moon could not be seen by the naked eye?
Could it be that the giant Rabbit-Toad's actions were leaving a mark, guiding mortals somewhere unknown, somewhere invisible to mortal eyes?
But if that were so, then why were there so few who died of heat sickness...
Just as this thought arose in Ren Qing's mind, the heart Sun Rong had left behind suddenly began to beat, faster and faster.
Then flesh and blood grew around the heart, followed by the beginnings of bone...
Before his eyes, in just a few breaths, Sun Rong reformed, becoming once more a living woman.
The scars were gone; her appearance showed no difference from before.
The clarity in Sun Rong's eyes gradually returned; she straightened her clothes, though it was obvious her soul was incomplete, her movements slightly stiff.
Ren Qing was thoughtful.
Perhaps the dozens of people said to have died of heat sickness had simply been unable to endure the pain of their flesh dissolving, and had accidentally lost their breath.
Sure enough, Elder Liu and the others had forgotten all the bizarre events before, as if from the beginning they had simply been on the way back to Qingyan Town, having nothing to do with going to the ancestral tombs.
They gathered their belongings and prepared to set off along the official road.
Tear stains still marked Qinghua's face, her expression anxious as she said: "Miss, quickly, into the carriage. Your body is already weak, don't catch cold."
Sun Rong responded, and suddenly felt as though someone had patted her.
When she turned to look, Ren Qing was already hundreds of meters from the convoy. Thinking it was an illusion, she turned back toward the carriage.
Ren Qing carefully examined the information flow of Sun Rong.
Aside from her lifespan being slightly shorter than that of ordinary people, there was no difference at all; even her soul would soon recover completely.
Ren Qing shook his head, divided off part of a ghost shadow to hide within Sun Rong's shadow, and then rode his husky toward Qingyan Town.
If he wanted to figure things out, it seemed starting from Wuwei Monastery would be most convenient, such a massive force couldn't have disappeared without a trace.
He was more curious to know what kind of world that other Sun Rong had gone to.
Tian Ah slept a full day and night before waking, still dazed, though when looking toward the night sky he would show puzzlement.
Ren Qing put away the husky, and after walking with Tian Ah for several hours, Qingyan Town came into view, its streets crowded with people.
He recalled the records in Wuwei Monastery's scriptures carefully, and there was already a faint sense of understanding in his heart.