Chapter 406

Not long after, the child’s mother had severe diarrhea.

She didn’t have the strength to go to the toilet and couldn’t control herself. She poured out diarrhea continuously, but it wasn’t feces but was almost like pouring out the water she had drunk as is. Jin Ja-gang had never seen such severe diarrhea before.

“Water… give me water.”

The child’s mother continuously demanded water. But as soon as she drank it, she would vomit or have diarrhea.

Jin Ja-gang examined the child’s mother’s condition. Though the child’s mother was so weakened by dehydration that she could barely walk properly, she was surprisingly fine otherwise.

She had no fever and no rash with red and swollen sores.

‘It’s not plague.’

It was strange.

Despite having sufficient drinking water, she was experiencing severe dehydration.

It was fortunate it wasn’t plague, but he couldn’t figure out the reason. Even the child was showing some symptoms of dehydration.

Jin Ja-gang left the child’s house with heavy steps.

Yeong-gwi saw Jin Ja-gang’s dark expression and quietly followed behind.

“It wasn’t plague.”

“What?”

“I need to call a warrior who knows the local geography well to examine the surrounding villages more.”

“I understand.”

Now Yeong-gwi no longer spoke down to Jin Ja-gang. She immediately used movement techniques and disappeared.

Though giving orders to someone wasn’t familiar, with insufficient hands now, there was no choice.

Yeong-gwi conveyed Jin Ja-gang’s words so several warriors went to examine the situation in nearby villages.

And Jin Ja-gang headed toward the central city of Sichuan’s capital together with Yeong-gwi.

Yeong-gwi had doubts.

“Big cities respond quickly, so wouldn’t it be difficult to see the damage situation? Moreover, with entry blocked, we might not be able to get in at all.”

“Bodies that died of plague in the city wouldn’t be processed internally but would be discarded far away.”

“Ah…”

Yeong-gwi understood Jin Ja-gang’s intention. He planned to look at discarded bodies and directly confirm the cause of death.

Indeed, it was as Jin Ja-gang said. There was a separate place for processing bodies. Officials loaded bodies onto carts and either burned them or dug large pits to bury them.

Jin Ja-gang gave bribes to the officials and promised to process the bodies himself, then sent the officials away.

Then he examined the bodies.

It was certain there were bodies that had died of plague. There were red and dark blue spots all over their bodies, and traces of bluish-green bowel movements.

However, there were more bodies mixed in that had died cleanly without plague, simply dried up to skin and bones.

Even Yeong-gwi was puzzled. There were more people who had died of starvation than those who died of plague.

“How… did this happen?”

Jin Ja-gang couldn’t answer yet either.

Jin Ja-gang first cut open the stomachs of bodies that died of plague to check if they died from Five Path Fatal Pills poison.

Five Path Fatal Pills had the effect of creating holes in the five organs and causing death. But the bodies had really simply died of plague. No traces of poison could be seen anywhere.

Jin Ja-gang examined the bodies that had dried up and died. He looked into the body of a baby that had died not long ago but had dried up almost like a skeleton.

The mouth was completely dry, and the skin was rough and flaky. The fontanelle on the crown that should have been soft since the skull hadn’t fully hardened was deeply sunken. The eyes were also surprisingly hollowed out.

But there was only evidence of starving to death from hunger, still no traces of poison.

Jin Ja-gang examined an adult body that hadn’t died of plague.

It had died in almost the same state as the child, but strangely, the eyes bulged out as if they would pop out. It seemed like the eyeballs would fall out with just a slight touch.

“Be careful.”

Jin Ja-gang took a dagger and cut the body’s head down to the bone. Brain matter and blood burst out through the split gap as if exploding.

“The brain is swollen.”

Strangely, several bodies were the same.

Bodies with damaged kidneys rather than heads were also seen.

When there are symptoms, herbs to calm those symptoms can be used, but he didn’t know what disease these symptoms indicated.

Jin Ja-gang stayed on the outskirts of the capital for several days examining bodies but couldn’t find any other abnormalities.

The warriors he had sent on errands also came to report.

“Everywhere people are starving and dying of disease. In some villages, they’re burning living people to death for fear of disease spreading.”

“They burn or bury them, but don’t just leave them dead. They’re afraid people might eat corpses because there’s no food.”

“Most complain of dizziness and repeat vomiting and diarrhea before losing strength and dying.”

One warrior hesitated slightly before speaking.

“I saw quite many people who had gone mentally strange. I saw them licking rocks or taking out and eating raw the organs of animals they had caught.”

Jin Ja-gang thought for a while then nodded.

“I think I need to get the Divine Physician’s help.”

* * *

Jin Ja-gang returned to the Tang Family Main House and met An Yul-jin.

An Yul-jin finished checking Tang Ha-ran’s pulse and came out to meet Jin Ja-gang.

After hearing Jin Ja-gang’s story, An Yul-jin looked at the sky and thought before asking.

“If it’s not plague… don’t you have any hunches?”

When Jin Ja-gang didn’t answer, the Divine Physician muttered.

“From what I guess, it seems like very serious dehydration.”

“Some regions are said to have severe drought, but some areas were being sufficiently supplied with water. Yet they still got dehydration?”

An Yul-jin narrowed his eyes and made a somewhat strange expression.

“After the rainy season, drinking dirty water causes stomach aches, and diarrheal diseases then worsen dehydration. This weakens the body so they catch plague too.”

“The same patients appeared in villages using clean wells.”

Suddenly An Yul-jin frowned and got angry.

“I’m not an immortal, so how can I know things I haven’t seen? I’m already overwhelmed just looking after your wife.”

An Yul-jin went his own way.

Jin Ja-gang couldn’t shake the suspicion that An Yul-jin knew something.

The suspicion wasn’t wrong.

The next day, An Yul-jin had disappeared.

* * *

Tang Gwi-ok was also not pleased with An Yul-jin’s attitude.

However, An Yul-jin kept his original promise.

Tang Ha-ran’s condition was much more stable than before An Yul-jin came. He left behind all prescriptions and necessary things for childbirth before leaving. All that remained was support from the Tang family.

“He was originally hard to trust, so don’t worry about it. This is our matter, not the Divine Physician’s.”

“I understand.”

Though he answered that way, he couldn’t help but keep it in mind.

‘There’s something I missed…’

Otherwise, An Yul-jin wouldn’t have hurriedly left the Tang Family Main House like that. An Yul-jin’s strange look bothered him.

When Jin Ja-gang came out of the family head’s room, Taoist Master Bok-cheon and Bian Bu were waiting.

“We were waiting.”

“Hard to see your face.”

Jin Ja-gang asked.

“Is there any contact from Qingcheng Sect and Shandong?”

Bian Bu and Taoist Master Bok-cheon were liaison officers and reinforcements sent by Qingcheng Sect and Dan Ryeong-gyeong. Bian Bu was a strategist with much martial world experience, and Taoist Master Bok-cheon could help with force whenever needed.

Bian Bu answered first.

“There’s no particular movement in Shandong. The flood damage was so great that recovery work is still ongoing.”

Taoist Master Bok-cheon said.

“There’s been a problem in Guizhou. Our sect’s disciples encountered suspicious people.”

“You said suspicious people?”

“We haven’t found out what kind of people yet. There seems to have been some conflict too. And there’s talk that Sword Empress’s disciple was seen there.”

Ice Phoenix Son Bi in Guizhou?

The fact that the location was Guizhou bothered him. It was the only place without a Martial Alliance branch, and was a region connecting from Yunnan and Sichuan to the Huguang area.

“If there’s any more news coming in, please let me know immediately.”

It was time to watch without missing even small movements.

Bian Bu asked.

“By the way, did the Divine Physician suddenly run away?”

Jin Ja-gang told them the stories he had told An Yul-jin, and what he had seen outside the Tang Family Main House.

“Serious dehydration?”

“You mean it’s not plague?”

“That’s right.”

Bian Bu asked again.

“Did the mentally ill people lick rocks and chew animal organs raw?”

“Yes.”

Bian Bu held his long pipe and puffed before making an offhand comment.

“Is there a salt shortage?”

“What?”

“No, there are sometimes such cases. Like deer that only eat grass suddenly licking dead animals’ organs… And aren’t Sichuan and Yunnan places where rock salt comes from? They might have licked rocks because of salt shortage.”

At that moment, Jin Ja-gang felt like he’d been hit in the head.

“Salt…”

Taoist Master Bok-cheon said.

“Hmm… that could be. When floods occur, salt becomes hard to obtain too. Though the nation monopolizes salt, corrupt officials commonly hand over salt monopoly rights to big merchants. Big merchants hoard salt to gain enormous profits, then offer those profits as bribes to officials again.”

Bian Bu also supported Taoist Master Bok-cheon’s words.

“Well, salt makes such big money… Ah, those bad guys. No wonder the merchant world stepped forward saying they’d do relief work and distribute food. It was all just for show. In the end, they’re selling salt and keeping the profit.”

“When rulers are corrupt, the people always suffer.”

“Of course. The Taoist Master knows well too. That’s the life of common people at the bottom. Like thirst that doesn’t disappear no matter how much water you drink, no matter how hard you struggle to escape, you can’t get out.”

Jin Ja-gang asked.

“Thirst doesn’t disappear even after drinking water?”

The village he had visited several days ago, the child’s mother was like that.

“Dehydration from not eating salt makes diarrhea worse the more water you drink, actually making dehydration worse. Bones swell causing delirium and hallucinations, and often madness.”

Jin Ja-gang remembered the bodies that had died in the city.

It was exactly as Bian Bu said.

‘Could it be!’

Jin Ja-gang barely gave proper greetings and ran to the medicine warehouse.

He grabbed any conspicuous medicinal materials in the medicine warehouse and put them in his mouth.

Medicinal materials that undergo processing generally become bland after salt is removed. But materials that are commonly dried for use should contain at least a very small amount of salt.

But…

“It’s bland.”

He tried other medicinal materials.

“This too… this too!”

All medicinal materials in the medicine warehouse were bland. No saltiness could be felt at all. They had been forcibly soaked in water to remove salt.

While Jin Ja-gang was in the medicine warehouse for several days, he barely ate meals. He didn’t need to because he had eaten so many medicinal materials.

But because he had only eaten materials with salt completely removed, he had no salt intake at all. Was that why he was so thirsty?

People who had gone mad licking rocks and eating animal organs were acting instinctively. Herbivores usually consume trace amounts of salt contained within by eating large quantities of plants, while carnivores that don’t eat grass consume salt by eating the blood and organs of herbivores.

Jin Ja-gang went to the Five Path Fatal Pills manufacturing room.

He clearly remembered the taste of the poisons in the manufacturing room. But to confirm, Jin Ja-gang tried eating various things again.

“It’s salty.”

The manufacturing supervisor had once said.

He used salt-cured poisonous herbs to preserve toxicity. But all materials being salty was definitely strange.

Jin Ja-gang bit his teeth hard.

“King of Hell! I’ve figured out where you intended to hide the Five Path Fatal Pills.”