By the time Little Spring had lost a full twenty contribution points through the assassin game half a day later, we neared our destination, Verdant Hidden Cavern City.

Since this was a new location and the terrain was fairly unique, the kid leaned over the edge of the boat to stare down at the curved roofs below.

This city was halfway up a mountain range near cliffs with a scatter of caves. Probably where the area acquired its name. The other part came from the lush environment that engulfed the buildings in the form of old trees and tall summer grasses that would camouflage the place for those mortals not seeing it from above.

An adjacent river cut its way through the terrain, leaving a few waterfalls in its path.

Little Spring pointed to the massive cemetery that gave the city's location away. Especially since there was a lot of traffic going that direction. Far more than usual, considering the situation.

“Do you think the plague is as bad as we thought?” He asked, brows scrunched.

I counted the fresh graves and frowned. That was a shockingly high number of funerals for a city of 250,000.

Frankly, this was one of the things I hated about living in a Xianxia universe. Too many goddamn pointless deaths. I especially despised the ones that only existed to make the protagonist look grotesquely badass.

It was one thing to read about it. Living it was a whole other matter.

Seriously, fuck the original author.

“No, I think it’s even worse than that.”

He turned to me. “Sister Lin, I know you have a ‌cure, but will we really be okay?”

“Even immortals can die.”

“That wasn’t very comforting.”

“It wasn’t meant to be. It was supposed to remind you to always be careful.”

He scowled. “If even immortals can die, then why call them immortal?”

I rolled my eyes. This kid was so together that sometimes I forgot that he could act like a real almost nine-year-old. “Because they’ve defeated time. It can’t kill them.”

The kid paused for a moment before saying, “Sister Lin, do you ever wonder what the point of cultivating to immortality even is if you can still die after you’ve ascended?”

I flicked his glabella. “Even if you’re not cultivating to live forever, you’re at least doing it to become strong so you can protect your family... which is me.”

I thought the kid might say something smart again but he just nodded his agreement like he'd decided to do that long ago. I smoothed his hair. This older sister wasn’t raising him for nothing.

“Pay attention, but don’t worry too much. We’ll be in and out of here quickly.”

“I’ll try not to.”

***

Salamander flew the ship directly to the front of a palace that included most of the city’s government buildings.

Several clean mortal maids rushed out to greet us and bowed deeply.

“The City Lord’s mansion welcomes the immortals from Indomitable Will Sect!”

I could sense that the City Lord was a peak Foundation Establishment Cultivator — a significant level of cultivation for this area.

Honestly, it surprised me that the plague made it all the way to an insignificant little city like this. And knowing how that happened could help me optimize the cure later.

A young-looking man, who I assumed was the City Lord, walked up to us, followed by three old cultivators at the peak of Qi Condensation. All four bowed.

“City Lord Long Jiayi greets the Immortals from Indomitable Will Sect!”

Having no patience for participating in a boring greeting — and not wanting to bring attention to myself in case a stray demonic cultivator targeted me — I stayed in the middle of the group beside Little Spring.

Of course, then Clear Eyes Mad Tongue went and said, “City Lord, you know, if you ignore all the people dying, your city is rather quaint.”

There was a long moment of awkward silence as it registered to everyone what the teen had just said.

Someone coughed.

The City Lord tried really hard to keep smiling at us.

Salamander sent Clear Eyes Mad Tongue a glare.

“What?”

Okay, I was pretty sure I knew why I had never seen this guy anywhere in the sect during my last life.

To be fair, he wasn’t wrong.

This place did have some beautiful architecture. But, compared to the sect, it was super Podunk. The constant stream of dead didn’t help.

Not bothering to get the teen to apologize, Salamander continued with the niceties as if Clear Eyes had said nothing.

Frankly, he was lucky that the City Lord was desperate for help, or we’d probably have a pointless squabble on our hands. I’d also bet my sword that we wouldn’t leave this place without watching him start a fight at least once.

After the boring part of the conversation had been going for a while, I mentally poked my friend and sent him a telepathic message.

He finally asked the question I had, “Have you discovered how the plague came to your city yet?”

City Lord Long Jiayi grimaced, “Ah, I’m afraid we’re still unsure about that. While my Verdant Hidden Cavern City might be ‘quaint’, it has decent commerce. There is constant traffic coming in and out of here due to the iron mines and the spiritual rice fields, so it’s impossible to determine exactly how the plague came here.”

He said that, but he definitely suspected a merchant brought it over.

Well, that was the most likely source, unless it hitched a ride with some traveling immortal.

::We’ll need access to volunteers soon.::

::I’ll inform him, Senior Lin.::

“Do you already have patients available who are willing to test out a possible cure?”

“Of course. Their families brought them to the palace clinic. Head Physician Xiang You will support you.”

“And speaking of support, are we the only ones coming here to provide aid?”

The City Lord cleared his throat, “Our local Alchemists’ Guild contacted their headquarters. They will be sending a few people over, but they’ll only arrive in a few days to a week.”

Wait, does a city of this size even have a guild?

I sent out a pulse of divine sense to check. Ah, there it was. It had a tiny hall. The highest level member was only a Foundation Establishment medicinal Qi cultivator.

Well, for a city that was 98% mortal, it had some adequate facilities for cultivators. Judging from the forest that practically engulfed the city, there would be many excellent locations for digging up basic spiritual herbs.

This area would be a decent training spot to bring low-level alchemists… Or a certain protagonist.

“The citizens of my city, and I thank you for your help. I’ve already had the best guest courtyards prepared for you. Please follow my maid, Hu Xiaofan.”

A woman who looked to be in her late thirties stepped up.

“This one greets the immortals from the Indomitable Will Sect,” she said while bowing.

“Lead the way,” Salamander said gently. Then she brought us outside and past the various beautifully crafted government buildings. Seriously, these were built using no nails, and instead had intricate joints that only a superb (for a mortal) craftsman could make. They were mundane pieces of artwork that could stand for over a thousand years as long as a fire didn’t burn them down.

Frankly, it was things like this that helped keep me grounded to reality. They reminded me that mortals couldn’t be dismissed or taken lightly, even if they lived a tiny fraction of my lifetime.

At least Little Spring seemed to be excited about this new experience. While he controlled himself, he still secretly took peeks at our surroundings.

When we reached the front of a large courtyard, a young sickly looking boy ran up to the maid. Her face paled. “Little Huan! Are you alright?”

The child scowled. “I’ve been fine since the doctor said I was better.”

Hu Xiaofan, nervously looked at us. “This isn’t a good time. The Immortals are here to help us with the Vine Plague.”

The youth came to a stop in front of us and stared. His eyes sparkled like he was seeing his favorite celebrity. Then, as if an afterthought, he bowed deeply and said, “Hu Huan greets the immortals!”

Well the cultivators from the Indomitable Will Sect looked badass, myself included.

“I apologize. My son has been ‌rambunctious ever since his condition improved.”

The eyes of Elegant Sky Tamer, one of the alchemists near me, gleamed. She asked, “Did he get better from the plague?

“Oh no! He was sick even before that. It’s just… we’ve seen what it’s like to have our good health taken from us, so if you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask me or any of the maids here. Even my son will help in whatever way he can.”

The kid nodded vigorously.

I grinned at the little Hu Huan. “We’ll let you know if we do.”

His face lit up just from me talking to him. To be honest, it warmed the heart.

She awkwardly handed Salamander several keys to three nearby courtyards and left with her child.

I picked the courtyard in the middle with the red doors in front and a moon gate in the back. Neither it nor the other two buildings had defensive formations. I’d have to add those myself.

Before everyone settled in, I gathered them together and addressed the alchemists. “I’ll be working on the basic ‌cure here. While I’m doing that, I need each of you to go out and gather information.”

“What do you need to know, Senior Lin?” Incapacitating Wind asked. As one of the Foundation Establishment level alchemists, I’d be relying on her. It was good to see her take initiative.

I grinned. “Start with checking their plague prevention methods. I need to know if they’re burying or burning the bodies. I need to know if the graveyard is contaminating their ground water. I need to know of any suspicious activity. If you can, find out how this plague is spread!”

“Yes, Senior Lin!”

“Isn’t there anything we can do to help you with the concoction?”

“If I need any help, then my junior brother will take care of it. We have the same alchemy method.”

Incapacitating Wind then looked like she realized something… probably that I was Immortal Zhenren’s disciple. Which meant that mine was the same as my masters — a method that no one else had understood until I came along... and also the fucking reason I had to give in and bring the brat along.

“Before you go, know that I’ll be setting up a few large formations for our protection. While I’m sure the City Lord will do everything in his power to make sure we’re safe — we need to protect ourselves.”

“Yes, Senior Lin!”

“Y-you’ve learned formations?” Drunken Edge asked.

I puffed up my chest the way a proud 10-year-old would. “I have! And I’m very competent at them. If any of you doubt me, you’re welcome to check my work… when you get back.”

“Yes, Senior!”

Muahahaha. Some of their faces looked like they really doubted me. These little juniors were cute.

Incapacitating Wind delegated my requests out to those who could best accomplish it. Then my friend assigned Sword Cultivators to each small group.

Finally, the crowd dispersed, leaving me with Little Spring, Salamander, and Mad Tongue.

The last one on that list said, “You know, I get that you’re our great martial aunt and all, but you can’t be good at both formations and alchemy at your age.”

Once again, he wasn’t wrong. I would doubt the competency of a ten-year-old too. But there were exceptions for everything.

“As much as I admire you, Senior Lin...” This rambunctious brat didn’t admire me at all. “I don’t think you’ll be able to set up these formations. They need a ton of mind-boggling calculations and expensive flags. I mean, do you even have flags?”

From my spatial ring, I dropped a bucket filled with them right at his feet with a loud clatter. “What do you think?”

His eyes widened. “Wait! How do you have so many?”

“This is only for our one courtyard. I have a whole two other buckets prepared for the others.”

It wasn’t like I had specifically assembled the three sets... I just happened to have worked on a bunch of flags recently that I’d been planning to sell. And as the senior, protecting my juniors in any way I could was the least of my responsibilities.

Clear eyes crossed his arms. “Just because you have a stupid amount of flags doesn’t mean you can actually use them.”

Not bothering to answer him, I jumped onto the roof and turned to Little Spring. “Set up my alchemy equipment in the courtyard and start prepping three sets of ingredients.”

“I’ll make sure the area is spotless for you!” He started running.

I grinned. Maybe it wasn’t a terrible decision to bring him with me, after all.

After surveying the courtyard, I made some quick calculations. Then I threw out flag after flag.

This process didn’t go as fast as a certain teacher protagonist’s I’d once read about, but a method similar to his wouldn’t be impossible for me as long as I reached a high enough realm. Until then, this would have to do.

Still, this didn’t take too much time. The main issue was the several layered formations. One defensive, one obfuscation and one environmental to keep the air at a reasonable temperature. It also forced the area to have the perfect humidity to maximize alchemy results.

These alchemists were risking their lives by just being here, so I did what I could to make them comfortable and their work easier.

While I was at it, and because I had the extra flags, I also set up a few small trap formations I could activate during an emergency.

I refused to risk my life and the lives of others just because I was in a hurry to save more people.