Chapter 883: Chapter 883 Rivers of Poison
As the days wore on it became crystal clear to Lily and Kat exactly why those bubbles needed to be popped and clean. After being at the pond for two days they were nearly constantly working to clean off new bubbles as they formed. Kat even had to work through the last night without sleep because resting the night previous had the pair wake to find their cultivators’ legs covered in gunk from the few bubbles that did pop, with the rest of their legs covered in bubbles.
It was constant work at this point. Kat also had to waste time digging a larger hole for the poisonous runoff. What seemed to be perhaps the worst part of the poison was that it kept expanding, constantly making more if itself more like a virus then a poison. At this point Xiang’s and Yang’s legs were more holes then leg. Only their cultivator physique prevented them from collapsing completely.
Lily brough up the idea that it was actually worse for cultivators. There was no way a mortal, like Palo’s father could have survived something like this. Just the blood loss alone was already enough to kill a normal person twice or three times over. In addition to that, depending on where the poison actually sat in their bodies, well, Lily suggested the fact that they both still had working hearts that hadn’t exploded was a minor miracle.
The only thing in those two days they got out of their cultivators was Xiang throwing a rock out of his storage ring. Kat nearly backhanded it into pieces reflexively. Part of her wanted it away, and part of her wanted to let all the dust fall over Xiang for throwing something not just at her, but specifically at her face. Despite that, Kat realised what was going on when she reflexively slowed time down somewhat.
It was a big lump of rock salt and a grater, though the grater was hidden behind the rock and Kat nearly missed it. It was missing large chunks from its pock marked surface, likely from grating off salt. Kat managed to catch it carefully and only lost a few small loose chips of salt that were only just sitting on the rock anyway. After a minor back and forth with Lily, Kat went and looked for a large dead log and then ‘carved’ out a spot for the salt to rest and then left it behind the poison lean-to where hopefully it wouldn’t get any poison on it.
Things took a turn for the... strange perhaps, early in the morning of the fourth day at the spring. It was still dark out, and the sun had not yet risen, Kat was standing her second lone vigil and feeling it wear slightly on her mind. The constant attention the cultivators required made it hard for her to properly relax. Only the lack of anything mentally or physically strenuous helped reduce it from, aggravating to bearable levels.
So when Kat went over to check for more bubbles to pop and found nothing on Xiang’s legs. She paused. Kat bent down carefully, making sure to avoid getting the poison on her shoes. It might not hurt her, but if it got spread around that way it wouldn’t be good. She examined Xiang’s legs closely first. It was full of dried blood and had noticeable purple lines running through it like cracks...
.....
But the only liquid she could see was some weeping from the wounds. No poison in sight. Turning around, to view her other patient Kat found Yang was the same way. *Hmm... I don’t really know what to do here. Palo said to pop and wash all the bubbles until the legs explode then add salt... but there are no more bubbles and the legs haven’t exploded. Do I add salt now? Do I wait? What is the reason for waiting? I don’t know! Hmm... I guess I’ll wait. With Yang not wanting me to apply any salt to her wounds I suppose I can see the difference.*
Kat continued to watch over them both until the sun peaked over the horizon and Lily stirred to find the situation, “Take a break Kat, I can watch them. I might not be able to touch them, but I can keep an eye on them for a couple hours at least,” said Lily.
Kat’s lips thinned at the offer as she glanced at the nearly completely still cultivators. Compared to the strange ramblings, tossing and turning as well as errant jitters, they were nearly corpses. Still, corpses didn’t tend to be much hassle so perhaps that was for the best. “Sure Lily. Thanks for the offer. Just... even if you don’t know I’m needed please wake me” Lily nodded and Kat headed over to the makeshift bed to lay down.
—
“KAT!” yelled Lily right after Kat’s ears picked up something that was a lot like the sound of a cork popping out of a bottle.
In an instant Kat was up and moving, she didn’t even check how long she’d had to rest, simply zipping straight over to the cultivators. It was definitely time and now Kat knew what Palo had meant by ‘legs exploding’ chunks of dried blood, flesh and some muscle were giving way under the torrent of poison that was practically exploding for them legs.
Kat gave a small praise to Lily for remaining safe and watching from on top of their shelter and not anywhere close by. Kat’s makeshift barriers didn’t quite get everything from the initial blast despite the fact she’d shored them up a bit before Lily had woken up. The poison hissed and bubbled on the grass but Kat ignored it for now.
There was way too much poison to wash away, and Kat was very thankful for the channels funnelling it away, creating a rush of poison to the holes she’d made. *Hmm... not really something a bit of water can deal with. Let’s get the salt out.* Kat dashed around to get the salt and the grater. Not even a second later Kat had shorn off a large pile which she wrapped up in her sash. Leaning over the side awkwardly Kat dropped a single grain of salt in the mess to see what happened.
The moment the salt touched the poison it exploded and Kat got a face full of the stuff. Only now it smelled awful, she gagged and stepped backwards wiping the gunk off her face as it dripped, though not fast enough to just get it away from her nose. It was now a vibrant piss yellow and smelled much, much worse. Once Kat could see again she took a look at Xiang to find a moderate sized section on his left around where Kat had thrown the salt was only leaking a bit of poison opposed to a tap on full blast.
Seeing that this strange method was doing something, Kat grabbed a handful of salt from her sash bag and threw it all at Yang before sprinting away as fast as she could. Lily had already taken to the air and made it all the way to the top of some nearby trees. She still hid away on the side that was facing away just for safety purposes.
A tsunami of yellow exploded out from Xiang’s position, washing down into the poison gathering pits and filling them quickly. The smell was horrible and Lily was waiting for a bit of safety to fly away. The problem was, as Kat jumped slightly to take a look, that Xiang and Yang’s mouths were definitely covered by this garbage. Gritting her teeth Kat sprinted back past and to the lake, gathering a bucket of water as large as she could make it in short notice and then running back, dumping the lot of it over them both.
As the water washed over them, Xiang’s body was already looking somewhat better. There was a bit of colour in his face again and his legs seemed to have more skin on them then before. There was only a few trickles of poison left and Kat quickly threw a few more batches of salt into those last few spots. Xiang instantly started screaming, but the cascade of yellow was a good sign. Probably.
Kat ignored Xiang’s pained writhing as she looked over at Yang who was barely moving now that the water was gone. Her breathing was shallow and her legs still leaked considerable amounts of poison. *That... that is not looking good. Xiang is getting... well maybe not better but at least he isn’t leaking enough poison to take out a small town. Yang’s is still going and I don’t know where it’s getting the energy to multiply but this cannot be good for her.*
*What am I supposed to do? I’m no doctor and... and I’m just really not sure Xiang will get better fast enough for me to get a second opinion. The salt seems to have worked shockingly well despite Xiang’s screams as it deals with the last of it. I guess the question is... how worried am I about Yang’s yelling? Would I rather she die? Obviously not... just... I don’t know how bad this is...*
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