Chapter 142 — The Drug That Felled the Grand Academy Hall
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"Someone in the Hall of Imperial Physicians has been poisoned!"
The few scholars passing outside the hall discovered the strange state of things within at once. One of them, in a fluster, rushed outward, crying at the top of his voice, "I'll go fetch the Directorate of Education—the rest of you get in there and save them!"
The other two scholars hurried into the hall, and had no sooner caught a whiff of a fragrance than they toppled stiff as boards.
Before long Chan Master Faqing of Qingyang Hall came charging over with several monks, swept roaring into the hall, and bellowed, "Quickly, save—"
Thud. Thud.
The monks dropped one after another and did not rise. Chan Master Faqing, his cultivation being mighty after all, turned and made for the door; but just as he reached the threshold, his strength failed him at last, and he pitched forward outside the hall.
"Chan Master Faqing has been poisoned too!"
Several scholars outside rushed up to rescue him, caught a sudden whiff of that fragrance, and fell in turn. Seeing this, the scholars all around began shouting for help even as they ran toward the spot—and before they arrived, they too dropped with a thud, thud, without the slightest warning.
The scholars of the Scholars' Lodge, the Divine Power Lodge, and the Princes' Garden got word as well and came hurrying over in alarm, while the men of the Directorate in the other halls turned out one after another, meaning to save them. At the mountain gate, some scholars who heard of the disaster, having no time to contend with the Buddha's Son, rushed up the mountain in panic to rescue their fellows.
Libationer Bashan got word too, and came galloping to the front of the Hall of Imperial Physicians, only to find several hundred scholars and men of the Directorate already lying before it.
—The fragrance of the Bewildering Incense had spread out from the Hall of Imperial Physicians into the open air.
Daoist Lingyun and the other men of the Directorate stood not far off, their faces changing drastically, when suddenly Daoist Shuofeng of Zhenyuan Hall stepped forward, gathered the wind in both sleeves, and said in a low voice, "This poison is formidable indeed. Best to blow the poisoned air apart before we can save anyone!"
Whoosh—
Two gales burst from his sleeves and blew toward the Hall of Imperial Physicians. Libationer Bashan's face changed drastically, and he cried sternly, "Don't blow!"
Before Daoist Shuofeng of Zhenyuan Hall could recover his wits, the thick fragrance in the hall was driven out of it and spread everywhere. Libationer Bashan shouted, "Hold your breath!"
But it was already too late. The fragrance of the Bewildering Incense dispersed in all directions, and scholar after scholar dropped with a thud, thud, their bodies stiff; while the men of the Directorate, whose cultivation ran deep, felt only their limbs go numb, their legs and feet weak, their vital essence turning sluggish, so that they could not move.
Libationer Bashan had seen it early and his cultivation was exceedingly high; he had breathed in only a trace of the fragrance, and at once forced it out of his body with his mighty true essence. Looking around, he saw scholars falling in whole swathes.
"Wretched—is this to be the extinction of a whole house?"
A desolation filled his heart. This fragrance would soon spread through the entire Grand Academy, and those who could keep from being numbed, he feared, numbered only a dozen or twenty. These were men of the Heaven-Man realm and above, able to force the strange fragrance from their bodies.
The Grand Academy was the foremost holy ground in the world today, and now it was to be laid low wholesale by this strange fragrance—if not the extinction of a house, then something very near it.
"What poison are those old scoundrels of the Hall of Imperial Physicians brewing?"