Dao of Cooking

Chapter 61 - Rootremedy

It was deep in the night when Lei woke up to the soft creak of Master Li’s house. After having carried all the essentials to Master Li’s place, he was still on edge and could barely sleep. Fingers shaking, he took a long stick from below the bed and poked Fatty Lou, who had been snoring loudly.

“What?” Fatty Lou blurted out, eyes swollen and saliva dripping down his chin.

“Someone’s here,” Lei whispered, pointing down the hallway.

Fatty Lou floundered to his feet, took one of the wooden sticks, and followed him as they inched slowly down the steps. Master Li’s place was one of the biggest houses in the city—nearly a mansion with two stories and more than six bedrooms. The kids and the old couple were sleeping upstairs, while Lei and his brother-in-arms had taken the room near the entrance just in case.

They crept through the hallway, wooden tiles groaning under their steps, heavy fog rolling in waves beyond the shutters. The night air was cold and reeked of rot, a permanent stench that had taken hold of the city.

Raising the stick, Lei craned his head from the left wall to peek down at the entrance door, heart thumping in his chest. Fatty Lou stood a step behind him, stick at the ready, his face full of focus.

There, in the dark of the long staircase, were two figures climbing up. One of them had a lithe build, but the other was clad in loose robes that reminded Lei of the gray robes of the Governor’s Office.

Taking a step back, Lei glanced at Fatty Lou with a solemn gaze. They both nodded, fingers clenched tight around the sticks, ears perked up as the sound of footsteps grew louder and louder.

“Now!” Lei yelled and bolted into action, bringing the stick down as he stepped aside and took the whole staircase before him. Fatty Lou was almost faster, taking the left side and aiming his stick at the man’s figure, the wood whistling dangerously by Lei’s ears.

“Hey, that’s rude!” came a woman’s voice, and something flashed in the dark as a finger tapped both of the sticks in quick succession, sending Lei and Fatty Lou stumbling back.

Eyes growing wide, Lei had to bang his back against the wall to bring himself to a stop, his head fuzzy as he tried to register that familiar face. Fatty Lou was no better, arms sprawled out against the walls as if he was trying to hug it.

“Sister Luli, it was you?” Lei mumbled, still disoriented as he took in the other figure. “And this… Old Ji! What is he doing here?”

“He’s sick,” Zhu Luli said, helping the man with one arm under his armpit. “I don’t know what it is, but there are yellow spots all over his body. Quick, lay him on the couch. Brother Lou, did you get my tools here? I couldn’t find them in the house.”

Fatty Lou wiped his head with the back of his hand, nodding stupidly at her. “Yes… Yes. We brought everything here. Where did I put them? Oh, right, upstairs. I’ll bring them right away.”

“Good, you do that,” Zhu Luli said, dragging Old Ji toward the main hall and shooting Lei a glance. “Fetch me some cold water, Brother Lei, and a new set of robes. He’s not in good condition.”

Lei sprang into his room, took one of the robes, and went to the kitchen to get some water. That done, he brought the basin to the main hall, where Zhu Luli had laid Old Ji on the big couch.

“Thanks,” Zhu Luli said. She soaked a cloth in the cold water, laying it on Old Ji’s forehead before looking up at Lei. “I saw hundreds of people in the streets, lined before the buildings. What is happening?”

Lei couldn’t tear his gaze away from Old Ji’s face. That wrinkled, sun-marked skin was riddled with nail-sized holes, some of them oozing with pus. His right eye was completely swollen, and he could barely open the other one. Breath wheezed out through his throat in weak gasps, hands reaching blindly about him as if he was experiencing an episode.

“This sickness… It has spread everywhere in just a couple of hours,” Lei said after gulping down the fear and nausea building in his stomach. He held Zhu Luli’s gaze as he continued, “It’s their doing. Those rotten bastards are behind this.”

Zhu Luli’s eyes narrowed as she checked Old Ji’s pulse. Just then, Fatty Lou came in, bringing a large wooden box filled with all sorts of herbs and tools. Behind him, Lei sighed when he saw the little faces peeking out from the staircase, looking greatly interested.

Lei shook his head as he turned back to Zhu Luli. “Can you heal him? Aunt Lifen said she didn’t know what it was, but it’s slowly sucking the life out of people.”

“His life essence is too weak.” Zhu Luli nodded as she fumbled with her box. “The same thing happened when we came across that Elder Huang, remember? His rot can somehow corrode both Qi and life essence. We have to stop it somehow.”

When Zhu Luli relieved Old Ji of his robe, Lei stifled a gasp at the sight of hundreds of yellowish spots. They were everywhere: on his face, on his arms, cluttered on the left side of his chest, and down around his legs. They pulsed like a heartbeat, and each time some rot oozed out, it trickled from his skin before evaporating.

Lei’s Spiritual Sensitivity skill was raising alarm bells in his mind.

They watched as Zhu Luli brought out her herbs. She plucked a handful of roots and crushed them in a bowl, taking the resulting paste into a bottle. She poured a yellowish liquid inside the bottle and corked it, shaking it for a minute to achieve a perfect consistency. That done, she asked for a glass from Fatty Lou and poured the mixture into it, forcing Old Ji to drink mouthfuls of the brownish liquid.

Lei used his Yellow Maiden’s Eyes skill to check it.

[Pakroot Juice: Mortal-Grade, Low Quality]: A mix known for its blood-producing effects.

“That thing… What is it?” Fatty Lou asked while Lei waved off the line of text.

“Pakroot Juice. It isn’t a fix, but it will invigorate his blood and heart,” Zhu Luli said, placing the bottle near the box and taking another, different stalk in her hand. “This will give us some time to work with. Unlike my Master, I’m not an expert on life essence sicknesses. Those are rare and usually only affect mortals, like the plague.”

“Plague?” Lei was taken aback. “You mean the plague plague?”

“What do you think?” Zhu Luli found the time to roll her eyes at him before crushing the new stalk into a powder. “The plague eats away one’s blood and releases a toxin throughout the body. You have to fix the underlying cause rather than treat the symptoms. But this… it’s different. I’ve never seen a sickness suck a man’s life essence this fast.”

Old Ji coughed and wheezed, spattering yellowish blood all over his chest. He started flailing, his one eye wide open, bloodshot with veins around his pupil, arms swinging madly. Lei and Fatty Lou had to restrain him, holding him tight against the bed while Zhu Luli finished with her remedy.

“We need a bucket,” she said, holding a wicked-looking concoction in her hand. “This will make him vomit. I will try to guide the process with my Qi to find the core. You’ll hold him still.”

Nodding, Lei dashed to get a bucket and turned back in no time, placing it near Old Ji’s head. The old man’s face was a sickly pale color, sizzling rot burning all over his skin.

“Be ready,” Zhu Luli said, and, holding Old Ji’s head with her hand, she forced the new mix into his mouth.

[Rootremedy: Mortal Grade, Middle-Quality]: A spiritual mix used against highly aggressive sicknesses, giving one’s own immune system an external boost.

Old Ji choked and gagged as Zhu Luli forced all the liquid in the glass down his throat, closing his lips afterward. Lei could feel the feeble strength of the old man as he struggled against their iron hold. It felt like he was holding a skeleton in his hands, coated with thin, pale skin.

A tense silence settled in the main hall as they waited. Lei shot a strict glance at the kids watching from the staircase, huddled together with their little faces pressed into each other. Then came a loud snort from upstairs, footsteps bounding across the wooden tiles before Master Li made his presence known.

Clasped in his hand was his famed bamboo stick, the one he had used against Fatty Lou when he was little. Lei had heard so much about that stick that even he couldn’t help but flinch back at the sight of it.

Thankfully, Master Li didn’t fall back on his old practices, instead regarding the kids with his hawkish eyes. The bamboo stick thumped in his palm, and thumped again, then the kids were running upstairs, racing against each other to be the first to get back to their beds.

Master Li shook his head after them. Lei could see the warmth and gentle care behind that strict glance before he straightened and gave him a thankful nod. Master Li waved him off and climbed up the steps, leaving them alone.

Just then, Old Ji started trembling. A rattling, rasping cough opened his mouth wide, and yellowish blood gushed out in a wave. Fatty Lou hurried to bring the bucket up to his mouth.

The stench made Lei gag, the reek of rot oozing into his nostrils. Clenching his teeth, he fought back the urge to vomit and instead held Old Ji’s arms tight, nailing him to the couch as he tried to struggle free from his grip.

Zhu Luli had to open all the shutters to allow the wind in, which provided a moment of relief to their group. It felt like hours had passed as the bucket neared being full, sweat pouring down their faces.

Lei stepped back, looking at the old man. Though he kept vomiting, and though he was still shaking, there wasn’t any strength left in his body to even raise his arms. He was a ghost of his old self, a soul on the verge of death, barely holding on.

“This is killing him,” Lei said slowly. Forcing the words out felt like his throat was being cleaved by his own voice. “He can’t make it.”

“We have no other choice,” Zhu Luli said, her gaze steady even as she stared at the old man. Where Fatty Lou and Lei were trembling, she held herself with such stoutness that it was clear this wasn’t her first time dealing with something like this.

“Can’t we do anything?” Fatty Lou asked, his face flushed from the night’s effort. “Anything at all?”

“If we could’ve caught it early, perhaps this would’ve worked. But the sickness has spread to every inch of his body, and he’s too old,” Zhu Luli said, shaking her head.

Some of the yellowish spots had dried out while Old Ji vomited into the bucket, which showed them that the remedy somehow worked. Still, there were dozens of those spots oozing with pus.

Breathing in deeply, Lei pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. There had to be something… anything they could do. He couldn’t just let Old Ji die in front of his eyes. He was a grumbling, pain-in-the-ass old man, but during his first month here, he had helped Lei find his way in this new world.

And he wasn’t the only one. The whole city was dealing with the outbreak. Who knew it wouldn’t spread to the cultivators? Zhu Luli didn’t think it likely, but she wasn’t sure either. For all Lei knew, those rotten bastards had a way to deal with cultivators as well, especially now that it had become clear they were getting inside help from the Governor’s Office.

Something… anything. But what?

Lei glanced back at Zhu Luli and then down at her toolbox. Dozens of spiritual herbs, tools, powders, and pastes were in there—a world he knew nothing about. But then, he had a herbalist and a master pharmacist in the making beside him as well.

Slowly, an idea came to his mind, one that seemed to gain weight as he put more thought into it. Why, these remedies and pastes were no different than dishes, right? If he could somehow cook them and use his Essence Enhancement skill on the spiritual ingredients… would that work?

No harm in trying it. Not like we have any other choice.

“Sister Luli,” he said, wiping the sweat off his face and pointing at the toolbox. “Bring me those herbs, the spiritual ones. I need Brother Lou to watch over Old Ji and make sure he stays stable.”

“What are you thinking?” Fatty Lou asked, curious. Zhu Luli seemed doubtful as well.

“I’m going to cook,” Lei said, giving them a solemn nod. “But this time, I’ll be using Sister Luli’s recipes.”

“My… recipes?” Zhu Luli gawked at him.

Lei smiled slightly. “Yes. Who says a dish has to be edible to be considered real food? I want to see if I can come up with a real spirited remedy.”

…..