Seeing the situation turn solemn, Li Fan hurried after her.
Senior Sister Zhao stood a short distance away from the cultivator before her, her expression grave as she studied him.
"Cough... cough..." This Great Dao Sect disciple, whose cultivation had long stalled at the Nascent Soul realm, now looked no different from a mortal on the verge of death.
His eyes were vacant, his consciousness adrift, his breath so faint it was barely there.
He convulsed with violent coughing, as though trying to hack his own lungs out.
A faint grayish aura of decay clung to his face, and the extreme weakness radiating from him was utterly unbefitting of a Nascent Soul cultivator.
Dread shot through Li Fan.
Just moments ago, this man hadn't seemed so far gone. In the brief time it had taken Li Fan to fetch Senior Sister Zhao, his condition had deteriorated drastically.
Could it be some vile curse?
Li Fan narrowed his eyes, studying the man.
"Cough... Dao Heir?" Through his delirium, the cultivator noticed the two figures standing before him. By instinct, he struggled to rise, trying to manage a formal bow.
"It's alright. Don't move, you're unwell. Rest." Senior Sister Zhao stopped him, her voice gentle.
"Mmm..." This Great Dao Sect disciple had never seen Senior Sister Zhao like this, so tender and approachable.
For a fleeting moment, as though granted one last surge of vitality, a hint of life returned to his face. His eyes, full of infatuation, stayed fixed on Senior Sister Zhao as though his soul had been wholly captured.
"After you left the mountain, where did you go? What happened? Who did you meet?" Senior Sister Zhao pressed him.
Ignoring his own failing body, wracked by continuous coughs, the disciple summoned the last of his strength and recounted everything to Senior Sister Zhao in detail.
His breath grew fainter with each passing moment, yet under the weight of her intense, searching gaze, he held on, his words coming in broken fragments.
When the final syllable left him, his breath vanished entirely.
Only his eyes remained open, fixed and reluctant, still resting on Senior Sister Zhao.
"Let's go." Senior Sister Zhao seized Li Fan's arm and pulled him swiftly away from the area.
As they moved, she pressed a violet-gold pill into his hand and told him to swallow it.
"The Creation Violet-Gold Pill?" Li Fan stared at it, astonished.
This pill was a secret treasure of the Great Dao Sect, one that could typically only be refined by Eternal Life powerhouses. No matter how severe the injury, short of instantaneous death, a single pill would restore the user to perfect condition in an instant. Calling it a second life was no exaggeration.
They were extraordinarily rare, and the entire Great Dao Sect held only a scant few in reserve. Yet Senior Sister Zhao had produced one without a moment's hesitation.
Li Fan understood the gravity of the situation immediately. He swallowed the Creation Violet-Gold Pill without another word.
"Don't waste it. Encase it with your spiritual power and absorb the medicinal energy gradually," Senior Sister Zhao ordered, her hands already constructing layer upon layer of protective barriers around them as they moved.
“The cause of that disciple's death... it's contagious? What curse is this potent? Is it targeting our Great Dao Sect?” Terror rose in Li Fan's chest.
"Less a curse, more a sickness. A fatal sickness that even cultivators cannot avoid." Senior Sister Zhao's expression was grimmer than Li Fan had ever seen it.
Even when the Exclusivity of Techniques was enforced and the Great Reformation had descended upon the world, she hadn't looked this troubled.
"And its target is certainly not limited to our Great Dao Sect. Its purpose is to exterminate all cultivators under heaven. We must report this immediately."
Li Fan faltered. "Could it be... another backlash from heaven itself? Does that damned heaven truly intend to wipe us out completely?!"
"Cough... cough..." As the two of them sped toward the main sect hall, an unnatural pallor washed suddenly across Senior Sister Zhao's face.
She could not hold back a light cough.
But violet-gold radiance surged forth almost at once, slowly forcing the pallor back. The coughing ceased, and her complexion returned to its healthy glow.
"How could it manifest so quickly? Senior Sister, you're at the Dao Unity realm!" Disbelief and terror rose in Li Fan's chest.
If even a Dao Unity cultivator was infected this fast, what hope did a Spirit Transformation cultivator like him have?
Not waiting for symptoms to appear in his own body, he immediately drew a thread of medicinal power from the Creation Violet-Gold Pill sitting in his dantian and circulated it throughout himself as a preventive measure.
Sure enough, it was not long before a wave of exhaustion crashed over him.
It felt as though he had been sparring with Senior Sister Zhao without rest for seven days and seven nights. Every muscle and bone ached unbearably, his skeleton on the verge of coming apart. His throat felt as though it were being sliced by knives. His body, like a drowning mortal, screamed for air.
Fortunately, the Creation Violet-Gold Pill lived up to its reputation.
As the violet-gold power circulated, the physical abnormalities vanished in an instant.
"Tsk... This affliction is truly vicious." With the feeling of having just brushed against the gates of the underworld still fresh in him, Li Fan looked at Senior Sister Zhao, shaken. "Thankfully, we have your pill. Otherwise, I'd have followed that junior brother straight to his grave."
"Don't let your guard down. We've only suppressed the symptoms," Senior Sister Zhao reminded him sharply. "The root cause remains. It's still hiding within our bodies."
As if to confirm her words, another faint, uncontrollable cough escaped her not long after.
The affliction was quickly neutralized again by the Creation Violet-Gold Pill's power, but Li Fan's heart dropped.
If even they could not fully shake off this unknown disease despite the protection of a divine pill, what would become of the ordinary disciples of the Great Dao Sect, or the countless rogue cultivators with no such protection?
It was simply unimaginable.
The two pressed on toward the main sect hall, fighting the disease every step of the way.
Ji Changxi, Sect Leader of the Great Dao Sect, had received Senior Sister Zhao's message in advance and already assembled the various elders by the time they arrived.
Senior Sister Zhao explained the terrifying nature of the affliction in as much detail as she could. Sect Leader Ji Changxi and the elders listened and acknowledged the threat, but not with the urgency and alarm the situation demanded.
In their eyes, Senior Sister Zhao, despite being a Dao Unity cultivator herself, was a newly ascended one who had broken through on the strength of the new methodology. She was simply not on the same level as old-timers who had stood at Dao Unity for centuries.
They possessed countless accumulated secrets and an endless array of methods. This young Dao Heir might be harmed by such an unknown disease, but they had no reason to believe the same was true of themselves.
Besides, their preparations seemed more than adequate. The open space within the hall was ringed by numerous barriers. They had even activated the Clear Abyss Dao-Piercing Array, which made what looked like a short distance into a gap of several worlds in reality.
They felt utterly secure, confident and assured of their safety.
"You two, stop suppressing that strange disease and release a single drop of your blood each," Ji Changxi commanded.
Li Fan and Senior Sister Zhao complied without hesitation.
Amid soft, rasping coughs, two droplets of blood appeared before the assembly, radiating a palpable aura of ill-omen.
The gathered observers studied them from a distance. For a moment, the great hall fell into profound silence.
Then an almost imperceptible flicker of shock crossed Ji Changxi's face.