Chapter 75.1

Editor: Kat

“Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough——“

Ji Hongcai coughed so hard that the palm of his hand that was stretched out to Yin Baitao was blood red. The tourists were shocked by Yin Baitao’s words, and all stood up. Some people retreated subconsciously, but when Jiang Hongguang and the others hurried to Ji Hongcai to help him without hesitation, they felt embarrassed for retreating and followed suit.

“Everyone else step back, except Yin Baitao and Jiang Hongguang.”

But at this moment, Wei Xun coldly ordered them, providing the panicked tourists with confidence and leadership. They did as he said, and in an instant, only Wei Xun, Yin Baitao, Jiang Hongguang, and Ji Hongcai were left in the tent. At this moment, Ji Hongcai coughed to the point of convulsing. He was panting heavily, his eyes bulging as they stared at nothing in the air, and his lips turning blue.

“Leader Wei, Hongcai is suffering from altitude sickness——”

Jiang Hongguang was rarely anxious, but before he finished speaking, he saw Ji Hongcai gasping for air. Although he was still breathing heavily, it was no longer as frightening as before. He was stunned when he saw Wei Xun’s ferret sneaking in from outside the tent with the Tour Guide’s Brooch in its mouth.

Leader Wei had long since thought that Ji Hongcai might be deprived of oxygen due to this acute illness!

Jiang Hongguang suddenly calmed down, and his feelings of panic subsided a lot. With the function of the Tour Guide’s Brooch, “Rhodiola,” encapsulating everyone, everyone in the tent felt much more comfortable when breathing. But Ji Hongcai was not out of the critical situation yet.

“It’s like he has a thorn stuck in his throat.”

Yin Baitao came over with the first aid kit and gave Wei Xun and Jiang Hongguang masks, while she covered her mouth and nose with a neck warmer. Only then did he start to check Ji Hongcai’s situation carefully.

Clinical psychology was different from other types of psychology. It was the integration of clinical medicine and applied psychology. Those who learned this discipline were considered to have a medical background. They were psychiatrists who could prescribe medicine and diagnose diseases, while those who learned applied psychology could only serve as psychological counseling, but they couldn’t prescribe medicine or diagnose whether the client really had depression or not.

In their tour group, Wei Xun and Yin Baitao were relatively systematically trained in medicine. Although they couldn’t be compared with a doctor who majored in medicine, their skills were barely enough in this situation to assist Ji Hongcai. However, Ji Hongcai’s current situation was so bad now that it didn’t look like a simple thorn was stuck there.

He was now unable to utter anything, his body was hot, and his body was twitching like he was convulsing from time to time. His eyes were round, and the whites of his eyes were covered with black blood as if he had some kind of eye disease.

However, when someone stayed up late or had eye diseases, the whites of their eyes would be bloodshot. Most of the arteries and veins surrounding the iris would be blue or red, and they were rarely as black as Ji Hongcai’s arteries and veins at this time.

Wei Xun opened Ji Hongcai’s eyelids and found that his swollen eyelids were also full of black arteries and veins, while the situation on his upper eyelids was not as serious as his lower eyelids. And in his nasal cavity, there were also black arteries and veins around the mysterious triangle on his face.

“What did you guys find when you explored the ruins?”

Wei Xun fed Ji Hongcai half a bottle of universal antidote, which he seized from IV-1. After the antidote was poured into his mouth, Ji Hongcai’s high fever subsided immediately. Although the dark and bloody “lines” on his eyeballs and other places grew lighter in color, they were not completely eliminated.

It seemed like he was poisoned, and the universal antidote could only solve the problem temporarily. They needed to find out the root cause and pluck it from the root. Yin Baitao wanted to carefully open Ji Hongcai’s mouth, but he had gritted his teeth tightly. She couldn’t do anything against the strength of an adult man.

At this critical moment, Wei Xun took action. No one could see how he did it, but in the blink of an eye, Ji Hongcai’s jaw was dislocated by Wei Xun.

A stench spread rapidly from his mouth, causing Wei Xun’s hands to shudder, and he almost snapped Ji Hongcai’s chin back again. Yin Baitao’s face also turned pale from the scent, but her sense of professionalism as a doctor stopped her from retreating, and she shone the flashlight to carefully check whether there was any debris in Ji Hongcai’s throat.

However, Ji Hongcai had too much saliva, pus, and blood in his mouth and throat, and it kept pouring out. That terrifying stench came from the red and yellow liquids. Yin Baitao placed the cotton balls on that area, but no matter what, she couldn’t wipe off the pus and bloody saliva, and there were extremely fine black hairs on the pus and bloody cotton balls.

They were hard to see at first glance, but it was creepy to look at.

Jiang Hongguang’s hands were trembling as he supported Ji Hongcai, but he tried to keep his tone calm as he said, “The ruins were west of the area you delineated, and they were the ruins of a cave formed after the mountain collapsed. They were five or six meters deep, and other than the murals and pottery fragments that Hongcai mentioned, there was nothing else.”

“Bring Qin Xinrong here,” Wei Xun stated.

Ji Hongcai, Qin Xinrong, and Fei Lezhi were in a team of three. They definitely knew better than Ji Hongcai what happened in the cave at that time.

Qin Xinrong had waited outside and didn’t leave. Wei Xun didn’t let him into the tent, and the two conducted a Q&A while they were segregated by the tent. Qin Xinrong spoke in an organized manner, and Wei Xun quickly understood what happened at that time.

“At that time, Ji Hongcai and I walked in front, and Fei Lezhi stayed at the back of the team. The three of us didn’t explore separately. We discovered this cave together at roughly the same time.”

Qin Xinrong said, “The hole was not deep, and we reached the bottom quickly. There were only some petroglyphs and fragments of pottery pots, and nothing else. Ji Hongcai and I reached 35% of the exploration progress, but Fei Lezhi only reached 5%.

“Ji Hongcai simply wanted to help Fei Lezhi complete the basic requirement for completing the task. He wandered around the cave a few times, knocking around with a shovel, trying to see if there was a hidden door. Instead, he found that a pile of stones at the end of the cave. It didn’t look like it was supposed to be there. It seemed that it was something that surfaced due to the earthquake, and he suspected there may be a path behind.”

Qin Xinrong said that Ji Hongcai knocked off a few pieces of stone, and said that there might be a pathway behind. They were going to come back and report to Wei Xun first. At this time, a hairy black worm crawled out of the pile of stones at the top of the cave, hanging by a thread. Then, it landed on Ji Hongcai’s head. It was discovered by Ji Hongcai, and he reflexively used the shovel to smack it to death.

Qin Xinrong knew that there might be bugs in the cave. Considering that they might have to investigate the bug, he brought the bug back in a sealed bag.

“Ji Hongcai didn’t let the bug touch him, but he was suffering slightly from altitude sickness and was panting heavily. Could it be when he took a deep breath——”

Qin Xinrong also felt that Ji Hongcai suffered from this very abruptly. It must have something to do with the bug. Could it be that the black hair on the bug’s body was highly poisonous, and Ji Hongcai accidentally inhaled it into his windpipe when he took a deep breath?

But if it was really sucked into his windpipe, could he still be saved? With their rudimentary medical equipment, who could operate on Ji Hongcai?

Even with the stench, Yin Baitao was not afraid of getting down and dirty. She cleaned up the pus and blood in Ji Hongcai’s mouth, and she didn’t dare to wipe herself even if her forehead was soaked in sweat. Jiang Hongguang was anxious to the point that he felt despair. His mind was in utter chaos, and he looked at Wei Xun subconsciously, with a begging look in his eyes that he didn’t notice he was revealing.

“This is The Insect of Evil recorded in the Tibetan scriptures,” Wei Xun informed.

He picked up the sealed bag just now and was scrutinizing the smashed black worm. The others thought he was observing the appearance of the black worm, but Wei Xun was using the title of [Archaeologist] to take a closer look.

Wei Xun previously thought that the title’s introduction was, “you can always obtain unexpected convenience in matters related to the relics you have excavated.” If he originally delineated the general area of the ruins and discovered the ruins related to the temple first, then when Jiang Hongguang, Ji Hongcai, and the others finally found the ruins in this area, would the ruins be counted as part of “the relics Wei Xun excavated”?

From the moment he saw the black worm, he knew its name with just a glance. And from this, Wei Xun knew that he had guessed correctly. However, maybe this was indirectly related to him. Wei Xun couldn’t get all the information as quickly as he could when he saw the dual cultivation murals. Instead, he had to look at the worm a little longer to obtain more information about it.

“Take Ji Hongcai outside and light a fire.”

Wei Xun named the monster, and Jiang Hongguang seemed to see a small beam of hope again. He and Yin Baitao hurriedly propped Ji Hongcai outside and sat down at the campfire where they were cooking at noon. Yin Baitao hurriedly added a few pieces of solid fuel, the fire lit up again, and then she added a few pieces of charcoal to the fire.

At the other corner, Wei Xun took out the human skin thangka map and used a knife to cut a thin strip on the edge. The strip he cut was as wide as a finger.

Then he thought about it, walked to the edge of the campsite again, summoned the snow leopard, and raised the leopard’s front paws to take a closer look at them. With a few clicks, he trimmed the snow leopard’s claws like he was cutting a cat’s claws. Wei Xun took into account that the snow leopard was a wild animal, and it had to hunt by itself, so he only cut a little off. In total, there were only a few clumps of claw clippings. On the contrary, the snow leopard seemed to have sensed Wei Xun’s emotions. It was very quiet, its throat slightly rustling as if to comfort Wei Xun, like it was asking what happened.

“Everything’s fine.”

Wei Xun patted the snow leopard’s head. When he returned to the campfire, he found that Ji Hongcai was on his last breath even though only a few moments had passed. Jiang Hongguang’s eyes were completely red, and he kept calling out Ji Hongcai’s name in a low voice, trying to keep him awake. Seeing that Wei Xun returned, he hurriedly moved out of the way.

“You two hold him.”

Wei Xun called Fang Yuhang and asked him and Jiang Hongguang to kneel beside the campfire and support Ji Hongcai, with Ji Hongcai leaning forward and facing the fire. His jaw wasn’t snapped into place back yet, so the pus dripping from his mouth, mixed with drops of blood, dripped directly into the flames, making a crackling sound. It was accompanied by the stench of roasted rotten meat, which made everyone’s scalp grow numb.

When Ji Hongcai’s face was reddened by the heat, the pus and blood flowing out of his mouth had lessened. Wei Xun instructed Yin Baitao to push aside the few pieces of vigorously burning solid fuel, leaving only the burnt charcoal. There were no luminous flames, but the fire was still hot.

“The Insect of Evil in the scriptures stands above the six paths of reincarnation. It devours all evils, and is the origin of all evils.”

Wei Xun wrapped the snow leopard’s claw clippings in the strip of the human skin thangka he had cut. This human skin thangka was not in the shape of a square since it used the skin from the back of the gusin, and the map was in the square in the center of the thangka. Other than the area where the map has been drawn on the thangka, there was excess skin on the edges. It was a normal skin, but it had been soaked in a variety of secret medicines, so it has not rotted after thousands of years.

At this time, Wei Xun divided the strip of human skin into three small sections, each of which wrapped a little bit of the snow leopard’s claw clippings. Then, he baked the small “human skin bun” on a charcoal block.

The human skin that was soaked in countless secret medicines suddenly emitted a lot of smoke when it was heated. The strange thing was that the small pillar of smoke did not spread out when it rose, but rose straight up, and the claw clippings inside it curled up due to the heat, exuding a smell similar to burnt protein, mixing with the scent of the smoke with a strange medicinal aroma.

Jiang Hongguang, who was closest to him, was suffocated by the scent so much that he was brought to tears. The scent of this medicine was so overbearing that it made people unable to breathe normally. They didn’t know what Wei Xun was going to do, but at this moment, they could only listen to him. Only Wei Xun was the true pillar of the group.

“Ji Hongcai isn’t coughing anymore!”

Jiang Hongguang inhaled so much of the smoke that he felt dizzy, but he still did not forget to pay attention to his brother’s situation. They supported Ji Hongcai, pointing his face in the direction of the top of the thin smoke pillar, and most of the thick smoke was breathed in by him. At some point, Ji Hongcai stopped coughing, and no more pus and blood trickled from his mouth.

Jiang Hongguang felt that Ji Hongcai’s hand, which had been hanging powerlessly, suddenly exerted force, as if he had regained consciousness. He began to struggle and turned his head to avoid the pillar of smoke. However, Jiang Hongguang just saw hope of Ji Hongcai getting better, so he immediately pressed Ji Hongcai’s head directly above the smoke pillar.

The snow leopard’s claw clippings that were wrapped in human skin were quickly roasted and burned, and the column of smoke was no longer there, but Wei Xun didn’t throw another clipping down immediately. Instead, he raised his hand and snapped Ji Hongcai’s jaw back into place, asking Yin Baitao to feed him water.

“This, should we put some of the ashes into his water?” Yin Baitao was trembling as she asked about the ashes from the dried human skin.

Ji Hongcai’s illness was too strange, and Wei Xun’s method of curing him was too bizarre. That made her thoughts deviate to curing Ji Hongcai with metaphysics.

“Why do we need the ashes?”

Wei Xun glanced at her in disbelief, asking, “Aren’t they dirty?”

Ah, this… Yin Baitao kept her mouth shut and fed Ji Hongcai water as Wei Xun instructed.

“Don’t swallow it, gargle and spit it out,” Wei Xun instructed Ji Hongcai when he woke up.

Ji Hongcai nodded reluctantly. His jaw had been dislocated for too long, and he still couldn’t close his mouth completely. While rinsing his mouth, water leaked out. Fang Yuhang held a spare small pot in his hand to intentionally collect the water that flowed out from Ji Hongcai’s mouth and made him spit into the pot. And after seeing what he spit out, Fang Yuhang shuddered, and he felt a chill crawl up his back.

Everyone saw a dense layer of gray things floating in the dirty red and yellowish water! They were so tiny that at first glance they looked like a layer of dust, like gray bran, but on closer inspection, they looked more like the eggshells of some kind of bug.

How could there be such a thing in Ji Hongcai’s throat?!

“It’s still, itching…”

T/N: The PR-ed version of the chapter will be up tomorrow. I will also be posting a bonus chapter tomorrow.