Bai Ning Bing and Fang Yuan departed from the city in a simple horse-drawn cart they had rented with the old man's help, its wooden frame creaking faintly with every turn of the wheels. The horse itself was unremarkable - dusty brown, slow but steady. It was just an ordinary animal not a gu worm or a beast king, but it was the sort of animal that could endure long roads without complaint. Behind them, the city limits gradually shrank into the distance, swallowed by a hazy horizon as the houses turned to wilderness and a dirt path stretched forward into the countryside.
Several jars rattled softly in the back of the cart, their ceramic surfaces clinking together whenever the road grew uneven. Most of them were empty, their hollow interiors waiting to be filled with whatever herbs, roots, or strange flora they might come across. Fang Yuan had deliberately chosen not to stock up too heavily before leaving. It was far more efficient, in his mind, to gather ingredients organically as they traveled - fresh, adaptable, and tailored to the needs of each place they passed through. Not to mention it was cheaper.
As for food, the two of them had no intention of relying on provisions alone. The wilderness was generous to those who knew how to take from it. Mushrooms grew in shaded groves, edible greens lined riverbanks, and if necessity demanded it, even small game could be hunted. A simple spear fashioned from sturdy wood and sharpened stone would suffice for creatures like rabbits.
For the next several days, Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing traveled steadily, their small medicine cart becoming a familiar sight along the rural paths. They moved from village to village, rarely staying more than a day or two in each location. Word spread quickly in such places; the arrival of wandering apothecaries was enough to draw a steady stream of villagers seeking remedies for their ailments.
They were, for the most part, successful.
There were limits, of course - limitations imposed not by knowledge, but by the absence of gu worms in open use. Severe injuries such as amputated limbs or shattered bones lay beyond what simple medicine could mend. Yet the villagers did not expect miracles. Minor infections, fevers, rashes, digestive troubles - these were the everyday afflictions that plagued rural life, and these Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing handled.
Often, the villagers would grow attached despite their short stays. Gratitude came easily when relief followed suffering. Village heads would invite them to stay longer, offering simple meals, shelter, and even small tokens of appreciation.
But Fang Yuan always refused.
"We need to make sure that everyone benefits from our kindness," he would say repeating the same reasoning each time the offer arose.
Between the two of them, Bai Ning Bing handled most of the direct interactions and sales. Fang Yuan knew that she was far better suited to be the face of their business given her looks.
Fang Yuan, on the other hand, rarely involved himself unless necessary.
He would lounge in a chair they carried with them, positioned just off to the side, his posture relaxed to the point of indifference. To an outside observer, he might have seemed lazy, even disinterested. But his eyes missed very little. He watched, listened, and calculated. If a situation required his personal involvement, he would act. Otherwise, he conserved his energy.
At least, that's what he said. Bai Ning Bing thought differently.
***
Several days later, they arrived at another village.
It appeared ordinary at first glance - clusters of simple homes, narrow dirt paths winding between them, and fields stretching out toward the edges of the settlement. Yet there was something subtly... off about the atmosphere. The air felt heavier, the movements of the villagers slower, as though an unseen weight pressed down upon them.
They peddled their goods as was usual, but there was the lack of the usual efficacy here.
"Hey, look!" a child's voice rang out a few days later.
A small group of children gathered nearby, pointing excitedly toward Fang Yuan. "Chair Guy is still here!"
"Chair Guy! Chair Guy!" they yelled out.
Not far away, Bai Ning Bing heard the commotion and let out a soft snort, her gaze flicking toward Fang Yuan, who remained exactly as he always was - reclined, calm, and seemingly detached from everything around him.
He had claimed, in his usual manner, that he was "conducting a mental assessment of their stock and validating the geographical distribution of health-related deficiencies." Bai Ning Bing found that explanation highly suspect. To her, it looked far more like he was simply avoiding work.
Meanwhile, the villagers approached them not with the usual optimism, but with visible distress.
Something was wrong.
Some villagers spoke of deaths - quiet, unexplained, and increasingly frequent. Others described unbearable stomach pains, the kind that twisted the body until breathing itself became difficult. A few admitted, in hushed tones, that the pain was so intense they would rather not endure it at all.
Even more troubling was the general condition of the population.
Nearly everyone appeared sick.
Their skin was pale, almost ashen, and their movements carried an unnatural stiffness. There was a faint tilt to their posture, as though balance itself had become unreliable. The children were no better - thin, frail, their growth clearly stunted. A few limped awkwardly, their bones not forming as they should.
There was clearly something in the air or water causing these changes.
Fang Yuan noticed it immediately, though he said nothing at first.
For three days, they remained in the village, attempting to diagnose and treat the issue. They applied salves, distributed herbal remedies, and tested various concoctions. None of it worked.
On the third day, as Fang Yuan sat in his usual chair, a child approached him, holding a small flask with both hands.
"Chair Guy! Do you want to try some of this?"
Fang Yuan glanced at the container, then accepted it without hesitation. He took a small sip, his expression tightening almost immediately.
The taste was unmistakable.
Sweet - far too sweet for something produced in a rural village like this.
"This is nearly as sweet as honey," he said, lowering the flask slightly. "What did you put in this?"
"I don't know," the child replied. "The man over there makes them."
"They put in sugar cubes!" another child added enthusiastically.
"Yeah!"
Fang Yuan's eyes narrowed slightly.
Sugar cubes? In a place like this?!
"Show me your hands," he said abruptly.
The children obeyed, extending their fingers.
Fang Yuan examined their nails closely. There it was - a faint blackish discoloration, subtle but distinct. The pattern reminded him of something he had seen before in Gu Yue Village. Arsenic poisoning.
But this was different.
The distribution, the symptoms, the progression - it didn't align perfectly.
"Take me to where this is made," Fang Yuan said, standing up from his chair for the first time in hours.
The children led him through the village, Bai Ning Bing following closely behind.
What Fang Yuan found was worse than he had initially expected.
The problem turned out to be far worse than he'd expected. It wasn't just one person manufacturing this, but nearly everyone in the village. "Why are you all using things like this?" Fang Yuan asked, picking up a cooking pot lined with a dark metal.
Most people wouldn't be able to tell what it was, but Fang Yuan could easily guess now that he had put all the puzzle pieces together. The 'sugar cubes' the children spoke of referred to a thick, syrupy liquid they made from these pots and pans. "Where did you get these?"
"Someone from the village brought them back after a long trip a few years ago. He had a lot of them and distributed them everywhere and told us how to make the sugar cubes," someone said.
"And where is that person now?"
"He died a few years ago," came the response. The villagers had kept the utensils and pots and pans, because of the dearth and lack of supplies there.
"This is where the problem is arising from," Fang Yuan told the village head. "These vessels are lined with a thick layer of lead. The person who brought them back likely only got so many because the original owner didn't want them, having figured this out. And these 'sugar cubes' are nothing more than what's called 'sugar of lead' in other parts. The person who made this probably thought that he had somehow managed to come up with some cheat skill for a cheap confectionary but ended up doing the opposite - creating a cheap way to poison people! It is contaminated with large amounts of lead - you all have lead poisoning!"
Fang Yuan was familiar with lead now; it was a minor ingredient in many Pill Path recipes. But one had to be careful not to use too much given its toxic nature! These people however, were doing the equivalent of ingesting massive amounts of lead without even realizing what it was that they were doing.
The village head was slightly taken aback. "Sir Apothecary, what is the cure for this?"
"There is no real way to get the lead out of your systems right now," Fang Yuan said. There were gu worms that could do so, but he couldn't use them. "But, if you stop eating and drinking out of these vessels, as well as stop using this syrup to sweeten your drinks and food, it will eventually wash out of your bodies and you won't get any worse."
He frowned. Truth be told, some of them were so badly affected he wasn't even sure that statement was going to hold water. And lead could stay in the human body for a long, long time. Some of it might not even ever leave. "There are Gu Masters in Tian Ji City - one of you should go there and ask one of them to help. Given the scale of your problem, that is the only permanent fix for those who have already been afflicted."
"Ah, but Sir Apothecary - we are already so weak. I don't know if we can even make the journey to Tian Ji City or appeal to anyone there..."
"Well," Fang Yuan said. "I suppose when we go back we could carry the message there but-"
At that moment, a voice intoned to Fang Yuan.
The land spirit!
It was clearly monitoring the situation all around the blessed land, keeping an eye on the twelve contestants to ensure that they weren't getting up to any shenanigans while the task was going on. It had resolved itself to be a silent observer most of the time, but had decided to intervene here.
"Ah, Fang Yuan... if you wish to use your gu worms here... for this and this occasion only," the land spirit said.
Fang Yuan felt the restrictions on his gu worms lift. However, he and Bai Ning Bing had come here while hiding their identities. How was he going to heal them without giving that fact away?
An idea rapidly came to him.
He and Bai Ning Bing left before returning with several jars of bluish-water. This was simply blue dye that Fang Yuan had obtained from a nearby plant and injected into fresh water, but how were these people going to know the difference between this and medicine?
"Ah, you're all in good luck," Fang Yuan said. "I happened to find the very plant needed to cure this just a small distance away! It truly is nothing short of a miracle."
Fang Yuan went around administrating this 'medicine' which was really just colored water all the while using his healing gu worms. To anyone who spotted this, it would definitely look like Fang Yuan's medicine was working wonders rather than the gu worms taking effect. By next morning, the villagers all felt much better.
Fang Yuan instructed them to dig a large pit outside the village, away from any place where it could contaminate their wells or water supply, and to dump the utensils and pots and pans that were lined with lead there.
"We are so grateful for you help," the village head said. "To think that it was lead poisoning all along..."
"Thank you, Chair Guy and Frosty Woman!" the children yelled out.
Bai Ning Bing frowned. This was the first time she had heard her little nickname said out loud.
"We have names you know; Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing," Fang Yuan said curtly. Despite clarifying what their names were, the legend of Chair Guy and his companion, Frosty Woman, would become a local folk legend around these parts.