Seeking Truth with a Sword-Chapter 523 - 474: Plague Demon

Chapter 523: Chapter 474: Plague Demon
By the standards of ancient Gu Masters, Situ Zhi’s Gu Technique had indeed reached a realm previously unattained, with neither predecessor nor successor. It was only because he was too overconfident, unwilling to hide in the shadows and admire the fruits of his Gu Technique, and instead insisted on conducting field inspections in Suzhou City, that he was arrested by the Imperial Palace Tributor Shen Tuyu.
Wang Bo Fan said, "His student, Yu Shi, has also inherited eighty to ninety percent of his master’s Gu Technique heritage."
"Situ Zhi has already been captured by the garrison, so this rat plague..."
A clan elder asked with hesitation and fear, "Could it have been caused by this so-called Yu Shi?"
Victims of the rat plague would be covered in swellings and black spots. Their skin would turn dark purple, and the horror of their appearance was unprecedented, even more brutal than the great plagues recorded in history.
During this period, the continuous burial of one family member after another had left an indelible shadow in the hearts of the survivors.
Wang Bo Fan shook his head and said, "The letter doesn’t say."
"Then what does the letter say?"
Another clan elder frowned and asked, "Wait, something’s not right. Taiyuan City has now been sealed off by the garrison. How did you get this letter?"
"I found this letter on my desk when I returned to my study this afternoon."
Wang Bo Fan said gravely, "I have secretly had someone check, and there’s no sign of our family estate’s protective array being breached. No one has entered or exited my study at all today.
The methods of Zhao Ming are unbelievably mysterious. Somehow, he bypassed the grand array and delivered the letter to me.
As for the contents of the letter... Yu Shi claims he wants to make a trade with our Wang Family."
"A trade?"
A White-haired Clan Elder squinted, his voice hoarse. "Can he cure the rat plague and stop our Wang Family members from dying?"
"He can’t cure it, but he can allow the Wang Family to take precautionary measures against the rat plague in advance."
Wang Bo Fan had just reached to open the envelope when the White-haired Clan Elder raised his hand to stop him.
The latter formed a hand seal and released Telekinesis, enveloping Wang Bo Fan’s entire body, creating an invisible sphere that isolated him from the rest of the secret room.
"Better safe than sorry."
The White-haired Clan Elder’s eyes shone brightly as he lowered his hand.
Wang Bo Fan nodded nonchalantly.
He understood the elder’s caution: if the plague’s source were to burst out upon opening the envelope, it would mean the annihilation of the Wang Family’s main branch.
He deliberately slowed his movements, slowly opening the envelope, and pulled out a strange talisman from within.
The reason it was so peculiar was that the Yellow Paper Talisman did not bear runes, but rather a child’s crude drawing.
The child had a bright smile, with braids trailing towards the back and up, a thin and slender neck, and a big, round belly—an indescribably vexing sight.
"The letter claims that this talisman is the Plague Demon Talisman, invented during the late Han Dynasty."
Wang Bo Fan said softly, "In the 22nd year of Jian’an, a pestilence spread, and the ignorant hung talismans to ward it off."
The complexion of everyone in the secret room shifted slightly. Wang Bo Fan’s words came from Cao Zijian’s "On Epidemics," which speaks of the great plague of the late Han Dynasty that took lives in every household and wiped out entire families.
The common people back then would hang talismans at their doors in an attempt to resist the Plague Demon.
Cao Zijian dismissed this, claiming that it was the act of the ignorant, and that the real cause of the epidemic was "a misalignment of yin and yang, and the mistiming of cold and heat."
This statement should be seen in the context of the times. Cao Zijian’s brother, Cao Pi, became the Princely Heir in exactly the 22nd year of Jian’an. The so-called "misalignment of yin and yang, and the mistiming of cold and heat" was, in fact, an allusion that Cao Pi’s ascension to Princely Heir was the cause of divine punishment.
Every member of the Wang Family was well-read and familiar with this part of history. The only question that remained was: what use could the Plague Demon Talisman have?
"One might say it’s of no use. After all, plagues still occurred after the Jian’an era, and hanging talismans failed to stop them.
Later generations of Talisman Masters, including scholars from the Academic Palace, also concluded from their research that such talismans had no efficacy.
It was likely first created by charlatans with no true mastery of the arts, who drew them to swindle money from the ignorant."
Wang Bo Fan’s gaze turned deep as he said, "However, Yu Shi stated in the letter that he had thoroughly researched the origins and development of the Plague Demon Talisman and found a way to transform the talisman from fiction to reality, thereby improving it.
Now, the talisman indeed has the power to command the Plague Demon.
As long as someone copies the Plague Demon Talisman and pastes it on someone else’s door, then the plague that was supposed to afflict them will, in the future, be transferred to another."
"How could that be possible?"
A clan elder rebuked, "Absurd! There’s no such thing as a Plague Demon!"
Wang Bo Fan glanced at the clan elder, who was not only a member of the Wang Family but also a member of the Philosophy Society.
Since Ji Xingwang from the Lu Li Academy invented the microscope a few years ago, the Philosophy Society has been using it to observe various objects.
First, they discovered countless tiny creatures in water, leading to the creation of new terms like plankton, bacteria, and cells. Then, they found that the human body is composed of countless cells, a discovery that shattered many past beliefs. Subsequently, they also found that many diseases, including malaria and this current rat plague, are actually caused by bacteria and sporozoans.
Since diseases have their carriers, the so-called Plague Demon and Malaria Demon are just figments of the imagination; thus, talismans naturally could not be effective.
"True Plague Demons, existing as if they were real spirits, indeed do not exist."
Wang Bo Fan nodded and said, "But at the pinnacle of the talismanic Tao, it borders on the divine. Who can say for certain?
Perhaps the Plague Demon Talisman really could bias the rat plague bacteria, so tiny they are invisible to the naked eye, in some way? For instance, bias them towards infecting those influenced by the talisman?"