Dao of Cooking

Chapter 62

Sun Hu trudged silently out of one of the mansion's back doors into the streets, glancing up at the slightly elevated entrance where two men from the City Guard stood. The tips of their spears shone dangerously under the moonlight, their grips around the shafts so tight that their knuckles had turned white.

They had been sent here by Jin Longwei to supposedly provide protection for Ding Yan, but Sun Hu knew they were really here to keep an eye on him. He snorted at them before slithering down through the streets toward the city proper, his breaths coming out sharp and steady.

He had his doubts about the Governor’s men and had been trying to build enough trust to hopefully become one of them, but this sudden sickness had messed with his timeline. Now, he didn’t have any other choice but to act.

Cursing the time he refused when his father tried to send him to study under one of the Master Pharmacists, Sun Hu took the wind at his back and climbed down the steep steps. He was still clad in artificial skin, but his Foundation was growling out one major cycle after another, sending boiling waves of Qi around his body.

He paused, sensing two weak auras down the steps, probably belonging to another set of City Guard members. Looking around, Sun Hu launched himself into the air with a jump, becoming a shadow darting through the night, fast as a Browntail. In a single breath, he was on the guard pair, his right hand cleaving across the air with a sharp chop, earning two muffled clangs as both men’s knees buckled under his swift taps.

Dusting his robe, Sun Hu took in his surroundings. These steps led to the westernmost exit of the Inner City, a gate that rarely saw any action. From here, it was a long descent to reach the city center.

Guards, he could handle with ease, but his gut told him they were the least of his worries. Something was happening in the city. Something sinister.

His instincts, sharpened by years of active duty, tingled at the back of his head as he regarded the night sky. Hours had passed since the Governor announced that the city would be under curfew until they could get control of the sickness, but even a fool could see that this was no ordinary epidemic.

Even a mortal plague takes days to spread across a city. I don’t know what’s happening, and I can’t feel anything wrong with the spiritual energy, but there must be a reason why those people are gathered in the Library.

Getting that crucial information had cost him a dozen imperial gold coins, a good deal of pampering and boot-licking, and, when none of that worked, a nasty beating that left one of Wan Yuan’s lackeys seeing stars. Sun Hu had tied him up with one of his soul-ropes and locked him inside a cabinet. He wouldn’t be waking up anytime soon.

The trouble was, that lackey had been much stronger than Sun Hu anticipated. To his knowledge, the only Qi Condensation Stage cultivator in the city was the Governor, and even he was at the 3rd Step. So how had that man turned out to be nearly as strong as an early Qi Condensation cultivator?

I don’t like this at all.

Sun Hu descended the steps, his heart thumping in his chest. Along the way, he came across more than a dozen guards, all of whom he handled with minimal force, letting them sleep through the night in peace. Even when they woke up the next day, they wouldn’t know what had happened to them.

Out of the gate, Sun Hu cast his gaze across the wide streets of Jiangzhen, eyes narrowing at the long lines stretching in front of multiple buildings. A deep silence hung in the air, broken only by coughing and wheezing from people whose faces were riddled with yellowish spots oozing pus. Sun Hu pressed down the nausea rising in his stomach and vanished into the shadows as he made his way to the Library.

The sickness had taken hold of hundreds, maybe thousands, slowly sucking the life out of them rather than killing them outright. The healers had never seen anything like it. It didn’t kill — not immediately, at least — but it turned people into walking corpses, barely alive.

A demonic ritual? Not likely. I would’ve felt the change in spiritual energy right away. They couldn’t have done something this massive without affecting the Qi — unless they used a formation.

There was good reason why formations were both highly respected and equally feared. A talented Formation Master with ample resources and time could protect a city for days, if not months. Likewise, they could turn life into a living hell.

There had been one occasion when a Demonic Formation Master used the Nine Demonic Stars Formation to instill boiling rage in hundreds of spiritual beasts and unleash them against one of the Immortal Cities. It had taken a group of Skyguards to deal with the attack, and even then, they hadn’t managed to catch the master responsible.

Of course, for that kind of formation, the master had to have been a Nascent Soul cultivator. Sun Hu doubted a Nascent Soul Formation expert would bother wasting valuable resources to prepare a formation against a mortal city when they could crush it with a mere wave of their hand.

In the end, Sun Hu was at a loss. No matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn’t come up with a sensible explanation. He even considered whether this could be a new kind of sickness, one the Governor’s people were genuinely trying to fight.

They wouldn’t have killed all the Wordcrows if that were the case. It’s as if they were afraid someone would use them to send word.

He shook his head and refocused on his surroundings. Ahead, a group of guards had barricaded one of the streets leading to the Library. When Sun Hu tried another route, he found yet another group blocking the way.

There are too many of them. I can handle the groups, but I don’t want to make my presence known. I should go around them.

Looking up, he could see the tip of the domed Library just a couple of streets away. He approached one of the nearby buildings and climbed up to the roof. From there, the rooftops formed a jagged line stretching all the way to the Library, and no one was in sight.

It seemed the guards hadn’t considered anyone taking the air route.

Sun Hu bolted forward, the buildings flashing by on either side, the moonlight bright in the night sky. He jumped and landed with grace, his feet finding the ground as soft as a sparrow. His Foundation provided explosive strength to his legs, propelling him like a dart toward the Library.

When Sun Hu reached the last building, he came to a skidding stop, peering down at the gap between the roof and the dome of the Library. Below, dozens of guards stood near the statue of Emperor Xia, some lounging by the entrance, their eyes blank and mouths slightly open.

Sun Hu frowned as he noticed some of the guards had those yellowish spots on their arms and faces as well, but they didn’t seem bothered. On the contrary, they appeared almost bored, uncaring whether the sickness ate away at their skin or not.

Taking a step back, Sun Hu prepared himself for the final jump, the fingers of his right hand drawing a seal in the air. The wind suddenly picked up, coiling around his arms, legs, and back, causing the tails of his robe to flap. With that done, he took a deep breath and dashed forward.

The wind pushed him far into the sky, carrying him toward the dome of the Library. The guards below remained oblivious to the intruder soaring above them. When he landed softly, faint whispers reached his ears—voices speaking with hurried intensity inside the Library.

“What are we going to do?” asked a familiar voice, thick with worry. “I thought he would give us at least another month to prepare!”

“Things change, Brother Jin. Get used to it,” replied another voice. Sun Hu instantly recognized it as Mao Hu’s, the man responsible for the postal office and the Wordcrows. “Now, we’d better start thinking of a way to wrap things up without alerting anyone.”

“But we were promised no harm would come to the city’s folk!” Jin Longwei, the Head of the City Guard, countered. “This sickness… it’s killing them!”

“Relax, will you?” said another voice, slightly bored, as if done with the whole affair. Sun Hu’s eyes widened as he recognized Dai Aiguo, the Head Scribe. He had thought that man only knew how to eat. “Hasn’t Lord Governor given his word that nobody will die? They’re just sick. Once this is done, they’ll get better with time.”

“I wouldn’t count on that,” Mao Hu said with a muffled laugh, his voice barely audible through the thick shutters of the Library. “Sure, they’ll recover, but I don’t think anyone will heal completely. You saw it, didn’t you? That rot seeps under their skin. Good luck cleaning that out of your veins, hah!”

“The point is, they’ll survive,” Dai Aiguo sighed, and something thumped inside the Library, sounding like a cane. “They’ll survive, and they’ll pick another Governor. A new era, one might say! They couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome.”

Silence followed their conversation, and Sun Hu inhaled deeply, trying to calm his thoughts. His fingers itched to open the shutters and peer inside, but without knowing what awaited him, he didn’t want to take the risk.

He could feel the Oath’s heavenly chains tightening around his heart, reminding him of his duty. He couldn’t walk away from whatever they were planning here. Somehow, he had to find a way in.

Suddenly, loud footsteps rang in his ears. Leaning closer to the shutters, Sun Hu focused as the Governor’s people resumed talking.

“I’ve been told the formation is complete. Other than a slight hiccup, we can rest assured that no one will leave this city—not even a Core Formation stage expert.”

Sun Hu frowned at the sound of the voice. This one belonged to a stranger.

“Lord Governor.”

“Lord Governor.”

The voices of the men acknowledged the newcomer. Even from his hiding place, Sun Hu could almost picture them bowing in respect to the Governor. When he and his Master had first arrived in Jiangzhen, they’d met a beaming, easy-going middle-aged man who seemed like he could do no wrong.

Yet Sun Hu had known better than to trust that façade. He was always good at reading people, and that man had given off a bad stench—like a wolf clad in sheep’s skin. From the moment he’d laid eyes on him, Sun Hu had sensed something was off.

“Lord Governor, I have a question,” Jin Longwei’s voice trembled slightly. “This sickness… Shall we wait? I’m afraid it has spread to the City Guard. My men are complaining—”

“Little Jin, allow me to clarify a few things,” the Governor’s voice thumped in Sun Hu’s chest. Such strength! Such gravity! This couldn’t have come from a mere Qi Condensation stage cultivator. “This city, these people, the Library upon which we stand, and the houses lining our dear Jiangzhen… none of these matter anymore.”

Sun Hu’s heart raced as he pieced together the Governor’s words, feeling the weight of the city’s doom pressing in on him. A formation had locked the city—an elaborate web designed not just to control but to ensnare.

Quieting his breath, he crept closer to the shutters, his fingers trembling with a mix of rage and anticipation. With a slow, deliberate movement, Sun Hu pried open a narrow gap between the wooden slats.

His eyes widened.

Inside the Library, the Governor stood at the center of the room, surrounded by the highest-ranking men of Jiangzhen—Mao Hu, Dai Aiguo, and Jin Longwei among them. But the man before them was not the affable, kindly figure Sun Hu remembered.

The Governor’s once plump and friendly face had stretched, distorted, as though the skin no longer fit the bones beneath. His eyes gleamed with a pale, eerie light, flickering like dying embers in the room’s low lanterns. His hands, clasped behind his back, were covered in dark, vein-like markings that snaked up his arms and disappeared into the folds of his robe.

The air around him pulsed with a cold, sinister energy that made Sun Hu’s very Foundation recoil.

Jin Longwei’s voice wavered. “Lord Governor, what... what has happened to you?”

The Governor smiled, his lips pulling back unnaturally to reveal sharp, yellowed teeth. “What has happened to me, Little Jin? I have embraced what you were all promised. The sickness in this city... it’s feeding us, feeding Him. It’s a gift. A transformation.”

The Governor turned slowly, his gaze sweeping over his subordinates, lingering on each of them as though weighing their worth. “Three days… In just three days, we shall be born anew, and we shall do it in silence. Nobody will know, no one will remember, but they shall play their part. And thus, we will no longer be bound by the limits of mortality or cultivation.”

As the words hung in the air, Sun Hu backed away from the shutters, his heart pounding in his chest. He had to warn his Master, his father—anyone. This wasn’t just a plot for power. Jiangzhen was on the brink of becoming something far worse than any demonic formation.

With a final glance at the eerie figure inside, Sun Hu vanished into the night. Time was running out, and whatever the Governor had planned, Sun Hu would have to find a way to put an end to it.

.....