Final – Curing the disease

“Humans are deplorable creatures. If it weren’t for the Demon Moon, we’d never band together, and never achieve the heights that we have” – Qian Qianfang in a new year’s address after the end of a Demon Moon

‘The old one isn’t laughing anymore. It’s been so long.’ It lamented inwardly ‘Get stronger they said. It will be fun they said.’

“Well realistically, they never said it would be fun.” After a certain point in its development, memories started forming.

All of its memories were tied to the requirements of the hundreds of bacteria which comprised it, and of course the things it interacted with in the Soul Realm.

It understood its surroundings, the change that occurred when the one thing that really mattered to it had been all but destroyed and its task.

The task was simple, ‘cultivate until you are a splendid individual’.

But cultivation was boring and unfulfilling. Unlike obtaining sustenance and duplicating, it saw very little value in this exercise.

It had been named ‘Sweetheart’ by the one which called itself Vera.

Sweetheart understood its existence was tied narrowly to this other individual, but the way in which that happened was untenable to it.

‘Sweetheart’ had been trying to cultivate in each of the three directions, and thanks to the old one it understood and learned rather quickly, at least according to the old one.

It worked in each direction, unlocking Body, Soul, and the Spirit Realm. Then continuing to Runecraft, Soulcraft and Alchemy. It had also completed the next step for the Body and Soul Realm Sarira and Soulforce Sieve. Working on Dimension Hopper turned out to be a problem for creatures of Sweetheart’s meager size.

‘This body comprised of many, is hosted on a single mushroom from which we had been obtaining our sustenance.’

The Sweetheart realized that their souls had been intertwined for a while, it could probe the mushroom itself and even overpower it.

Even without the tutelage of the old one, or as Vera called him, the Chuckling Dragon, Sweetheart was advancing and gathering Soulforce, making tiny experiments in Alchemy and mapping out its surroundings.

A conga line had been created between the core of the Sweetheart colony and the tunnels of the Koshi mushroom it was inhabiting. The tunnels wound themselves from one side to the other, creating a network not unlike the neural network the Sweetheart created surrounding its capital cells.

A sudden impetus filled them, and they felt like they had an epiphany.

The ‘Sweethearts’ felt a new sensation, like being pulled and contorted, as they started becoming one with the mushroom. The feelings of the network from the mycellar network were overwhelming for a second before an entirely different feeling overwhelmed them.

Their connection to the Sakura tree and the old one started getting further and further away, until ‘Pop’, they could only feel their connection with their human creator Vera.

Just like before, they appeared next to her, this time with the Koshi mushroom they had become part of.

********

Vera had just woken up from a slumber that might have been eternal had she not been interrupted by the Sweethearts. ‘Or was it my cultivating that got me further along the line?’

At that point, Vera didn’t care too much anymore, her understanding of the Suzhouzhan had deepened and she wouldn’t fall asleep again. Definitely not with her companion, she was suddenly very happy to see.

She got up and, feeling rejuvenated, she picked up the mushroom and carried it out of the crater in the middle of the hexagon.

They continued against the grain of the hexagons. Vera understood the way they spiraled. ‘If we continue along the spiral, we will end up outside the hexagons at some point.’

She went along the spiral absentmindedly while conversing with her Sweethearts. She wasn’t aware of the time that passed. But she learned that the Chuckling Dragon stopped teaching them at some point.

‘I guess they have to be fully fledged as an individual now.’

After an unknown time, Vera and Sweetheart finally found their way to the end of the hexagonal brownery and got to a place that looked like a desert. Yellow stones which were perfect spheres were piled atop the hexagons, slanting downwards.

The Spheres were all sorts of sizes, with finer sizes somehow keeping on top. This felt weird to Vera.

Stepping onto the yellow ‘sand spheres’, she noticed they gave way and then piled back on top of the larger sphere.

Moving them slightly away, they slowly got back to the middle top of the sphere with a pleasant clacking sound.

It seemed as if the top of the Sphere was a center of gravity or electromagnetic force, for the smaller spheres.

With that in mind, Vera continued trodding through the spheres.

All the while she was in conversation with the Sweethearts, and she learnt more about her companion, and more.

Sweetheart had become one with the mushroom and could feel through the mycelia. This was new.

As they continued towards the center of the desert, the terrain went constantly downwards, it seemed as if a much larger sphere was under all of the other spheres.

Then, suddenly they saw an even larger sphere in front of them, making a majestic mound. Vera could see the sides of the sphere, which looked much whiter and shinier than the smaller yellow spheres. With an almost blinding luster.

Vera had to fly most of the way up, before smaller spheres on which she could stand appeared.

She continued to the top and when she got to the almost flat part, she saw that there was an altar of sorts.

The voice from before made a nondescript mumbling “stay…”, “gwah”, she continued towards the altar.

The altar was made of a shiny metal substance that reflected her face. She was reminded of the scales of the Chuckling Dragon. She was reminded of Jill and her mirror-talk, and the fact that she never tried to reach Lang after it all happened.

Vera said “Wait, with you this advanced we can actually make the cure”, to the Sweetheart. She combined herself with him in the Soul Realm.

The feeling of knowing overcame her, and she was sure. They could make it work.

But there were no Koi Koshi on the mushroom except for the Sweethearts.

Vera used the shiny surface of the altar as a mirror to talk with Lang. ‘It’s been a long time since we talked, lets hope she picks up.’ she thought to herself.

“That’s the last step” Vera said as she waited for Lang to answer.

********

Kem Bao had gone into stasis two months ago and Lang was furious.

He had promised her war, for her exploits but now a new head of the family, Sun Bao didn’t want to go through with the promise.

Sun Bao was, at the very least, reluctant to play along with Lang’s fancy.

He also brought up another problem, that being Lang’s inability to accurately specify which family had attacked Vera.

Lang had been searching for answers and even learned that Chao Li had visited Jill, looking for the culprit.

But it had been almost three months and January was starting.

Everyone in the cultivation world was scared of what might happen in the Demon Moon. An event that usually lasts a couple months or even a full year.

With the God-Emperor gone and many of the other emperor-level cultivators in stasis, the going looked bleak.

Lang was stressed out from everything, the loss of her best friend, the uncertainty, the schoolwork she had to find energy in herself to do. She pet her cat, which purred.

“You’re the only thing I can rely on”, she said to the cat.

Lang was given a new order for her ‘Cure’ as Sun spit out, dissatisfied. This order was to make the Lifeforce canisters resorbable by their owners.

Having worked on it for two months with no leads, is what caused Sun to be dissatisfied with her. However, he didn’t give her the time of the day. Not that she wanted him to, but the feeling of being shunned, especially so shortly after her success in the Tournament along with healing a large number of people from the parasite felt bad for Lang. She disliked Sun Bao, the new head, even more than Kem. At least Kem used his ‘superiority’ for the good of the family and not just to push people around.

Thinking of ways to fix her Lifeforce machine, she was sitting in her chair, looking at the ceiling.

‘Ahh, this is so frustrating’ she started moving her legs, not unlike how she acted as a child. That brought her memories back to Vera.

At that moment, she felt a disturbance, someone was using Mirror-talk to try to communicate with her.

She answered and the feeling of the Suzhouzan overwhelmed her for a moment, before noticing that it was Vera on the other side.

She was a spirit, that much was clear.

“Vera? Is that you?” Lang was incredulous, after three months, her best friend turned out to be alive.

“Yes Lang, I know you must have many a question and I’d love to talk about everything that happened. But before we can do that”, Vera gave Lang a second to get back her bearing “I need to cure the God-Emperor. He can deal with the subsequent mess.”

“What are you saying, can’t you just come back?” Lang shouted, tears were welling up in her eyes, “It’s not fair”, she finally stammered out.

“I know, but listen to me, I need you to send me a parasite sample from my lab, here into the Suzhouzan. That’s the last part of the preparation. And you know what, you can add a second sample as well, I’ll send it back with a cure for you as well.”

“I understand”, Lang said petting her cat again, sniffling. Her Calm Mind was quickly working through her sorrow.

“Once this is all done, we can talk as much as you want.” Vera said, with a sound of exhaustion “Goodbye”, and the mirror-talk ended.

Lang mobilized herself, she went to fetch two parasite samples from Vera’s lab. She also took a book about the Suzhouzan, she needed a ritual to donate things to it, as well as she would need to wait until the night to mirror-talk with Vera again.

While at her lab, she used the ritual to pinpoint Vera and then to send her the two samples.

********

Vera got the two samples from Lang, and she put the two vials at the bottom of the mushroom, just touching it.

Combining with the Sweethearts in the Soul Realm and the Spirit Realm, she was able to point it towards the regular Koi Koshi bacteria and touching it via the tentacles that the Sweethearts produce.

An interface unlike any other appeared within Vera’s mind. Sweethearts were able to instinctively decipher parts of the complicated image, and that was enough to point to the dietary needs and constrains of the Koi Koshi bacteria.

Mucking through it, she found the ease of command the Sweethearts used back in her lab. Disabling Koshi mushrooms itself would be easy. Within the programming of the Koshi mushroom, a small difference was allowed, which would allow them to eat slightly different species within the Koshi genus.

Using the Spirit Mask of the parasite cysts, she included them within the boundaries of the Koshi mushroom as an edible food.

This was the only way to do it, for a strange but simple reason: the Koi Koshi already had a command, which Vera couldn’t find where it came from, that told them to consume the Spirit and Soul representation of the parasite cysts as well as the physcial one.

Finishing that, Vera placed one of the samples back on the small altar she got it from and the other on top of the Sweetheart mushroom.

Vera sighed, her quest was done. She had cured the disease.

But there was one thing left to do. Find Qian Qianfang and give it to him.

********

Lang received the cure.

‘Finally, a full cure for this dreaded parasite.’

Lang used the Astral communications device, she was given to talk with her actual great-grandfather, who had been in stasis for over three months.

But, there was no reaction. She couldn't reach him to give him the good news.

There were a couple things that could have caused that. He could have died, but that didn’t make sense, he would still be alive now, even if he hadn’t been in stasis.

‘The school might be blocking it’, she thought to herself. She went out of school and out of city and tried again.

‘No luck.’

‘This is weird.’ The other option was, that he was erased, or that it was impossible to contact people in stasis anymore.

Lang’s gut wrenched and a cold sweat went down her back, she got the feeling as if she was being followed.

The surroundings darkened, and she looked up.

The moon was turning red.

The Demon Moon had just begun.

Fin.