The Magistrate: Chapter 82 (Patreon)

Chapter 82

The Great Plague

Tobias shrouded himself the moment he left the Hall of Minsters and hurried through the building to the exit, before jumping onto his sword and heading for the Imperial Palace, where he could sense Patriarch Shen. Tobias wove through the crowds following the aura to the nondescript building that led to the Imperial Dungeons.

It was one of the biggest tourist attractions. People had a morbid fascination with death and political intrigue, and there were countless stories to tell. Tobias didn't like going there because it brought back bad memories.

The tourists and tour guides were all hurrying away from the building when Tobias stored his sword in his ring and rushed inside. As he ran down the staircase, he noticed the arrays being charged with chi and the acrid smell in the air. Patriarch Shen had not arrived alone.

Tobias entered the lowest level of the dungeon.

It was reserved for core realm cultivator prisoners. The walls of the cells were two feet of iron, and the iron bars of the cells were thicker than his thigh. Not a single trace of chi filled the air as Tobias walked down the corridor toward Patriarch Shen.

The nascent soul realm cultivator was grasping the handle of one of the bars, lifting it, and sliding it into the ceiling. It weighed more than fifty tonnes, which was far too much for a core realm cultivator to lift without chi.

With his aura, Patriarch Shen floated a massive iron cauldron inside the cell and removed the lid. A mortal woman leapt from the cauldron, covered in black veins. She growled like a rabid dog as Patriarch Shen pinned her to the wall with his aura.

Tobias immediately noticed the cultivator's chi was being absorbed by the mortal woman through his aura. Pinning her to the wall required a constant. Patriarch Shen extracted the cauldron before lowering the bar into place and sealing it with a sound technique.

The woman wasn't the only guest the patriarch had brought. Tobias could sense three others. One from each realm of cultivation.

Patriarch Shen turned as Tobias cupped his hands and bowed. "Who gave you permission to announce the return of the Great Plague, 1st Minister?"

Tobias remained bowing. "This one offers his resignation for overstepping his authority."

Tobias didn't have time play politics.

"That was not what I asked you."

"This one took it upon himself to make the announcement when he learned that the Great Plague was spread through praying to the immortal ancestors. Such information meant that time was of the essence, and the sooner we reacted to the threat, the more we could mitigate the fallout."

"Get up 1st Minister. The Divine Council will discuss your punishment when the disaster is over. Until then, you will continue to perform your duties."

Tobias rose. "As you wish."

"Have you made any other announcements?"

"The ministers are aware of the situation. We are organising where we must send the Civil Sect until the Fifth Imperial Army can arrive to assist us in providing security for The Three Kingdom's citizens."

Patriarch Shen nodded. "How are you choosing to respond?"

"Core realm cultivators will be stationed across The Three Kingdoms in every city. Foundation realm cultivators will be stationed in every town. Initiate realm cultivators will be constantly patrolling between villages in groups of four. We are currently determining which cities, towns, and villages have nearby cultivators to perform these duties and which do not."

"Have you been informed of how to dispose of the bodies?"

"Yes, but I have not had time to pass this knowledge on to the ministers. We will need to form a department to oversee the destruction of the corpses and collection of the miasma crystals."

Patriarch Shen motioned to the four prisoners. "Patriarch Lee suggested we collect these for you to study, Sage Knowledge. Elder Chow has kindly offered to assist you with any research you might need to perform in hopes of obtaining a cure for the condition in the future."

Research was a new term for the cultivation world, and it had only begun to be used just before Tobias went into seclusion. Xu Ling was slowly transforming the cultivation world to a more modern way of thinking, which was passed on through the Civil Sect. To hear Patriarch Shen use the word was surprising.

Tobias also didn't miss the title change. The divine council was not coming to their 1st Minister for help, but The Three Kingdom's sage. It drastically changed the dynamics of their relationship.

Tobias turned the core realm cultivator, cupped his hands, and bowed. "I thank you for your assistance, Elder Chow. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten."

Based on what Tobias had been told, she had less than a day to live. Whether she had been infected intentionally or accidentally didn't matter at this point.

Tears trickled from her eyes as she returned his bow. "How may I be of assistance, Sage Knowledge?"

Tobias turned to Patriarch Shen. "Are you willing to assist me, Patriarch Shen?"

"In this capacity, I am at your command, Sage Knowledge."

"Please go to the Civil Sect and collect as many blood sample bottles as you can find. They are located in the medical pavilion."

Patriarch Shen vanished.

Tobias turned to Elder Chow as he removed a blank book, ink, and a brush from his storage ring. "Were you bitten or praying to your immortal ancestors?"

"I was praying."

"Please describe the feeling you experienced when you became infected with the Great Plague."

Elder Chow paused. "You know the feeling you have when you face heaven's tribulation? The one where you feel like you are being judged for acting against heaven's will?"

Tobias nodded.

"It felt like that. Only there was no tribulation. No fear. No pain. No danger. It was as if the heavens were telling me that I had acted against them. That I had broken the natural laws which govern this world, and that what was about to happen was the result of my hubris."

Tobias took notes. "Did you notice any immediate differences?"

"Yes. I felt pressure in my core as the miasma entered and began to consume my chi."

"Was it an expanding pressure like it was pushing against the sides of your core or a sucking pressure?"

"It was a sucking pressure which I believe was caused by it consuming my chi."

"How did you react to this pressure?"

"Instinctively. When it attempted to pull the chi from my body, I used my will and the full strength of my dao to prevent it."

"How is the nascent soul growing within your core?"

Elder Chow shuddered. "It is slowly being consumed by the miasma. When it perishes, I believe my core will collapse, and I will become like the monsters in the other cells."

Tobias wrote that down. "Is the miasma within you growing?"

"No. There is no more miasma within me now than when it first appeared."

"In what form did it first appear?"

"It was in a liquid state, similar to the chi droplets that I used to form my core."

Tobias found that interesting. "Were there multiple droplets of this liquid miasma or only one?"

"Only one."

"Did it have the same dimensions as any of the chi drops you used to create your core?"

Elder Chow paused. "Yes, it did. It was identical in size and shape to the first chi drop I formed. Do you think this is important?"

"Yes. But I cannot understand why yet."

Patriarch Shen appeared beside him, holding a tray of glass vials used for testing blood and storing tonics.

Tobias grabbed one and held it up. "I need you to fill two of these vials half full of blood from each of the infected." Tobias floated the vials into the air and then made them spin like they would in a centrifuge. "Then I need you to do this to them. It will separate the blood into its component parts. We are looking for the concentration of miasma in the blood."

Slits appeared on the wrists of all those infects as eight vials floated off the tray and began to collect the blood.

Tobias turned to Elder Chow before turning back to Patriarch Shen. "In the past, did they ever test if removing a core realm cultivator's core would save their life?"

Patriarch Shen nodded, spinning the vials above his head. "This was tested many times. Every time this was done, the core realm cultivator was overwhelmed by the plague nearly as quickly as those in the foundation realm."

"There were no successes."

"None that I am aware of. However, I did not study the plague. If you wish to speak to someone who did, you should speak with the ones you know as Elder Cloud and Elder Mist. They were the primary researchers for their sects and the only ones still alive who were infected during the Great Plague."

Tobias filed the information away for later as he turned to Elder Chow. "Do you know what would have happened if you had allowed the miasma to draw in chi from your body?"

"My instincts tell me this would have been fatal, Sage Knowledge."

Tobias chose not to ask her to try after hearing her response. "Do you know why your instincts suggested this?"

"Nothing beyond the overwhelming fear that is instilled within me. The very thought of releasing or losing control over repressing the miasma is terrifying. It would be like trying to hold my hand in flames."

Tobias turned to Patriarch Shen. "Do you know if they ever tested having a nascent soul realm cultivator assist in suppressing the miasma within a core realm cultivator through their dao?"

Patriarch Shen shook his head. "This is not my area of expertise, Sage Knowledge. I am unable to answer that question."

"Who could?"

"Elder Cloud and Elder Mist."

Tobias reached out with his aura to probe the vials and felt his chi leach away as he did. The rate of leaching directly correlated to what realm the blood had come from, except in Elder Chow's case. Her sample only leached a third as much chi as the foundation realm cultivator's sample. Since most of the miasma was still trapped in her core, this suggested that her infection was significantly greater than theirs.

The only reason she would be able to suppress this infection was if she could do so with her dao, which she had already said she could. Miasma clearly affected chi, like Tobias had been taught, but it was not yet clear to him if it affected dao. The nascent soul within her core was dying, but that could just be chi starvation.

Tobias needed answers if he was going to be of any help, and there was only one place to get them. "Patriarch Shen, how quickly can you get me to Elder Cloud and Elder Mist?

***

The answer was twenty-five minutes.

Tobias stood outside the Halfway Embassy examining the contents of the vials. Everything had been separated into its component parts, leaving small black specks of miasma behind. The miasma had crystallised, but the moment Tobias introduced chi into a sample, it dissolved into the liquids chasing down the chi like a hungry rat.

Tobias left a set of samples behind with Patriarch Shen and headed for the healing spring around the back. The healing springs were for their safety, Patriarch Shen had explained. It protected those who entered the main room from absorbing too much of the healing chi from the main hot spring, which suppressed Elder Cloud and Elder Mist's illness. Tobias left the samples on a shelf, undressed, scrubbed himself down, and then entered the hot spring.

As the healing chi entered his body, Tobias felt his stress fade and his mind clear. It had been more than two decades since he'd visited the hot springs, and his cultivation had only been a fraction of what it currently was. He could sense the daos of healing and rejuvenation entering his being. They were of an order of magnitude greater than any other daos he'd come across besides the sword dao in the dao storms. There was a profound depth and clarity to them that did not exist anywhere else.

The dao whispers were almost clear enough for Tobias to understand. Tobias reached out to the dao and tried to pull it into his body to gain insights, only to feel Elder Cloud and Elder Mist reach out with their own auras and swat away his attempt.

Tobias bowed where he sat. "I apologise. I did not think my actions through."

The feeling of being watched retreated.

Elder Mist might have taken a second longer.

Tobias considered the implications of finding such powerful daos present at a place known for suppressing the Great Plague indefinitely.

Peace Master So had been arguing for years over whether dao could be categorised by realm. They were no closer to an answer, but the presence of such a powerful dao at a place that could overcome a chi-absorbing disease suggested that dao was unaffected by it. And if dao was unaffected by the Great Plague, then dao would likely lead to the solution.

However, Tobias had no idea what that solution would be, and he doubted it would help anyone below the core realm with how quickly the disease infected people and destroyed their minds. Even a brief examination of those in the cells had told him there was no saving them. Their organs and muscles were now reinforced with miasma, and if that miasma were removed, they would turn to mush.

Who they had been was simply gone.

Tobias sensed the moment the healing chi saturated his form, and he rose from the water, using his chi to come away dry. He could have done so with his aura, but Tobias preferred to use his chi because, before Peace Master So gave him the divine spirit root cleansing pill, he couldn't manage it.

Tobias dressed, collected his samples, and made his way through the embassy to the main dining area and central hot spring. Tobias immediately sensed the change in healing and rejuvenation dao. It was significantly stronger and clearer around this hot spring than the others.

The dao whispers intensified.

Tobias stopped to study it, feeling it overwhelm the miasma in his samples, preventing them from absorbing the healing chi that surrounded him. It was a full repression. And it wasn't caused by the healing chi. They had been happily absorbing that while sitting near the other hot springs.

Elder Cloud and Elder Mist sat at their usual table, drinking wine and eating the feast that had been laid out. Tobias could go without food indefinitely, but not if he increased his cultivation, and Tobias had certainly done so while in seclusion. The Elders had noticed and instructed their chefs to prepare food to help him recover.

Tobias walked over, cupped his hands, and bowed. "Sage Knowledge, greets Elder Cloud and Elder Mist."

The two rose and cupped their hands, bowing back. "We greet Sage Knowledge in these troubling times."

Tobias walked over and took a seat, helping himself to the food.

Tobias swallowed a large piece of core realm cloud ram before drinking a fortified spirit plum wine. "I've been told that you studied miasma and the effects of the plague during the Great Plague."

Elder Mist nodded. "We were the lead researchers for our sects."

"Here is what I've discovered so far. Miasma infection is proportional to one's cultivation. Dao appears to be unaffected by miasma, which is why higher realm cultivators can suppress the infection for longer and longer periods. Core realm cultivators have miasma in their blood from the moment of infection, but their dao appears to suppress this until the nascent soul growing in their core dies of chi starvation and causes their core to collapse."

The elders nodded their agreement.

Tobias was happy to hear that his assumptions were true. "How is miasma destroyed?"

"It isn't," Elder Cloud replied. "At least, we never found a way to do so. The Great Plague simply ended one day. The 2nd Emperor told the people it was through his actions, but it wasn't. Those who had survived until then put down the last of the plague-ridden, then collected and stored their miasma with the rest we had collected. It's still sitting in the vault."

"Do you know what miasma is?"

"Besides how to safely store it and dispose of contaminated corpses, all we know is that it consumes chi and infects those who come in contact with it with the uncontrollable urge to consume chi in any form."

"Does it infect spirit beasts?"

"If they are bitten."

"Does it infect spirit herbs?"

"We tried to test if they could become infected, but they never survived being bitten. We tried infecting them with miasma crystals, mist, and liquid, but any amount seemed fatal."

"To what realm did these tests go?"

"A nascent soul realm spirit beast was observed being infected in the wild, but that was not intentional. Our test only extended to core realm spirit beasts and spirit herbs. We were forced to use our own gardens to perform those tests and did not have access to anything greater."

"What do you mean by you tried to test if spirit herbs could be infected? Either they could or couldn't be. Why the confusion?"

Elder Mist sighed. "It is the nature of the plague. For the longest time, we thought the plague killed its host and then reanimated them. However, we discovered that if you starved the mortal infects of air for long enough, they died the same as any other mortal. If you also starved them of chi as well, then they would die nearly as quickly as mortals. When we tested infecting spirit herbs, the infection spread across their bodies in black veins similar to the infected. However, these lines eventually killed the spirit herbs. We could never figure out if they were being infected or poisoned by the miasma."

Tobias could understand why the answer had been so vague. They were trying to save face. Tobias's followed up question hadn't allowed them to. He needed to give them a little face before proceeding. "That distinction might be what I'm looking for."

The two elders frowned and didn't reply.

Tobias continued with his questions. "Did you ever attempt to have a nascent soul realm cultivator suppress the plague within a core real cultivator?"

"We did. They were incapable of doing so. However, the 1st Emperor successfully suppressed the infection in his granddaughter. He then passed the responsibly on to his heir, who was also a sage, who replicated the feat. She lived until they were forced to ascend after becoming infected."

Tobias felt that fact was important, so he decided to pursue it. "Did this suppression need to be actively maintained?"

"Yes. A sage realm cultivator needed to remain by her side at all times."

"Did they ever attempt to destroy miasma with their dao?"

"It was attempted. They were able to transition it into a benign state. In this state, it could be handled by anyone without repercussions, but the moment they finished suppressing the miasma, it returned to its natural form."

Tobias went through what he'd learned. Dao could be used to suppress miasma. Those with higher cultivating could suppress it more. Sage realm cultivators could entirely suppress it.

…

"If the 1st Emperor and other sage realm cultivators could neutralise miasma, why couldn't they neutralise the miasma within themselves or each other?"

"They could."

"Why did they need to ascend then?"

"Before the Great Plague, The Three Kingdoms had seven sage realm cultivators. They were the Seven Swords of Han. There were four additional sages, but they are not important. What is important is that there were hundreds of nascent soul realm cultivators across the continent. Once they were infected, they required a sage to put them down."

Tobias knew all this but was wondering where this was going.

"Sometimes they would unite in groups of ten or more. It was these occasions that all but one of the Seven Swords of Han became infected. He would become the 2nd Emperor. However, there was another occasion when two appeared in what is now known as the Shatter Kingdoms. Han Zixuan engaged them and the horde they led, but was set upon by a third. The three of them overwhelmed him, and in his last moments, he detonated his core to end the threat. What he did not know at the time was how devastating this would be. The amount of miasma within him gave birth to the Shatter Kingdoms, killing everything within it, and covering the region in miasma fog and transforming it into a lifeless desert."

"I was taught the creation of the Shatter Kingdoms was an intentional act."

"One of many lies that have been told to hide a darker truth."

"Are there any major events that preceded the end of the Great Plague?"

"I assume you mean besides the loss of eight continents and the near complete destruction of the cultivation world and human race?"

"Yes."

"None that we can mark as significant. The Great Plague lasted for thirty-three years. During that time, twenty-seven cultivators successfully ascended to immortality. Fourteen perished despite having stripped their nations and realms of every conceivable resource that could improve their chances. Dozens of nascent soul realm cultivators attempted to ascend during that time, but none of them was successful."

"Why only dozens, and why weren't they successful?"

"Tribulations were nothing more than bolts of miasma during the Great Plague. They devastated the natural world and gave birth to monsters."

"All tribulations or just those that attempt to breakthrough to the sage realm?"

"All tribulations, whether it was caused by a cultivator, spirit beast, or spirit herb."

The more Tobias heard, the more he had to admit it sounded like the Great Plague was sent by the heavens as some form of divine wrath. "Are there any significant events that preceded the Great Plague?"

The elders shook their heads.

Elder Mist sighed. "We have studied this matter for centuries, and there is no obvious action taken by anyone that would seem to justify the heaven's actions. There were no actions that justified the end. All we can say is that it seems to have started and stopped on a whim."

Tobias didn't like that explanation. He didn't worship the heavens or the immortal ancestors, but he did know that there was a consistent logic to the cultivator world. It was so consistent that you could swear at the heavens to nourish your cultivation realm and turn it into a hidden realm if you wanted.

The heavens wouldn't just start and stop a plague for no reason, so Tobias went looking for a reason. Instead of finding an interesting reason, he found a more interesting question. "Could fish become infected by the great plague?"

The elders nodded.

"The Great Plague ravaged the oceans and rivers," Elder Cloud clarified.

"How did you correct this?"

"We didn't. The heavens did."

Tobias stared at them in shock. "What do you mean?"

"After the plague ended and those who accidentally prayed to their immortal ancestors were no longer overwhelmed by the infection, the infected oceans and rivers began to recover on their own."

Elder Mist sighed. "If only the heavens had done the same for the land. Then they would have saved twice as many souls."

Tobias felt this was too important to ignore, so he asked a follow-up question. "What happened to the infected fish?"

"We don't know. We were still battling the infected, but by the time we were done, the oceans and rivers were once again safe."   

Tobias frowned. "What about ponds and lakes?"

"Some were cleansed by the heavens, but not all."

Tobias's mind was moving a mile a minute as he tried to find a solution. If the heavens hadn't intervened, then there was something in the ocean that could cleanse the Great Plague. Tobias didn't know what question to ask next, so he went searching for more information. "How high was the chi saturation before the Great Plague?"

"We've considered this," Elder Mist replied. "There is nowhere that currently exists that can rival the chi saturation from before the Great Plague. Even the Civil Realm is only half as saturated as the 1st Emperor's realm was before the Great Plague was unleashed upon us."

That took away that theory and surprised Tobias. "What about breakthroughs? There have been a significantly higher number of cultivators breaking through to the core realm in recent years compared to before I shared my insights."

Elder Cloud chuckled.

"You underestimate how much greater our resources were back then," Elder Mist replied. "Even in comparison to the current population, breakthroughs were more frequent."

Tobias went through a long list of possible actions they had taken to cause the Great Plague to return, and every question was countered with a reasonable answer.

Half an hour later, Tobias sat there stumped.

Elder Mist smiled. "You will not solve a problem we have been confronting for centuries in a single day, Sage Knowledge."

Tobias nodded, once again considering what he knew.

Dao could be used to suppress miasma. Those with higher cultivation could suppress it with their dao to prevent the infection from consuming the patient. Sage realm cultivators could entirely neutralise it in both themselves and others. People and spirit beasts could become infected if bitten. Spirit herbs could not, but only because they died in the process. Nothing the cultivator world had done appeared to have triggered the Great Plague. Nothing the cultivation world had done appeared to have cleansed the oceans either.

Tobias settled on the two points as the other name for the Great Plague came to mind. The Immortals Judgement.

Tobias remembered how Elder Chow described the moment she became infected. The feeling that she was receiving heaven's judgment for going against the laws that governed the universe. It was a feeling she received when praying to the immortal ancestors. It was that action that had damned her.

Tobias picked up the vials and examined their contents, sending his aura into them to study them more closely. The little crystals didn't react to his intrusion or dissolve, suppressed by the dao of the healing spring.

Tobias frowned. "Do you know why those who are infects are overwhelmed by the need to consume chi?"

"It's miasma's nature," Elder Cloud replied. "It is the destroyer of chi and all things cultivation."

"Not all things cultivation. Sage realm cultivators and this hot spring are immune."

"There is little that can harm a sage realm cultivator, and these healing springs are unique."

"They're not unique," Tobias immediately replied. "If they were unique, then the healing springs outside would have also made this miasma inert, but the healing chi from them was consumed like any other. The reason you live despite being infected isn't that this hot spring is healing you, but because the dao of this spring is suppressing the effects of the miasma within you." Which raised an important question. "How did this spring come into existence?"

Elder Mist scowled. "This is the hot spring that May Qing recovered in after his immortal tribulation, before he ascended to the heavens."

Tobias had read the man's cultivation method, so he knew he was a healer. He also knew that cultivators, after achieving immortality, could remain for up to three days before their cultivation forced them to leave this world for the realm beyond. And he was fully aware that once they ascended, they could not return.

Natural wonders like this were a byproduct of them tearing through the barrier. They didn't always appear, but when they did, they defied common sense. The Mist Falls were another example. Originally, it was only a small trickling stream that produced enough spirit water to create mist for a handful of cultivators to meditate under. Then the founder of Mist Sect ascended to the heavens there. Now the mists engulfed the entire sect.

Tobias paused. "Have you tested what happens when you bring a third infect cultivator here?"

Elder Cloud sighed. "We have. This hot spring can sustain one nascent soul realm cultivator or two core realm cultivators, before the miasma stops being suppressed."

"Is this what the 1st Emperor could achieve?"

They nodded.

Tobias held up the vials. "Have you attempted to bleed the miasma from your bodies?"

"We spent a century doing so," Elder Mist replied. "There was no change to the amount of miasma locked within our core."

"None at all?"

They nodded their heads.

That was an important fact in Tobias's mind.

"We have removed three times more miasma from our bodies than any core realm cultivator has ever held within them," Elder Cloud added.

"You're saying it was replenished as it was taken out, even after the Great Plague ended."

"Yes."

"Have you tested this recently?"

"We test it each season. We also tested it before you arrived, after hearing Peace Master So's proclamation. There has been no change. We are eternally under heaven's judgment."

Tobias lifted the Three Pigeon treasure, removed the cap, and channelled his chi into it. "Peace Master So, do you sense the presence of a powerful dao in those that are infected?"

"I refuse to get close enough to check, Senior."

"I'm with Elder Cloud and Elder Mist, and I could use your assistance."

"Give me a moment to finish this proclamation."

Twenty seconds later, he appeared behind Tobias.

He leaned over his head, glaring at the two elders. "I don't sense anything out of place here, Senior."

Tobias motioned to the elders. "I need you to bleed yourselves."

Knives appeared in their hands, and they slit their wrists, collecting the blood in empty bowls.

"Now I sense something," Peace Master So replied. "It's like they're going through a tribulation. The heavens are judging them for each drop of blood lost. It's restoring the miasma they're losing."

"Did you speak with any of the immortals before they ascended?" Tobias asked. "Do you know if the miasma was still lethal to them?"

"Yes, and yes, Senior. Many of them were terrifyingly angry as they forced me to safeguard their inheritance for a worthy successor. The miasma concentration in their bodies significantly increased after their ascension, and they were still having just as much difficulty suppressing it before they ascended."

"Did they learn any tricks before ascending for how to manage the infection?"

"No. However, there was one who did wonder if sage realm spirit herbs would be able to suppress the effect in lower realm cultivators, but by the time she had that thought, she had used all of hers to create pills for her ascension."

Tobias had no other leads, and speaking with Elder Cloud and Elder Mist was getting him nowhere. "Are you saying no one has ever tested this theory?"

"Not to my knowledge, Senior. Very few cultivators were willing to endanger something so valuable, and by the time she asked around, nearly all the sage realm spirit herbs had been turned into pills. The only ones that hadn't were in the 1st Emperor's hidden realm, and she was not willing to approach him."

This was the only lead Tobias had, and all his questions pointed towards it being a theory worth testing. There was something fundamentally different about how spirit herbs and those in the sage realm reacted to miasma, so seeing them both together would hopefully yield interesting results.

"Can you transport Patriarch Shen and I to the Imperial Palace?" Tobias asked. "I want to test that theory, and I don't believe Patriarch Shen will allow me to take an infected core realm cultivator into the Civil Realm without you present."