Severing Time & Space

Brewing Trouble, Part II

To the east and west of Zahn City were the Twin Fang Mountains, and behind Zahn City was the Wu Clan's farm. It spanned several dozen square li and yielded enough crops to support the Wu Clan, more than ninety percent of Zahn City's population, and still have enough to send across the Shang Kingdom.

Not only did it produce many crops, but they had a lot of livestock as well, including several hundred cows, sheep, and thousands of chickens.

Farming was an important industry no matter which kingdom you lived in. Even cultivators needed to eat. There was a rumor in the Shang Kingdom that Deva Path cultivators could go without food or water for several months at a time, but not even they could live without eating entirely.

Clans out in the countryside like the Wu Clan were responsible for providing the Shang Kingdom with much of its food supply. About two thousand metric tons worth of produce was shipped out across the kingdom yearly via traveling caravans and merchants. This large network was run by the kingdom and supported by various sects and clans.

When Wu Jian arrived with Father, Wu Taohua, Mother, Wu Meiying, and Hou Jingshu to the farm, what they found was something that made all of them sick to their stomachs. Hou Jingshu even dropped to her knees and began vomiting from the sight. He and Wu Meiying were a little better, but they still felt green. Only the adults were in better condition to handle this.

Father clenched his hands. His arms shook with barely restrained rage. Veins throbbed on his forehead as if the blood pumping through them was responding to his anger.

"Who did this?" he growled.

The entire farm was exuding purple fumes and emitting a rotting stench the likes of which Wu Jian had never smelled before. It was vaguely sufleris, but there was an additional quality that made him gag.

All around the farm were the corpses of animals who'd been grazing. Cows, pigs, sheep... it looked like they had just dropped where they stood and now their bodies were emitting the same purple fumes as the farm.

"I... don't know, My Lord," said the young man who had delivered the first report. He was a branch member and one whom Wu Jian remembered from the last time he visited the farms. Swallowing as though his throat was dry, he continued in a stammer. "Nothing had seemed wrong at first... we tilled the fields as usual and were about to turn in for the night when... when it got like this."

"Who was the first to notice this?" asked Father as Mother ran over to purple area closest to the fumes. She wrapped some cloth around her nose to avoid breathing it in, though her eyes still watered as she pressed a gloved hand into the soil and turned it. Even more fumes spewed from the soil like vaporous gas shooting from a Vesper Noxious—a poisonous plant that was actually a magical beast.

"I... I was... My Lord," the youth said.

Father nodded. "You did the right thing by bringing this to my attention so quickly. Excellent work."

"Th-thank you, Lord Yōushì, but the farm..."

"What's done cannot be undone. For now, we need to figure out how this happened and how to rectify it."

The youth said nothing in the face of Father's confident words and merely backed off. At the same time, Mother stood up after gathering several soil samples from the parts exuding purple fumes and areas that weren't.

One of the branch members they had brought with them was carrying a toolkit. They spread out a blanket as mother walked over, sat down, and began laying out the toolkit.

What she had was not a standard toolkit but one used to analyse water, soil, and various ingredients. Mother placed each sample in a small jar, then stuck a tiny paper slip inside of each jar. She made sure to bury the slip in the soil.